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The Legend of
Song's End
Song's End was the seventh son of Chief Ravenwood, leader of the Oaxaciian (Oh-ah-ha-kee-en) people. His father named him Song's End because he was born at the end of a tribal ceremony, the sacred song just ending when Ravenwood's wife gave birth. Many of the Oaxaciian people were frightened of the newborn. The child had been born with teeth, two of them, and many knew that the prophecy was coming true.
Ancient traditions and legends of the Oaxaciian told of an evil that would threaten their existence, who would be born the seventh son of the chief of their tribe. Ravenwood assured his people that the gods would not choose to take them away, that the prophecy spoke of another seventh son, not his own. However, Ravenwood should not have been so ignorant.
The legend gave specific instructions on how to eradicate such an epidemic from happening. According to the prophecy, the child must not be allowed to feed from his mother's breast, or she will die. The child must be immediately wrapped in his father's cloak then taken to an area far from the tribe, buried under seven stones, and left there for seven days. After the sun has set on the seventh day, the stones are to be removed and the child's wrapped corpse burned.
Ravenwood, certain that his child was not evil the prophecy spoke of, allowed his son to live, despite much opposition by the tribal council. The council had tried to persuade their leader that taking such a chance was not wise, but Chief Ravenwood would not hear of it. His newborn son was to be raised and taught the traditions, as all other children in the tribe were. However, it was not much longer before Ravenwood himself began doubting his decision.
Song's End was only a few weeks old when he got his first taste of blood. Nursing from his mother's breast, he dug his teeth in and began sucking the blood of his mother. His mother tried to pull her baby off, but he was too powerful, and she was quickly becoming weak from the loss of blood. She screamed out, hoping someone would hear her in time, but when the handmaidens and Chief Ravenwood arrived it was too late. Song's End had drained his mother's life force completely.
Ravenwood, grieved over the loss of his wife, admitted his failure to believe in the prophecy and prayed that the gods would return his wife to him. It never happened. The tribal council begged Ravenwood to kill the child immediately, before their entire civilization was destroyed. Chief Ravenwood finally agreed that it had to be done.
Ravenwood took Song's End to a remote area of the surrounding forest and proceeded to wrap his child in his cloak. Still angry for the child taking his wife, he decided not to wait the seven days under the seven stones, and instead built a fire and watched the body burn.
Upon returning to the tribe, the council greeted Ravenwood. They all informed him that after the seven days of being buried under the seven stones, they would all be witnesses to Song's End's burning. Ravenwood then informed the council that would not be necessary because he had already burned the body and made sure there was nothing but ashes.
The council became frightened and called Ravenwood foolish, and told him that he was responsible for the inevitable genocide that will sweep over the tribe in the coming years. They told Ravenwood that because the ritual was not performed correctly, that he had inadvertently made Song's End immortal, now more powerful in death than he ever would have been in life.
Ravenwood tried to assure his people that because the child was wrapped in his cloak, that his soul could not escape the fire and was destroyed along with his body. However, not long after the death of Song's End, one by one the children began disappearing. Great search parties were sent into the woods to find the children, however they never returned. The women of the tribe began having tormenting nightmares and started having extreme sexual desires, then becoming weak and losing their strength. The men too became sick and weak. All of the children had vanished from the tribe and only the men and women, sick and weak, were the only remaining people left. Chief Ravenwood and the council, also experiencing the same plague as the rest of the Oaxaciian people, prayed and sacrificed to their gods, forgiving them for the loss of their children and hoping that they would cure the disease they were all stricken with.
It was not long before the women began dying, their blood drained from punctures through the neck. After the women were all dead, the men began dying off too, murdered by draining the blood, but with the men, large gaping holes were found in the their necks. Ravenwood was soon the only surviving member of the tribe, and although he died of natural causes many years later, he had gone crazy and completely delusional. Nobody had ever mentioned seeing who or what it was that was killing off the people, but everybody, including Ravenwood, knew that it was Song's End.