The next two days continued in much the same fashion, but the morning after, Wolf announced, "We're getting close. Tonight should be our last night in the forest."

He looked at Katja closely. "Have you thought about what you're going to say to the Waldkonig?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I'm going to show him the ring, tell him it belonged to my mother, and ask him what he knows about it."

"And if he gives you an answer you don't like?" prodded Wolf.

"What do you mean?" asked Katja, tucking the hair that had come loose from her braid behind one ear.

"I mean, the Waldkonig is incredibly powerful," continued Wolf. "He's one of the most ancient and cunning of all magical beings. I just want to make sure you won't get mad and, I don't know, try to put a spell on him or something."

"I have no intention of engaging in a magical fight with the Waldkonig," assured Katja. "Besides, you know me. I'm much more likely to run away from a fight than anything else."

"Running away can be highly adaptive," Wolf pointed out. "Staying to fight simply for the sake of fighting doesn't make you better than anyone else. But, if he refuses to let you leave, or tries to harm you, use whatever spells you have to protect yourself."

"Or if he tries to harm you," replied Katja, but Wolf shook his head.

"Don't worry about me," he said. "I can take care of myself."

"I know you can," said Katja, "but that doesn't mean I'm not going to help you. We're in this together."

Wolf stared at her for a moment, then finally nodded his acknowledgment.

As they continued deeper into the forest than Katja had ever imagined going, the change in their surroundings was palpable.

The air became heavier, thick and cloying and not sweet-smelling as it had been before. The trees and plants struggled to breathe, and she could hear their labored breaths, inhaling and exhaling, coughing, seeming to choke on the very air itself.

The black lines they'd seen sporadically now covered everything they passed, and at one point, Katja reached out and touched an especially sick-looking shrub, only to watch in horror as it dissolved beneath her hand, disintegrating into a fine ash.

Mountains that had only been visible at certain points grew larger, their peaks covered in snow even in the middle of summer, forming gorges with steep walls on either side. Numerous caves dotted the cliff sides, doorways bathed in darkness that wound deep into the mountains before tunneling far below ground.

While Katja had spent much of the journey climbing, her legs burning from the strain of propelling her body upwards and forwards at the same time, now she experienced the sensation of going down, down to where rivers had carved their marks on the rocks, announcing they had once been stronger than anything in their path. She had never felt so far from the sky, even though she knew she wasn't actually that removed from it.

That night, as they settled down beneath the stars, Katja felt the time had come to share something with Wolf.

"I don't know what's going to happen when we reach the Waldkonig," she began. "I don't want to be dramatic, but there's at least some chance I won't be allowed to leave the forest. If that happens, I want you to go back to the castle and tell the Hexen what happened so they won't always wonder about me. And then I want you to go someplace else and make a new life for yourself."

Wolf opened his mouth to speak, but Katja held up a hand.

"If I'm dead, the necklace will no longer be bound to me, and you'll be free to take it and go wherever you wish" she said bluntly, seeing no reason to hold back. "That's what I want for you, Wolf—honor my last request to tell the Hexen what happened, and then please go somewhere safe and start over."

Wolf gazed at her, emotions dancing across his eyes, changing almost as fast as she could identify them. Eventually, he turned his gaze towards the full moon overhead and stared upwards before finally replying.

"If there's a chance of our time together coming to an end sooner rather than later, then there are some things you deserve to know."

Katja wasn't certain she'd heard him correctly, and she hesitated to draw breath, afraid doing so would frighten Wolf from whatever he was preparing to say.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the moon glimmering just above the treetops, he began.

"My father was killed in what is now referred to as the Thirty Years War. It was a time of great upheaval and widespread distrust...neighbor turned against neighbor, and entire families fought amongst themselves. My father's death was a terrible tragedy, but at the same time, he died fighting for what he believed in, and we were able to bury his body and mourn him, which was more than many families were able to do."

Wolf shifted where he lay, and Katja sensed a change in his mood.

"The war continued after my father died, and it became increasingly difficult to find food. My sisters and I foraged in the woods as best we could, but money was scarce, and a good meal became almost impossible to find. Many nights we ate soup that was little more than heated water with herbs thrown in for flavor."

Wolf shook his head. "I couldn't bear to watch the people I loved most in the world starve, so I made a deal to become a shapeshifter. The animals in the Schwarzwald always seemed to have enough food, and I thought, in wolf-form, at least I could provide my family with meat.

"I didn't kill enough to draw attention to the fact that my family was well-fed, and things became better. There were definitely days none of us wanted to eat venison again, but my hunting kept everyone from starving."

He paused. "And then the Great Purge began. People became suspicious to the point of being paranoid...anyone might turn out to be a witch. We heard rumors of unannounced inspections, of people being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night...whispers of people being tortured and even killed.

"We hoped our village would be spared, but eventually the hysteria reached an especially high point, and those in our village turned on one another—neighbors who had known me and my family our entire lives. They burst into our house one night, men and women armed with torches, tore through our home and discovered a crate of venison we were curing in the basement. They accused my mother and sisters of being witches and said they'd conjured the meat using magic—how else to explain why we hadn't starved?"

Wolf suddenly shimmered, moonlight reflecting off his coat, and where a wolf had sat there was now a boy, legs crossed and shoulders hunched.

"I couldn't stop them," he said, and Katja fought back tears at the pain in his voice. "I tried, but they held me back. They were too strong. I screamed, begging and pleading with them, but they didn't listen."

He turned toward her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I was forced to watch while my mother and sisters were tied to wooden stakes, sentenced to burn to death...because of me."

Katja's throat constricted as hot tears spilled down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"I couldn't help myself," Wolf continued. "When I saw what the villagers meant to do, and when they wouldn't listen to reason, I had to do something...so, I turned into wolf-form."

He fell silent, but Katja could envision the story he wasn't telling—Wolf snarling and biting, attacking the murderous villagers, intent on carving a path to his family.

"My transformation caused quite the disruption, and in the chaos, the fires weren't lit. I thought I might actually be able to save my mother and sisters, but before I could reach them, their throats were slit. They were all dead by the time I got close enough to free them."

Wolf's shoulders rose and fell in a slow shrug, as if an invisible weight had settled on him.

"After that, I lost my mind. I killed everyone who had been part of the mob, and to this day, I still can't make myself regret that particular part of my past. But it didn't stop there. I didn't stop there. I was so angry, and nothing seemed to make the pain go away.

"So, I began targeting witches. At the time, I thought if they hadn't existed, my mother and sisters wouldn't have been mistaken for them, so indirectly it was their fault my family was dead. I did terrible things and rightly earned myself names like groBe böse Wolf or the Witch Killer of the Schwarzwald."

A night heron cawed from a nearby creek, and Wolf paused to listen before continuing.

"Life continued on that way for a few years. One day, I came upon a witch, and as I'd done with the others, I attacked her. To my surprise, she responded by trapping me in the necklace."

He gazed at Katja. "I could hear her, just as I could hear you, and I'll never forget what she said as I was dragged into the necklace: 'Anger is so much easier to feel than pain, but you'll never move on if you don't allow yourself to grieve.'

"I don't know how she knew that about me, but I hated her for it and wished all sorts of terrible things against her—until I heard her screaming and fighting for her life against a group of non-magical humans who ultimately murdered her. After that, I'm not sure what happened. I don't know if I was lost during the fight or if the witch purposefully cast me into the forest so I wouldn't be taken and melted for scrap. I don't know, and I'll never know, and I hate it."

He gazed down at the ground. "It's possible I stayed in the same spot in the forest for over two hundred years, and as time passed, I withdrew deeper and deeper into myself. Being locked away for an eternity seemed a fitting punishment for what I'd let happen to my family and for what I'd done to people who hadn't deserved my wrath.

"I fell into a kind of semi-conscious state where nothing mattered and I didn't have to feel or think about anything. Even though at times I still imagined being freed one day, I didn't allow myself to truly hope such a thing would ever happen."

A faint smile flitted across Wolf's face as he raised his head. "And then one day, I heard a different voice—your voice. I knew immediately you were someone new, but I had no idea how much time had passed or where I was. I came to look forward to anything you said, and I found myself wishing I could somehow respond and let you know I was inside the necklace."

"You must have been terrified to hear me talk about melting down the necklace and using the meteorite for something else," Katja winced. "I'm so sorry."

"I admit, I hoped you would become too attached to the necklace to destroy it," agreed Wolf with a half-smile. "I'd gone for so long without caring about anything, it felt strange to worry about something again."

His amber eyes glowed as his smile widened. "And then you figured out how to free me, and things I hadn't even dared to dream about suddenly came true. I will always be grateful for what you did for me. And now you know the story of my life before I met you."

"Thank you for telling me," said Katja. "I don't know what to say other than I'm so sorry."

"Thank you," replied Wolf. "I hope you also see now I didn't make my earlier request lightly—I'm only going to have some semblance of a normal life as long as you're alive. When you die, I'll be alone again, and I don't want to wait another two hundred years just hoping a witch with an affinity for metal finds me. I don't want to spend eternity in the necklace. I'd much rather take my chances beyond than continue to do this forever."

"I can see why you feel that way," said Katja, "and while I still don't agree with you, I do understand why you asked for what you did. I'll keep my promise—if we make it back and I can't find a way to remove the shapeshifter spell, I'll set you free, for good."

"Thank you," Wolf dipped his head. "That's all I ask. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank you for never making me feel like an inconvenience even though you had no way of knowing what you were getting yourself into when you freed me."

"You've never been an inconvenience," assured Katja. "In fact, you're the first real friend I've ever had."

She glanced up at the moon, shining so bright it made the surrounding stars difficult to see.

"Before I met you, I was so alone. Days would pass where I didn't speak to anyone other than myself. I was so lonely, but I didn't know how to change things, and after a while, I stopped trying. I became so used to how my life was, how it had been for as long as I could remember, I never expected things to get better—until you.

"When I found the necklace and had the idea to create an enchanted pet, suddenly I had something to look forward to. You gave me a reason to feel hope, to have a goal, to want something more."

She touched the scar on her face. "You accepted me exactly as I was and never made me feel less than because of my scars. I didn't know it was possible to feel safe with another person, or what it would feel like to share any part of my life with them, but I'm so glad I got to experience that...with you."

Katja saw Wolf's throat bob as he turned to look directly at her. The moonlight fell on the sharp angles of his face, highlighting his cheekbones and making his eyes appear as little more than dark pools.

As she had when they'd been dancing, Katja felt her heartbeat speed up, even as everything around her seemed to slow down. She was only vaguely aware of the fireflies flitting along the periphery of her gaze, blinking in and out of sight as bats squeaked and swooped overhead.

She knew she cared for Wolf but until she'd taken the time to name all the things he'd brought to her life, she hadn't realized just how important he was...and what, exactly, caring for him had become. She actually couldn't imagine her life without him at this point, as she'd become so accustomed to having him close by all the time.

Everything inside Katja ached to lean forward, take Wolf's hand in hers, and press her lips against his; her entire body shivered with anticipation at such a thought, and she felt herself leaning forward, her body moving of its own accord.

Wolf's eyes were wide, and he seemed to have stopped breathing; Katja couldn't even tell if his chest was rising and falling or not.

And then she remembered back to the garden, when Wolf had practically leaped to his feet in his effort to make it clear that, while he appreciated her friendship, he wasn't looking for anything more.

Rather than reaching for him the way she wanted to, Katja instead said, "Thank you for being here with me."

Something flashed across Wolf's eyes, and he dropped his gaze to his lap before saying quietly, "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

With that, they turned away from one another, and it was a very long time before Katja fell asleep, tears running silently down her face as she lay on her side, cradling her head in her arm, wondering exactly when she had fallen in love with her best friend.

(Artwork by Pexels from Pixabay)