Snow: The White Crow (4 page)

Something nudged my hip and I blinked away my thoughts and looked into the concerned eyes of the woman beside me.  She said softly, “Hey, Snow.  Get out of your head.  Nothing good can come from dwelling on things, no matter what they are.  Just take this down time to relax.  Eat, watch the show, then you owe me a story.”  She said the last with almost childlike delight.

I stared at her for a long moment, wondering if she knew what I was thinking or if it was her own experiences she saw in my eyes.  She shifted uncomfortably.  “Ummm... It's not prudent to lock eyes with a wolf.  It's a dominance thing... or mating thing.”

That knocked me back to myself and I grinned, not breaking eye contact and said, “You're welcome to look away at any time.”

The corner of her mouth ticked up and she turned the smile into a smirk of challenge and kept eye contact.  I heard a growl at the lower range of my hearing, that subsonic thing wolves can do.  She saw my reaction, knowing I could hear it and she cocked an eyebrow.  Then she said, “I could normally do this all day, but your untied shoelace is distracting me.”

I looked down, realizing as I did that my boots had no laces.  I actually started laughing at that and I looked up into her far too smug face.  She said, “I win.”

I threw a french fry at her which she caught in her teeth with her enhanced agility.  I shook my head. “You cheat.”

She shrugged. “Doesn't change the fact that I won.  As I said, it isn't smart to challenge a wolf for dominance.”

I flipped her off with a grin. “Dominate this, wolf girl.”

She happily chewed the french fry and made a show of swallowing it.  This woman was damn playful.  Then I froze, realizing what she had done.  She skillfully got my mind off of the pit I was spiraling into.

I placed a hand on her knee and she stopped breathing and I said, “Thanks, I needed that.”

Then I took my hand away and she smiled with a shadow in her eyes. “Not a problem.  We all go to that place at times.  It is just odd to see a Clean Blood...”  She smirked and revised her thought. “A human-ish person spiraling.”

I shook my head at her self-satisfied smirk and she added while she switched off the television, “On that note, don't you owe me a story?  Just who is Snow?”

I should have seen that coming.  Classic cop questioning tactic, changing topic once you get a suspect relaxed enough talking about other things, so you can get the information you really wanted.  I doubt she even realized she was doing it.  I wondered how long she had been a cop.  A decade? Four or, five?   Couldn't be much farther back than that since not many police departments had female cops farther back than that.

I started stuffing my wrappers into the bags and looked for a trash can.  The one in the kitchen was overflowing.  Her eyes were on me as I stood and walked over and grabbed one of the garbage bags in the box on the tiny kitchen counter and went about stuffing my trash and other trash from the various stacks into it.  I sorted clothing as I went.  Two stacks by smell, clean and dirty.

As I worked, I kept my gaze on her and said, “You're sure you want to know who Gretta Snow is?”  She nodded once and seemed amused at my attempt to clean up the mess that was bugging the hell out of me.  I live in the forest for God's sake, where had the sudden OCD come from?  I sighed and took a deep breath.  “Where to start?  – Once upon a time...”  Then I was lost in the poisoned memory.

Back in 1643 in the small village of Oron, lived my family.  We supplied the stables of the walled city of Lausanne.  It had been thirty-five years since the plague of the werewolves started spreading through Europe and Asia.  The walls of the city took ten years to complete.

Silver back then was rare, and the people who did not have stone dwellings with iron shutters in the surrounding villages would trek to Lausanne with tithes to the Roman lords for shelter during the full moon.  I remember as a child, hiding in the great stone stables with the heavy iron shutters the lords had provided us that indentured our family into servitude of the Roman Empire in perpetuity.

Every full moon we would cower with the horses, fearing the coming of the werewolves.  And come they did on occasion.  They would howl and growl outside, spooking the horses and cause me to utter muffled screams.  Mother would just hold me as the wolves tried to get to us.  Father would repair any damage to the building and fill any holes with stones where the wolves tried to dig at the foundations.  I was terrified whenever the wolves came.

Our village lived in the shadow of a lamia, a powerful witch, in her Alpine hovel in the peaks above us.  Even the wolves dared not approach her dwelling.  It was said her evil rivaled theirs.  She was possessed of such great beauty that men who were sent from the Empire to slay her would lay down their weapons at her feet just for the gift of a kiss.  No man ever returned from the mountain.

It was said that she gained her power and beauty by killing the fairest maidens of the land and absorbing their grace and charms.

As I grew up, I played in the woods each day because I had a secret.  One day I had found a rabbit struggling in a hunter's snare.  I couldn't watch the poor thing suffer so I freed it and allowed it to go on its way.  A white crow landed on a nearby branch.  I was dazzled by the beauty of such an unnatural creature.  I watched it as it watched me while I went about breaking all the snares I could find in the area.

The crow followed me each day as I made it my new task to dismantle any snares I could find.  I spoke with her each day, this beautiful crow.  She was very intelligent and we would play games with each other.  She became my very best friend and playmate as I grew up.

She would ride my shoulder as I hunted berries and truffles for mother to sell at market.  My crow, who I had named Snow, had a way with animals.  I swear she could somehow speak with them and would have them help me gather my bounty.  In turn, I would bring them treasures and treats.

Men and Roman soldiers of the area were starting to take an interest in me as I slowly grew into womanhood.  It made me uneasy.  Mother said it was because I was turning into such a beauty as to turn their heads.  I wanted nothing to do with them.

When I heard that father was in talks with a Roman lord for my hand in marriage for a large boon for the stables, I ran into the forest in fear, anger, and frustration.  My beautiful Snow tried to cheer me with her silly antics.

I laid by a stream with my crow nestled to my chest while I stroked her soft feathers and said, “Oh Snow.  I wish you could speak and tell me what I should do.  I do not wish to be beholden to any man.  I should run, run and never look back.”

She seemed to hesitate then she hopped off my chest and was engulfed in such a warm and brilliant white light.  Then a woman such as I had never seen, stepped out of the light.  She was so beautiful and powerful.  Though she was bereft of clothing, the light seemed to shimmer and drape around her like a cloak made of that same mystical light.

I remember I couldn't stop a smile as the light seemed to solidify into glowing white feathers that encased her like fine linens and a heavy feathered cloak.  But my attention was on the white antlers on her head.  They made her look regal, like royalty.  I had realized she was smiling widely at my reaction to her.

When she spoke, it was the song of the birds in the sky, the melody of the animals in the bush, the babbling of the water in the nearby stream.  “I thought you might be afraid.  It seems you are as brave as you are caring.”  Then she held out a hand and I took it.  I noted that her skin was as soft as the down of a goose as she helped me stand.  Then she smiled again and asked, “Do you know who I am child?”

I looked at her in confusion, she was my Snow wasn't she?  Then sudden realization dawned on me and I took a knee, bowing low.  “Perchta, the Shining One. Goddess of the Perchten who drives bad spirits away.  Sometimes leader of the Wild Hunt.”  My sweet crow was a goddess?  I was so afraid I had done something to anger one of the Queens of Nature.

She looked distressed and pulled me to my feet.  “All of that is true Gretta.  But I am also your friend.  Have we not had great adventures together?”  I nodded and she continued, her smile soothing me.  “What kind of friend would I be if I could not give you comfort and advice when you need it most?”

I looked down, warmed by the fact she deemed me a friend.  But I also knew this was the end of me.  Those fated to see the true form of Perchta would be cursed to become a wild stag for the next coming of the Wild Hunt.

She must have read this in my sorrowful melancholy and she giggled, it was a truly wonderful sound that seemed to fill the void with happiness.  “You don't think I'll turn you into a stag, do you, dear child?  I do not do such to my friends.  You are my Gretta.  I feel as though you are a child of mine that I have watched grow into a woman of such grace and beauty.  Your love of nature rivals that of the forest pixies.”

I blinked and looked up at her and asked,  “Pixies are real?”  I felt foolish at the smile she gave me.  Well if one of the Queens of Nature were real, then obviously Pixies would be possible.  I gave an embarrassed grin that made her giggle again.

Then she sat down with me.  A goddess sat with me.  And we spoke of my troubles.  She shared truths of the world with me, inconvenient truths about how mortals were.  How as unsavory as it was, my arranged marriage would benefit many others in my village and my family.  Though it seemed evil, and it most certainly was an evil, people did things they would not believe for the greater good.

Her final words hit home for me. “Would you have your parents live with the consequences if you ran?”  Then she caressed my face with a hand that smelled of grassy meadows and flowers.  “If you would run, I would watch over you.  If you do not, I shall still do so, you are my friend.  My first mortal friend, and I give my solemn word that I shall always protect you and be by your side all the days of your life.”

Then we stood and that beautiful creature towered over me and said, “I bestow the gift of my kiss on you.  If my name should pass your lips, it will call me to your side if ever you are in peril.  I love you, child.”  Then the Shining One gifted me with the most perfect kiss.  I felt such peace and warmth, love and joy flood my being.

I didn't remember when I closed my eyes, but when I opened them, she was gone and my lips were glowing with a soft white.  When the light faded, I gathered my wits.  I realized that I was aroused.  I was aroused by the kiss of a goddess and I blushed.  My Snow was there now, and she hopped up onto my shoulder and stayed with me until I entered the clearing by the stables.

She ruffled her feathers and I looked at her and smiled and said, “I love you too Snow...  Perchta.”  She gave a soft caw as she flew back into the woods.

It was said that as a new beauty grew in the village, the lamia's beauty was fading faster than she could harvest the feminine grace of the young women she was killing at an increasing rate.  Unknown to me at the time, she hunted the surrounding villages for the one who was fairest, to stop her decline, but could not find the Gretta people spoke of.  For I was always in the woods when she was hunting.

The night after my talk with my white crow, the lamia in her desperation, cursed an apple with a poison to kill all of the women of the village and absorb their beauty and she dropped it into the village well.  She was sure that I would be among those who drank from the well.

She was right.  The next morning I lay dying with all the other women in the village.  I writhed in pain as I watched my mother die.  I saw the witch wander through the village, looking at all of the women and the mourning men.  Each man stood and followed her like lovesick puppies as she passed.  She stepped up to father where he cradled the lifeless form of my mother then at me.  The smile on her unnaturally beautiful face looked full of malice.  Father looked up and stepped away from mother to stand in front of the witch with a love-struck fog in his eyes.  She gave his face a caress like she would a pet.  She sneered at me and kissed him and he fell unmoving on the ground.

Her voice was full of venom.  “So it was you?  A little stable girl?  You were the one stealing my beauty!  Well now I shall have yours upon your death, and every man shall fall at my feet to do my bidding.”

I could feel more life draining from my body by the moment.  My lips began to glow a faint white light as I whispered, “Perchta.”  I remember seeing my sweet Snow spiraling down from the sky inside a whirlwind of light and feathers so bright, it almost blinded me.  It swirled around her like a tempest as she changed into Perchta in mid air.

She slammed into the witch from above with such violent force that it drove her antlers through the witch, pinning her dead body to the ground before the lamia could even scream.  The gathered men seemed to shake out of their bewitchment.  With one look at the vicious, animalistic look on Perchta's face, her bloodied antlers impaling the witch, they fled in terror.

I was vaguely aware of my beautiful crow cradling me after that.  Her antlers dripped with the blackish red blood of the witch.  I can still hear her words today as her tears dripped on my face, like they are burned into my brain.  “Oh Gretta, I am so sorry.  I promised to protect you, to always be by your side and I have failed you.  I had hoped one day that you would be my love.”

She had grabbed my shoulder in a grip that was so hard it should have hurt and broken bone. Instead I felt love and light flooding into my very being as she said, “I shall always keep you safe.  I gift you my lifeforce that you may survive.”

Then she faded away as she kissed my forehead, and my own tears started to fall when I realized she had sacrificed herself that I would survive.  I had stared at my shoulder, at the white crow brand for hours before I finally stood.  I was filled with so much energy and I could sense, and feel nature all around me.  I could feel and reach out with my mind and touch all the animals around me.  I had gained some of the abilities of the Mistress of The Hunt.

I looked around me and slumped on my knees in grief.  My parents were dead, my Snow had sacrificed herself for me.  All that I had loved was lost to me.  But I felt consoled and realized it was the forest reaching out to me, weeping with me.  I realized not everything I had loved was gone.

I wandered into the forest so we could grieve together, from that day on I went by Gretta Snow to honor the Shining One, and the gift she had bestowed upon me.  It was seventy years later when I first stepped out of the forest, back into the mortal world.

By then, all who had ever known me had passed on, and I started my new life.  Called by nature to areas of imbalance I roam the world to help restore the balance.  I fear I will never be allowed to rest until the curse of the werewolves is lifted and nature can regain a true balance again.  That is why I want so badly to speak with the Red Hood.  She has now done twice, what none before her has done.  Killed an Alpha.