The Redcap

Once upon a time at the birthday celebration of a noble fey lady, a bold fey warrior was in attendance and had the wish to impress the lady and become one of her knights.

Soon after arriving the warrior approached the lady to offer his greetings and best wishes, and as he knelt before her he realized that he had forgotten to bring the lady a gift.

So the warrior spoke to the lady without thinking through his words very carefully. 

“Fair lady I have nought to offer you on this fine day but all the happiness I could ever give unto you.” The warrior boldly declared.

The lady smiled widely at this her eyes twinkling with a fey light, her quick mind immediately finding a way to capitalize upon the warrior's ill thought words. 

“Good sir I accept your offer with thanks, it is done, done, done.” Her grin widening with each repetition and a surge of power building as the pact was made.
The lady said the last "Done" in a whisper to him as she stroked a finger across his brow. There was a blast of energy immediately after her final word and the warrior was knocked flat to the ground. 

With that stroke The lady took all of the things of happiness from the knight, she took his sense of taste, smell, appreciation for music and pleasant sounds, his sense of touch, she took the memory of his family and friends, and finally she took his satisfaction that he felt in his accomplishments as a warrior. At this the lady was satisfied as she knew that no one could have any happiness when deprived of all these things, and she delighted in her own wicked cleverness.

The warrior was left alone by all those in attendance, he lay still for a long while as he contemplated his dreadful blunder, the lady's laughter echoing in his mind.

After that the warrior wandered the land for many months, slowly descending into madness.

Nothing could bring the warrior any sense of satisfaction or pleasure. Everything felt the same, mundane and lacking in every way that mattered.

It was many months before the warrior was able to find something that the lady had not taken from him. The only thing left to him was anger, and soon that anger festered and boiled and turned into pure rage.

And so the warrior devoted all of himself to the only thing that would allow him to feel, he became little better than a savage beast, all who encountered him fled in terror as the crazed warrior attacked savagely and without any regard for the terrible wounds he received, for he could not even feel pain.

Over the following months and years the mad and twisted mind of the warrior began to devise a goal and a plan, within his rage clouded dreams and hallucinations the warrior convinced himself that if he could show the lady what he had become she might be proud of him and his savage ways, and if he pleased her she must show him some kindness, grant him a reprieve or even just a merciful death.
So the warrior began stalking the lady, always watching, never sleeping, slowly slipping further and further into complete madness.

Then one day the warrior was watching the lady hold court and in his delirium he saw something that his fevered mind told him was his opportunity to act. 

The lady had looked upon one of her courtiers and had frowned when they told her something.

The warrior would punish the one who had angered his lady. So the warrior leapt from the boughs of the trees overhead and brought his mighty axe down upon the courtier, splitting the individual in half and slaying them instantly. The warrior lost in a blood craze then proceeded to rip the corpse to pieces smearing them all over himself, bathing in the blood of the slain courtier.

The lady then looked upon the warrior for the first time in many years, realizing what had become of the individual she had taken all happiness from. She could see the madness in his eyes and beyond that she could see his deepest desires.

All of the court were still and watching the lady waiting for her response. A stir of surprise ran through the people as the lady let out a peal of laughter as she stood and approached the now kneeling bloody warrior, circling him and examining what had become of him.

“I see now warrior what your true purpose is meant to be. You are meant to bring fear and death to those who oppose me. For so effectively showing me this truth you deserve a reward, so I will grant you means to satisfy yourself once more. The only time you will ever feel satisfaction is when you are bathing yourself in the blood of my enemies. be pleased for you have purpose once again"

The warrior prostrated himself before the lady weeping in sheer relief, the sense of satisfaction at what he had done washing over him, the blood acting like water for crops long suffering a drought.

“For doing me this service it is only fair that I offer you title and position within my court.” The lady said in a musing almost lazy tone as she ran her fingers through the thick layer of blood coating the hood on the knights head, all the while observing the hesitant and fearful expressions of her many courtiers and attendants.

The lady then drew her blade and quickly struck the warrior with the flat of it on both shoulders, leaving large and painful bruises as marks of her attention.

“Arise sir knight and forever be known as Redcap, may all who oppose me know and fear your name.”

And so it was, and continues to be, so be careful when you hear things that go bump in the night, for if you smell blood on the breeze it could mean that the Redcap is not far away.