Telenines are still used as a mode of transportation up in the far reaches of the Arctic Frost, as they can handle the climate and a team of five can move a sled pretty quickly through the terrain. A few years back, one sled-driver came across an injured telenine who’d just had a litter of puppies. Thing is, this particular animal was HUGE, like double the size of your typical telenine. The puppies were huge, too, so the sled-driver thought these would make for an amazing sled team. He managed to nab two of them without getting mauled, though I’m told the mother certainly tried. He returned later to find the rest of them gone, so he focused on training the two he had.
Crookfang was the little sister, so-named because one of her fangs never really grew as long as it should have. Tusk was the big brother, and he had his own dental issues. His fangs curved out and upward and he learned pretty quickly just how much damage he could do with them. You see, these two weren’t your typical goofy lummox telenines whose most dangerous aspect is the amount of slobber they produce. No, these were feral telenines from an old bloodline that never met humans. They were strong, fast, and incredibly smart. They were also unruly, untameable, and worst of all, they remembered being taken. And boy, did they hold a grudge.
This is where the tale varies wildly depending on the storyteller. Some claim their mother returned and they and all their siblings decimated the little village, sparing no one (but then how did anyone know what happened?) Others claim the two were actually shape-shifters who turned into humans to escape their pens and then set the huts on fire (an... interesting spin, but yeah, I’m doubting this version pretty hard.) Apparently, the most likely scenario is that the siblings were able to break out of their cages and caused enough of a panic that fleeing villagers knocked over a lit brazier. There was so much chaos that no one could put the fires out in time. All we know for sure is that Tusk and Crookfang are long gone, that village is an abandoned ruin, and there are some snowy trails that sled teams will never travel.
