Once upon a time a woman struggled to gain her footing while trekking through the forest of life. She was bruised and battered from the recent storms and continuously stopped along her unmarked path making frivolous attempts at mending her broken bones and bleeding wounds. As she pressed forward she realized that twilight was approaching, she would need to seek refuge from the terrors of night.
As she sought out a safe place a great wolf approached her from behind and whispered, “Hey miss lady…all alone I see.”
She was immediately afraid. Life had torn her limb from limb and she was sure that this great wolf would devour her as well.
“Hello,” she shuddered. “Please don’t hurt me, I only need to rest.”
“Oh it’s quite alright beautiful, you can rest here with me. I will keep you warm and keep the other predators away. But remember, I am a wolf and I do bite.” He smiled.
The woman was exhausted. She weighed her options considering the dwindling daylight.
“Okay, Mr. Wolf. But please be aware that I am badly injured; I couldn’t run if I wanted to. If you ever choose to kill me…do so swiftly.”
The large sly wolf crept closer. He gently sniffed her neck. Kissed her forehead. Told her that she had beautiful hands. Could she truly trust a beast?
They soon drifted off to sleep. The days turned to months and beauty and the beast became great friends. Despite the wolf’s warning, he was delightfully charming. He kept his word to protect her from the other predators. He even used his keen areas of expertise to teach her about the forest and help mend some of her broken bones. The woman felt relieved to finally make a friend, for the forest had been mostly dark, mostly lonely, and altogether scary.
One day while she was picking wild yellow roses the wolf watched his friend closely. The woman was kind, intelligent, caring, compassionate, beautiful, and his prey. But, the wolf knew he would have to kill her. He normally stalked his meals for a much shorter time. After all, a wolf must be true to himself to kill and eat.
He silently approached his prey from behind as she hummed to herself picking her favorite wild flower. Ironically, she hummed with joy reflecting on the love that bloomed with the beast. Just as she noticed the great wolf from the corner of her eye, he pounced! In one swoop his massive jaws closed around her neck, blood immediately oozed from her body staining the flowers that dangled from her finger tips.
As he clenched his jaws to end her, she looked at him through eyes of weakness and despair. She whispered, “why great wolf?”
The beast dropped her at once and scoffed, “I was never meant to love you! My only purpose was to feed off of you. But first I had to gain your trust...it makes the kill more fun.”
The woman lay on the forest floor in a growing pool of her blood. She wept. She wept for her life that was fading. She wept for the friend she thought she gained. She wept for the cruelty of the forest that she could not escape. She wept for the mortality of love.
“Please close your eyes my dear. This will not be swift as you requested; I like to eat slowly.”
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