Long ago, before the world we know, there was a kingdom, and in that kingdom, there was a village, and in that village, there stood a small house on the top of a hill, inside that small house, there lived a family, and in that family, there was a girl.
Our story begins with her.
The moon hung over the small ram shackled cottage, illuminating the surrounding trees.
Small moonbeams crept through gaps in a wooden shutter into a small, dark room, the only other light coming from the lone candle that sat beside a small figure.
A soft, silvery voice sang out into the quiet room as they stitched together a small bundle.
Mother would tell me, I was a pretty girl,
then she would cry all night.
The needle flicked through the burlap fabric quickly, held by small, confident feminine hands.
Nobody thinks they're being cruel
When they suggest that I should try to look like them
as if God loved the pretty one's best.
Damn 'em all- I create my own perfection!
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection!
Damn 'em all- well this dog will have its day!
The body was finished, so the small hands reached for two black buttons, one slightly smaller then the other.
Notice the ones who all like to criticize,
are the ones trying to hide.
Why would I sell my soul to be one of them?
Better to love the me within, behind the skin;
I choose to be a goddess inside.
The needle flashed slightly in the moonlight as the figure cross stitched a mouth onto the rag doll.
Damn 'em all- I create my own perfection!
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection!
Damn 'em all- well this dog will have its day!
Finally, the pale hands tied strands of laurel green yarn together with a small black ribbon.
The figure stood up, creation in hand and walked over to the small moonbeams, holding the small doll out into the light, in the process, the figure revealed themselves.
She was a small child, dark brown hair loosing its colour after so long without seeing the sun, her skin was pale as snow and clung to her cheeks, dark green eyes, too old to be in the face of a child but too young to be anywhere else,looked out at the world with a morbid fascination.
She tilted the doll left and right, inspecting it.
A slow, close-lipped but pleased smile spread across her face.
"Perfect." She whispered, absently tapping the black patch of fabric shaped like a heart.
"But you need a soul now, Rag, don't you?" She asked the doll rhetorically, already moving towards the locked door that trapped her inside her room.
The door swung silently open under her hands, heedless of the fact that it shouldn't have.
She crept down the staircase and down the corridor, her hand carefully reaching out to push open the door that led to her siblings room.
Inside, two bed sat pressed up against opposing walls, childish drawings were hung on the wall and toys were strewn across the room. The boys, no older than five, slept peacefully, unaware of the danger they were in.
The girl glided over to her sleeping brothers, looking down at one of them with cold rage.
"So precious, they love you, you know? Why do they love you, and yet hate me?" She whispered, brushing the tawny locks with mocking gentleness, a cold smile crossed her face before it smoothed back into a blank mask "I know why. I hold the power of the demon they killed, at least in their minds, after all, I was born mere moments after her defeat."
Carefully, she picked up the toddler and silently hurried back the way she'd came.
Gently, she laid the still sleeping child on the floor of her room, along with the doll.
She picked up a knife made of bone and returned to the unconscious body of her brother, crouching down beside him.
Lightly, she drew the rune kenaz on his forehead, drawing only the barest hint of blood, before she moved her knife, sliding it through the fabric of his nightgown with ease.
She drew the rune pertho on his stomach, he was begining to wake up now.
Quickly, she forced the rags that were once his sleepwear into his mouth.
If she could, she would have killed him, but this specific spell required him to still be breathing.
Humming slightly, she carved the final rune, algiz, over where his heart was.
She sat back on her heels, the doll in her hands.
"Don't worry, this will only hurt...a lot." She said, smiling sweetly at the child.
Focusing on him, she reached out and grabbed his soul, pulling it out of his body, ignoring the way his body twitched in its death throes.
She focused on the doll in her arms and shoved the soul she had just stolen into it.
The doll remained stationary for a few minutes, before it started to subtly twitch, blank button eyes gained a small gleam of life and the stitched up mouth started to twitch.
It began to move, turning in her arms to look up at her.
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Rag threw his head back and silently laughed, reaching out with stumpy arms to hug the young girl, a hug she returned.
"It worked, it actually worked." She whispered.
"Of course it did, have I ever given you reason to doubt me, little spider?" A voice spoke from behind her, she half turned to look at her shadow and was unsurprised by the glowing orange eyes that lurked inside her shadow.
"Of course not, Shadow."
The thing rolled his eyes "Now that you have finished, what is your command?"
A wide smile crept across her face, revealing the razor sharp teeth within "Destroy."
"Gladly."
The village of Baile Beag never stood a chance.
The problem with humans, the girl mused, was that they were so obsessed with image.
They pretended that they were saints, but in reality, they were scum.
Maybe that's why she preferred to spend her time in the part of Baile Mòr that everyone else was so obsessed with forgetting existed.
The place where the whores, murderers, drunks and other social pariahs lived.
She met the second member of her family there, so she couldn't complain.
The cat was a odd creature.
Thin, likely from the fact that it was hard enough for humans to get a decent meal in this part of the city, never mind the animals, its bones poked out visibly, half of its claws were broken, its teeth suffered from the same problem.
But despite that, it was still alive.
Barely alive, but still alive.
The girl gently picked up the animal, cradling it to her chest, Rag sat on her shoulder, holding onto a lock of her hair to stay balanced.
She looked around, looking for a suitable sacrifice.
Her eyes landed on one of the drug addicts past out on the floor not far from where she stood, not the kind of sacrifice she would have chosen under normal circumstances (a drug addicts soul was one of the most annoying to work with) but he would have to do.
A shadow detached itself from the wall, wrapping around the man with an eerie gentleness, muffling his screams
The girl turned on her heel and walked back towards the building she was camping out in, the shadow followed her with its burden trapped neatly inside.
Her current lab/base/hideout was located in one of the many warehouses that had been built in their dozens on the darker side of Baile Mòr.
The rest of the inhabitants that occupied the surrounding streets had learned to stay away
(Seeing one of the strongest people in the whole damn place run out, bleeding excessively and crying like a newborn babe, before being dragged back inside by what looked to have once been a ordinary teddy bear, one button eye hanging on by just a thread, knives carefully sewed into fabric paws and a wide toothy grin spread across its face tended to have that affect on people)
The girl hummed quietly to herself as she surveyed the latest sacrifices, what she was about to attempt was untested and likely fail but she was going to do it anyway.
She pulled her hand back and watched as a wispy blue orb emerged from the mans chest and floated into her upturned palm.
Gently, she carried it over to the skinny cat, and watched as it floated over to hover above the body.
Slowly, another blue orb emerged from the cat, a slightly darker blue this time, rising at the same pace that it had emerged from the cat.
The two orbs moved towards each other like the opposite ends of a magnet, twisting and twining around each other until the human soul was swallowed by the cat soul.
Instantaneously, the now fused souls returned to the cats body.
The form convulsed and writhed as it physically altered beyond what any body should be capable of.
Where once a broken creature lay, a now human form rested.
A pale form lay across a stone work bench.
Delicate ball jointed arms rested lightly against the cold material, the same with the objects legs.
The facial features were soft and delicate, a small button nose, pale pink, petal shaped lips, delicate cheekbones, the only imperfections on the doll like figure was the crack that stretched from temple to chin, and the gaping empty socket where an eye should have gone.
The girl hummed lightly, carrying the pale pink and gold orb gently between her palms as she approached the doll.
Carefully, she opened the chest cavity positioned where the heart would have been, had she been a real girl, and placed the soul inside before shutting it.
She traced the rune kenaz onto the porcelain and stepped back.
For a moment nothing happened, then the chest cavity started to glow faintly.
Eyelashes fluttered gently, perfect fingertips twitched subtly and her chest started to rise and fall in a parody of humanity.
A wide, glassy blue eye opened slowly.
Videl stretched, his bones moving visibly under grey skin that clung to his body, giving the impression he hadn't eaten properly in years and stood up to his full height, black hair fell down to his jaw in midnight black tangles, and pale green eyes stared out at the world with an unnerving intensity.
He wandered down from the upper levels of Queenie's lab, down into the work area, he would have continued on his way out on his morning walk, but he was distracted by the sight that he was met with.
A large dire wolf lay on the opposite side of the room, asleep from what he could tell, but that wasn't what stopped him.
A pale arm, the runes hagalaz, algiz and perth burnt into the flesh, on the shoulder, palm and inside arm respectively, was crawling across the floor on its finger tips.
His eyes immediately went to the owner of the arm, he was unsurprised to find that she was looking at the detached limb with curiosity and none of the fear you'd expect.
"You know, after so long, I really shouldn't be surprised." He commented.
"She learned that she could control separated limbs, she's been studying it all night." A deep, fondly exasperated voice said from beside him.
Videl turned slowly to look at the orange eyes that lurked in the shadows.
"As much as I love queenie, I am worried for her health."
"In case you've forgotten, none of us are exactly 'healthy' by human standards." The shadow being replied in its deep, timeless voice.
He had to concede to the shadows point, after all, their family was comprised of a ragdoll, a cat-shifter, a life sized doll, an extinct wolf, a formless demon thing, a sixteen year old with a child's body and about several hundred other mismatched creations.
But really, none of them would have it any other way.
So, this was a combination of boredom and writers block.
Does it make sense? Probably not.
Its just me being my usual self and fucking stuff up.
Thoughts?
See ya