Wolfing Out

The first werewolf was a man named Rorke.  Rorke was never someone to feel quite at home in civilization, and watching his family and friends cling to existence in a shattered world was too difficult to bear, and so he moved to where he felt most comfortable, the forests.  He became a ranger, of sorts, hunting to feed himself and the villagers when stock permitted.  He learned to live in harmony with the wilds, becoming a part of its workings without upsetting the balance.

When Rorke found the Relic of the Moon in an abandoned bear cave and picked it up, his shape changed almost instantly to half-man half-wolf.  The sudden and painful change forced him to throw the Relic, which destroyed it on impact with a rock.  After the initial shock, Rorke studied himself and what he had become.  The realization of his new being filled him with a sense of liberation, finally free from the human form that had made him feel so awkward and out of place.  His wish to be a part of the animal kingdom had been granted.  He saw the night with new eyes, his senses endowed with a new sharpness.

It took some time for the villagers to accept him in his new form.  He was still able to speak and tell them who he was but was reserved about approaching them, and so he used his new powers to extend his hunting grounds and leave his prepared kills for the locals to find.  Finally having enough to eat, the village stabilized and it's people found hope.  When they discovered what Rorke had become it took a surprisingly short amount of time to accept him back into their community, having recognized his power as a badly needed means of survival.

When Rorke had thrown the Relic of the Moon, causing it to shatter, it released its last shred of essence in a wave that washed over the nearby area, including a glen that was home to a pack of wolves and parts of the nearby village.  Children  to both human and wolf mothers that carried them at that moment were born werewolves.  A gap between the two communities was bridged and the local humans and wolves soon learned to live in symbiotic harmony.  Wolves took on the role of hunting food and nursing newborn werewolves, as well as sheparding the livestock, while humans took on the role of caretakers for their new friends, tending injuries and sickness and teaching young werewolves speech and morals.  Never are wolves considered pets to these humans, but equals, with werewolves as the link bonding them.