His existence was a legend. An urban legend, like the ones the little kids spread about, trying to scare themselves, as well as their younger peers. Nobody had seen him, yet many talked about how so many people were vanishing without a trace, blaming him for it; "the Wildman", as they called him. If he existed, they would be right to call him that. If he existed, he was a vicious murderer, wild, untamed, unwilling to stop. His name was Iggy…
Up on the wild mountainous plains of Alberta, Canada lived mostly wild animals, plants, trees and a few people who dared to leave the big city behind and go search for a different lifestyle, away from the chaos and stress of the cities. Deep into the woods, where no other human soul would dare live at, there was a wooden cabin. Rumor had it that there lived an insane man, deprived of any sentiments or sense. Some said that they had heard him screaming, some others even claimed seeing him in the past, even though whoever saw him didn't live long enough to tell the tale. His story was a mystery, as was his very being.
Iggy's true story was the following… He was born out of wedlock to an asylum inmate. His father was unknown, but it was believed that his mother was raped within the asylum for the unstable. His mother was a rare case of schizophrenic. Her name was Betty. She was put into the asylum when her state got completely out of hand. There were many times that Betty was kept locked and restrained because she had attacked her fellow inmates. Two years had passed ever since Betty's arrival at the clinic when one night things got even more out of hand; but not because of Betty. There was a guard who was checking her out every now and then, but lately he had started getting obsessed with her. Unhealthily obsessed. When everyone was sleeping, the guard used his key to open Betty's room. The woman was sleeping, but woke up to the cracking of the door, jumping out of bed and gluing herself against the wall, wailing. She was totally insane but she was the prettiest girl in the asylum. Tall, thin, grey/blue eyes and long, straight black hair. The guard smirked and she glared at him, ready to attack him. Before she could growl at him, he almost jumped on her, closing her mouth with a gag and pressed her tightly against the wall, barely letting her breathe as she struggled to escape. Her muffled screams were not heard. He was the only guard doing his rounds in that ward that night. The rest were far enough to let him do his business without being noticed. And no matter what the other inmates heard, there was nothing they could do about it. But just in case, the guard had closed her mouth so tight that at some point Betty fainted. That didn't stop him from continuing what he had started though.
Some time later, many noticed how Betty's appearance had changed. She had fallen pregnant following her assault. Nobody did nothing more other than kicking the guard from the asylum, after putting two and two together and seeing how she couldn't have gotten raped by any other in that ward. The fact that there were only women in that ward except from the guard also helped… But other than firing the guard, literally throwing him out of the facility, nobody cared about what would become of Betty and the baby. Only a nurse tried to talk to her, even if Betty had lost the ability to form coherent words for quite some time now. The nurse calmly tried to talk to her and see if Betty herself was realizing what was happening to her. She asked Betty if she knew she was pregnant and what that meant for her. Betty was staring into space the whole time. Only when the nurse asked her if she wanted the baby, did Betty slowly turned her gaze to her, staring at the female nurse blankly, before turning her gaze to the same spot she was staring at earlier. The nurse sighed. There was no other option than to give the baby up for adoption when it would be born.
A few months later, during a stormy night, Betty's screams of pain woke up the whole ward. Little did she know that that would be her last night. Extensive blood loss during childbirth was the cause of her death while her son was being born. She didn't have the time to hear the baby's first cries, dying a few seconds before he was completely out. His cry was loud and strong. He was kicking and screaming, showing signs of a healthy baby boy. The examinations also confirmed this. Physically he was of great health. It was his mental health state that couldn't be examined at that point…
The staff was quick to put the baby up for adoption with no luck. The baby couldn't be kept in the asylum either. Without really caring for the boy, the manager took things in his own hands, taking the boy out in the Canadian wilderness, only a few hours away from the asylum, leaving him to die alone in the woods. The cold was stabbing the little boy's skin like needles, even while he was covered in his tattered baby clothes and white blanket. The baby was screaming crying from the cold and hunger. The manager did not care, setting the infant down next to a stream and turning his back on him.
It was a couple hours later that a man walked down the stream with an axe in one hand and a huge bag of freshly chopped wood around his shoulder. The baby's cries were not as strong now. But the man heard him. Blinking his eyes, he walked rapidly over to the bundle, gasping at the sight of the newborn. Setting his axe and bag down, he picked the boy up and held him in his chest. The infant immediately calmed down just a little.
"Hey… Hey now… Who left you out here?" the man asked softly, looking around. He couldn't leave the baby just like that. "Who would leave a being like you alone out here? Come, come now, hush… I'm gonna take you home. You're safe with me."
Never minding his tools and the wood he had gathered, the man walked a short distance, reaching his cabin. It was a small cabin in the woods of Alberta. He walked inside, trying to figure out what to do with the baby. Within five minutes, he had picked up some milk, warmed it and gave it to the starving infant, who started quickly drinking up. The man couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"What am I going to do with you, eh?" he said mostly to himself. As he softly rocked the baby, he heard him cooing. "Poor boy… We must see what we will do with you… But for the time being… you're staying with me." He paused for a while, staring down at the baby. Never in his life had he thought of having a child. He was married once, but now he was divorced, living alone in the woods.
"We must find a name for you," he softly said after a while. "Iggy… My father's name…"