Episode 72: Of Wolf and Man
Written By Karl White
After seeing beyond the veil of the curse, Uti had a deeper understanding of what he was. Two conflicting sides, man and wolf, locked in an endless struggle like day and night, unable to exist at the same time. They were dual sides of the same coin. The werewolf was the flip, an obscurity, a soul in limbo, power restrained. Giving in fully, one way or another was possible. Though the hunger and the energy of the elemental power growing within would sometimes reach a critical juncture, where the in-between was necessary. Meaning let the beast out or else. Otherwise, with a little mental fortitude and a lot of grit, control, at least to a certain extent, was possible.
Controlling the beast - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
As for what the Universe revealed, it would take time, but Uti would piece together what he saw on his spirit quest. And in doing so, shed light on the mystery of what the Dark forces were truly after. Within the parts of the whole was a search. He would follow the figurative footprints, the blood trail of the Wolf Tribe, to trace what happened to them, and to find the elusive element of Light they were seeking. It was a journey that carried an importance too large to ignore.
Life with the Ojibwe taught him about the mixing of cultures, both good and bad, as America grew into a country. Uti had a front-row seat, and saw English ways seep into Native life through trade, travel, and conflict.
Under Animkii’s guidance, and through the trappers who passed through, Uti picked up English and French. At a cross-roads, he could have found another tribe to assimilate with, learned customs, traditions, a new home. Or he could head towards the growing towns and cities, he’d heard the Europeans talk of. Being a man without a background and with wonder for all things, Uti wanted to see what the rest of the world was all about.
Uti and Henri - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
In the spring of 1808, in the northern part of the Illinois territories he joined trapper and fur trader Henri Marat. A man he’d interacted with many times while with the Ojibwe. Henri was the son of famed explorer and trapper Pierre Marat. Pierre, as history knew, and as Henri never stopped telling, ventured into the uncharted wilderness of the West, attempting to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1765, never to return. He spent his life searching for his father. Little did Uti or Henri know, Cuetlachtli was the one responsible for the disappearance. His was a name Uti would come to learn in time.
Uti served Henri as an expert tracker, using his wolf-born skills, and elemental powers to hunt. He never revealed his curse to Henri, as “coat men” didn’t value the relationship between man and earth the same way indigenous people did. But for all the years Henri spent in nature and all of the tribes he interacted with, he knew Uti was different. Those things were unspoken between them, but Henri could see it. Uti’s preternatural ability to pick up trails where even conventional methods failed...no normal man could do that.
Every few months Henri would pull Uti aside and find an excuse for him to stay in nature, while the others would make their way to a nearby Fort for supplies. Henri knew about the change, and tried to grant Uti dignity in that regard. And upon their return, Henri would jokingly tell Uti about the wild howls he’d hear from his soft mattressed bed behind the tall, fenced walls of whatever fortified station they stayed.
The relationship wasn’t one sided, as in return for all Uti offered, Henri gave him a crash-course in anything and everything cosmopolitan. Henri taught him how to read and write. Instructed him in etiquette. And even schooled him in the value, and danger, of money.
Henri also provided the opportunity for Uti to interact with other tribes. And in every place they passed through, Uti sought out the village healer or medicine-man, asking of Skinwalkers...Dog Men...anything that might reveal how far the curse extended. With the ability to write, Uti began chronicling every account in a journal -- becoming an unofficial History of Werewolves.
Uti stayed with Henri all the way up until the day he died in 1811. Henri had been stricken with cancer, something Uti could smell growing inside his friend, though he never revealed it. Henri passed away quietly at a military fort in Lafeyette, Indiana. It was the saddest day Uti had known since losing his wife, Yana. He saw to Henri’s burial at the Old French Cemetery...where the headstone still stands to this very day.
Henri on his deathbed - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Immediately following Henri’s death, for the first time in a long time, Uti felt the part of an outcast. Being an “Indian” alone, in the Indiana Territory without the lead of his white “employer”, Uti was an enemy to the settlers who lived in the area. He could have easily left and disappeared back into the wilderness, but instead, a day after burying his friend, Uti enlisted in the U.S. Military. There he would serve under future President, Captain Zachary Taylor, as a first-rate tracker...and an expert in Native languages and culture.
His time with the Army would disillusion Uti greatly. It began with the War of 1812, and continued as he witnessed tribes being forced off their own lands. In 1815 after his commission was over, Uti decided not to re-enlist. But one of his last orders was to transport a war prisoner, a Sauk warrior by the name of Black Hawk, from Wisconsin back to Illinois. Being the only other Native in the transport, Uti served as the interpreter between the captors and captive.
During the long trek, the two struck up a sort of reluctant rapport, trading stories back and forth. One tale Black Hawk told was a story he heard as a child, of a vicious tribe led by a dark soul who lived in the Sun Mountains, a name used by some tribes for the Rockies. The story had passed across many tongues. Black Hawk heard it from the Cheyenne, who heard it from the Sioux, and so on.
Artists depiction of Black Hawk - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Long ago, in the prairies that lived in the shadow of the great mountains, there were the peaceful Osage. Their camp sat in the path of developing trade routes, and they were familiar with passing bands, travelers, and trappers, welcoming and trading with all.
One brutal winter, as fewer made the treacherous journey over the mountains, and less animals roamed, a mysterious unnamed tribe descended from the hills. They were led by a chieftain with a dark face and haunting eyes. The dozens with him looked hungry, weathered, and worn.
As they entered the village, a young boy, Ka’waska, watched them push through the snow. The hair on his neck stood as he sensed danger...but no one else seemed to see it.
The strangers were shown hospitality, and they traded for provisions. But that night, long after the sun had faded, Ka’waska awoke to cries of panic. His parents and brother were gone.
Looking into the dark, from the tipi, he saw the horror...A pack of Skinwalkers, the tribe without a name, attacking, slaughtering the Osage. They were Children of Nature, come to satisfy their lust for blood.
The chieftain, dark as night in his wolf form, saw movement from the shelter. He entered through the opening, ready to make a meal of the boy. But as Ka’waska begged to be spared, the dark one leaned close, and in a booming voice, spoke...
What Ka’waska saw - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
CUETLACHTLI: I will let you live, IF you tell others...I am Cuetlachtli, King of the Wolves. And I am coming. I will not stop until the world is my throne. For I am the Light of this Earth.
Ka’waska was the only one spared...He'd make his way to a nearby Kaw camp. With him, he carried the message from Cuetlachtli.
That would be the first time Uti would hear the name, but certainly not the last. What stayed with him, was the claim of being the “Light of this Earth”. A prophetic statement... and a thread tied to something far darker.
TO BE CONTINUED…