Done with college and back to writing!


When Maggie and Jen walked into the college the first day after spring break everyone seemed to fall silent as they walked by and start whispering after they had passed.

"The way they're looking at us you'd think we had brought William with us. I know you said everyone thought I was dead, but this is crazy," Jen said.

"It's not just you they're staring at. The teacher read the whole short version of my report about William in front of the class and then I kind of admitted I was the one he took and that I had been staying with him for the last month. It seemed like a way to get a great grade and maybe make people understand him at the time. Now that he doesn't have to hibernate again and we're getting married I'm starting to think it may have been giving out too much information about him," Maggie told her.

"At least after you're married he'll be able to make himself look human so no one will recognize him, right?" Jen asked.

"Yeah, but me going from never dating to married in less than six months and no one seeing the guy I'm marrying before we get married could seem suspicious," Maggie pointed out.

"True, we'll just have to pray no one pays that much attention," Jen said, "How are the wedding plans going?"

"Not so great, I mean we can't find a pastor to marry us because of what he looks like and I think it's kind of depressing him. He hasn't said anything, but when we were talking about who in my family we could trust to invite to the wedding, he just looked so sad."

Later that day Maggie headed to the college library after her last class of the day. She stayed there until almost nine pm when the library closed and spent all of her time between classes there the next day using the college's access to . By the time her last class ended she had a list of names and addresses and headed out to see if she could find what she was looking for.

Half an hour later she pulled up to an old farm house, not far from it was an old log cabin that, according to the records she had found was the original home built on the land and the decedents of the builder's still lived on the property.

As Maggie got out of her car a woman stepped out onto the porch of the house, "Can I help you?" she asked as Maggie approached the porch.

"I hope so. My name is Maggie, I'm doing some research into the history of the area and when I heard you were descended from the original owners of the property I thought you might know something about it," Maggie told her.

"That'll be no problem, our family has always been good about passing down the family history to the next generation. I'm Christiana. What do you want to know?"

"I was wondering about the first few generations who lived here?" Maggie told her.

"Why don't you come inside, I have portraits of many of the early members of the family and I can tell you about them," Christiana told her.

A long hall way led from the front of the house to the back and along both sides were dozens of old paintings that had to have come from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. Christiana told her about each one and the person's life at the property.

Finally they came to one of a woman and man with three children, the woman while she had darker hair and skin looked amazingly similar to Christiana, "This is my many greats grandmother, Christiana, I was named after her. This was painted shortly before she came to live here with her in-laws after her husband died," Christiana told her.

"Why didn't she stay with her own family?" Maggie asked although she was sure she already knew the answer.

"Her family was part Native American and back then people didn't like half breeds living among them. The rest of her family was murdered because of being different. She would have died too if not for her nephew getting her and her children here," Christiana told her, then turned and pointed to a picture on the wall behind them.

Maggie turned to find a portrait of a man with long black hair and high cheek bones betraying his Native heritage, around his neck a pendant with a carving of a man holding an ax standing between a young girl and a bear. Maggie reached to her neck to touch the pendant that was hidden under her shirt.

"He's something of a family hero since none of us would be here today if not for him saving our ancestors. He's one of those family members you know you'll never meet, but would love to be able to thank for what they did for us. He's suffered so much because of it," Christiana told her.

"Do you know what happened after he got your grandmother here?" Maggie asked.

Christiana hesitated a moment then said, "It's said that when she hadn't heard from any of her family after they were being attacked she went back to try to find them. According to family rumor she found they had all been killed, except for her nephew, she saw him briefly, but- that's all we know," she finished quickly.

"You're not a very good liar," Maggie told her.

"Well there are just somethings that have to remain a family secret. I really can't tell you anymore," Christiana told her.

"Because you're ashamed to admit you're related to the Creeper?" Maggie asked.

"Never, he-"fear flashed across Christiana's face, "I- I mean he's-"

Maggie rested a hand on her arm, "I'm not going to tell anyone. So were you serious about wishing you could thank him for saving your grandmother's life? Would you want to meet him?"

"Yes I'd want to thank him, but our family isn't immune to the curse, enough generations of marrying white people and he killed my uncle forty-six years ago. It's too late anyways, we always keep track of when he'll be awake, he'd be hibernating again," Christiana told her.

"Your grandmother only saw him that one time? Right after her family was killed?" Maggie asked.

"Yes," Christiana replied, then asked, "How do you know about him?"

"The curse was changed later on too give him a chance to escape it," Maggie told her.

"How? And why should I believe anything you have to say?" Christiana asked.

"It's sort of a Beauty and the Beast thing, only the beast doesn't turn into prince charming until after the wedding. And you should believe me because he gave me this," she said pulling the pendant out, "and I'm the one who is going to break the curse," Maggie told her.

Christiana reached out to touch the pendant, glancing from it to the picture, "You're serious? He's going to be free of that curse? I could actually get to meet him someday?"

"The curse is no longer in control, you could meet him any time you want," Maggie told her, "He's nowhere near as good looking as he was in that picture though."

"I know," Christiana replied as she reached behind the picture of William and pulled out an ancient looking piece of paper sealed in a plastic sleeve and handed it to Maggie.

On the paper was a sketch of William after he had been cursed, "Grandma drew that after she saw him, is that really what he looks like?" Christiana ask.

"Yes, the teeth may be exaggerated, but just a little, can't blame the artist for that though, those teeth are scary. Otherwise that's amazingly accurate."

After talking for nearly another hour Maggie headed back to the cave.

As soon as she walked in William asked, "Is everything alright? You've been out awfully late the last two days."

"Everything is great," Maggie said kissing him, "I was just working on a little surprise for you."

"What kind of surprise?" William asked as he wrapped his wings around her.

"The kind I think you'll really like. You'll find out this Sunday," Maggie told him.

"You've got to give me a better clue than that," William told her.

"Nope, no clues," Maggie told him.

"Please?" William begged.

"No."

"Fine, no clues, no wings," he told her pulling his wings away.

"Fine, no wings I'll just start sleeping at home," Maggie said turning to walk towards the door, but only got a few steps before his wings closed around her and pulled her back into his arms.

"Alright, it can be a surprise," he relented.

"That's better," Maggie told him before kissing him.

That Sunday Maggie woke up to the feeling of William trailing his fingers over her face and through her hair, "What time is it?" she asked drowsily.

"The sun is rising," William told her.

"Why am I awake?" she asked.

"Because you said I get that surprise today," William told her.

"Not until this afternoon, we have plenty of time to sleep in," she said grabbing the edge of his wing and pulling it over her head.

"Do I really have to wait that long?" he asked.

"It won't be ready until then. Just let me sleep a little longer," Maggie told him.

"If you insist," he told her, pulling his wing down from her face and kissing her cheek as she dozed off.

By noon they left the cave and Maggie was leading William, who was blindfolded through the woods, "I understand the blindfold so I don't see the surprise too soon, but why do I have to wear clothes and this awful shirt? You only make me wear this if we're going to be around other humans," William pointed out.

"You'll see when we get there and maybe you can take it off later," Maggie told him.

"We're not trying another meeting with your mother are we?" he asked, a hint a nervousness in his voice.

"Definitely not. I told you, you'll like this surprise. Now no more questions," she told him.

Several minutes later they came into the clearing where the old house was and while she had planned it, Maggie was still surprised at the site that she saw. Folding tables and chairs had been set up, a long line of tables with various types of food sat at one end of the yard which had been neatly mowed and cleared of the years of fallen branches and weeds. Easily over fifty people were gathered on the porch and in the yard. If not for the guest of honor it would look like any other family reunion.

"We stopped, can I take the blind fold off yet?" William asked.

"Just one more second," Maggie told him.

Christiana walked over to stand in front of him, they had agreed that since she looked so much like her grandmother who William had rescued that it would be best for her to be the first person he saw. Christiana had taken the lead on contacting and sharing pictures of William with the rest of the family who had known about William saving their grandmother and the curse. When Christiana had told her the family was good about passing down the family history, she hadn't imagined there would be so many people who knew about William, but the fact that there were so many that cared enough to meet him warmed her heart.

Finally Maggie started to untie the blindfold as she told him, "So those nights I was out late I was doing some research and tracking some people down."

As the blindfold slipped from his eyes, William gasped when he saw Christiana, "Chrissy? –No, but you- how," he stuttered out until he noticed all the other people by the house, "What is this?" he finally asked.

"This is your family, just a small handful of the decedents of your aunt you saved, if not for you none of us would be here," Christiana told him.

The rest of the day was spent getting to know his family, playing games and making wedding plans. It turned out that one of his cousins was a pastor who was thrilled to be able to perform the wedding. Another was a caterer and insisted on providing food for the reception. When William had said he didn't think there would be that many people at the wedding he was told that if he would have them, everyone at the reunion would want to be there. Plus several more who hadn't been able to make it that day, would want to be there to celebrate the marriage of the person they had grown up hearing had single handedly been responsible for their family's survival. When Christiana had told Maggie that William was thought of as a family hero she hadn't been exaggerating.

They also discovered that while the land had actually been split up over the years all of the land that had originally belonged to William's family still belonged to members of the family and he and Maggie were more than welcome to restore the house and live there.

When the sun started to set everyone left and William and Maggie headed back to the cave.

"I can't believe you did this, that you were even able to find them," William said, pulling her into his arms and wrapping his wings around her as soon as he was sure they were alone.

"It actually wasn't that hard, I've been doing genealogy for half my life and the college has access to a site that has a lot of records that made it easy to find out their names and then all I had to do was check another website to find out where they lived. It's not the first time I've traced a family forward like that. I had a cousin who had been adopted and only knew he was my cousin because of a DNA test. I was able to trace it forward from the mid eighteen hundreds and narrow it down to two brothers who might have been his father. Finding your family was easy compared to that," Maggie told him.

"It still seems like a miracle to me," William told her then kissed her.