Axel "Ten"

Ten is in excellent physical condition. Few men alive can challenge the supernatural strength that he embodies. In his wolf’s form, his strength rivals that of beast of burden. His strength is matched by his hardiness, that has been tested again and again by the wilds, and by his own tribe when they attacked him.

Ten’s signature ability is his shifting to wolf form. Where he can experience the wilderness as he believes the way that he should. He is also attuned to the spirit of nature. He has a hybrid form, that fully realizes his werewolf nature, where he becomes monstrous and grows large enough to stand toe to toe with an ogre.

Ten is clothes adverse, and werewolves and witchwolves are rather hardy. His tribe never wore shirts as their tribal tattoos are worn like clothing. He also just prefer wolf form to human form most of the time. Wyllia has tried endless to get him to dress “appropriately”, however the best she has been able to do is a pair of shorts that are easy to remove for shifting into a wolf. His counter point is all the effort she has to go into shifting into wolf. Though the specialized clothing has helped her case, but not enough to get him to budge however.

Axel is a product of many conundrums, that left him without much agency of his early life. He was born of a secret tryst of his father, the silvered leader of a tribe of werewolves, and a beautiful spark of nature and a druid. Axel however would never remember his mother, she disappeared shortly after his birth.

This duality gave Axel something many werewolves crave, control, though it was not complete. He was not fully the beast as many of them were, but that wasn’t accompanied with any hint of weaknesses. The tribe was unable to process this positive for the tribe and it was the source of much ire and disdain. A disdain that grew to include distrust for there leader. However his father was not weak and maintained a ruthless control on the tribe for nearly 15 years, and protected his son and future Alpha of the tribe all the same.

However, that changed when Axel started to grow into his manhood, it was unavoidable for Axel to begin integrating into the tribe more and more. His responsibilities pulled him under his father’s sheltering grasp, eventually leading to a pack hunt where Axel was operating as pack leader. The tribe took advantage of this crack in his father’s control and attacked Axel and Silverking in a coup for control of the tribe.

Axel’s supernatural strength and stamina, allowed him to escape the throws of death of his betrayers. He shifted to wolf and fled until his legs became cold and buckled, and the blood loss led to his sight and consciousness to fade. He thought his end was had arrived and the last sounds would be the trickling of water from a nearby creek.

There was a voice, his first thoughts he was found and this was his demise, but this voice wasn’t one he knew, and “she” was speaking the common tongue. He opened his eyes to see a girl, she was treating his wounds. She was unlike anything he had ever seen. She was both wolf and human. Though clearly more human than wolf.

He realized he had reverted to human, as she wrapped his wounds on his legs and body, though she threw her jacket over him to provide him some decency. Axel didn’t respond to her comments, until she made a passing comment that he smelled like wolves. She turned her gaze from him to her pack to gather more bandages, and Axel took a moment to shift to wolf.

She was surprised, but not in fear, but almost of glee. She spoke in the tribal tongue to the wolf now in front of her, but with a very bizarre accent, and clearly unpracticed. She only then laughed, and replied that explained a lot.

This was the start of their relationship, and the beginning of a new life for Axel as “Ten”, a nickname the girl, Wyllia gave him when he refused to both give his name, past or when wearing clothes. Their relationship changed Ten, and it grew deeper as they learned and spent time together. He learned that she was similar to himself, the product of a werewolf and a human, and that she could change forms. While her natural form was a hybrid, unlike like his and other half-breeds that he knew. She also believe she was still cursed with the a portion of lycanthropy and it caused her to remain distance from close relationships.

Ten used his natural leadership and surprising charisma to guide her to trust herself and get her to overcome her fear of learning the truth of herself in regards to the status of her curse. He eventually lead her to the courage to test her bite on him to see if it is cursed. While he didn’t disclose much about his past, he made small mention that his blood would reveal the truth. His confidence in such a statement was enough to get her to try. She learned that at least towards him, she was safe and free to finally get close to someone.

They became a mated pair, and they worked on their lives together. He worked at the lumbermill and saved up his earnings towards their future, while she worked on her path towards their shared goal.

Three years past, and they were close to buying their own property and building a house, however that plan changed when bandits or raiders attacked the village at the end of winter trying to get an easy lunch. The raid threatened everything and everyone in Ten’s new life. He wasn’t about to let that happen.

His rage fueled his transformation into his far more beastial and feral hybrid form. That was far more inline with that of a werewolf. His tall stature grew to that to dwarf a man of his previous height. He was a ball of fury and he directed that at the bandits, leaving blood and terror in the snow and smoke. That was already enough to frighten the villagers, and when the bandits were slain, their gasps, murmors and talk caught Ten’s attention.

He turned towards the town, as a beast of anger and hate, and stepped towards them. It was only Wyllia stepping between them that caused him to stop. She was shaking, scared of what stood before her. She was scared of him. He reverted from his beastial form and ran from town.

He ran far enough to be out of sight of the town, but waited. He didn’t know if Wyllia would follow him, but he wanted to give her the chance. His thought racing, his emotions wild as he waited. What seemed like an eternity, he saw Wyllia crest the tree line. He lit up at her appearance, but sadden as he saw her with reddened eyes and frosted tears on her cheeks.

She didn’t speak, but hugged him tightly, both shaking and relaxed. She then broke away and walked further away from the town. With no words spoken, she made clear, their life there was over. He took a step beside her, unsure what he future held for them.

Ten doesn’t feel like he has many accomplishments due to his sheltered upbringing by his father. However there are a few things that he is reflects on with pride.

First Big Game Hunt:
Ten always remembers the first time he hunted something bigger than squirrels and rabbits. It was with him and his father, and his father told him to be the pack leader for this hunt. He thought about going after something safe like a deer, but when the scent of a boar crossed his nose, he knew he had to go for it. It was a short tracking, before the boar was spotted drinking from a creek before them.

He told his father to take the left, and he would take the right, he told his father to wait to strike when the boar was focused on him, and if he did kill it outright. His father didn’t question him, he was going to let him learn from experience, as he was strong enough to shred a boar in seconds if things got to bad, and besides it wasn’t a bad tactic.
Ten ordered the maneuver, and moved to his position, he took a deep breath, counted to 3 and charged for the throat of the boar. He darted from the brush in a silvery flash and his teeth struck true and found the boars throat. The boar wasn’t a soft prey though, and he felt all the muscles of the boar tighten to throw Ten off. Ten instead jerked the boar hard and pulled it off its feet, then he took a second bite as the boar attempted to get its bearings.
This bite struck the neck again of the boar, and Ten knew he had landed a fatal blow, the arteries in the boars neck covered Ten in blood, and he took a moment to smile to himself. Until he felt the boar jerk again and get loose from Ten’s fangs. Boars were notorious for not knowing how or when to die, and it was lined up to gore Ten. As it began to charge, its legs were swiped out from under it once more by Silverking, and Ten didn’t hesitate to bite once more at the opportunity.
With this last bite, the boar finally ceased moving, and the hunt was won. His father didn’t say much, never did, but he looked at Ten with pride beaming in his gaze. “You did good, boy.” They took their prize and returned home.

Relationship with Wyllia:
Ten’s relationship with his mate is another pride point for him. He has helped her build confidence in herself, and helped her become more attuned to nature. He also knows how much she has saved him from falling into hatred and revenge, on top of literally saving his life.
He couldn’t have imagine spending so much time with someone before, he also couldn’t imagine being any happier with anyone else. He’s keenly aware how much he has learned and changed. From caring about a whole village not because it was a birthright, but because the people matter to him, even if that is strange village to him; to trying his hardest to learn the new concepts and the rules of civilization from Wyllia that wouldn’t ever matter in the tribe.
Their plan was something he would never had expected for his life, but he was content working towards it all the same. He has more to teach, and far more to learn, and he looks forward to growing, even now that their plan has entirely shattered and they are thrown into the unknown.

Ten doesn’t have many things that he would call just failures and embarrassments. The events that have gone wrong in his life have been deep traumas, or they were entirely out of his control. He isn’t sure if he could have ever caught on the plan for the coup against his family, especially being isolated from the tribe more than integrated. That would be more of a failure on his father’s part.
Surprisingly, when a hard choice comes up, he tends to make the selfless choice, such as revealing his monstrous form to save the village even if it meant he wouldn’t be welcomed. He also made that choice knowing that he may never see his mate ever again.

The Tribe’s Betrayal:
Ten’s entire life was upended and changed forever when his tribe attacked him and left him for dead. He isn’t sure that he was entirely in control of his response, because it was immediately followed up by meeting Wyllia. He isn’t sure if he would have died that day, healed and ran away, or healed and charge back in to the tribe to certain doom. He has many unanswered questions from that day, and is divided whether he wants answers or not. However, he won’t risk his current happiness for it.

The Bandit’s Raid and Ten’s Reveal:
The second event that hasn’t had any time to be resolved is the attack from the bandits on the village. He wasn’t going to let those he cared for and looked at as his charge to be attacked, a protective instinct perhaps. While a situation like that was enough to leave an impact on him normally enough, what makes it worse was that he had to shift into his full bestial form to save the village. He doesn’t remember the other villagers response to his form, he was filled with range and anger, but he does remember how Wyllia looked when he turned his hate-filled gaze towards the villagers.

The one he loved was terrified of him, he left the village, wondering if he had just thrown everything away. While he waited his mind raced wondering if he should have told her sooner, maybe they could have taught that form restraint or control. His mind continued to race, until he caught Wyllia figure cresting the tree line. She was tear ridden and emotionally distraught. He will also never forget how she quivered in hesitation to hug him.

Ten has a natural cunning that comes from his wolfish nature. He is incredibly perceptive and thoughtful. He has a great ability to read nature, and his upbringing as a leader has taught him to read people as well. While he is silent and a man of few words, he makes sure what he does say has meaning and impact. His ability to learn, and apply knowledge for abstract thoughts and logic is no better or worse that the average man. Though he doesn’t like to spend time on subjects that don’t interest him.

Ten's reverence for nature shapes his worldview. Nature is inherently complex, with a duality of rigidity in roles and ever-changing flexibility and growth. Every creature on Earth, whether on land, in the sea, or in the sky, follows the natural order and life cycle that has been tailored for them. Some creatures exist as prey, others as predators, and most as both, forming the interconnected chain of life. Ten opposes anything that disrupts this cycle, considering it unnatural.

To elaborate further, it's important to recognize that wolves are not rabbits, rabbits are not people. Men have their roles as protectors and providers, while women have roles as caregivers, mothers, and leaders in the social structure. However, nature is constantly experimenting and challenging its own norms. Women may become warriors, and men may enter politics. Wolves can have same-sex couples, and some animals thrive in captivity rather than in the wild.

This inherent ambiguity leaves Ten unwilling to judge morality in a one-size-fits-all manner. However, he strongly disapproves of the reckless abuse of nature, intentional destruction of natural resources, or overhunting. Breaking the broader cycle of nature is something he cannot accept.

The final aspect of nature's cycle is the survival of the fittest. This doesn't only apply to individuals but also to communities and herds, as they represent robust survival mechanisms. Ten acknowledges that humans excel at this, with their specializations benefiting the collective well-being.

Ten currently is motivated by two factors. The first is his love and devotions to Wyllia. The influcence she has had on his life has earned her, his vow of protection. He wants to be the best person he can be for her, but he also doesn’t want to lose himself or his identity in the process. It is why he appears stubborn even towards her.
His second motivation is to prove himself, this includes physically in his skills and strength, in his character as a leader and defender of those he loves and respects. He even wants to grow in mind, though not always in the knowledge that Wyllia tries to teach.

Ten has many wilderness skills, that he both excels in and enjoys. He loves hunting, tracking, and exploring. Both for making up for lost time of being able to, and because he has good company for it.
Since his ambush and attack by the tribe, he has heighten his sense of awareness towards danger, almost to a point of paranoia, but not quite. This has been very helpful for avoiding greater threats and monsters when the two explore the Wildlands. This sense of awareness helped the village to avoid massive casualties during the bandit raid.

Ten also doesn’t have much experience with cooked food until very recently, having eaten most of his food fresh. However, when he tried his hand at it, he utterly ruined the food. He also terrible at fishing at least the way humans do it, He also doesn’t care to learn any more of this skill as he doesn’t like it.

Ten has simple likes, he loves exercise, whether that is peaceful exercise like walks or exploring, or the intense exercise he considers the work at the lumbermill. He is also at peace with any activity that keeps him in the wilderness, such as hunting, tracking or camping.

However, that doesn’t include fishing, which he absolutely disdains. Among his dislikes are people who so full of themselves that they must display themselves for attention, show offs if you will. He also doesn’t like cats, though he has yet to voice a reason as to why.

Ten’s has a reverence for nature in general and extra reverence for the moon. His entire childhood was growing up in a tribe that was controlled by the moon. While he was immune to the will of the moon, he still knows her power, voice, and her touch. He may have inadvertently inherited his druidic reverence tendencies from his mother, but they were never allowed to be developed during his childhood.

When he met Wyllia and she explained her Call of the Wild, he knew instinctively what she was talking about, he could even hear it, but it wasn’t the exact same as the Call from the Moon. Similar like siblings, similar enough for him to understand.

Ten in most situations is a man of few words. This mostly comes from his lack of practice of the common tongue. He is always listening to people around him, understanding them, and learning of their lives. Whether this is from his wolf’s cunning wanting to understand prey, or from his training and teaching to be a leader of tribe, which requires knowing the members of the tribe.

He is far more talkative to Wyllia, he is also far more talkative in wolf form, though even less understand him like that than the language of nature he and Wyllia share. He is caring and altruistic, when he helped the village by hunting, and never asks for payment for his efforts.

Ten’s speech varies based off of the language being spoken more than anything. While his common is improving, he still has a hard time putting to words his thoughts with that language. He keeps his speech short and meaningful in such cases. He has developed a duality with language, by utilizing good use of body language of another language that much of it translates with his common.

However, in his tribal tongue or the tongue of nature, he can be rather descriptive and even artistic with his speech. His charisma is on full display in these language and he is quite a bit more comfortable speaking. It is just a shame that the pool of communicators is limited.

Even in his common, he speak in the same manner that he holds himself, confidence and poise. He is rarely seen slouching or with bad posture, a reflection of his self developed sense of discipline.