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Werewolf Tale - Front Cover — Description

If you wish to favorite this image, please do so through KatieHofgard 's Gallery at the link shown here: shadow-wolf.deviantart.com/art…

EDIT 5/22/17 - The Internet never forgets. Nor will I. - web.archive.org/web/2016052819…

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In addition to this posting, I'd like to take the opportunity to offer some insight on a few bits of lore in Werewolf Tale. If you haven't read the story yet, I will try my hardest not to have anything here that will spoil it or the machinations of certain events.

That said, because of how these concepts relate to the story and several events, they both come with a general Spoiler Warning.

- The Hunger

The thing that, as the image depicts, drove Alex to take the life of an animal during his first full moon. To me, this is the true root of the lycanthropy curse, and in the case of Alex, it is his Crossing of the Threshold moment in the story. (Shane has one as well, but that's for another time.)

The Hunger cannot be quelled by normal means of eating, because what the human mind of a werewolf sees as edible during this period is not applicable to the animal side, the growing dominant side during that period. As such, until the animal side is satiated through the tasting and ingesting of meat that belongs to something living, The Hunger's effect on a werewolf's body will worsen.

The consequence of this drive to feed on certain meats leads to a clash of morals between the human and animal side of a werewolf, made worse, or better as some may see it, by the fact that there is no loss of self-control after shifting.

- Mental Friction

A side effect of being a werewolf, as hinted at in the last paragraph, is how the brain functions once lycanthropy has taken hold. How much the animal side of the brain gels or conflicts with the human side, and how often those respective sides dictate actions, reactions and norms.

Naturally, it's normal for a werewolf to feel conflicted when something they think they should do, or that they want to do, flies in the face of what they've been taught or learned otherwise. What's more, unlike mannerisms and behaviors that are gained through nurturing or education, a werewolf's animal mindset emerges quietly and from there, it's up to them to take notice of the changes and act accordingly.

The true danger of this however comes when both the human and animal sides of a werewolf are thinking in unison, or have the same goals in certain situations. With lessened mental friction between the two states of mind, it's very easy for a werewolf to, as some would put it, 'give in to the animal', and in turn, put them at risk of exposure or something else that their human sides will pay the cost for.

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And there is where I will leave things for now. Enjoy.

As a final note though, the draft over on my FurAffinity account is the most up-to-date version I have thus far. Many of the chapters have been rewritten in noticeable ways versus the NaNo draft here, and several events now have, I feel, more impact as a result.

www.furaffinity.net/gallery/ag…