In a small village, there was a young girl. “Mom, I am just
so tired. I can’t stand waking up in the mornings to work at the farm anymore.
Why are we so poor?” she asked as she was picking out weed from their farm
where they planted vegetables. Lily was the middle child out of 7. Her parents
were not wealthy and had to work really hard just to get food on the table.
Every morning they would go to their farm to plant crops and pick them if they
were ripe.
One day Lily got angry with her parents because she did not
want to go to the farm. She cried and walked down a path she had never gone on
before. As she was walking, some one called out, “Hey what’s your name?” She
turned around in shock thinking she was the only one there. He was handsome and
very tall. She had never seen him before.
“My name is Lily,” she responded. “What’s yours?”
“I’m Joseph, I live right around the corner. What are you
doing here?” he asked.
“I got angry with my parents so I decided to get some fresh
air. I have a really big family and I am just tired of working every single
day. Why can’t I be a normal girl and live freely?”
“Well you can come live with me” he responded quickly. “Well
my parents will probably freak out so that’s probably not a good idea.”
“I promise if you marry me, you will never have to work a
day in your life and neither will your family. I can provide food and shelter
for all of you.”
As soon as Lily heard this, she turned around quickly with a
smile on her face. “Really?” she asked.
“Yes” he answered.
Lily went back to her house and told her family that she was
going to get married. They were all in shock and couldn’t believe her. She told
them what Joseph said and that they could live in the house next door to
Joseph’s. Trusting their daughter, they agreed. Lily got married and they all
moved in.
“Has anyone seen Macy?” asked their mother. Macy was Lily’s
younger sister. “I asked her to go down to the river to bring back some water
but she hasn’t returned.”
“Oh don’t worry, she probably used another route home,”
replied Lily.
Several days have gone by and another sister has gone
missing. Lily was oblivious to all of this. Her response was always, “Maybe
they went somewhere. They’ll return.” Lily was really into Joseph and believed
everything he said.
Day by day, each family member went missing and Lily did not
seem to notice.
One day, she finally noticed and asked Joseph if he had seen
them. “How could they just go somewhere and not tell me.”
“Maybe they didn’t like living here so they moved,” Joseph
suggested.
Lily soon became a little suspicious. She knew her family
and they weren’t like that at all. She went around to look for her family one
night and noticed something strange. She found pieces of clothing that she
definitely recognized. She then proceeded to walk towards it. As she was
walking she noticed something in the woods. She couldn’t tell if it was a human
or a wolf. She rubbed her eyes and took another glance. It was Joseph, her
husband, who has turned into a wolf. He was in the middle of a meal. He dropped
what he had and started running towards Lily.
Lily finally put everything together and realized what
happened to her family. With the feeling of guilt, Lily did not run. She let
her wolf-husband eat her.
Joseph thought to himself, “everyone around here is so
foolish” as he waits for another sad lonely girl walking down the same path
Lily had walked.
(Wolf abstract: Pixabay)
Author’s note: I was inspired to write this story after
reading “The Wolf-Aunt.” In the original story, a father was foolish and
tricked into moving his whole family into his sister’s house. The sister was
really just a wolf woman. I changed the character that was tricked by this
werewolf. I thought it would be interesting to make this story about a foolish
young girl who is so sprung on this man and doesn’t realize who he really is.
Bibliography: Persian tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer
and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts. Web source. The Wolf-Aunt
