Perhaps twenty years ago in what was then the Foxglove Kingdom, the queen sat sewing at a window. As she ran the needle through the fabric, she pricked her finger with it and a single drop of blood fell onto the snow below the window. The queen had no children, and as she looked down at the blood she wished that she might have a daughter with a heart as pure as the snow, eyes as red as blood, and hair as dark as the ebony that framed the window.
And somewhere out there, some being took pity on the poor queen, or perhaps it was just good luck on her part, and nine months later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The child had dark skin and ebony colored hair, just like her mother had wished, and eyes that glittered crimson. The queen would have celebrated, for she had been a werewolf who had given up on her pack to marry the king, and red eyes were a sign that the child had inherited her gift and could live the life she wished she had chosen, but she died immediately after she gave the child her name, which was Snow.
For the first ten years of Snow's life, everything seemed to be fine. She was often saddened that she never got a chance to meet her mother, but having never known her she lacked anything to truly miss. She was never very close to her father, and spent most of her time out in The Dark Woods with the huntsman who lived in a small cottage near the palace and his teenage son. Most people know that you should never go into The Dark Woods, but the hunter knew what he was doing, and Snow knew that she was safe with him. And she was happy.
But on her tenth birthday everything changed. That was when her father announced that he was marrying again, this time to the princess of a neighboring kingdom. The princess was young, as far as Snow was concerned far too young for her father, and an intelligent, kind girl. She told Snow that the whole affair was an arranged marriage, and that she didn't want to marry her father, and that she would much prefer to be Snow's sister than her stepmother. And as far as Snow was concerned, this was perfectly acceptable. She hadn't even wanted a new mother to begin with.
As the girls grew close, the princess, Celeste, revealed that she was actually studying spellcraft, and that after analysing Snow's aura she found that she was a werewolf. Snow's mother had never told her father the truth of her identity, and so Snow had grown up with no idea who she really was. Being a true werewolf, one born, not turned, she had complete control over her transformation, and within a few weeks she had mastered the art of shifting forms. Soon she met the pack of werewolf girls who lived in the forest, and she started to hunt and spend much of her time with them. Sometimes Celeste came with, but she was normally too occupied with her royal duties.
And then something far worse than her father's remarrying happened. When Snow was fourteen, her father realized that Celeste would never love him, and he grew jealous of Snow because of how close she was to Celeste. Somehow, along the way, he decided that without Snow he could possess Celeste's affections, and having never really been close to his daughter, he planned a method to get rid of her.
First he wrote a letter to the huntsman, ordering him to take Snow out into the woods with him. When they arrived deep in the heart of the forest, the king directed, he was to kill her and bring her heart back as proof. The terrified huntsman had no choice but to agree, and he scheduled a day with Snow to go into the woods together. So on the appointed day Snow grabbed her bow and quiver and headed out to meet the huntsman where the paths led into the woods.
But Snow was not the oblivious child that her father thought her to be. She had a terrible habit of eavesdropping, and she had been listening to the king when he had been planning with his most trusted advisor to have her killed. And when they reached the middle of the forest she turned to the huntsman and quite calmly asked if he was going to kill her. Now, the huntsman had planned on killing her, entirely out of fear of her father, but once he knew she was aware the task got much harder, so he responded saying that he would not.
"Well," Snow said. "I wouldn't want you getting hurt for my sake."
So she pulled out her bow and shot a deer that was standing a ways away, munching on forest undergrowth. Then she walked over, pulled out a hunting knife, and carved the animal's heart out. She handed it to the hunter, saying, "Take this to my father, and tell him it is mine. He will not know the difference, and you shall escape unscathed."
The huntsman, who wanted to die almost as little as he wanted to kill Snow, took the heart and returned it to the king, who assumed that it was in fact Snow's, and allowed the poor man to return to his life. Later, the hunter went looking for Snow in the woods, but he could not find her, and he assumed that she had left to find a life in Kartha, which was located barely a day's walk from where they had parted.
That was not the case. As soon as the hunter left Snow had sought out her pack, the seven werewolf girls who had kept her company since she had discovered her true nature, and explained her situation to them. Snow was a sister to them, and they readily agreed to let her stay with them for as long as she might need, provided that she contributed to the pack by helping them on their hunts. For the next three years, that worked perfectly. Her father thought she was dead, and he told the rest of the kingdom that she had gotten lost and been killed by bandits. The hunter was pretty sure she was alive, and he was happy to have been able to help her. The only person who was not happy was Celeste, who missed her sister and found royal duties stifling without her company.
And then it hit her. There was no way that Snow, who was strong and tough and knew how to fight, had been killed by ordinary bandits. She could only assume that Snow was in fact alive somewhere and had for some reason needed to escape the palace. She wanted to look for her little sister, but her royal duties busied her schedule too much to find the time she thought she might need. So instead she summoned a knight by the name of Sir Calvin to find a girl matching Snow's description, who she said was a baker's daughter who had gotten lost in the woods a few days ago.
At the same time, a prince from a nearby kingdom who was known simply as Prince Charming came on a diplomatic mission to the kingdom. He stayed in the palace and soon developed a great enjoyment of hunting in the woods with the same hunter whom Snow had once hunted with. Soon, though, the hunter fell ill and Prince Charming was forced to go into the woods on his own. But without the huntsman's expertise to guide him, the prince soon wandered far deeper into the woods than even the huntsman would have dared to go.
Now, by this time Snow had settled easily into life with the pack, and had even become its leader. And one day, when she was out on a hunt with her sisters, she heard the sounds of someone moving through the forest, far too loud to be anything but a human, and a rather inexperienced one at that. So, thinking that some child had wandered into the forest and needed her help, she shifted into her human form, told her pack to stay away, and went off to investigate.
But when she got there, rather than the lost child she expected, she found a young man dressed in royal garb who had found his way into a clearing in the woods. His hair was a mess and his clothes were torn, but he still carried himself with a sort of pride that Snow found to be irritatingly cocky.
"Fair maiden!" he called upon seeing her. "Do you require my assistance in escaping this dreadful forest?"
"I should think not," Snow said. "In fact, you seem to be much more lost than I am." It was true that before Snow had arrived, he had been looking around rather confusedly, and Snow was observant enough to have picked up on this detail before showing herself.
"Absurd!" he exclaimed. ���As if I, the brave and noble Prince Charming, would ever find myself lost in some simple woods!"
Snow fought back laughter, with little success. "Prince Charming," she sputtered. "What kind of a name is that?"
"My name," said the man, for Prince Charming he was. "Charming is my family name, and I am a prince. Therefore, I am Prince Charming."
"Whatever," Snow said. "Do you want me to help you out of the woods or not?"
A moment's silence settled over the clearing like snow falling to the ground before the prince spoke. "Fine." He said the word as though it had a foul flavor he wished to get out of his mouth.
"Then come on," Snow ordered, turning towards where she knew the exit to be. Prince Charming just stared, mouth agape. "What?"
"Err… Wolves!" he yelped, finally getting his voice back.
Snow sighed tiredly and turned to face her pack, for her pack it was (No other packs, were- or ordinary wolves, would have dared come into her territory). "Didn't I tell you to stay back?" she said in the tongue of wolves.
"Yes," said Goldie, her second in command. "You took a while. We were worried."
"I was hardly gone for a minute. Honestly, you have no sense of time."
"Sorry…" Goldie pouted.
"Whatever. I'm just going to escort this helpless prince out of the woods. I should return within, oh, five hours."
"Were you talking to that wolf?" Prince Charming asked as they walked out of the clearing.
"Certainly not," Snow snapped. "You're delirious. You were lost and afraid. It's getting late. There were no wolves."
He was not sure whether or not to believe her, but saw fit not to press the subject.
After that they arrived at the edge swiftly, and she pointed him in the direction of the palace and told him to be on his way. And Snow returned to her pack, thoroughly believing that was the last she'd ever see of the bothersome prince.
But it was not to be. Because as soon as the prince arrived back in the palace he asked the king if he could arrange for him to marry the girl living in the forest. The bewildered king answered that the only child who resided anywhere near the woods was the huntsman's son, and he was sick in bed with his father. So Prince Charming gave the king a description of Snow. And the king recognized her at once as the daughter he had thought dead. Of course, her being presumed dead had not made Celeste like him, but he figured that at the point where he had tried to kill her he needed to finish the job lest she tell anyone what he had done.
But he didn't know where to find her, so he told Prince Charming that if he went back into the woods and brought the girl back he could happily wed them. And Prince Charming, who was a naive, gullible prince, went right back the next morning looking for her. That same morning, Sir Calvin set out to find the girl he believed to be the lost baker's daughter.
And, in a rather odd coincidence, the two men met shortly after entering the woods. Both described their quests, and they assumed that since they were both looking for girls of similar description, the only likely explanation was that the baker's daughter had run away into the woods and been living there since. And they decided that since the woods were dangerous and infested with wolves and bears, they should look for her together.
Snow, meanwhile, was enjoying hanging out in the cave where she lived with her pack telling jokes and sharing stories. They all lived human lives, or at least had once, and they all had stories to tell. One of the wolves, a small witty one with brown fur and green eyes who went by the name of Copper, had snuck some bread and butter out of the village where she lived, and the girls were munching on it while they chatted.
Just as a grey-furred wolf called Silver was telling a story about the time she had defeated a troll that had been demanding tolls from travellers, Prince Charming and Sir Calvin found their way into the clearing in which the cave was located. The entire pack was in human form, as wolves have little taste for bread, and the two men heard the sounds of talking. They assumed that the runaway girl was talking to herself to keep herself entertained, and they walked up to the mouth of the cave, looked inside, and saw the girls sitting around the embers of the fire they had lit the previous night.
Goldie immediately noticed them standing there, silhouetted against the light that fluttered in from outside. She called for them to come in, alerting her pack to their presence.
"What brings you to these woods?" she asked, looking up at them.
Snow saw the prince standing there and sighed.
"Hold on," she interrupted. "Let me guess. You're here looking for me."
"How'd you know?" Prince Charming said. "I have come to take your hand in marriage, lovely lady."
Snow stared at him, her expression distinctly unimpressed. "And what makes you think I would give it to you?"
He had not prepared for this reaction. "I'm a prince! Why wouldn't you want to marry me? I could give you riches galore! I could give you your own private palace away from these terrible woods!"
"Riches galore? Whatever would I do with such things?"
"I don't know, admire them?"
"Ridiculous," she said. Then, turning to Sir Calvin, "How about you, good knight? Have you come here for a better reason than him?"
"Um… Yes. The queen sent me here to find a missing baker's daughter matching your description."
Snow, who was a curious girl and eager to learn more about the strangers, invited them to join her and tell their own stories. And after Sir Calvin had told a remarkable story about a three-headed killer peacock, Snow asked Prince Charming for the details of his stay in the Kingdom so far. And he told her the entire story.
Then everything clicked in Snow's head. Her father wanted her back in the castle because now he knew she was alive and wanted her dead. And even if she refused to come back, he would send people after her. She knew full well that there was no way he would simply leave her be. So she agreed to return to the palace with the prince, saying that she would not marry him unless he earned her love, but that she would go with him regardless.
Prince Charming, of course, readily agreed to this proposition. And so after they had eaten, she set off back towards the palace with the prince and Sir Calvin. Along the way, they asked her how she had ended up living in the forest. She didn't particularly want to tell them that she was actually the dead princess or that she was a werewolf, so instead she went along with their baker's daughter theory and told them that her father was a terrible drunkard and that she had been forced to run away to the forest.
And soon they arrived back at the castle. Fortunately, the king was away hunting in The Light Woods, which were a much more popular hunting place amongst most everyone. Snow took advantage of her father's absence, and requested that she see the queen who had sent Sir Calvin to find her. Sir Calvin had been told by the queen that he was to bring Snow to her once she had been located, so of course this request was readily agreed to. The knight gave her directions to the queen's room, and Prince Charming requested that when she was finished with the queen she return to the sitting room so that she could meet the king when he returned. Snow smiled and said that she would gladly meet the king after she had her chance to speak to the queen.
Of course, she did not actually wish to simply ask Celeste why she had sent Sir Calvin. In reality, as soon as she reached the queen's quarters in the northern tower of the palace she explained to her friend what had happened and requested help in creating a plan to deal with her father. Celeste suggested that she simply tell the people that the king had tried to kill her, whereupon the kingdom's legal code would provide grounds to move rulership to a new monarch, in this case Celeste. But, of course, no one would believe her if she simply said so. The whole kingdom knew that Snow enjoyed hunting, and that a little girl could easily get herself lost in the woods if she was not careful, thus forcing her to remain there until a brave prince could come lead her out.
And then it hit them. They needed testimony from the hunter, proof of the king's actions. But the hunter was still sick at home. Nonetheless, the girls journeyed to his house to see him. When they knocked, the hunter's son, who had recently recovered, opened the door. They explained to him that they needed to see his father urgently, and the boy agreed to allow them through.
Once the hunter saw them, he told Snow that she shouldn't be in the kingdom and it wasn't safe. Snow explained the situation, and told him that they needed him to help them prove the king had tried to kill her. The hunter reached over and opened a drawer in the cabinet next to his bed and pulled out the letter the king had written. He had been told to destroy the message, but he had kept it in case he needed it again. He handed it to the girls and told them that it was proof enough, at least combined with their testimony. They saw that it had both the king's signature and was sealed with his signet ring, effectively proving that he had written it. So they thanked the hunter for his help and returned to the castle, where the king was waiting for them to return.
Celeste requested that a court meeting be scheduled for the next day, and the time was appointed to two hours after dawn. Snow managed to slip away from the king before long, and she spent the remainder of the day in her chambers, diligently avoiding her father. The next morning dawned and the occupants of the palace awoke to prepare for court.
They gathered in the throne room of the palace, people sitting on the benches while the king sat on his throne at the far end and Celeste occupied the queen's throne next to it. Then Celeste stood and announced that three years prior the king had ordered his own daughter killed, and it was only through the kindness of the huntsman and her own wits that she had survived. The king could only stare in shock as his queen presented the letter as evidence and the people of the court declared that both he and the advisor who had aided him were to be banished.
And that was the last of that king, and the story of how the Queens Snow and Celeste came to rule over the Foxglove Queendom. They still to this day rule, and it has been the most prosperous time in the country's history.