The First One (Short Story) (Patreon)
Content
Authors Note: I’m not sure I consider this consistent with my other Gnoll Tales, but it’s an idea I wanted to explore that would come from the same world.
Before the first gods came into this world, there was nothing. Everything was blank and new, an endless vast space devoid of life. No one knows for how long it was like this, but what was nothing one day became something.
The first creature to walk the world wasn’t a human, an elf, or even a gnoll. The first creature that came was a great she-wolf, and she came to this world already tired and already worn. Where she came from, no one knows. Did the nothing create her, or did she simply wander into this world from somewhere else and choose to rest? No one knows.
How long she wandered the vast nothing, no one knows either. Maybe it was years, maybe only hours, but eventually she stopped to rest. Where she dug her paws into the unformed world she created the first bits of ground. Tired for reasons unknown, she dug herself a den, and it was here where she rested. The first gods to come found her asleep, already in her den, and they built their world around her.
When she awoke, she emerged into a world being created, and she sniffed at all the things. She rolled in all the smells and met all the gods. Hers was the first howl, the first growl, and she was the only creature to challenge the Old Gods until the God War. When the first night fell she went back to her den, and the gods kept building the world. The she-wolf slept for many days, overtired from all the new things she had seen.
While she sometimes slept for long periods of time, when she did emerge from her den, she was always ready to greet the day. The gods came to cherish her. The fierceness and pride with which she carried herself inspired them to give some of their own children these traits. The gods took to treating her as one of their own, even though she came before them. They called her the First One and had many names for her. They spoke of her in awed tones, and she spoke back to them. As for her real name, she never gave one or if she did, the Old Gods never shared it.
When the gods disappeared into the shining realm, she stayed behind, and crawled back to her den and waited for their return. Even today, she still sleeps, waiting for their call of return, somewhere deep within the world.