The Ravens Curse

 There once was a beautiful dwarf maiden. She was both fair faced and renowned in battle. It was on the eve of mid summer that she was walking through the great mystifying green wood that she met a pair of ravens.

The dwarf maiden sat long into the night listening to the ravens wisdom of far off lands and tales of enchantment. It wasn’t until the moon was high in the sky; peering through the great green leaves that one of the raven spread his wings. 

The light of the moon kissed the wings of the pair and laid low their true form. It was there in the low hanging branches that the brother ravens transformed into dwarfish boys. Legs dangling down as the hair on their heads draped long and wild over their bare shoulders.

“Alas my fair maiden! You see our truest of forms! We are but humble dwarves of the mountains in the west! Blue they call these mountains in the west, blue and beautiful! A wizard of a most terrible nature has cursed us to become this form! We may only turn back on nights by which the moon sits high in the sky!”

The dwarf maiden was standing now, gazing to the dwarf brothers. She was both shocked and amazed to see such enchantment before her. Standing before her now, she realized their form and turned shyly to avert her gaze. Their skin was pale in the light of the moon, pale and beautiful.

It was then that she removed her cowl and handed it timidly to the younger of the brothers who took it gleefully with a great toothy grin. He laughed in an effort to regain her from her shy formality. Un-acclaimed, she turned, to give a woolen blanket from her stock, handing it the elder brother. 

Grateful of her kindness and generosity, the brothers laughed gaily and bid the maiden to follow them down a footpath, which had been hidden by foliage. The brothers laughed and bid her to follow as they began to run through the forest with their newfound friend. Chasing fast, she found herself soon in a glade with the raven boys. Behind them was a beautiful moon lit cottage filled with warm light and surrounded by gentle fireflies. 

Howling loud in the night the youngest brother let go his grasp on the cowl and held his arms open to feel the night air course over him. His nightly excitement drew his brother in unison, bidding the maiden into a fit of laughter and rejoices under the great full moon. 

Coaxing the fair maiden towards the splintered door they bid her welcome. It was there they drank warm ale through the night. Long the raven brothers and fair maiden drank, sang and danced in that cottage. It wasn’t until the moon was shining brightly in the window and much ale was drained that the triad began to feel the effects of the most strong and spiced of meads. Growing quiet, they sat in the warm and welcoming company of the fire.

It was there by the fireside that the younger of the two dwarf boys began to notice the true beauty of the fair maiden. The way her hair seemed to glow in the soft amber of the fire flicker, and the way the moons light touched it gently from the window. 

Her lips where plump and pink as the rose of late summer. They seemed to tease him as he gazed upon her fair face. If it where not these, it would have been her eyes, the purest emerald green that begged him to draw near.

Long he gazed upon her that night, as she did the same. Love was what broke the enchantment of both brothers. For the brothers where not only bound by their enchantment, but also the everlasting bond of blood between them. 

It was then in the light of the full moon and the warmth of the fire that the youngest brother shared a kiss with the fair maiden, filling the room with white light of the purest kind. White light emitted from both the brothers in the form of pale ravens that took the entirety the room before fading into a soft glow and falling into the floor of the cottage.

Taking hand to his heart, the youngest brother smiled to the maiden before turning to his brother who grinned brightly. 

‘Love has freed us from our enchantment! Love of the most purest of all forms!’ 

It was there in that cottage that the dwarf brothers and fair maiden stayed through the winter months. Upon the first morning of spring they set off for the mountains west where the dwarf brothers returned, to their dwarven home. The youngest with his love married not long after their arrival. Happiness found them in that dwarven kingdom. And it was there that they lived out their lives, bound forever in love and brotherly companionship.