Chapter 1
The night was dark and the moon was new. The town once so lively, now stands still and silent. Even the tree show the scars of the battle and fire that consumed the peace and love of the town. Where a mighty grandfather oak tree once stood, stands a tree of fear and poison, a tree that held the souls of those who fought against it. This was a town that was full of joy. A place where neighbors looked out for each other and the community was the most important thing they had. One day that all ended in fear and flame. What happened in this town you ask?
All Hallows eve or Samhain as the Celts called it, the night where the veil between the living and the dead is thin and the spirits of the departed can cross into the living world. What most people forget is that if the spirits of those we loved in life and were good and honest people can cross through the veil, so can the spirits of evil. Nature does not discriminate between good and evil, it is the balance of the two that keep nature in harmony. One might see the wolf’s act of killing the rabbit as evil, but the wolf needs to eat and the rabbit population needs to be kept in check. So it is a necessary part of the natural world and help to keep the balance. Maybe this is why this town was taken by the spirits of evil. Maybe there was so much good that something bad had to happen to bring back the balance. Sometimes even the balance of nature is cruel.
It is the early 1600’s and the moon was new on this dark night. Maybe the rare black moon should have told the people to be weary, but hindsight is always perfect. The night was pitch black the veil thinned and the black moon rose in the sky. The villagers were in their homes with the warmth of their fires and families to protect them. Some had even placed protective symbols on their doors to drive away the evil spirits. It was only too bad that they only worked if they stayed within the house and the door stayed closed.
A bright flame fell from the sky lighting the forest, landing in a clearing just outside of town. The flame lit the night but burned no trees. It brought the villagers out of the homes as they tried to understand how the night with no moon light was lit up. Leaving their women and children safe in their homes, or so they thought.
The men ran into the woods towards the flames and strange sounds in the woods. The flame burned hot and bright in the dark moonless woods. A dark shadow loomed within the flames as the men approached with their weapons raised to defend their home. The shadow held within the flame moved towards the edge and towards the villagers. The shape is large and grows with each step. Fear rises like the smoke from the flames surrounding and filling the men as they wait for their doom to come within sight and take form.
The flames licked at the sides of the seductive female form. Tall slender and tone body, female curves, the figure slowly takes shape as the figure nears the edge of the flame. To the villagers the flame burns white hot and they can’t get near enough to study the form that is coming. Although they could feel the doom that it brought, curiosity and dread filled the men like oxygen. Some try in order to know the form of their doom, others seduced by the feminine shape of the shadow.
As the shadow cleared the rising flames the darkness that surrounded it continued, black skin covered the creature with the face the dark beauty and eyes the deepest black holes that could see through to a man’s very soul. Dark horns rose from her head and curled back as the horns of a goat would. A sleek black dress flowed gracefully over the dark skin, shining in the flickering flames. She stood over the men by several feet and black leathery wings spread from her back like a bat. The mixture of beauty and terror ran through the men like ice cold water as they stood their ground against this unknown foe.
She didn’t speak but the men could hear her voice in their minds. She greeted them as her children that had once gone astray. She had come to gather her lost ones and bring them home once more. She told them that their children would become her new army and join the ranks of the immortal ones as it was always foretold. She told them to call her Orinalilith as she spread her arms wide expecting praise. She smiled almost lovingly to the crowd of men.
