Anyway, here's a weird little tidbit for you guys to chew on.  I'm not
really sure where it came from, but it sort of answers the question
why a Nightwitch would fall in love and marry an 'ordinary' human.

As always, C&C is greatly appreciated!   ^_^

======================================================================
    THE WOLF AND THE WITCH
        A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfic (by MadamHydra)
======================================================================

    Many, many years ago, a young witch went traveling.  One day, she
came across a great deserted shrine in the mountains.  With darkness
falling, she decided to spend the night inside.

    Some hours later, she was awakened by the howl of a wolf.  She
waited, but she heard no other howls.  This wolf was alone.  Through
the rest of the night, she lay awake and listened.  Her heart felt a
strange ache as she heard the low echoing cries of this solitary
beast.

    Just before dawn, the wolf suddenly appeared inside the shrine.
The witch instantly knew that it was no mortal creature, but rather a
mighty spirit for it cast no shadow.  The wolf spirit gazed at her
sternly, but she saw the loneliness in its glowing amber eyes.  She
reached out her hand and it came to her.  Thus two hearts became as
one.

    Yet their bodies could not be as one as their souls now were.  The
wolf was entirely of the spirit world while the witch -- powerful she
might be -- was still flesh and blood.

    The beast asked her, "Do you love me truly?"
 
    "I do, for all my days."
 
    The wolf spirit soon came to his beloved's side, garbed in a
mortal's body.  But he was frequently forced to return to the spirit
world because humans are weak and short-lived creatures.  The witch
did not mind, as long as her love returned to her.
 
    From that day forth, the two were inseparable.  Although their
paths occasionally part, they always reunite.

    For the wolf always finds its true mate....

-------------------------------

    Tokio contentedly watched her new husband sleeping, his lean body
sprawled out over their futon.  After his last death, it had taken her
over 25 years to find him again.  Even though he didn't remember her
-- he never did -- his heart and his soul knew her instantly.  But it
was the beginning of Bakamatsu no Douran and Saitoh Hajime, the
captain of the third troop of the Shinsengumi, had no time for
romance.

    Another seven years would pass before they could truly be
rejoined.  In this incarnation, as in all his previous ones, her
beloved was cunning, suspicious, and ruthless almost beyond compare.
It made courtship an interesting challenge, to say the least.  What a
merry chase he had led her on before she managed to coax him into
proposing marriage!

    She smiled as she brushed the hair away from his forehead.  He
sighed quietly but did not awaken.

    It had taken her nearly thirty years to arrive at this point --
together again.  But time was something Tokio had plenty of... and
what was thirty years or so compared to the joy of being reunited with
one's true love?
 
**********************************************************************

^_^;

--------------------------------------------
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