The WereWar - Weredogs and Werewolves

The WereWar was actually part of a larger war, between man and neanderthals.  It was werewolves and neanderthals against weredogs and men.  It had to happen.  Nature demanded it.  Neanderthals had to be wiped out, replaced by man. Wolves and werewolves should have been also. Weredogs have long sought to finish that task.  

But, the werewar never ended. It continues to this day.  

War is a reality and a constant. War is the only thing that unifies mankind.  Dreams of global utopian paradise and just that, dreams. Only war brings man together, unifies man toward a common goal.  I have been in many wars and can attest to the truth of this. 

“Ultimate unity requires ultimate war.”  I don’t know who said that. I read it once, a while ago. Maybe it was Orwell. But, the fact is that nothing unifies man and weredog like orchestrated violence. It is supreme in common purpose.

Or so I for so long thought.

I have been going out a lot nights, while here, running through the snow shrouded woods, tracking more scents and sounds than I could list here.  The other day Ganieda told me we were going out that night.  She didn’t ask me.  She just said, “Be ready to go.”

It was an hour after midnight when we walked into an open clearing high up in a mountain near her cabin.  It took us 2 hours to get there, as dogs.  Would have taken us twice as long on 2 legs. 

My hackles went up immediately.  I sensed them, many of them, and started changing. “Relax,” said Ganieda.  “And trust me.”  Then about 2 dozen small canine shapes appeared on the periphery of the clearing, from out of the trees.  Coyotes.  They all sat, casually, with no care in the night, and started to howl.  

“What’s going on?” I said.

“I want you to meet someone,” said Ganieda.

The clearing was sprinkled with rocks and boulders of various sizes. Most seemed illuminated in the moonlight.  I was canning to my left when 2 of the smaller boulders stood up.  Werewolves.

I started formulated an exit plan. Would coyotes try to contain a weredog?  I’ve never heard of such.  At the same time I watched the 2 werewolves as they approached me and Ganieda.  They showed no signs of aggression or bad intention.

When they were about 6 paces away, Ganieda said, “Chester, this is Wulfstan and Beatrice.  Wulfstan and I have known each other a very long time.”

“Beatrice?” I blurted.

She gave me a hard stare. “Yeah. Beatrice.”  Her hackles and lips twitched, fought for control.  I tried to smile as sincerely as I could muster up.

“We’ve read your blog,” said Wulfstan, the larger, older one, and obviously in charge.

Wulfstan explained why he asked Ganieda to arrange a meeting.  “You are somewhat well known amongst wolves,” he said, “because of your blog.”

I was surprised, but did not let it show. “How come you never post to it?”

“Not our way.”

They explained that they wanted to end the eons-old hostilities between werewoves and weredogs. They said this new species of neo-canine was a great threat and we needed to come together it survive it.”  

“All werewolves want this?” I said.

Wulfstan said there are old school werewolves and new school werewolves.  The old school are those who want revenge, to spread death and destruction, to treat civilization as their private candy shop and hunting ground.  The new order wolves want to get along, to live in harmony with dogs and even mankind.  Those wolves understand, he said, that it is essential to their survival.

The problem, I said, is whether this is even possible.  Is it possible for weredogs and werewolves to co-exist in harmony?  No one answered.  Is it possible for Christianity and Islam to co-exist?  Republicans and Democrats?  India and Pakistan?  Women and men? KU and MU? 

There are big differences in how wolves live and how dogs live.  Some might be overcome.  Others are problematic.  Werewolves, like wolves, live in small packs, or alone, as lobo solos.  But even wolf packs do not fit into a broader hierarchy, like dogs.  

Weredogs all are members of a pack, which then fits into a series of larger packs.  There is no global hierarchy, no papal weredog.  But, all weredogs are connected.  It facilitates communication, coordinates efforts, speeds reactions, ensures survival.  We are like humans in this way. 

There are always those few cases of solitary dogs who are not in a pack, who are out on the fringes of weredogdom. But it is snarled upon. They are called, by some, “pero solo.”

Werewolves, like their neanderthal partners, do not tend to coordinate or communicate well.  Oh sure, there are various werewolf blog and chat rooms. But, most of those, possibly all, are actually people with werewolf fetishes. Because werewolves don’t coordinate well.  Until recently.

Lack of communication and coordination led to the defeat and extinction of the neanderthals, and nearly, I say “nearly,” much to weredog chagrin, to werewolf extinction. How close?  Look at wolf populations.

Wolf and werewolf populations are directly related.  Man nearly wiped out wolves, worldwide.  At the same time, werewolves teetered perilously on the edge of extinction.  The same is true of dogs.  If you look at the populations of dogs worldwide you get a sense of weredog population and distribution. To my knowledge, there are no a lot of weredogs in Korea, where dog meat is a delicacy and dog shelters are unnecessary. 

“I am seeing more restaurants, bars and casinos run by wolves,” I told Wulfstan.  “This is new.  The only wolf bars I ever knew about were for luring in prey.”

Wulfstan smiled in a way I could not read.  His teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “Yes, well, I wont deny there has been some of that in the past,” he said. “Probably still is. But, werewolves are moving into the modern era. We see the advantages of moving out of the woods and into the cities, of living with and getting along with men and dogs.”

I asked how long this has been going on, this werewolf renaissance.  Wulfstan said over about the last 100 years, but at full bore since World War 2. Since WW2?  If that is true, how come I did not know about it?

We returned to Ganieda’s cabin about an hour before sunrise. I was hungry, wanted to swim in her pool, peruse and read more of the books in her library.  Instead, I slept, and napped most of the day, as a dog.  Some days it is good to be a dog. No one knows napping like a dog.

So, can weredogs and werewolves exist without this war to animate them?  I don't know about men, but my recent experiences with Diella, Dionna and Wulfstan lead me to think it is possible. And risky?  Hell, yes.