Girl in the Red Hood (26 page)

Like a bowl, the valley gently sloped down
from the mountain. The great forest lay on their right side, and
another mountain range lay to their left. The neat lines of her
grandparents' vineyard gave way to individual plots with houses and
gardens, as well as pastures for cattle and sheep, dotted all over
with blue ponds reflecting the crystal blue sky. They could see the
road they had taken as it passed the forest's edge and went on
toward the capitol city. And far off, so distant it was nearly
invisible, was the thin line of the ocean. Liesel closed her eyes,
smiled, and drank in the sweet scent of pine.

"Don't look down," she warned him without
opening her eyes. She could hear Kurt sit heavily beside her, as if
he had half fallen.

"You're not joking," he muttered. "Are you
sure this isn't going to crumble?"

"I came up here almost every day as a
child." Liesel opened her eyes and took it all in again. "See, out
here, there's room to breathe. You're not stifled by the trees, cut
off from the sun."

"You can breathe in the forest," Kurt
scoffed. "And you don't feel as if you are about to fall off the
edge of the world." He caught Liesel's eye and conceded with a
smile, "But you're right. It is special." He paused before adding,
"I've always tried to imagine what the sky looked like outside of
the woods. I could never have conceived this, though."

"What I don't understand is why people stay
in Ward at all," Liesel shook her head, curiosity getting the best
of her again. "If I were one of them, and I had the choice between
this and the dark forest of Ward-"

"To begin with, most people aren't as well
informed as you or your grandparents," Kurt tousled her hair
playfully. "When you imagine the world, you see freedom because you
remember the stories you grew up with, the tales of adventure. The
people of Ward know nothing else. It has simply always been this
way. For my people, we have a desire to escape because of the
constant pain of the curse. Still, even with our stories, most have
no idea of what life is like outside of our village." With a bit of
hesitation, he added, "After your grandparents escaped, my
grandfather forbade anyone from leaving the village unless ordered
to do so." He glanced at her almost shyly. "I was the first since
to break the rules.

"To answer your question though, the people
of Ward have always lived that way, and we strive not to make it
too difficult for them to continue. We try only to take what we
need from the supply wagons, as we have no trade routes of our own,
and we try to keep the dangerous animals away from their border.
Not that we're much better." He gave a small smile. "Although my
father did sometimes take a bauble or trinket for my mother now and
then." Liesel shifted uncomfortably.

"What were your parents like? As a couple, I
mean." He shrugged.

"It wasn't ideal, but I didn't really start
noticing something was off until the night you were marked." He
sighed. "My father really did love my mother. He didn't always know
how to show it, but he tried. He tried to find ways to make her
smile, to make her feel at home. It frustrated him that he couldn't
make her
want
to stay. It also frustrated him that she was
so determined to raise us as if we were completely human. She was
the reason he didn't go after the hunter, the one that killed his
brother to save you."

"He wanted to kill him?" Liesel shuddered.
The hunter had been so kind. She had never once forgotten to
mention him in her prayers since.

"After bringing me home, Father was going to
turn right around to find and kill him, but Mother begged and
pleaded with him not to spill more blood, that the hunter was only
doing what he thought was right, saving a girl. My father finally
agreed not to kill him, but he was never the same after that. He
distanced himself from everyone but Lothur and me." Kurt looked at
his hands. "It must have nearly killed him when I left." Liesel
hesitated. She knew her next question would seem callous, but she
had to know.

"Was he the one that killed my father?"

"No, that was my Uncle Lothur. He caught
wind of your father's threat to leave, and decided to take care of
it himself. Once you are out of the forest, the magic of the call
doesn't work anymore." He shook his head. "Very few of us have
given enough of ourselves to the wolf to have that much control. My
uncle is strange, however. As much as he's given of his mind to the
wolf, he values his humanity exceptionally. Up until now, he has
been the one most obsessed with breaking the spell. My father
didn't like what he did to your father, but after it was done, he
agreed it had been a necessity." Liesel closed her eyes and
breathed deeply again. The sight of her father, bloody and still on
the floor, would always be there with her. They were quiet for a
while as she fought back the dreadful memory.

"Do you think it was worth it?" She
eventually asked as they stared out at the valley. "Coming out
here, risking everything for a hunch?" Kurt turned and stared at
her with his deep golden-brown eyes.

"I do," he answered seriously. "If for no
other reason than to see why you're so strange." She smacked his
arm.

"I am
not
strange."

"Oh, it's not your fault," he answered
innocently. "It's this mountain air. It makes you do crazy
things."

"Like what?"

"Like this." Without hesitation, he leaned
forward and planted a swift kiss on her cheek before standing and
launching himself further up the trail.

"Kurt!" Liesel scrambled up to follow him,
laughing. "Be careful! It's easier to go up than down!" By the time
she caught up to him, he was on a slightly higher ledge, staring
down at the valley again in awe. The setting sun behind them was
casting a rainbow of colors all over the valley. It had always been
one of Liesel's favorite mountain moments, but as the sunset moved
and burst into all its glory, Liesel couldn't tear her eyes away
from him. When Kurt finally turned to look at her, his face was
serious again, his dark brown hair ruffling in the breeze. Taking
her by the arms, his voice was nearly a whisper.

"If this doesn't work, I will marry you
knowing you only have a few years to live. I might live longer, but
it won't be long before I have to give more of myself to the wolf
than any pack leader ever has before. In the few moments of clarity
that I may receive on my deathbed, I don't want to look back on
this time and say we didn't try." Liesel caught her breath as he
slipped his arm around her and pulled her close. Gently, with his
free hand, he tipped her face up towards his. Liesel could feel her
heart beat recklessly in her chest as he held her. The gold flecks
in his eyes reflected in the dying light of the sun, making him
look momentarily
other
, as though he could disappear at any
moment in a cloud of smoke. But the strong hand that held her jaw,
and the arm that encircled her waist were very warm and very real.
Slowly, he began to lean down when her grandfather's voice, somehow
floating up on the wind, broke the stillness of the moment.

"Liesel! It's getting dark! I want you back
home soon!"

"Cliffs or no cliffs, we should have climbed
higher," Kurt grumbled. Liesel begrudgingly broke his gaze to look
down and see her grandfather standing at the bottom of the path. He
was staring right up at them. The moment was gone. Sighing, she
pulled out of Kurt's arm and instead took his hand. Doing her best
to smile, she pulled him along behind her.

"Come on, mountain goat. I need to teach you
how to go
down
."

Liesel felt as though she was walking on
clouds in the days following their trip up the mountain. It was
odd, considering nothing had really changed. Kurt had not yet found
his peace, and her grandfather still couldn't seem to find anything
he liked about Kurt, but Liesel couldn't stop smiling. The day
after they had climbed the mountain, Kurt had chosen to work in the
fields after telling her grandfather that staff practice just
wasn't helping him. Her grandfather grumbled, but upon Ilsa's
advice, consented, reasoning that a day's work did a man's soul
good after all. Liesel would often pause and watch them in the
fields, and she couldn't help but pretend this was how it would
always be.

It was halfway through their third week at
the vineyard, and Bernd was pushing the hired hands hard to prepare
for harvest. Any day, he would shout across the rows of vines, the
grapes would be ready. And so Kurt and the hired hands had worked
long hours every day so they could be ready when that moment came.
The sun made Kurt's pale skin shiny and red, and on his first day,
the heat had made him lightheaded. The other workers had teased him
about his strange sensitivity to the sun, but they hadn't laughed
for very long. Kurt was surprisingly adept at the field work he was
given despite never doing it before, and he labored hard. Even
Bernd was forced to admit Kurt's worth as a worker.

"Liesel, don't keep him too long. The days
are growing shorter, and we need this fruit gathered!" Liesel
rolled her eyes and nodded to her grandfather before handing her
bucket of water to Kurt so he could drink. Kurt shook his head in
disbelief as Bernd continued walking down the row, shouting orders
at anyone he could find.

"He has a lot of strength for an old man.
Too much, actually. Shouldn't he be inside, resting at his age?" At
this, Liesel had to laugh.

"You wondered why I believed in magic when I
came to the forest. Stories weren't the only things my grandparents
procured in their travels." When Kurt gave her a quizzical look,
Liesel leaned in and whispered,

"Have you noticed they drink tea every night
before bed?"

"Yes. So?"

"Have they ever offered their tea to anyone
else?" Kurt thought about this for a moment before Liesel winked
and added, "I saw my grandmother steep a long, strange root in her
tea once when she thought I wasn't looking. I believe it came from
the east as well. They just don't tell people about it. The town
would assume it to be witchcraft if they knew."

"Well, is it?" Kurt prodded. Liesel shook
her head scornfully.

"Not at all. It just-"

"Liesel, I mean it. The boy needs to get to
work!" Liesel huffed as Bernd called out to them again from the
other side of the field. As if to silently come to her defense,
Kurt gave him a baleful glare as he lifted the bucket and drank
deeply from it again.

"My grandfather wasn't always like this,"
she told Kurt as he drank. It was only midday, but the air was
unusually hot.

"I find that hard to believe," Kurt wiped
his mouth and gave Liesel a doubtful look. "The way he orders you
about makes it seem he thinks you incapable of any thought at all."
She smiled and shook her head indulgently.

"When I was little, he was stern, but he
took me on the grandest adventures-" She was interrupted by the
sound of an approaching horse. They were in plain sight of the
house, and close enough that it would seem awkward if they left or
ignored the visitor, so Liesel reluctantly took the lead to greet
the rider. She recognized him as a rancher that lived a few farms
down the road. A bit younger than her father would have been, he
was dirty, with a mop of graying black hair, wide set eyes, and a
very broad nose. Liesel thought she remembered him being widowed
right before she left. As she approached him and Kurt followed, her
grandparents came out as well.

"I know you were wanting another calf,
Bernd." The man jumped down and walked back to the animal he had
been leading on a rope. "I thought this one might be to your
liking." He paused for a moment before asking, "Is that
Liesel?"

"Yes on both accounts," her grandfather
grunted. As Bernd went over to inspect the calf, the man did the
same to Liesel. Kurt cleared his throat when the man's eyes
lingered just a bit too long. Looking up, he finally seemed to
notice Kurt for the first time.

"And who would this be?" Everyone froze,
unsure of what to say. They had agreed to stay out of the town for
a while, simply to avoid being asked questions the curse wouldn't
allow them to answer. Aside from the hired hands that lived on the
vineyard in the barn, this man was the first person they had seen
since arriving. Finally, to avoid looking any more suspicious than
they already did, Liesel blurted out,

"My betrothed." The man nodded and mumbled a
greeting, but Liesel didn't miss the sudden fury in her
grandfather's face.

"Are you coming to the Adler wedding?" Their
guest finally looked at her grandmother.

"We haven't decided yet," Ilsa answered in a
strained voice.

"You know, folks are starting to talk about
you all up here alone," he said nonchalantly. "They want to send
someone up to see what all the hiding is for." Ilsa and Bernd
exchanged looks before Bernd said,

"The harvest looks to be unusually good this
year. We're trying to keep pace. In a couple weeks, we'll be
done."

"But we will be at the wedding," Ilsa chimed
in. Seeming momentarily mollified, the man turned back to Bernd to
discuss the calf, but Liesel got the feeling that the dissonance
between Kurt and her grandfather that had been building since
they'd arrived would be coming to a head as soon as their guest
left. She didn't have to wait very long to find out that she was
right.

"Liesel," Bernd sternly said as the man
headed back down the road, "that was quick thinking on your part.
But after this, I don't want to hear that nonsense again."

"Nonsense?" Liesel asked, but Kurt
interrupted,

"I would hardly call a betrothal
nonsense."

"That's it!" Bernd threw down the calf's
reins and turned to Ilsa. "I'm through! I just can't pretend any
longer. I can't act as if I'm truly
allowing
my
granddaughter to go back and marry into a pack of dogs!"