At the foot of a thick and dangerous mountain range known as La Selva del Espanto, lived a woman named Elena Morales. Elena was in her forties, led a solitary life in a small wooden cabin and survived by growing vegetables and collecting wild fruits. The people of the village, further down the valley, avoided her. They called her a crazy healer or simply the weird one of the mountain, because they said that she preferred to talk to trees and birds rather than to people.

The truth was different. Elena carried a deep wound in her heart. She had been orphaned at a very young age and her own relatives deceived her, keeping her parents’ inheritance. Tired of greed and betrayal, she decided to move away from civilization and take refuge in the mountains.

One dark, rainy night, as the storm battered the mountains, Elena heard a terrible rumble near the ravine. It sounded like metal hitting rock. At dawn, when the rain stopped, he followed the trail of noise.

There he found a wrecked truck at the bottom of the ravine. It was a vehicle for illegal wildlife traffickers, people who smuggled exotic animals to sell on the black market. The driver and his accomplices were dead. The cages at the back were open and torn to pieces.

Among the wreckage, Elena saw that two creatures were still breathing, badly wounded: a gray wolf cub, with a broken leg, and a small lion, covered in wounds and barely able to open its eyes.

Elena knew it was dangerous. They were wild animals. But hearing her moans, as faint as a baby’s cry, her heart couldn’t resist.

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered. They are also victims of human evil.

One by one, he carried them to his cabin. He healed their wounds with medicinal herbs, arranged the wolf’s broken paw, and watched over them day and night. The first months were very hard. Elena barely ate sweet potato and banana to be able to buy milk and some meat in the village for the animals.

In the market they mocked her:

“Here comes the madwoman of the mountain!” Buying meat for your monsters! they shouted. One day they’re going to devour you, Elena!

She never answered.

He called the wolf Wolf and the lion Lion. For two years, inside a tall fence that he built to prevent accidents, they grew up together. Against all logic, the wolf and the lion – natural enemies – became brothers under Elena’s care.

They ate together, slept near her. When Elena felt sad, Wolf licked her hand and Leon rested his huge head on his lap. For the first time in her life, Elena felt that she had a family. A family that did not speak, but understood the heart.

However, as she grew up, Elena knew they couldn’t stay forever. León became gigantic. Lobo’s howl could already be heard as far as the village, and the neighbors began to complain. The ejido commissioner threatened her:

“If you don’t take those animals, we’re going to kill them.”

With a broken soul, Elena made the decision.

“They have to go,” she said, crying, hugging their necks. Here they are no longer sure. People don’t understand them… they are going to kill them.

He took them to the depths of the jungle, to a forbidden area where no one dared to enter.

“They will be free here. Don’t go back to humans,” he asked them.

Lobo and León resisted. They turned around several times, but Elena turned her back on them and ran back, crying inconsolably. That was the most painful day of his life. Once again, she was left alone.

Three years passed.

Elena grew old and weakened. The land that no one wanted suddenly aroused the interest of a powerful businessman named Rodrigo Gozón, who planned to build a luxury resort and secretly exploit an illegal mine in the mountains.

He bought all the land around. The only obstacle was Elena’s cabin, right in the center of the project.

His men went to see her.

“Get out of here, old woman. The land is already paid for,” the foreman told him.

“No,” Elena replied firmly. Here I was born and here I will die. They will not destroy the forest.

When he refused, Gozón resorted to violence.

One night, Elena woke up to the smell of smoke. Their ground was burning! When he left, he saw five men armed with machetes and guns.

“You didn’t want to leave by good grace?” The leader sneered. Well, here we are going to bury you.

They tied her up and dragged her into the jungle, planning to kill her and pass off her death as an animal attack.

“Help!” Elena shouted. Please!

They took her to the edge of a ravine.

“Last words, grandma?” said one, raising the machete.

Elena closed her eyes.

“My God… in your hands I put myself…

Suddenly, the wind stopped. The insects fell silent.

A deep growl came out of the darkness.

Grrrrrrrr…

Eyes appeared shining in the night.

“What was that?” One asked, trembling.

A shuddering howl broke the silence:

—¡Auuuuuu!

A huge gray wolf, twice the normal size, jumped off a rock and shattered the machete-wielding man’s arm.

Before the others fired, a gigantic lion emerged from the undergrowth, with a thick mane and a scar on its face.

—¡ROAAAR!

It was León. And the wolf was Wolf. They were not alone: behind Lobo came a pack, and León advanced like the undisputed king of the jungle.

They had returned.

The animals surrounded Elena, protecting her. Leon stood in front of her, baring his fangs. Lobo was watching the rearguard.

The hitmen, terrified, fled firing into the air, falling down the ravine and injuring themselves in their desperate escape. The animals did not chase them.

When it was all over, Leon approached Elena and licked the tears from her face. Lobo lay down at his feet, as when he was a puppy.

“I thought I had been forgotten,” Elena sobbed. They came back… they saved me.

But the last surprise was still missing.

Lobo pulled her skirt and guided her to a hidden cave under the ravine. There were the remains of the truck… and a metal box.

Inside were blood diamonds and gold bars, hidden by traffickers.

Elena used that wealth to do justice: she denounced Rodrigo Gozón, legally protected the mountain range and declared it a Protected Natural Sanctuary.

The woman they called crazy was known from then on as The Queen of the Jungle.

He lived there for the rest of his life, together with his real sons: Lobo and León.

Because the real beast does not live in the forest…

It lives in the human heart.