Gift Of The Greywood

written by Noordin Ali Kadir, The Wolf-Weaver

The wolves guard their secrets heavily, chased as they are by selfish glory-hunters, but with persistence and the slightest bit of luck, the right scrap of paper passes into the right weaver’s hands. From pack to pack comes the following, simply beginning with “for those who need it”:

First, the tough love: yeah, it’s always gonna hurt. Bones shifting and cracking, muscles stretching and snapping tend to be painful. Luckily, the first time is always the worst time, so it’s at least uphill from here. That said, we got our ways.

Stretching, that’s rule number one. Massages too. A body that can move as best as it can is always gonna be better prepared for the shift. But let’s be honest, bodies suck at staying perfect for long. So, let’s assume you need something more.

The greywood comes into play here. Our pack’s namesake, your namesake, has its secrets, and with those come answers. Find the trees with the bark the colour of steel; they’ll usually be marked. Strip the outside. The soft bits inside the chippings are ingredient one. Ingredient two? The roots of the purple flowers that grow near the ferns with the red leaves.

Boil the roots and the soft bark into a stew, and take a grey’s advice here: add some of the sap of the tree and mint cause otherwise this is gonna come up the way you try to take it down. Strain and continue to boil until it’s a syrup the colour of gold.

Two drops, every morning. I like it in oatmeal. And remember pup, a lone wolf has no one to hug away the pain. Actually, make that rule number one.