Girl in the Red Hood (3 page)

"But are you better?" Liesel held her
breath. Amala coughed deeply again in response, as if to answer her
question.

"No, love. I'll be gone soon.” She drew a
shaky breath. “But it seems the Maker has given me a few moments
with you before I go." Liesel felt a new flood of tears wash down
her face.

"Now, there's no time for that," Amala
gently scolded her daughter. "Your father will need you. He won't
take care of himself without your help. And you," she gently tapped
Liesel's nose, "be careful. You're so beautiful...and men will
notice. Men aren't always what they seem." She took a shaky breath
and caressed her daughter's face once more. "I love you, my sweet
girl." And with that, Liesel's mother was gone.

***

Liesel sat perfectly still for an
immeasurable time, staring at her mother's ashen face. But deep
inside, the part of her that dreamed couldn't be still. It couldn't
accept that this was how it ended. Words began to echo in her head,
some from her mother. There were other voices that were there, too,
however, and eventually, there was one command that drowned out all
of the rest.

Whatever you do, you must escape those
woods! Her grandmother's voice commanded desperately. Come back to
me, no matter what!

Grandmother had been right. They had come to
this wicked village, and the healer was either completely
incompetent or she had just poisoned Amala purposefully. With all
of the lies that had been told, all of the desperate looks the
townspeople had been giving one another after seeing her, something
in the town of Ward was very wrong.

Without knowing what she was doing, Liesel
found herself out of her chair and running. Night darkness was
beginning to cover everything, but it didn't matter. Liesel knew
which direction the vineyard was in, and she wasn't stopping until
she got there. It didn't matter that she could no longer see more
than five feet in front of her, nor did she care that she had no
supplies. All Liesel could think about was going home, running into
her grandmother's arms, and leaving this wretched forest behind
forever.

But soon it was too dark, and Liesel's skirt
caught on a low branch, causing her to trip. Her hands stung as
they scraped against unseen sticks and dry pine needles, and she
stubbed her toe on a rock. Wet earth stuck to her as she began to
rise, but something made her freeze halfway up. Her breaths were
ragged and heavy from her run, but she tried to quiet them as she
strained to listen. She was almost sure she'd heard breathing that
was not her own.

Turning slowly, still on her hands and
knees, the girl nearly fainted as she realized she was not alone.
The silhouette of a creature stood out against the shadows. A growl
slipped out, so slight she wasn't even sure she'd heard it. Fear
made her blood turn cold, and all thoughts of the damp ground and
her scratched palms forgotten, Liesel took off again, even faster
this time. A tiny voice in her head wondered what she was doing,
why she was even in the forest, and screamed at her that no sane
girl of thirteen years would be where she was, but she ignored it
completely.

She'd only taken a few strides, however,
before she was flat on her stomach, the creature crouching on her
back. For the first time, Liesel found her voice, screaming as
loudly as she could for help. A heavy paw was shoved expertly onto
the back of her neck, shoving her face into the ground, cutting off
her cry for help as a snout with gleaming white teeth lowered
itself down beside her face to growl a warning. It occurred to
Liesel that she was going to die.

A part of her wondered if this was the
Maker's way of secret mercy, saving her from a long miserable life
in that horrid village without her mother. The rest of her,
however, was terrified. What kind of pain could a creature like
this inflict upon a human, particularly one that wasn't yet fully
grown? What kind of gruesome things could those teeth do?

In the brief second before the bite, Liesel
wondered which side he would attack her from. The neck? The side? A
warm pang from her right hand surprised her, however. Without
thinking, she turned her head as best she could to look through the
darkness at her hand as the warm blood trickled down it. It hurt,
but it wasn’t the killing lunge she’d been expecting. And even
stranger was that the animal wasn't continuing the attack. As soon
as he bit her, he'd moved few feet away, a low growling still in
his throat.

Despite the blackness of night, she could
make out the contour of a wolf, the biggest she'd ever seen. His
coat was silver, and it almost gleamed in the gray haze that filled
the dark woods. Liesel had seen wolves before, but only from a
distance, and with the comfort of her grandfather's expert crossbow
nearby to protect her. His claws were difficult to see, but they
looked longer than anything Liesel had ever imagined.

At that moment, she locked eyes with the
beast, and as soon as she did, she began to shake. The eyes into
which she gazed were unmistakably human.

She didn’t have time to linger and ponder
his unusual eyes, however. One second, the wolf was watching her
intently, as if surveying its strange work, and the next moment, it
was lying lifelessly on the ground, an arrow in its heart. Liesel
watched in horror as the human eyes closed.

"Are you alright?" a man's voice called from
a distance. As heavy footsteps approached, Liesel found herself
incapable of answering him. She couldn't even lift herself up off
the ground. She just lay there trembling uncontrollably, scrunching
her eyes shut as though that would make the horror disappear.
"That’s a nasty cut there," the deep voice kindly said. Gently,
Liesel felt herself lifted by strong arms and cradled like a child.
"Do you live in Ward?" he asked. Liesel racked her memory, trying
to remember the village's name. Ward sounded right. Even if it
wasn't, she didn't really care. She just did her best to nod.

"What are you doing out here alone?" She
could hear the frown in his voice. Liesel finally opened her eyes
and looked at him, but couldn't answer through her chattering
teeth. His expression softened. "Well, no matter. We'd best get you
home. I'm sure your mum's worried something awful. I know my wife
would be." He didn't see, but Liesel felt a tear roll down her
cheek. Yes, Mother would have worried.

As he carried her, he talked. Liesel found
his voice soothing. He was a hunter, he said, and his name was
Paul. He didn't usually come this far east, but the buck he'd been
chasing had led him outside of his normal grounds. He had a family
back in higher country, including a daughter about her age, and he
didn't like to leave them for long. She began to drift in and out
of slumber as he carried her back and chatted away.

It wasn't until they were at the edge of the
village that she realized she'd fallen asleep.

"You, man!" The hunter called out. "I have a
girl here, and she's not well! Do you know where I might find her
family?"

"I'm new here. I wouldn't know." Liesel's
eyes were closed, but she recognized the worn, rough tone of her
father's voice. Instead of its usual arrogance, however, it was
hoarse and broken. A small piece of Liesel's senses returned,
enough to feel pity for the man. But with the pity came rage as
well. It was he who had dragged them to this place of death, and
he'd been the one to hold her back when Amala still could have been
saved. And he knew it, from the sound of his voice.

"If you please," the hunter said,
uncomfortably shifting her weight in his arms. "I found this girl
in the forest. She was being attacked by a wolf-"

"Girl?" Warin's voice lifted slightly. "I
been missin' mine since I came home and found her mother dead."

"I...I'm sorry," the hunter said softly. "I
found this child in the woods, like I said, bitten by a wolf.
Perhaps the pain of losing her mother was just too much..." He
stepped forward again. "If you would just look and see if she's
yours." Liesel heard her father rouse himself from the stoop slowly
and walk towards them.

"Aye, she's mine. Don't know what the fool
girl was thinkin', runnin' into the woods alone at night." Despite
his harsh words, his voice was soft and gentle. Familiar arms
lifted her from the hunter's. Liesel wished she could find her
voice to thank the stranger for his kindness.

Her father didn't put her into the bed, and
Liesel couldn't look to see if it was because her mother's body was
still there. Instead, he simply carried her to a wooden chair in
the corner of the room and cradled her as he had done when she was
young. The last sound Liesel heard that night was Warin's quiet
sobbing as he held her close. Her last thought was a desperate one.
She still hadn't escaped the woods.

"You're not readin' that book again, are
you?" Warin called through the doorway. Liesel paused, trying to
come up with something to say. She had nothing, however, by the
time her father walked inside. "You've read that blasted book every
day for the past month," he shook his head at her. "You're goin' to
bring both of us to madness if you don't leave this house
sometime."

Despite Warin's rare show of paternal love
the night her mother died, Liesel and Warin had spoken less in the
month that followed than ever. He'd never even asked about the
wolf, just accepted what the hunter had told him. Then he'd gone on
as if nothing had even happened. The wolf attack, her mother's
death, even his new job at the blacksmith's stall merited only a
few words. And Liesel was fine with that. In fact, she was more
than fine. She knew he missed Amala, and she knew he was grieving,
but it did little to lessen his accidental participation in her
mother's death. Warin had never even apologized. He’d simply gone
on as if the whole thing had been just an accident.

The funeral had been small, just a grieving
husband and daughter, the Holy Man, and the aloof mayor, although
Liesel wasn't sure exactly why he was there. Perhaps he felt some
guilt for playing a part in Amala's death, she thought at first,
although one wouldn't know it from the number of times he yawned
while her mother was buried. It was about all Liesel could take to
have him present, and it helped her realize even more how much she
needed to escape Ward.

She was desperate enough to break the
silence she'd kept towards her father the night after the funeral.
Liesel had begged and pleaded with him to take them back to the
vineyard.

"You could even move back to the city,"
Liesel had followed him around as he mucked the tiny stall that
stood behind the cottage for their horse. "You wouldn't have to
worry about me. I could live with Grandmother and Grandfather!
We-"

"No," Warin had been sudden and fierce in
his refusal. "We're not goin' back." Seeing the look in her eyes,
he leaned down. "And don't you even think of naggin' me about it
'cause my mind is made up. We're stayin' here. Best for you not to
question the wisdom of my decision."

"You only ever think about yourself," Liesel
had hissed at him, trying desperately to keep her tears at bay.
Immediately, she regretted her words. He turned away silently, but
not before she saw the raw pain in his expression. Still too angry
to apologize, however, Liesel had stomped away and had gone for a
walk instead.

Ward was not a large village, but there were
enough people milling about to call it bustling. The mayor had
mentioned that while they couldn't farm for the lack of sunlight,
the townspeople made their living by hosting travelers who were
taking the shortcut through the forest to the capitol city. Instead
of growing their food, the people had their supplies brought in by
wagon from the sunnier places outside of the forest. This struck
Liesel as expensive, but she quickly realized they could afford it
through their many inns, as well as animal stalls, taverns, and
wells. Liesel passed by the tailor's shop, the swordsmith, the
butcher, two bakeries, and the church as she walked.

It should have been a pleasant outing. The
market was full, and neighbors chatted happily as their children
scampered through the streets. The more she walked, however, the
more Liesel realized she was not the only one looking. The
villagers were looking right back at her as well. The adults didn't
even attempt to hide their stares, and some of the children
pointed.

Liesel felt herself blush, probably red
enough to be visible even in the gray of the forest evening. Had
word gotten out about her fit at the healer's? Or was this how they
treated all new people? It wasn't long before she'd decided to
return to the cottage as quickly as possible. Since that day, she
hadn't left the cottage except to get water from the well or gather
kindling for the fireplace. Her grandmother's book had been her
sole comfort and companion. Warin didn't allow reading in the
evening, as he said it wasted precious candles, but during the day,
the book was her only friend. And now her father wanted to take
even that.

"Why don't you go outside?" He frowned at
her beneath his dark, bushy eyebrows. Liesel raised her own
eyebrows in response and looked pointedly at her hand. Her father
snorted. "Won't do you any good hidin' inside when the entire
village is in the forest, girl. Wolves mostly stay to themselves.
You probably just surprised the one that got you, that's all. Now I
want you out of this house for the time bein'. Go."

It wasn't without irritation or the
temptation to say something sharp that Liesel left her beloved book
in the cabin. But arguing with her father would be pointless while
he was in such a mood. Slowly, she made her way down the narrow
dirt path to the main road. She wasn't going back to the town by
herself, that was for sure. The open stares had made her feel like
she had the plague. So she began down the road in the other
direction, the one that would eventually lead her towards the sun.
She might not be able to escape the town for now, but she could
pretend, even if just for a while.