𝓒𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓮

Once upon a love In a wide, thick forest northwest where autumn and winter lingered so long, the maiden of the crows gave her heart to the fierce wolf warrior.

She had the blackest black hair of raven feathers, eyes as black as coal and her skin was whiter than the snow. Dressed only in a shadow gown, covered in moths, her friends, counsellors and servants, always followed by crows, her messengers and companions, she walked through the forest from dusk until dawn, or during rainy and misty days.

One day, after a tempest, she saw him The wolf warrior A hunter, as beautiful as the night. He was hunting a prey, a deer running for his life. He could shapeshift to a wolf and lead a pack of his own. Her heart fell for him, like the night falls upon the world after the sunset.

But she was scared to approach him, even in their human forms, so she sent her moths and entered his dreams and every morning he found a dying moth near his pallet. Ravens and crows always watched over him during his hunting parties or chases to kill his enemies.

She watched him hunt or simply walk into the woods every day and her love grew warmer and warmer, but her will to tell him was still weak.

The wolf warrior was brave and tenacious, but his life was tormented by a painful past. Wounded memories scratched his thoughts, he was not happy.

And yet, every night he had these pleasant dreams of a raven turning to a young lady and guiding him to a lake, a hidden cave, a waterfall, a shore... lying with him, inebriating his senses, touching his soul. He woke up well-rested but confused and sorry for every dead moth he found. And always some crows protected him or even helped him during a chase or a hunt.

What is the meaning of this? - he wondered every twilight, until one day, he saw the crow maiden hiding behind a tree to escape his gaze. He followed her in the deep of the forest, until his hunting skills trapped her under a giant oak tree.

She tried to fly away in form of a crow, but his wolfish catch was faster. They both turned human again once landed on the rooted ground...

The wolf man felt his dreams suddenly real... That young lady, with porcelain skin and long obsidian hair was the one he had always seen, every night.

She was scared, trembling... He was mighty in human form, but enchanting, like a storm. Wide shoulders, a huge chest, standing tall in front of her, wolven eyes of melancholic lullabies calling deep her unspoken love.

He offered her his hand to help her calm.

She took it... and soon she couldn’t help but kiss him with all her human breaths, and the moths on her black gown flickered and danced for the love she felt by his lips.

He had found her. The raven lady in his dreams, speaking by moths to his sleeping mind. She found the courage to confess to him that she had been watching over and helping him all along, for he had seized her heart among his preys. Their love bloomed under the oak tree and lasted many seasons in the forest deep.

Until a time where they had to hide both their love and their forms they kept a secret, for greedy stranger hunters from a distant land came to take animals and trees day after day.

The forest was changing and weakening, and the lovers were often in danger, so they only met at night when nobody was around. One day she saved the wolf by freeing him from a snare, and one day he saved the raven by taking down an arrow.

Though one night, the wolf warrior had a nightmare. His raven bride was lifeless, lying down. She was entangled in a black briars coffin and he could not break those with his tomahawk or his wolfish claws. When he woke up he decided to act, before it was too late, before the forest they called home and his crow lady would fall.

He went back to his native village, where his people use to live. They were wise, skilled and they lived in perfect harmony with rivers, mountains and woods, all children of Mother Nature. He sought for their help to fight the eager foreign hunters. The elders gathered around a bonfire answered: since he was their greatest warrior and always protected them and the village, they would have offered their help in return.

The wolf warrior came back to the winter forest when snow had covered it all. Winter was an ally, for the stranger men couldn’t stand the cold. He chased, killed and sent many of them away, helped by his brothers, also shapeshifters, some to a fox form, some to a bear, some to an owl and so on.

Scared to death, the greedy men never came back and now tell tales of winter terror about the wide forest.

The bold wolf warrior came back to his bride, she was alive, and her heart soared so high to see him again. She had been awaiting him so long, while protecting all the little animals and the trees of the woods alone.

The forest was reborn, free and greener, just like their love, deeper than ever.

Among the trees they can still be seen Walking, flying, running Or in a warm embrace Their foreheads kissing, face to face The wolf warrior and the raven lady Forever intertwining their love in flights and howlings in the moonlight, among the mist, their spirits still live.

Whenever you spot a wolf walking with a crow, remember this story Forevermore...

Thanks again, dear @caraverie for the stunning illustration *-*