41 Old Wolf

On paper, Wendell Carson is a fascinating character. Born the youngest of three children, he joined the Armed Forces as a reservist in his teens and was later called to serve as a soldier in the Border War. The war lasted for ten years and Wendell served for five of those. At the end of the war, he was honorably discharged and he re-entered civilian life: he was thirty years old.

Wendell suffered heavily from post-traumatic stress disorder. Plagued by nightmares, he turned to liquor to help himself forget the atrocities he had witnessed and, on occasion under orders, partook in during the war. Sinking deeply into alcoholism, he left his rented apartment one day and never returned.

He had never quite adjusted to life after the war and the chaos had always brewed inside him. Rumor had it that he hiked up into the mountains and disappeared forever into the woods: he was thirty-seven years old.

After disappearing for nearly seven years, Wendell Carson had pretty much been forgotten by the world at large. His old apartment had long been emptied and his few worldly possessions had been taken extra-judicially by his many creditors. All physical traces of him had disappeared.

And then one sunny day, he reappeared.

No one had heard from Wendell Carson since he had left his apartment seven years prior. He had gradually lost touch with his family since coming back from the war. He didn't have any close friends. A month after he disappeared, his landlord had been glad to be rid of him.

At forty-two, the reappeared Wendell looked stronger and healthier than he had been in his thirties. His pale hair was grayer at the temples and he had a light beard, but he looked younger and fitter than he had ever been. And for the first time in a long time, he looked clean.

Most people had assumed that Wendell Carson had left the land of the living not long after he walked into the sunset, but there he was, alive and well. And not only was he well, he had made a miraculous recovery: Wendell Carson was now stone-cold sober. More surprisingly, after many aimless post-war years, he found his purpose in life.

Shortly after his reappearance, Wendell Carson founded the Northern Spirits Wolf Sanctuary. In a story that ran in the local paper, the unstable ex-soldier had wandered into the woods and found himself. He used the survival skills that he learned as a soldier to set up a camp and he lived off the land.

Nature had given him a new lease on life: it healed his wounds and pieced together his broken spirit. He found kinship with wolves, and the solace he found in his communion with them gave him the vision to dedicate his life to preserving their natural habitat.

At age 50, Wendell Carson was a respected conservationist and a known member of the community. He mostly kept to himself up on the Sanctuary, managing the place and caring for the animals. While he had no formal training in caring for animals, he became the local wildlife expert, rescuing and breeding wolves in the Sanctuary and on occasion, taking in and caring for other wounded wild animals.

On paper, Wendell Carson's story is one of hope: it's a feel-good story that really inspires people to find their purpose in life. It's particularly encouraging for veterans who suffer from PTSD because they can see their story lived out in Wendell's struggle. Wendell overcame his illness and became a better person. If he could do it, they could too.

The thing about Wendell Carson's story though is that it's all true, but only up to a point.

Did Wendell Carson serve as a soldier in the Border War for five years? Absolutely.

Did he suffer from PTSD and become an alcoholic? Unfortunately, yes.

Did he wander off into the woods one day and never return? Yes and yes.

Yes. Read that again. Yes and yes.

But wait, if that's true, then who founded the Northern Spirits Wolf Sanctuary? Wasn't it Wendell Carson? Yes, on paper, Wendell Carson founded the Wolf Sanctuary.

On paper, Wendell Carson is 50 years old. He was born on August 10, 19xx.

On paper, Wendell Carson is still alive.

At the bakery, a cake is being made for Wendell Carson's 50th birthday to be delivered to the NS Wolf Sanctuary. There's a birthday card that comes with it, saying "Happy Birthday, Wendell" from Tim and Nancy, the owners of the bakery.

The man known as Wendell Carson is up at the Wolf Sanctuary. Today he turns 50, if you base it off of his government papers. In truth, "Wendell Carson" is now one hundred and twenty (120) years old.

In his old life, he had lived on a grand estate in M City. His wife is long dead. He has one son and that son's government papers say that he is just as old as Wendell Carson is today. In truth, his son is 70 years old. He has a grandson who is 18 years old. Of the three of them, his grandson is the only one who has not yet needed to lie about his age in the human world.

The truth is, the real Wendell Carson, the ex-soldier, never made it out of the woods alive. Perhaps he died of hypothermia from sleeping outside in the cold. Perhaps he died of a heart attack or complications from liver cirrhosis. No one knows how the man died; Wendell Carson himself probably had no idea what killed him either. What is left of him is the ash scattered on the grounds of the Northern Spirits Wolf Sanctuary.

The man known as Wendell Carson now used to be known by a different name: Silverio Guzman. When his son was born, he named his boy after himself. To distinguish between the two Silvers, the older Silverio Guzman became known as Old Man Silver and his son was called Young Silver.

Young Silver did not name his own son after himself. Young Silver's wife chose her son's name: Hunter. And it was just as well, for while the boy inherited his father and his grandfather's pale yellow hair and piercing blue eyes, he did not inherit the silver mane of their wolves. His wolf was dark, like his own mother's hair.

Old Man Silver was the last of the old generation of Wolf Men. He saw the end of the power of the shape shifters and he survived the hunt that brought the species to heel. He shook hands and said the words in the truces between the Wolf Men and the Night Walkers. The Spell Casters and Mind Melters had all gone quietly underground and the Faeries settled even deeper into the green. The humans had become the new monsters and their greed-fueled wars were greater than all the magicks, light or dark.