Spirit of the Wolf

“Seath.” 

Yukiko’s voice echoes in my head. 

I open my eyes, and I’m standing on the shore of the lake behind Yukiko’s house. The moon looms large and bright, casting a gentle pale light over everything. The moon’s reflection in the water shimmers beautifully. 

A luna moth flutters around over the water, and in a quick flash of light, it turns into Yukiko.

She smiles at me, her figure silhouetted by the moonlight. She stands with her delicate feet in the frigid water, not a care in the world. 

“My dear Wolf,” She says, stepping out of the water. 

I can’t take my eyes off of her. The relief I feel seeing her face again is like the weight of the world falling from my shoulders. I don’t even notice the tears steaming down my face until she reaches out and brushes them away with her fingers.

“I missed you,” I croak. 

Yukiko tilts the brim of her hat up to look at me. “I missed you, my love.” 

I can’t contain myself for even a second longer. I pull her into my arms, hugging her small body against me. I push her hat off and stroke her soft hair, and rest my chin atop her head. I inhale deeply, taking in her intoxicating scent, and kiss the top of her head. She clings to me, burrowing her face in my chest.

The feeling is indescribable. It is like a vast emptiness in my chest has been filled by her presence. I don’t ever want to leave this moment. I don’t want to ever leave this precious moment. 

Yukiko lets out a sigh of contentment, and she slowly parts from me. My hands slide down to her waist, keeping her close. 

“What is this place? Have I died?” I ask her. 

She shakes her head. “Not yet. I have come to awaken the blessing of the moon inside you, to help you to overcome this challenge.” 

“I don’t want to go back,” I tell her, squeezing her hips. “Please let me follow you. I can’t do this without you. I tried, but I just can’t. I have missed you so much. Every moment of every day hurts because you are not there with me. You were my whole reason for living, and without you here, I don’t have any will to keep struggling and fighting.”

“One day, you will have another reason for living. Someone else will come into your life, and you will love her with all of your heart,” She says, with a warm smile on her pale face. 

I shake my head. “I won’t.” 

“You will, I have foreseen it. The day my successor comes, you will start to heal. You will guide her, and you will spend your twilight years at her side. You will be her teacher, her friend, and her protector. She will need you, my beloved Wolf, and I need her.” 

“How can I do this without you?” I ask her, a quiver in my voice. 

She reaches up and touches my face. “You will always keep my heart in yours. And every time you look up at our moon, know that I am looking back at you.” 

“Yukiko -” 

“I love you,” She says, as everything goes blank. 

My eyes pop open and I am back in reality. Erwin’s claws dig into my body as he drains my magic. The pain is crippling, my powers are diminished, and I have lost a lot of blood. But I feel something – a powerful presence aside from his that is strong enough to break through the storm he has summoned. 

I look up at the sky, and peaking through the clouds is the full moon – proud, majestic, and indomitable. 

I’m not beat yet. I grip Erwin’s wrists as tightly as I can. 

“Struggle all you like, this is over. In just a moment, everything that makes you special will belong to me!” 

The power of the full moon flows through me and I feel energized all of a sudden. I focus on Erwin’s wrists and freeze them solid. I clench my clawed fists and shatter his forearms, then punch his chest with my right fist, exploding my claw on impact. 

As Erwin stumbles back, I pull his severed hands from my body and freeze the wounds shut as a temporary stop-gap. 

With a loud battle-cry, I throw myself at Erwin. He shields himself with his wings, but I cut through them with my claw and pierce him in the chest. I cause the claw to burst, exploding a hole in him and exposing his shadowy insides. 

Erwin drops to his knees with his head bent back. I raise my left hand, and several threads of pale blue light shoot from my palm and coil around the shadowy being with Erwin’s husk, retracting to draw something out. From the shadows, I drag Erwin’s human spirit into the moonlight. He resists and struggles, fighting to remain inside the monster. His lower body remains firmly entrenched within the Dragon. 

“Erwin, you have to let go!” I shout. “You have to accept that Annaliese died of natural causes! You were wrong!” 

“She was taken from me! The house of Sturm is sullied by murder and betrayal!” 

Lorelei runs to my side, holding Annaliese in her arms. “Anna is here, Erwin! She hasn’t gone anywhere, her spirit stayed with you all this time.” 

Erwin looks at Annaliese, and his resistance grows a little weaker. “Anna?” 

“Annaliese Sturm, With the moon’s authority I command you; step into the light!” I shout, flooding her jackalope body with some of my magic. 

The jackalope transforms into Annaliese’s human form then, and she stands beside me, touching the threads that bind Erwin. 

“Anna!” Erwin calls tearfully. 

“Let go, Erwin! Come to me, my dearest, please!” Annaliese beckons. 

He hesitates. “They took you away from me. We were finally able to be together, and they killed you. It wasn’t fair!” 

I can feel the binds weakening. One by one, they snap, and I start to lose more of Erwin to the husk of the monster. 

“I’ve been trying to tell you all this time so that you can heal… I was never poisoned, Erwin. I was sick. You were so consumed with paranoia that I was too scared to leave you, so my spirit remained here.” 

“You have to let go of your anger, Erwin, it’s consuming you,” I yell. “The man I saw in Anna’s memories would never try to hurt innocent people like Lorelei and all the others who’ve been trapped in this manor these past two hundred years. The man Annaliese loved was gentle and kind!” 

“Please,” Annaliese pleads with him. 

The threads of my bind snap, and for a moment I fear that he will retreat into the husk and continue fighting, but Annaliese reaches her hand out and he takes it, and she begins to gently pull him free with no struggle at all. 

As his spirit is fully separated from the husk, the red lightning energy within begins to swell. On instinct, I dive to shield Lorelei with my body just as it explodes. 

With the magical explosion comes a blinding light, and the last thing I can remember is being launched back while holding onto Lorelei. 

When I come to, my skin feels hot. I open my eyes, but it is so bright out that it hurts for a moment, and my vision needs a bit of time to adjust. 

The morning sun is shining down on us, and I find myself lying on my back in the grass. 

“You’re awake!” Lorelei says, kneeling beside me. She has a shallow cut on her head and some singe marks on her clothes, but she seems okay. 

I sit up, clutching my pounding head, and groan in pain. My sides hurt terribly, though the wounds appear to be healed. 

Erwin and Annaliese stand at the front steps of the house in their human spirit forms. There is a crater where the husk once was, and the ground around it is blackened and smoking. 

“Do you remember what happened?” Lorelei asks. 

I shrug. “Kind of.” 

“The monster’s body went crazy when Anna pulled Erwin out. It exploded, and nearly killed us. But you protected me. ” She explains. 

“All that magical energy that he had been stockpiling over the past two hundred years was released at once when Erwin was finally freed,” I tell her. 

“You saved my life, probably for the thousandth time today. I don’t know where I’d be without you.” 

“Tell you what, Lorelei. When you finish your book, send me a copy and we’ll call it even.” 

“Deal,” She replies, grinning. She looks back at the two ghosts. “What about them? What happens next?” 

I climb to my feet and stumble over to them. 

“Wolf of the Full Moon,” Erwin says. “What I did was monstrous. I went mad with grief when I lost my Anna, but that is no excuse for the horrible things I did. You saved me, even though I did not deserve to be saved, and for that I am grateful. Now I can be at peace, finally.” 

“I can’t thank you enough, Seath,” Annaliese adds. “Your kindness is your greatest strength.” 

I nod to them. “It’s time.” 

My sigil lights up as I raise my left hand. “With the moon’s authority, I release you from your worldly tether. Depart this world and take your rest.” 

Their bodies glow and begin to fade away, and they hug each other. Erwin takes one last look at me and says, “When I looked into your heart, the witch Yukiko of the Full Moon showed me a glimpse of the future that awaits you. I saw that one day the successor to the Moon will find you, and you will discover a renewed purpose in life with her. Your time is not yet over, Wolf. You have adventures yet to come.” 

And with that, Erwin and Annaliese are gone, their spirits completely exorcised. I can’t sense a single remaining trace of them. Everything has returned to normal.

Lorelei walks up to me and pats my shoulder. 

I hear a sound like someone shouting in the distance. I turn and look back at the gate, my eyes narrowed. Is it just my imagination? 

Bill emerges from the woods and approaches the gate wearing hunting camo and carrying a scoped rifle. He stops dead for a moment, staring at us, slack-jawed, then he shouts over his shoulder, “Hey! I found them!”

As he calls for others to come, Lorelei and I exchange a knowing look between ourselves and chuckle a little. 

With the ghosts exorcised, the woods have become docile and safe. We can return to town in peace.