I waved at the undead couple every time they went fishing. Many tourists were upset with them because they didn’t look fierce, rotting, or gory. They had died their first death in their sleep when a poisonous cloud overtook them. Because no death rites were done to seal their bodies or send away their spirits, they returned and animated their flesh three days later.
Their skin is hued with grays in a pleasant manner. Like viewing living flesh through a gray lens. The whites of their eyes are black. The irises a curious mix of green and brown.
They smell like dry autumn leaves.
They loved each other in life and that love continues in undeath. Poets have written of their deepening devotion. He brings her flowers. She can’t smell them any more but she goes through the motion anyway. She rubs his shoulders when he’s upset about the lack of fish. Once she knocked his arm off from rubbing to vigorously. The butcher gave them a pound of meat to help glue the joint back together.
They have been undead for centuries. He fished to feed their desire for living flesh. It didn’t take much to satisfy them. One small fish a day for each of them. A large fish would hold them for several.
When a plague swept through the region, they were blamed initially. When their condition remained whole the villagers wanted to destroy them thinking their gods were offended by the couple’s continued existence. Too many fell ill, and the only ones strong enough to trek to the city for medicine was the couple. They did so, several times. On the third trip, doctors from the city accompanied them back to the village. They were curious to see what was worth their possible destruction.
The village was saved. The doctors credited the dedication of the couple to the village they called home. The villagers credited the doctors and wanted to burn the couple anyway. One of the doctors offered the couple a different home in a different village. They accepted.
He still fishes to sustain them. She now makes lace ribbons and other handmade textiles. They are quite wealthy as the death-touched items fetch a great price on the esoteric markets. But they live simply.
Some trouble makers had stolen their fishing rod and kept stirring up the river to scare away the fish. When I first encountered them, they had gone three days without living flesh and the Hunger was starting to get to them. I told them to stay in their home and barricade the door.
I went to the spirit of the forest and pleaded for a game animal to take to them alive. The spirit was moved and sent me a bear instead. “They need the strength of a predator. This bear will follow you and yield to them. Bring me the skull, do not let it be broken.”
The bear followed me to their home. I heard sobbing within. “Do not enter! My husband… he has lost his senses. Burn us before we harm others!”
I yelled through the door, “Take down the cross beam and open the door. The forest remembers you and sends you living flesh for you to take. Only leave me the head.”. The husband smelled me and began attacking the door. The bear moved between me and the door. I quickly scrambled up the nearest tree.
The husband broke through the door and tripped over the bear. As the wife cried her apologies, he began tearing into the bear’s still living flesh. Her Hunger overtook her and she joined him. They ate all through the night. I remained in the tree. Not sure if I was protecting them, or those that might venture to visit.
Come dawn, his senses were restored. He was horrified at the carnage. His wife had kept the bear’s head and showed it to him. She called out to me in the tree, telling me it was safe to come down. I assured him that he harmed no human and that the forest had provided the bear to restore him.
“Come with me. Those that wished harm may come back. I must present the bear head to the spirit of the forest.” They accompanied me to the spirit’s glen where I buried the head as directed.
“The human kept her word. You reap the harvest of her actions. The bear’s spirit will remain with you over the winter and you will not need to feed on living flesh until spring. Now tell me, you two that have remained in balance through death, how was your balance tipped?”
They told the forest spirit of the trouble makers that sought to drive them into bloodlust. No reason was given to them. Only that their actions were driven.
“Human. Take the skull you have buried. Take it to those that sought them harm. Use what excuse you need to make them take it. Do not be with them at nightfall. These two will stay with me until you return.”
When I buried the skull, flesh and hide still covered it. The wife had eaten through to the spine and then wrenched off the head. She wrapped it in a length of her finest cloth as a gesture of sharing in the bear’s sacrifice. When I pulled the still wrapped head free, it was covered in ants. We had not been long in the spirit’s presence, but in that short time, the ants had stripped the skull down to the bone, and the cloth had rotted completely away.
I left the couple in the glen and went away searching for the trouble makers. The forest itself pointed me to them with gossiping squirrels and calling crows. They had found the couple’s cottage and were finishing the destruction of the door breaking in.
“My cottage!”, I cried out. “First the ghouls and now thieves! Help! Help!” The men had only begun to step in when I started shouting. Five men came away from the door with swords and daggers drawn.
“Your cottage? And what do you mean, ghouls?”
I pointed at the blood before the door. “I had a dog. Had. They came after me and my dog! They were always quiet and peaceful but last night they were demons! My dog ran away and I had to barricade myself inside. They caught him at the door. My poor dog!” I sniffed and made many mournful noises.
“If they ate the dog, then they won’t be so hungry now.” One of the men looked at the large stain. Ants covered it completely, having made quick work of what had remained of the bear.
“But they know where a living person lives now. They’ll be back. A dog won’t hold them, not for how long they have been starving.” Another of the men came to me with his dagger in an offensive posture. “What do you have there?”
I wrapped my arms around the skull. “A protective spirit. It will keep them away tonight.”
They started laughing. The man with the dagger brandished his weapon and I held up the skull as if to protect me. He snatched it from me and pushed me down on the ground. They all laughed, thinking I was easy prey. “It didn’t protect you well, now did it. Hey, this is a huge bear skull. Where did you get it?”
“Give it back! It’s mine!” I tried to take it back, but the men found a game in pushing me around. Some bullied me and taunted me while others remarked on how great a price it would fetch in certain markets.
“I’ll give it back, if you tell me where you found it. A little woman like you couldn’t have hunted it. Where is your man, little woman? Who keeps you here all alone?”
I twisted away and back away some. “You’ll find out!” I sniffed in mock pain. “He’ll be back and he’ll put you in your place!”
I turned and ran away from the cottage. Two of the men started to give chase, promising all sorts of indignities upon my body and mind once they caught me. But I sprinted faster than they, just enough for them to write me off as lost, but not enough for them to realize I’m more than mere human.
“Leave the bitch! There’s not enough meat on her bones for any predator, not even the ghouls. They’ll be coming back to this house for her. And they’ll meet us instead!” Once out of sight, I had turned into a crow and flew back to the cottage. I perched overhead in the trees, unseen by them, and listened. “Anything good in the cottage?”
“Just little old people shit. I don’t think this is hers, I think this is where the ghouls slept. Maybe she served them or some shit. Maybe we should hunt her down, too.”
“Later. After we get the ghouls’ hearts. Shame we couldn’t get the village on our side to burn them out. By the time the sweethearts in the village realize the ghouls are gone, we’ll be collecting our pay.”
“And the bitch?”
“Fuck her. If she shows again, that is. Now gimme that skull. Damn, that fucker is huge. It must have died of old age in a cave nearby. The dirt is still damp on it. Bet the rest of the skeleton is there.”
They murmured assent and settled down in the cottage for a long wait. I stayed in the trees until the sunlight tinged evening red. Content that they would keep the skull with them overnight, I flew from my perch back to the spirit’s glen. Transforming back into a human, I reported to the spirit that the five men were in the couple’s cottage and they were fighting over who would claim the skull.
“Stay here, human. No matter what you hear, do not leave this place.”
Bears began to move through the early night’s darkness. Huge beasts, that made the skull I had carried that of a cub. Those that moved by the couple nudged them gently with their head. The two undead only cried their sorrow at having to kill and eat the bear that saved them. I remembered the day a bear ate my face, and forced myself to kneel among them and remain very still. Some sniffed my face. A few licked my cheek. I hoped I would not panic.
Quietly, the bears moved through the glen until just out of sight. There they broke into a fierce run, thundering and shaking the ground as they left towards the cottage. I fell into a daze while kneeling there, and lost track of time.
The first shrieks brought my awareness back. The shrieks were muffled by the roars of the bears. The sounds rolled through and left three awake faces staring at each other in the sticky silence that followed.
With the first light of dawn, the spirit of the forest spoke to us again. “You may return to your cottage. It has not been damaged further. The bear skull remains within. Before you rebuild the door of your cottage, bury the skull at the threshold. When you go fishing again, the first fish you catch each day you shall throw into the woods behind you. This way you shall feed the bears that have fed you.”
We left the glen and returned to the cottage. The door was completely destroyed. Some of their personal belongings were broken and strewn here and there. The bear skull was laying on the open threshold facing outward. There were many human footprints in many different directions. But not a single sign of bear.
Immediately I began to dig up the threshold of the cottage. The couple remembered the words of the spirit and together we buried the bear skull in the ground at the threshold. It faced outward, as we were told.
Curious about the fate of the men, we followed the human footprints that led away from the cottage. We came to the village and found the inhabitants in a bright gossipy tizzy. The five men I saw earlier had gone mad and had set upon each other. In their flightful fight, they ran into the village and started attacking people there. The villagers managed to capture the five mad men, but reason had yet to return to them. The village elder was in the process of consulting the spirit of the forest through divination as we arrived.
“Ah! Oh! These men have angered the spirit! He has sent bear spirits to devour their minds and run loose in their bodies. If the men are to recover, they must be sent away from here and never return. Also… Something about not properly honoring our ancestors. A door must be replaced. What door? Where?”
The elder looked around and spied the undead couple and me. “You! And you! And an outsider! What have you done here!”
“Forgive me, Sir. This couple saved my life.” They turned to me with questions on their faces. “Those men were chasing after me like dogs and I came across their cottage. They let me in, but the men were kicking at the door, threatening to burn us down. These kind souls led me through a back wall, and we three escaped into the forest and hid in a glen. When we returned in the morning, the door was destroyed and some of their things, but I am whole because of them.”
The village elder stroked his beard in thought. “Ah. Okay. I understand.” He called his sons and told them to make a new door for their cottage. He called the women of the village to help restore those items that make a house, a home.
I was content that the couple were now safe again. I was only supposed to be passing through the area, but my deadline was measured in weeks and I was still ten days ahead of schedule. I let it slip that their favorite fishing pole had been destroyed and loudly wondered how hard it would be to make a new one. Several crafters jumped at the chance to prove themselves the better of their peers. I knew the couple would have more fishing poles than they have days in the week by that evening.
I wished them well, but I saw sorrow in their face. I pulled them aside, and pointed out the bear that fed them was probably a special spirit bear because of the circumstances. As it was, they would not have to feed for at least six months. And no one in the village was harmed. She nodded in understanding. He was still ashamed for having lost control over himself, but he smiled for me anyway.
I embraced them both in a final farewell, transformed into a crow in full sight of everyone, and flew away. I heard the village elder exclaim, “Another spirit! This couple to be so humble has so great an influence! Surely they are the link to our ancestors!”. Good thing I was in avian form. I would hate my smirk to be seen. I knew they would be fine, so I left them.
That was some time ago.
Centuries has passed in that realm, and I am reclining under a shady tree waiting for my work shift to begin. I hear a familiar cry and look up. It’s them, with a fishing pole and basket in hand. They are waving vigorously at me. We are several hundred miles away from that little cottage. Fashion has changed. Languages have shifted. But it’s them.
I jump to my feet and rush towards them. We greet each other with tight hugs. They still smell like dry autumn leaves. The gray hue of their skin has darkened. Their irises have lightened. But she is pinching me asking when is the last time I have eaten a good meal. And he is patting me on the shoulder saying that I’ve become stronger since last we met. The crowd around us is looking at us in a mix of fear and wonder.
I want to take them to a cafe and just talk, but both of us have obligations to attend. I have work to report to shortly, and they have a duty at the river temple. Neither of us has time to fully explain. We promise to catch each other later and catch up on what has passed. He tells me to continue standing strong for those that can’t. She tells me to get a good meal because I’m too thin for a living being. The two move on bickering and teasing each other in the way contented couples do. I turn and head for work.