Hi everyone, so this is my first attempt at a Snow White fanfic. I hope you all like it. If you do, please review or follow. This opener is only a prologue for what is to come. I hope you all enjoy it and have a nice day wherever you are. Warning: Story contains violence, murder, witchcraft, character death, maybe some boyxboy and most of all, sweet revenge. Enjoy!
-In the past-
Ravenna slowly slid her eyes across the vastly masked courtyard as her eyes sought out any cold, desolate or black colour. Everywhere her lustrous gaze slithered she could find no ounce of crimson stained emerald grass. The tree on the bark was still too full of the parasite summer to have be effectively hidden beneath the winter blanket of snow.
But eventually, her eyes did find some pleasingly black colour... it's just what they were attached to, she had some problem with.
"Snow?" She asked in her unfaltering summer breeze, soft voice.
The child blinked for a moment and turned her head, staring like a dear caught in headlights at the elegant woman who was gliding across the blanket towards her. The small girl could not have been any less younger than ten, though something about her aura radiated a far more mature and elderly looking appearance. "There seems to be a lot of it around, yes." The child laughed softly, brushing her pony tail of ink black hair out of her eyes and resting it on her shoulder.
She tried not to be hurt as Ravenna did not laugh either, (the woman to busy in controlling her urge not to sneer in disgust and the beautifully graceful girl),
The Queen simply kept the hood of her raven feather cloak hood up, she tended only to save her platinum hair and her siren like looks for when the King royal was around. Otherwise she would keep her hands in perfect manicured gloves as they were right now. Her hood would be pulled up so far her face and any features would be hidden far beneath. Her cloak and framing jewelled dress would be her only defined look.
One similarity (and she hoped: the only one) she shared with the child.
Ravenna's curiosity however was ever peaked in this otherwise boring wasteland of patience which was waiting for the ticking seconds before her great knife would carve out his heart.
She hid the smirk that thought would have betrayed her thought. "Tell me child. There is a great warming fire inside, boiled drinks, fresh bread and food. Even your father still has but part of the sun's crawl left to go before he is gone." She paused deep in thought, thinking of the small rest break before she would have to escape that feeble oaf's stupid courting advances. "So why in the name of god are you still out here?"
"I stood out here once with her."
"Who child." Ravenna said sharper than she had intended but even she had no time for games.
"My... My Mother." Snow admitted as the fold of her cloak fell back to reveal her shinning turquoise eyes and pale, winter skin.
But even with all that beauty she was beaten down and worn with sadness and reminder of loss.
Ravenna stared on as Snow spoke. "We used to sit down here every summer and watch as this certain tree would make the most beautiful crimson apples. I remember... the last time we were both together, before she was crippled into bed rest." Snow's voice wavered slightly. "We sat here and I tried to show her I could grab a couple apples, to show I've grown up since the last summer. I had been practising all morning but, however high I leapt, however I tried. I couldn't do it."
Ravena just tilted her head.
"So eventually she just smiled at me and reached up to hold it in her palm. She told me, 'like everything else around you, the tree is something living, it will die when you strip it's wood.'"
Snow reached up a hand longingly to an apple which she could see her mother's hand holding in her mind. "'It aches when you pick an apple, just as we do when we prick a finger. Take too much from it, and it will die." Snow closed her hand into a fist and turned her gaze to the ground as tears splashed the snow.
Ravenna stared on for a moment. Her eyes staring at little indentures as the snow parted and was giving some shade and difference from the rest of it's blanket.
Slowly pulling back her hood she let her platinum hair fall free in the curling curtain either side of her face. Her eyes were so beautiful they needed no true care but the natural spell which bound their siren charm.
Pulling a hand free of the chaining glove, her delicate blood stained, porcelain palm reached up and cupped a dead branch, coaxing life into it as she brushed the words of the child memory into a leaf and then a droplet like blood.
Snow kept quiet till she gave up, counting her tears, which shed from her sad eyes. "Dry your tears dear sweet child." Ravenna purred. "Strength such as yours should not be weighed down by your burden.
"My Strength?" Snow whimpered.
Blinking slowly she saw that Ravenna turned her hand under Snow's face and was now wiping away the tear. Dark, black eyes met startling blue in a sad shared bond of fighting tears.
Ravenna however had hundreds of years of more practice and maintained her face a nostalgic mask of impassive superiority.
"Your beauty." The future Queen smirked and let Snow take the apple in both her small palms. "Now come child." Ravenna slowly scooped the small girls up into her arms, the child found no questioning in Ravenna's immense strength. "Your bones are cold and your stomach speaks louder than you. Eat." She stated, leaving no room for argument.
Only after Snow had slipped off into a soft dream of her passed mother, Ravenna took the apple of sweet dreams away from the girl and attached it back to the tree where it blossomed fresh.
Letting herself smile softly.
The same way Ravenna's mother smiled at her when she was a child before she had lost her.
So. One more similarity both of them shared.
-Break-
Now here both were, fighting over each other. Both fighting for the cause of freedom but just with completely different set of morals.
The fierce Ravenna standing dominant over the figure of small Snow white. Watching the girl that she knew as a child, brandish armour over herself and raise her sword. The girls eyes studying every small move that Ravenna dared to make as she stood openly in the dark cold chamber.
There on the far right stood the golden mirror. Tall and impassive as it's reflection watched on while the two women began to circle each other. Ravenna's blood boiling with the cost of her magic as she magnificently mastered the darkness of the shadows in the ruffle of her obsidian metal armour. It's black metal ruffling like the perfect silk. Only the beautiful Queen herself could have created something like this. Only with such expertise could murder become such a performance.
Only with such dark cruelty could she play with Snow's heart as she wished to feel it beat in her palm as she burst her hand through the girl's ribcage.
This time the game was about Snow White. No kindness. No repent. Only power and strength of her own. Ravenna would take it!
Through the black darkness of the room and the single lit pyre in the centre circle, Snow charge screaming. Her silver armour glinting in the light as her black hair spiked out defiantly. Her sword pointed and pierced the cold air as her blood stained teeth and cuts stood out.
Ravenna simply smirked. "Just like your father." She purred quietly to herself and watched Snow slowly pull herself to her feet, staring at the black creations of horror which now screeched out defiantly
"RAVENNA!" Snow bellowed but simply was struck one in the throat by the point of the Queen's hands, then had her wrist sharply turned so the sword glided past her head and missed her elegantly while with a quick and sharp burst of her hand to Snow's torso, the young Princess went flying through the air, her hair singing by the close flames as she crashed and rolled across the cold and hard floor.
Even the fight was about beauty now as Ravenna stood dominant and calm.
The trail of black metal spikes like that of raven feather's glinted in the fire light as her pearly grin spread across her face. Her skin smooth and beautiful as she was righteously so in control of herself. Her desperation was masked beneath the clarity to fight and rule. She was determined and now was going to take her prize while Snow stared on in horror at the scene of the impaling black shards behind her soldiers.
The huntsman roaring as his mighty axe slashed through each of them, only to find the shards reassembled in their horrific and monstrous shape. Never ceasing. Never pausing in hesitation. Only ever striking repeatedly as fast as possible. Trying every angle to ravage and mutilate the bodies Ravenna had presented to them. Their hunger for blood insatiable. Incomparable.
Unquenchable.
Snow gasped as an arm strangled around her throat. Spitting blood out her mouth she hissed to try and let the oxygen into her lungs instead of the blood from her open wounds. WILLIAM! HUNTSMAN! She wanted to try out but only found Ravenna's grip tighter around her as lips purred over her ears. "Go on!" Her words were so soft and yet the most venomous to be heard. So cold and filled without mercy but excitement for what in her mind was about to come next. "Watch. Them. Die."
HUNTSMAN!
Both turned their eyes to see William dart forward, only to be encased in the black shards and ripped through the air. His metal armour shinning out before being enclosed in the black grip of this vile magic.
Ravenna smiled watching the grip swirl around his neck and turn his head sharply.
The creatures spared no time after that. Shooting themselves forward in waves of merciless murder. Each shard landing impact and digging into flesh without hesitation and only thought of accomplishment when seeing the light leave the eyes of the soldier.
Innards and flesh sprayed freshly through the air. Limbs tore away and were tossed as trophies. Men were pinned to walls and rose as the shards tore through them from the inside out. Leaving nothing but agony in their wake as they screeched joyfully.
Ravenna smirked even deeper. "How does it feel." She kept her eyes on the bodies as they were piling up faster on each other. The dark creatures showed no remorse as they tore away the pieces of flesh. "Knowing you were the one that led them to their deaths." A faint smile played at the edge of her lips as she found it increasingly difficult to restrain the black joy of her heart. "You see?"
Snow White turned her gaze away.
"We're not that different are we." Ravenna stated and dropped the girl to the floor as she stood dominantly.
Snow heaved for breath as she spat out the fresh crimson blood which had filled her mouth. The princess' eyes were lingering across the ill lit windows and the faintest shade of light which was fading still into darkness. Her arms ached with the burning of having fought against the other soldiers so far. Her hands blistered with the painful sword, which she now curled her fingers around. "I'm everything your not." She whispered quietly, turning with a sharp yell as she lunged with her sword once more.
The Queen simply moved her shoulder ever so slightly, still walking away back to the pyre as each strike came down to her. She didn't even grace Snow with a glance as with each piercing slice through the air, she turned the smallest bit to avoid it without much care, till eventually her impatience took the better of her at Snow's infuriating persistence. The girl striking for the Queen's head till Ravenna turned sharply and gripped her wrist so tightly, the sound of bones beginning to crack filled the air with Snow's scream, while her other hand clasped Snow's throat as the girl's hair dangled over the fire, her head nearly embracing the kissing flames which flickered up to claim her.
Upon hearing Snow's hand crack the Queen crushed the sword from her grip and let it hit the floor with a loud clanging, while she swatted Snow through the air and watched the girl, tumble to a crash once more across the floor and into a curled state where she gasped and heaved for breath.
Ravenna however had finally and completely lost it.
Slowly stepping into the flames, Snow stared in horror as the Queen's skin began to tear and burn viciously. Her eyes were painfully wide with blood lust and dark loathing. "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" She screamed into the air as her fingers clawed into fists, ignoring the searing pain but demonstrating the power behind her blood. The magic lingering in her veins deadly as venom. Snow stared on in despair as pain became absolute in her own body. Ravenna however was seething out of all control. "I have lived. Too many lives. Ravaged. Entire kingdoms." The skin in her face dripped blood freshly from the growing burns. "I have been given powers you couldn't even begin to fathom." Her words turned into a vicious whisper as she seemed to hear her own words. See herself written in them and in the air in front of the air. No mirror needed to see the dark reflection of herself. "I will never stop." She whispered. "I will give this wretched world."
The skin across her face began to turn back to it's perfect and most stunningly beautiful state.
The black of her dress shined as her skin restored and her dark eyes glistened with overflowing cold joy and dark loathing at what was to come next. Her skin became siren like smooth as it's beauty was completely controlled with brilliance.
Her voice rasped out cruelly as her eyes levelled with hatred. "The Queen it deserves."
Snow became desperate. Grunting as she clasped at any lining in the ground to drag herself forward. Her finger clawing out at any expanse to get the weapon.
Ravenna smirked as she stalked over. Her hands grasping on her waist for the great dagger which had, so many years ago tasted the blood of the king as she had plunged it into his heart. Now it would carve out through the girls chest!
"BY FAIREST BLOOD!" Ravenna bellowed among the room as outside the Huntsman cried out under the growing brutal strike of the creatures.
Snow gasped, feeling a strong strike driven into her chest as she was send, rolling along the floor away from her sword.
Ravenna raised her dagger mightily high to deliver a strong brutal blow which would drive through the girl's ribs and sever the skin, clean and purposeful for her to grab the beating heart.
However as Snow raised her arm, Ravenna stared with wide eyes as the girl's block seemed to give her some confidence. Snow's eyes narrowing as she heaved and glared through Ravenna with pure, unadulterated hatred.
For a moment the Queen's eyes fractionally widened in a split second.
Before she felt a dagger pierce through her chest and Snow stare on at her, having brought the dagger cleanly into Ravenna.
"And only by fairest blood is it undone."
The sound of screeches fading in the other room, became a dark and cold eerie silence.
Snow stared up at the eyes of the woman who had imprisoned her, her entire life. The woman who had killed her father. Taken everything from her.
Now though as three droplets of blood hit her armour, Snow couldn't help but remember that one cold night. The one of her weeping in the snow. That night from so ever long ago. That moment they had shared. That moment she had cared for her.
Ravenna frantically pushed herself away as the dagger was pulled back out of her slowly. Sharp breaths being drawn to try and fill her shrivelling lungs. Snow reached out a hand slowly, only to have it batted away as Ravenna backed herself against the mirror frantically. Almost as though she expected her own reflection of beauty to still save her. As though she could seek salvation in it.
Snow didn't know what to do. Her eyes fought against tears as she crouched in front of the convulsing woman. Ravenna seemed to be dripping and flooding out with life. As though the whispers of ages were moving through her face. The woman scoured herself away as desperately as possible. "Y-You can't have my heart." She whispered softly, watching Ravenna stare out in pain.
She reached out slowly and grasped Ravenna's hand gently. "B-But you could have." She whispered softly, watching Ravenna's eyes slowly close as the women blinked and let out a long soft flow of escaping breath. All the beauty she had breathed in. All the air in her lungs? All gone with the softest noise, like that of a summer's breeze.
Even her death was beautiful.
Snow panted for her breath as tears slowly dripped down her face in pain. Pain and remembrance of all those painful years which she had been alone. Every day so alone. The only conversation coming from all the whimpering beauties who Ravenna had hungrily leached of life and youth, to restore her own. How many girls had died? How many had died alone and scared in that room. The last thing they had seen was Ravenna's beauty... Snow guessed that Ravenna thought that would be a blessing to the girls. To see such beauty and power before they died alone.
Snow shook her head slowly and began to walk away. The battle was won. The fight was over.
-Break-
As Snow was sat on her throne. Smiling beautifully out to her Huntsman, she received her full coronation. Every villager in the realm turned out to watch the crown being lowered onto the Princess's head. To watch the beauty of the realm. The fairest one of them all, take her position among the royals. To watch her take her birth right. To watch her become everything they had ever wanted her to be.
To watch her rose lips break into a smile as she rose and people cheered out her name.
Ravenna's body remained under the mirror. Black blood beginning to ooze out of the dagger wound where Snow's strike had landed. The blond's strands of grey hair were twirling and wilting as her chest quivered painfully. Beginning to coat her armour with oozing life essence. Her armour ruffling as though there was a breeze in this ancient domed room.
The old candles flickered angrily with a deep fear.
The mirror shined faintly as the mirrors poured in shadows.
Rivenna's body lurched forward lightly as more blood began to pour from deeply within the small wound. More and more poured out. So much more than could belong to one body alone.
Then it finally happened.
Something poked out from the small hole in the chest. A sharp point. Dark and like a sleek curved blade.
It gnawed and pecked it's way out. Crying out in pain as it tried to force it's way through the widening slit of Ravenna's chest.
Black feathers coated in pure dark blood sprawled out and stretched further. Stretching into stubbly small fingers as they tightened into bound human skin. The small feather torso of a raven began to cradle into a baby.
For a moment it remained completely quiet. As though the black blood which it was coated in and the raven form it had birthed in, had taken control over it's mind. As though for a second the child was inhuman.
But then came the cries. The cries of a new born infant and the signal of life.
Life had started anew.
But at what cost. What cost was this child's worth?
The horrific child of a evil Queen.
And that's how his secret would be known.
Until the day he would take his own quest.
And conquer.