Origins

Steph - part 1

I was born in the year 1772.

My parents left me on the doorstep to a small cottage in the woods. The lady who lived there took me in and took care of me. My name is Stephanie. I believe myself to be a child born out of wedlock, it makes the most sense. I have no desire to find my birth parents though, for my adopted mother had been caring and loving.

"Stef?"

"Yes mama?"

"Get some wolfsbane."

I ran to the cupboard to get the herb for her and searched through for the violet flower.

I found it and handed it to her.

There was a man in her living room, he looked nervous.

"Thank you. Drink this diluted in water. It's toxic if you don't dilute it, but will diminish your strength when you turn."
He had a unkempt beard but looked fairly young.
"Okay, thank you. What do you want in return?"
"A tooth. On the eve before the full moon. If I don't get my payment then, I'll hex you." She spoke sweetly.
"Yes mam, I'll get it to you." He replied nervously before leaving our home.
"Mama, what was he?"
"A newly turned werewolf. He wanted something to make it so he wouldn't hurt anyone. I instructed him to chain himself up and drink the wolfsbane so he couldn't break out of the chains."
I nodded. I truly was intrigued by all the different night creatures and magic and everything my mother did. She promised that she would teach me everything so I could follow in her footsteps.
The instruction in magic I had so far received was how to tap into pain to receive power, basic herbalism and alchemy, and much lore on the creatures of the night.
My mother taught me all of it.
"Today, Stef, we are going to go farther in depth with Vampires and Werewolves. All that's left after these two is fae."
I nodded and sat by her.
"Which of the two is regarded as more evil?"
"Vampires." I answered, that one was easy.
"Why?"
I thought for a moment. "They are undead whereas werewolves have the wolf part added on to their human part. Vampires are not human and they feed from humans which makes them less desirable for the public to be around. Werewolves are normal humans everyday except for the night of the full moon."
"Yes, but why is that?" She was probably trying to figure out how much I knew so she knew where to start.
"Uh, I don't know." I just really didn't want to think about it.
"Don't make yourself less smart than you are."
"Ugh, fine. The vampires are soulless. The werewolves are just triggered by the moon. Normal humans regard lycanthropy as a disease that may someday be curable, though they still kill a werewolf if they get the chance. They consider vampires evil because they can't cure them nor do they conform to the human society."
"The werewolves are less likely to go on a casual murder spree. The vampires are more clever though, which makes them more dangerous. They refuse to conform to the human society because they view the humans as a lesser life form. What do you know about the relationship between werewolves and vampires?"
"It isn't different from how they look at anyone else, right? They aren't on bad terms or anything, vampires just look down on the wolves because they seem less intelligent. The werewolves have little opinion on vampires and they both usually stay away from each other for safety."
"That's correct. Many believe that a werewolf bite will kill a vampire, but that is wrong. They likewise believe that vampire venom will kill a werewolf. It really isn't any different than other creatures. The wolf bite won't infect the vampire, nor can a werewolf be turned into a vampire. Humans add too much incorrect lore regarding the two creatures."
"Probably because they feel safer with the vampires and werewolves fighting each other rather than having both of then hunt humans." I shrug.
"That's what I believe. Okay, what's the greatest weakness of a vampire?"
"The sun." Easy.
"And that's because when they are turned, the process makes them nocturnal and drains the pigment from their skin. That's why they're so pale. The sun burns them like it does with the rest of us, except much faster and more painful because of the fairness of their skin and their connection to the night and the moon."
"It wouldn't burn me to ash if I stayed in the sun for a long time."
"No, but they aren't human. The legend is that sun despises them because they are the child of the moon and the devil. They-"
"Wait. You're combining Christianity with the ancient cults." They are two different religions.
"It's how the legend goes. As I've told you, the sun is a god and the moon, a goddess. The sun loved the moon, but she could never be near him, for his radiance was overpowering. He chased after her for millennium. Eventually, she decided that she wanted him to stop chasing her so she laid with the devil, who at the time had just barely fallen. The sun was angered, though he couldn't do anything yet. Soon after, she gave birth to a beautiful creature. It had snow white skin, daggarlike fangs, and a thirst for blood. The sun thought the creature as such an abomination, since it was conceived of the fallen angel and the moon. He vowed that the creature would never see the light of day, and cursed the vampire with hardly any resistance to the burning rays of the sun." I loved stories like this. They sparked such an intrigue.
"The moon was furious. She gave the creature a high intellect and great cunning, along with the angel power. Since the vampire couldn't have children, the moon blessed it with immortality instead."
"What about the other weaknesses? And the werewolves?"
"Other weaknesses are holy water, hawthorn or oak wood stakes through the heart, decapitation, pure silver burns them, and fire. There are some types of roses that are poisonous to them, but I'm not quite sure which ones yet."
Now I can protect myself from them.
"Lycanthropy was originally thought of as a gift to some. There isn't an original that has been found, but cases that pop up everywhere. It could be achieved through dark rituals, being bitten by another, or willing lycanthropy through the gift of the wolf. The gift made it so the werewolf could change at will instead of every night. So many bloodlines have mixed at this point, that it's usually a combination of the two. That's why only changing on the full moon occurs and why many werewolves can change on their own, with practice. Most of the ones that change every night have been killed off."
"Okay, that makes sense. So werewolves can have offspring. That is what mixed both the willing and unwilling traits into what the most commonly found werewolf is now."
"Uh huh. Their weaknesses are decapitation, heart removal or piercing, silver. They have less exclusively lethal things but can be killed by the same things you would use to kill a regular wolf. They have human strength when in human form and can be killed by anything lethal to a human except poisons. Only wolfsbane can poison them."
I nodded. I felt so intelligent and powerful with this knowledge. I could take on any vampire or werewolf.