1 Chapter 1

Eyes of silver sea blue skies

Dear daughter, you are not ours.

Away with you, away with thee

The forest calls but you never see

Hazel was hungry. She was tired of her mother's stories, stories of how she was really a noble man's daughter, but had to be kept away from her father for her own good. Her mother usually told her these stories when she complained of hunger, or cold, or when she cried because her mother didn't have the money to send her to school.

She looked over at her mother who was now sitting by the window knitting a quilt. Perhaps, if she finished on time, perhaps if people paid well for the quilt, they might have food to eat for at least three days in a stretch. Or perhaps not.

Hazel lived with her mother somewhere in the outskirts of the village. They where something of an outcast ever since her mother went up to the city to work as a scullery maid, and came back seven months pregnant. If she had been smart, Hazel heard an aunt tell her mother once, her mother would have come back when the pregnancy was still under a month, and she would have tried to trick one of the village folks into marrying her.

Her mother had not been smart however, and no one wanted to marry a woman who was so loose, she was pregnant before she was wed. Hazel knew all these at the tender age of six, none of the adults around her bothered to watch what they say around her, perhaps because she was a bastard, it was okay to say anything in front of her, she couldn't be more damaged than she already was could she?

Hazel didn't care about how the village treated her and her mother. She wasn't sentimental, all she cared about was warm blankets and a fire during winter, and food in her belly everyday. She had a large heart, she was a creature of love. She loved her mother, and she tool time to tell her everyday, hugging her fiercely and splattering kisses all over her face. She loved the tiny little butterflies that sometimes perched on her window. She loved the wild animals that always wondered out of the forests very close by. She loved nature, she wished there were other human beings to extend her love to, but she rarely came in contact with them, except when her mother took her up into the village to try to sell her quilt - which her mother was really good at making, or no one would have ever bought it.

Hazel stood up from where she sat, it was obvious her mother was not going to finish on time, the former decided to go hunting in the forest, sometimes she caught little rabbits, providing food while they waited to make a sale, her mother always warned her against going to the jungle, cautioning her half heartedly everytime she came back with meat, but deep down, they both knew her mother was grateful.

She went to the back of the house, picked up her sling shot and raffia bag she always took with her and headed for the forest. Hopefully, she would catch something today.

Hazel had the terrible howl as soon as she reach the forests, and she stood, paralyzed with fear. Unable to move, she remembered all her mother's warnings about the forest, if only she had listened. She had the howl again, then her eyes followed the sound and she found herself staring at one of the most magnificent creatures she had ever seen.

She stood spell bound, but for some reason, she was no longer afraid. Her eyes roamed over the creature, it was wolve - she had seen drawings in the children's books that had been handed down to her by the kids in the village, given to her when she went up to supply quilts with her mother. This creature was actually more magnificent, more strange than an ordinary wolf, perhaps a werewolf. Her heart thudded against her chest at the possibility. She had heard whispers about werewolves, human beasts who were slowly taking over the world, but she had neither seen one of them before not fully understood what the adults were really saying, for they held their tongue around even her when it came to talk of werewolves, bastard though she may be.

It took her a while to realize the creature was hurt, and and soon as she did, her feelings of awe and dread were replaced by compassion. It didn't matter if the creature was a rabbit, a human or a werewolf, someone was hurt and needed her help, she was going to render it.

The creature had it's leg caught in a trap, and it was bleeding. She walked closer, her eyes trained on the fangs that were bared against her in aggression. ''I'm not going to hurt you.'' she said in her childish tiny voice. ''I just want to help you free your leg.'' To her surprise, the wolve quietened down and seemed to nod. Encouraged, she stepped closer.

She bent down over it's leg, her tiny hands working slowly but effectively until she had released the leg from the trap, then she stepped back, suddenly exhausted by her efforts, the pangs of hunger hitting her even more fiercely.

She felt the creature nodge her gently, and she looked up to see it held a rabbit in it's claws. A rabbit she would never have been able to catch, it looked too big. The werewolve dropped it in front of her, lifted it's head and howled again, the it turned into the forest, and soon she couldn't see it again.

A little dazed at her encounter, Hazel picked up the rabbit and headed home. She wasn't going to tell her mother about the wolf, she knew instinctively that she shouldn't.

By the time she got home, her mother was sleeping softly, quilt still in hand, and her head rolled to the side. Hazel gently removed the quilt from her mother's hand, and covered her mother with it. Her mother was human too, she must be hungry and exhausted.