Vulpe
Louve was both excited and nervous; she was returning to her roots, but was not sure what to expect. Her mother had left the village before Louve was born and had always said she would never go back.
After leaving home her mother had eventually married an older man who was Louve’s dad. He had died when Louve was fifteen. She loved her dad very much and missed him greatly.
Louve knew her mother loved her father, but their marriage had always seemed like it was missing something. After Louve’s father had died her mother told her that in the old country there was a young man she once loved very much but he died falling off a cliff and that was why she left and could not bear to go back. There would never be another that she loved like him.
Several years later tragedy struck again, and Louve lost her mother in an automobile accident. By this time she was in her twenties and had a job. But the death of her mother affected her much more than she could ever imagine. That’s when she started to have a desire to return to her roots.
She inherited quite a bit of money from her parents so she had no need to work if she didn’t want to. She also inherited some property in the small country where her mother had grown up.
In researching the property she found out that she had an uncle and a cousin who still lived in the village. That made her happy because, while she had always wished for relatives, she never suspected she had any.
Since the only family she knew she had, lived there, and since she had a yearning to return to her roots, she decided to go and introduce herself to them.
Once the estate was settled, Louve contacted an attorney in the village. Through him she found out that money had been set aside to keep her house in good condition, even if no one lived there. So she had a place to live.
Louve also found out that her uncle and cousin owned a tavern in the same village. They did not know that her mother had died or that Louve even existed.
How would they react to her just walking in and announcing herself? So here it was; she was going to enter the tavern and meet the only family she knew she had.
On entering, all eyes turned to her. Several of the older men smiled and shook their heads in approval for Louve was truly a beautiful young woman.
She was tall and willowy with soft curves to her body. The most striking thing about her was her blue-green eyes. These were accentuated by her soft, flowing dark brown hair. That, and her beautiful smile, when flashed, would melt the heart of even the most ornery of men.
Behind the bar were two men, one was elder and the other young. The young one said, “Welcome to Tavernă Munte. May we help you?”
Then upon hearing a gasp at his side, he turned to look at his father who had tears running down his eyes and he whispered, “Vulpe, is that you?” You see, Louve looked just like her mother did at that age.
Louve gave a sad smile and said, “No, I am Louve. Vulpe was my mother. She died several months ago. You must be my Uncle Hernri?”
Henri ran around the bar and pulled Louve into his strong arms. He hugged her, crying the whole time, for he truly had loved his little sister. “You look just like your mother and from now on you are part of my family.”
He then kissed her on the forehead and said to his son, “Take care of the bar while your cousin and I talk.”
Louve liked her uncle and cousin very much. Her cousin’s name was Rand and they were about the same age. Rand and his dad worked the tavern together, but when Rand wasn’t doing that he was out hunting wolves. Rand was like his father, tall, lanky and strong.
The Padure de Lupi valley is long and fairly wide. The village, Sat de Munte, is on the lower side of the valley, as are the farms and all the people. The other end of the valley is a forest. The forest begins fairly open and then becomes denser until it is virtually impregnable.
Many years ago two hunters had found a way through this barrier. After they got back, cut up and disoriented, they said the other side was full of all types of wildlife and was beautiful. Included amongst the wildlife were wolves.
At first everything was wonderful, and then they killed a wolf. Out of nowhere came a huge black wolf. There was something about this wolf that made them think it was not of the natural world. The wolf got between them and their rifles.
He chased them back to where they entered, but in reality it was more like he herded them. There was no doubt in the hunters’ minds that he could have killed them anytime he wanted, however it seemed as if he didn’t want to. That’s not to say that he didn’t rough them up, because he did.
When they came back out of the forest they were all cut up, exhausted and very scared.
That which scared them the most was that the wolf hadn’t killed them. That made no sense to the hunters because it was not natural for this to happen. An ordinary wolf would have killed them right away; therefore they believed this wolf was supernatural.
From then on the woods were known as the Haunted Forest and no one tried to go through the impregnable barrier.
It was from out of these woods that wolves would sometimes come and kill goats and sheep. Because of this the valley had several wolf hunters. Rand was the best of these.
Louve was fascinated with this story and would often walk into the forest and dream about what it would be like to get through the barrier. She did not know why she felt this way, but she couldn’t help it. It was like the forest was calling to her. The calling was a loving calling, as if the forest would protect her.
Her uncle would often find her there, scold her about the danger of the wolves and walk her home.
One day she asked her uncle why it upset him so much when she would walk in the forest; after all, the wolves had never been known to attack a person.
“You are so much like your mother, not just in looks but in so many other ways. Your mother would also go into the forest. It was shortly after your mother started walking in these woods when a huge black wolf began appearing in the area. The hunters were alerted and kept trying to trap him.
“I told Vulpe I didn’t want her to go into the forest anymore because of the black wolf. She told me that she never saw the wolf and was not afraid because she had met a young man, and when she was with him she was afraid of nothing.
“This disturbed me even more. I wanted to know where the young man was from and who he was. Vulpe told me that he was from the other side of the barrier, but she would not tell me his name.
“No one could live on the other side of the barrier so I knew this man was up to no good. I told father and he forbade Vulpe to go into the forest. This made no difference and she continued to go. Your mother could be very stubborn like that.
“The people of the village became frightened because there were two evils roaming the land, a huge black wolf and a strange young man who stayed away from the people.
“One autumn evening as the full moon began to rise several of the hunters spotted the black wolf and made chase.
“Because it was a full moon, following him was easy. They came to where there was a bend and knew they had him because he would be trapped on a rocky cliff with only two ways out, toward them or over the cliff.
“Going over the cliff would kill the wolf, and they had their rifles ready if he chose to come toward them. Upon rounding the bend, instead of the wolf, they saw the young man and yelled at him, ‘Where is the wolf?’
“‘Well at least we’ve got you.’
“He grinned and said, ‘I think not,’ and leapt over the cliff himself.
“Well the story spread throughout the valley that the strange man and the wolf were both dead. It must have been true because the wolf was never seen again and the young man never reappeared when Vulpe walked in the forest.
“It was a short time after that that your mother left, never to come back. So you see why I don’t want you wandering in the forest?”
Louve now understood and said she would try not to walk in the woods for her uncle’s sake. But whenever there was a full moon she couldn’t help herself and walked in the forest with the moon shining down its essence upon her.
enough