Sword Wolf, or The Backstory of Topaz III

There once was a girl named Lily Chen, who would eventually come to be known as Topaz III. She lived with her father and stepmother in a small rundown village (the property value Near the Woods is very low, because of the Giants who frequent the area and steal architecture).

Once, Lily's parents sent her out with a little money to buy groceries from the Village With Affordable Food, which was just through the woods and across the river.

Unfortunately, she met an enemy Giant in the woods, who had stolen the stairs to the bridge across the river.

Distraught, Lily rested by a tree and remembered a time when she was a child. She had hidden her father’s sword in the Secret Ruined Kingdom. They never found her father’s sword again, which is why King Kampfire had exiled the family from the central kingdom grounds.

Lost in though, she almost didn't notice the wise and beautiful Wolf, who was holding a sword in his mouth, pass by her. She did see him though, and she acted quickly. She recognized the sword as the one she had hidden in her childhood; the Wolf, therefore, was a thief who had stolen it. Determined to get it back so that her family would regain their status and money, Lily leaped forward and grabbed the sword.

However, the sword turned out to be a trap. It had been cursed, so as soon as she touched it, searing pain ran through Lily's body, and she screamed.

A nearby Palace Guard heard her cry, and came to help. The two of them took Sword Wolf to a nearby dungeon. The guard imprisoned the Wolf in the dungeon with his dungeon key.

The guard then called the King’s personal Healer to come and remove Lily’s curse. When the she arrived, the guard had to leave, so he left Lily and the Healer alone.

Lily told her that she needed to get new stairs for the bridge, so she could cross the river and get to The Village with Affordable Food. The Healer was eager to help, and led Lily down a road through the city, leading to a cottage shop where they could acquire some stairs.

However, Sword Wolf was following them, because the dungeon he had been locked in was broken (and he still had the sword).

They entered the cottage, and found there was only one man inside. They recognized that he was the Shopkeeper due to clothes he was wearing. Unfortunately, he was asleep.

Sword Wolf caught up, and was ready to fight. However, the Lily did not want to wake the shopkeeper, so instead she proposed that they engage in a contest. Sword Wolf may have been evil, but he was still a wise and beautiful gentleman, so he agreed.

The Healer called King Kampfire and invited him to be the presiding judge for the contest, and he showed up a few minutes later.

“It will be contest of carving designs into trees,” the King declared. Sword Wolf would use his sword, and Lily would be supplied an axe.

The conditions of the contest were this: If the Lily won, she would get Sword Wolf’s sword, and if Sword Wolf won, he could kill and eat her.

The Healer used a silencing spell on the carving implements, so that the noise would not wake the sleeping shopkeeper (this spell is one which can only be used during a contest). However, the spell seemed to only work on the Wolf’s sword, not the Lily’s axe, so the noise did awaken the shopkeeper. He was angered by being awoken so suddenly, but he didn’t confront them. He merely watched from his cottage.

Sword Wolf had nearly won the contest, when Lily accidentally mis-swung and killed Sword Wolf with the axe.

The Healer was saddened at this outcome, because she had secretly loved the Wolf. This was why she broke the dungeon he had been placed in, and why she purposely only placed the silencing spell on his sword. Lily learned from this that she should always be careful when choosing companions.

The shopkeeper, however, was delighted at the Wolf’s death. He, too, was enemies with Sword Wolf, and had been avoiding him for years out of fear that he would steal something from the shop. To pay his gratitude, he gave Lily some stairs for free.

She took the sword from Sword Wolf, and then accepted the shopkeeper’s stairs, brought them back to the bridge, and repaired it. Then she crossed the river and headed into town. The Healer followed her, carrying Sword Wolf’s dead body. She did this because The Village With Affordable Food also contained the nearest church, and she wanted her lover’s soul to be at rest.

After the sermon, King Kampfire decided that he did not want to waste the body of the Wolf. So he gave it to the village’s best cook, Queen of the Kitchen, who prepared Sword Wolf to be eaten (He was delicious).

(The Healer chose not to reveal that she had, in fact, secretly been a Wolf in disguise the whole time and that she had intended to marry Sword Wolf).

Lily returned to her family with her father’s sword (who’s curse had been removed) and the feast of Sword Wolf's body, without even having spent any of the money she had been given to buy food.