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Item Story: The Cocklebur King
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 Once upon a time, a wild beast fell in love with a human man. The beast was a canid, a maneater, the master of the densest and darkest parts of the forests. It hunted without pity on the edges of the paths that passed through the outskirts, dragging its prey into the tangled thickets of underbrush where they would never be found. Until one day it saw him: a human hunter, strong, with fire in his eyes.
. . . . .
The canid went to the god of the wilds and begged her to grant a wish: make it human, in a shape that would be most pleasing to the man. She agreed to the request, but warned that a being cannot truly change its nature. The canid, now a handsome man, tracked the bright eyed human, named Harte, to a nearby village. He charmed him, seduced him, and eventually they were married.
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They lived together for three years, happily, except that the canid could not shake off the god's warning. One night, the maneater had a dream, of chasing prey through the forest. When he woke he found himself digging his teeth into his husband's shoulder, drawing blood. Horrified, he pulled back, and unable to bear the thought of what he had nearly done, had WANTED to do, he fled from the village and into the forest. Surrounded by the trees and the dark, the taste of iron in his teeth, he surrendered his shape and became a wild thing again.
. . . . .
Harte was terrified, but he still chased his husband into the forest. He tracked him even when the canid's human form faded, and the only signs were cracked twigs and claw marks. The man soon realized he was not likely to find his lover, and even if he did, the man he loved was now a fearsome creature without remorse, and might devour him more quickly than he remembered him.
So he bowed his head and begged the god of the wilds for help. He begged her to bring his husband back to him.
. . . . .
The god of the wilds would not normally come to man, but she came to him, if only because she was curious. She said it would not work, for she had changed the beast into a man once, and it proved it could not change its nature. Harte paused, and then requested that she instead turn him into a beast. He explained that he was not just a hunter, but also a soldier, a killer of men -- perhaps his nature was not so different from the beast's after all. The god of the wilds refused. Harte persisted that the canid had told him what he was when they met, and had never lied or hidden it from him. The canid had even shared his secret name, the names that all beasts of the old woods guarded from humans. That was why Harte loved him above all others. He simply could never love another.
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The god of the wilds replied, "And how do you know you will still love him as an animal?" Harte replied confidently, "The canid, the maneater, the Cocklebur King, despite having been a wild thing without remorse, was able to love me with his animal heart. So maybe I would love him with mine." The god at last acquiesced, and made him a canid as well. The new animal quickly vanished into the forest, and she let it go, and thought not of it again, as gods are apt to do. Nature would decide the end of the story, and be the only witness as well, in the dense, dark underbrush of the wilderness.
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