This is the story of Hansel and Gretel, destined to take the world by bloody storms as one grew up to become a ruthless queen and the other a dreaded bandit leader known as the Erlking. Their story starts one dark day in their childhood.
Gretel was a spiteful child, always seen wearing a red riding hood and glaring at the neighbouring children with a glint of envy in her cold blue eyes. Hansel, for himself, was a little simple minded, accepting his sister's scorn and abuse without so much as a flinch. They were both born from uncaring parents in an era of extreme poverty and were not surprised when they were abandoned in the dark forest near their home when a famine plagued their village one day, left for dead by their parents in the hope that they would live to birth others children another day. They washed their hands of their progeny and walked away, only giving their children one last loaf of bread before they left.
The younger sister raged and screamed at their back, cursing them with the foulest words she knew as her brother looked on sadly, trying to find a way to survival from the confines of his sadly lacking mind as his sister screamed out her rage and hurt for the world to hear. Trying to console his violent sibling, Hansel softly put a large hand on her dainty shoulder and mentioned that he remember their mother saying that her mother lived in the forest they were currently in and that maybe she could take care of them.
That thought sparked hope in the two blondes, and they set out to find their supposed grandmother, Hansel in his naivety still finding the fear of rejection and proceeding to use the loaf of bread we was given to spread a trail of crumb in hope that they could find their way back if they had to go back to their parents. Unknown to him, a crow took the trail as an offering and started to peck away at the children last mean of subsistence with relish.
They reached a small cabin by nightfall and were greeted by an old widow with cruel eyes that promptly asked them if they were hungry. After confirming that she was their grandmother, they acquiesced to a bowl of mushroom soup that the woman offered. Nodding once, she set out to make said soup, being careful to only use poisonous mushroom.
You see, the woman was a known poisoner and was as keen as her daughter to have two more mouth to feed in these difficult times. She set out to kill the children but was taken instead, the poisons in the mushroom turning the siblings into murderous little menaces that hallucinated her as a ravenous wolf. Hansel decapitated her with a nearby axe and Gretel pushed her into the still hot stove. Neither child were ever right afterwards and would have murderous thoughts to the end of their lives.
Deciding to flee the "wolf den", Hansel and Gretel tried to find the trail of crumbs only to find a smug and fat crow in it's stead. Furious, they killed the bird and ate it back in the cabin, collapsing and sleeping the worse of the poison.
The next day, discovering what they did but not feeling any kind of remorse, they stole from the dead poisoner and set out for their parents house, their ratty pockets full of the woman's riches.