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If you can find the right people, those who remember times so old they are nearly forgotten, you can learn much. If you have patience, which many youth today lack, you can sit at their feet as they tell you special tales. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find someone who can tell you the ancient legend of a demon who fell in love with a wolf.
Long ago, in a misty, mystical forest, a demon lived alone. He lived in a cave made in the roots of giant elder trees, and fed on the flesh and bones of whichever creatures were unlucky enough to stray near. And although he was alone, he knew nothing more, and was content.
After many years, an animal the likes of which the demon had never before seen visited his cave. A small, helpless ball of fluff tumbled into the elder roots, and uncurled to reveal itself to be a wolf pup. As the demon reached forward to grasp his new meal, he was stopped with awe at another sight.
This new sight was the pup’s protector, a great and fearsome wolf. She stood at the mouth of his dark home, and seemed to radiate as the sun glowed through her grey and white fur. As the demon stared, stunned by the beauty held by his fellow predator, the wolf lifted her black lips and sprang at him, white teeth flashing.
The demon recoiled to stop himself from attack her, and as the wolf left his cave, tail erect and pup cradled gently in deadly jaws, the demon felt something that grew more painful the further the wolf walked. The demon was infected with love.
That night, the demon heard the wolves’ song, as he did every night, but something was different. He could heard the voice that had snarled at him, melodic in the joy of song. Called to hear by the teasing memory of her beauty, almost surpassed by her sound, the demon left his cave for the first time in centuries.
Imagine, feeling the moon and the forest and the overabundance of life for the first time in so long you had forgotten it, and to be drunk on the heady sensation of love as well! The demon was full of wonder as he flew and ran and stumbled towards his wolf’s sound. When he found her, he hid among the foliage and admired the silver light that wove through her fur, making her look ethereal and immortal.
The demon followed the pack for days, and every moment his gaze fell upon the wolf, his love swelled. Often, he felt it would kill him, he loved her so much the love would burst out of his chest. But it never did, and the demon kept reveling in his love for her.
Although the demon did his best to stay hidden, the wolf knew of his presence. She studied him out of the corner of her eye as she lived and hunted and watched over the pups. And as she knew him, she started to love him as well.
Eventually, one evening, the wolf went alone into the woods and confronted the demon who followed. As they conversed, their love deepened. After moonrise, the wolf went back to her pack. Soon, the demon and the wolf had their secret meetings regularly. The demon would weave his claws through her soft fur, and she would run her snout over his rough skin. The wolf even taught the demon to sing, and the forest would often ring with the demon’s hellish cry entwined with the wolf’s harmonious howl.
As their love grew and blossomed, the demon’s body began to fail. Love is poisonous to such creatures, you see, and this demon was no different. The wolf worried as her lover grew frail before her, and she left her pack to go with him and live in his elder cave, bringing him food and chasing the night’s cold from his sick body. She was distressed that she had brought such torment to him and tried to leave him many times, convinced that if she left he would heal, but the demon stroked her fur and told her of the ecstasy she had brought to him, and such reassurances of love convinced her to stay.
The day the demon died was tragic. With his face pressed against her side, he used his last breath to remind her of his love. The wolf threw her head back and screamed her agony, the great trees above shaking with the sadness in her voice. The wolf howled for days, telling the forest of their unlikely, beautiful love. When she reached the end of her tail, she curled herself against the body of her demon lover and slept with him for the rest of eternity.
The forest of the demon and the wolf has long been lost to humans, but if you ever find it, look for the tallest elder trees. In their roots will be the lovers, locked in death. But that’s just their bodies. A love as pure as theirs lasts forever, and their spirits still run together through the woods, laughing and loving.
Listen close. Sometimes, you can still hear the wolf teaching her demon how to sing.