1 The Sun and the Maiden

Once upon a time, the earth was a place for all the creatures. The humans had yet to cover the continents with their cities, and instead lived in tightly knit tribes, protecting each other from the dangerous forces that waited beyond their campfires to hurt them. They lived far apart, these tribes, some nomadic, some making their homes in mud-huts built together into tiny, scattered villages and towns. The Sun could travel through the sky for days, and never see the tracks of human feet.

One day, as he was following his customary path through the heavens, he saw below him one of the human villages. It was huge, for its time, with fortifications to keep out other tribes, great fields where corn was grown, and where the animals were grazed. Quietly, the Sun left his path, and slipped down into the village, and watched the people go about their lives. They are happy, he thought to himself. The other humans are frightened of the beasts that surround them, or of starvation or disease, but these men and women live without fear. Their fires keep away the beasts, and their fields grow enough food to feed them all, even through the winter. And he returned to his path, and stared down at the tiny village thoughtfully.

He scorched the fields with his rays until nothing grew, and then watched over the year as the people grew thin, and became diseased. When they were weak, the beasts stalked unafraid through the streets, and carried away the infants and elderly. This amused him, and cheered him through the winter, as he himself grew weaker.

In the village, the people were scared, and they went to the man who was their chief and demanded that he save them from starvation. The chief went to the Shaman, who lived in a cave by a waterfall. Because it was winter, the waterfall had frozen, and when the chief visited the Shaman, he found him seated in the centre of the lake, meditating and cutting open his wrists with a sharp bone to attract spirits.

"Who has come to see me?" Asked the Shaman, when he saw the Chief coming towards him.

"I am the Chief of the village where your mother was born," said the Chief. "And whose people feed you."

"My mother is the Earth," said the Shaman haughtily. "But I remember the village of which you speak, though its people have not fed me this last year."

"That is because there has been a drought," replied the chief. "The Sun scorched our fields, and nothing grew. We are starving, and there has been no food for our children. But see, I have brought these offerings for you."

The Shaman stopped slitting his wrists, and devoured the fruits and meats that the Chief had brought. When this was done, his belly, which had been hollow, swelled, and he sat contentedly on the ice once more.

"I am pleased with your offering, and the demons who live inside me also. As long as these offerings continue, I will once again petition the spirits to watch over our village."

"Will the famine end?"

"No. The Sun has caused the drought, and only He can end it. We must beg Him to be merciful."

The Shaman scored a circle into the ice with his wand, and into it placed a tiny yellow flower, which he crushed. When the Sun saw this, and smelled the scent of the bruised blossom he descended from the sky, and stood in the circle. The Shaman and the Chief knelt before him, and pleaded with him to spare the people of the village, and end the famine. The Sun looked down at them disdainfully, and taking the Shaman's arm began to lap the blood with his long tongue.

"I do not see why I should spare your people," said the Sun. "Their suffering amuses me. But I am a spirit, and as you know there is nothing we spirits love more than the taste of blood. I will spare your village, but in return there must be a sacrifice. Every harvest time the blood of one villager must be offered up to me."

The Chief was sad when he heard this, but he knew that it was a price he must pay, and that his people would force him to accept. Now the chief had seven daughters. The youngest was three, and the eldest ten. The Sun had seen them when he had walked through the village, and coveted them for their youth and beauty.

"The sacrifices," he continued, "must not be just any human. They must be your daughters. First, you must kill the youngest, and then the others, ordered by their age."

The Chief had no choice but to agree. The Shaman returned, ashamed, to his cave, and the Sun returned to his path, anticipating the taste of the infant's blood.

When the harvest came, the girl was led, crying, by a procession, and bound to the stone in the centre of the village. Her father cried as he brained her with a club, and the Sun came down, and sipped from her veins until her flesh was white, and returned to his palace, sated.

The harvest was good that year, and people ate well.

And so it continued, each crop blessed with the death of an innocent. Then the time came for the eldest daughter to die. But as her father raised the club, the Sun stayed his hand. He had fallen in lust with the girl, now almost a woman.

"Chief of the humans," said the Sun. "I have conceived in my heart a great love for your girl, and I would that she were mine. Give her to me as wife, and there will be no more sacrifices, no more starvation. All I ask in return is that no man touches her, save I."

The people were frightened, and the girl cried. But the chief loved his daughter, and would do anything to spare her life. He was confused though, for he knew that the Sun was a spirit, and could never consummate the marriage. But the pact was made, and the girl branded by her husband with a circle on her thigh.

2 The Scar-Faced Boy

There was a boy in the village, who had lost both his mother and his father, and grown up into a young warrior. He was the greatest hunter of his people, having once killed a great bear armed only with his flint knife. In the fight, however, he had lost one eye, and a great scar had been cut into his skin, from his chin to his forehead. This boy had fallen in love with the Chief's daughter, and wherever she went he would find an excuse to be nearby, and simply watch her. The Chief had ordered that wherever she went, she was to be protected, and because the boy was the village's best fighter he would stand by her, spear ready, as she went picking flowers for her father, and helped the women with their winnowing. Once, he stood near her on a hill as she watched the Sun rise, and his tongue ached to say the words "I love you", but he dared not, for fear that she would laugh at him, or simply never speak to him again. And every night as he slept in his mat outside her door, he would feel his heart twisting itself until it tore.

One day, the pain was more than he could bear, and he went wandering in the forests. He hid himself in a hollow tree, where he had played since he was a child, and cried to himself. As he cried, he heard the sound of sobbing nearby, and realised that he was not alone in his sadness. Following the sound, he came upon a she-wolf, weeping away in the shade of an old fir.

"Why are you crying?" He asked.

The wolf looked up, and saw the one-eyed human boy, who was wet with tears like her.

"I am crying because I had thirteen children, and now they are gone. A great bird flew from the top of this tree, and carried them away one by one, and killed them. He has just taken the youngest one, and I fear he too will be dead soon. But I see that I am not the only one with a heavy heart. What brings you to weep?"

The boy was ashamed, because he realised that the wolf had far more cause for misery than he. He simply shook his head, and embracing the wolf began to climb the great old fir, spear in hand. The tree stretched high above all other trees, until its branches jostled the clouds. The boy saw that some branches had been shorn of needles, and sharpened with a knife, and that on these branches were impaled the tiny bodies of wolf-cubs. At the top of the tree was a great nest, and in it a bird slept, a beautiful creature with fire-red plumage and a great crest like a lion's mane. At the edge of the nest was another young wolf, alive, but with one broken leg. He leaned over the side of the nest, and whined for his mother with his tail between his legs. When the boy clambered onto the nest, the bird woke, and stared at him furiously through gem-like eyes.

"Why did you kill the wolf-cubs?" Asked the boy.

"Because I could. Because compared to them, I am a god. Because I am hungry, and their flesh is tender. Now get out of my nest, before I kill you too. "

The boy gritted his teeth, and stabbed the great bird through the chest with his lance. It screamed in fury, and grasped him in its claws, and flapped into the air. They wrestled, boy and bird, tumbling through the clouds, until the boy pulled his knife from his boots, and stabbed the bird through the heart. Then he took the wolf cub in his arms, and carried him carefully down to his mother. She wagged her tail when she saw him, and licked him clean of the nest-scent.

"What can I do to repay you, boy?" Asked the wolf thankfully.

"Your happiness is reward enough. I am only sorry your other children died." He replied sadly.

"There must be something that you desire," she pressed.

"There is, but it is not in your power to give it, I fear. In the village lives the daughter of the chief, and I love her more than life, but she has never returned my affections, and I fear she cannot love me, for I am scarred and ugly, and an orphan."

The she-wolf licked his hands, and gave him a dog-hug. "If she will not love you, she is not worthy of your love, I fear. But I will do what I can to make her yours."

The next day, the chief's daughter went down to the river to bathe, and the boy sat with his back turned, on a hill nearby. As she went down to the water, she saw a wolf cub bound up to her, and she was surprised to find that it let her stroke it, and play with it. She climbed into the river, and the cub bounded in after her, fearlessly.

"I have quite fallen in love with you, little cub, but where are your parents? What would they say if they saw me playing with you like a pet?"

And she suddenly noticed that on the bank was a she-wolf, watching her silently.

"I am sorry if I have angered you," mumbled the girl, frightened. "I did not mean your cub any harm."

The wolf made a wolf-smile, and padded closer. "I am not angered," she said kindly. "I am thankful that you have found my cub, and looked after him."

"Tell me," she continued. "Who is that boy who sits on the hill yonder?"

"He is the young warrior my father has set to protect me. He is brave, and strong, and the greatest hunter in the world."

"It sounds as if you like the boy."

The girl blushed, and said. "I think I love him, but he has never given any sign that he feels for me the same."

"Can't you see it in the way he looks at you?"

"Perhaps I can, but I daren't believe it. But there is a terrible curse upon me. The Sun himself has marked me out as his. See, on my thigh? That is his mark. If any man touches me, there would be a disaster for the village."

The Wolf nodded gravely. "But you love the boy? He loves you."

"He does? I surely love him."

"Then I will do what I can to help you both. Care for my cub for me."

And with that, the wolf trotted off to the boy.

3 The Sun and the White Wolf

The she-wolf spoke to the boy, and she said "Boy, I have spoken to the girl, and she has told me that she returns your love. But the Sun Himself has wed the girl, and if you wish her to be yours you must ask Him for her hand."

"I would do anything for her!" He replied eagerly.

"Then come with me. I am the Queen of the wolves, and I will call a meeting of all my subjects, and see who among them knows how the Sun can be contacted."

She took the boy on her back, and raced to the heart of the forest, where a great grey wolf sat on a rock. By now it was nightfall, and the full moon was rising into the sky. The she-wolf went to the grey wolf, and kissed him. "This is my husband, the King of the Wolves." She said to the scar-faced boy.

Then she explained to her husband the debt she owed to the boy, and he agreed that they must help. Together they raised their muzzles to the sky, and howled, and from every forest in the world the wolves came, for hours racing in packs to the meeting place around the rock. And when they were all there, the Queen addressed them, asking which of them knew how a human boy might speak to the Sun. All of them were silent. Then one walked forward, a white wolf, huger even than the king, with silver-blue eyes. The King and Queen exchanged frightened glances. "He is not of our packs," said the King. "Who are you, White One?"

"I am the Moon's Wolf," he replied. "By night I roam by my mistress' light, and by day I attend her in her palace, on the worlds' end. There she lives with her husband, the Sun. If the boy wishes to speak with the Sun, I will take him there now."

The Queen looked concerned for the boy, but he stepped forward unafraid. He thanked the King and Queen politely and said good-bye, and they promised to watch over the chief's daughter in his absence. Then the white wolf took the boy on his back, and then rode, swift as the north wind, between the trees. At the edge of the forest, the wolf put the boy down, and said "Fill your belly with the nuts and fruit of the forest; in the palace of the sun you must eat no food." The boy nodded, and ate his fill.

Then they rode on again, across a great plain, and at the edge of the plain was a market town where all the tribes met to exchange wares. The people were asleep in their tents, because this was night. "Sneak into the people's houses," said the wolf. "And take what you will; in the palace of the sun, you must take nothing." The boy nodded, and took warm clothes from the sleeping traders, because they were going north, and it was getting colder.

They rode on again, over endless hills and mountains. Where the mountain range ended was the ocean, and all the rivers poured themselves into it. The wolf put the boy down again, and said to him, "Drink your fill of these waters. In the palace of the Sun you must drink nothing." And the boy did as he was told.

Then the boy climbed on the wolf's back again, and he began to swim through the water, swift as a fish. Past storms, past warm islands with white beaches. Then they came to a great grey island of rock rising out of the water. The wolf climbed its gull-strewn cliffs, and the boy saw that on the island was a huge fortress, half-red, half black. The white wolf took him to the front of the gate, and then said "Lay down your weapons here; in the palace of the Sun, which is before us, you must not bear arms." The boy did as he was told, and put down his spear, his knife and his bow.

Then the white wolf led him through the gates, and over a great bridge formed of stars, to the courtyard before the palace. In the courtyard was a fountain, and tiny blue birds flew through the water like fish, surfacing for air. At the far end was a golden gate into the palace itself, and this was guarded by a golden statue in the form of a cat. The wolf approached the gate, and the boy saw that the cat was not a statue, but a living creature. At first it snarled, and paced towards the boy threateningly, but the wolf growled at it, and it retreated warily. If the white wolf is the Moon's, thought the boy. Then perhaps the cat is the Sun's.

The wolf led the boy through the gate, and into a tower, where the Sun sat upon a throne of red-veined marble. "Why have you come here?" Asked the Sun, when he saw the boy.

"I have come to beg you for your help," he said. "I have fallen in love with the Chief of my village's daughter, and she loves me, but we cannot wed."

"Because she is mine," said the Sun sharply, and he stood, and walked towards the boy, and began to finger his scar, and probe the empty socket of his eye.

"I would do anything for her hand," said the boy, frightened of the great ogre, but brave enough not to show that fear.

The Sun smiled a little.

He returned to his throne, his eyes never leaving the scarred boy.

"You have come a long way, boy," said the Sun. "Has my Lady the Moon's wolf brought you here?" The boy nodded. "Why did the Moon Wolf help you?" The boy explained how he had saved the Wolf Queen's child. The Sun nodded, and looked a little thoughtful. "I did not realise you owed any loyalty to the Wolf Queen,” He said to the Moon Wolf, and the boy saw the wolf, who now looked like a man, shrug and look away, and he sensed that there was something going on he did not quite understand.

"If you will do 'anything' for the girl," said the Sun finally. "Then you will do what I tell you. I will give you three tasks. Fulfil them and the girl is yours."

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