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Night laid over a small, quiet village in Plegia. Silence reigned throughout the area as the villagers rested inside their homes after their grueling day of work. Nightborne animals prowled through the withering forest that lay outside the village boundaries, looking for any kind of morsel to satisfy their aching stomachs. All was quiet in the realm, as not a single soul stirred; except for one.
At a house that bordered the shriveled forest, a young white-haired boy called Henry sat wide awake behind his house, facing towards the forest. In his small hands was a purple tome, with ancient, unreadable scribbles etched across the front. The boy flipped through it curiously, the moonlight just able to illuminate the pages.
I can’t believe someone just left this behind, it’s so cool! Henry thought, scanning the pages, each of them being filled with devious curses and hexes. One gave the wielder the ability to control another person like a puppet, and another would plague the victim with horrid nightmares to drive them mad. Oh well, finders keepers!
Any other child would have had their parents confiscate such a tome instantly, but Henry’s simply didn’t care. They never did. Not when it came to him, at least. He could very well come into his house doused in blood and say “Mother, I just killed a man.” and she would only just nod and reply “That’s nice Henry, now go back outside.” without a second glance in his general direction. Henry couldn’t tell if this was a blessing or a curse. It was nice being able to do whatever he wanted, like go on adventures in the forest or read mysterious tomes, but whenever he saw a village kid scrape their knee and have their parents to come rushing to their aid, Henry couldn’t help but feel a pang of longingness in his heart.
But his despair never lasted long, as Henry found solace within the nearby woodland’s natural walls. During his adventures in the forest, Henry had made friends with the animals living there, and they soon came to be like his own family. Whenever he climbed trees with the squirrels or soared through the air with the crows clutching onto his robes, he could feel the pain of his parent’s neglect melting away.
Henry continued to flip through the wicked tome until something interesting caught his eye. It was a whole page dedicated to a single curse. The top of the page was stained red in what Henry could tell to be dried blood, covering the name of the curse. There was a wall of text below the stain, yet most of it was smudged or blurred, making it almost unreadable.
“Hm... “ He mused, squinting his eyes to make out the writings. “ This curse…emit a dark gleam of light... stream of deathly dark magic... dissolves flesh directly hit… caution: messy… fueled by strong emotion… ”
“Woah,” Henry whispered aloud. “This sounds awesome !” He beamed, wondering how it would feel to witness such a curse in action. Henry closed the book with a smile, clutching it close to his chest.
“I’m gonna have to thank Oka for finding this tome for me, it’s so amazing!” He chuckled, then frowned with a realization.
“Speaking of Oka, where is she?” Henry had been waiting outside for quite a while, yet there was no sign of his beautiful wolf friend. They had agreed to meet at this time every night, and she had for the longest time without fail. Henry began to worry. What if she didn’t want to be friends with him anymore? The thought of losing the only maternal figure he’d ever known made Henry almost sick to his stomach, a feeling not even witnessing the most gruesome death could provoke.
Henry stood up, grasping the tome in his hands. No, she wouldn’t abandon me like that. I know her too well. He tried reassuring himself. But... That means something terrible must have happened…
He took a step towards the forest. Maybe I can go find her, maybe she’s just trying to find another tome to surprise me… Yeah, that’s it… She saw how much I loved this tome, and now she wants to find more. That’s it. She’s alright. But, no matter how much he repeated to himself that Oka was okay, the ill feeling in his stomach didn’t go away as Henry headed into the forest in search of his wolf friend.
“Oka!” He called out desperately, scaring away a few nearby woodland creatures. “Oka, it’s me, Henry! Oka, where are you?”
“Hey, Henry! Keep it down, will you?” Came an annoyed caw, and Henry saw a scrawny female crow land on the branch in front of him. “You’ll wake up all of Plegia if you keep yelling like that. Some of us are trying to hunt, y’know?”
“Oh, sorry Lola! I just really need to find Oka. Have you seen her?” Henry asked his crow friend hopefully.
“You mean that wolf you’re always hanging around? Nah, haven’t seen her. Why, has she gone missing or something?” Lola replied, ruffling her feathers.
“Well, yeah, sort of. We were supposed to meet up tonight like we always do, but I haven’t seen her at all.” Henry said dejectedly, looking around for any signs of Oka. “I’m really worried about her.”
Lola flapped her wings, standing up straighter. “Hey, don’t worry, you’ll find her. She’s got to be around here somewhere, right?”
Henry sighed. “Yeah… You’re right, I’m probably just overthinking this. I’ll keep lo-” Henry’s sentence was interrupted by a low, distressed howl that echoed through the forest, bouncing off the surrounding trees and making Henry’s blood run cold.
“That’s her!” Henry gasped in disbelief. “S-Sorry Lola, I gotta go!” He stammered, taking off deeper into the forest towards the source of the cry. Branches caught on his cloak and thorns pierced his skin until he drew blood, but Henry persevered, determined to find his friend.
Another howl sounded, seeming almost inches from Henry’s face. Running towards the sound, he burst into a clearing that held a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his days.
Oka lay in the clearing, long, stiff arrows protruding from her body. Blood stained her once-beautiful spotted coat and formed a puddle on the forest floor. Her former bright blue eyes were misty and lifeless.
“Oka!” Henry gasped, running towards his wolf friend. “Oka, no!” He kneeled down beside her and put one of his small hands on her chest, desperate to find some sign that she was still alive.
No heartbeat.
Overwhelmed with sadness, tears began to pool in Henry’s eyes. Sobbing, he clutched Oka in his arms. Her blood seeped into his robes, but he didn’t care. He wanted to embrace his best friend one last time. “O-Oka…” He croaked, his throat closed tight with despair. “I was too late…” Remorse swept over Henry. If only he had been a little faster, or noticed her absence sooner… He had been so caught up in that tome, oblivious to the fact that the one who had given it to him had just taken her last breath. “I’m so sorry…”
“Oy, kid!” said a gruff voice, interrupting Henry’s suffocating wave of guilt. The boy looked up to see two grown men standing in front of him, each holding silver bows in their large hands. One of them was short and fat, a thick beard covering most of his face. The other was lanky and chiseled, a grimace stretched across his face. Neither of them looked happy with him.
“That’s our game you’re holding there.” Said the bearded hunter harshly, a scowl on his face.
“But…” Henry choked out, tears still flowing down his face. “She’s my friend.” He sniffled, trying to wipe away his tears, but only succeeding in smearing some of Oka’s blood on his cheeks.
The lanky hunter snorted. “Well, she ain’t your friend anymore. We caught her, we killed her, so she’s ours.”
“W-What are you going to do with her?”
The two looked at each other, shrugging. “I dunno.” One of them said with uncertainty. “I was thinking we cook ‘er, but I’vn’t heard much good on wolf meat.”
“Perhaps we’ll just hang ‘er up as a trophy.” The other snorted. “She was quite the biggie, probably make a good floor rug.”
Henry’s blood began to boil at their words. How dare they even think of doing such things to his friend! Rage spread throughout his body, flowing through every inch of him, from his hands right down to his feet. His breaths became quick and shallow as he tried to contain his fury.
“We’ll just decide what to do once we collect her and get back.” The bearded hunter said, making a move with his hand to grab Oka by her scruff.
“N-No!” Henry cried suddenly, smacking the hunter’s hand away from the wolf’s corpse. “I won’t let you! I won’t let you take my friend!”
The lanky hunter rolled his eyes. “Kid, we don’t have time for this shit. Your friend is dead, might as well let us put her to use. Now get up, before we make you.”
Henry looked at the ground, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. “Fine…” Henry hissed lowly, standing up with a blank expression on his face.
“Good, now get back to wherever the hell you came from-”
Before the hunter could finish his sentence, Henry pulled the purple tome Oka had gifted him out of his cloak. He flipped through the vile book to the page stained with blood he had admired so much before. Livid with rage, he began to mutter the hex written on the page under his breath.
“Hey, what’re you doing, you brat?” The bearded hunter sneered.
Henry ignored him, continuing to recite the incantation. He held out his hand in front of him, and from what seemed to be nowhere, dark magic began to form on his hand, swirling with wicked power.
Henry looked up and relished in the horrified expressions plagued the hunters. A sadistic smile spread across his face. Standing in front of him were the two men who had stolen his beloved Oka from him. He was going to make them pay .
Henry chuckled, directing the ball of formidable magic right at the bearded hunter’s chest.
“Special delivery.”