worry. The people and the wolves were great friends and often enjoyed one another’s company. After a time, it came to be that both men and maids fell in love with those of wolf packs, and likewise wolves fell in love with humans.
“Finally, when many could bear the strain no longer—for wolves mate for life, as you know, and being unable to be close to their mate can break their hearts—a pack of wolves came together, male and female alike, to seek out a way to be with the humans they loved and who loved them in return. Together they traveled the long, hard road to the next kingdom where lived the most skilled sorceress in all the lands. It was very difficult for them, climbing over the mountains through the cold and the snow, but they were determined, and they made it.
“They beseeched the sorceress to grant them human bodies, and the sorceress’s gentle heart saw the love the wolves had for their humans and granted their request. But there was one thing she could not change. Though they would appear as human, their hearts would remain as wolves’ hearts and they would keep their tails as a reminder of their former lives. They agreed and were changed and returned to their beloved humans.”
An uncomfortable chill danced down my spine. I got the feeling that like the Red Riding Hood story, this wasn’t going to have a happy ending.
“All was well for many decades. Many half-wolves were born, and more full wolves went to the sorceress and begged for her secret, which she granted them before she died.
“But then came a day when two sisters fell in love with a wolf. He only desired the younger of the two. They married and lived happily while the eldest grew angry and filled with jealousy that her love should be turned away. To the detriment of all wolves, she knew the art of sorcery, and used her magic in her rage to curse all the changed wolves in the land, opening their hearts to the deceit and lust and greed of human hearts. She delivered upon full wolves the desire to hunt sheep and cattle instead of deer and elk, and filled them with a bloodlust for young maids and human flesh. She tried all she could to take away their human form, but her rage and life were consumed in her magic and her spell was incomplete and she died the night of a full moon.”
I stared at her in fascination. It answered so many questions. Why wolves were ruled by a full moon. The crimson color in their eyes. Their violence and why humans hated them so much.
“This is why wolves are so feared,” the woman continued, “why they devour grandmothers and young maidens, shepherds and sheep. Those that were in close proximity of the vengeful sorceress when her spell was cast became werewolves, and until this time, they were banished from these lands and sent far away into another.”
I wondered if any had stumbled into my world. Perhaps that was where the stories had come from. The witch poked at the fire, and again I was reminded of Wolf.
“But this story has long since been forgotten. It has been over a century since the sorceress’s curse. Humans and wolves hate and fear each other now, and poor half-wolves are lost, not knowing their place in the world, packless and alone.”
I gazed into the fire, watching the flames curl and dance. “Isn’t there any way to break the curse?”
She pressed her lips together. “It was a muddled curse. The attempt of one so young to manipulate power beyond her grasp. There are only whispered rumors in the trees and among the birds of how to break it. They say a wolf must love so dearly that his heart breaks in two and he lives inside the Earth for three days. Then he must arise, healed, and the curse will be broken and the hearts of wolves will be free once more.”
Well it certainly wasn’t going to be my Wolf. Bastard. Then I remembered my initial question and looked closely at the old woman. Now she certainly looked older, the winkles in her face deeper, her eyes full of sadness and her mouth set in a despondent frown. I tilted my head, searching.
“You’re the sorceress from the story, aren’t you? You said she died, but you’re her.”
A faint smile appeared on her face. “I am dead my dear, I assure