Before a Once Upon A Time

Wolf Of Man - A Broken Spell

Story 3 - Wolf Of Man

Part 10 - A Broken Spell

            She left, leaving nothing behind except Lupe's lingering feelings and a hollow hole in his heart that he worried him vaguely because anything could fill him now- be it bad or good- and he wouldn't protest at all. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

And so after a few days of numbness he morphed into a wolf and stayed there- primal, unthinking, unfeeling, hunting only in the forest and never attacking people. That was how wolf instinct worked- only go against things that could hurt you if you were starving. After months of no real hunting from him and years of no wolf packs or any other predators really due to his presence nearby, the woods were teeming with prey, so there was no reason for him to starve. Even if he had been starving, it was unlikely he would attack a human- it was too ingrained in him not to and he might let himself starve before he attacked a human for a meal. Or maybe not. He didn't know because he wasn't really assessing his metal condition at this point. 

He continued this way for months, almost forgetting he had once been human. That is, until he wandered close to his old home. Just to sleep in the stables, somewhere out of the elements. A simple want.

 It was then that he smelled something in the stables. Something alive and warm and tasty...and her. He smelled her. Her. And his humanity began to trickle back into his consciousness. He morphed back into a human and collapsed on the floor, digging his hands into the hay. Why was she here? She wasn't supposed to come back. She was supposed to let him live out the month or so he had left as a wolf in peace (It was a year when he she left) and let him die alone and happy as a wolf in the forest. But no. She had come back. And he couldn't leave, couldn't morph back into a monster near her. He wasn't a monster but she would think he was, and he couldn’t stand the thought that she might fear or hate him because of it.

            "I don't think you're a monster." A voice said from behind him and he spun around. It was her. Belle. But she was different- there was something in the air around her that was different and strange. He wished he could pinpoint it but he couldn't manage it no matter how hard he tried.

            "It's magic. I learned how.  My mother was a witch and so am I, coincidentally. I learned the truth the night I left and I've been trying to understand since then. I went to the village and told them that the monster had left and they told me that they wouldn't pay me- cheapskates- but I was welcome to the castle now that it was empty. When I told them about he servant who should now own it they told me no one had ever come through looking to be a servant at a castle and if they had, they weren't crazy enough to work for the beast. And I understood. Somehow, in some way, you were the beast.  And I loved you. So I couldn't go to kill you and I refused all payment (Even though the weren’t going to pay her anyways. I think she said this to be theatrical) and went out into the world to find out how it could be possible for a man to be both wolf and man. And I found a very old story in a very old village about a wolf that had been a man. Who had been renamed upon his transition to wolf as Lupe Umain.

“And I knew, for certain, that it was true. You were the beast.

 “And it was a spell. I learned that too. Not a disease. A spell, an old, old spell placed on a boy to turn him into what he was not-a vicious killing machine for a witch with ambitions. A boy who single handedly took out the majority of that village-only one person knew the truth and told no one but his children and they told only their children until his descendents were all that was left in the village. Everyone else left and he stayed waiting for the day the wolf would return-and he never did. And so, knowing it was a spell, I became determined to learn how to break it. And I finally have. It's been a year Lupe and I still love you. In fact, I can now say clearly that you are my true love and I will never leave you as long as you let me be near you. But you must let me cure you-must want to be cured-for me to be able to stay.”