When we began, we were in the Dreamtime.
There was only one of us, then, named First. Within First resided great magic, a wild magic made of a distillation of stories and dreams. First ran, and First hunted, and in all things First grew powerful, so powerful that the gods themselves took notice.
One day, a tailless came to First, in the Dreamtime. It had a mane that fell to the ground and a crest upon its head, and it was understood from this that this was a god.
"Hyena," said the god, "I need your help."
"Why would I help you? I have all I need here. I have the hunt, and I have the story, and I have the Dreamtime. Leave me."
"I offer you another world, in exchange for your help." The tailless spread her hands. "I will give you a new place, if you will only help me."
Our one weakness is curiosity. First knew all there was to know about the Dreamtime, and the offer of something new intrigued First. "What do you want of me?"
"You know how to manipulate the story-lines, to make things happen. Those who live in this place I will give you need this ability. I ask that you share your power with me, and with them."
First sniffed. "And I get in return, what?"
"It is a place teeming with prey, a new place for you to run in, with trackless desert and wide grass plains. If you do not like it, you can return, after all."
In all First's long life and imaginings, First was innocent in one respect--First had never been lied to, nor ever conceived that a lie might be told deliberately. So First trusted the god, and followed the god out of the Dreamtime into this new place.
The god said, "Bend low, so I may breathe your breath." And First bent low, and the god inhaled First's breath.
At the god's feet lay another tailless, this one rent into pieces. First asked, "Is that your prey? What a strange thing to do to it."
The god did not reply, only knelt and pressed its mouth against that of the other tailless. An extraordinary thing happened--the limbs of the tailless grew together! And then its heart began to beat, and its lungs to fill, and finally it opened its eyes.
The once-dead tailless gave a glad cry and sprang to its feet, embracing the god. "Isis!" it cried. "Isis, my love, you have saved me!"
The god bared its teeth. "I did. I braved the Underworld, and I have brought back a thing most marvelous. Look!" And the two tailless turned to look at First, who was twice as tall as each of them, who gazed at them with innocent eyes. "It is a hyena, and it has agreed to help us fight Seth."
First's hackles raised. "I agreed to fight no one."
The god said, "But you are here now. Why not fight? Why not help?"
And First understood that it had been tricked. First turned its back and tried to return to the Dreamtime, but found that it could not. The god had stolen that when she had breathed in its breath. The god had stolen much of First's power, and First began to grow angry. This was not the bargain that had been offered.
"Fight for us," cooed the god. "Fight for us, hyena, and you will be richly rewarded."
First snorted and began to walk away, kicking up clods of dirt at the two tailless.
The god's voice grew sharper. "If you do not fight, every hand in this place will be turned against you, and all of the stories that are told about you will speak of your cowardice!"
"I am not impressed," First told her, and kept walking.
"Fine," said the god. "But know this--none of the gods will have anything to do with you. None will welcome you. You will be reviled."
First laughed at her, and kept walking.
"You will be hunted! You will be run down and killed! There are those who have spears, and arrows; you will be hounded unto death, hyena!"
The god's voice faded into the distance. First found a tree to lie under, and fell asleep. First dreamed of the tailless, and of spears, of raised hands and voices, of fear. And when First woke, it understood.
First had some power left. First wrapped himself in that power. First's body shook and First's eyes closed, and when First opened its eyes again First was no longer one, but many, in bodies that looked like First's had, but much smaller.
"This is how we foil the god's curse," First said to the rest of himself. "We will be Pack, and we will be many. They cannot kill all of us, and we will keep what power we have, until we can return to the Dreamtime."
So it was. Each of us was identical to First, which is why the tailless cannot tell between the male and female of us, since their noses are too small and dull for smelling. We spread out, and we ran, and we hunted, and we kept the stories among us. We can no longer change the story-lines, but we still remember the Dreamtime, and still we are angry with the gods for tricking us into leaving it.
And this is why the leader of each pack is called First, for each First is the one of us closest to the true First. That is why all packs are part of one Pack, for from one body we sprang and to one body we will return.
So speaks Rememberer, whose business is story. So speaks Rememberer, who keeps the story-lines untangled!