The fire that took her family left the woman blind—started by fearful men who called her the devil’s bride.
“I swear I will avenge your death even if it takes two lifetimes,” croaked the woman. She dragged herself away from the smoldering ashes into the forest.
Unable to see, Ardmay fell down an embankment into a narrow gully.
Woken by the squeaks of little boar piglets, Ardmay found she had been adopted as one of their own.
“Thank you, my friends. I would not have lived long without your support,” the woman said.
The following day, the adults guided her to bathe and find healing roots and plants.
Soon, the witch’s strength had returned, and it was time to seek justice for her mother and sister.
She communicated her intentions using her powers and sought the boar clan’s help.
“We are here to serve and protect,” replied the boar.
Ardmay assembled an army of woodland beasts and struck back at those who had harmed her when the moon was full.
“Leave no one alive, even the children, for they will grow to hate you and seek revenge as I do now,” cried the witch.
Dawn saw the village’s destruction. “This will remain as a warning to those whose madness and fear take the lives of innocent folk,” shouted the woman.
“Rest in peace, my loves. Today ends the persecutions of our kind,” remarked the witch as she returned to the forest.
During the witch hunts, Ardmay and her boar clan were so feared that even hunters refused to enter her forest realm.
“Apologies, Lord Chamberlain, but the Boar Witch is too powerful. We humbly decline to seek her out,” the hunters would reply.
Ardmay lived a long life, and when she passed, the boars buried her in a secret hollow still unknown.
Some say an army of ghostly boars will attack whoever finds the burial plot, but that’s an old wives’ tale, right?
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