Disclaimer: Tale does not belong to me.
With that said, enjoy.
I don't understand is written in black ink scrawls upon lined paper. After I come home will all 'A's' on my final report card, I still got stuck babysitting my little sister. I was so sure that I'd be given at least one day to myself, but no. While mom and step-father leave to party tonight and recover for the rest of the weekend, I must babysit my half-sister. Again. I was hoping to-.
"Israel! We're leaving now." Her step-father calls from the drawing-room.
The girl slams her pen down upon her desk. "Fine! Leave already. It's not like I have a life."
"Darling," her mom begins, standing on the other side of the closed-door. "You do have one."
Israel glares at the door. "Apparently not! Just go enjoy yourselves."
"Honey..."
"No. Just go. Have fun."
She hears her mother sighs and walks away. Soon, the front door opens and closes clearly through the small home.
"I won't be here when you get back." She fumes, bursting into silent tears, turning back to her journal and reading the words she jots down. "They always go somewhere. Why couldn't they play with me like my dad did? Why couldn't dad have survived the accident?" After a while, the tears stop, but she feels worse than before. Letting the pen fall from her grip, she drags her feet along the ground to creep to the crib in her parents' bedroom where her sleeping sister peacefully lays.
"They love you the most, you know. I am forgotten very easily and only remembered when there is work that needs doing or if I'm in trouble somehow. I don't blame you, though. I like having you around. I just want to discover myself and have time to it." With a soft sigh, she places a kiss upon the baby's forehead and covers her before walking away to her own room. She wasn't in there long when a bright light suddenly flashes outside her window.
Curious, Israel pulls on her snow boots and heavy coat, then bounds down the creaky stairs to the back door where the light came from. She swing opens the door to find the outside world unfamiliar and strange. The tree with the tire swing isn't where it belongs and her half-made igloo is gone. Instead, a dark forest sparkling with frost and hills dressed in untouched snow meets the girl's eyes. She steps into the new place and looks at the door. Its freestanding frame stands out against the new world around her. She steps back into her home, tempted to just close the door and read her books to forget, but her thoughts wander back to the spite with her mom. Determined, she steps back into the strange world, smiling freely and laughing gaily, not once looking back at the open door.
Here, no one could tell her what to do as she builds many snow creatures and people with the surplus of snow in the bright full moon light. After playing so unrestricted for hours, she lays upon the snow trying to catch her breath and fight off the nipping bite of the cold. She shifts her eyes to the side, just barely seeing the door in her vision. She should probably head back home to check on her sister. Israel makes to move, but the cold has sunk deeper into her than she expected. Her heart races as a heavy feeling sets itself in her chest. If she can't move, she's probably frozen and if that's the case, she can't return. She screws her eyes and silently wills her body to move even just an inch.
"This might help, dearing." A low voice rumbles through the thick of the night.
Surprised, her eyes bolts upwards in her head, spotting a dark shape silhouetted against the moonlight. In his hand is a red cloth billowing about his form. Despite her racing heart, she quietly studies the stranger. The figure appears to be a wolf-like man... or a man-like wolf. His towering build holds a dark fur coat. His face, though, shows only kindness so raw that Israel calms down a bit, wishing she could speak.
He must have sensed her ease since he kneels down and wraps her in the fabric. The instant it touches her, warmth blossoms through her body. The receding chill has her skin painfully burning, especially her extremeties.
"This cloak will protect you from the cold far better than those mortal coverings. The cold in this place isn't like your world."
"What is this place? Where am I?" She barely croaks. Her brows screw together in confusion. The cold must have affected her voice as well.
"This is the Place Beyond. No one truly knows where it is. Some say a different dimension. Others, a far of planet. Whatever it is, this is home for me." His oddly animalistic huffing creates a cloud of breath in the crisp air. "Here, dearing. Your face is turning blue." He pulls a hood over her head.
"Thank you... um..."
He lightly chuckles. "Just call me Wolf. You seem tired. Playing as you did made me feel exhausted. Where's your portal? I think it's time for you to go back home."
Israel's gaze lowers, almost glaring at the snow.
"I won't bite, dearing. I'm the kindest of creatures you'll meet in this forest. I just want to help you find your portal home." He offers a clawed hand to her.
She accepts the proffered hand and pulls her new cloak tighter against her as she finally stands, the red hood bringing warmth to her chilled face. He quietly waits for an answer. If he's asking, then maybe he can't see the oddly placed door. She doesn't want to go home just yet. If what he said was true, this is not home and there's so much to discover. She keeps her eyes low.
"I don't know where my door is."
He sighs. "That's perfectly fine. We'll find it together. Until then, would you like to stay at my den?"
She nods. In response, he leads her through the shadowed forest where the moon light could only dream of reaching beyond the thick icy canopy of the trees. They wind their way through the thick darkness when a warm light comes into view, revealing a window built in the side of a large hill and a door standing dark against the white snow. Wolf gently pushes the door open and guides Israel inside his home. On one side of the one-room home is a desk with a plethora of books piled and stacked all along the curved dirt walls of the home. Many of the books lay open as if someone was studying, each one with strange markings both printed and written. On the other side, is a fireplace with dying embers and a straw bed.
"You must pardon me. I have yet to have a guest until now. I tend to leave my books about."
"It's fine. Where will you sleep?" Israel asks, feeling bad that there's only one bed.
"I don't sleep at this time." Wolf adds wood to the embers and creates a pleasant roar from the fire. "You may sleep whilst I protect you. Evil lurks about all the time. Forever searching for victims. Forever making the Place Beyond dangerous to all. Sleep now, dearing."
Israel nods and slips her boots and coat off, but leaves the cloak on to use as a blanket. She watches Wolf give life to the fire and pad over to his desk. He silently reads his books, making more marks in them. She listens to him mutter and question himself over the soft crackle of the burning wood. She begins to yawn, tasting the earthy air of the home and the sweet wood on her tongue as she snuggles within her warm cocoon.
In her dream, the room where she fell asleep continues its quiet life until something pounds violently on the door causing the dream to shift into a nightmare of yelling, roaring, and growling sounds. Finally, the din stops, but Israel couldn't seem to keep still as if she's on a boat until it stops and her dream ends, leaving her to a nothingness for the rest of her sleep.
She wakes, but doesn't feel like moving, glad that she is still within her cloak. She grins into the cloth until a sound startles her. Israel sits up seeing that the warm cozy den was gone, instead replaced with a harsh whitewashed room fit for someone with an icy demeanor. Standing by the double doors is a couple dressed in pastel colored royal garb. Both of them have long starlight hair and crystal blue eyes that compliment their healthy opaque pale skin.
"Hello, sweeting," they say eerily together. Israel remains silent, wondering what happened to Wolf. "We hope that you had a fair rest after we were able to save you from that horrible monster we found you with. Creatures of the Forest cannot be trusted." The woman comes up to the bed and sits down near Israel.
"Since we don't know where you came from, would you like to stay with us? We could become acquaintances and possibly friends. Although, I'm sure my husband would like to have you as our daughter." A shadow passed over the woman's face. "We had a child, but she passed away fairly recently. We're both heartbroken about it, but you look very similar to her." Before Israel could speak, her stomach growls. "Oh! When did you last eat?"
Israel was about to answer when the man begins talking. "It shouldn't matter when, my love. What we do know is that she's hungry and she must be fed." He looks at Israel and offers his hand to her. "Come, sweeting. I'm sure we can find you something to eat."
The girl looks between the couple and feels as if she doesn't have a choice but to go with them. Slowly, she slips out of the bed, wrapping the red cloth close to her as she falls between the man and woman as they walk out of the room and into halls worthy of an ice castle without the ice. Their silence is unnerving unlike Wolf's, but Israel doesn't dare speak to them. They seem to take turns looking at her as they walk.
Eventually, they come to a grand dining hall with colorful food and drink similar to food at home. Allowing her hunger to fuel her actions, she picks a few pieces of fruit and a single goblet of what looks like apple juice and consumes it all without question. She realizes that they didn't eat. She also notices that their skin looks more like hers than the pale color she first saw. Now she's curious.
"Is there anything you'd like to do, sweeting?" They ask happily.
"I'm sure there's something in the castle gardens that would interest you," the woman says.
"There's always something in the garden worth seeing. Come," the man says.
Israel just walks with them, still slightly afraid to talk to them. They pass through more halls until a sturdy door appears at the end of a hallway. The man places his hand on the doorknob while the woman places her hands on the girl's shoulders. Smiling, the man opens the door and reveals a world of light and plants, nothing like the dark forest. Awed by the flora of this place, Israel goes to the nearest flower and smells it, taking in its otherworldly scent. She smiles and sees that the couples eyes aren't as icy as she first thought.
"Is this place just wonderful, sweeting?" The woman asks, giving a graceful twirl to the girl.
The man simply grins. "I'm sure you're enjoying it here, sweeting." A meow near Israel's feet causes the man to smile even more. "And it seems that the castle pet wants to meet you."
Israel glances down to see a very light blue feline sitting in front of her. The animal meows again and paws at the girl's bare feet. Israel bends down and carefully pets the cat. Suddenly, she no longer feels concerned about the couple. She looks up and notices that their hair is no longer made of starlight. It's simply white. She stands up and looks at the couple.
"Are you tired again, sweeting?" The woman asks, suddenly worried for the girl.
"She probably is. Let us be off then," the man says before he turns and begins to walk away without waiting for Israel.
They walk back to the bedroom where she woke up in. The couple surprises the girl by giving her a hug and leaves with a simple goodbye. Now alone, Israel spots a mirror and sees a strange girl reflected in it. She walks toward the looking-glass to see herself, just slightly pale. A result of the lingering cold, she tells herself. She wraps the cloak tightly around her as she lays down to sleep only to hear a knock at the window. She quickly pads over to find a dark creature waiting there.
"Dearing, let me in," he calls.
"Why?" Israel asks. She's finally found a couple who gives her attention.
"Dearing, the people you met is the evil I spoke of last night. They steal children and bring them to the Place Beyond, to here, so that they may devour them and find the next child."
"But they were kind enough to feed me and let me see their home. And their cat."
Wolf shakes his head. "The food you ate will change you and numb your emotions. Then there's the garden to worry about. That also makes you appear as one of them and lessen your natural want to question things. And that damned shifting creature isn't as innocent as it seems. You must escape this place. Come through the window and we'll find your portal."
"They treat me better than my parents do. I'm staying here." With that, she walks back to the bed, ignores the voice at the window, and goes to sleep, receiving a dreamless rest.
The next day was similar to the first, but they did more things together like walking around their library or climbing the tallest tower. Then, they play with her, teaching her games native to this realm. And for the days after, they make sure that when she's the slightest bit peckish, she has food or when she's minutely bored, they entertain her. And she finds it amazing that she hasn't had to say a single word to them. They seem to know exactly what she needs.
One day when she wakes, the couple is standing at the doors again. The only difference is that the couple look very worse for wear. Their eyes have grown dark, their skin brittle looking, and their hair seeming to become untamed and yellow. When she backs into her room at the end of the day, Israel looks into the mirror to see that her skin has taken a porcelain beauty, her own eyes taking up a bright violet, and her hair becoming fully white. Just like the first day, Wolf appears at the window, only this time he holds a white covered thing in his clawed hands.
"What is that?" Israel asks, not really out of curiosity.
"This is the latest victim of the couple, dearing. This will happen to you if you don't let me help you." His eyes shine red with tears.
"What happened?" Israel asks, feeling sad for the first time since coming here.
Wolf pulls back the cloth to show a fleshy skeleton of a human. His mouth lies open, forever screaming silently and his eyes are gone leaving only the empty sockets. He looks so light that the wind could pluck him out of Wolf's hands and blow him far away. What's left of his hair is white like Israel's. Shaken, Israel starts to back away from the window, from the body, and the forest creature.
"I don't want that to happen to me," she whispers, her head hurting suddenly.
"Then invite me in, dearing. They always attack when the transformation is complete. It's too late to take you out of the castle. Their magic has infused too far in your system. The only way to take you away, I'm guessing, is to get rid of them. I can protect you," he says as he gently lays the body down among the snow under the window.
"You said you'd protect me when I slept in your own den and where am I now?"
His eyes flash in the moonlight, a great sadness clouds over them. "I did my best, but they had the upper hand. I barely lived after that." He turns, pulling over his coat to show a deep angry gash in his back still trying to heal.
Israel quietly gasps, her hands covering her mouth. At that moment, she makes up her mind. "I welcome you in, Wolf."
Without another moment, he leaps through the window and kneels before the girl. "I swear on my life that you'll live after tomorrow morning. Now sleep, dearing. I will protect you this time."
With a slight nod, she tucks herself into the bed and falls asleep, hoping that both Wolf and herself would survive the next morning. She thinks about her family. Her mother is so beautiful every time she gets dressed up. Israel had hoped to look like that when she gets older. And even though her step-father isn't her dad, he has tried to get close to her, but it was her fault that the rift between them never sealed. She didn't realize how much she them until tonight. Most of all, she misses her little sister. They'll all probably worried about her. Finally, sleep lulls her into darkness, but no dreams grace her.
Suddenly, she awakens to a great bark and an low, loud growl. She sits up to see the couple at the doors and Wolf at the foot of her bed. He stands in a form no longer human-like, but canine on four massive paws. The couple hunch over themselves as if their small weedy bodies are too much to carry. It's hard to tell who or what they were staring at, their eyes are pure shadows matching the darkness of their mouths hanging open revealing two rows of pointed teeth.
"Sweeting!" They hiss. "You cannot betray us like this. You wanted for nothing. You are our center of attention. Just come to us."
"You only paid attention to me because you were going to eat me," Israel snaps as she gets to her feet, finally speaking to them.
They hiss even louder. "She spoke!"
Israel glances at Wolf, who smiles back in a dog-like way.
"I will speak because I have a voice and I have a life of my own. I'm not just here as your meal. I have a real family at home. Parents who love me and a sister who needs me to look after her and a new friend who needs a friend in return!" She smiles when their yellow hair starts falling out of their heads and their hisses turn into bouts of screams. "You may have brought me here to feed on yet another human sacrifice, but you have brought in the wrong human. My power of words will triumph and you will become nothing but dust." The couples' skin begins to disintegrate as they pile themselves in a corner. Their banshee screams fill the room, but it doesn't unnerve the girl. "What you didn't expect is for me to meet someone in the forest before you could get to me. That was your other mistake this time and it will be your last. Good bye, demon creatures of fraud!" With that, the screams stop and the crumbling bodies still as they perish in the little corner.
Silence overtakes the voice of the girl as the entire castle starts to become transparent and finally become nothing, but a snowy meadow in a forest. In the dead of the morning, nothing but the girl and creature is awake. Suddenly, Wolf barks happily and bounds over to Israel, his body shifting as his front paws lift her up. He twirls her around as his body turns human-like once more.
"You did it! You did what no one could! The forest is now free of the evil that reigned over it for generations and eons. And soon, this land will have a proper cycle of seasons." He places her back on her feet in now mushy snow. "But you must return home now. I'm guessing you want to spend time with your family now."
Israel nods and allows Wolf to walk with her as she finds her door. When she stops walking, he looks so gloomy. Throwing herself in his arms, she reluctantly says goodbye to her new friend. Soon, she enters back into her world. She turns to close to the door when the vast white landscape of the other place is replaced with her half-made igloo and frost covered backyard tree in the dark of night. Saddened, Israel pulls off her cloak when the front door slowly creaks opens and soft voices fill the entrance hall. The girl tip-toes closer to the voices, setting her boots, coat, and cloak upon the stairs.
"I just needed to come home and not go to the party, sweetie. I keep thinking that perhaps I wasn't firm enough to her when I let her talk to me like that, " Israel's mother whispers to her step-father.
"Nonsense, love. She's just spirited and hasn't been able to get out much with the cold being as it is and her friends off in different places."
"I just hope she'll understand how much we love her and never meant to seem so... icy when it came to her feelings."
Israel steps into the hall, seeing that they were hanging their coats, scarves, and gloves in the closet. The overwhelming feeling of missing them almost makes her burst into tears when she sees their rosy cheeks from the cold and their soft parental smiles. She runs forward and grips her mom around her waist, trying not to cry at the glorious sight of her parents.
"I love you too, mom. I'm sorry... I really am." Tears begin to flow from the girl's brown eyes as she reaches out for her step-father to bring him into the hug. "I love you too... dad." For a moment, they all held each other, simply thankful for the love that they have. Shortly thereafter, Israel leaves for bed, still quite tired from saving another dimension and now fixing the strength of her family.
She tucks her boots under the bed, ready for an adventure tomorrow morning with her sister in the igloo. When hanging up her cloak in the back of her closet so that her parents don't see it, a little piece of paper falls from the folds of the red fabric. Israel picks it up and sits on the edge of her bed to read the elegant writing in the light. Smiling, she sets the note on her nightstand and tucks in for a well-needed sleep, switching off the light before she gets too comfortable. The note sits out in the night waiting to be read again in the morning to ensure that it was not all a dream.
"Dearing.
Keep the cloak close to you if you ever wish to visit the Place Beyond once more.
The Way to this forgotten place is but a thought away when wrapped in the cloak's warmth.
Never forget this place or me.
-Wolf"