Ebony White (A Snow White Tale)

The Beginning

Once upon a time in a faraway forest filled with magical creatures, a beautiful witch was sitting by a window covered in flowers and vines. She hummed a sweet tune to her baby daughter that she cradled in her arms. The mothers voice and the burbling of the cauldron lulled the baby into a deep and soothing sleep.
Outside the witches husband was searching for a special plant for his wife's potion that was gurgling over the fire in the steel cauldron. It's rose scent filled the little cottage and the burning fire kept back the cold trying to find a way inside.
Snow had covered everything in a sheet of glistening white as winter made its way through the forest. The witch watched from the seat by the window as the wind stirred the loose snow and whistled by in a flurry of slicer. However, this natural beauty wasn't to last.
The wind started to gain strength. Snow was shaken from trees and little animals scurried quickly to find shelter. The cottage was surrounded by thick forest that the witch and her husband had chosen to live in because it was safe. But as the winds picked up and stated to howl the witch stood from her chair and backed away from the window. She held her baby close and tight against her chest as suddenly the glass from the windows shattered into the cottage in a spray of silver sharp shards. The witch was cut by the glass. Her daughter, still sleeping, was unharmed.
The door started to groan as the wind pulled at it and after a few terrified moments the door was yanked from it's hinges by invisible hands. Snow, ice and strong winds blasted into the cottage, blowing out the fire. Loose objects, like jars and chairs, were lifted into the air. The witch threw out her magic to protect them both. Clay jars and shards of ice and glass smashed against the hard shimmering wall the witch had made with her magic. Soon too much snow had entered the cottage and she couldn't see any more than an arm's length before her. The snow and wind had combined and created a fog that not even the brightest torch could disrupt. The shimmering wall of protection held against the barrage of ice. But she saw ice start to cover it in thin layers. Each pretty snowflake was turned into a shard of ice that battered against the magic. The witch was growing colder and she willed her magic to hold, she feared for her baby daughter.
A loud cry sounded outside of the cottage and the thick snowstorm trying to tear its way to the witch and the baby. She readied herself to defend her daughter, not caring about her own sake, but the dark figure that ran closer wasn't a threat.
Her husband ran in holding his arms up to protect himself. His skin was blue and the snow had already made his clothes heavy as ice formed all over his body. He screamed for his wife and daughter but didn't get close enough to the witches protection shield before being pulled from her view. She didn't have a chance to shout a warning before her husband was taken back outside by vines of twisting black magic. And before she could weep for him she heard his last strangled cry as his life was taken away. Then another dark figure walked into her view. It's body was blocked from her view by a whirl wind of black fog that twisted and jerked around the talk figure.
She saw the figure raise her hand. She only had enough time to cast one powerful spell on her daughter before the dark figure let darker wind tear from them. The dark magic shot out and fast and smashed against the shimmering wall, shattering it like glass. The dark magic didn't stop as it pierced the witches heart.
The dark figure called back her magic and the darkness swirled around her, turning into a robe of black silk. The snow storm ended as quickly as it had come, leaving the destruction of the cottage in plain sight.
The forest around the once sweet home was now nothing more than toppled trees and upturned earth. There was nothing but silence as the dark figure walked closer to the dead witch. Instead of two dead bodies the dark witch had expected there to be, there was only one.
The dark witch watched from her height as the baby, still resting in her mother's cold arms, blinked lazily up at her. The baby didn't cry for its dead parents. She only made sweet baby sounds as the dark witch picked her up with slim pale hands.
The dark witch looked at the baby and smiled. It's hair and eyes were darker than the night sky and it's skin was as pale as bone. The dark witch had never been able to have children, a curse from her own mother. So, when she placed a tattered cloth around the baby to keep it from the cold she said into the stillness that surrounded them, "I will take you as my own. I will teach you the magic my mother taught me."
The baby didn't stir while being held in her cold bony arms. Instead it started to fall asleep. Watching the baby coo in its sleep the dark witch named her new daughter Ebony White and left the destroyed little cottage and dead bodies in a whisper of darkness.