A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 1

I was never good at hunting. Well, killing. I was great at finding food for my family, managing to provide and get our sustenance from the wilds around us - it was the killing I didn't have a taste for. But my sisters were starving, it was cold, and there was nobody else who was going to make sure there was a hot meal on the table tonight. 

My youngest sister kept a garden, and that had helped keep us sustained and my hunting to a minimum in the warmer months. But now that winter had set in and there was a foot of snow on the ground we couldn't harvest fruits and vegetables any longer. Although the potatoes were proving to be a hearty crop and we had enough of them to hopefully see at least my sisters and ailing father fed through winter. 

As long as everyone abided by the ration schedule I created for all the remaining food we had stored. 

I always found our rations shortened after coming back from a hunting trip, but I never had the heart to berate them for it, even if that meant I went without.

I was following the tracks of a rabbit, hoping one of the snares I had set had done its job, when I noticed deer tracks heading north, into the part of the forest I dare not enter for being so close to the Wall - the border between our lands and the faerie lands. I weighed the risks and decided to pursue the larger prey, guaranteeing we all eat well for several weeks rather than just a single small meal. Plus I'd have the hide and a few other parts I could sell at the market if I managed to bring down the deer. It had been a long time since I'd managed to fell a deer, my family would be over the moon.

Despite the chill that traveled up my spine I made my way further north, into the dark woods that bordered the faerie lands, consequences or scary faeries be damned.

There were a plethora of rumors, myths, and legends about the faeries that lived above our lands, although I doubted most of them were true. I always found it silly that my sisters always wore iron bracelets, as if a tiny bit of iron could protect anyone from a faerie. Why would the faeries let us humans know all their weaknesses, anyway? And sure, I devoured any faerie information I could get, what else was there to do in our small village, but I was skeptical of most, if not all, of the information I was given.

I followed the tracks for over an hour, heading further and further northwest, thoughts of faeries and their lore forgotten as I focused on the hunt. 

I was getting close, the deer somewhere not too far up ahead. I headed into the shade of the dense trees, downwind so my scent wouldn't travel to the nervous creature. It came into sight and I ducked down into some bushes for cover, loosening the bow strapped across my back and gently sliding one of my homemade arrows from the small quiver I had available.

The deer, it turned out, was a large buck at least three times my weight - and that was being generous. I wasn't sure how I was going to get it all the way back to our small cottage in the village, but if I had to craft a sled out of fallen branches to carry it over the snow then damn it all if that wasn't what I would do. I nocked my arrow and sent it flying, hitting the buck and taking it down with a single hit through the eye. However, my celebration was short-lived. 

I hadn't seen the giant, and I mean giant, wolf that had been about to claim the buck for itself. 

The biggest wolf I'd ever seen stood in the clearing, about twenty feet away. It made direct eye contact with me, crouched in my bush as if it could see through my soul. The wolf began stalking toward me, walking over the dead buck and right over to my hiding spot, only stopping when its large nose was mere inches from my body. 

The entire series of events took only a few seconds, but it was like the world had slowed down. Without a thought as to why the beast wasn't lunging and instead looking at me with big, almost hopefully sad eyes, as if it knew what was coming, I had been readying another arrow.