Many generations ago, a traveller was journeying through the deep forests of middle Europe when he met a farmer tilling a small patch of earth under the giant trees.

The farmer hailed the traveller, who was dressed in green garb in a style never seen before by the farmer in his long life.The traveller carried a great many bags of things on his back, which exotic smells and small, strange noises seem to come from.The farmer, intregued, asked the traveller where he was from, but the traveller spoke only in broken words of the farmer's language, and could say only that he had crossed vast oceans and walked through many lands to reach where he was now.

The farmer liked the man's open smile, and invited him to stay with he and his wife in their cottage nearby.He apologised that he had only a 'poor house' but could provide the traveller with a meal and a roof over his head for the night.

The traveller accepted and they made their way to the ramshackle hut through the woods, where the farmers wife called out to them, wiping her hands, as she had been cleaning vegetables by the open fire.She seemed a little more wary of company than her husband, but gave a shy smile and turned to her pot.

As the evening drew in, they shared a poor but hearty meal.The farmer apologised to the traveller that they had no meat to offer him, apart from the crusty bread and thick vegetable soup.

"We used to have chickens, and even, a while ago, a fat pig, but they have been taken one by one by our enemy."

"Your enemy?" the traveller asked, thinking there could not have been any human habitations within many miles.He had walked for many days before coming across human company with them.

"Yes.The wolf." the farmer said with such loathing and fear in his voice, the traveller felt a shiver up his spine.

The wife turned abruptly from them, but not before the traveller saw the look of utter grief cross her face.

She went back into the hut, leaving the men to talk in low voices.

"We also had a son. He was our only child, nine years old. One night, about a year ago, when the wolf was stealing a chicken, he ran out in anger, and the wolf took him too.We will never have any more children now, my wife is too old.We are too poor to leave, with no family to go to now, and the wolf still howls at night, to torment us of our loss."

The farmer made a small, choking sound and stopped talking.

The men sat in silence, smoking their pipes, while the traveller heard what sounded like a muffled sobbing from inside the hut.

He sat and smoked and thought for a long time.

Eventually the farmer rose and said that though the night was not cold, they would have to sleep indoors because of the wolf. He did not come every night, but often enough that they could never let down their guard.

The traveller started to rummage through one of his ancient leather bags, found an object wrapped in a cloth of threadbare velvet,put it aside, then reached into a second bag, and with a grunt of satisfaction, withdrew another package, larger than the first.

He called the farmer over, and said in a thick accent

"Because you have been so kind to let me stay, I want to help you rid yourself of your enemy.I have here some dried flesh that we can wrap this in, and use as a trap."

He held in one hand the dried meat, and in the other a strange, large brown seed.It looked like a nut, but not like one the farmer had ever seen before.

"What is it?" he said wonderingly, turning it over in his hand, feeling the grooves in its skin. It felt very heavy and seemed to reflect the firelight in an odd way.

"I could tell you the name we have for it in my country, but it would mean nothing to you.It has many uses, but only certain seeds from certain trees can do what I hope it can do for you." the traveller said mysteriousy, with his creased smile.

And at that very moment, the eerie howl of a wolf came to them from across the forest.

The farmer jerked his head high, and the look of fear returned.

"Courage, my friend.God willing, it shall soon be over " said the traveller, and gripped his arm.

And soon they retired inside the hut for the night, and left the offering near the fire, in case the wolf came sniffing around in the moonlight, to see what else he could take from the poor farmer.

In the dead small hours of the night, the farmer stayed wakeful, and heard the rough, scavenging sounds of his enemy.The farmer quaked in his bed, and could see by the whites of the eyes of his wife that she too was awake and listening for him.

They heard the wolf find the offering, and with slavering chops, gulp down the meat, with its seed buried inside.

Then suddenly, there was nothing, no noise, only a deep, strange silence.Usually when the wolf came, and trampled the vegetable beds and broke what he could, he would leave with a wolf's wild laugh, as if promising always to return.

Eventually, the strain of trying to listen too hard told on the farmer, who had had a long full day of work, and he fell asleep.

The next morning, the farmer rose as the light of dawn was streaking through the trees, and the golden mists rose in his little clearing.Rubbing his eyes, he stumbled out to get the fire started, and as he reached down for the wood, he saw a circle of grass close by seemed to have been burnt away, and in the middle of the dark patch, something small and white.

Wonderingly, he walked over, a strong smell of burning hide in his nostrils as he bent closer, to reach cautiously for the small object in the centre.

He held it closer to his bleary eyes, and was so astonished, he dropped it- it was a small white image of a wolf, curled onto the base of the nut the traveler had put inside the meat!

Shaking now, he reached again for it, almost afraid it would bite, it looked so life-like. It was cool and smooth to his touch, but the likeness of his enemy was so real, he let out a shuddery breath.

Hearing a small noise, he looked up to see the traveller, and his wife, at the hut door.

"Look!" he shouted."The wolf! "

They came over, his wife with a worried and confused look, the traveller with that smile from ear to ear.

"Ah, it has worked" he said, very pleased with himself.

"What? How?" was all the farmer could say.

"As I said, there are only certain seeds that can do this, and the heart of the creature must be evil and selfish for it to work too.He is now trapped forever in the seed, as penance for his taking your son.And you, my friend, need never have to worry about your enemy again. May your life be peaceful and prosper.Maybe now you can get more stock for your needs too."He put his finger to his nose, and laughed.

Then he grew serious again, and said

"There is one more thing that such a seed can do, if you are brave enough to try it.If you can, put this seed under your bed, and sleep on top of it, and good things will come of it."

"I would NEVER have the image of our enemy under our bed!" the farmers wife spat"He took our only son and plagued us for a whole year, taking everything he could- how could I bear to sleep with the image of this evil so near to us!' Tears filled her eyes, and she busied herself raising the fire, turning her back on them.

The farmer looked at the traveller and said

"Thankyou sir, we can never repay your kindness.May happiness and good travelling follow you all your days."

The traveller winked, and they shared breakfast before the traveller left that morning, a sound like silvery bells seeming to come from his load of bags as he walked into the forest once more.

That night, after a day of good work, with healing peace in his heart, the farmer carefully placed the seed, which he had told his wife he had thrown away, under their bed.

The farmer and his wife slept longer than they had done for many a year that night.

The next morning, they woke as the sun was already high in the clearing, shining into their hut, and they turned to each other with smiles they had not seen on each others faces for a year, and clasped hands with full hearts.

"I dreamed of little Jan last night. You were there too." the farmer said to her, holding her close.

She gasped and said exitedly "I did too! I dreamed of that day we found the baby deer and you both...."

She stopped because he said simply "Yes, we were both there, we were all together again."

They shed a few tears of happiness that they had had the same dream, and rose to go about their day fortified that their memories of their beloved son were so fresh, and so clear.

The farmer, wondering if the wolf seed had had anything to do with their dream, like the traveller had said, took the seed away from the bed the next night, and though they slept well, they did not dream of Jan that night. He returned the seed to its place under their bed the next night though, and once more the vivid, happy dreams returned, and the farmer decided he must tell his wife of what was happening.

But this time the farmers wife smiled and said the image of their enemy was vanquished by these wonderful dreams, and the seed stayed under their bed for the rest of their simple, happier lives, when they could visit and be with their dear son every night, who was now not lost to them but in a perfect place, forever with them.

oooooOOOOOooooooo

And now the Wolfseed has passed to you, dear friend, and as you feel its smoothness and wonder at the wolf's placidity, do not be surprised to hear faintly, on nights of the full moon, a faraway howling from a time long gone.

But my closest wish is for you to put that tiny wolf under your bed, or your pillow, so that you too can sometimes enjoy perfect dreams of golden times and those souls dearest to your heart, who had seemed lost to you.