The Girl in the Forest by Malcolm Cowen (my reading book .txt) 📕

to kiss him.
Jacobus blinked, and she released him, and turned to Jan.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kiss you. Not when your mind says you’d be so embarrassed.”

They sat afterward in Jacobus’s house, the priest offered them food, and she ate the bread and cheese as if it were a queen’s meal, and all the time she talked, asking question after question. Sometimes she waited for the answer, other times she seemed to lift it impatiently from their minds and answer herself.
At last she paused.
“It’s nearly moonset, I can feel it.” She smiled at Jan. “No, don’t worry, I know I’m still going to change, but I must make sure you are safe when I do.
“Father Jacobus, you have a cage in the back of your house. May I borrow it for a few hours.”
“A cage.” Jan rose from his chair in horror.
“Yes, a cage. Not for me, for the wolf.”
“Of course.” Jacobus rose and led the way. Through the house to a door into an outhouse. The outhouse was dark, and the girl stumbled as she walked through it, but recovered herself before Jan could reach her.
Outside was the cage. Harsh strong iron bars, with a huge lock. Jacobus opened the door and Verka stepped in, pulling it shut after herself.
Jacobus snapped the lock, and stepped back.
“And one more request,” she looked at the two men with clear open eyes, “If you will do it for me?”
“Of course.”
Jan’s reply was immediate, but Jacobus was more measured saying, “If I can.”
“Some time today, for the protection of the village, and of this honest man and his son, will you deal with the wolf. I think you may find you need the silver bullets Father Jacobus has on the top lefthand shelf in his study.”
“No,” Jan stepped forward, in angry rejection.
“Jan. I read your mind. I know you love me. But the wolf hates you. Sooner or later she will kill you. And your son. Jan, look at me.”
She turned to let him see her profile. The moon was setting, and already her body seemed to be changing and twisting strangely. Jan dropped his head in resignation.
“Please, now I need to take these clothes off, or they will be damaged.”
“Of course, and may God’s peace be with you.” It was Jacobus who replied.
The two men walked back inside, and Jacobus dropped the bar across the door.
By unspoken consent they sat together in the priest’s front room till dawn. Then as the light strengthened Jacobus fetched his gun, and the bullets from his study, and together they walked back through the house.
As they entered the outhouse the priest suddenly stopped, his hand reaching out toward an empty space on a shelf.
“She’s taken it.” He turned to Jan. “I forgot she can read my mind, she knew where the wolfbane was kept. It’s enough to kill a dozen men.”
He leapt to the door, hurling the bar aside, and thrust it open.
Verka sat at peace inside the cage, the empty bottle at her side. She was fully dressed, and turned to smile at them.
“I didn’t know, but I had faith,” she said. “For your friend, who had been a man, it killed the human and left only the wolf. And for one who had been a wolf, it destroyed the wolf and left only the human.”
Jacobus tore at the locks to open the door, and she fell out into Jan’s arms.
“But I’m only a woman now, I can’t see your mind.”
But that didn’t matter any more to Jan, or to her, as they held each other.
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Publication Date: 03-18-2010

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