The Ghost's Tale

A Fairy Tale

In the furthest kingdom to the East, atop a mountain, there lived a King who bore twelve beautiful daughters. The King's daughters were of unnatural beauty because the wise men of the court could purify them. But unfortunately, the wise men were unable to help the King have a son.

The King's wise men were the best that ever lived. However, they were interested in discovering eternal life through purifying one's soul, a dangerous and controversial practice. The King allowed the wise men to continue their experiments as long as they helped the King. Neighboring kingdoms became aware of the wise men and were soon envious. So, they went to war seeking the capture of the wise men.

Ten of the King's daughters were sent to his enemies to seek peace, but they were never seen again. Soon, the King forfeited peace and became depressed but this changed when his wife came to him with news of a prince in a distant land who was as beautiful as their daughters. The King met with his wise men to make a plan. Anyone in the East could recognize the daughters, so they needed a disguise.

"In some of our experiments," said the wise men, "we shifted the human into a wolf-like creature. The effects were temporary, lasting about six months."

The King's eyes lit up, "six months is how long it takes to get to the Western kingdoms!" The King took this information to his daughters. The daughters quickly agreed; they knew they were the kingdom's last hope and were unafraid of the danger.

But the wise men lied, thinking the daughters could not survive the trip west. The transformation would be permanent. They believed they could rule the kingdom better than the King and that the daughters would live better as werewolves than war casualties. The wise men kept their plans veiled and were able to turn the daughters into werewolves.

The daughters left the castle while their parents watched. The creatures became horrified as the King and Queen's hope became fear of what the wise men had turned their kingdom into.

The daughters traversed the mountains and plains, befriending wolves along the way. The wolves they found would help them feed and reveal local traps. They avoided men but had to gather information from groups of them to learn where they were and had been. The sisters found that with their new senses, it was easy to move amongst the humans without detection. Starvation and dehydration became their only concerns, and their shift into the animal world was almost complete.

Their true challenge came as they waited for the potion to wear off. Six months past since they left home. They spent an extra month roaming around the castle walls before doubting what they had been told by the wise men.

"Sister, the wise men deceived Father and us," said one to the other, "we must fetch the prince as wolves."

"But… what will we do once we find him? If we find him?"

"Remember, we are not fully wolves; we can speak. Therefore, we can convince the Prince. If he is as wise as we've heard, he will recognize an equal in us. Once he recognizes we're equals, I'll tell him the truth."

"That won't work! You have too much faith in men!" The other declared. So they began fighting and arguing between themselves for days. Howling violently, they discussed plans and scenarios until they felt every possible outcome had been discussed. After planning, they saw death in every direction, but the sisters knew that as long as one of them remained alive, hope would remain too.

The sisters began their plan and traversed the drawbridge as soon as it was set to be lifted with the sunset. Their plan failed as soon as they crossed. They expected the guards to be similar to their own and didn't realize that a kingdom in peace has more resources to protect important places. The first sister was slain, and the second escaped but not without injury.

She ran through the walled city as cries of "monster!" followed her to the palace. Guards gave chase as she ran impossibly fast. Arrows grazed her fur, and torchlight glittered in her eyes for the first time in months. All she could hear was the impact of her paws on the ground and all she saw was the castle drawing near.

Once upon the building's steps, a man appeared in the path. "Halt," he commanded. She came to rest near the man. "What unnatural beast has come to my door? And from where have you come?"

"I…" she began looking at the crowd forming around her.

"Stop, men, stop. Let the devil speak; I will handle the thing," he looked at her, the werewolf still catching her breath.

"I have come to challenge you. That is, as long as you are the Prince I seek."

"I am the only prince worth seeking in the Western kingdoms. You may soon learn firsthand that I am the world's best swordsman, archer, and wrestler."

"I am not from your world and do not wish to fight."

"Then state your purpose!"

"I propose an intellectual challenge. Recite a quote from your favorite thinker, and I will recite one of mine. We will leave it to our consciences to decide who the winner is. Once we have decided on a winner, you can do whatever you please to me; I propose no stakes."

The Prince began, "All things are changing; nothing dies. The spirit wanders, comes now here, now there, and occupies whatever frame it pleases… For that which once existed is no more, and that which has not come to be; and so the whole round of motion is gone through again."

"'Only the bodies of which this eternal, imperishable, incomprehensible self is the indweller, are said to have an end.' Yours is Ovid, mine from the Bhagavad Gita."

"How do you know Ovid? Only royalty have such an education."

"A few months ago, I was a princess in a kingdom far to the East. Out of desperation, my family has been deceived, and now I'm the last sister of 12 alive. I've been tasked to find help and return to the kingdom to keep my family from perishing at the hands of our enemies. You may kill me but know you will be making a terrible mistake."

"I don't believe you. Most likely, you're the enemy you speak of trying to deceive my family into misfortune," the Prince's men glared in anticipation.

"But… you must believe me!"

"Why?"

"Because…" the Princess began, "because I must save my family! My kingdom's last hope is me, and you are mine. No harm will come to you or your family if you kill me; same if you banish me, I will not return. However, by your refusal to help, you are allowing untold misery to persist and expand in the Eastern Kingdoms. There will be blood on your hands. That is why you must believe me."

The men around her murmured; the Prince stared without breaking eye contact, "I still don't believe you," the crowd quieted. "You have no proof besides your words, and words are cheap, especially when one's life is in play. However, besides the crime of trespass, you have done nothing wrong to me. Men," he shouted, "chain it up and throw it in the prison."

With his sword unsheathed, the Prince walked towards the Princess. "If what you say is true, time will tell. If what you say is false, we will know just as soon. If false, you will be slain like a banquet pig for all the world to see. You'll learn I'm a merciless protector of my kingdom and the innocent and dutiful to those in need; this is why you're still alive. Soon we will know whether you're a threat or not."

The Princess was led to the prisons and watched all day and night. She stayed for a fortnight until she met the Prince again. She could tell something was different. His approach down the stairs and towards her cell was unbothered and relaxed. His posture was elegant, and his clothing looked like he came from something important.

"Hi there," he said, "I've been anticipating this reunion for as long as we've been apart. How are your accommodations? I'm sorry they're so crude."

"The accommodations here are less crude than what we had on the journey here."

"Good," the Prince relieved the guard on watch and checked the other cells were empty. Walking back, he began, "Against the best judgment of my court, I have decided on something for you," he came closer to her cell, "We are to depart for your kingdom in one week. It will be you, I, and a dozen of my finest men. I will rescue your family and return home, for I can't fight all your battles."

The Princess could hardly move, "is this true?" She asked. "How could you tell I spoke the truth? Why leave so suddenly now?"

The Prince saw her heart rate increase as she made many small moves when she spoke, "I knew because of what the guards told me about your temper, or disposition rather, while you were down here. And we're not leaving suddenly; I've been preparing for this challenge my entire life. We've been preparing for the journey for over a week now."

"But how," she stressed, "how?"

"You wish to know my methods, correct? Such things are secrets," he turned away from her gaze. "If I were to tell my secrets to even the most lowly of men, I may as well shout them from the hills and staple a memorandum to the church doors so they can be recited. This would not be good. I'm unsure how trustworthy you are. However," he turned toward her again, eyes bright, "I may be able to drop some breadcrumbs and help you apply some connections to the scraps of information you already know. Are you interested?"

Wide-eyed, she nods, thinking but not saying an emphatic yes.

"Great," he smiles and grabs the cell bars with both hands, "I had someone watching you every moment of every day; they were there to gather information and report to me. Your actions in this cell gave me all the information I needed to make a judgment." the Prince spoke like a boy explaining his plan to recapture toys from his parents took from him. "Now that leaves us with the 'why now' question," he paused. "My kingdom is a peaceful one, as you've seen. There are no prisoners in the prison besides you. There are no foreign armies at our gates. All our people are well-fed, happy, and active. We have arts and theater. I've had great philosophers as teachers, and there were more like me!" At that, the brilliance in the Prince's eyes left, and his jaw clenched.

"My father has perfected his father's work. There is nothing left for me to do. The kingdom could be run by the merchants. There's no place for the skills of a prince, the finest Prince! I grow bored and afraid of the moral rot which comes with idle and riches. In you I have found a purpose worthy of the skills I have spent my life acquiring, and I intend to use them."

They wasted little time before leaving the walled city. In the middle of the night, they left, and as the Prince and his soldiers dutifully pressed forward, the Princess was agape at the sights of the town around them. The buildings clad with vivid colors and detailed woodwork made her feel insecure. The buildings in her home were not as ornate, and she began to feel guilty for driving the Prince out of his beautiful home. The Prince did not display regret. Instead, he looked through the structures, gazed East, and thought of the glory which awaited those after the conquest.

Soon they were beyond the gates and surrounded by more and more fields, and the challenging journey East began.

The Prince was invigorated by his sense of purpose. The Princess was cautious as she recalled her trip west, reversing it in her mind. Only two of their men survived, and the Prince and Princess were injured when they made it to the castle gates. Villagers stared as they came through the outer yards but dared not come close. The war zone had grown thick, and everyone in the kingdom was weary.

The Royal family rejoiced at seeing their daughter and the Prince but mourned when they heard of their other daughter's fate. The princess' parents wondered why the potion hadn't worn off, and the Princess said she would explain later, so they all went together to feast and sleep.

In the morning, after the Princess told her parents the whole story. They laughed, cried, rejoiced, and eventually became angry towards the wise men. They marched immediately to the wise men's quarters and demanded answers.

"We knew nothing!" Cried the wise men in chorus, "From all our tests, the wolf potion was safe and temporary."

"If what you say is true," said the Prince, taking charge of the interrogation, "then where is the evidence? Undoubtedly, you are all talented in your crafts and would keep a record."

"We have no such record!" The eldest of the wise men said, "Our tradition is an oral one; besides, if we kept records, it would mean death for us all if it came into the wrong hands."

"This is plausible, and we do not have time to search for, and then through any papers you may have hidden. Do you remember the experiments with the wolf potion?"

"Yes."

"Is it fair to say you remember the details? What happened, where it happened, and with whom it happened?"

"Yes!"

The Prince watched the wise man for some moments, but he said nothing more, "Then explain, start talking, and stop wasting our time!"

"Well… if I remember correctly, it was in this exact room, and most of us were here," the man looked around at the others for confirmation, and they nodded. "We had a quiet boy, a foreign prisoner, who volunteered his body to escape prison. He tried a few of our original potions to no effect until we came to the wolf potion. He drank the bottle and soon began writhing on the floor," he cleared his throat and swallowed, "just like the two princesses did. I will spare you the details as you're experienced in that regard. Then, after the transformation, we all marveled at the boy. He retained his original temperament and was stable, we kept him confined as a precaution, but he was very gentle with us. This is how we knew the werewolf kept its sense of being human. Then he spoke! Just like the princesses, it was inhuman in tone but very human in composition because, of course, we could understand him.

"We got to know the boy quite well and discovered some secrets of the attacking army we gave you, my Majesty. It was all very marvelous and enlightening for many months. Then at six months, he turned back into a boy; we gave him poison and buried his body in the forest. Very clean, very much up to standards, very undramatic, and that was it."

The King was unable to hold his temper, "What kind of evil witches have been living under my protection?! We're disgusted and degraded knowing this, and I will have no more of it," and at that, he left knowing that even if the wise men could help he would want nothing of it.

As the royals watched the King leave, the Prince continued his gaze toward the wise men; he caught them in their lie and wanted to wordlessly let them know before exiting with the rest of the family. The King didn't want their help, but the Prince knew they would be useless.

Walking down the hallway, the King exclaimed, "They must all be executed! Hung from the gates! Let every kingdom in the East know they no longer walk with the living."

The Princess became hopeless, knowing the wise men couldn't help her. She retreated into herself until one day, finding purpose.

She looked into a mirror for the first time since her transformation and gazed at her monstrous body. "If this is my fate forever to frighten men of this Earth, then I should use it to my advantage and fight for my kingdom," she said to herself in the mirror. So, she went to find the Prince and join in his efforts at war.

As the seasons passed, they fought side by side, and their enemies shrunk. Eventually, they began fighting their final battle. The pair became unstoppable and inseparable; the Prince saw the Princess as a brother, and the Princess found a sister in the Prince. The warriors they led into battle conceived of the pair mythologically and had unwavering loyalty to them. To everyone in the army, the final battle with the southern King was little more than another day of honing their craft. However, the day would not end as expected.

They were losing soldiers quickly, so the royals doubled back to make a plan.

"What do you think is happening," said the Prince?

"I don't know, but something smells familiar. It smells like something in the woods outside your castle," she said.

"Poison-tipped arrows? There is a tree that has dangerous sap there."

"Impossible. They know little about archery in the south, and there's no way they could get the sap. It's something else. Let's talk about strategy instead; there's an irrigation ditch to the north…"

They carried on making a plan to outsmart their opponent, put it into place, and it worked. The pair continued fighting their way toward the leader of the southern army until the sun began to set; it was then that they spotted the southern King riding on his horse through the trees, fleeing the battle. They gave chase, Prince on a horse and Princess on the paw, until the Princess could get close enough to trip the King's horse. The King came tumbling down and, instead of unsheathing his sword, began blowing an ear-piercing whistle. The Prince came upon the fallen King and had him slain before the whistle ended its shrill call. Nothing but the faraway cries of war and dim evening sunlight filtered through the trees. The Prince and Princess looked at each other, unsettled by the whistle.

"Have you…"

"No, never," interrupted the Prince. "A King crying for help with a whistle, unheard of. Dishonorable and useless, all his men are dead or dying. It must be religious, a cry to God. Let's go."

And so they began moving back to the fight. But soon the Princess stopped in her tracks; she sensed a thumping in the ground; it wasn't the gallop of a horse; its cadence was more familiar. She turned to warn the Prince, but it was too late; he and his horse tumbled into the dark underbrush. The glint of his sword was all she could see until coming closer. A werewolf was thrashing at the Prince as he failed to keep up with its speed, his sword was soon on the ground, and he was incapacitated by the time the Princess had her claws into the back of the attacker. The werewolves tumbled away from the Prince; they groped for each other's neck, blocked, over-corrected, and collapsed again. Repeating the cycle until the thrusts slowed and they could no longer hold on to the other. Instead, they growled with what little breath they had and circled each other.

"Who are you?" cried the Princess.

"An experiment. An animal. The last of the free kingdoms fighting for the right to exist beyond the control of a Satanic cabal; take your pick. And you should know, the men who did this to me did the same to you. But you're fighting for them, right? You must be corrupted by their spells, deceived, or stupid. Tell me, have you enjoyed losing your soul? And are you ready to lose your life?"

"The wise men are dead, and you should be too."

"Ahh, trying to keep their little secret. So, you are working for them."

"They're dead," she strained, "hung from the gates. They deceived my family, and now I'm the last of the 12 princesses."

"I can believe they're dead, but their evil will not be extinguished until the entire kingdom has fallen. Men, women, and children alike." The werewolf lunged at the Princess, his body scarred, bleeding, and missing hair. They tumbled once again. Lunging, blocking, biting, and wounding but eventually tiring out.

"Stop!" The Princess cried between blows, "We can be allies! We are allies! You just can't see!" But her combatant only growled in response.

Blood dripped from the Prince's scalp into his left eye, stinging and carrying dirt from his face. The burn of the grit grinding into his eye brought him out of shock. He scrambled backward with a yell recalling his fight with the werewolf. His back hit something soft, and he stopped moving. In the now-dominant moonlight, he looked at his hands; light reflected ominously and bent around the curvature of his hands. He could see the same dull, reflected light coming from patches on his body. His body was numb, and he became light-headed as he pushed himself up. A wind-like rush filled his eardrums as he stood and then stumbled back, aiming to sit on what he was propped against. Lack of blood, he thought as his head stopped spinning. He saw horse hooves next to his foot and furrowed his brow distracting himself by looking for his sword.

Another head-splitting rush overwhelmed his eardrums as he picked up his sword. The Prince could hear growling and yelling in the distance and limped towards it. Dragging his sword and using it for support as the blackouts came, he wondered about the stories they'll tell about tonight. The Princess would become a demigod, guiding her people through a period of peace. She'd say, the handsome Prince, though mortal, became god-like in his wisdom, integrity, and valor. He sacrificed himself to save an unfamiliar kingdom from unspeakable evils. He sacrificed himself in the belief that goodness could outweigh evil. Most importantly, he sacrificed himself for YOU. The Prince smiled and kept dragging his sword.

The Prince clenched through another head rush as he lifted the sword above his head. Through the blood in his eyes, he could only see one writhing mess before him. The two werewolves were locked together in an equal match. Half the growls sounded unfamiliar, so he took aim in that direction and stumbled into the mess, swinging his sword with all the strength his dying body could muster.

The Princess felt the other werewolf's teeth dig into the tendon of her rear leg as a single convulsion emanated from her attacker. The pressure on her tendon subsided, but the feeling of teeth puncturing flesh continued. She quit clawing away from the fight and lay there to catch her breath as calmness in the air reassured her. The werewolf was no longer growling and pulling. Instead, it began shivering. Convulsing, the Princess realized and pulled away. Bleeding, she saw the prince collapse beside the werewolf and his sword buried in her attacker's neck. Wide-eyed and in pain, she watched both bodies until the convulsing ended.

She whimpered while nuzzling and licking the blood off the Prince's face, then lay down with him after a few minutes. The battle cries were gone, and the night was silently upon them. "You were brave," she said. The Princess slipped into a deep sleep and began dreaming.

"Hello," said a voice, "hello? Excuse me, can you hear me?"

"Yes," the Princess said, "I can hear but can't see. Who are you? Where am I?"

"You're dreaming, dear, in the forest with the good prince."

"Oh."

"Listen, there is a world you're unaware of (most people are), but I have a message for you from there."

"Okay."

"Are you paying attention?"

"Yes."

"Good. If you want to save your lover, there is only one way: take him to the river, wash the blood from his head, place his bare feet in the stream, spit in his eyes, cover his eyes with your hands, and kiss him on the lips. Only then will the Prince be with you again. This spell will not work once the sun rises; your lover's life force quickly escapes." 

"Okay. I will. But who are you?"

"I am nobody and everybody, an impossible contradiction, and so are you. It doesn't matter that much. But know this, if you perform the spell, you will be expected to do something in return."

"What is it?"

"You and the Prince will become inseparable and lose the ability to communicate with humans. You will forever be on the run, feared by man, and you will be expected to intervene in his affairs. When evil threatens the natural balance, it will be your responsibility to bring equilibrium to the world. Life everlasting awaits if you fulfill your calling. Death if you do not."

The Princess woke with the moon high above them and carried out the spell from the dream. Nothing happened, and instead sat on a rock overlooking the river. She began to cry and buried her head in her hands. Lies, she thought, everyone lies to me, and now my own dreams are lying. She sat there in desperation until she heard a splash in the river and looked up. Another werewolf stood there dripping water and glaring at her; she ran, and it followed.

Howling in grief, the Princess sprinted through the trees without a plan. She passed some of her men beside a fire and alerted them of the other werewolf, but they only looked panicked and unsheathed their swords as she ran by at full speed. The other werewolf followed her onto the battlegrounds and towards the castle before it could catch up.

"Hey," the werewolf shouted, "hey!" But the Princess kept running. The werewolf came close enough to trip the weary Princess and took her to the ground, they tumbled, and the Princess became pinned down. "It's me!" he said.

The Princess didn't move,  she could see it was the Prince.

"I had a dream," he said, "I owe you my life. But we can't go back there; that castle is no longer home."

---

And so, the two became one and traveled through the forests and plains, keeping a watchful eye over the world's kingdoms. Some claim they see them in the wild playing with each other and speaking their unknown language; others come back from wars with stories of shadowy figures aiding them in the dark and howling at the moon. No matter what, they lived happily ever after.