[In the Dark Forest - Wolves' Den]
"My friends, my family... I have returned..." said Graham.
"What has taken you so long?" asked one wolf (in Wolf). "Surely the 'Human Watering Hole' doesn't require so long. We were worried."
"It's called a pub, Mama. And it's also a place for socialisation."
"I don't think we need a long definition." said another wolf (in Wolf). "But what was the reason for your delay? After many years of being in the pack, you must know us wolves care a lot about time management."
"Yes, Papa, I know..."
"Then explain your reasons of your lateness."
"I have been offered a deal-"
"No!" shouted Mama wolf. "We do not accept deals from... humans. Remember what happened to your birth father?"
"Yes, but..."
"No 'buts'!"
"Mama, please! Let me speak!"
"You heard me!"
"I'm not a cub anymore!" shouted Graham.
The mother wolf was shocked at the tone he was in.
"I think he's right..." said Papa wolf. "He is not our small cub anymore but on his way to becoming the next alpha. Treating him like a cub will not bring him high in the ranks. Speak, Graham."
"Thank you..." smiled Graham and began to make a speech in front of the whole pack. "Wolves! For many years, we have been hunted by humans, but with an offer, this can change the whole course of wolf-kind. No more fearing death from humans for our skin and fur and heads but no longer shall we live in fear! The alpha female of the humans a.k.a the Queen offered me a chance of a lifetime."
"And what is this offer?" asked one wolf (in Wolf).
"Good question, Grey, and it is that I need to hunt something."
"Hunt what?" asked another wolf (in Wolf).
"I am unsure yet, I am meeting the Queen at her palace at noon."
"But why are you taking a risky route? You in a palace filled with her ruthless knights unprotected? It would be an easy target to kill the future alpha and make us weak."
"Fear not, Ash, as the Queen needs my presence and I have been fleeing from the knights for years."
"You are being foolish!" said an old wolf (in Wolf).
"You may think this is the wrong way, Herr Fang, but times have changed since your days as alpha. We now stick up for ourselves and we know who we can trust and who to hunt and I trust the Queen."
"Fine! Do as you wish! If you die inside those walls, however don't say I didn't warn you!"
[At the palace]
When Graham arrived at the palace, he wore his normal hunting clothes and carried his crossbow in his hands as well; Graham did wish to heed Herr Fang's warning though, he may have become old and weak and lost a fight with his adoptive father (which made him the alpha now) but he sure was wise. He was able to keep his pack from ever getting hunted by the humans during his whole time as pack leader and that was impressive as wolf hunting was even more common back then. So he decided that he would wear some armour underneath his clothes and were plated out of Moonline Silver. Graham knew of the Queen's sorcery and according to old Wolves' lore, Moonline Silver can strengthen the heart of a wolf due to it being from the moon and silver (even by itself) had the power to prevent impure substance from getting close to the body such as dark magic. The gates opened in front of him and the knights greeted him and guided him to the Great Hall where the Evil Queen was waiting for him.
"Hello, dear Graham." said the Evil Queen.
"Wow," said Graham in his head. "She seems a lot more intimidating when she is in her palace and not in a pub.
The Evil Queen marched from her throne and walked right in front of him.
"Moonline Silver?" she asked. "You do know they only work on warlocks and witches, I'm a sorceress. My magic won't be withdrawn by your armour."
"Some protection is better than none." replied Graham, fearing the Evil Queen of her knowledge but made sure to show no sign of it, rule number one for being a wolf is to show no fear as that is weakness. "And Moonline Silver makes me stronger."
"Make wolves stronger," corrected the Evil Queen. "You are not a wolf."
"I'm a wolf at heart."
"Well there is no loopholes in magic."
"Did you make me come all the way here to taunt me or are we going to do business."
"Oh, a feisty partner, love those." smiled the Evil Queen.
"I've had enough of your games. Who do you wish for me to hunt?"
"Allow me to tell you a story, Graham. Once upon a time, there was a nice, young girl who was bullied for being an orphan. She had no one to be at her side but one friend who later had died and so the girl learnt that being kind wasn't the way to go and became the monster. However, life isn't fair, the bully became the new queen and the girl was left with nothing so she decided that after many years of being weak, she will be the one in control of the chessboard. She obtained the powers of sorcery and managed to find a way to slip into the title of 'Queen' and then ruled the kingdom, yet there is someone that has the power to take away the girl's powers and that girl lurks where none of my knights have been able to find her for over a year-"
"The North of The Dark Forest."
"Precisely."
"And who is capable of such deeds?"
"The princess."
"A princess?" laughed Graham. "You're telling me that a little girl can survive in the most treacherous place in the world?! Ha ha ha ha!"
"Which was what I thought." replied the Evil Queen. "That girl knows nothing but the palace walls, I have no idea how she can survive in those woods on her own when none of my knights can with each other."
"But that can't be possible..."
"But it is, Dr Facilier told me, and you know firsthand that he tells no lies."
"But, but it can't be-"
"Says the man who has lived in the forest for decades."
"There's a difference, I was raised by wolves..." said Graham, and he finally understood what was happening. "She's having help..."
"Precisely, there is someone in those woods who is helping the girl and I am giving you the task to kill the princess AND her ally."
"If someone is on her side, there might be no way for me to get her."
"But you have an advantage. She's been in the woods for one year whilst you have been living, surviving and... hunting for decades. If anyone can get the job completed, it's you."
"But what about my end of the deal? I need someway to know that you will keep your end of the bargain?"
"Can't you trust me?" asked the Evil Queen.
"Forgive me, but if I don't think the Evil Queen will be keeping her end of a deal."
"Fine. I'll give you the one thing that can overpower me..."
"And what's that?"
"My heart."
"I'm not in the mood for mat-" started Graham but the Evil Queen got her hand and forced it through her skin and a red orb came outside and she handed it over to him.
"What's this?" he asked.
"It's as I've said, my heart."
"And how can a... heart give me leverage?"
"With a heart you get power over a person, you can crush the heart to kill them or you can tell an order and you get to control them..."
"And you are simply going to hand it over to me? With this, I can just make you make wolves safe without having to kill a child."
"You seem like a noble man, you aren't going to be doing that, and besides, we are partners now; that means we trust each other. That thing in your hand... is a sign that I trust you."
"How does the girl look like?"
"Imagine a girl with hair as black as ebony, lips as red as the rose and skin as white as snow."
"I'm going to be needing more than that."
"Believe me, when you see her... you'll know it is her."
"You have a deal, Queen." replied Graham. "I venture at dawn and then I shall kill this princess."
"Good boy." smiled the Evil Queen. "But calling you 'Graham' doesn't seem quite intimidating, you need a new man. How about... the Huntsman."
"Right away then. At dawn the Huntsman shall go and kill this princess."
The Evil Queen smiled mischievously, "Good."
[In the Dark Forest - Wolves' Den]
The Huntsman returned to the Wolves' Den where his pack was waiting for him.
"Well?" asked Papa Wolf (in Wolf).
"The Queen told me her prey." replied Graham.
"Who?" asked Mama Wolf (in Wolf).
"An evil princess who is being protected somewhere by someone in the Woods. I have to track them down and kill them."
"Are you sure you wish to, though?"
"I have to, Mama, to protect our kind."
"But do you even know the full story? Are you sure that you wish to kill someone whom you have only been told one side of a story from?"
"Since when did you start caring on my prey?"
"She is just telling you to be wary," said Papa Wolf (in Wolf). "You never were one for stories when you were a cub so let me tell you one now. Many wolf-years ago, the wolves were having a great war against the hyenas. We were losing the war and most lost hope after the alpha male was slaughtered, but the alpha female still had hope. She realised that the hyenas had many allies on their side which made them strong: jackals, boars, ravens and bears were on their side whilst us wolves were by ourselves. The alpha female decided to take action and get allies so she met an animal with wits and strength."
"What creature?"
"Foxes."
"Foxes?!"
"Indeed. She met a fox one day and she helped her after the fox claimed she was attacked and bitten by a leopard where she was on the brink of death from by the impact of the bite and they became friends and defeated the leopard together and it just so happened that that fox was the leader of the foxes and they fought the war together, not just as allies... but friends and that was how they were winning the war."
"But how did it all go wrong?"
"It turns out... the foxes never cared about what the wolves wanted, they were selfish and when they started losing numbers by the battle, they gave up and told the information necessary to keep them free from the war. The next day, the hyenas killed the alpha female and wolves were on the brink of extinction and barely survived. The great war ended and the wolves lost it and it was all because of the foxes..."
"But what does this have to do with the princess?"
"It turns out that the leopard never was the first to attack... the leader of the foxes was stealing food from her cubs so that she could have a delicious feast, even though she already had enough food as it and the leopard attacked her to defend her cubs."
"Oh no..."
"So be wary, Graham, the Queen may be on your side for now... but perhaps not forever."
[Somewhere in the Dark Forest]
After hearing the story, the Huntsman left his den and started to track down the princess. Rude number two of being a wolf, don't rely on one sense. Graham learnt from a young age that humans mainly focus on one sense in order to survive but wolves rely on all five in order to truly become number one. The Huntsman gazed at an area, he looked around the habitat: it was deep in the forest where the Queen's knights couldn't reach, there was food, places to hide, it was a perfect place to hide, this was where he was going to search. The Huntsman saw a patch of berries and took a small nibble.
"Freshly grown strawberries," he said. "This is the perfect season for them and yet there hardly seems to be any in this bush. Someone has already plucked them from here but hardly any animal this far north in the forest eats berries and why is there so little remaining in the bush? There is more than one person who is helping the princess and there is only one creature that lives up north, can protect a girl and eat berries... dwarves."
The Huntsman didn't know quite a lot about dwarves as he tends to hunt near the south - close to his pack - but he has this talent of finding weaknesses and strengths in people.
"Dwarves are small creatures so they should be easy to defeat but they always venture in groups and with this amount of food taken there should be about... seven or eight; perhaps nine of them? But dwarves are known for the mines and have weapons that can turn diamonds into dust and they are highly territorial, one wrong move and you're done for." said the Huntsman. "I must find the girl while she's alone..."
[Three hours later]
It took a lot of patience but after waiting a long while, the Huntsman heard a voice coming from a distance. It was a wonderful voice, music to his ears and he followed it. He hid in a bush and he saw a teenage girl, humming a tune, whilst picking apples from a tree. She had long, luscious black hair which flowed like the waves in the sea and she had rose red lips and such radiant skin that glowed as the sunlight touched it. She wore a magnificent dress that would fit a... princess.
"No, this can't be..." said the Huntsman, in his head. "Perhaps it's not... I'll spy on her a bit longer to make sure."
The princess continued picking apples from the tree and humming. Soon, it was not only the Huntsman gazing at the girl but all of the creatures in the forest (deer, rabbits, birds and many more) couldn't help but stop to hear the girl sing. The girl then danced as the animals of the forest stared at her. The predators stopped chasing the prey, the birds stopped singing their tunes and the squirrels stopped eating. It was as if the girl was putting a spell by her song but she didn't take advantage of any of the animals in that situation, she didn't kill them for their meat or steal their food yet she happily continued to pick fruit. The Huntsman knew that he had to do something, he knew that now that he was in a deal with the Evil Queen now and there was no backing off now. Either he could kill the girl and bring her body back to the Queen or he could spare the girl and the Queen will kill him and his pack... he knew what he had to do.
"Hey!" shouted the Huntsman as he emerged from above the bush and shakily grabbed his crossbow, put an arrow and aimed at his target... and shot.
The arrow flew from above the bush and above Snow White's head. She dropped her basket and she ran away as fast as her legs could take her. The Huntsman watched as she ran through the forest. When she was gone from his sight, he was speed walking through the forest, following her trail. In only a couple of minutes, he was able to catch up to her but she wasn't running.
"You can't outrun me." said the Huntsman.
"I know..." she replied. "It seems my stepmother has hired an assassin to kill me and she only accepts the best of the best. I knew I stood no chance."
"Yeah... yeah, you didn't!"
"Well, here you go." said Snow White and handed him a piece of paper.
"What's this?"
"A letter. Once you kill me, please can you give it to her."
The Huntsman glared at the note and read it.
Hello Your Royal Highness,
I know you know who this is from.
I always looked up at you for those years I was with you.
I always respected any decision you make.
I will not be breaking that streak.
You want me dead, I'll be dead for you.
But in these last words, I want you to know...
I am really, really sorry...
Your Number 1 fan - Snow White
The Huntsman finished reading it and grabbed his crossbow, aimed and shot... dead.