The Story of Mirror Woman

This story begins as so many of the best stories begin, A long, long time ago, or was it yesterday...well it was Once upon a time that was for sure, and it was back when the animals and the humans ruled the earth together, and the animals could speak. There was a very famous and well loved wolf pack on the largest, most beautiful mountain side. Ahhhhh, now you know what this story is about, this is one of the many, very interesting stories of that wolf pack on Star Mountain. There was a song they used to sing back then about them..

And so you see, they were a magical wolf pack, one that lived on the mountain top in a den cave of unknown proportions. The den always seemed to have more and more room on the right and the left, and in the back of it as more and more lone wolves stumbled up Star Mountain and asked for admittance to this great pack. The cave was warm and cozy inside, with a large fire pit in the very center, and the fire was continually stroked and maintained for the warmth of the pack. They would come to this fire pit in the evenings to tell stories, and to howl in unison over the sad stories of each other's past lives. They would lie there by the fire, licking the furs of the wolves closest to them, showing their support and love for their packmates by their warmth and close bodies.

They were also a very playful wolf pack. They could be seen running around the cave chasing the chickens that continuously seemed to be pecking for food there. None of the wolves would actually catch or eat a chicken, the chickens were neighbors and were treated with respect. The wolves lived mostly on thick, juicy, sysop steaks and chocolate. They hunted and killed sysops whenever it was justified, only the very bad and unattentive sysops you understand...never the ones that truly cared and worked hard. These steaks were stored in the back of the cave in a very large community refrigerator, which also seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of beer and margaritas for the whole wolf pack to share and enjoy.

It was rumored that there was a large, Swiss Jersey cow in the wolf den as well. The rumor was that one day DancingWolf and HeWolf had been yipping and snarling a bit at each other, and Ligia, a Loba, threw the cow at them to break up the argument. She totally expected the two wolves to stop their arguing and begin devouring the cow, but once they looked into the big brown Swiss Jersey eyes, they decided to name her Lady Godiva Bovina, and that was how the cow became accepted into the wolf den. Lady Bovina was cared for by Silverlily, and the pack was constantly hoping that she would someday supply them with chocolate milk...the main reason for her care and devoted space within the den. Although it is said that many of the wolves used to run and hide behind the large cow when they were being chased by the tail biting wolf cops. They were a very playful pack, but they did not allow anyone to apologize for not being strong enough, or not howling as nicely, that was just cause for a quick and thorough tail biting. All wolves of the pack had their own unique and wonderfully wierd qualities and each contributed in their own ways to the pack's growth and strength and they howled in unison every midnight on Star Mountain.

New packmates were always welcome in this den, in fact the one constantly whining wolf, Ligia, a Loba, would even stop her whining for a short spell and come out and do a new packmates dance whenever new wolves asked to join the den. She would say something like this to the new wolves and do this beautiful dance of the new packmates. It was awesome.

Now, I'll do it to you and all the others new packmates:
JUMP, JUMP, JUMP.
STAMP, STAMP, STAMP.
AU, AAAAAAUUUUUUU.
STAMP, STAMP, STAMP.
(breath, breath, breath)
JUMP, JUMP, JUMP.
STAMP, STAMP, STAMP.
(breath, breath, breath)
AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUU
(faint)
Welcome! **

It was during this beautiful time that the wolf pack had two new wolves quietly slip into the cave, without the new packmates dance or much fanfare to their arrival. One called himself LoneWolf, and he was a braggart sort of wolf that would talk about the campfire about all the dens in which he had laid, and all the furs that he had licked. He would tell about all the caribou he had caught, and how they were faster in this valley than in that one, and how he liked to catch the fast ones. The other wolves sat quietly and watched him, ears perked and nostrils flared. The next night he began to recite very badly written poetry to them, and the wolves began to howl in pain at the bad poetry. They went to the Alpha Wolf and asked for her to take some action, to rid the pack of this mocking, bragging, insincere wolf, and she listened to each of their requests. That next night, as the wolves lay sleeping, the Packmistress, and her Beta wolf, Amani, pulled at the sleeping furs of the LoneWolf and gently dragged him outside of the den and down the mountainside. In the morning, when the other wolves had noticed his disappearance, they howled in joy, and thanked the packmistress that they might once again run around the cave, chasing each other's tails and joyfully watching David Freedom, their new wild bird, try his wings at flying around the cave. David Freedom was now let loose to fly, now that his godparents in the wolf den felt the cave was again safe to fly in.

"But Packmistress," some of the wolves whined, "what if he comes back again?"
The Packmistress said "No, he cannot come back into the den. I have posted sentries to watch over Star Mountain, you are all safe here again." The wolves howled, and yipped, and nipped, and licked each other's fur, happy to feel safe again in their cave.

And then someone unseen in the pack until now, stood up and faced the pack angrily. She was indescribable, for when the packmates looked at her, they could never catch a glimpse of her. She held mirrors in front of her face and the mirrors reflected outward, and not toward her own face. The pack murmurred and began to call her Mirror Woman. The wolf pack looked at her, and saw themselves as she projected them to be....hateful, cruel, unfair, and insensitive wolves. She was angry at just a few of the packmates, those that had spoken out against the LoneWolf, and the Packmistress who had dragged him out in the dark of night, yet she spoke to all of the wolves as though they were all a bunch of the worse group of wolves in the world.

The younger wolves began to look at each other, "is it true what she said?" "Are we really that callous?" "Was it wrong of us to have taken that LoneWolf and made him leave our warm den?" "Are we really so unfair?" The mirror was showing them how she saw them, and they began to wonder and to see themselves that way. Some of the older wolves snarled and growled and asked for the Alpha and Beta wolves to take this wolf away in the middle of the night as well.

The Packmistress sized up the Mirror woman carefully, she could be quite dangerous, if we believe what she says about us, it will cause the pack to separate and snarl at each other. It was then that the Mirror Woman showed everyone a bit of play rag that she was flinging about, throwing it into the air and fighting with it to show her prowess.

The packmistress stepped forward and snapped the rag with her teeth, and growled at the Mirror woman. "This rag belongs to Kali-ma-wolf. You have no right to have it, and flaunt it in front of us. If you do not respect the belongings of the wolves in this den, you will be made to leave."

The Mirror Woman was taken aback, and she first bowed low and begged the pardon of the Packmistress and the wolves. She thanked the Packmistress for her warm welcome to the pack. The furs stood up on the Alpha wolf's back in anticipation, she had provided no warm welcome to this Mirror Woman. But the Mirror Woman seemed sincere and she offered that she would soon bring good warm foods and play toys to the pack for the wolves to share. She was setting them at ease, or trying to cloud their vision of her. The mirror began to show a cloudy image of the Mirror Woman herself. "Aaah so she is revealing herself to us," whispered the wolves and they began to silence their growls. That night the den slept cautiously with ears perked and snouts upright for a scent of blood should they be awakened suddenly.

The Mirror woman had been busy that night, although none of the wolves had seen her devious plan. When they awakened, they saw a pile of their favorite playthings and foods at the doorway of their den. The Mirror Woman had taken Kali-ma-wolf's play rag, and DagWolf's bones, and Ligia a loba's bottle of tobasco sauce, and the flowers from Skywolf's garden, and cases and cases of beers and chocolates that the pack had saved away for the cold winter. The Mirror Woman stood proudly in front of the stack of belongings that she had stolen from the pack as though she had a right to all of these treasures.

"Well, good morning, my sleepy wolf mates. Isn't it a beautiful sunrise, and a more beautiful day to come. I have decided to go and visit the wolf pack on the Moon Mountain. I have told them all about you, and they are so very interested in seeing your things, so I have gathered a few things here to take to show them what you are like." The image on the Mirror Woman's face began to change back to that projected view of the wolf pack that she had shown once before. "I'm going to show them what a hateful, selfish, stupid group of wolves you really are," she snarled to the pack. "If any of you would like to know what the Moon Mountain wolves think of your precious little belongings here, I will come back and give you their opinion of you stupid wolves when I return."

Well....you can imagine the uproar within the cave! Wolves were snarling, and growling and howling.

"She can't do that, those are my tabasco sauce bottles," whined Ligia, a Loba.

The Dancing Wolf stood up and howled, "This Mirror Woman, she is like a vampire, she is sucking the positive and vital energies of this pack."

The wolves moved forward to the Mirror Woman raising their paws in unison and brought them crashing down onto the Mirrored image of themselves. The mirror crashed to the ground in a thousand pieces on the floor of the cave. The wolfcubs looked down at the mirror chips in amazement, and saw themselves as they truly were reflected in the now free mirror. They were beautiful, loving, accepting, intelligent, and playful wolves, and that was all they saw. "You see," said Brushwolf, "I told you we weren't that hateful pack of wolves that she was projecting us to be...do you see, look into this true mirror images along the cave floor." The wolves were hushed and quieted, while their positive energies, their vitalities grew back into their bodies.

When the wolf pack looked up, the Mirror Woman had gone. Her mirrors had been smashed and she would have been visible to them beneath the mirrors, but she had left before any one could really see her face.

> "Don't worry," whispered the Packmistress, "the sentries shall keep a watch for her as well, she will not return here."

"But, Packmistress," spoke up one of the wolfcubs, "we don't really know what she looked like. We could bump into her in the forest, on the meadow, or by the river, and never know she was a Mirror Woman until she begins to project those Mirrors at us again."

"You must rely on your instincts. Your instincts must stay sharp, and you must walk away, and do not offer shelter to a Mirror Woman, you will know her when you see her."

The wolf pack agreed, and solemnly began to pick up their belongings and took them back to their little corners of the cave. The wolves played quietly as they teased Kali-ma-wolf with her play rag, and they helped Dag wolf to bury his precious bones again.

And later that night when the Packmistress stepped outside the den and howled at the everchanging sky, the entire wolf pack came out to sing for the maidens and the stars of Star Mountain.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuu!

Copyright 1996 Annie
* Star Mountain Poem was written by Dottie
** The New Packmates Dance was by Ligia, a Loba
This story is a fable to warn of the existence of Mirror Woman in our lives. It is a true story, simply told in the language of Wolfese.

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This site was last updated July 4, 2006.