«Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.»
Unknown
Another blast from the past — a story I wrote when a (former) friend of mine was under the spell of a rather shitty so-called human being and used me to maintain herself. And yeah, I ended that friendship shortly thereafter. It was the best thing I could do, and I haven’t regretted it since. I only wish I would have done it sooner.
The Girl Who Played With The Wolves
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Once upon a time, a young girl was living at the border of a large forest. She didn’t always live there. Fate had struck her family and she was send to her grandmother there, far away from her friends and siblings. The grandmother was a kind woman, but she expected that the girl would earn her stay. And so she send the girl into the woods every day, to collect berries for her.
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So, walking every morning into the forest to a place her grandmother told her, collecting berries during the day and returning in the late afternoon with a basket full of them occupied the girl well enough. But it was a drudgery task: walking through the forest, searching and picking day after day. The girl soon despaired about her fate. However, her grandmother had a soft heart for her and whether her days collecting were fruitful or not, she was kind to the girl anyway. Pretty soon, the girl spend much of her time walking deeper into the forest, searching for something that would strike her interest, leaving her boring task behind her.
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One day while she was walking deep into the deep forest, she heard a strange sound. It sounded like a lot of fun and commotion, which was rare in the forest. Her curiosity piqued, she carefully walked deeper and deeper into the forest until she came to a small cave. In front of this cave were several young cubs. She recognized them as young wolves, but she was not afraid, for the bitch was nowhere in sight and the young looked like the loveliest things she had ever seen.
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She smiled at the helpless cubs and eagerly touched the fur of one of them. It was very soft and felt nice to the touch, so different than the fabric she was used to handle. The cub was not afraid but tried to catch her hand with its teeth. However, its bite was so weak and the hot breath of this tiny beast tickled her skin that she began to laugh with delight. Soon she was rolling on the ground, playing with all six of them. The drudgery of her life was forgotten as she measured her energy with those of the cubs.
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Time passed quickly and suddenly, the cubs directed their full attention not at her but at something behind her. She tried to catch their interest again when she heard a loud, menacing growling. A few feet behind her, a large she-wolf looked down on her, as she was sitting surrounded by the cubs. The girl instantly became fearful of the giant wolf, but even through her stomach turned to ice and her legs to lead, she slowly ached backwards, leaving the cubs between her and the wolf. When she was a few feet away, panic got a hold on her and she turned around, running as fast as she could, back the way she had come from.
Behind her she could hear the wolf barking at her cubs, all the while growling and snarling. It took the wolf mother a while to make sure all her cubs were all right. The girl desperately hoped that the wolf would let her go, but atlas, she heard a deep, hungry growl and the sound of the wolf starting to run.
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The girl had quite some head-start, but the wolf was a creature of the wood and she was not. While she was running for her life, the bushes tearing at her clothes and marking her skin, the girl cried for mercy. ‘I did mean no harm,’ she cried, and ‘I do not want to die!’. But behind her, the four hurrying feet of the wolf grew nearer and nearer.
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With tears in her eyes and she broke through some bushes and suddenly was at the edge of a large clearing. Running across, she could hear the wolf closely behind her, even imagining its breath on her neck. It was on the middle of the clearing when she knew that the wolf had reached her. Without a tree to climb on and unable to run faster, she sighted with deep regret and closed her eyes. A shot suddenly rang loud and sharp, through the clearing and her mind. Startled, she stumbled and fell down, but the wolf did not fall over her. With bloody hands and a torn lip she turned around and saw the mighty beast lying a few feet behind her. It did not move, nor would it by its own accord ever again, for a large wound gasped in its skull.
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While she was staring with unbelieving eyes at the beast that so nearly devoured her, a hunter appeared. It was one of the men who entered the forest every day to hunt game. The girl looked with enormous gratitude at the man who trained his gun on the wolf, making sure that it was dead. When he faced her, she told him sobbingly how she encountered the cubs while collecting berries and had played with them, until the mother came and tried to devour her.
The hunter listened quietly to the girl, and when she was finished, he pointed to the fallen wolf. “You have acted stupidly, entering the deep forest and playing with cubs of wolves. You nearly payed with your life for it, but now, the cubs will surely die without her mother to care for them.” When the girl looked shocked, he took pity on her and tried to console her: “Let this be a lesson to you, young girl. Do not play with the wolves.”
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The girl returned to her grandmother later that day and the old woman was exasperated about what happened to her little girl: Clothes torn, the basket missing, but at least the girl was still alive.
For a while after her horrendous experience, the girl kept to the places where she should collect berries and did her tasks as he was told to. But days passed and then weeks, and the horror faded and she thought longingly at her encounter in the woods, and at the time she did run for her life, which did not seem so bad after a while, but as a great thrill, as a time when she felt truly alive.
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One day the drudgery of her daily life became unbearable and she craved for a reprise. She had seen the hunter earlier that day and knew that he would spend his day looking over the clearing. She had run a lot in the past weeks and was quite confident about her ability to run through the woods if she had to. She even felt prepared to explore the deeper forest again, and while she did, walking deeper and deeper into the forest, she suddenly heard the familiar sounds of young wolf cubs again.
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Oh, how alive they sounded, playing among themselves. The girl though longingly of their soft fur, their raw tongue and their tickling bites. Slowly, just to catch a glimpse at them, the walked closer and closer to the sound. When she finally saw them her heart jumped. They looked so playful and harmless in front of their little cave. She bit her lips while looking at them. She knew that it wasn’t far to the clearing where the hunter would be. She knew how fast she could run now and that the wolf, if she would return, would first attend her cubs. ‘And besides,’ she thought, ‘I will only play for a little while, not so long to be caught like the first time.’
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And how much fun it was to play with the cubs! They were hesitant at first but then began to jump around with her. Soon she lost all track of time for she enjoyed herself tremendously with the wolves.
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It was not until she heard a strangely familiar growling behind her that she remembered to be careful. But, while she felt some cold sweat she was not truly afraid: she knew that the wolf was behind her, but she knew that she would get a head-start and sprang away immediately, leaving the cubs and the wolf behind.
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But, atlas, while she ran like the wind through the forest, directly to the clearing and the bushes were tearing at her clothes, the wolf did not attend to her cubs first. She heard the familiar sound of four feet following her, but much earlier than expected. The girl, however, while a little fear increased her pace, was not truly afraid. The clearing was soon to be reached. She would soon be safe, the hunter would see to this. With the wolf chasing her through the woods, she felt supremely alive.
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Her heart made a leap as she crashed through the bushes and she reached the clearing. She smiled as she ran the same route across it as the last time. ‘Almost,’ she thought, ‘almost there.’ as she almost felt the breath of the wolf behind her. While she reached the middle of the clearing her eyes caught the post from which the hunter had shot the wolf the last time and suddenly her breast froze: The post was empty.
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The shock made her stumble and with a cry she fell. She threw a curse at the hunter who failed to be on his post. As she tried to get to her feet, she began to wail in self-pity. But then the wolf, large and powerful, crashed into her. The force of the impact pressed the air out of her lungs and a sharp pain shot exploded in her mind as wolf began tearing her her apart.
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Moral: Mistakes out of inexperience or accident can be forgiven, but there is no forgiveness for deliberate mistakes.
