I was no more than a few days old when I’d been found abandoned before that cursed arch in a wicker basket, a single black rose upon my chest. No one knew who’d left me there, but every villager speculated that, whoever they were, they must have hoped the woods would eat me, as well. Fortunately, someone had found me before then, and placed me on the doorstep of the Bronwick family. Otherwise, I’d have probably ended up like so many others who’d fallen victim to the forest’s voracious appetite. So many souls. Hundreds, maybe.
