LEGEND VS WIKI

Legend has it that the Night Forest healer lived alone somewhere in the quietest part of the woods. If you followed the lake that was speckled with stars, just up north a little beyond where a regular wolf might run in the woods, you might meet her picking herbs along the river banks.

It was almost like the legend of the white unicorn, word for word. Like they plagiarized it wholesale and replaced the word "unicorn" with healer. In some versions, they even called her the "White Healer" or the "Last Healer".

I mean, it was hard even as a pup for me not to notice the similarities between the two stories. Especially when it came to the part where the unicorn/healer was hunted because unicorn/healer blood was the ingredient for some life elixir. The unicorn/healer's dead body was left on the bank of the lake in a pool of its own blood.

When I first heard the story, Little Ben had been one of the pups listening too.

"If they wanted its blood," The little genius pointed out, "Why did they leave so much of it lying around?"

"Because only a drop was enough to cure any disease, you dumbo." His twin sister explained, "Pay attention to the story!"

"If the hunter collected the rest of the blood, he could have sold it for a lot of money." Little Ben insisted.

"Maybe the hunter only brought a small bottle." Little Sam (that's me) suggested.

"If all he wanted was a bottle, he didn't have to kill it." Little Ben pointed out.

"Just like the hen which laid golden eggs." Little Sam nodded because I couldn't tell the difference between a legend and a fairytale.

"He should had caught it to keep in a lab." Little Ben nodded, as if agreeing, but only because we were on completely different wavelengths here.

"I don't think that was the point of the story." Little Lizzy sensibly tried to remind us.

"How could they!" Little Sam sighed. I was feeling indignant for the poor unicorn.

"It's just a legend, Sam." Little Ben assured me, "In real life, hunters aren't so stupid or inefficient."

Growing up, Ben and I often had such conversations where we so completely on different wavelengths that we agreed with each other.

Little Lizzy sighed dramatically and turned to Little Savy, "I give up!"

Legends seldom made sense, but this one had so many loopholes, it made less sense than usual.

According to most legendary accounts, the healer/unicorn found an injured boy/orphan/human in the woods and saved his life. They became friends and she taught him a bit about herbs and medicine. The boy grew up and became a famous pharmacist/alchemist/doctor. Even as a young man, his medicines were so effective that when the princess fell deathly ill, he was the only one able to produce medicine to keep her alive.

Eventually, the young man let slip about the healer/unicorn's existence, and spurred by the royal pharmacist (the young man's rival), the people hunted down the healer/unicorn to get a drop of her blood because they believed it would save the life of their princess. The details varied from version to version, but the point was that the healer/unicorn was betrayed by her only friend, whom she had saved and taught her skills to. The young man rushed into the woods to warn her, but only arrived too late. By the time he reached her side, she was lying dead in her own blood.

There were a lot of unanswered questions. Did the young man then scoop up the rest of the blood for future usage? Did the princess get well from drinking the drop of blood? And if that worked, did the princess really have to marry the evil old pharmacist in return? How did the unicorn communicate with the boy? No one would ever know because it was just a legend.

Also, it was worth noting that the Night Forest's healer was still quite alive atm, so I'm not so sure why the legend about her would end with her very bloody death. Like Little Ben said, "It's just a legend."

In real life, or at least according to the internet. The Legend of the Night Forest Healer was the inspiration for a movie, and an episode of Urban Lycan Legends where they came all the way to Night Forest and tried to track her like she was bigfoot. They didn't find her and concluded she was a myth. They went as far as to call it an old folklore told during the Great War to intimidate Night Forest's enemies. It would surely make them think twice before launching an attack at a pack where wolves had the backing of a super powerful healer. 

Now that I thought about it, all my life (or lives), Dad and Beta Lucas were the only ones who spoke about her like she was a real living person, and even so, no one called her by name.

At Night Forest, Grandpa Alpha had ever told me the legend as a story.

"Do you think we can go out and look for her tonight?" Little Sam's eyes lit up at the entire idea of the spontaneous night excursion.

Grandpa Alpha laughed, "It's just a legend, puppy. And you know how legends are."

"They aren't real?" I offered because I remembered what Little Ben had told me.

Grandpa Alpha laughed again, "No puppy, legends are real... But only for heroes. The rest of us just tell stories."

"Then I'm going to be a hero." Little Sam decided.

Grandpa Alpha laughed some more. For some reason, he was very tickled with this conversation, "You? How can a puppy be a hero?"

I got angry immediately which only pleased Grandpa Alpha more. He decided to ask me, "Do you know what they say about us?"

When I didn't answer, he decided to tell me, "We are the wolves we left the mountains, Puppy."

I had heard this before. Grandpa Alpha had told me that story before.

Grandpa Alpha eyes suddenly looked faraway, and he recited as if to himself, "The ones who left the mountains to chase what could have been,

The ones who seek the changes that yet could not be seen."

Which made no sense to me, but as I said, Grandpa Alpha had told me that story before.

Grandpa Alpha laughed, "Sometimes I need to remember who I am."

I nodded politely. Although I never had such a problem myself. But Mum had said that very old wolves sometimes had trouble remembering things.

"Puppy, do you really want to be a hero?" Grandpa Alpha seemed to have a good idea.

I hoped maybe Grandpa Alpha would have changed his mind and take me for a night walk.

"Of course!" I was a very confident pup because I was told too many times I could be anything I wanted to be, "When I grow up, I'll be a hero!"

"Good, good." Grandpa Alpha nodded, "You go do that. Chase every legend, climb every Colored Mountain, who knows, maybe you'd even catch a Tyger by his toe."

"Why his toe?" I asked.

"It's like a rabbit's foot. Tyger toes are lucky." Speaking of toes, Grandpa Alpha was very good at lying on his toes.

"If you do, remember your old grandpa and take a photo for me."

And in exchange for the promise, he did take me out for a night walk (much to the chagrin of my mum.)

That night, we didn't meet the White Healer. We did walk along the lake, but it wasn't the one speckled with stars, just the one behind the Night Forest Packhouse. Still, everything looked and smelled so different at night that I quickly got distracted by our backyard adventure.

Later on, I postulated that the White Healer was really a unicorn. Grandpa Alpha laughed and told me I must be right. (But this was the grown up who laughed and said I was right about the full moon being the goddess' butt.)

I just don't feel Grandpa Alpha was a credible source of factual information anymore. He was probably the only source less credible than the LNC.

Wikipedia explained very rationally that the legend of Night Forest's Last Healer was widely believed to be based very loosely on a mythic powerful Healer wolf who resided in Night Forest during the time of the Great War. Today, Night Forest has a few guest healers who live and serve their pack on contract.

So maybe it was one of their guest healers that got kidnapped. Who knew it was such a dangerous job? I would have left it at that, but this wasn't the first timeline I had lived. I knew about a Grandma Wanda. How did a legend get kidnapped? Obviously, Night Forest was covering up her existence... And Grandpa Alpha did tell me to go chase every legend.