Ten years later.
Moonlight flooded through the open door, spilling across the timber floor. Leif Taylor, a small, thin man hitherto of little consequence, cowered in the corner. He clutched at his head and muttered to himself as the moonlight crept closer.
"No, please," he pleaded desperately. "No, no, I cannot, please."
He began to sob as a shaft of light danced before him, his shaking hand reaching towards it when a shadow filled the doorway, cutting off the light, and he snatched his hand back as though burnt.
"There you are," said a shadowy figure, almost in a snarl. "You really have lowered your standards."
He stepped into the room then; a broad shouldered man with long black hair and determined grey eyes. He wore a great fur cloak and his shadow kept Leif safely shielded from the moonlight as he knelt down before him, seeming to study the smaller man's face.
"You poor bastard," he said eventually.
"H-help me, pluh-please," Leif pleaded, staring at the stranger. His cloak was made from a single pelt, some giant black-haired beast Leif could not name, and around his neck swung a silver arrowhead.
The monster inside his head was unsettled, Leif realised. It suddenly felt a dread of its own.
"Help me," he gasped again, the faintest feeling of hope stirring inside him. "Spare my neighbours, please."
The stranger crouched in front of him smiled, flicking his cloak aside to reveal a knife at his belt. He drew it out, the blade gleaming silver.
"Help yourself," he said.
Leif awoke the next morning, which was the first miracle of the day.
He was bloodied, crusted in the stuff in fact, and naked. His tiny one-roomed home was a mess, the furniture upturned and deep gouges in the walls. Worse still was the giant body lying in the middle of his floor, hideous and hairy, painful to look at.
Leif dry-reached before staggering to his feet, searching for his only other pair of trousers and pulling them on as the sound of voices drifted in from outside.
His neighbours. Oh, God have mercy, what would they think? He stumbled to his door and leaned against the frame, the bright early morning sun making him squint.
"Taylor!" Called one of the men, while several women screamed. "You are alive?"
Leif recognised the man as the village blacksmith, and allowed him to support his weight and walk him further from his hut.
Other villagers crowded behind him to look inside, and more gasps and screams of horror soon followed.
Leif closed his eyes, waiting for their anger, their revulsion.
"He saved us all!" Yelled the baker.
"A true hero!" Cried a farmer's wife.
Leif opened his eyes, gaping as his neighbours crowded around him, clapping their hands on his still-sticky back and herding him towards the village inn.
"Time to get you cleaned up and fed, eh, hero?"
"You must have quite the tale for us!"
"We will get your house sorted in no time, never you mind!"
Lief glanced over his shoulder as the wave of voices washed over him, looking back down the road leading away from the village.
Whoever he was, the stranger was long gone now.
Dusk darkened the sky and the cold air of the night crept closer. There was only a single rider still to be seen in the dimming light and he drew his black fur cloak closer about him. Dark woods crowded with shadows sat to his left and open fields undulated to his right as he travelled the road that ran between them.
He sat atop a sturdy black horse, her mane stirring in the breeze.
Eventually a third figure emerged from the woods, slinking along the road beside them.
"Took you long enough," said the man.
The giant grey wolf growled low in response, her ears flicking in annoyance.
"It is done," the man told her, as though she could understand his words.
The wolf growled back as though the man could understand her.
"They are getting desperate," he said agreeably. "They choose their victims without discretion."
The wolf rumbled again before falling silent.
"Mmm," said the man.
The horse walked on, unperturbed.
The moon rose higher in the sky, gleaming against the arrowhead the man wore around his neck.
A howl began deep in the woods, growing in volume as more wolves joined in, bouncing off trees and stones until the night air carried it to the man and his companions. He and the giant wolf listened closely as his horse whickered.
"All is well," said the rider eventually, leaning forward to pat the mare's neck. "There will be no hunting for us tonight."
Moonlight flickered as a great shadow passed overhead.
The hunter looked up and smiled.
"Champion," he whispered.
The wolf grumbled beside him.
"Best behaviour from you," he told her sternly, before urging his horse to a faster pace.
They cantered down the road to a grassy field where a great green dragon landed before them.
The hunter leapt from his horse as a figure slid from the dragon's back and they met amidst the waving, waist high grass.
"You have returned," said the hunter against the dragon rider's hair as he embraced her.
"I said I would," she replied, her hands fisted against his cloak. "You know I loathe it when you wear this." She said reproachfully, not releasing her grasp.
"You know I love it when you take it off me," the hunter growled low, before kissing her.
"Oh, blech, eww!" Exclaimed the dragon, as the wolf whined in disgust from the road.
"Hello, Dragon," said the hunter with a smirk.
"Hello, Shadow Across the Moon," the dragon rider addressed the giant canine.
"Now you are both going to want to scram," added the hunter as he swept the rider off her feet. "My partner and I have some taking to do."
The dragon rose into the sky, muttering in disgust as his rider's laughter rang out below.
The wolf returned to the woods, leaving the mare to stand guard at the road while their charge and his mate lay hidden in the nodding grass.
"I wrote you a note," said the hunter some time later, as they lay on his cloak in the grass. He drew a small, scratched piece of bark from one of the many pockets.
"I love your notes," said the dragon rider with a lazy smile, running her fingers over the gouges. "What does this one say?"
"It is a love letter," he said softly. "They have always been love letters, Jane."
Fin.
Welp. Believe it or not . . . here we are! It's finished. Done. Completed.
My life has changed a lot from when I first began writing this, but I am so glad I came back and finished it.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the journey with me, supported, encouraged, reviewed, or even just read. We might be a small fandom but we're a tenacious one!