A warmth, a blanket of darkness covers me, holds me in the night, until the sun at daybreak wakes me with it's forbidden light. And by me, I find a human sitting there, warming herself by a fire's glowing light. She looks at me and smiles as I gaze back with horror and fright. I sit up, scared of what she wants, and think to run from my plight. "You should know," my booming voice rumbles, "I do not wish to fight." She looks at me merrily, and steps closer, my large shadow looming over her. She understood not a word I had said. She smells of a floral odor. For a reason unknown, she dresses my wounds and feeds me herbs and clover. I cannot comprehend her feelings towards me, but she'll stay in my sight. Something in me has snapped, an ember self-ignites.
She follows me, sticking close to my side, back into the cave where I always hide. In there, she heals my broken heart and soul from the inside. Does she understand my feelings? A monster's feelings? Or is she someone with whom I am temporarily allied? Over time, my midnight blue fur returns, my fangs, claws, and horns still growing back. But she is special compared to her brethren; she knows and feels something they all lack. Courage and empathy. You and your kind would only attack, wishing me dead, to boost your pride. And by the devil's law, you began to abide.
I have given this woman everything, and she gave it back tenfold. I danced with her in the wilderness, and clinging to my fur, she rode. How could I repay this woman, for whom so much I owed? Then, one fateful day of exploring led me to a road, a human invention leading to their towns. It was by chance I came alone. I would retrieve a gift for my friend; so, through the shadows of the forest, I travel, following a ditch where the great river once flowed. It leads to a village, a small and humble place, infected by the humans and their spiteful race. Quickly, I grab a tool they use outside, and I run away, ready for a chase. But no one notices, no one knows of the tool I have borrowed. I speed back to the cave where we stay. Once far enough from the village, I slow my pace.
These chimes ring joyously in the wind, and cannot be silenced no matter how hard I try. It reminds me of my happiness sounding, like the waves of the ocean coming in the tide. I want this feeling to never end. I want her to stay with me all my life. I search for our cave, our home, this place of mine. Something is wrong. A stench of smoke burns in my nose and clings to the area of the forest I'm in. I'm so close to the cave, not far downwind. I panic and run as fast can through this maze of trees past the great river bend. And, at the mouth of the cave, torches lay scattered, a fire burning, glowing hot, set to light by ruffians. The smoke stings my eyes as I look high and low, trying to find where the fire begins. Blood of smaller game covers the ground, sacrifices to the human god of wrath, traced to corpses and animal skins. I rush into the fire where my friend has once been. Nothing in there is left, and I leave the cave, mystified. I find only one clue nearby, written in blood on a sign hidden under the rotting flesh where maggots had begun to reside. It reads, 'We've caught the witch! Let us purge her, make her cry! She brought forth the demon, she who is satan's bride!'
