Prologue:  The Fire Howlers.

 

The wolves of the land of Elcon had no king, no queen either. They did not even have a mayor. They lived in the south, in the Great Snowy Forest, not that Elcon had non-snowy forests, all its forests were snowy, as was all of Elcon, but this Forest was the biggest and a lot of the wolves lived their aimless lives there.

 

However, one day, a wolf was born who would change everything. She was a wolf that when she howled, she howled flame! All the other wolves thought this was ridiculously cool, and so made her their queen. This was the first of the Wolf Royals, the first Fire Howler.

 

Wolves from all around came to see the Fire Howler, bringing great gifts, so began the first Wolf Meet. The Wolves now were a bit less aimless, they now devoted their efforts to constant parties and their Queen never tired of showing off her fire howl. Of course, the other denizens of the forest got fed up of the wolves’ incessant revelry and putting out fires caused by the careless queen got old really quick.

 

So, naturally enough they kicked the wolves out of the forest. The Wolves now homeless, wandered about Elcon and all Denizen began to dread their wild parties that would leave fire, destruction and left-over food everywhere. The Queen had pups, and those had pups, and those had pups, so the number of fire howlers only increased. These were called by the other wolves the ‘Blazing Nobles’

 

Long, long after the first queen had passed away, the Wolves finally stopped moving around and made a city of rock and rolled snow. For their royalty however, they made a castle of hewn ice. The castle lasted about as long as one would imagine it would when occupied by wolves that could howl flame. This was the first Wolfhiem.

 

So, to say that the wolves settled down would be a bit misleading. They just did more parties and played with fire, however, they discovered something amazing. Not only could the Royals and the nobles howl flame, but it also happened when singing. A while after this wondrous discovery wolf scholars were wondering why they hadn’t discovered this earlier, some denizens chose that point to make cutting remarks about the level of intelligence of the average wolf.

 

Now that the wolves were also singing fire, other denizens not as easily amused as the wolves were interested, and came to see and hear their singing. The first vistors were disappointed, because naturally enough the wolves couldn’t sing well at all, and just kind of tried to howl in tune, more often than not howling out of tune.

 

They soon got better at singing much to their own pleasure and others. It did not stop there however, the wolves threw themselves into music, and a great many famous composers and inventors of instruments were wolves. It was not just the wolves, the city of Wolfhiem attracted all manner of musically inclined denizens, thus Wolfhiem became a city famous for music.

 

The wolves had come a long way from the aimless deadbeat forestdwellers they were once. For a time all was good…

 

Then came the Firelord. A firefolk, a living flame, twisted and maddened, believing there should be no flame but his own, he directed his rage against Wolfhiem and the fire howlers. The wolves were no warriors, they were musicians, and Wolfhiem had seen no conflicts other than creative differences which admittedly could get pretty heated with the fire howlers about. So Wolfhiem, which had been built up was torn down in the Firelord’s blazing hatred.

 

The Firelord would not stop there however, he would tolerate no flame but his own, and so he mercilessly hunted the Fire howlers. He appointed huntsmen to trap and take down the fire howlers, these huntsmen and huntresses were called the ‘Snuffers’. The wolves of Wolfhiem fled to the Great Snowy Forest, there was at this point, less than five Fire Howlers left.

 

The Firelord could not enter the Great Snowy Forest himself, for he even he feared what would be born from the ashes of that great forest if he burned it down. He sent the Snuffers in his place, to hunt down the last of the fire howlers, but the forest was against them, and they could not find the wolves. The remaining fire howlers did not dare to sing within the forest, lest they raise the Firelord’s anger, because if the Firelord was filled with enough fury, he would surely burn the Great Snowy Forest, regardless of what would result, that and before that the snuffers would find them and that wouldn’t be good at all.

 

So the Fire Howlers sang no more. One Fire Howler however, still played music, though she did not sing. This was the current princess of the Wolves, Lupix VII, she ran about the Great Snowy Forest with her band, shirking her royal duties and nearly being caught several times by Snuffers.

 

She was however, sad inside that she could not sing. She wished dearly in her heart to sing opera like her grandmother had. Soon she would have to do more than wish…