This story is dedicated to Zullie. Your flame was short lived, but it burnet bright.


Through sleepless days and dreamless nights, she found herself bound to walk through tall dark gates, towards freedom. She wouldn't stumble, under silver strands of moonlight she had no fear of falling.


On that rainy night darkness doubled, and lightning struck itself. The old nun had patiently waited for her to slip, and when she did, the last drop of hope was lost. She had asked to be set free. To someone. Somewhere. She had felt pain, the ropes tying her to the chair biting on pale, thin wrists.

The overweight nun hobbled towards her, the dusty remains of what once was a classroom suffocating her. Through whispered holy words, for the Lord's Prayer would purify her soul. Through Christ's blood she'd be redeemed.

Vivien tried being somewhere else, listening to the rain, but hearing not that. Her fear that night made her wish for the kiss of death, as she never really knew the embrace of life.

To the little girl, life was littered by magic. For it she was twice almost murdered, she was left alone in an orphanage, never knowing where she once belonged, or if she ever did.

Magic, as she knew deep inside, was the mark on her forehead. A bolt of lightning shaped by evil, infecting her soul. She couldn't blame her parents for leaving, the kids for fearing, the nun for trying to exorcise it from her.

After the acceptance had come, fate sealed as her little heart began to stutter, she heard it. Darkness doubled and lightning struck itself, but the strands of silver reached pale blue eyes.

Chew the chains, loose the locks. The moon had whispered arcane secrets, it spoke with neither word nor vision, but the child understood it all too well.

Would she accept the calling? She heard the whispers of star crossed love, of unavoidable fate. She was too little to understand the concepts, but meaning burnt itself into her mind. She learned then, she could belong to someone, somewhere.

Rope untying itself was just another abnormality in the little girls life. The old nun screamed as she rose, silver blue eyes, intense with purpose. On her walk towards fated freedom, she did not stumble, and from the third story window, as darkness doubled and lightning struck itself, Vivien had no fear of falling.

Vivien reached tall dark gates. Rain poured down, her raven hair a black cloak. Barefoot she approached, neither cold nor wind making her falter. The enchanted song of moonlight drew her in, lured her soul from its shape, and through the gate, like a veil. The dense forest around the old orphanage welcomed her. She had imagined this countless times before, as in her lonesome she had witnessed nature, picturing what freedom in the evergreen would feel like. Now the girl had the chance to accept her fate and make a grab for freedom.

Deep within she marched, with blind eyes she drew a breath in, and when she let it out she had found her way. The little girl followed the enchanted song, barefoot her steps were punishing, but she did not stumble. After an eternity she found herself in a steep trail, high in the peak she knew something awaited.

She stopped where paths crossed, and left behind her clothes and all she owned. She knew not why, but knew where she was headed, they were of no use. She felt her burdens lighten, but knew that heavy was the path ahead.

At the second stop where paths crossed, she paused. She left behind weighty thoughts. She had nothing and no one to worry about. She felt her burdens lighten, but knew that heavy was the path ahead.

At the third stop where paths crossed, she paused. How could she leave her fears behind? They clutched to her like a bad smell. The enchanted song told her to drop her masks, but she knew not how. Her silvery blue eyes looked up, and through the canopy, like a big top tent up high, the moon was a hole of light. She knew it was there before, and would be there after her. It offered borrowed strength to cross this monumental threshold, and she knew then the price was high. Step back to the relative safety of normalcy, or thread forward the steep path towards the unknown? She could then have declined fate, and the offer was loud and clear. Vivien did not stumble, and fate shone down on her.

With fear still in her heart and cracked masks, the little girl let her burdens behind. The moonlit trail ahead was heavy, but with borrowed strength up she went.

A little girl was summoned to mountain blue, where moonlight could reach her. Naked at the top she accepted fate, and the mountain knew her. The shadow women danced about her, sang for her, chanting powerful runes. Into weather and wind she faded.


Silver blue eyes opened in the cold morning, and hands patted down, feeling the fabric of clothes that now strangled her. The tender skin of her bare feet, now healed from any form of punishment it suffered the night before. Was it all a dream? She saw no path towards the massive climb she endured the night before. Alone she cried, the uncertainty of life too much for a little girl to bare. How could she survive alone? She felt hunger and thirst.

She carefully made her way through dense threes, sidestepped fallen branches and thorny vines. She fell sick after drinking from a stream, and after a long day she laid down to rest, the cold chilling to the bone. As darkness enveloped her, pale skin felt kissed by moonlight, and she realized it was just as happy to see her. That night as darkness doubled, it had lost some of it's oppressive aura. She could hear nature clearly, and faintly she could hear that song, and knowledge was once again imprinted into her brain

In the distance a rock shone, and she gently picked it up. It was sharp enough to cut. Cedar and birch, the voice whispered, and she instantly knew what it meant. She grabbed dry branches, and from shredded bark the slow process of building a fire begun. She used all her might to drop the standing dead tree, broke her short nails digging down on rotted wood, reaching the dry wood within. With a spindle, a notch in the wood, she rubbed her small hands raw, but after long hours the fire roared, and she never felt happiness like that before. She used burning hot stones to boil water, and after quenching her thirst, she lied down next to the warmth she had created. With an empty stomach, but a smile on her face, she slept till sunrise.

She learned as the days passed, that as the day stretched out beneath the sun, her steps faltered and her fingers groped, but in fading day she felt confident enough to run. At night she wouldn't stumble.

Necessity then led her to her first kill, under cover of darkness she approached, learning how to use her magic to conceal her presence. She snapped the rabbit's neck and cried the whole time, her rock glinted impossibly sharp, cutting through flesh, slicing the skin. She was then shown visions of wolves hunting, the realization that nature was brutal was branded in her mind. She learned that day that everything would one day die, including herself.

As time went by she built her strength, and with it, her magic. Occasionally she saw visions of magic, secrets she herself could one day learn. Her deep slumber brought forth knowledge, and enforced the sensibility she had to the mysterious force guiding her steps. She learned to feel the faint magic in the air around her, always guiding her towards something.

One day, as cold night took her to a place to scape the chill, she heard the engine rumble, the lights piercing through the woods. She stood there on the road, had she found what she was looking for? Was she supposed to leave her woods, join once again a society that hated her? She just sat there, tucked up somewhere in the woods, watching the cars passing by. Did she have a reason to stay? To go? Vivien had no answers.