The valley was filled with the sound of an army of men, sharpening weapons, eating meals, goading each other into fights. There were hundreds of men, armor and weapons aplenty. There was only one other in the whole valley. A young girl.
She lay huddled behind a rock, hoping no one would notice her for at least a little while, holding herself and shuddering and shivering. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, running down her face and dripping onto the harsh cold ground.
Her home was gone. Her friends and family were gone. Her innocence, the last thing she had in this world. These men had taken that from her as well. Everything was gone. She was nothing anymore.
She was cold, naked, alone, terrified. Everything a young girl should not be.
"Hello."
Opening her eyes, she found herself looking up at a small white creature. It looked like an animal, but not any kind she knew. It couldn't have been whoever spoke to her.
But then it spoke again. "I'm called Kyubey. It's my job to make Magical Girls, and you have plenty of potential. If you make a contract with me, I'll grant you one wish. Whatever you want to wish for, you can have it." It just smiled at her.
She reached up one hand, hoping that this creature might help her in some way. "Help me..." It had said it would grant her a wish. "I wish... they couldn't see me anymore."
"Your wish is granted."
There was a pain in her chest. She closed her eyes, resisting the urge to cry out in pain. If she made noise, they would come.
Unable to stop herself, she did cry out. The pain ended immediately after, and she opened her eyes to see a swirling green gem in front of her.
Smiling, the creature turned and hopped away. She never saw it again. She didn't care. Taking the gem in her hand, she struggled up to her feet. Turning around, she saw more than a dozen of the men standing right there and looking in her direction. She was afraid of what they would do to her, bracing herself for what might possibly kill her, only to slowly realize that they could not see her. They looked around, confused, then eventually turned and walked away.
She collapsed to the ground, feeling tears falling down her face. Her wish had come true. Now... she could die in peace, alone.
They continued to not notice her. Those men, more than six hundred, camped around the lake in amongst the mountains, saw nothing of her. They took no notice of anything, perfectly content to remain ignorant until a blast of wind filled the valley. Not knowing the cause, they simply took shelter. When the wind died down again, they shrugged it off and did nothing more.
Invisible to the men, the large Witch cast down upon them her fury in the form of hail. Buried in time and snow, six hundred men would remain gone from Human knowledge for more than a thousand years, lost in the valley of the damned.