True Creature Story: Direwolf – For those of you who do not not know what a dire wolf is they are wolfs that grow the size of rhinos. See ‘Game of Thrones’ and find out. This thing happened to my father when he was doing his military service(mandatory at that time in our country).
He was stationed at a mountain base and it was early December so that means there was already tons of snow and the blizzards there that could kill and hide a man til spring. He was on guard duty that night and this guard duty was both twice as often and with 2 men on posts instead of just 1 – all because the unusual “wolf tracks” that were found around the camp fence leading to the woods.
They were patrolling their spot as usual talking (well I don’t know… soldier stuff) when his friend froze solid as if dead and wouldn’t move nor say anything. Dad looked in the direction where his friend was looking, past the fence near the tree line, and according to him he saw this wolf the size of a cow. The wolf stared at them for a second and then ran into the woods.
The next day they told what they saw to their squad captain who believed them mostly because he was born and raised near their camp in a village some 20 miles down the mountain. He told them there was a legend in these parts about these wolves that says they only live in the mountains and that they never stay too much in one place because they finish the food too fast.
I got a bit curious and started researching and as it seems there have been sightings of dire wolves all along the Carpathian mountain chain. Oh yes, and the legend about them is not about some monsters that kill people. It roughly says that the gods sent the people a powerful guardian against the half-man half-wolf beast (werewolf I think) so that anytime the beast rises the guardian awakens. Also I haven’t found any kill reports of the dire wolf just sightings.
I sure hope it is true. Imagine a battle between a werewolf and a bad ass direwolf!