The Woman and The Demon

In the end we can only change ourselves...

The Woman and The Demon

In all the world there were only two types of beings. There were the humans, made of soft peach colored flesh, and the demons, who had forms of beasts and were covered with coarse fur. There were only these two kinds of life and no others, but it was said it might be possible, somehow, someway for their shapes to be changed.

A human woman happened to meet a male demon one day, and in her innocence she hoped to befriend him. She approached it and tried to stroke its fur, but it bit her violently and forced off her advances. Still, the woman did not run from him. In her soft heart she felt compassion for him, and thought to herself that he must just be lonely. So from then on she would come to see him everyday, bringing him food and all kinds of gifts to try and soften him. He continued to be hostile to her, and would not let up on his abuse- scratching and clawing as he pleased. 

Though, the woman could simply not bring herself to abandon the beast. Although he was cruel to her, she felt too guilty to leave because she knew he had become dependent on her for survival. She was also very afraid of what her life would be like and how it would change if she altered her routine in coming to see him everyday. So she held out a silent hope in her heart that she could change him, like the old legends said were possible. If only she could change him into a human man, he would be more gentle and they would be happy together.

But the years slid by with no change. Her youthful beauty had faded and she had missed several chances to marry human men. Still, no matter how much she would cry or beg or plead, the demon would not show kindness to her. When she was finally too old to bear children, she came to a sad realization.

It was too late. She couldn’t change him. It was simply outside of anyone’s power to change another. All she could do was change herself. And so she looked back at the demon one day with a sad and profound expression. Suddenly, cracks appeared all over her skin, and white wings shot out of the cracks in her back. Like a piece of pottery crumbling, her former body dissolved and in its place stood a gloriously shining new creature, the likes of which the world had never seen. With one determined flap of her new wings, the woman soared up into the sky, and out of the world of humans and demons, to make a new world for herself.

When she never came back, the demon covered its head with its arms and cried. 

In the years to come, many other humans discovered they too could become this new creature, which came to be known as ‘Angels’. But the only ones who could transform it seemed, were those who had known real and true pain in their human state.

Author's Note

Number 26 of the No One Special Fairy Tales (C) Copyright No One Special 2011. The No One Special Fairy Tales are a collection of 50 original fairy tales, please visit my profile for more. This story wasn't originally planned to be in the set, but I recently had a dream, which was basically this exact scenario which I thought was very cool. So I replaced one of my less interesting ideas with it. I just thought it was such a good allegory for abusive relationships...