• A young baby cried into the cold winter air as the village people left her in the forest. Swiftly and cautiously, they left, not wanting to see the fate of the newborn girl. Her mother was too poor to raise a child and so the struggling parent asked for help. The child’s name was Hymuuya, meaning ‘Distant Echo’ in village speak. Baby Hymuuya was left in the forest for anything the predators wished. The village people didn’t know or care to find out, but they guessed it was for food. What they hadn’t guessed was that the wolves would take care of the abandoned child and teach her the way of the beast.

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    Hymuuya sighed happily, proud that she had finished her work before the hunters got back. It wasn’t easy cleaning and drying fur for clothes. When her rabbit-fur got dirty, her mother would make her run all the way to the river. After she had wrung out as much water as possible, she would return with heavy shirts and pants heaped in her weak arms. Hymuuya hated having to do this, but however she explained it, her mother wouldn’t –or couldn’t - understand. Of course she couldn’t; she didn’t wear fur, she had fur. She was a wolf.