#winter tale

"Poželjela sam da uvijek bude takav, šutljiv, pomalo ozbiljan, zaštitnik i nježan. Da me ne napusti, da mi kaže da me voli, da me miluje, da me uzme u zagrljaj. Zaustavi se, zagrli me. Priljubih se uz njegov kaput zatvoriviši oči. I sve ovo posljednje vrijeme bilo je samo dugo bježanje od tog trenutka; od tih ruku što su podizale moje lice i od tih toplih, nježnih usta, stvorenih za moja. Zadržao je prste na mom licu i čvrsto ih je stezao dok smo se ljubili. Zagrlih ga oko vrata. Bojala sam se sebe, njega, svega što nije bio taj trenutak."

(My app is being weird with asks so answering like this instead @neongreenllama @lynxindisguise )

Hello thank you both!! <3

Winter tale is a “small” thing I first thought about in November. I wanted to make something to post during December, leading up to Midwinter - which I obviously didn’t because 1) I still barely got any words out when trying to write, and 2) I realised that even if I could write this small tale in time, half the point of it was also illustrating it. And yeah, I’m too slow for that. I’m not actively working on this, but I do love it so we’ll see! 

The vibe that inspired it is long winter nights in an old forest covered in snow and sparkling with magic beneath a starlit sky. The story idea is based around Scandinavian folklore about werewolves, mainly that they turn every night, not only during the full moon, and the curse can be broken by someone calling them by their (christian) name while they’re transformed.

Snippet:

What’s your name? 

Silence, a bowed head, eyes on the grass between his fingers. I don’t know. I don’t remember. 

Don’t people call you anything?

A wry smile in the corner of his lips, where one scar stretches. Lots of things. Nothing quite right for a name, though. 

Sirius frowns, and the boy looks back at him from under long lashes, head tilted slightly to the side. You really don’t know? He asks it with a small voice giving away his uncertainty, and maybe also the slightest glimmer of hope.

The story is that Sirius is a witch apprentice to his mother, but doesn’t want to follow in her footsteps (needless to say, she disapproves of this). One morning when he avoids his duties by sneaking out into the nearby forest, he stumbles upon a wounded boy. The boy is scared, quiet, and doesn’t remember his own name. As Sirius keeps finding him the same way each morning, always taking care of him as much as he’s allowed, the boy eventually tells him he’s a werewolf. The village isn’t safe for him because everyone knows about him and would shoot the wolf on sight, and while he can’t remember his life before the wolf, he has a vague sense of home somewhere on the other side of the forest. He has tried many times to head there, but the wolf always returns to this village.

As autumn shifts into winter, and the nights grow longer, Sirius runs away from home, to follow Moony through the dark and mysterious forest. Hoping to find family on the other side, able to tell who he is, before Midwinter marks the night he will be turned to a wolf for good.

Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936, Polish) ~ Winter Tale, 1904