Wisewolves

"I'm so sorry... the more time passes, the more I... The more I forget who I am. The more I forget everything."

- ??? Wisewolves (賢狼, Kenrō) are a subspecies of Yôkai appearing exclusively in the Present Verse, originating from Canada, Alaska and possibly France or Siberia.

As the name implies, they are a subspecies of demon that take on the appearance of gigantic feral wolves, with fur coats of abnormal coloration. Extremely different from regular yôkai, wisewolves are exclusively female and are often confused with werewolves, or even regular wolves to the innocent eye. This is due to the fact that they generally behave like regular wolves when alone, and have a tendency to seek freedom and a way to distance themselves from human society. However, they are also the only ones able to revert back to human form, although only partly, being unable to make their ears, their eyes, their tail, their claws and their fangs, return to something perfectly normal. The hair, too, will have a tendency to look quite messy and overgrown, and faintly glistens under the moonlight. Because they are the only demons unable to speak freely in their true form, they spend most of their time in their human guise.

Excellent at luring people in, they never fail to catch the prey that they hunt, efficiently making use of their charms to abuse humans in various ways, since wisewolves always look youthful (sometimes even childish) when disguised, regardless of age. This, coupled to their incredible capacity to copy any noise or voice tone that they have heard before, allows them to easily trick their prey into getting eaten, usually after triggering in them an emotional response of some kind. Rumors of those facts began to spread, saying that if you were to cross path with a human woman with the charm of a beast, you would do best to run away, lest you wanted to be lured in by a wolf with the wisdom of men, thus earning them the name "Wisewolves".

While very few in numbers compared to the average demon, and that despite their unique ability to reproduce somewhat normally after mating with a human, wisewolves eventually developed the ability to curse other women into becoming wisewolves as well, through prolonged contact with any of their bodily fluids, such as blood or saliva. A contaminated victim progressively loses her sanity until becoming a full-fledged yôkai, at which point only the death of the one who laid down the curse may allow for the possibility to go back to a more normal life. However, this usually never happens, as the victim will have a strong tendency to become infatuated with their malefactor, whose very presence strengthens the curse. This is due to the fact that wisewolf saliva, specifically, causes an extremely pleasurable reaction in the body of the bitten victim, as well as instant addiction to the feeling they've experienced. Wisewolves being compelled to bite their prey, a vicious cycle that never breaks is thus created.

Curiously, and that despite being recognized as yôkai, wisewolves that have grouped up together or that have turned one another have a strong sense of family and empathy towards each other, and cannot stand staying apart for more than a few hours. This is even more true for members of the same family, who will pretty much stay together at all times and live together as a tribe, or a pack, loosely ruled by the oldest member. If needed, parental (or any form of) authority is applied through biting. Although different, the pleasurable effect still functions, and will put the bitten wisewolf into a short state of vulnerability, reminding them of their place. This also serves to strip newly turned wisewolves of their last human remains, shall they ever resurface by accident, meaning that it is not rare to find them covered in fresh bite marks.

In the event that they would not grow up close to their mother, wisewolf children will be human at birth and remain that way, unless they experience a strong emotional trauma at some point in life, irremediably leading them to lose their humanity and their chance at having a normal life. It is not possible to differentiate regular humans from wisewolf children that have never turned.

Be it in or out of their human form, wisewolves display demon-like toughness, being resilient to most extreme weather conditions, all the while displaying a seemingly endless amount of stamina. They can satisfy themselves with very little and play outside with each other for days, and have no issue living in quite poor conditions of life that most other demons would not be happy with. Furthermore, they generally remain clean at almost all times, thanks to having fur and skin that generally allows dirt and most liquids to quite literally slide off of them without sticking. For all of those reasons, they generally dress very lightly. Lastly, all wisewolves have striking yellow eyes, and can see through the darkest of nights.

Fun fact, regular wolves are naturally attracted to wisewolves and will have a tendency to group up with them, to hunt and sleep together, while dogs are deathly afraid of them.

(Fascinating creatures, aren't they? Take a look at another species from the Sunflower Fields?)