Kallium was the newest wolf to the pack. His fur was a dark brown with a sliver of silver throughout his fur. His eyes were the deepest green and the light in his eyes brought happiness to the whole clan. He was young and athlete, but his only flaw was that he was different. The whole clan’s fur was brown, but no one had the slivers of silver all throughout their fur. All the wolves thought of the slivers as a sign from Tartarus. Tartarus was where the God, Hades lived. It was the place where your soul would enter at the time of your death.


So all the wolves had stayed their distance away from Kallium, and did not allow him to participate in any rituals. This angered Kallium because he knew he was different, but he knew that this was not correct. Kallium spent months with this horrible treatment, but soon he had gotten tired of it. So one day, Kallium sneaked out of clan’s safety. He slowly scurried through the woods, but then he snapped a twig and it echoed throughout the whole village. Commotion began to be heard and it was heard all around. You could hear in the distant, “What was that sound…” “Find whoever it is…”, and many more words swept through. Kallium ran through the woods swiftly. He now knew that the whole village would soon know that he was gone and would start searching for him. So he ran, and ran, and ran until he couldn’t move another inch. Kallium laid down on the rough grass and slept.


It was morning when Kallium woke up. The sky was bright and cloudless. Kallium looked up to the heavens and prayed to the God Atremis. Artemis was the goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. Kallium spoke to the Goddess Artemis saying, “ I don’t know where to go, I need guidance, please show me the way.” The Goddess Artemis heard his prayers and sent woodland animals to guide Kallium to his destination. Throughout the long tedious journey, there were demons sent from Tartarus. There were flying bats with wings of black fire, insects with poison on there their skin, bears of phenomenal strength and more. Hades, the God of the Underworld, was trying to stop Kallium from his destination, but with the help of the Goddess Artemis. They were able to make it because her power was superior to his.

In two days, Kallium reached his destination set by the Goddess. The place was golden in many places. There were trees filled with food, and grass that looked freshly grown. There were doves gliding peacefully through the place. Kallium took another step towards the place, but was stopped by the voice of Artemis. The Goddess spoke gracefully, which gave Kallium chills through his spine.


“Kallium, blessed by the Goddess, Hestia, you have been given a great gift. You have been born into this world with speech and the ability to live here, but there is a condition. If you break this rule your punishment will be severe. If you look at the tree in the middle of this sacred place, you will see a tree made of pure gold and slivers of silver. Its bark has begun to turn brown and its light is depleting. Your job is to keep the trees light bright, and try to turn back time to make this tree young once again. This may sound impossible, but it is easier then you may think. You have twelve years to complete this challenge. If you fail you will die the next day, but if you complete this challenge. Then you may live forever with the Goddess Hestia. If you stop working on this quest, you will have to accept your consequence, no matter how dreadful it is. Do you accept?”


Kallium answered honestly, “Yes, Artemis, Goddess of the wilderness, the Hunt and wild animals. I accept your quest.” Then Goddess Artemis sent away all her woodland creatures, and that was Kallium’s signal to begin the quest. Kallium worked hard on the tree to make sure it didn’t die. He tried to figure out what the Goddess meant by turning back time to make the tree young again.





In four years, Kallium finally figured out how to bring the trees light back. Kallium placed seven golden and silver apples around the trees roots. Then he waited for the sun’s rays of light shine onto the apples. The apples began to glow and then a flash of light shined back at Kallium and blinded him. When Kallium opened his eyes the next moment, he could see nothing, but he could still hear things regularly. Kallium walked through the sacred place, blind. He would whimper wherever he traveled and always bumped into the hard walls, strong trees, other animals and etc. Kallium went on through this pain for an entire week.


When the start of the next week came, Kallium was walking blindly though the sacred place and slammed into something pure. He looked up (even though he couldn’t see) and knew that the Goddess Artemis was standing before him. Even thought Kaillium was blind, he knew immediately that She was wearing a green one-shoulder dress and was holding a bow and arrow because that was what she wore every day, since the beginning of time. Artemis looked down at Kallium speaking, “Kallium, for four years you have worked on the light and life of this tree, and then you became blind. You were extremely close to completing your quest, but you had forgotten the last and crucial step. You forgot to make the sound the Gods were to gift you with years ago, but they had to ensure that you arrived here safely, but when they heard of the quest. They wanted to see how much intelligence you had on how to fix this sacred tree, but then when you let the sunlight tough the golden and silver apples. They knew that this would be given upon you. The Gods did not want this to come upon you, but because of their mistake. It cost you, your gift of sight. I came down here tonight to give you the gift that the Gods were to give you ages ago.”


Kallium hear Artemis stepp back. Then he felt her hand on his forehead. Artemis yelled in Greek and light shined radiantly. The next moment, Artemis had disappeared and Kallium stood with the gift of sight again and the gift that was bestowed upon him. Artemis tried to speak, but no words came out except a bark. He tried again, and yet again no words came. He whimpered softly to himself. Then Kallium trudged to his resting spot.


At night, when the moon was shining through the darkness, Kallium woke up at the time, and couldn’t fall asleep again. He impulsively went to the cliff side at the sacred place and sat at the rock. No longer could he speak, so he cried for his loss of speech. Instead of the sound of crying,there came a howl. The howl contained a mixture of high, medium and low pitches. Though the sound of crying did not come, the tears streaked down his face through his long howl. Each tear held a sliver of silver, and all the tears contained the mourning of what he had lost. From then on, all the descendents of Kallium and the chosen wolves were given the gift of the howl, but lost the gift of speech that Kallium howled for till the end of his days.