Broken Fairy Tales

5

Ps: Please speak your name, only just once. We would love to know it.

The note left me with far more questions than it answered. The house seemed to know my every want. But didn't know my name? Could read my mind, but not know me?

That didn't seem right. I had heard a story when I was young of Rumpelstiltskin. How knowing his name gave you power over him. I had no control over anything anymore. Apparently my name was the last bit of power I might have. I was going to keep it to myself until I knew the value of what I would give up to reveal it to my unseen hosts.

Rin was eager. It had been far too long since I was able to safely let him free. He longed to run, to feel the breeze in his fur and the ground under his paws as he ran like the wind as only he could. I let the robe fall to the floor and my shift was smooth and silk as Rin burst forward and ran down the lit path with joy.

Rin had run and stalked the entire perimeter and was following trails only he could sense back and forth over the enclosed space within the cliff faces. Until a single game trail had started ahead of him almost out of thin air. Rin had stalked and hunted the plump winter rabbit until it was cornered and he caught it. The warm blood of the small rodent filled his mouth as he savored the victory of the hunt. Satiated and pleased with his efforts, Rin walked back to the castle, easily giving up control as we entered the building from the garden door from the topiary filled terrace. Once more torches lit the path for the corridors they should follow.

I could feel the blood drying on my face and was eager to be clean and clothed once more. I could smell the familiar scent of incense and essential oils, but as I opened the door the room was different. There remained an old fashioned copper tub, ready with steaming prepared water. But now a modern shower with myriad shower heads was occupying one corner. I went to the shower, turning the taps until the water was almost scalding my skin. Stepping inside and willing the hot water to burn away everything.

When the water was finally running clear, I left the shower, leaving wet, dripping foot prints on the stone tile as I walked to the large tub in the center of the room. Letting my rinsed body sink into its warmth to enjoy it once again. Whatever was combing my memories was getting better, Everything I would have dreamed of for a modern bath was there now, including my preferred brand of multi bladed razor. When I exited the bath this time, I was led somewhere new, I had plodded down the hall in my slippers and robe and stopped at a new door, which opened to reveal a proper bed chamber.

The dresser was stocked with clothes, underwear, socks, pajamas all in my size, while the closet was the wardrobe I had only ever dared dream about. I knew it was all conjured, and not real, not real world real anyways. But still, I appreciated that something wanted so many of my internal secret dreams to come true. Not enough to give up my name yet though. I couldn't trust so easily. Doom came in a seductive package once already. I wouldn't be fooled twice.

An evening meal appeared, complete with a table set for one while I had stepped into the adjoining modern washroom. Identical in most ways to the supper the night before. But it was filling, and tasty and made my heart and body warm.

Tired from Rin's efforts hunting, and everything that had happened before to lead me here. I went to the large bedstead in the center of the room. The thick four posters in each corner were hung with heavy velvet to keep the guest inside warm. I undid the ties, letting the drapes fall open. Any warmth kept inside, and any eyes kept without. I didn't know how tired I was as I fell into a deep sleep in the soft mattress.

~llits-Still-llits~

The voice soft, as everything came to a stop. Ash crawled into the large bed, settling herself next to him, his arm positioned almost like it was around her, even though time was frozen and he was deeply asleep. Unaware she was there at all.

He smelt very good to her. Pine, mint, and man. He smelled like things she wanted, and it was making her take risks. Made her want to take even more risks. My pretty wolf. She said to herself as she tucked his curling hair behind his ear. He tasted like sadness to his soul, but still he kept going. She liked that about him. His heart tasted as lonely as hers did.

Ash wished she could go to him. Talk to him, see if his eyes really sparkled as much as they did in her head when he flashed to a happy memory. She wanted to hear him laugh with her own ears, see a smile grow on his lips. She had been cursed to live out her days alone until her family came back to her and set her free. This man was not her family. Her whole body screamed at her with a very not familial urge. She had been cursed. To live out her days alone to learn the cost of her mistake until it was time for her family to rise again.

It had been a curse to leave her alone and broken. Ash had spent so much time alone, she wasn't even sure how to be around someone else anymore. But this mysterious stranger was the first new face she had seen in so long. Maybe, just maybe it was possible that this stranger who had shown up at her door would be the key to something new. At the very least he was proving a very pleasant distraction.

Ash curled herself up in the crook of his arm, marveling at how she seemed to fit in the space his frozen form had left so perfectly for her to cuddle into, against his warm body. Like he had been waiting for her. Like she was a missing piece that completed him. He was frozen in place, unable to react, so she imagined that the stranger who still wouldn't say his own name welcomed her touch, and her body near his happily. She took one of his hands, and wrapped it around herself. Welcoming the warmth from his body that seeped into her own. Knowing she was so well shielded from him, he had no idea she was here in the castle at all.

Ash wanted to do more, to unfreeze him and try to talk to him. But was too unsure of herself. Instead she reveled in how it felt just to be held in the frozen arms of another mostly living being, suspended in her pause on the world.

Ecstasy clear on so many minds as her empath heart searched the world, catching people as they drowned themselves in what was truly the best life had to offer, fearing that the end was near as the ripples of whatever magic event even she had felt intruded around the worlds.

His wolf feared the end as well. She could taste it on him. But her heart, she could taste that he was strong. He wanted more than an end. He longed for fresh beginnings. Where he could start again. Where he could be himself from the start. Every night he gave her his dreams, and let her know a little more of him.

Each night he stayed, Ash spent some time, tucked up in his arms, feeling him, helping him manage his emotions, helping to weave his dreams for more nightmare free nights.

She was learning so much and yet not enough. He was an alpha without a pack. A Wolf without a mate. He was lost. And Ash had once excelled with helping the lost find their way again.

Each night, in his deepest sleep, the unnamed alpha would cry in his sleep. Apologizing for what he had done, never admitting it. The curiosity nearly burned Ash alive, until she fell into the memory. Unable to stop herself. As though the nightmare had pulled her into it.

She was in the body of the wolf who slept on her couch right now, seeing the nightmare that tormented him to his core.