The Raven and The Witch hunter

CHAPTER TWO-2

LONG AGO, A WOMAN REGARDED herself in a stream and despaired. She had been the loveliest of her people, with beautiful hair that flowed like the water in front of her, long shapely limbs, and a strong body. Her face was pleasing to all those who saw it and she had her pick of the men from both near and far. Women were envious and all the men who saw her would carry her basket and ask for her hand in marriage. But that day by the stream, the woman noticed one white hair. It stood out like snow on volcanic rock, laughing at her with its presence. The woman was infuriated, quickly plucking the offending hair out. She held it in front of her and glared at it for a minute. She wasn't a silly woman, so she knew that the white hair was just the beginning. Someday, maybe soon, she would lose her place as the most beautiful of all. She would become average, aging like everyone else.

But the woman was not accepting of this natural passage of time. She began to scheme of ways to halt it, to keep herself young and beautiful forever. She sent a prayer with such force up into the universe that it was answered by a dark being that asked for only one thing in return. If she wished to remain young, the woman needed only to take the youth from others. This dark spirit would give her the power to absorb the life from other young women to maintain her beauty. In return, the darkness would take their souls. The woman hesitated, but at that moment she remembered the first white hair she'd seen, along with the other hairs she'd plucked out since her first desperate prayer had been shouted. In the end, the dark spirit had smiled with hungry pleasure as the woman accepted its offer.

But the woman had not anticipated the entirety of what her new powers would entail. She stayed young, yes, but her first true knowledge of what this meant occurred one day when she was visiting the stream with her cousin. Her cousin was younger than she and was also considered to be a beauty. Her cousin wasn't at the same level as her of course, but beautiful, none the less. They were talking the way women do while going about their daily tasks when suddenly, the woman felt a hunger sweep over her. It was the most intense feeling she'd ever had and she was frightened by it, falling to the ground from her crouched position. Her cousin, worried she was injured, leaned over to help her up.

The moment that their hands made contact, her cousin gasped and became pale. When the woman looked at their linked hands, a light appeared to be moving into her hand as it was stolen away from her cousin. In shock, she tried to release her hand, but found that she was unable to let go, as though they were stuck together. Finally, she was able to pull away, but by that time her cousin had fallen to the ground, pale and unmoving.

The woman leaned over and shook her cousin, trying to get her to move but to no avail. Her eyes were open, blank, and staring at the sky. The woman closed them with shaking hands and sat down. What had she done? She wailed with sorrow at the empty sky. Her cousin had been her friend, kind and loving, and now she lay dead on the ground. She sat there for a long time, immobile, until long after the sun went behind the trees. Other women came to find them. They crowded around the unmoving figures beside the stream and shook them both. Their wails and shaking finally woke her from her grief and her tears joined with theirs. But even as she cried with loss over her own blood, the gnawing hunger within her that had leapt up earlier purred, sated for the time being, but interested in the women surrounding her.

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