Episode 70: Call of the Wild

Written By Karl White

So often in history, the greatest contributions come not from conquerors or kings, but from those never meant to be remembered at all. Such is the case of a man of unassuming presence, someone who, by every measure, should have passed through the world unnoticed. But his wonder, curiosity, and need for answers would illuminate the hidden story of the Children of Nature. 

Uti of the North - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Around 1695, Uti was born of Iñupiat blood, in what’s now the Arctic of the Canadian Northwest. His parents were the definition of salt of the earth. His mother, a caretaker of him, and the land. His father was an ousted chieftain, who lost his position, after a trivial controversy over fish stolen by a hungry elder. The family was banished from their tribe, forced to live deep in the wilderness, away from the others. It was a life of solitude, a difficult existence, but one Uti would come to appreciate, and continue after his mother and father passed. Though he dreamed in his youth of venturing beyond the horizon. But that changed when he met -- her.

Yana was Yup'ik, part of a neighboring clan to the south. They were peaceful with the Iñupiat, and often traded with Uti’s father, despite knowing he’d been cast out. It was that knowledge of his family that’d later lead Yana to seek their help. She was a tragic victim of circumstance. Born into a large family, she was the youngest and most overlooked, a forgotten child, pushed aside and treated poorly simply for existing. She was abused by several of her own siblings, then expelled, her family seeing her as a bad omen.

At the time, she was still a young girl, sent out into an unfamiliar world to die in order to appease some kind of spirit. Maybe she was too naïve to succumb to the elements, or too stubborn to accept her fate, but she wandered across the harsh tundra in search of Uti’s family, knowing if anyone would accept her, it would be them. Uti spotted her on the horizon, near death. His family welcomed her with open arms, her past unimportant. She became one of them. Eventually, as she and Uti got older...she became his wife. 

Yana, the light of Uti’s life - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Uti’s love for Yana was unbreakable. A bond that, through every season, only grew stronger. They’d have no children, living in such harsh elements, made everything difficult. But the thought of little ones was always on their minds, and many a night were spent speaking of a family they hoped to have some day. But their time together would be short-lived as nature itself would sever their bond.

In the waning months of 1722, the summer air had long since cooled, and cold winds of change began blowing in. The first snowfall arrived many moons before it was expected. Months of work of preparation were hastily attended to. Uti and Yana were miles from home, at the local bay, pulling fish and collecting kindling. The storm came on far faster than expected, and with temperatures dropping, they prepared to head home. But out of the storm, their lives would forever change, as there were other things searching for food in the cold. A hungry pack of wolves were on the hunt.

They tried to fend them off, but in the vicious circle of life, every creature is only one breath away from its last. Uti stabbed and slashed with his stone knife, trying to protect his wife, sled dogs, and food. Several wolves attacked at once, tearing at his coat and skin. Among them, was the alpha, a large black wolf, with a white left eye... It sank its teeth deep into Uti’s flesh.

Uti bitten by the alpha - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

But the instinct to survive is the strongest we possess. Uti fiercely fought back, killing several of the wolves, wounding others. The remaining pack, including the alpha, fled into the snowy wilderness. Uti triumphed over nature...or so he thought. When he looked back, Yana was on the ground, covered in blood, surrounded by the dead and dying sled dogs. In the frenzy of the attack, Uti failed to protect the one life that meant more than his own. She was still alive, but barely.

He’d leave a trail of blood through miles of drifting snow. Crystals of white falling on heavy shoulders. He was wounded, in bad shape, but he had to keep moving. Yana clinging to life propelled each step. 

Reaching their shelter after sundown, her wounds were far worse than Uti realized. He told himself that with rest and time, she'd heal...but she didn’t.  

Uti’s own condition took a turn, and he believed his light would dim forever. In his delirium, thinking death was imminent, his visions veered. Instead of being greeted by Yana in the next life, Uti was surrounded in dreams by wolves. Days later, he’d wake, eternal rest slipping through his fingers. And with his lasting life came pain, intense and unyielding. A hunger, unlike any he’d ever felt, gnawing to bottomless depths. Weeks passed, his wounds healed. But his hunger only deepened…Then something stirred inside. A force beyond the horizon, pulling him from solitude. Nature was calling.

Nature calling - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Underneath the light of the clear moon, in the desolate snow, Uti fell to his knees, his humanity slipping. But instead of being caught between man and beast, he’d transform fully into the very things that haunted his dreams. As his first howl burst forth, the remnants of the pack who attacked were waiting for him on a nearby ridge...

In his remembering, he recalled unsaid words traded among them, barks and snarls that somehow became meaning. He was given a choice: join as one of them...or die a sacrifice. His understanding of what he’d become wasn’t yet complete. So he gave in to instinct and ran with the pack into the dark.

Surreal moments pass through us like dreams -- strange, fleeting, unanchored, leaving us to wonder if they ever truly happened. Life-changing moments are different, sometimes arriving unnoticed, only revealing what they take from us...or what they leave behind. One unsettles the mind. The other reshapes the path. 

Uti would later recall, the first time he transformed, shifting from human to wolf, his mind was primitive, unprepared to interpret what he was. There were no films with Lon Chaney Jr., or pulp magazines with “Teenaged Werewolves” to shape his understanding. To Uti, there was no reason to fight. He yielded to a higher power of nature, the amalgamation that went beyond flesh into spirit. He followed the prompt of his dreams and visions, and when confronted with the change, gave in, taking the shape shown to him. But in time, Uti realized it was more a choice if one could see it that way. For those who carry the curse become the essence of both human and wolf, able to express both fully or partly or wholly as they so choose. Fighting against it...is what makes a werewolf. 

He contently traveled with the pack, believing he was now an elevated version of his human self. He’d lived most of his life as an exile. It took becoming a wolf to learn how to interact and contribute. 

Running with the pack - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

He learned communication among wolves was nuanced and intricate. Humans rely entirely on the verbal, ignoring other sensory exchanges. But to wolves, every movement, sound, scent, even thought, was a form of language -- pure, yet at the same time, complex. He learned his pack all carried names...the large black alpha with the white eye, was Obec.

He witnessed some in the pack evolve into adulthood, breeding, raising pups of their own. Living, hunting, dying. But others, including himself and Obec, remained unchanged. Eventually, Uti learned why...

In 1805, the pack was in what’s now Minnesota. The abundance of lakes and forests made it prime hunting grounds. But on a warm spring day -- BOOM! A gunshot broke the silence. Confusion rippled through the pack as settlers were hunting them. The four-legged predators were a threat to humans and their way of life.

Several wolves were hit. The rest scattered, fleeing without strategy, only instinct. In a pack, allegiance lies with the alpha, so Uti followed Obec. But then he saw something that forever changed him. One moment Obec ran as a wolf -- the next, he changed into a man. Uti’s mind bent in directions it never had before. In his bewilderment, he lost Obec, who vanished into the woods.

A strange set of prints - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

With the Alpha gone, the pack splintered. That’s when Uti saw a handful of others change into men and women, and were gone in a flash. In shock, Uti lost his sense of direction...and sense of what he held to be true. He hurried away alone. Uti ran all afternoon and into the night, away from the vacant cries of the pack, mourning the loss of those killed and those unfound.

For days he wandered and so did his mind, trying to understand what he’d seen. The vision of Obec replayed in his wolf skull. Exhausted, he found a safe spot to curl up and sleep. But the visions continued. And in the back of his mind, the faint feeling of being human began to creep in.  

The next morning, Uti awoke to find himself back in his human form. Still feeling the wolf inside. Only the dynamic of his shape was different. And with that simple shift...a whole new world opened up to him.

TO BE CONTINUED…