As told at Tall Tales: April 1 2020
First, I am sure many of you have heard about the efforts of the Azeroth Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Kodo or the (ASPCK)… I have chosen my story tonight to help further their cause.
“The Story of Kodo and Wolf”
Out in the plains of Mulgore, you may have noticed many Kodo and many wolves, but it was not always so, just as it is not always so that the Shu’halo were present. The Earth Mother waved her arms across the plains and her Children, the Shu’halo rose from the earth and became a people.
Now the kodo and the wolves came soon after, and both were nomadic, the kodo following the fields of plenty in Desolace… well, before it became desolate, and the wolves travelled as well, though looking for a different meal.
But this is a story of the first Kodo and the first Wolf.
The mightiest of all Kodo roamed the wilds of Desolace, ofttimes having to make a path through dense trees and forests, each step causing the land to carry the echo of his steps throughout all Desolace.
Kodo was the mightiest of beings and the earth echoed with his passage.
One day as he walked, a creature so small, Kodo almost missed his presence at all, ran up to Kodo and began to smell Kodo’s hoof and then run away, sniff at the tail, and run away. Well Kodo swatted with his tail, but Wolf danced out of range and then ran in front of Kodo and licked his great snout and then dodged laughing out of the way.
Okwaho laughs as he suddenly dodges into the audience and back again
Kodo grunted at Wolf, asking, “What are you small thing and why do you cross my path?”
Wolf answered, “The ground was shaking and woke me up. And now I see that you are the cause. Can you stop the beating of the earth, so I can go back to sleep?”
“The beat I create is what keeps the earth alive. If I stop, all of creation will stop. The Earth Mother has deemed it so.”
“Oh! That is important. Can I help? I can make a beat, too, while I run,” Wolf offered.
“No, no, it is fine. ‘The beat is the beat of all life’. My walk is perfectly timed,” Kodo refused, but little did Kodo realize that the Wolf was sincere, and this had inadvertently hurt Wolf’s feelings.
Wolf ran off and left Kodo to stomp around Desolace on its own.
Okwaho demonstrates with a stomp of his own how the ground rumbles from Kodo’s stomp
Wolf still felt the beat through the land’s rumble and tried to find a gait and step with a jump thrown in that would complement the beat of Kodo, trying to keep in mind what Kodo said about the beat keeping the earth alive.
Okwaho jumps around wildly
A while later, the two met again, one clomp clomping and the other leaping and running here and there.
Okwaho first slows to a steady clomp and then runs and jumps crazy again back and forth
Wolf ran up and licked Kodo on the snout in greeting and danced away before Kodo could flick his horn at Wolf in a reminder he should not be trifled with. “Little thing, watch yourself,” Kodo huffed mightily.
“Listen,” Wolf replied, “Don’t you hear it?” Wolf continued to play, weaving, hopping, and dodging mighty Kodo.
“I hear the thunder of my hooves,” replied Kodo, and Wolf much to his own chagrin realized that up close he could not hear his lighter footpads, but he was sure he was helping to make “the beat of all life.”
Kodo continued to stomp his way forward, hoping Wolf would go on his way, but Wolf was determined. Kodo finally had to admit to himself this Wolf was trying his best and then said, “Walk with me, as I do and later, I will try to hear you again.” Wolf had nothing to lose, so he slowed his pace and walked with Kodo, though he still could not hear his own steps.
Okwaho walks slowly back and forth as if containing all his energy to match a giant companion
Wolf could feel their beat matching and he began to see and feel the land around him as if he too was large and massive like his companion.
“Good little one,” Kodo said after they spent the day walking. “Now show me what you were trying to add.” Kodo slowly halted and rested his mammoth body besides a canyon wall.
Taking this for a sign to begin, Wolf began to cavort and leap and dance, but a few times he seemed to mistime his own rhythm. He stopped, feeling annoyed with himself and came to sit in front of Kodo, his bright eyes looking up into Kodo’s grey eyes.
Kodo waited briefly and then slowly his head nodded. “Come then, I know what to listen for now, and it seems you have a connection to the Earth, though not as strong as mine. I am almost envious though, for I see the air, the water, and the fire of An’she in your spirit, as well.”
With that, the two started again, a strange pair making their way through Desolace… a kodo and his wolf pupil.
So, when you see a wolf, dancing and prancing to a beat you cannot hear, and pestering a kodo, he is probably just adding to “the beat of all life.”
~Okwaho