Winter was setting in, the streets of the four towns were filled with fear and screams of the hunted. Women of brown and black hair lay dead in the streets. Cries of agony from mothers whose children were marked based on the color of their hair. Each Town hunted the same colors. Brown and Black. Black for Death, Brown for Beasts. Girls born with these colors in their hair were considered evil and ill omens, and thus, the sad tradition of hunting them came every winter.
The belief was that each hair color meant something different, Brown haired women were Witches of the Earth and commanded beasts. Black Haired women were Harbingers of Death who flew on the Wind. Blond hair was a Symbol for Healing and Medicine and thus Holy Water. Red hair was Sacred, as it represented sacred Fire. Winter's were long and harsh for these villages, and some used to think that my killing the maidens of brown and black hair it would keep their families safe from death and beasts. Thus every winter so many were slaughtered from this superstition; One Winter the Village head's, who all had girls of their own, came together to try and find a way to stop all this bloodshed.
The Village Elders came together at the mount of the 4 elements, each man with the color hair that represented his village. Blond for Water, in the South, Brown for Earth in the West, Black for Wind in the East, and Red for Fire in the North. The four men called in a warlock in hopes of finding a way to end the slaughter and bloodshed of innocent women. Unfortunately for these elders, this warlock did not have their best interests at heart.
"I see a time of sacrifice, but also a time of great peace" he said, a practiced smile on his face and deception hidden undertones of honey in his voice.
"Every year after the first winter's snow, a woman in a red hood must be sent into the woods to be eaten by a wolf. Her soul will be taken to the sacred fire on high and the town will be saved for another winter. Every year one village must send their fairest maiden, a different hair color each year." When the warlock finished the elders looked to one another with pained expressions, how could they send these girls into such a situation? They wanted to end the death not ritualize it.
But the warlock persisted, using his magic to slowly pierce the minds of the elders, and drive them mad.
"If it is what we must do…"The Wind was the first to fall, the other elders began to break. "I see no other way" Came from the Water. "I am in agreement." Said the fire. But the earth was not so easily broken. "Listen to yourselves! You want to sacrifice women? Have you gone mad?" The warlock began to grin and let out a cackle of delight.
"My dear earth elder, I must congratulate you on your will, my magic seems to have no effect on you" The earth village elder looks perplexed but quickly realized what was about to happen.
"No matter, Your son is old enough to lead now, and his mind is much easier to manipulate." The other elders eyes had turned red from the warlocks madness and turned on the Elder of earth.
Fighting broke out and eventually the Earth Elder was brought to his knees.
"Last chance old man." The warlock's eyes gleamed. "Join us or die." A small gasp was heard at the cave's entrance. The Elder of earth looked in fear at the small girl. His girl, his precious little one. "Run! RUN!" The small girl started to cry, shaking her head. "RUN NOW!" her father demanded as the Elder of Wind drew his sword and came after her. The girl ran in fear looking back to see her father's face before watching the Elder of Fire take off his head with his sword. The girl continued to cry, tears blinding her as she ran. The Wind elder was right on her tail.
The small child ran until she tripped on a branch, causing her to cut her knee on the frozen rocks beneath her. She looked up at her assailant and cried out, closing her eyes in fear and curling up on the ground.
"Nowhere left to run whelp." The Elder raised his sword to strike; but the blade never hit it's mark. The sound of something burning made the small girl open her eyes. The Wind elder was nothing more than ash, his sword in the hand of a middle aged woman with long black hair. With her a small girl with the same black hair seemed confused but she clung to her mother's leg for safety.
"I knew this day would come…." The woman's face twisted into sadness as she seemed to mourn the death of the Wind elder. "Come we must go." She forces herself to pull the black haired child along while scooping up the brown haired one in turn.
Night fell as the villages are lied to about the incident on the mount. The woman took the two girls to her home in the deep forest where no man dared trot. There, in her cottage two more young girls lay asleep in their beds; a Blond haired girl and a Red haired one too.
"Lily go to the fire and get me the blankets laying there, we need to use those scraps for her knee." the black haired girl, Lily, nodded and did as she was told. Meanwhile the brown haired girl clung to the woman, crying silently as the image of her father's death replayed in her head over and over. "Shhhhhhh, Hush child, shhhhhh…" The woman knew it was a futile effort to try and sooth her now but what else could she do?
"I know what you saw has your heart in pieces child, I am sorry, I am so sorry." Lily brought the thin linen blankets and began to help rip them into usable bandages.
"Why…" The girl finally spoke "Why did they do that? Why did they take my daddy from me..?"
The woman sighed deeply and set the girl on a stool near the fire.
"That man, the man with red eyes. He's a very bad man, he used his magic to hurt your father, and to hurt these villages." the woman spoke softly as she cleaned the girls knee and wrapped some bandages around it.
"But why?!" She asked again and the woman sighed once more.
"I wish I knew sweet love." The woman touched her poor little head tenderly.
"He's always been this way." she paused to watch the girl closely.
"You both didn't deserve this...One day you will be able to take your homes back." she told the girl slowly.
"Take it back?" the woman nodded.
"But today is not that day, you have a lot of training ahead of you."
The witch smiled gently at the girl whose eyes widened with wonder and perhaps, just a little bit of hope.
Years later a boy was tied tightly with chains. The warlock laughed at his attempts to get free.
"It took us a long time to hunt that mother of yours down, who knew she'd just die and leave us with exactly what we needed?" The boy howled in pain, a wolf forced into human form. "Settle down boy. I've given you a gift you see? You can take human form to escape human hunters, and in return, you will be my instrument of death." The warlock began his spell on the boy who cried out.
"Thy body will be my tool, thy mind be under my control. You shall take the life of the red hood maiden. Become a beast at the sight of the Red hood and feed on the maiden's soul!"
The spell penetrated the wolf cubs mind like a spear but it was repealed. He could feel his mother holding him.
"You're mother's spirit protected you from my spell. No matter, I might not have full control but you are still my slave boy." The warlock freed him from his chains and the cub took off. The poor thing tried to run outside the village but was stopped by immense pain in his legs. He couldn't move. He tried again to leave but his legs burned again in agony. He was trapped.
"You see?" The warlock cackled maniacally. "Leave me alone!" The boy growled in fear.
"Of course my boy, I'll leave you be." The warlock's smirk was sickening.
"But first you must kill this girl for me." He nodded and a woman with brown hair fell from what seemed like nothing. She was crying and looked like she was terrified.
"This poor soul is the Late Earth Elders wife, since her husband couldn't do what needed to be done for the safety of the village, the other elders decided she should be the first sacrifice.
"S-sacrifice? No! I don't want to kill her!" the wolf cub growled making the warlock chuckle.
"I thought you might say that." He took out a red hooded cloak from his bag and placed it gently around the woman's shoulders.
"How about now my boy?"
"Nngh…." the wolf felt his instincts hit him like a brick. He suddenly felt a carnal need to take that woman's life. He was able to shift back into a wolf and stalked around the woman, circling her like the predator he was. In an instant of pure, feral need, he took the woman. Her throat was cut open with his fangs and she bleed out onto the snow until he heart stopped beating.
When his mind snapped back the wolf became a boy again and jumped back in surprise. He trembled in fear at what he had just done.
"Good boy. Now you're free to roam the 4 villages as much as you like~" The warlock left the boy, his laughter mixing with the boy's howl of agony.
(Inspired by danydarkly 's Animatic Wolf Song this is my interpretation on the story from the song and the Animatic. This takes place before the Animatic the next chapter will most likely be during and then it will go from there :D
Hope you like it so far!)