Though the king had many daughters, the princess was the strangest among them, as a result of being the eldest and thus conferred the most privileges. Having never married, her castle was visited by many men who were struck by her beauty. Though these going-ons were troublesome to her father, who had to dispose of several of them, he felt his daughter’s leisure was healthy, as he thought that a woman’s value lied in her beauty and she was given many chances to exercise it.
The king was, so it is said, descended from a god. Therefore his children, particularly the princess, dispensed of justice. Their words were wise because their word was sole.
Thus, upon finding our hero was not a gold-laying goose, she judged the whole misunderstanding forgivable, so long as our hero could retrieve for her a jackalope as a pet. Our hero readily accepted.
However, jackalopes did not exist.
Our hero and the healer traveled deep into the forest, which had taken a sinister air as of late. Since the massacre of griffins, several citizens had been slain in this dense, untameable realm of trees. This was not unusual during the season – beside the heightened activity, the fluttering of love and foraging for food after a long frost, and much more inebriation – but the frequency and brutality of the attacks were notable.
They had set up nets under the dark shade and caught a female deer and a male rabbit. The healer possessed a potion. He tasked himself with smearing the potion on the rabbit’s genitals, while our hero was tasked with the doe. This is what a woman’s genitals look like, our hero thought. Upon setting the deer and rabbit down, they looked upon one another and, seized with passion, mated.
Gestations of this type could only complete under the guidance of the god of the forest. The healer had some of the forest god’s hair; in the sunlight, they shimmered golden and bright. He grafted these hairs onto his finger, which swelled twice its size. Our hero shivered, as he felt something dark and unholy had been done.
The healer drew his finger over the doe’s belly, which swelled large and round. Shrieks of agony were uttered by the doe, and the cries of brood came from her gravid belly. The healer severed the rabbit’s head and poured its blood over the doe’s womb. The jackalope burst from its mother’s womb, using the horns to carve through the flesh. The healer swaddled the jackalope with cloth.
The healer heard the dead leaves rustle. He told our hero to hide. They separated, the healer covering the newborn’s mouth gently but firmly.
Coming from the thicket was a man with the face and claws of a wolf. The wolf man, upon coming across the bodies of the rabbit and doe, cried, devoured them whole, and searched for their assailants. As the healer predicted, the smell of blood overwhelmed the wolf man’s senses. He would leave upon finding no one.
Unfortunately, our hero let out wind.
The wol fman, smelling the wind, pounced across the forest floor and bit our hero once. The shout of the healer surprised him, as well as the mewling of the illicit brood. He turned tail to pursue the healer, leaving our hero to walk alone, dizzy, on all fours.
© 2025 François-Marie Lee