Just an Old Legend Ch. 09

Lia smiled warmly, "What I'm positive would make you deliriously happy would be to find a good-looking man with a fairly strong personality. But he also has to be soft toward you, and allow you your good humor and flamboyant ways. That's the type that I'm always keeping my eyes open to find for you - when I'm not looking for a guy for myself. I'm not having much luck at it either, but then I'm not looking for the same kind that I think would be just perfect for you."

Dacia looked over with awe, "That's really deep, Lia. It's like you can see right into me." She paused to think on it, "I'm fairly certain that you're right, too." She sighed and settled in against Lia's shoulder comfortably and was still for a moment.

"But I still like-"

Lia clapped her hand over Dacia's mouth, "Enough. Say that one more time to me and I'll decide that you're too drunk and really need to be held under an ice cold shower. Understand?"

Dacia's bright eyes opened wide over the side of Lia's thumb, "Mm-hmmf," she said with a slight nod.

"Good," Lia said, "I love you to death and beyond only for being my friend. I haven't ever had a friend like you, Dacia. But I have no interest in what you are talking about here, and even less in hearing about it if it concerns me." She took her hand away and they sat in silence again.

"That's really kind of you to look out for a guy like you say for me." Dacia sighed with a bit of sadness, "Maybe you could look for a girl like that for me, too. I don't know how to start with one any more than I do with a guy, and the men that I seem to attract like flies are such obvious assholes that I just get repulsed by them."

Lia turned to glare at the smaller woman, "If you're not careful, I'll drag you into one of those clubs and watch as you find that you really don't like girls as much as you think you do while they chase you around because you're so cute or hand you from one to the next to sit on their laps. They can be quite aggressive there and I need more laughter in my dull life."

Dacia was silent for a moment, but it didn't last long.

It never did.

The face beneath the bright red mop turned to her friend, "But if you did that, and I decided that I didn't want to be chased by them, you'd save me, right, Lia? You'd pull me out of there before it went too far, wouldn't you?"

Lia found that it was very hard to keep her face straight now, but she managed it as she replied, "Maybe."

"No," the mop nodded with certainty, "you'd intervene. They'd leave me alone anyway because they'd all see that we're together. If they didn't you'd pull me out and I'd get to go home with the most beautiful woman I know, so you see -"

The rest was replaced by the sounds of Dacia's pleading as she was dragged to the bathroom under Lia's arm. Lia had no trouble holding Dacia balanced against her hip as she turned the shower on full cold and ignored her bleating cries.

"Last chance," Lia said through clenched teeth, "Admit to me that this is foolishness. I'm getting very tired of it all now."

She was surprised to see that her friend was about to cry. She shut off the water and held her up. "What is it now?"

Dacia sniffled, "I'm sorry, Lia. I won't say that anymore. I know that you're right, but I love to tease you like this and wonder what might happen, that's all."

"You mean besides your losing a few teeth?"

Lia exhaled heavily. "Nothing would happen, Dacia. You'd find me to be very unresponsive. I can't even find a man that I want for me. A woman doesn't even come into the picture. Come on, let's go back to the couch. The wine is too far away over there."

The two friends sat in the dark together, sharing the bottle of wine that they passed between them. As so often happened, Dacia's thoughts were random from Lia's point of view. The conversation about her orientation was forgotten to be replaced by something else that her friend hadn't seen coming.

"I just love ghost stories," Dacia sighed as she sat on the floor next to Lia leaning against the couch, "I've adored them since I was a little girl. Do you know any?"

Lia nodded, and Dacia said, "I like them best when It's quiet and dark late at night and I'm a little drunk."

"You mean like now," Lia said.

"Yes," Dacia sighed, "I like all kinds, but my very favorites are the ones that aren't all that scary, but they're really haunting - and I'm not making a joke here, you know, the kind that are a little bit sad in a ghostly way. Do you know any like that?"

"One," Lia replied distantly.

"Well, can you tell it to me? Really quietly?"

"Dacia," Lia said, "I will, but you have to shut up long enough for me to get started at least. And I'm tired, so just listen now."

Dacia's little girl nature seemed to take over and she unconsciously snuggled closer to Lia after she nodded happily. Lia rolled her eyes to herself and sighed. It was like babysitting a young cousin or something.

"In the middle of the Carpathian mountains, I know of a sunny mountain meadow. It's a beautiful place, and from near the top of it, you can see far down, almost all the way to next week if the sun is out. It's so pretty all year round, but my favorite time of year is the late spring to early summer when the wildflowers are almost jumping out of the ground. I go there sometimes to watch a couple of ghosts."

"In the daytime?" Dacia asked, whispering.

"Ghosts are trapped spirits, Dacia. They do what they've always done. In this place, the daytime is the time for them. Anyway, at the top of this slope, there are some trees and an old cart path road. This is at the end of it. Farther along below, there's what's left of a little village. There's nobody much left there. The people left a long time ago to get jobs in the city. The end of the road at the top has the ruins of two small cottage farms about 300 meters apart. One is in worse shape than the other because the people who lived there moved away sooner, but both stand empty now and have for a long time."

"I think that sometimes a life is fated to suffer before it's really begun. One of the ghosts was a young girl. She was born with bent and twisted legs, and so she had a lot of trouble getting around and walking was a terrible task for her. Her parents were as poor as anyone else around there, but they did without a lot of things and were able to buy her braces for her legs, and shoes to make her feet and legs begin to grow straight. The worst was the shoes for their daughter. These shoes were very expensive, and of course the girl grew, even though she was small for her age. They couldn't always get her the shoes that she needed, so she wore the ones that she had until the shoes themselves hurt her feet."

"The people in the other cottage were just as poor, but the man there knew how to work leather a little bit, and he always did his best to make her shoes fit better, and sometimes even made new rough-looking shoes out of the poor leather that he could make if they slaughtered a cow for meat."

"Being at the end of the road, the girl had a long struggle every day to get to the little school. She had to leave much earlier than the other children so that she wouldn't be late and also because - well, children can be very cruel. They would tease her and often push her down so that they could laugh as she tried to get back up again."

"The other family had a boy the same age as the girl. He was only a little bit bigger, but he had a very large heart. He would walk with her to school. Whenever the girl was knocked down, if he saw who had done it, he would fight them with everything that he had, no matter how many there were. He often had his own clothes torn up from it and he would be beaten by his parents when he got home, though his father was never too hard on him after he learned why his son had done it. After he'd driven the other children off, the boy would comfort the crying girl and help her up. He always made her stand up straight so that he could see if the leg braces needed to be adjusted for her."

"They liked to sit together there on the slope in the meadow and talk. The girl would ask him why he always fought so hard for her, and he would say that he did it to hurt the other children enough to make them think before they tried to push her again. Since they didn't care about the girl, they would have to care about how they'd get beaten if they tried it. Sometimes he would get beaten pretty badly too, but the girl could see that he always put his heart into it so that they'd leave her alone."

"The boy grew stronger and bigger, and they were the best of friends who always had each other. If he had trouble with schoolwork, the girl would do anything that she could to help him with his lessons so that he would be able to do as well as her. He could have been friends with any of the children, but he loved that girl and always looked out for her. She had a lot of trouble getting around on the slope, but he encouraged her to try as hard as she could to get stronger and manage better. He always seemed to know when the girl couldn't go on anymore, and then he'd pick her up and carry her home so that her mother could rub her aching legs with liniment. None of the other children liked the girl because of her deformity, and the two friends went to the meadow often because they'd be left alone there."

"I can see them when I sit on the slope there. Sometimes, I see them walking, and I can almost hear the words that the boy says to the girl, always praising her, but watching so carefully to know when she can't go further. Sometimes I see them sitting close together and talking as the girl paints pictures of the world with her words and they watch the clouds. My heart always flies if I see that the boy is lying on his back, so that the girl can lie down and rest her head on him, because it was her favorite way to spend their time together with him telling tales of adventures that they might have together some day. I sit there and cry for them, but it always makes me feel a little better if I'm feeling sad when I go there."

"The years passed, and with the boy's constant help, the girl's legs began to grow straight, and they did start to grow strong, finally. The boy was always there for his friend, no matter what work he had to do. If she could, the girl tried to help, and he told her it helped him even if she only was there as he worked. But one day, the boy's father gave up his farming there and took a job closer to the city, though still on a farm. Both of the children were upset because the boy would be moving away. The girl tried hard not to cry because her friend had always taught her to do her best to be strong and not let anyone see that she had to struggle so hard."

"The last day was the worst. They sat in the meadow for hours only hugging each other, each fighting back their tears. Finally, the boy's parents called him to go. The two friends kissed each other one last time, and he walked away up the slope. The girl stood and waved until he was gone. Then she began to cry until she thought that her poor heart had burst from her sobs. She didn't know what to do without him and she cried for weeks."

"The boy's father was a relation of the schoolteacher, and together they'd sat down some time before and wrote a letter on the girl's behalf to the officials of the school district. The letter moved from one desk to another up the line, until one day some months after, it was arranged that the girl was to go to a better school where she might learn at a speed more suited to her own pace. She was twelve then and arrangements were made for her to board at the school free of charge. She excelled in this school and graduated quickly. By the time that she'd finished, she was sent to a college, and then offered a job as a teacher herself and as a young woman now, she began to teach."

"While all of this was happening, she received care for her legs, and the doctors were amazed that there were now only small adjustments needed before she could walk without braces and even run for the first time in her life. She told them of her friend and how he had encouraged her. They told her that he'd done exactly what she'd needed, far more than the village doctor had ever done for her."

"The boy's grandparents stayed at the old farm, and when she could, the girl would travel home and visit with them hopefully to learn what she could of her friend. He had grown by now and helped his father until he was old enough to join the army and become a soldier. The young woman always hoped to be able to see him again because she loved him so. Some of the boys in that place were now interested in her, but all that she could remember was the way that they'd treated her before. She wanted only her boy, as she thought of him, and nobody else even held her attention."

Dacia was enthralled by the tale, but she was also surprised to see that there were now tears on her friend's cheeks.

Lia sighed sadly, "But it never happened. Their lives and their jobs worked against them, and then his grandmother got sick and died. The old man did not live long after her, and then the young woman got no news at all for some time. One day, a letter came from the girl's aunt informing her family of her cousin's wedding. The groom was the girl's friend from long ago. Her parents were the poorest of the relations and had received no invitation to the wedding. So the girl went back to her little room at the college and cried yet again."

"A year or so later, she was visiting her parents and learned that the boy had gone to start a farm in another land far away. The cousin now came to visit sometimes, and once admitted to the girl that she had feigned becoming pregnant so that the boy would marry her. It was an easy matter then, she said to "lose" the baby after the wedding. The girl didn't know what to think, but what could she do about it? They were married then. She hadn't seen the boy in years at this point, and just gave up her childhood dream of loving the boy for herself."

Dacia stirred after a few seconds of silence, "What happened then? What happened to the boy?"

Lia was still for another moment and then she continued, "Almost two years later, the cousin visited again while the girl was at home and said that the boy had sent her enough money for her to join him. They sat up late at night and talked. The girl by now hated her cousin for many reasons, and made an excuse to step outside for some air. She felt that if she couldn't get away from her cousin, she'd tell her what she thought, but as she walked a little, she heard a sound behind her, and when she turned around, she found that her cousin was coming after her quickly and began to turn into a wolf before her eyes. Before the girl could even try to run, she was forced to the ground and bitten. The cousin stood up and laughed, saying that she knew of her feelings toward her husband, and that she'd now go to him and make him a werewolf as well. The girl ran stumbling and falling down the dark slope of the mountain and into the forest. As she wept, she began to change."

"What happened then is that her life ended as she knew it. She never went home again, she never saw her family again, except for once as a wolf. She lived like an animal for many years after. As a wolf, she hunted other animals to eat, and even preferred it to being a woman, because as a woman, she would remember her life and all of its pain more clearly."

"That's terrible," Dacia said, "What happened to her? What happened to the cousin and the boy?"

"After many long years, the girl became like a ghost in her heart. She met others like herself and they began to try to bring themselves up from beasts to be intelligent creatures at last. She still does this, but she is a ghost in reality. When she visits the old meadow all alone, she then feels as though it's the only time that she's not a ghost herself when she sees the ghosts of the boy that she loved and never had for herself, and the girl who she once was."

"But," Dacia struggled, "How can she be a ghost? You said she was a werewolf."

Lia's face showed only a sad smile, "She is a werewolf today and has been since she was bitten. She lives like a ghost. She feels like a ghost. Remember that I said that ghosts are trapped spirits, Dacia. What is the difference if the spirit is trapped in some small place like a graveyard, making little noises, or trapped on a hillside, being a happy girl, or trapped in an empty but busy life, and never having been happy since the day that her boy left? It's true, she is not dead, but that's just a matter of time, isn't it? Even werewolves do not live forever."

"So she's not dead then? Do you know her? Is she really a werewolf? How do you know of this, Lia? Have you seen her there? It makes no sense to me now."

"All right," Lia said quietly, "she still lives, though all of this happened long before you were born. You know her because you know me. Remember me? Your glamorous friend? You know that I am a huntress. Some of us hunt others who act like beasts and kill people. I hunt them and I kill them as you know, Dacia. That is my glamorous job."

She sniffled quietly for a moment and then tried to speak, but her voice cracked and her pain came out along with her words.

"I am the girl. I am a ghost who still lives, but doesn't know what for. Until I met you, I didn't care about anybody anymore. Now I have a friend who is not afraid of me." She opened her shirt, and Dacia saw the torn scar there above one breast.

Dacia was saddened for her friend. She'd known what Lia was for a while but had never heard her story, or even considered that Lia was far older than she appeared to be. "I thought that it was just a story," she said, trying not to stare at her friend now, but not being able to help it as she noticed the silent tears streaming from her eyes.

"That's what they are, Dacia. That's what they all are. But each one of those stories contains a life that has been ruined and cannot ever be repaired. There is nobody living near the meadow now. It took me many years, but I bought the land of the upper meadow and I bought the two small ruined farms. It's the only place in the world where I can go to feel a little bit better for a while. "

"You wanted to know about the boy, and you joked that you wanted me to bring back a werewolf for you. Nothing was ever heard about my cousin or her husband by their families again. Sometimes I find werewolves who do not know about the federation. If I can, I try to see if they are sane and then I pass their location on to Micha for him to arrange what might have to be done for them."

Her beautiful face hardened for a moment after she wiped her tears with her hand. "Do you ever wonder why I hunt? I have a different hope now. If I ever find that my cousin still lives somewhere in North America, the federation can do whatever they want to me afterward for breaking the rules. I swear that I'll rip her rotten heart out of her chest with my bare hands to kill her. That's all that I want for myself anymore."

"What would you do if you found the boy still alive as a werewolf?" Dacia asked.

Lia shook her head, "The odds are very long that either of them are still alive if they've lived as beasts. Even if they were still alive, they'd look awful for it. If he still lived and I found him after killing my cousin? I don't really know what I'd do, Dacia. I think I'd probably let him watch me kill myself in front of him with my silver blade."

Lia sighed, "Now you know why I can't find a man for myself. I almost always have no interest, and even if I did, what would be the point? A human man couldn't love me like I'd want as what I am. Another werewolf wouldn't know a thing about loving me as I know that my Nikki would if none of this had happened, and a human man might be able to do that, but would never be able to get as close to my heart as Nikki would have with just his touch."