Katja woke up countless times that night, never able to fall into a deep sleep due to the novelty of knowing someone else—a boy, no less—was in her room.
She got up the next morning without feeling rested, doubtful she'd slept for more than a couple of hours, then changed clothes in the bathroom, worried about leaving Wolf alone for any length of time while also worrying about running into other Hexen in the shared space.
Before she left for her workroom, she applied spells that would keep anyone, including the Helferin, from entering her room and discovering her roommate. As the day progressed, she found herself so preoccupied with what Wolf was doing and if he was safe that she couldn't concentrate on her metalwork and burned her wrist in her carelessness.
She returned to see him at lunch, bringing him food from the kitchen, which he politely sniffed but otherwise showed no interest in.
Unsure what to do, Katja spent more and more time in her workshop over the next few days, leaving her bedroom early in the morning and returning only when it was time to sleep.
She didn't want to pressure Wolf to interact with her and thought he might appreciate some privacy to adjust to his new life, and while some part of her knew it wasn't a sustainable situation, she also hadn't identified any other long-term solutions.
As she stepped into her room one night a few days later, closing the door quickly behind her, she glanced over at Wolf, laying on the rug in wolf-form. His front legs were extended before him, his chin propped on his thick black fur, and as he let out a sigh, something stirred in Katja's heart.
"You have to be going crazy in here," she said. "Even with the window to look out of and my books to read, you still have to get bored."
"It's really more that I get lonely," replied Wolf. "I got so used to spending every second with you, it's too quiet when I'm by myself now." He glanced up at Katja and gave a sheepish shrug. "I miss hearing your voice."
Katja couldn't believe anyone, even a trapped shapeshifter, would derive comfort from her voice, but she also didn't want to be rude and correct Wolf when he was only sharing how he felt. Instead, she cleared her throat and tried to forget what he'd said in favor of finding a solution.
"What if we start by taking you to my workroom?" she suggested. "At least you could see a different part of the castle."
"Alright," agreed Wolf, rising to all fours faster than Katja had ever seen an animal move before. "How will we get me there? Are you going to cast an invisibility spell?"
Katja shook her head.
"The castle is warded against invisibility spells," she explained. "The Hexen don't want anyone sneaking in without their knowing, and the younger children definitely used it in the past to cause mischief. So, that's not an option."
"What if I turn into a human and we dress me up as one of the Hexen?" suggested Wolf. "I could wear some of your clothes, and a scarf and a hat, too. We could make it clear we were in a hurry so no one would stop us."
Katja grimaced. "The only problem with that is, I'm always by myself. If someone saw me walking, much less talking, with someone else, it would definitely draw attention."
She looked at Wolf, then quickly dropped her eyes to the ground. "I'm sorry," she added.
"It's not your fault," Wolf replied. "It's just a problem we have yet to find a solution to."
Katja appreciated his optimism, even though she didn't necessarily agree with it. Then, something occurred to her. "What if we hid you in a cart?"
"Excuse me?" Wolf raised his silver-furred eyebrows.
"Yes!" said Katja, becoming more enthusiastic the longer she considered the idea. "I could get a cart, and we could put you at the bottom of it, then cover you with clothes...or blankets...something that wouldn't look out of the ordinary for me to be moving around."
"But won't a cart be difficult to manage with so many stairs?" asked Wolf dubiously.
"No," said Katja, picturing the different corridors of the castle in her mind. "Over the years, the Hexen have changed most of them out for ramps, since not everyone is able to use them. We could definitely get from here to my workroom without encountering any stairs."
"You really think it's possible?" asked Wolf, and Katja could see the glimmer of hope in his bright eyes.
"Yes," she said firmly.
The next morning, Katja rose early, bundled in warm clothes, and made her way to the barn, fresh snow crunching beneath her boots. Opening the large sliding door, she inhaled the pleasant scents of hay, dirt, and warm animal bodies. A horse nickered at her from its stall and two goats bleated, ready to be turned out to pasture.
Katja grabbed a small pushcart that looked to be of a size she could manage, then steered it towards the courtyard. Thankfully, it hadn't snowed much throughout the night, and the wheels of the cart were able to find stone beneath the thin layer of powder. She was also grateful the slatted sides of the cart would make it more difficult for those passing by to see what she was pushing.
She took the longer route to her room, having to double back twice because of encountering stairs she'd forgotten about.
When she finally reached her chamber, she was sweating and breathing faster; it would be even harder pushing the cart with Wolf in it, but she could do it. Her arms were strong from bending and shaping larger pieces of metal, and she was used to moving things by herself because doing so was always preferable to asking someone for help.
Pushing open her bedroom door, she wheeled the cart inside, awkwardly catching one wheel on the doorframe, which required her to back up and try again, but eventually, the cart was in the room.
Wolf stood in front of her wardrobe in wolf-form and eyed the cart with a mixture of excitement and doubt. "Do you really think this will work?"
"We're going to make it work," replied Katja. "I think you should lie down on the bottom, and I'll cover you with blankets."
"Alright," Wolf said, before gracefully leaping up and over the railing, landing softly inside the cart where he curled himself into a tight ball. "I'm ready," he said, his voice muffled by the fact that his tail was draped over his snout.
Katja took the blanket he'd been using at night and placed it over him. She added two blankets from her own bed, as well as the extra quilt she kept in her wardrobe, trying to shape a mound that looked like a pile of blankets.
Stepping back, she surveyed her handiwork. It was hard not to see everything wrong with the contents of the cart, but then again, no one passing by would have any reason to suspect Katja was transporting anything other than the very obvious blankets.
"How does it look?" came Wolf's muffled voice.
"Very normal," replied Katja. "Like I'm taking a cartful of blankets to my workspace. Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be!" replied Wolf, and something about his tone made Katja smile because she could picture the expression on his face as he said it.
"Then here we go!" she said, taking a deep breath.
Holding the bedroom door open as she pushed the cart into the hallway proved tricky, especially with the added weight of Wolf, but she managed and soon they were on their way.
Katja wasn't certain what was more difficult—maintaining control when the corridor sloped downwards and the cart threatened to speed away from her, or when the hallway rose upwards, requiring her to use her legs, as well as her arms, to push the cart up the incline.
Thankfully, they only passed a handful of Helferin sweeping or dusting or otherwise engaged in preparing the castle for the day ahead, and they nodded silently at her before continuing their work.
While it seemed as if it had never taken so long to reach her workroom, eventually Katja stopped the cart in front of the heavy wooden door, chest rising and falling in quick succession as she sought to catch her breath. Undoing the spells on her door, she rallied her strength and shoved the cart into the room, kicking the door closed behind her and letting out a relieved exhale as the golden marks for privacy shimmered, then sank back into the dark wood.
"I think we did it," she said, removing the blankets.
Wolf stood up, shook himself off, then looked around, taking in her workroom before jumping over the side of the cart and setting off to explore, his nose pressed against the baseboards until he'd sniffed the entire periphery.
Then, standing on his back legs, he rested his front paws against the table and studied the tools and objects scattered across it, looking at the cabinets, the jewelry hanging from the hooks in the wall, and the wardrobe in the corner.
Katja suddenly remembered she'd never shared her workspace with anyone before, at least not for more than the minute or two it took to open the door and exchange a broken or repaired object.
What was Wolf going to say about her prized space? Would he like it? Or would he think it drab and cluttered, too small to be homey, its location a further reminder that the other Hexen preferred her out of their sight as much as possible?
Anxiously waiting for the wolf's response, Katja busied herself with folding and stacking the blankets in the corner.
"I see why you like it here," Wolf said after a moment.
Katja straightened and looked at him, and he smiled. "It's lived in but tidy, and everything is clearly well-used. It's not a storage closet pretending to be a workspace—it's the workroom of an artist."
Katja had never received such a nice compliment in her entire life, and she had absolutely no idea how to respond. She tried to form a response but her mouth was so dry, the air simply passed through her throat without sticking around to form words, even as tears welled in her eyes at having her beloved workroom appreciated by someone else.
Wolf either sensed she was in no state to make a coherent reply or hadn't noticed her reaction, because he added, "I wondered if it would feel familiar or not, since I've been here so many times before in the necklace, and I'm glad to say it does. I used to try and imagine what your workshop might look like, but this is far better than my limited envisioning. I mostly just pictured a fire and heaps of metal."
"Thank you," Katja finally managed to say. "This is where I met you for the first time. Well, where I saw the necklace for the first time, I should say. I couldn't get over how lovely it was, and then when I touched it, I was shocked to find it covered in so many spells."
Wolf nodded as his gaze fell on one of the windows, causing his ears to prick.
"Here, you can see something different than the view from my bedroom," offered Katja, crossing the floor and unlatching the window. Wolf trotted over, stood up on his hind legs, and inhaled deeply as he gazed outside.
"We're at the far back of the castle," offered Katja, "on the left-hand side. That's the orchard down below, where we grow our fruit, and the garden is just on the other side."
She pointed out the high stone wall separating the orchard from the woodland behind it.
"Those woods aren't part of the Schwarzwald," she added, "so we're free to gather wood or mushrooms and berries from there without fear of trespassing where we aren't allowed."
Wolf nodded, then rested his chin against the windowsill and gazed longingly at the ground below.
"It doesn't seem fair you've been freed from the necklace just to be trapped in the castle," observed Katja, a frown marring her face. She of all people knew life wasn't fair, but for some reason it was different when she could see it directly affecting someone other than herself.
And then a thought came to her.
"Can you climb?" she asked Wolf.
Wolf turned his head towards her. "You mean, like a tree?" He raised a paw and dangled it in the air. "Not in this form."
"No, not a tree," explained Katja. "In human-form, could you climb down a ladder? Or something like a ladder? Say, a drainpipe? Or maybe a rope?"
"Of course," said Wolf, tilting his head to one side. "Why?"
"We're only on the second floor," said Katja. "It's not terribly high, and I think you could make it to the ground if you used the side of the castle in some way...or we could even lower a rope straight out the window."
"Oh, I don't need any help getting down from here," Wolf said, grasping her plan. "I can jump."
Katja stared at him. "But we're on the second floor."
Wolf nodded. "Ever since I became a shapeshifter, I seem to be impervious to injury. I'm sure there's something out there that could harm me...although I certainly never discovered it." His expression darkened as he spoke, and Katja wondered what he wasn't sharing.
She didn't want to pry, though, so instead she said, "Well, my workroom is even more private than my bedroom. You could stay in here until it gets dark, and then you could jump out the window, and we could walk around the orchard. I don't know how long we'd be able to stay, but it would at least get you outdoors."
Wolf gazed outside a moment longer, then looked at her.
"You don't have to go to so much trouble," he said somberly. "I've already done nothing but disrupt your life. You don't have to go out of your way for me."
Katja wanted to tell him she felt responsible for him, since she was the reason he was no longer in the necklace, but she also didn't want to sound as if she somehow owned Wolf and made his decisions for him. Finally, she settled on what seemed to be middle ground.
"When I first found your necklace, it was such a comfort to me," she said slowly, not used to expressing such sentiments. "I was so grateful to not feel alone anymore, and...I want to give you that same thing. I know you said you'd rather be anywhere than stuck inside the necklace, but I want to try and make things nice for you, since you're here."
Wolf's amber eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and Katja thought he might refuse her, but instead, he sighed.
"It's difficult accepting kindness when I don't deserve it," he said, "but thank you. If you don't think it will draw too much attention, I'd love to visit the orchard tonight."
"It's settled, then," nodded Katja. Glancing over at Wolf and feeling incredibly self-conscious, she nevertheless added, "I'm sure you're used to doing far more exciting things, but for me, this is actually a pretty big adventure. So, thank you for letting me have it."
"I have no doubt you are destined for far greater things than helping a shapeshifter sneak out a window," said Wolf with a roll of his eyes, "but I appreciate it, nonetheless...and I am looking forward to feeling the snow," he admitted.
Katja smiled at him, then turned her attention to the items on table, allowing Wolf to watch the world outside in his own company.
After a while, though, the silence became noticeably louder, even with the sun rising and the birds singing and Hexen doing chores and calling to one another outside. Wolf left the window and went to a spot near the wardrobe where the sunlight formed a warm patch on the ground. Grunting, he stretched out in it and closed his eyes, leaving Katja unsure what to do with herself.
She was going to fix items in need of repairing, of course, but she'd become so accustomed to talking to the necklace, it felt wrong to be working without carrying on a conversation. Of course, now any conversations wouldn't be one-sided, and while that would be yet another thing to adjust to, she also missed the sense of camaraderie she hadn't realized she'd become so accustomed to.
"Are you sleeping?" she eventually asked.
"No," Wolf replied, opening his eyes. "I just didn't want to bother you."
"You're no bother," assured Katja. "If anything...well, you said it earlier...you grew used to hearing me talk, and I grew used to talking to you."
Too nervous to look directly at Wolf, she instead kept her gaze on the silver locket in front of her. "Would you mind if we talked? You could ask me questions about things, or I could tell you what I'm working on. It's just too quiet."
"I'd love to ask you some questions!" said Wolf, pushing himself into a sitting position, ears pricked forward. "Can we start there?"
"Yes!" agreed Katja, relieved to be getting back into some semblance of what had become a normal work day for her. "Ask away, and I'll do my best to answer."
Wolf had clearly been waiting for such an opportunity, and as soon as she answered one question, he had another lined up and ready to go. The more they spoke, the less awkward Katja felt, quickly falling into a rhythm that, while different from the one she'd had before, proved surprisingly more enjoyable now that Wolf could talk back.
She described where the castle was located relative to major rivers and landmarks she thought might have existed back before he'd had been trapped in the necklace, then answered his questions about historical events over the past two centuries as best she could.
She discussed the seasons, the food the Hexen ate, the animals that lived in the castle, the visitors who came seeking assistance, and did her best to describe the clothes folks wore, which was decidedly odd to be discussing with a wolf.
Wolf had also stored up questions based on certain things she'd told him while he'd been in the necklace, especially questions about the library and the texts it contained.
"Did you like to read a lot, before?" Katja asked, hoping the question wasn't too intrusive.
"I used to read anything I could find," Wolf nodded. "The village I grew up in wasn't very large, and there weren't a lot of books, but everyone shared what they had. Once a year, a traveling seller would come, and I'd save up whatever I could to buy as many books as possible."
He grinned, the friendly expression at odds with the tips of his sharp teeth she could just see when he moved his lips. "I always liked fables and fairy tales best."
"I like those, too," agreed Katja.
They quickly fell into discussing their favorite stories, and Katja was surprised at how many tales Wolf knew that she'd never heard of. She promised to borrow books from the library to supplement the few volumes she had in her room, giving Wolf something else to do when he was by himself.
The day flew by and before she knew it, it was time for dinner. She and Wolf had agreed that, while the late winter days were still short and darkness would fall soon, it would be best to wait a few hours to give everyone a chance to fall asleep. They would then walk around the orchard, and Wolf would run and hide at the first sign they'd been discovered.
Katja wasn't certain how she would find him again, short of bringing a cart outdoors in the dead of night and transporting him back to her bedroom, but they'd figure something out.
Wolf wagged his tail goodbye as Katja left for dinner, locking the door behind her and applying the strongest privacy spells she knew.
As she headed to the Essen Hall, she couldn't help feeling excited at having plans for the night, especially plans that involved someone else. Wolf might not have thought their outing was anything special, but to Katja, who had wished for years to share even the smallest experience with someone else, it seemed almost too good to be true.
(Artwork by Wild0ne from Pixabay)