The horned wolf is a popular mythological animal in Rumalian folklore that features in numerous local myths and legends. While its origins are not entirely clear, most assume it to be one of the many form that the Great Spirit, the omniscient force guiding the earth and its people according to Rumalian mythology, takes while visiting the surface.
The creature
The creature is usualy described as taking the form of a large wolf, who is about 2 times larger than a typical grey wolf. Its fur is largely black, with silver and red streaks along its body, particulary along the head, back and tail. Its head is adorned with a pair of short horns resembling that of goats on the sides, and a third longer horn between the eyes. In many versions, it is also described as having various elemental abilities, usualy of the fire or ice variaty, but some encounter describe wind, water and stone elemental abilities also. All of these descriptions come from people who survive, or were saved by an encounter, and who are usualy young children who's testimonies may not always be fully reliable. While the elemental descriptions sometimes conflict with each other, leading to skeptisicm, the physical descriptions all are nearly identical, say for the size of the creature which varies somewhat, but at a level that can be explained by the child's own size affecting their perception.
The Myth
While the Great Spirit makes many benevolent forms, this is not one of them, although many would argue that it is. As the myth goes, when this creature appears, it will immediatly seek out 10 humans. It will always kill 9 of them, who it deems to have wicked hearts, and save one innocent person, who is always less than 25 years old. The tale usualy goes like this, the creature appears just outside of a village, deep in the woods. There, he kills 9 wicked people: Murderers, abbusers, rapists, slavers and the likes in extremly gruesome and brutal ways, before then saving the life of a innocent person, usualy a child from mortal danger, such as a bear of the frozen waters of a lake. or after they fall through the ice of a frozen lake. Many in the region believe that being saved by the Horned wolf brings luck and reveals a greater purpose in life for that person. On the flip-side, getting killed by the Horned wolf means your soul was irredeemable and thus, it will be sent straight to the underworld, where it will be tortured for eternity.
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