The Future Prophecy of the Wise Wolf: "Your Wife and Children Are Mine to Raise"

If an ordinary person suddenly came face-to-face with a great-grandfather who had been dead for ages, they would probably have a whole lot to talk about.

But that sort of thing didn't apply to Hugserson and the King of Bonechewers. For one thing, gnolls were an emotionally detached race. Even between father and son, there wasn't much warmth to speak of. That wasn't just a matter of their way of life; it was also determined by the level of their civilization.

For another, Hugserson's background was rather tragic.

An orphan, it had been raised from childhood by Chieftain Botana. The Matriarch of Rending Claws had treated it well, regarding it as the finest work of her life, but that affection stemmed more from Botana's sick adoration of the King of Bonechewers than from any real love for Hugserson.

The Matriarch of Rending Claws hadn't even raised her own three children well. There was no need to expect her to become a good mother to Hugserson.

If she truly loved it, she wouldn't have left so many scars on Hugserson through all those rounds of voodoo enhancement. She'd even burned away its vocal cords. That had been an accident, supposedly, but it was hard to say it wasn't because Botana couldn't be bothered to listen to a cub's cries.

It was hard to say that Hugserson's infatuation with Nanak Black-Eye wasn't because the solitary fellow had never been treated gently as a child. The first female of its own age to show it any attention had happened to be the clever, wild Nanak, and it had fallen head over heels for her.

But a childhood like that meant Hugserson was bound to have trouble dealing with people.

In those circumstances, it was only natural for Hugserson to be at a loss