Marco's room was a fair size for a ship, and it was neat. A desk in the corner was organized, with all the paperwork tied down so as not to roll off during turbulence of the sea. A nice looking bed was in the other corner of the room, leaving the central area open. Marco motioned for Ace to sit on the bed. Ace did as he was bid, then waited for Marco to sit beside him. Once Marco was situated Ace brought out his fire and started his story.
"Once upon a time, in a land not so distant from here, there lived a wolf. This wolf was a special wolf, for every night the wolf turned into a beautiful woman." Marco watched as Ace's fire formed a magnificent wolf, only to turn into a gorgeous woman. "Long before the start of our story, the wolf had been only a woman, but, as is want to happen in tales such as this, the woman was cursed by a witch who was jealous of the woman's beauty." An ugly old crone jumped out of the fire, silently cackling as she cast a spell at the beautiful woman. "One might wonder why the witch was so jealous. The answer is quite simple. The witch had once been beautiful too. When she had been young, she had been hailed as the most beautiful woman in all the world. Then she grew old, the ticking minute hand of the clock slowly stole her beauty, and faded it into what she was." The flames shifted again showing a different woman who was beautiful, but her face slowly changed as a fiery clock face changed time, the minute and hour hands spinning rapidly around it.
"In this way the woman became a wolf during the day, and so she lived for one hundred and ninety-nine years in this way, the curse stopping her from aging. The witch had long since died, and her memory was forgotten. Each day she howled, and every night she wept. Her pain-filled tears falling in such volume that they turned into a river that flowed from where she sat in an old forest where no one ever traveled, and out all the way to the sea." The fire images changed with Ace's story telling, drawing Marco in. He had his head in Ace's lap as he listened to the story unfold.
"People from all over the country stayed out of the forest, for it was thought to be haunted. The wails of grief were thought to be the cries of those who had died in the forest." The flames showed people's faces, their expressions showing terror. "One day, a young man entered the forest via the river. It had been his dream to find out where the river came from. He'd had that dream since he was a child. As his boat passed under the eaves of the forest he could hear the howling. It did not frighten him as it did others. To him, it sounded incredibly sorrowful. He paddled onward." The fire showed a dashing young man paddling a canoe beneath old, gnarled branches. It was beautiful, but creepy. Something about this story was giving Marco goose bumps.
"Deeper in the forest, where the river began, sat the wolf, howling her heart out. She was weary of life. She was lonely, and had only vague memories to keep her sane as her eternity drug on." The flames showed a wolf with a small dance of tiny human figures above it's head, but the figures were slowly disappearing. Marco's eyes widened as he realized what was happening, a small sound of denial broke his lips, before he could stop it. One of Ace's hands moved down to caress his hair in a comforting manner as he continued on with his story.
"And so the two were on a course to meet, but the forest, as old and beautiful as it was, was not willing to give up the woman. It was an old forest, that had long been imbued with magic, and it had fallen in love with the woman. To be more specific, the spirit of the forest had fallen in love with her." the flames again changed showing a handsome man step out of a tree and watch the woman as she cried, a look of longing on his face. "Alas, she could not see him, for though she was cursed, she was yet a normal human, with no second sight." A feeling of dread settled in Marco's stomach.
"The spirit could see the handsome man approaching the woman, and knew that he would see her after she had become human again. He was jealous. He knew that she would be able to see the man, and that she would leave the forest if the curse was broken. He resolved to kill the young man. He would let no one take her from him. So he crept silently from tree to tree until he was alongside the man. He decided to kill the youth quickly, as he had no true grudge against the human. So he felled the tree he was in so that it would fall on the man, killing him." Marco watched as the picture showed the spirit give the tree a shove, and watched as it fell towards the unsuspecting young man.
"The young man saw it falling towards him, and he jumped into the river to avoid certain death. The spirit saw this and was angered. How dare he avoid it? It would have been painless! So the spirit decided to drown the man, and he sent up roots to wrap around the man's legs, and drag him down. The man cried out just as the water closed over his head, his cry sounded out, carrying deep into the forest to where the wolf sat howling. She stopped as the cry for help reached her. She had not heard a human in almost two hundred years. She quickly got up and ran towards the sound, but she was quite a ways away." The fire showed the man drowning, and a wolf running towards him, but rocks, and roots kept springing up in front of her, tripping her up, slowing her down. Marco was outraged, he could already see the story unfold in his mind.
"She ran as fast as she could, despite obstacles that appeared before her. Alas, as she reached the man, and looked down into the water at him, only sightless eyes stared back. She felt her heart break as the only human she'd seen in so long lay dead , his fingers just inches from the water's surface. A vicious scream tore from the wolf's throat, and she turned and ran away. The spirit followed her, trying to catch her, but he could not touch her, and tree roots could offer no comfort. He watched as she ran to a high cliff in the middle of his forest, and dread filled his heart. He tried desperately to stop her as she ran to the very edge of the cliff. Just as she reached it, the sun set, and she turned into a woman again. The set sun marked her two hundredth year cursed. She looked out from the cliff and saw only forest all around her, and she spoke, for the first time since first she was cursed, 'Two hundred years I have waited to see another human, for hope that then the curse would break, and I would be free. I am tired. I think that after two hundred years of being a wolf, chained to the ground, I should like to fly.' and then she stepped off the cliff, and the spirit could only watch as she plummeted to her death. He rushed through the trees and moved to her body." Marco couldn't breath as he watched it all unfold in the fire that danced above him.
"As the spirit approached her body, he cried, for the woman, in death, was finally smiling." Ace pulled in his flames as he finished his story. He could feel tears fall down his cheeks. This story always made him cry. He could understand the need to fly, the need to be free. He could, even now, feel the shackles binding him to the ground.
Marco looked up and saw Ace's tears. He reached up and grasped Ace's head carefully, and pulled it down towards him, and lightly kissed him. He could feel the tears hitting his face as sobs wracked the boy's body, so he held him tighter, wanting, needing more, and Ace responded.