One long day Harry and Lance were busy herding their sheep. To keep each other entertained, they were telling each other the legends and folklore of their town. Harry told Lance all about something called a wolf strap. The legend was that the strap was delivered from the devil himself to the person who would be able to use the strap. The strap allowed a person who put the strap on to transform into a werewolf. Most straps were usually made of leather and had large golden buckles. People who used the strap didn't do so for evil purposes though. The tales told of people using the wolf strap in order to hunt and kill food when supplies were running low or to scare travelers out of their money. The wolf strap also made the wearer almost invincible to weapons and traps that a regular person or wolf would be susceptible to.
Lance was very impressed by this local legend and thought of the fun that he might have if he could have such a strap. As Lance began to think about the story he had just been told, he started to turn a pale shade of white. So many of the details of the story sounded familiar to him. Lately other herdsmen had been telling stories of attacks on their herds. Sheep and cattle had either been mysteriously attacked or had gone missing all together. He also remembered something about Harry that could have stopped his heart right then in fright. Lance had been looking through Harry's travel bag to find some extra rope when he had come across a very large leather belt. He remembered this belt because of the very large gold buckles and detail in the belt's design. At the time it had caused Lance to wonder how his fellow herder could ever afford such a luxury but he rationalized it and pushed it to the back of his mind. Thinking about it now, though, he realized that the description Harry had given about the wolf strap matched almost exactly the belt that he had found.
Harry is a werewolf, and obviously unaware that Lance had found the strap that he thought he had kept hidden well enough. Harry did not use the wolf strap often but only when he was in desperate need of food to feed his family. Harry had not received the strap from the devil like he mentioned in the story. Harry had traded a traveling salesman a few sheep to purchase the strap. Who knows where the salesman acquired the wolf strap from.
It was getting late at night and Harry knew that that night he would need to use the wolf strap. The sheep that Harry was herding were too young and small to feed his family. He planned to transform into a werewolf that night while Lance was sleeping in order to sneak over to a nearby farm. The next farm over had a very big meaty colt that would be perfect for him and his family. Harry pretended to go to sleep which caused Lance to lie down as well to try to get some sleep. Neither one was really asleep but Lance had successfully made Harry believe that he was sleeping. As soon as Harry thought that Lance had fallen asleep, he pulled the wolf strap out of his bag. He quickly put on the strap and the transformation was almost instantaneous. Once the large golden buckles clasped around Harry's waist, hair began to sprout out from every inch of his body. There must have been some magic involved because instead of the clothes shredding when his body tripled in size, they stretched with Harry's transforming body. Harry's limbs lengthened and doubled in circumference. His face looked like it had exploded, because within seconds it went from a human face to a large wolf's head.
Although Lance was Harry's best friend, Lance was still somewhat scared. He trusted that Harry would never hurt him, but he did not know the mental capacity of a werewolf. He watched as Harry ran faster than any animal he had ever seen across the fields and into the barn of the neighboring farm. Shortly after, Lance heard the muffled screams of the young horse. He then saw Harry the werewolf dragging the colt out of the barn and into the woods nearby. Not long after Harry was making his way back to their camp site. Lance's heart was beating so fast as he saw the werewolf approaching, but he forced himself to remain calm. The werewolf came all the way up to Lance but then just fell over on the ground next to him and began to snore. Even though he kept the belt on as the sun began to come up the werewolf slowly began transforming back into Harry. As he became human again, Harry began to squirm around on the ground in apparent agony.
Lance: "Harry, are you going to be okay?"
Harry: "Yes, I just have a horrible stomach ache. I have no idea why it is hurting so badly."
Lance: "Harry, I know your secret. I saw you sneak out last night and I believe you ate a horse."
Harry: "It was only a colt. I had meant to share it with my family but when I tasted that delicious meat I realized just how hungry I was. I guess I bit off more than my stomach could handle. Whatever you do, Lance, please do not tell anyone."
Lance: "Don't worry, Harry. Your secret is safe with me"
The secret was truly safe with Lance. Partly out of fear but also because, no matter what, Harry would always be his best friend.
Author's Note: This story is based on a werewolf tale that I found from German folklore. Whenever I had thought of werewolves, I had never really associated them with Germany. Reading through the different tales from Germany though, a lot of their description of werewolves is similar with the popular culture werewolf that most people would think of. In this story I did not really want to change much but I wanted to add more detail. The beginning of the original tale started out like an encyclopedia entry about what a wolf strap really was. I wanted to include this so I worked it into the story by having one of the men tell the story to the other. I also wanted to have the reader be more connected with the characters so I gave the two men names. In the original story there are no names because they really aren't important when you have a werewolf. I also tried to keep the tale as an old tale instead of modernizing it. I think that the tale would have lost a lot of its charm had it been truly updated. I also wanted to emphasize that this werewolf was not evil but was friendly. I hoped to get across that even though he was a werewolf he was also human and someone's friend.
The Werewolf
Source: F. Asmus and O. Knoop, "Der Werwolf," Sagen und Erzählungen aus dem Kreise Kolberg-Körlin (Kolberg: Druck und Verlag der C. F. Post'schen Buchhandlung und Buchdruckerei, 1898), pp. 40-41. Link
"Werewolf" by Martin McKenna
Web Source: Epilogue