"Bone White, Blood Red" by H D Leonard

Bone White, Blood Red

There was a time when the woods were much darker and even the light of the sun could not chase off all the shadows. A time when darkness clung to small nooks and cranny's the time before happily ever afters where fairytales were as they should be. Before the fallible memories of mortals twisted and perverted them into something sick and sweet for childrens ears.

The forest, a place of darkness if ever there was one and darkest of all was a small cottage. A harmless cottage if you did not know any better. But it is said that late at night under the full moon the jawbreaking crack of one crunching bones could be heard, and the equally hideous slurps of the other drinking blood.

Blood Red and Bone White they were called, two girls innocent enough to first gaze, with disarming smiles and large eyes and pretty in so much as they didn't wear enough to cover themselves and thus be considered ugly. Men's hearts they captured and mens lives they ate, though none perhaps knew it or dared think it for to the poor villagers Rose Red and Snow White were the sweetest creatures ever.

Poor them losing their parents at such a young age, trapped alone bound by duty to a small house in the middle of nowhere. If only the peasants knew the truth perhaps they would not have been so kind.

Evil lurks in many shells not always that of ugliness just as good does not always wear a golden mask of beauty. Tomias was neither evil nor beautiful, being short of stature and having a face that only a mother could love. Many mistakenly called him a dwarf, though as all know there are no such creatures upon this earth. A man he was, and his honour was written on his moustache which was longer than any other. For those who have forgotten the old ways, there was a time when a man's worthiness was written not in stone, nor upon paper or on medals and awards but was told by the size of his moustache. How much stranger are those times from our own?

Tomias was a good man, and as the fates would have it, he heard tell of a creature of the night, a man-monster who could shift shapes with but a blink of the eye and who would roam the countryside looking for young virgin flesh to sup upon. And Tomias vowed upon his moustache that he would track this creature down and kill it. Yet the legends said that the beast could only be killed when the three magickal gems that made up it's heart were collected and once again pieced together. And thus he followed it to a forest where our two witches did live.

Voices called, taunting him, tempting him from his path yet he ignored them all, he followed the directions of prophecy and the road of his heart and when in doubt he followed nowt but his faith itself, and finally his path did take him to a river and he had not to pause and rest for he knew that within the river he would find the first of the gems. And so he crafted a fishing rod from that which was around him and he sat and he waited until finally a fish caught the bait and he knew without being told that within the fish he would find the first of the gems.

But fate could play cruel games and at the same time our two witches were dancing their way through the woods and they saw the man fishing diligently and both laughed at him, and one flickered a smile to the other. Now if he'd been a handsome man of course they would have acted otherwise but as it was poor Tomias had not been blessed with anything but a beautiful heart and instead they decided to play a cruel trick. With but a flick of their hands and a muttering of words they caused the wind to blow and his moustache to become entangled with the line. They laughed and they giggled as he struggled, trying to free himself from the trappings before finally Blood Red made her way out from the bushes and grinned at the man, a grin that had most men gasping with lust, yet those were thoughts furthest from Tomias' mind as he sensed her great evil. But he was caught, trapped as it were. With a laugh she pulled out a knife and before he could protest she cut him free, and with it a large section of his moustache too. Then without a single word both witches disappeared off into the forest laughing at his horror at what they'd done.

Yet fortunately for Tomias the fish lay sprawled on the river bank, and though he had lost some of his honour, he had succeeded in his first task, for cutting the flesh open revealed the first of the blood red gems.

Another day passed before it came to Tomias in a dream where the second gem lay under a large stone in the heart of the forest, and yet there were many stones and so he spent his day overturning them all until finally he was sure he had found the one, and sure as the day is light when with a lot of effort he had tipped the boulder up he caught a glitter of the second red gem.

Yet as before the witches, somehow drawn to him at that very moment appeared from the woods, sneaking up on him, Blood Red called "hello," her voice richly sensual as befitted no proper woman.

With surprise, for assuming that he was alone, Tomias let go of the rock and it went crashing down, once again trapping him by but the length of his moustache. And so the knife appeared, and both girls laughed despite his protests and once again a piece of moustache was snipped off, before the danced away.

Fortune smiled on him once again for though he had lost more face and even more moustache he had managed to collect the second gem.

Feeling the evil of the third and last nearby he continued to wander the forest until he came across a dark and rotten tree, the stench of death clinging to its timber, the air frozen though it was the height of summer, yet he knew that this was where his journey finished and that within the heart of the tree he would find the third gem and the secret to destroying the shapeshifter. So he removed his axe from his pack and began to work at chopping it down, the tree screaming at each stroke he took. Yet he closed his ears to the pleas and continued his work until finally he almost had it felled.

Then laughter once again filled the air, and two creatures, one with blood red hair, the other with bone white stepped out from the woods and they looked at him, and they looked at the tree and finally they caught a glimpse of blood red sparkling in the tree and what they did seemed logical to them and with a flicker of their hands a calling of words the games finished and the tree tumbled, once again trapping Tomias but this time by the arm and the agony screamed within him he was too noble a man to voice it and with a laugh the two girls acquired all three gems, for witches have lore of such things and with their magick they called to the bear shapeshifter, using his heart to force him to obey, and still Tomias did not scream. With laughter and gems they turned their back on the scene and returned once again to the forest which sheltered them leaving the poor noble man to his fate.

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