Shapeshifter

When I was a child, a wolf visited me in the garden behind our house. I was not aware of the dangers a wolf could be for a child of my age. I thought he was a large, husky dog. He was handsome and beautiful animal with gray, thick fur. I rode behind his back and we leapt towards the forest. On the hard ground, I leaned against his back as he lay licking his paws in complete satisfaction over our companionship. I spoke to him of stories read to me at bedtime and he fell asleep.

Slowly, he soon turned into a fine young boy. I wondered about this, realizing I have never seen a dog turn into human before. I watched him sleep, slipped my red ribbon from hair and tied it around his neck so that I would recognize him, whenever he came my way again.

As he woke up, He gradually turned into a wolf again. I rode his back once more and he brought me back to our garden behind our house.

When I turned eighteen, my parents honored me with a private party in the garden behind our house. There was a giant tent where guests converged to toast my debut. A young man danced with me and everyone were distracted by the passing of champagne, the slicing of the giant, pink cake and their chitter chatter of events in our large family. Wind blew. The candle from the cake tossed to the curtain of the tent. Flame quickly spread throughout the tent and the guests quickly ran towards the house as maintenance of the party tried in vain to shower down the fire with hoses. I was left at the corner. I tried to reach the table and hide beneath it when a wolf with a red ribbon on his neck, emerged from the trees and knelt before me nudging me to climb his back once again. I did and again he leapt into the forest with me on his back. Within the forest I saw him shake off the ashes of fire and he came to be a young man now. He was handsome with soft eyes that pierced through my own.

“Who are you?”

“You will soon know.” He replied and led me back to our house as a man wearing nothing and thus, could only take me as far as the deciduous trees of our backyard garden. The tent was gone in cinders and smoke seethed everywhere. Only I stood in the middle of the wet bedlam with a silly smile on my face. I had fallen in love.

My parents found me standing still, gazing lovingly at the woods behind our house. They had panicked upon my disappearance and thought I had caught fire and I thought I almost did if it weren’t for the wolf who saved me.

Years later, as I became a researcher of mythology particularly the demystification of shape-shifters with the secret belief that they did exist and that I used my degree as a mask for what everyone could only study as a myth, a symbol for semiotics to study, a matchmaker was summoned by my parents who worried, I studied too much and would never marry.

And so, to appease my parents I reluctantly agreed to an arranged marriage.

The matchmaker flipped through her album of potential husbands, taking note of my zodiac sign and the numerology of my name. I was about to stand up and get a glass of water when a face caught my eye. There he was, the face of my friend, the shape-shifting wolf. He was the son of a rich businessman whom my father knew for our country is a small town and everyone knew everyone.

Our meeting was arranged at the garden of a clubhouse where I saw him from afar playing golf. He seemed slack and bored. When he saw me, he did not flinch in recognition. He simply smiled courteously and shook my hand which hurt my feelings for I had thought he would be more intimate. After all, I knew his secret. As soon as we gathered by the table overlooking the golf course and our parents walked the verandah of the club, he gestured towards me by crossing his forefinger across his lips. I gasped and almost laughed. It was all almost a game for this man. He talked of working in his father’s company and that he was more reclusive than celebrated as a billionaire. His name was Raj.

I looked at him unable to speak. I could only listen.

“And what do you do?”

“I do research. On fairy tales.” I felt I sounded so faint and incomparable to his accomplishments. But that is what I did, chased fairy tales, thanks to him.

“I guess we are to be married.” He said then put a fast one on me. “Are you sure you want to marry me?”

I couldn’t tell whether he was kidding me because only the both of us knew who he was and what he was capable of being, a shapeshifter.

And then he laughed, a deep, ironic laugh.

We married on a calm, breezy day which caused the tapers to blow off. When he lifted my veil I demurred and kissed him finely on his lips.

We had a child within a month of our honeymoon in their mountain residence within a forest. We named our son Jason and he sought to see if he had any signs of turning. Fortunately, our son was normal.

There were days when my husband, Raj, would disappear at night, shapeshifting into a

wolf foraging in the depths of the forest. Those were nights I worried about him. I would not know where he was and what fate awaited him there.

One day, wildfire spread across the forests, flickered by humans who wanted clearing for their cattle. I was urged by the Bureau of Forestry to abandon our house and take shelter in the open clearing. I told them my husband was somewhere in the forests. But I had to take Jason somewhere safe. I thought: I don’t quite seem to find you. My heart was beating fast therefore I knew he was still alive.

After the fires, I had almost given up hope of finding Raj. I would sit by the window sill of my parents’ home watching for any sign of him.

The wind rustled, the bushes moved and I found him a limping wolf towards our house. I rushed towards him and he slowly turned. I brought him naked towards our house and nursed his wounds first before leaving him to rest. He awoke, days later and smiled. It was the brightest smile I have ever seen. It was a proud smile. He gone through the wildfires to get back to his family because we were deep in his heart and he navigated beneath falling embers of trees to come back to us.

#@chainedinshadow