Pretty Waterhouse I: Ashes of Yesterday

Preface

Once upon a time, there was a village that no one dared to set foot in. Whispers suggested there was a kind of black magic surrounding the place. At that time, it wasn't really a village per se; it was abandoned land, barren, devoid of any life, everything was dry, including the ground. Animals wouldn't even stop there as there was nothing to feed on.

One night, a star wandered through the sky: bold, oblivious to any danger; until a satellite stumbled upon it, and it plummeted to Earth, creating a huge crater in the ground. The star rose, trying to regain its balance and soothing the wounds caused by the fall from such a great height. Its wound wasn't as deep or serious as it seemed, but that didn't stop it from hurting a bit and blue blood beginning to spill.

A drop fell into the disproportionate crater creating the most marvelous thing in the world: life on that dead and desolate land. Green ferns, giant trees, the greenest and liveliest grass the earth could have produced, a forest soon to be visited by fauna of every kind.

The star had brought life back to the earth.This turned a blind eye to other people, convinced it was still a cursed place, they began burning the vegetation, persuaded that this would bring them salvation and protection. But it didn't happen. The vegetation took care of itself because they couldn't harm it at all. The persuasion of the people kept them further away from those marvelous lands until three men, along with their families, set foot on the lands to establish a new monarchy in the new village.

Three very powerful families in the village, the most respected, the most powerful ones who supported each other so that the governance in that village would be good. The families were too famous for being rich, for being the first to step into that forgotten and ungoverned village.

They founded the village, and named it Pretty Waterhouse, a rather large and conservative town, located between the cities of Milwaukee and Madison where families from other places found a refuge to maintain peace. But over time, the three founding families began drifting apart: one disappeared completely without even knowing what had happened to them. Another was accused of practicing some kind of magic, of bringing darkness to the village, so they left the village, leaving behind the last family: the Waterhouse family.