To understand the present and future, sometimes we need to look back on the past.

...

Or Mrs. S's backstory

References to WWII and The Holocaust

(Edit: Whoops! Sorry about the formatting faithful readers. I think I fixed it. Hope you enjoy!)

I know it has been a while, but I have been working hard on this story. (Stiles and Derek NEED a happily ever after, okay?) College likes to eat my time, but I WILL finish this story!

What can we learn from knowing Mrs. S's past?
Also, I am not a native Polish speaker. If I get something wrong, please feel free to let me know. Thank you! :)

Comments = Love

Ollie Sr.'s Interlude

Stiles and Scott- 7 years old

Ollie was shuffling around the outside of her house, looking for her two favorite young men. "Now where did those two troublemakers get to?"

She had just baked a piping hot batch of her famous kruschickis, (or as the boys liked to call them, "sugar bow tie cookies"), but could not seem to find them anywhere. She felt a bump to her shin and noticed Mr. Whiskers looking across the street. Petting her thanks, she left on the hunch and went to the little garden on the side of the neighbor's house. The boys were there. Curious what they were doing in secret, the little old lady did a trick she used to do as a snoopy child. She hid around the corner, and kneeled low on the ground. Well, as much as her trick hip would allow.

"…it has to be the most epic version of Red Riding Hood I have ever heard of! Why would she hide this story from us?! Disney should make this a movie!"

From her hiding place, the impish woman saw her Scooter nod eagerly to what the first boy was saying. She could not see the other dear child, but she could hear the flip of pages. Momentarily panic stricken over the boys possibly taking one of her special books, she calmed down when she remembered Vojteck's little notebook. Claudia was a genius when it came to teaching her son, or well, tricking her son into teaching himself. Wanting him to learn Polish, she was the one that suggested forbidding him to see certain stories that he might have found appealing. Low and behold, seven years old and he almost sounded like he had been born in the village she grew up in.

"What happened next, Stiles?!"

"According to this, the… my… myśliwych? Yeah, the myśliwych, which I think means 'warriors', came to fight Little Red's village of magical creatures…"

Ah yes, she knew very well what tales had been copied down. In the very back of the illustrated book of the stories of her people, was a mismatched section of newer parchment paper. This newer section was calledKroniki Mały Czerwony Dziewczyna, aka The Chronicles of Little Red.

Oh how she knew that new section well. Kroniki Mały Czerwony Dziewczyna told the story of a girl called "Little Red", due to the unnamed girl's unmanageable hair, and wearing her cousin's hand-me-down red coat.

The section, while smaller in comparison to the rest of the book, was chock full of little stories. Some of the tales, towards the beginning, were happy. There were some heartwarming stories of Little Red learning to cook the special family recipes from her mother, as well as learning magic at her knee. There were many adorable stories of Little Red and her caring for her little brother. Since her parents let her name the baby boy, she kind of saw him and her own child, despite being just a girl herself. Besides her mother, he was her truest pride and joy. There were many about the special people, including her father and older brother, being able to turn into woodland creatures, and the fun times they had under the full moon. There were even some non-magical stories of Little Red and her cousin Rifka's adventures, and accompanying her midwife mother to help with births. It was towards the middle and end of the chronicles that things got intense, and then very gloomy. The middle is where it sounded like the boys were at that moment. In that section they got to see not only how majestic the animal shifters were, but just how badass Little Red's mother was. A dark haired woman of only 5'4 ft, with eyes the color of the sweetest honey, Little Red's mother proved to be one hell of a warrior witch. One story told how the heavily pregnant human woman protected Little Red from a Baba Yaga, with only the use of a rune covered wooden club.

That one was particularly bloody. Two lessons were learned: Never piss off the pregnant. Never try to hurt a person's child.

Little Red wanted to be just like her.

The particular battle the boys were at was the beginning slope that led to the abrupt end of Little Red's childhood. Mistaking myśliwych to mean "warriors" instead of "hunters", the boys were imagining something of evil knights converging on Little Red's family and friends. Vojtech, in time, would understand that it was actually his own name that meant "warrior".

She could understand where the confusion the boys had come from. From what she overheard the boys thought the collection of stories of this little girl's magical, and tragical early life were the Polish version ofLittle Red Riding Hood.

In all honestly she detested the Grimm brothers for writing that story.

Wolves were not the enemy.

Usually she would pick and choose juicy stories of monsters and fierce battles for young Vojtech to discover "on his own". That section though…she had different reasons for not reading it. Even though she was an old woman, with grey hair instead of auburn, the wounds of her past were still too fresh.

Yes, her past.

She was Little Red from the chronicles in that book. Her wonderful husband, Lord rest his soul, had taken the task to rewrite her story to update the histories for the next generation. He had purposely left her name out, for she was still living, and true names held magic.

You see, while Vojtech and Scooter thought the illustrated books of her's were just fantasy stories, what they actually were were true accounts, information, and recipes collected over the years by pack members. Lost in thought, Ollie let herself remember what lead her to be here.

Poland 1939

A twelve-year-old Ollie Ciepłewilk stood in the oil lamp light by the door of their home, as her Mama buttoned up her thick red coat. It used to belong to her cousin Rifka, who she had not seen in nearly three years. As each round button was done up in the flickering light, Ollie briefly thought on the girl she had played with in happier times. Two years older, taller, and larger boned that Ollie, Rifka was the gentler soul of the two girls. While Rikfa was content to play with dolls and to quietly read a book, Ollie was a lively spirit. Many a time it was Ollie's exuberance, (and her sneaky curiosity), that would get both girls into trouble with their parents.

Now though, Rikfa was far far away, living her life in shadow as somebody else. As much as she missed the girl, she almost hated her now. Rifka may have been forced away from home, but she also was now filling in Ollie's shoes as older sister.

While the coat was at least a size too big for Ollie, it was lined with the fur of the rabbits Rifka's father had caught in the woods. Ollie's Uncle Ryzard, just like his brother Zyczliwy, Ollie's late Tata, were that of the "owłosione ludowa", aka "hairy folk" of their village. At one time Ollie had been surrounded with the happy sounds of howls on nights of the full moon. Ollie had learned from her Tata that for many centuries the people of her pack had been known as the protectors of the village.

While she and her Mama were not of the "owłosione ludowa" variety like her Tata and her late older brother Edek, she and her mother were just as important in taking care of the land and their people. She learned that she had a duty to learn of the histories of their people, and how to wield her own special gifts. She may not have the gifts of shifting shape and enhanced senses, but she had gifts of magic, like the gift of healing others and the gifts of a seer. While healing magic was almost commonplace gifts for czarownicas, or "witches", like herself and her Mama, Ollie had a very special and rare gift. Ollie was a Seer. She learned how to share it and show visions by using magic through heating up a cup of tea. The heat was the trick. She learned early on how to wield the element of sun and fire. One must when living in frozen Poland.

Buttons all done up, Mama handed her daughter a heavy brown satchel. She peaked outside of the curtains with a look of half apprehension, half dread.

After all, it was not every day that one knows that their demise is nearly upon them.

"Darling," she said touching Ollie's tear stained cheek, "it is nearly time. The sun will be rising soon. We must do the ritual."

Ollie knew she had to do it, but she did not want to. After it was completed, there was no going back. She would officially be without a home, without a land, and without a family. Her only companion on her journey would be her mother's old familiar cat. As much as she understood the dire situation, all Ollie wanted to do was to cling to her mother.

Even in the face of certain death and despair, Mama glowed with bravery and grace in the lamp light.

Klaudia Straszliwy-Ciepłewilk had her own special gift. While most people would call it a form of empathy, Klaudia could often feel if a person wished ill will, or if a bad situation was approaching. The last time she had felt that feeling was four years prior, when Ollie was eight, and her father and older brother were still alive.

Zyczliwy and Klaudia were celebrating the birth of their new son. Ollie was very excited. Her parents took her suggestion for a name, and named the baby her very favorite name for a boy. To a feisty, battle-ready little girl, this meant the world.

(Of course, that was the name Ollie planned to name a cat when she got her own familiar someday, but let it slide. Familiars were not easy to find, so she know it could take a while. While she was not the biggest fan of babies, she felt a special bond with that one. He had her blessing to keep the name.)

It was always a great celebration when a new baby was born in the pack, but it was even more special when the child of the pack's Alpha came into the world.

Even though Alpha Zyczliwy Ciepłewilk's side of the family was not Jewish, he converted upon marrying Klaudia, a devout Jew despite being born czarownica. It was while the Rabbi of their small country temple came to bless the new baby, that Klaudia felt it.

Death.

Dread.

Mayhem.

The wave of feeling brought the poor woman to her knees. Not knowing what was to come, she asked Ollie to warm her tea, and show her some "funny pictures". While both Zyczliwy and Klaudia worried about Ollie using such powerful magic at her age, they knew not to fear her seeing the vision meant for her mother by accident. While Ollie herself could see visions, when she passed her gift through warmed liquid, it was to give the drinker the ability to see a vision from their own timeline.

Klaudia was horrified. While she did not see much, what she did learn made her vomit.

Hunters, or myśliwych were coming for their pack. They had heard stories over the years about a powerful pack nessled quitely near the forest and river. Even though they were peaceful, these myśliwi did not believe "owłosione ludowa" were safe to keep alive around humans. They also feared the power of czarownicas born of the pack. While shifters had the power of tooth and claw, czarownicas of packs were known to be just as dangerous, if not more. If they grew to become Druids and Emissaries, they were formidable foes.

Ollie's father immediately went to action and called a pack meeting that very night. They tried to get into contact with ally packs, only to hear the horrifying news that packs in eastern Europe were being quietly picked off one by one. Anyone that was human was left alone, but anyone that was either owłosione ludowa, or had a spark of magic, were exterminated. Lots of news of bodies either cut in half or burned at stakes came their way. For fear of what could happen to her czarownica daughter, Klaudia instructed her to never speak of her gifts, and to always stay close to the house. While this put a damper on Ollie's life, this did not stop the happy child with playing with her cousin and new baby brother.

A year passed with no event. Life continued. Finally, the night of the attack, Klaudia hid Ollie and her toddler son in the cellar. Klaudia tried to make Edek hide, but he refused. Loyal to a fault, Edek wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with his family and friends entering the fray. For three days and three nights Ollie took care of her baby brother, hoping her parents and older brother would come back.

Despite the circumstances, Ollie loved spending her time with the hyperactive toddler .While she was fearful that her family might not come home, she was bound and determined to be the best caretaker for the precious boy placed in her tiny hands. When the cellar would get cold, she would risk using her magic to warm his bottle and blankets. To keep herself from crying in fear, Ollie would tell her brother of all of the fun times they would have.

"I sure do hope you don't turn out like Tata and Edek," she had said one night to the babbling child, "as much as I love the midnight howls, I want you to be just like me, or even like cousin Rado!"

Ollie would whisper in his ear, "Tata swears he is human, even though he is very hairy. He says that even non "hairy folk" are very hairy in this part of the world. He says it is to keep them warm. If that is the case, why can't we all turn into wolves?"

She pet the younger child's downy brown head and continued talking.

"I don't think we have to worry about that though. You don't have very much hair. No, I need you to be just like you get a little older, we can be best friends! Unlike Rifka. She's my friend, but she does not like playing hide-and-seek with broom swords. I bet you will like that."

Being a small child, and that of one with a strong will, Ollie decided herself that the baby, whether he had a spark or not, would be taught magic and histories by her. He needed to learn the important things about pack too.

"At the very least, if I can't find a good familiar like Mama's, you can be mine! You can pretend to be a cat, right?"

This led to the little boy meowing at his sister relentlessly. This was fine with her. Beside her brother, Ollie's other most favorite thing in the world were cats.

"Just you and me, little warrior. Whether Tata and Mama come back, you and I are a team. I'll teach you everything you need to know, just like Mama taught me. I promise, you and me against the world."

It was when the younger honey eyed child would sleep that Ollie would let her fear get to her. Even as she silently cried into her pillow, she promised herself that if her family did not come back, then she would be his mother. As much as she loved her parents and older brother, it was the child next to her that meant the most.

On the fourth morning, her Mama came home. Aside from her grey tabby familiar that kept her invisible to the eyes of the myśliwi, she came alone. Even being prepared, they lost so many in the fight. Ollie lost her father and older brother.

The Pack had ultamently won the battle, but they were promised a war. What saved the ones that were left, shifter and human, was the use of the paste. Klaudia and Ollie, the only two remaining czarownica left in the whole pack, worked to the point of exhaustion to save the lives of those that were left. The myśliwi said that they would come back bigger and stronger, and would burn the village to the ground, including the innocent humans that lived there. The only thing that would save the village of innocents would be if all supernaturals were gone. The humans that were not in the pack, once grateful for having such a powerful pack to protect them, got angry and insisted the wolves leave for good. However, they asked Klaudia, the town midwife and known healer, to stay.

This left Ollie's mom weak. She knew that she was not found out, but knew that she could never practice magic again. The same went for her daughter, if she stayed.

Knowing that the humans would be safe if they left, all the remaining wolves left the village to go into hiding, as they were told. Fearful that her youngest would turn out to be just like her husband and oldest son, a grief stricken widow gave her baby to her brother-in-law's family. Ollie, who begged and pleaded to keep her precious baby brother, a child she saw as her own, at her side, was ignored. At the time, before advances in technology, there was no way of knowing until a baby shifted if they would turn out to be a wolf.

Klaudia, being the Alpha mate, did not want to leave their land. Somebody had to stay and protect the people of their village.

A decision was left at Ollie's little feet. Either to stay with with her Mama, or go with and be adopted by her Uncle's family, like her little brother. If she left, she and her Uncle's family would have new identities. She could be with her favorite little person in the world...but she would never see her mother again. Knowing that there was nothing to it, both of her brothers were going to be places too far for her little arms to reach, Ollie did not ask to leave. As much as it broke her heart, Ollie clung to her mother. She cried at the thought of her mother alone with only their cat and older human cousin for company. At least her baby brother would have family surrounding him. However, it was the same older cousin, Radoslaw, Rifka's human older brother, the only human in her Uncle's family, that refused to be left behind. His family was going into hiding. He would not be without could not help to see the similarities between her human cousin and her brave older brother. She did not feel so bad if her best friend turned out like him after all. Hairy and all.

What brought Ollie to the kitchen door that morning, came about one night the month before. It had been three years of peace. Through the caution of ordinary life, Mama kept her ear close to the ground about the myśliwych but they did not come back. No, unknowingly something else was festering in the distance.

Not knowing how to get into contact with the members that dispersed, the two women and one cat went about normal life. Three years of not hearing from the pack members in hiding, before her mother felt that awful feeling again. This time, however it was teamed up with Ollie having a nightmare.

Ollie was frantic. In her dream she saw hundreds of soldiers coming up the main road to the village.

She watched her mother and other town's folk being told that they needed to pack up their belongings.

She saw hundreds marching in the cold, only to be led to a gaping pit in the ground.

She saw those same people being shot.

Ollie did not understand what was going on at the time. These men did not look like myśliwi. They had uniforms on with a big ugly spider on the sleeve.

Ollie did not understand why ordinary humans would be killed like this. They had no magic to fear. They could not shift their shape.

Why were they being hunted?

However, it was not seeing the gruesome sights that terrified Ollie. No, it was worse than that, for Ollie saw versions of her life after the horrifying executions. She knew that what she saw happening to the people who went to her synagogue would not be what happened to her. She saw herself escaping into the woods with her mother's familiar, clad in her red coat. The thing that made her scream and cry, was the fact that her Mama did not come with her. No matter what she searched in her mind, her mother was just...gone from her future.

She saw herself older in America, feeling the golden sunshine in her hair. She saw herself meeting a bright boy who liked to play with gadgets, and gave her kisses that made her lips tingle. She saw herself married to that wonderful boy-turned man...but she was an orphan.

She told Mama all of this that night. Her mother had not been blessed (or cursed) with the gift of forsight, so she could not see the visions that plagued her. Klaudia, while trying to hide such news from her child, heard the rumors about Hilter's rein, and what it meant for the Jews. She begged her mother to drink some of her special heated tea, only for her mother to timorously tell her not to use her magic. Dreams and feelings could not be controlled, but actively choosing to use magic was unnecessarily dangerous for them. Instead, Klaudia bundled her daughter up in a blanket, and sat her in her lap in a rocking chair. Petting her tangled scarlet hair, she asked her to tell her about the happy things that would happen to her when she grew up.

She asked her what her wedding dress would look like, if her husband would be kind, and what her grandchildren would be like.

Ollie didn't have the heart to tell her that after losing her little brother, she did not want to ever be a mother, or that the man she married did not want to be a father.

She did not want to say that they would live a childless happy life filled with travel and adventure.

She kept to herself that they would settle down in old age in a town that she knew held her last living blood relatives.

She did not want to tell her that that town would have a Nemetod, something her mother had warned her to always stay far away from.

So instead she told of her of her girls, one Klaudia's namesake, the other a proficent healer, that she would call her daughters.

With a tearful but happy smile, she would tell her mother of her future great-grandsons. She would boast endlessly and with pride about how one would become a True Alpha of myth, and how the other would become one of the most powerful witches of all time.

She would promise her whiskey-eyed Mama that both would carry on the legacy of their people, and built a strong pack in America.

It did not matter that the baby that scooted on his butt across the floor was technically not blood related. She loved him and his mother like they were.

Pack did not have to be related to be family.

As for the other... that precious boy. She would not tell her mother his name,but she would tell her that he and his mother, her namesake, both had her brown eyes. They had already lost one Vojtech in this lifetime to circumstances. She did not want to open that wound in her mother's heart.

This one might be Ollie's brother's grandchild, but she would love him like he was her own. She would get a second chance to teach a Vojtech everything she knew, like she promised. She would never see her baby brother again, but she had the promise of knowing this one and seeing him grow up.

With those thoughts in mind, Ollie found herself ready to do the ritual.

With a heavy heart, Ollie took the plate from Mama's hands. She picked up the piece of kielbasa her mother prepared, and bravely took a bite. Looking down at the familiar that was about to become her own, she shakily offered the meat from her plate to the cat. The cat, a faithful companion and excellent familiar to Klaudia, mournfully meowed and rubbed against her for the last time. He knew Ollie was to be his new partner, and to guard her with his life. Resigned, the cat ate the kielbasa.

The ritual was complete. A new contract had been forged between person of magic and familiar.

Ollie had just leveled up on her magic, and won the chance to live.

She and her mother had paid a hefty price.