Red Riding Hood - The Huntsman

It was unusually silent in the house when Red woke up. She stretched comfortably beneath her covers before getting out of bed. She pulled on her leggings, a pair of fur boots, a white shirt and, of course, her bright red cloak. Her grandmother sewed the cloak for her for her birthday last year when she came of age. Red quickly braided her long chocolate hair and then left her room to find her mother.

She called out to her mother as she stepped into the hallway. The hall had portraits of the woods and their family covering almost every inch of the cream walls. She froze as she came to the living room. The fire had burnt down to embers allowing the chill of winter in. Resting before the fireplace was Red’s mother, unmoving in a puddle of blood. A huge black wolf growled as it sunk its’ teeth into the body. Red's hand flew to her mouth and she swallowed her scream as she backed away praying the wolf hadn't noticed her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she took each step back.

She suddenly hit something with her back and let out a startled gasp. A large hand clamped down over her mouth. "Keep quiet and I'll protect you," a deep voice whispered into her ear. "Get back to your room and find a place to hide until I come get you."

She twisted in his grasp to see who was holding her in the hallway, one of the Huntsmen. He spun around so that his back was now a barrier between her and the wolf. Red drew in a deep breath before nodding to the Huntsman. He pushed her towards her door and then removed an axe from his belt. He didn't turn to face the wolf until he was certain Red was safely behind a closed door.

The wolf glanced up from its meal and snarled at the Huntsman who was clad in several pelts from other wolves. Without warning, the wolf stepped up onto the corpse and leapt at the Huntsman. He rolled under the assault and then swung at the wolf. The Huntsman faced the wolf and watched the powerful muscles tense in the wolf’s legs. Under different circumstances he would have admired the way nature had armed this beautiful creature. The wolf jumped at the Huntsman again, still unable to land an attack on the trained hunter. The two continued the back-and-forth dance until the Huntsman was covered in sweat and struggling to catch his breath. The wolf charged once more, this time the Huntsman was able to land a deadly blow on the wolf.

After confirming the kill, the Huntsman knelt to inspect Red's mother. Fortunately, she hadn’t been given much time to suffer. The wolf killed her with a single bite on her neck. He removed the woman’s locket that had barely survived the event. Red was a sentimental creature. He pocketed the locket and went to retrieve her from her room. He knocked on the door before pushing it open. "Red, it's safe now."

He found her curled up in a ball behind her bed, under a blanket sobbing. He closed the door and went to sit beside her. She flinched as he finally got situated. "What am I going to do now?" She asked him, rocking back and forth.

Not knowing how else to comfort her, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You need to go to your Granny's for now. There are more wolves out there. I can't let you get hurt."

A particularly harsh sob ripped from her chest. "Granny's isn't any safer during the wolf season."

He squeezed her shoulder. "No, but it is closer to town. There are more patrols. I can guarantee that you will get there unharmed.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I will personally check on you daily if that makes you feel safer."

She peered up at him from within her blanket cocoon. "But you can't take me to Granny's... can you?"

He shook his head and pulled away from the embrace. "I'm the only one patrolling the woods right now. I'll be close by. Pack a bag, Red."

It took her a few moments to process his words. "I can't get to Granny's on my own!" She finally shouted at him.

"Yes, you can, Red." He pulled out her mother's locket and placed it in her hands. "I know you can. You did it last year without fear."

She stared down at the locket as more tears fell from her cheeks to the necklace. "I had mother then…"

"Yes, now she's protecting you from the other side. And you still have me keeping an eye out for you like I do every wolf season." He helped to get her to her feet. "I believe in you Red, and I won't let anything happen to you."

 She tried to pull away from him again, but his grip on her arms was stronger than her will to get away. "You promise that you'll be out there for me?" He nodded. "Swear it, Simon."

His gaze softened as he watched the tears stop welling up in her eyes. "I swear on my own life, Red. I will be in the woods keeping the wolves from you while you get to your Granny's." He released her arms and reached behind his back to grab a large hunter's knife. He held it out to her. "I want you to keep this on you just in case.” 

She grabbed the knife with shaking fingers and nodded. "I won't leave until Mother is buried."

Simon smiled sadly at her. "I'll start digging while you pack." He said before leaving her alone in her room.

Red set the knife on her bed with the blanket she had been huddled in before she went to her closet to get a bag. There wasn't a lot in the house that was important to bring, but she did want to make sure that she had everything that meant something to her. She had two portraits that were about the size of her palm that she could not leave without. One was a portrait of her and her father right before he went out on his last patrol, the one he didn't make it home from. And the other was a portrait of her and her mother after they finished fixing up their house.

 She set those on the bed with her bag and tossed a change of clothes there as well. On her dresser, there was a small oak box. The box itself wasn’t fancy, but it was a gift and inside there was a beautiful woven bracelet that was a gift from Simon for her birthday last year. She smiled at the memory with it and placed it with the rest of her things. She made sure to grab her mirror, hairbrush, and other personal items before collecting their savings from her mother's room.

 On her mother's nightstand, there were a couple of portraits of Red and Simon that she took as well as her mother’s pearl necklace that had been an anniversary gift from her father. Happy with the items she had, Red stuffed them all into her bag and slung it over her shoulders and secured the hunter's knife to her thigh. She pulled on a pair of gloves and then went to join Simon in the yard.

He had made impressive work on digging a hole to place her mother's body. He wiped sweat off his brow and stopped when she approached him. "I will do what I can to keep the wolves from finishing what they started, but I can't promise much." He told her as he resumed digging.

"I appreciate this, Simon," she said as she reached for the spare shovel to help. They dug in silence for a few moments before Simon went to the house to get her mother's body. Covering the body didn't take nearly as long. "I'll be back for a proper funeral, mom," she promised and then looked out at the woods.

"I'll draw off the wolves. Do not stop, and do not stray from the path." Simon ordered her as he took out one of his axes. "I will stop by your Granny's as soon as I can."

~-~

Red pulled her cloak tighter around her body as she snuck through the woods. The path was easy to follow until the center point. She was almost at that point now. She could hear the wolves crying out around her. Every now and then she would hear the pained cry of a wolf and she knew that her Huntsman was still out there.

She reached down and ran her fingers along the knife he had given her just to make sure it was still there before she began to jog down the path. There was no need to keep quiet, she could hear the wolves getting closer. If she could just make it to her Granny's before they found her, they could barricade themselves inside until the next shift of Huntsman went out on patrol.

She drew in a shaky breath and broke out into a full sprint down the path. She kept her left hand on the hilt of the knife just in case as her feet pounded through the snow. She was well past the half-way point now. She could faintly see the smoke from a fireplace rising through the trees. Her Granny lived just outside the woods. Almost there, she told herself as she pushed her legs faster.

The howls suddenly were much closer than they were a few moments ago. She drew the knife and continued to run until she was out of the woods. "Granny!" She called out as she got closer to the house. "Granny! Wolves!" She shouted as she crossed the fence line into the yard.

The front door opened, and her Granny was waiting with a knife of her own in her hand. She moved aside so that Red could run in with no problems. As soon as she passed the threshold, Granny slammed the door shut and put a board across the door. An ear-splitting howl sounded from the other side of the door and Red pulled her Granny further into the house.

"We're safe for now, dear. What happened?" Granny asked her as she put her knife back in the kitchen.

Red slipped her bag off her shoulders but refused to put her knife away yet. "A wolf got into the house this morning. The Huntsman got there in time to save me." She said not taking her eyes off the front door.

Granny frowned and turned to the oven. "I'm sorry you went through that, dear." She sighed, "you're safe now. You must be starving." Granny pulled some muffins out of the oven and placed them on the counter beside the knife.

  Unable to tear her gaze away from the front door, Red moved back towards the counter and finally set the knife down. "I don't know how it got in. I triple checked every window and door before I went to bed."

The old woman rested her hand on Red's. "The wolves are determined and smart. They got through your grandfather's barricades one year and he soaked the wood in poison. This isn't your fault, Red."

"Thanks, Granny." She mumbled finally reaching for a muffin.

A few bites into the muffin, another howl came from the other side of the door. The howl was followed by scratching, and then the door began to move. Red grabbed the knife off the counter and dropped the rest of her muffin. Granny also picked up the knife she had earlier and went to stand beside Red. "Go to my room, Red." She ordered.

Red shook her head, "I'm not hiding this time."

Granny sighed and pulled her gray shawl off her shoulders and let it fall to the ground. She was a stout woman, riddled with the natural arthritis that came as a reward for living over forty years. "At least stay behind me then," she snapped as the door came down in splinters. A large brown wolf stepped over the rubble and pranced into the room. This wolf was larger than the one Red had previously seen in her mother's house. She spread her feet and steadied her hands.

The wolf snarled at the two women and then charged at them. Granny tried to push Red out of the way, but Red ducked out of her reach and ended up right between the wolf and the old woman. She tightened her grip on the hunter's knife just before the wolf's body collided with her. She vaguely heard her Granny calling out to her before a loud thud drowned out all other sounds in the house.

Red shoved the knife into the wolf's throat as it tried to bite her. After a few moments of struggle, the wolf stopped moving and Red pushed it off her. She stumbled to her feet and took in her surroundings. Granny was on the ground. One of her hands was on her chest, but there was no rise and fall to signify breathing. She knelt beside her Granny and shook her a couple of times before checking her neck for a pulse.

"Red!" Her attention returned to the door at the sound of Simon's voice. He came through the door frame gasping for air. The scene before him made his heart ache. "I'm sorry I wasn't here in time."

She pushed herself up from the floor, grabbed the knife out of the wolf and went to Simon. "Teach me to be a huntsman." She said while holding the knife out to him.

He took the knife from her hand and nodded to her. "Let's fix up your cloak first. Then you can come with me on my patrol tomorrow."

The Huntsman helped Red skin the wolf she had killed and sewed the fur onto the hood of her cloak and down the sides. Red became one of the fiercest huntsmen the world had ever seen. She often took jobs that didn't pay well just to keep people safe. Simon traveled everywhere with her and eventually the wolf season lessened and the two were able to settle down.

End.