Stories of the Never-Never

The Battle of the Wyldwood

It was the day after the Unseelie Court had been utterly destroyed by the Seelie fey. The talking trees and natural creatures of the Wyldwood, once green and lively, with a touch of Winter's cold, now stood bare and empty, the tree stumps which were once the bodies of fallen fey soldiers littering the ground, their blood staining the roots of the trees in a crimson red, the bitter copper smell wafting through the air on harsh winds. The silence was eerie; nothing stirred. Lone sentries stood watch around the three frosted stumps of what was once the Royals of Winter, and Summer mourned their loss as much as their own. Both the youngest of the Courts, the Winter Prince Ash and the Summer Princess Isola, were encased in stone statues, the Never-Never's own punishment for their family's feuding and the Winter Court's death.

The Wyldwood had never seen such a war between the Courts in all of its existence, from the beginning of the Never-Never to the deaths of the twin Queens, Sorcha and Bananach, Order and Discord, with whom the rule of no death in the fey realm occurred after their deaths. Their battle against the iron of the first humans which separated the two realms forever had not touched the Wyldwood in such a way that this battle between the Courts had. It mourned the deaths which had occurred, even if they may be returned from the imagination, they would never again rule the world like the Seelie and Unseelie had.

Within Tuatha de Danaan, the Summer Palace was in array of colour. Though they still were forlorn that their polar opposite Court had been destroyed, they also rejoiced that they may now become the ruling Court within the Never-Never. They did not count the Dark Court as a real threat to their control, as they had lost more fey than Summer, though they had not been completely wiped out like Winter. Their Sidhe were now protected behind the walls of Danu Talis, the Dark Court city, as they were now only few and far between, prized as the only female Dark fey to survive the process of losing their soul to their King as a coming of age ritual. They were a threat when in full strength, but now were only a shadow of their former glory.

The city of Tir Na N'Og, the Unseelie Court city, stood in ruins on the banks of the now free running fjord which no longer provided the only entrance into the Winter territory. The Wyldwood there was most damaged, trees ripped from the ground by their roots, and blood coating the ground in a solid, hard, crimson red layer of death. The creatures of Winter, those not vanished by the death of their Queen, were frozen as statues of ice, symbolic to their nature and yet so painful in their death. If any had been alive and watching, they would have seen the passage between the mountains slowly closing, like an old wound healing with a scar, trapping the Unseelie city within its boundaries. A small path opened between the trees of the Wyldwood, a path for the Wyld Hunt, the only Winter fey to survive the battle which would forever be known as the Battle of the Wyldwood.

Puck sat in the throne room of the Summer Palace, tears long dried on his face, as he mourned the loss of his best friend and half-sister. The once jolly Summer sprite had been hiding the forbidden friendship of him and Ash for many years, looking all the part of the Summer Court prodigy, the trickster of the Seelie. Ash kept up the same cold façade up towards his brothers, even convincing them that he would duel the Summer prankster at the next meeting of the Courts. The arrival of Isola changed all that, and brought them all to be closer than they would ever have thought possible.

And then King Oberon found out Ash and Isola, who had only realised that they loved each other a day before. Puck could do nothing to stop his King from striking his best friend, and was forced to watch as he called war against the Winter Court, believing them to be conspiring to destroy the Seelie and steal their power which had been granted to them by the Never-Never. Queen Mab answered the call of war with one of her own, believing Isola to be a seducing fey who would destroy her Court from the inside out. As the fragile peace between the two Courts was broken, the new Iron Court sided with the Seelie, and the Dark Court and the Wyld Hunt sided with the Unseelie. And so the war began.

Watching the remains of his people from the distance, Gabriel of the Wyld Hunt turned away. His Queen was dead, his people destroyed, and all because a son of Winter fell in love with the daughter of Summer. As he turned away from the ruins of Tir Na N'Og, summoning his hounds away, he vowed one day to return and avenge his fallen people. And with only one stop along the way, to warn Puck of his vow, the Wyld Hunt returned to the skies.

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