Cold. So cold. The rain was seeping through little gaps between the beams that held the old cabin together, quenching the little fires Anna had lit to keep her home warm. She tried to keep the warm inside and the cold outside, but it was hard. The forest was pushing freezing cold air through every little hole it could find. It didn't really matter to Anna, she had survived worse winters than this one, harsher and colder, but the little ones… She had to keep them warm. She couldn't let them go to the long sleep. She couldn't bear losing them. They were all she had.
Anna stood up and slowly walked towards the corner of the room, kicking a rotten apple core out of the way. The tiny little creature that was leaning against the wall, with a rope tied around its neck, could have been an animal. But it was not. Anna crouched to the ground, lowering her head to the same level with the little body, and caressed its ice-cold cheek with her fingers. She had lost another one. No matter what she did, she could never keep them awake. This always happened. First they stopped struggling against her, then they stopped crying, and then… They always fell asleep to never wake up. Anna did not cry, she had stopped crying a long time ago, but her heart was aching, and every time she lost a stolen daughter, something inside her became even more broken.
A sudden hunch made Anna jerk her head up, like an animal who had wind bring the smell of prey to its nose. She stood up and walked to the window, carefully opening the shutters. Wind rushed inside, eager to fill the cabin with cold, but Anna didn't even notice the chilling draft on her skin. She stared at the view behind the window. Something was… off. The sky was suddenly darker, the rain colder. Anna looked around the dark forest, but all she could see was trees, towering far above her little cabin. She glanced at her hatchets, lying on the table, as if she was trying to decide whether or not to take them with her. It was not a hard decision. When Anna stepped outside, she was gripping her fingers around the handle of one hatchet and she had four others dangling from her belt.
As soon as Anna stepped outside the cabin, she felt cold raindrops dripping on her from the branches and leaves above her. She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around her torso to keep herself warm, keeping the hatchet ready for throwing instead. She could not see anything out of the ordinary, but she felt the presence of… something. Something dark.
"Hello, Anna."
Anna turned around, frantically looking around the glade, trying to locate the voice. She let out a deep growl that sounded more like an animal than a human. She couldn't see anyone, but the voice still echoed between the tall and silent woods as Anna turned around, looking back at her cabin. Nothing there.
"I have been watching you. You have become quite a story around the forest. The monstrous half-beast who kills men… and eats little girls… But that's not true, isn't it?"
Anna let out a brutish scream, throwing her hatchet at where she thought the voice was coming from. But it didn't hit anything, it just disappeared into the darkness. Anna turned around, wrapping her fingers around the handle of another hatchet. Her heart was pounding, loud and fast, as she searched for the source of the disembodied voice.
"Don't be afraid of me, Anna. I know what you want. And I have the power to give it to you."
What Anna wanted? She did not understand. She only wanted one thing, and no one could possibly give her that. She knew it.
"Mother?"
Anna froze in place, not sure if she had heard right. Slowly she turned around, keeping her hatchet ready despite her shaking hands.
The girl was looking at Anna, with her big, round eyes, her lips forming an unsure smile. She took a step towards Anna. Anna took a step back, backing off from the girl. She couldn't believe it. This had to be some kind of a… trick or something. This was too good to be true. Anna was too afraid to trust it.
"Go on, touch her. She is yours. Yours to raise, yours to love… in one condition."
Anna reached out her hand and let her fingers brush against the child's cheek. It was so soft, so warm. Nothing like the ones she had captured, who were already half dead when she brought them to her home. But just as Anna was about to lay her other hand on the girl's shoulder she vanished, and Anna's hand fell through the air.
"No…!"
Anna's cry was full of tears she could no longer shed, hoarse and desperate. She winced at the sound of her own voice. She hadn't used words in a long time, she had forgotten what it felt like to feel air flowing through her throat and shape it into words in her mouth. It scared her. She had not expected to sound… like that. Like a little girl. Weak.
"I will not give her to you just yet. You will have to do something for me first. I need you to hunt something. Could you do that for me, Anna?"
A sound of leaves and branches being pulled aside to reveal an opening to the wall of trees echoed in Anna's ears. She turned around to see sudden glow of warm light where there should have been only dark and unwelcoming forest. It was a campfire. And around the fire stood four people.
Slowly, Anna realized what the voice meant by "hunting". She nodded to herself. Yes, she could do this. She had hunted humans before, when she was starving and hadn't been able to let her hatchets taste the blood of animals. And for fun, too. Humans were not as big as bears and moose, not as tasty, but they were fun to chase. And Anna liked the sounds they made just before dying. They reminded her of her own mother and her final moments with her. If Anna closed her eyes, she could almost imagine being with her mother again. Almost.
"The trial will begin soon. Strike down your prey and hang them on my hooks. Sacrifice them before me and you will have your wish granted. Anna… no. You are no longer Anna. You have become something else."
Deep in the neverending forest, four survivors get ready to fight for their lives once again. And in the darkness of the shadows, the Huntress smiles at them, ready to start hunting her prey.