Kisrai

For years, wolves had contended with their competitors in the vast deepwoods they called home: the fire-wielding, silver-steeled creature known as Man. It was through the intervention of the stag spirit Glaes that a tenuous balance was kept, though time and again a brash hunter or a reckless pup would cast this into doubt. Yet, for her part, so long as they learned to keep their distance from her pack, Kisrai was willing to live and let live. Known as the Wolf Queen, this enormous white wolf with glowing golden eyes treads the line between myth and reality. Ghostly in appearance, the only indicator of her presence is a haunting howl echoing across the deep ravine. On nights when the full-bellied moon cast its baleful glare across the land, her song was said to sound especially wistful. But in private, Kisrai had a different side: a stately human woman garbed in fine robes. Such blasphemous revelations, however, were mere curiosities when presented to scholars who fraternize with a dragon. Shapeshifting, to them, was more academically rigorous than the product of fevered hearsay. Shifters had long existed in their world, hiding beneath shaded boughs and whispering brooks, but those whose livelihood depended on the earth preferred their folktales. As for the true identity of the Wolf Queen, none could say. No noblewoman or court mage matching her description had vanished from the public eye, and to willingly relinquish such a position of privilege was preposterous. Still, the stole Kisrai wears upon her shoulders bears striking similarity to the famed companion of a legendary sorcerer long deceased...