PART ONE - PROTECTING INNOCENCE
PROLOGUE
As a child growing up in a Bavarian village, Elsa Gutz learned about the area surrounding her home town through various paranormal myths her parents told her at night before bed. Her father, a stern man who showed his love the best he could, informed Elsa and her sister that their village was surrounded by a forest she must never enter, because the place was full of witches, warlocks, and werewolves. These magical creatures used to actually be normal people, with lives and families, he told her.
“Like with mommies and daddies?”
“Yes,” her father told her. “And brothers and sisters, too.” He plopped Elsa down onto her bed, covering her and her sister with a blanket.
“What happened to them?”
“They entered the Forbidden Forest, which their parents told them not to go into. Just like I'm telling you. The Forest lies far on the edge of town, where you must never go.”
The 6-year old Elsa grimaced, her toddler imagination painting tragic pictures of kids her age waddling into the forest, their parents chasing after them, crying and screaming.
“Did they ever come back?” Elsa asked, groping for some happy ending.
“No, never. The forest ate them, swallowed them up whole, like a hungry demon. But one local blacksmith, furious at his wife for allowing his children to even get close to the forest, vowed to get them back. He got a pick ax and ventured deep into the forest, and he didn't return for days.”
“Did he ever find his kids?”
“Oh, yes, he returned. The villagers asked him if he ever found his children, expecting to say they were gone forever. But to their surprise, he had found them, hidden in clearing between some trees, dancing and sinking naked around a fire pit, the moonlight shining through the trees. He tried bringing them back, but they told him they didn't want to go. His children's fate hurt the blacksmith worse than if they had died. They were lost, evil, gimps of the forest. The blacksmith could not make them normal children again. And he came back with a large bite out of his thigh—from a werewolf, who had driven him out of the forest, away from his children, who were now lost forever.”
Elsa squeezed her big sister's hand, as they listened to their father every night tell stories like this. Before falling asleep, in the space between her dreams and wake, Elsa thought she could see some werewolves outside her window in the forest near her family's humble cabin home. She chalked up the faint images of green eyes, staring at her from the recesses of the woods, as her mind playing tricks on her.
But in the back of her thoughts, even though she grew older and knew the time for children's games had passed, she still wondered if it all had been more than just a dream.
Maybe, just maybe, the stories were true.
CHAPTER 1
A throng of bearded men, wearing sad and somber robes, stood circling some unknown misfortune on the edge of town, near the border between a small, secluded Bavarian village and the wild, chaotic forest which surrounded it from all sides. Further back, the rest of townspeople, every last one of them, stood staring at the unforeseen developments of the night. Earlier, during religious service, young Priscilla entered the town hall, interrupting Father O'Grady's sermon.
“She's back!” Priscilla squealed, and the entire congregation looked up from their Bibles. Father O'Grady looked up from his spectacles, a rosy-faced, white-haired man no taller than five feet.
“Who is back, my child?”
“Lili and Ennis!” Priscilla said, breathless, as she turned and rushed back into the airy night, the autumnal cold creeping through the open doors. Father O'Grady slapped his Bible closed and pushed his little body down from the altar, approaching the open door. The rest of the townspeople followed—old women with their ailing husbands who walked on canes, young mothers with babes suckling at their bosom, mischievous teenage boys picking at their female crushes.
On this overcast and wintry evening, the entire congregation followed Priscilla out of the church hall, into the dusky evening, as she led them to the scene discovered at the edge of the forest. The minister ran to the front of the line which formed quickly, so that the rest of the town was pushed back into a confused crowd near the center of the town.
Father O'Grady came close to the three people who lay in the grass in the darkness near the forest, his hands shaking but controlled by the courage of his warm heart. He reached down and touched the shoulder of the woman wrapped in a red shawl, trembling from fight.
“Miss, are you okay?” Her black head raised up to reveal Lili's face, and the entire crowd sighed with shock and relief. She had returned home. “My dearest Lili, you've returned to us. We're so glad you're safe. You gave us quite the scare,” he said, trying to keep his cool. Father O'Grady's eyes were perpetually twinkling with the inner goodness of the man whom many might come to associate with alms giving and a white, curly beard. He picked Lili up by her shoulders. “My, my. You are still in one piece.” He looked down, along with the rest of the crowd, to see young Ennis smiling up at them. “Happy Goodness!” Father O'Grady squealed, picking up Ennis by his armpits and planting a forceful kiss on his tiny cheek. “He's back, too.” Father O'Grady's tears streamed down his face as he studied the young toddler, who stared back at him with a curious blankness, as Ennis then ran his tiny index finger along the damp trail on Father O'Grady's cheek.
“Why do you cry, sir?” his little voice said, elf-like and magical.
Father O'Grady smiled from ear to ear. “Because you're home, little one! We missed you so,” he said, burying the boy in his bear-like chest, taking in his heartbeat with his own. The boy pushed back, squirming to get out of Father O'Grady's hands. Ennis jumped down onto the ground, his feet curiously bare, and ran into the crowd of people. “My sir, where are you going?” Father O'Grady called back, before returning his attention to the young woman at his face. He helped her up by the small of her hand, and she smiled back at him. “Miss Lili, did you go off and become a hero for your son?”
“I tried,” she said, looking around the crowd in the waning evening light. She seemed so grateful all her townspeople looked after he so intently.
“We are lucky you have returned,” Father O'Grady said. “This has never happened even once in my lifetime. Please tell us how you made it back?” But she didn't answer him, a tiredness growing in her eyes, as if she had just returned from a long marathon or war. She glanced down at the third figure, whom none of the people in the crowd had ever met. Father O'Grady gasped when he realized he had almost stepped on the unconscious blond man at his feet. He kneeled down to the man, whose upper cheek featured a dark and purple bruise, his ragged clothes hanging in disconcerted shreds from his body. He was hairless and beautiful, blond hair and black eyebrows, perfectly symmetrical about his face. Lili stooped down as well, taking the man's paw in her hand, placing a single soft thankful kiss on his knuckles.
“My hero,” she whispered, as the congregation carried her away before her emotions took over. Holding her in their arms, an elderly couple guided Lili past the crowd of people, toward the safety of the church-house, passing a curvaceous and subtly beautiful woman in the process. This was Elsa, the hero of our story. There were several women in the crowd, and they all seemed to take a peculiar interest in Lili's predicament, but possessed even more infatuation with the stranger in their midst. The fading sun, setting on the girls' round and ruddy cheeks, reflected an interest one might expect from much younger ladies, still in their teens.
“I hope she's okay,” one of them said. “Maybe she brought back a husband for us.” The woman laughed.
“That's such an indecorous thing to say, madam. Take it back. He's so beautiful. Who is he?” asked another lady, her broad shoulders grabbing the aforementioned curvaceous woman, pointing her in the direction of the crowd's concentration. “Elsa, look.”
Elsa could not look, as the throng of legs and bodies blocked her view of the scene. She shifted her gaze back and forth, attempting to get a better look at whom Father O'Grady was talking to. “I can't see,” she said, feigning less interest than she had. “Let's forget it, gossips. We should focus on what we have regained. Lili and Ennis have been returned to us.” The comment had a powerful effect on snapping the two other women back into their places, as flashes of genuine guilt spread over their faces.
“You're absolutely correct,” one said. “We mustn’t speak so lightly of a great tragedy which has been averted.”
They all agreed with the woman, tightening their collars and rectifying their attention to the solemnity of the situation. This didn't last long, though, as the entire crowd moved as one entity, closer and closer, to the man laying on the ground near Father O'Grady. The blond man was in this moment a feature in some exotic show, inadvertently put on by the leaders of the town. The crowd filed in a single line past the man, getting one good glimpse, then moving on for the people waiting behind them. When Elsa's turn came, she saw this young, beautiful man sleeping soundly at her feet, while Father O'Grady called for the local healer to fetch a white sheet on which to carry him. Elsa experienced a strange recognition upon seeing this man, a familiar feeling overcoming Elsa for reasons she was not yet aware of. Around and about him, and between the unsightly forest border and the wheel-track leading into the main area of the town, was a natural pattern which resembled a threshold for the man exiting the forest, a circular red ivy careening around the contours of his physical shape, cradling him in a way that Elsa imagined the ivy offered its fragrance and fragile beauty, as a token for the blossoming recognition growing inside her, beckoning her to take pity on the broken creature before her.
That night, undressing and placing her garments in the washing basin, Elsa massaged her clothes through the warm water, tilting her head as she daydreamed about the day's developments. Her thoughts centered around this man who emerged from the forest. Elsa had never seen the stranger anywhere before throughout the town, as its small population facilitate that its people know each other fairly well, while there were some occasional exceptions. The blond man might have seen Lili walk into the forest and chased after her, though if he had any family, the town would have known he was missing. But there was another possibility—that the man was a forest dweller to begin with, and Elsa's imagination sparked to life numerous ideas, but she immediately felt guilty about them. Her parents taught her she should do everything to remain safe and sound in the towns, away from the uncertain creature which resided in the woods. She rushed to shut down the track her mind wanted to go down, put away her laundry, and went to bed.
CHAPTER 2
The next morning, while she attended daily church services, the congregation was abuzz about the mysterious man who saved Lili. The preacher tried his best to focus on his daily lecture, but the crowd was never as responsive as it usually was.
“Today I'd like to remind my beautiful congregation as Waldensians, we have made a sacrifice of poverty in the name of Christ. We are simple town, full of simple people, and if we wish to retain our nobility as Christians, we must continue this path of humble poverty. To be rich in Christ, but poor in funds, is to be the richest man in all of Creation. Amen,” he said, bowing his head at his wooden lectern. The church house, hot dust swirling through the sun rays, aggravated a sneeze Elsa spent several minutes withholding. She sneezed over the back of a young woman's bonnet. Several of the people ahead of her turned back to give her a stern look, sending embarrassed red flushes through Elsa's cheeks. She looked down to avoid their gaze.
“And we witnessed a miracle last night, outside these very doors. Should any of you doubt the power of our Lord, please look down at the front pew for proof, as our dear Lili sits with us once more, her lovely son Ennis by her side. It has been a long time since one of our own have ventured past the borders of our tiny village, into those Forbidden Forests, and longer still, that two of them have returned to speak and see as they did before they left us.” Lili huddled with her son on the front row, covered in a black shawl, frightened and weary of how the other church members would treat her. They were cordial to her, of course, and kind, as the townspeople were to everyone. But there was a titanic undertow of fear coursing the veins of this little village. They feared what Lili had seen, or worse, what knowledge she had brought back with her from her venture into the deep solitude of the forest. So fragile and innocent this town was, with utterly no defense against danger, with not a single violent member.