Zota

Original look:

Lore:

Zota was a scout for slingshot, along with an old female named Scout; Scout would often find pups while out and take them to the herbalist; her granddaughter would scream and hide them in her cave from Atoz. One day Atoz found 2 pups Knightstorm and Moonlight and held a meeting where she talked about things that made no sense like "the land is cursed" in the night Zota tried to sleep but it was hard knowing Atoz was going to take the 2 pups away, he watched her leave with them. Later he saw flashes in the sky and horrible howling screams, he tried to fall asleep to forget about it. In the morning when he arose, Scout said Atoz hadn't returned, the pack got worried the scouts and hunters, Zota, Scout, Silly, Outcast, Wimby, Snap & Darksong went out together to look for Atoz but all they found was a huge puddle of blood.

A meeting was held, it was decided by the pack that Zota would be the lone leader of the pack, it was hard being the lead and a scout at the same time and also trying to find answers to what happened that night. He would often scout the area where they found the blood but one day there were humans there with traps and Zota got caught, they did experiments on him in their tents, injecting him with weird chemicals and taking his blood after and testing it, always looking at him confused after. One night a big storm hit sending the humans running, they released all the animals they caught before leaving, Zota was confused and couldn't see properly he stumbled into another wolf and when apologizing he gasped with horror, her pelt looked horrible and somehow she had 3 eyes, she yelped when she seen him and had a look of horror in her face too, they both panicked and tried to explain what they were seeing but neither believed each other. Zota decided to take her to the river and look at their reflection;, They both whimpered while taking in their new looks, they curled up by a tree nearby and slept. In the morning they got to know each other, ,Zota and Zara how funny that their names matched! Zara couldn't go back to her pack; it was too far. Zota suggested she come with him to Slingshot and help him explain everything to his pack.

When they arrived at slingshot the pack thought they were monsters it took a lot of talking and convincing them that he was himself, eventually they accepted him back as their lead, by now all the wolves were quite old so they couldn't really turn down their young leader, they needed pups to get the pack numbers up for protection, Zota sent Darksong and Scout out to find pups to bring back and raise, they found many! Lysan was Zotas favorite, the son he never had, he raised that pup as if it was his own and tried his best to teach him how to survive since he was really bad at teaching when the hunters dragged his scrawny butt home, Lysan decided to become a traveler to Zota spent alot of one on one time with him preparing him, on their last night together Zota made it clear he wanted to see his boy again one day so Lysan was expected to come home occasionally between travels.

After a year of knowing each other Zota and Zara fell in love, they had many daughters Maple, Walker & Mave were the ones who stayed with the pack, Zota and Walker were the closest, they were both very goofy and could be found by the river playing most days, When Scream passed ,their eldest daughter Maple became the herbalist, when Scout passed Outcast and Darksong became the scouts, when Snap, Wimby and Silly passed Whisper, Fallout and Boost became hunters and they adopted many apprentices, enough to make multiple hunting groups, the pack never went hungry and was thriving with all the new young wolves.

Many many years of peaceful pack life passed and Zota was getting old, he had no sons to take over so he was leading longer then he should have, he'd forgotten all about the horrible past the pack had he was also starting to forget what Lysan looked like… he hadn't returned so it was assumed the foolish pup didn't last by himself, since he was still hopeless at hunting when he left…

One night Zota seen flashes in the sky a wave of panic rushed over him as he ran outside, he seen the shape of a wolf in all the lightning so he followed it, eventually he reached a cave, he was exhausted and his old bones hurt with arthritis, calling out to the wolf he followed and going deeper into the cave was scary and he considered turning around many times but he just had a feeling he needed to continue, when he reached the bottom of the cave he seen frozen wolves, one was all black and looked very familiar then he heard a voice from the deep "you shouldn't be here it's cursed" when he seen who it was speaking he realized the frozen black wolf was someone he knew "Knightstorm…" he whispered.

Zota knew what he had to do, he walked to the goddess wolf and asked her why she had cursed the mountain lands, she explained that one night while her pups were playing outside they were stolen so she cursed the lands so all other wolves would know how she felt, any pups that didn't belong to a lead female in a pack would become the goddesses and any wolves trying to stop that would be erased, she laughed and told Zota of a female 6 years ago who tried to save 2 pups that she loved because she developed a soft spot for them even though she vowed to never have pups because of the curse. She saved 1 but lost her life trying to save the other, the goddess was mad that she had to spend 2 years tracking down the pup that escaped and decided to freeze it once she found it along with any wolves he was with, which explained why Knightstorm was frozen standing over a litter of pups and 2 elder wolves, and explained what had happened the night Atoz vanished.

Zota was mad for the first time in his life, he lunged at the goddess and she laughed at him, he was exhausted from following her all this way so his attacks weren't effective but he tried his hardest eventually landing a bite on her face ripping a chunk off her cheek, she stood frozen in shock that a mortal managed to hurt her and such an old mortal too, then she smiled and said she would give Zota one wish since he was the first mortal to ever injure her but in return she wanted to use his pelt as a decoration in her cave, Zota sat and thought for a minute then decided on his wish.

For months the pack looked for him, he watched over them in his spirit form guiding them to the safety of a new den best he could, though they occasionally misunderstood the signs he'd leave, they didn't know he was gone so they weren't ready for a new leader but it was becoming clear they needed one, a meeting was held and the pack decided young Walker would take over since she was the only daughter who didn't have a mate yet it felt fitting, they held a ceremony Zota watched proudly, his spirit danced with Atoz's, after many years they were finally together again and Atoz was proud of the beautiful happy pack Zota had built and all of his precious pups. When it was over Atoz's spirit faded as she was finally at peace, Zotas spirit entered Walkers little body, his wish was to forever keep his pack members safe, he would live on as all the future leaders guide and the Goddess would leave the pack alone,she hung Zotas pelt in her cave as a trophy.

Lore Credit: #103877

Atoz, Original Mate:

Zara, Soulmate: