Light and Shadow and Love.

She walked with him, her hand in his. Listening, just listening to the melody in his voice as he spoke to her. She let go of his hand and spun around in front of him,

"Tell me a story, one with love and heart and hope. Make me want, and wish, and then sigh when it ends. Make it come alive for me" she demanded.

He smiled at the passion her lithe form vibrated with, the one that made the beauty in her eyes become a thing alive.

"Alright then, my precious. Listen, and want, and wish."

"There lived a faerie queen, who could only come out from her palace at night, when there was moonlight to guide her steps. For even faeries can have spells cast on them, and she was cursed to take the form of a white bird during the day. 

One night, when the sky was a wild, living, breathing thing, she wandered out into the forbidding structures of the cliffs - and found a lone, wounded black wolf at the base of them. He had eyes of emerald green that watched her warily, but her heart couldn't resist and she walked over to him. She tended him, her art and her skill she used to heal his hurts. 

From that night, he became her companion, walking the hills and the cliffs with her, night after night after night; until as dawn shimmered over the sea, she left him with a flutter of white wings, and a sorrowful call that came from her broken heart."

He paused and she turned to him. 

"Was there no way to break the spell?"

"Oh, there's always a way, isn't there?" He lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. then drew her along toward the cliff path, where the sea began to roar and the wind fly. Moonlight splattered on the high, wild grass, and the path cut between it, turned pebbles into silver coins and weathered stone into hunched elves. She let him guide her up the path, waiting impatiently for him to resume. 

"One morning, a young man was hunting in the fields, for he had nothing but his determination and quiver of arrows and his bow to feed him. The hunger gnawed at him. Game had been scarce for days and he was all but consumed with the hunger inside him. It was then that he saw the white board soaring in the sky, and thinking only of his belly, notched the arrow in his bow and brought her down."

She gasped, stopping short. "But he can't have killed her!"

"I've not finished yet, have I?". He turned to pull her up and then held her a moment, just held her as she fit so well against him. 

"She let out a cry, filled with pain and despair that ripped at his heart, even as his head reeled from lack of food. He ran to her and found her watching him, eyes as silvery-blue as moonlight pooling on the surface of the sea. His hands trembled, as they were eyes he knew, and he began to understand. Though he was half-starved, he did what he could to heal the wound he'd made and took her to the shelter of the cliffs. Building a fire, he sat guarding her and waited for sunset."

He turned her and held her, her back against his chest, so they looked out at the dark sea together. Water rolled back, then in, then again, in a rhythm constant, primitive, sexual. She leaned back against him. "What happened next?"

"What happened was this. As the sun dipped, and night reached out for day, she began to change, as did he. So woman became bird and man wolf, and for one instant they reached for each other. But hand passed through hand, and the change was complete. So it went through the night, with her too feverish and weak to heal herself. And the wolf never left her side, but stayed to warm her with his body and guard her with his life if need be."

"Are you cold?" he asked, as she shivered. 

"No. Touched." she whispered back. 

"There's more yet. Night passed into day again, and again day into night, and each time they had only that instant to reach for each other and be denied. He never left her side to eat, as man or as wolf, and so was near to dying himself. Sensing it, she used what power she had left to strengthen him, to save him rather than herself. For the love she felt for him meant more than her life. Once again dawn shimmered in the sky, and the change began. Once again they reached for each other, knowing it was hopeless, and her knowing she would never see another sunrise. But this time, the sacrifice they'd both made was rewarded. Hands met, fingers clasped, and they looked on each other, finally, man to woman, woman to man. And the first words they spoke were of love."

She turned and smiled, her mouth against his as she whispered, 

"Happy-ever-after?"

"Better. He who had been a king in his own right of a far-off land took his faerie queen to wife. Never did they spend a single sunset or a single sunrise apart for the rest of their days."

"That was lovely." She laid her head on his shoulder and turned into him. "And so is this."