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WolfKnight

(From: Wolf Tales)

Once long ago, there lived a wolf more beautiful than any other wolf in the whole world, for his coat was as red gold as the setting sun and his eyes darker than charcoal. He lived alone in the heart of a great forest where no man ever went and his only friends were those creatures who dwelt within. During the day, the wolf roamed the green hills or sometimes just sat to listen to the river water as it rushed over stones and pebbles. At night he slept in a small cave dreaming of his life as it once was.

You see, the wolf had not always been a wolf. Some years before, he had been a strapping young lad skilled with his hands as a painter of beautiful pictures. But alas, a misunderstanding with an evil hag left him what he was now, a lonely wolf who lived peacefully among his fellow creatures bothered by no human.

One spring day, a young witch was walking through the forest gathering herbs for her healing pouch. The sun had already slipped down behind a mountain and the forest was beginning to fill with night sounds and shadows. The young witch hurried as she walked along the river’s edge and in her haste, she stumbled over a large rock. She began to roll sidelong toward the river and before she could catch herself, she tumbled into the river and was carried away by the swift running water. She tried to swim but the water was far too cold and she was so small that her arms could not fight the strong currents.

“Someone, please help me!” The young witch shouted weakly, but there was no other human in the forest to hear her. “Save me, please,” She called again, but she was trembling so hard that her voice was little more than a whisper.

Finally, the young witch became of a mind that if the river wanted to take her life, it would do so, and it was best that she ride through time in her drowning in the hopes that the water spirits would be kind. So, she offered herself up to the water with a mournful chant.

“Sand and river, wind and sun,

Kind water spirits, my power is done.”

When she had spoken these words and sank into the darkness of the waters, the wolf heard her pitiful cries. He ran swiftly through the forest to the edge of the river. There he was the young witch rise to the top of the water and then sink once more into its blackness. The wolf plunged into the cold water, caught the witch by her long dark hair, and pulled her safely to the river’s edge.

The witch coughed a few times then stood up and curtsied low before the wolf. “You have saved me from the river of death,” she told the wolf. “I can never replay your kindness but I would do anything you asked me to do if it is within my power.”

Now the wolf would not hear of any payment from her for when he looked at her, he saw that she was beautiful and he would have given his own life to save such beauty. “I could not take payment for saving your life young one, for it is my desire to always help those in need,” the wolf assured her. “There is one thing I would ask of you, and that is a promise that you never tell anyone you have seen me in this forest.”

“I shall never speak a word to anyone,” the young witch promised. “Why do you not want anyone to know that you are in the forest?”

“Look at me, “ said the wolf. “My coat is unlike any coat ever seen on a wolf. It is more shiny and valuable than any wolf’s coat. Even in the dark of the forest it shines like no other coat. I know a hag who is cruel and would send hunters to kill me for my golden hide if she knew of it. This is why I hide deep in the forest, far away from the village. The evil hag knows that I am a wolf for it was she who made me thus but she does not know that my coat is so beautiful and she does not know that I live here in this forest. Please promise me that you will never tell a soul that I am here.”

“I truly promise you this request, dear wolf and so you will know that I keep all promises, please take this stone as my word bond,” said the young witch, pulling a lovely lavender stone from her pocket. “This stone was given to me by my mother and it has always brought me good luck. The witch handed the stone to the wolf, bowed once more, and then hurried off to her hut in the village.

Life in the village was very hard for the young witch because she worked for a cruel taskmaster. He was a wealth merchant who made the poor witch work long hours in his fields harvesting his crops. When she was not in the fields, she worked spinning fine cloth for the merchant and his customers. Sometimes when she was spinning, she would look out the window toward the forest and wonder what it was like to live among the trees and the creatures. She also thought about the wolf who had saved her and wondered what his life had been like before the evil hag turned him into a wolf. But, she remembered her promise and never told a human soul about this strange and beautiful creature who had saved her from the river.

One day, her taskmaster came to her and told her about a rumor he had heard of a great work with a fine golden coat who lived in the forest. A coat made from the hide of so fine a wolf would befit a wealth man such as himself and he wanted that wolf. He knew the young witch spent much time in the forest gathering herbs and asked her if she had ever seen such a wolf in the forest. Of course the young witch told him she had never see such a thing. No the taskmaster, being a suspicious man, did not believe her so he sent a message to the evil hag to come and use her evil magic to find out what the witch knew about the creatures who lived in the forest.

That night the witch had a strange dream. She dreamed that she was sitting in a garden of yellow roses with the wolf when all of a sudden he turned into a man wearing precious gold and jewels. All night she dreamed that she and the wolf man walked through lovely and wonderful places. She dreamed of rainbows that glistened with the light of the sun and fairies that danced around oak and ask trees. All through the next day as the witch worked in the fields, she mused about the tings in her dreams and wondered what they could mean.

“I know that wolf you seek lives in the forest and I can lead you to him,” said the hag eagerly to the merchant. “I have tricked that stupid little witch with a dream but there is a price for such trickery. You must pay me one hundred gold pieces and half of the jewels in your coffers or I will tell you nothing.”

The merchant agreed to give the hag what she wanted and the very next day set his horse toward the forest in the direction of the wolf’s cave. He rode many miles deep into the forest carry his bow and a quiver full of arrows. He rode along the river bank where the young witch had fallen and up a wooded path into the hills.

Now the wolf was asleep and did not hear the thundering of the horse's hooves. The merchant spotted the wolf at rest and let fly an arrow right into the side of the great golden wolf. The wolf howled in pain but the arrow had gone deep into his side and he was too weak to run. The cruel merchant tied the wounded wolf to his and rode back to the village thinking of the wonderful coat he was going to be wearing soon.

As the merchant’s horse trotted past the window of the witch’s small hut, the wolf raised his head just slightly and saw the witch sitting there spinning. Believing that she had betrayed him to the merchant, he sadly dropped the lavender stone she had given to him in her flower garden.

As the merchant rode proudly rode through the village, people came out from their homes, exclaiming at the wondrous coat of the wolf. The young witch also came out of her hut and saw the wolf tied to the taskmaster’s horse and the arrow deep in his side.

“Stop!” She cried, but the taskmaster paid her no heed and she knew that it was useless to explain how the wolf had saved her from the river. The young witch sat down among the flowers and putting her face in her hands, wept bitterly. When she pulled her hands from her face, she saw on the ground next to a small flower, the lavender stone she had given to the wolf as her promise of silence. She picked up the stone and vowed that even if it meant her life, she would save the wolf from the fate that awaited him at the hands of the cruel merchant.

That same night, when the entire village was asleep, the young witch gathered her healing herbs and crept quietly toward the taskmaster’s stable where she knew he had hidden the wolf to die. The wolf was still and quiet when she found him lying in the hay, the arrow no longer in his side. She quickly rubbed the healing salve into his coat where the arrow had been and fetched him water to drink.

“We must go quickly, wolf, before the sun comes up,” Said the witch. “I know you are weak, but I must lead you back deep into the forest and then to a place where no one can find you again.”

“You broke your promise to me, little witch,” said the wolf softly. “How am I to believe that you will now help me get away/”

“I kept my promise to you, wolf, but I was tricked by evil magic,” said the witch sadly. “Still, it was my fault you were captured. I know it is had to believe me now, but please trust me. We must leave now!”

As quietly as they could, the wolf and the witch walked through the village toward the forest. All night, with only the pale moon to light their way, they walked deeper and deeper into the forest. When at last they came to a small grove beside a stream, the witch pulled out the lavender stone and placed it into the paw of the wolf.

‘Once, I gave my word bond and through no fault of my own, it was broken,” said the witch. “Now, I give it to you twice. I can not undo the evil magic of so powerful a hag but I will send you to another forest where no man will ever hunt you again. Keep this stone with you always and perhaps you will remember me.”

“A promise made twice is a promise believed twice by a wolf,” he replied. “I will always remember you and I wish greatly that I was still a man but alas, I am only a wolf whose fate is to wander the forest. Someday, we shall walk together again by a different stream.”

“You are more than a wolf or a man,” said the witch. “You are a knight.”

Having said these words, the witch uttered a simple chant, waved her hand high into the air, and sent the beautiful golden wolfknight off into another forest far across time. When the wolf was gone, she raised her sad eyes to Lady in the Moon who smiled at her, then sent ray of moonlight into the shadows. And where the wolf and the witch had been standing, out of the ground blossomed a tiny yellow rose.

The End and The Beginning