Overview
The High-Fang Wolf is the long, silver beast the high country keeps for the war. It stands 70 cm at the shoulder, it moves over the fangs with a slow, deliberate way, and it considers the war-hunt a promise rather than a chase. Where the high-fang wolf calls, the fangs know it is honoured, and the honouring is the whole of the wolf's own, because the wolf that keeps the howl keeps the fang, and the fang is the wolf's own.
Habitat
The High-Fang Wolf keeps the high fangs of The Fanghold — the black stone and the iron and the cold air. It is the fang's own, and the fang is the wolf's, and the wolf keeps the fang the way the fang keeps its war. It needs three things: stone that will hold the long stand, an orc war-band honourable enough to keep the hunt, and a fang high enough for the howl to carry without the fangs knowing it. It is settled with the Orc who keeps the hold — the wolf is the hold's own honour, and the orc that has not hunted with the wolf in a season is called the one who forgot the war. The pack moves with the season the way the orcs do, deeper in the cold months, to the upper fang in the green, because the pack that has not moved with the stone has moved without the stone, and the moving without the stone is the whole of the hunger.
Appearance
The high-fang wolf is the long, strong shape — long in the leg, strong through the rib, with the head set forward and the whole of it reading as one high line from nose to tail-tip. The male stands 70 cm at the shoulder and carries 38 kg, long through the leg and heavy with the howl; the female stands 65 cm, 32 kg, leaner and longer in the nose, with the better honour, because the honour is the whole of the wolf's own. The coat is a thick grey-silver over the body, dense and light, darkening to a soot-black at the ear-edges and the back of the leg; the mane and the tail-tip carry a clean bone-white that reads as a flash over the fangs, and the belly fur is a faded, honest straw. The eye is deep-set, ember-orange, set wide in the long face to see the dark between the stone, and it does not glow. The ears are long and set high, turned the way a dish is turned, because the howl that is heard is the whole of the call. The pack carries the line in the voice and the nose; the wolf that has lost its howl to the cold is called the quiet one, and the quiet one is not counted. Elders are marked by a coat gone pale silver and a nose that finds the line a full day before the pack does — an old high-fang wolf stands the long stand at the top of the fang, and the standing is the whole of the pack's own.
Behaviour
The high-fang wolf does not chase the way the warm prey's own wolves chase — it stands. It takes a position on the stone above the band and it stays, because the wolf that moves the stand has moved the war. The war-howl is not a bark and not a howl in the way the lowland wolves howl; it is a low, deep call that carries over the fangs without the fangs knowing it, and it calls the pack to the war, not the prey to the wolf. When the war takes, the wolf does not eat first — it lets the orcs take the scrap, because the scrap is the honour and the meat is only the meat, and the wolf that eats the honour eats the fang's own. It is patient with the orcs, honourable as the orcs, and it will hold a stand through the whole of a frost because the stand that leaves the frost has left the fang. The young are raised in the den with the orcs' own loud ones, and the young that howl a true war before the first frost are called the fang-kept.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The weapon is the long stand and the deep, strong tooth — the high-fang wolf takes the warm prey in the war's own time, after the stone has done its honest work. The defense is the fang: the wolf is never where the band is, it is where the band can see, and the stone that holds the stand holds the wolf. It has no other defense and does not need one, because the beast that owns the honour owns the war, and the war is the whole of the fang's own.
Magic Alignment
The high-fang wolf carries the fang's own quiet magic — the fang-sense that reads the loose stone a step before the foot lands, the long-honour that holds the stand through the frost, and the war-howl that the fangs carry without knowing they carry it. It is not spell-work and it is not the gods' work; it is the fang's own, and it is kept the way the fang keeps its wind.
Society
The high-fang wolf keeps a pack of six to twelve, bound to an orc war-band — the same band, season after season, and the binding is the whole of the wolf's own. The pack that has not kept the same band for a season is called the loose pack, and the hold does not count it. The war-howl is the pack's law: one call is the stand, two is the war, three is the hunt, and the pack that has answered three calls without the meat is called the hungry line, and the hungry line is fed from the hold's own scrap-stone. The young are raised in the den with the orcs, and the wolf that has raised a fang-kept is honoured the way the hold honours its best orc: the den is left open for a day, and the open den is the honour.
Culture & Lore
The Orc of The Fanghold keeps the high-fang wolf the way they keep the war — as the hold's own honour, not as a beast. The old orcs say the first high-fang wolf stood the fang and the hold heard the howl before it saw the wolf, and the hearing was the whole of the first binding. The wolf is never killed for the meat, because the meat is the meat and the honour is the honour, and the orc that kills the honour kills the fang's own. The den that a pack has kept for three seasons is left open for a day when the last wolf of the pack dies, and the open den is the whole of the honour the hold gives.
Home
The high-fang wolf is the own of The Fanghold — the high fangs, the black stone, the cold air. It is settled with the orcs who keep the hold, and the hold that loses its high-fang wolves loses the honour before it loses the war, because the war will come back when the stone warms and the honour will not.
Relations
The Orc keeps the wolf as the honour and hunts by its howl. The Goblins of Goblin Warrens know the fang and do not enter it, because the stone that is honest will take the goblin as well as the wolf, and the goblin that has been taken does not come back to the warren. The Ogres of The Mire Barracks respect the pack the way they respect the barracks — they do not cross it, and the holding of the pack is the whole of the respect. The warm prey of the high ground does not know the beast at all, and the not-knowing is the whole of the war's own.
In the Story
The high-fang wolf has not yet come to the six, but the fang it stands on will — the hold is the first strong ground the Legacy of Steel ever met, and the meeting was the whole of the first war. The howl that calls the pack on the fang above the hold is the howl the six will hear when they hear it, and the hearing is the whole of the story's own, because the story that hears the howl hears the fang, and the fang is the high-fang wolf's own.