The First Huntsman

First Night

The shadows stretched for miles as the moonlight peeked through the heavy clouds, like a curious child behind the blinds. Rain poured down against the forest.

"Help! Someone help!"

The night grew stronger, darker. One would say the night was silent, peaceful but only one so ignorant of the dangers that hid in the darkness can say that.

Mud splashed against leather boots and bare feet accompanied with cold, heavy pants of exhaustion. The cold mist of early dawn dried their throats and lungs, cold as the rain poured down on them.

A howl resounded through the clouded sky, shadows stretching ever so closer than before.

The mother and child ran from the howl of the beasts. Their legs burned with fatigue, muddied and wet. Only their sheer determination and fear had kept them alive. 

The hairs across their back stood on end as the growls grew closer and closer. It took all of their willpower to resist the painful urge to look back.

"A house!" The mother shouted with desperate eagerness.

The house, or if it could be called that, stood over a great garden of swaying white daisies. The graves that surrounded the edges of the house's steel fences gave off an unsettling aura. But in their situation, beggars couldn't be choosers.

The sheer relief that washed over them had never been so welcomed. With vigor, they pushed their legs further than before, running as fast as they could, ignoring the burning in their lungs.

In desperation, the mother stumbled as she pulled against the steel gate that just wouldn't budge open. 

"Please! We need sanctuary! I know you're in there, please!" The mother begged, her voice slowly growing hoarse from his shouting. 

"Ma?" The girl in the mother's arms' meek voice called in concern.

The mother could only hold her blissfully ignorant daughter tight, after telling her to close her eyes. The growls from the forest behind them grew louder as glowing eyes glowed brighter and their shadows inching closer and bigger.

"PLEASE HELP US!!" The mother sobbed as she relentlessly banged the steel gate, fear painfully evident in her voice. But t'was not in fear for her life but her daughter.

Loud steps shook the very ground, beasts of all kinds rushed towards the family as their despair sang its melody like a siren seducing sailors across the sea. Driven mad with hunger and thirst, they rushed for their delicious meal.

All-consuming blackness encompassed in bony armor and their fangs bared, the beasts salivated as the delicious smell of despair and fear sang to them. 

No one answered her call. The mother could only hug her only remaining family and closed her eyes, afraid and resigned as the beasts, the dark creatures of Grimm coming closer and closer.