Episode 4

Steeped in these muddled thoughts, something beneath me moved.

In horror, I saw that the ground was cracking. Before I could get away as fast as I could from where I sat, out of nowhere, the lone wolf that I was certain followed me sometimes, jumped on me. It then, dragged me with its teeth into the bushes that White Rose had disappeared to earlier in the night.

I let out a loud cry. I was petrified, thinking that the wolf would soon devour me. I couldn’t escape its clutches. It dragged me till we reached a tiny cave that sprang out of nowhere all of a sudden.

Entering the cave, it finally dropped me at a corner. The wolf stood before me, howling its words to me. It was trying to warn me about something. When it continued howling without ceasing, I understood what it was trying to tell me.

I crouched and tried to hide from its angry glare. I started trembling and was sure it sensed my fear. It stopped howling as if waiting for an answer from me. The wolf, in its language, told me that it was a victim of White Rose’s spell too.

In its human form, it had been a great beauty until White Rose’s wild beasts mauled and tore her to pieces. But, as she was about to breathe her last, a spirit that guarded the forest and its creatures, touched her and turned her into a wolf. That spirit only saves the ones who have pure goodness in them, and it pronounced that someday, the wolf would do the same too. It would save a beauty from certain death, and be restored just as her into human form again.

“And, that person is you! I used to follow you sometimes, knowing your time was near to be entranced and killed by the evil sorcerer White Rose. She is a beguiling witch, with not a drop of compassion or good within her insipid heart. She breathes as demons do, and the fire of envy and greed burns within her devilish soul.”

I listened to the wolf, this time feeling a little less afraid. The wolf had a good heart. Didn’t it save me from certain death?

I moved my body a little closer to the wolf, and touched its paws. A drop of my teardrop fell, and dried up just as quickly.

“Wolves don’t cry,” the wolf said. “That is why the human inside you finds it hard to release your pent up emotions. My human emotion has learnt how to suppress all tears, and I have waited to be released from the dark spell for years now. I understand now that you are a liberator. You have been sent to this forest, by the unknown, to set me free so that I can get my revenge on White Rose. The fire burns within me, like the bonfire that inflames. I had been waiting a long time to get my revenge, and now the time has come.”

I shook my head in understanding. Yes, I have found it hard to cry, even in my human form. I didn’t really have a chance to wail and beat my chest in despair when my parents died. I kept it all inside of me, instead, listening, feeling afraid of the things people said about them. Some said that they were a cursed couple, and hence why, their bodies were so badly ravaged by the wild beasts of the forest.

Many questioned why they were drawn to hunt foxes. The spirit of the foxes would have been awakened to anger, hence, taken revenge on my parents who had killed so many in order to satiate their leisurely amusement.

I couldn’t tell these things to the wolf. I wondered, however, if it knew that my parents died tragically in the forest too. It seemed to know all that was going on in the forest.

The wolf then walked to the mouth of the cave. From where I was crouched, I saw that it was pitch dark outside.

It stood looking out at the dark, and I could tell that it was waiting for its time of revenge. It seemed to be restless. I wondered when it would get a chance to kill White Rose and how.

I closed my tired eyes this time, and fell into deep sleep.

At the first dawn of light, I woke up with a start, to see the wolf sleeping just inches away from me. It had been guarding me the whole night, in anticipation of White Rose’s coming to look for me, I guessed.

It opened its eyes too at the same time, and stood above me, its eyes large, fiery, and angry just as it had been the night before.

“Stay here. I have something to do and I will be back. Don’t go out of this cave or you will be mauled by the wild beasts that roam, looking for you since last night.”

I shook my head in affirmation, and it ran off fast.

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