With our mouths full, we took off on our run. I appreciated that we were both eating, and I didn’t have to talk with Sera. It made conversation impossible, and I didn’t have to think more about what Grace said.
It was nice that the woods were home for both of us. We could make our way through the foliage and not have to follow the paths most people took, and that would save us time too. Right now, we were working against the clock. I knew Sera said it would take moons for the curse to force Grace into her monster form, but with the lack of food in the wolf village, I wasn’t sure she had that much time. The sooner we found answers, the better for everyone of Elder, including Grace.
Unfortunately, in our quiet run, my mind drifted back to Grace, telling me that Sera and I liked each other. Maybe it would have been easier if we were talking. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Sera; it was just we never seemed to get along. It was partially my fault as I always found I could do everything just a little better than she could, but it wasn’t like I ever rubbed it in her face. Okay, I might have once or twice, but for the most part, I couldn’t help that I could do things better than her. Life in the woods just came naturally to me, and as the seasons passed, I had grown stronger and surer this was my place. She seemed to hate me for it most of the time. Hate and like were utterly opposite feelings. I still have no idea why I fell for what Grace said.
Grace had gotten into my head as I kept stealing glances at my running partner. What if it wasn’t a joke and she was right. Nothing seemed different, and it admittedly didn’t seem like Sera liked me. She was tolerating me just as I was tolerating her. That wasn’t a romantic feeling. When Grace saw Nikkan, her eyes lit up, and she always turned some sort of shade of red. I had never and would probably never see Sera blush.
“What?” Sera asked between bites.
I didn’t need quiet time to be over. We would likely just start arguing. I needed to put Grace and her rogue thoughts out of my head.
“Did I get some on my face?”
I shook my head no and turned back to watch where I was running. And Grace was so completely wrong. I didn’t like Sera in the least. Just because I knew more about her than anyone beside Nikkan, didn’t mean a thing. We grew up together. And knowing her favorite things would be expected. I had memorized almost everything about how Sera moved as a way to beat her when we practiced. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was nice to look at when she wasn’t mad at me. But that wasn’t entirely true either. She was entertaining when angry. But that didn’t mean I liked her. Or did it?
I didn’t have time to contemplate what Grace had put into my mind any further as we came upon the town. Sera and I stopped at the same time, just outside of town, in the spring foliage. We both knew it was better to be cautious when entering the village than just to run in. The people were jumpy enough before the curse returned; neither one of us wanted to get shot by some nervous townsperson for coming back to town.
Sera sucked in a breath at the sight before us. We hadn’t expected to meet anyone on the ground with fear running high, let alone a mob of yelling people. It was very good that we hadn’t just run into the village.
“We can’t wait any longer,” a large man called Raul yelled at Red, who had her back to us. “They will just grow stronger, and more will attack us. If we head there now, we can wipe them all out before this begins again. No wolves, no curse. We won’t have to live in fear.”
I sucked in my breath as I stared in shock at the tree people of Elder. They were talking about murder. Wiping out an entire race of people. And why? Because they were afraid? What about the wolves? They were just as scared. Maybe even more so. How could the tree people just forget that the wolves were their neighbors, their friends? How had it changed so quickly back to the world I only heard the older generations of Elder speak about? We needed answers to help Grace, but I was beginning to see that we needed answers quickly to help all of Elder.
I moved to go in and tell the tree people to suck it up and deal with it as the wolves had just as much right to live in Elder as the tree people, but Sera reached out and stopped me from moving. Her smaller hand on my arm made me pause, and she nodded to Red.
I tried to stop my thoughts from wandering to what Grace had told me before, but it was hard with Sera’s hand on my arm. I did my absolute best to focus on the mob of people around Red. I didn’t fear for her but for them. No one wanted to see Red mad. I knew that firsthand.
“No one will be heading to the wolves,” Red said, standing with her arms crossed as she surveyed the crowd in front of her. She had her authority voice on, and her stare down was intimidating. People in front of her shrank back from her glare.
It was strange that someone barely a sapling tall could make grown men cower, but she did just that. Maybe it was the magic of being Red, but I had a feeling it was only my mother. I had never once gotten away with anything growing up. She always knew, and I always was punished. That look from Red could make anyone pee their pants.
“And why not?” someone yelled from the crowd, further back that wasn’t as afraid as the front row of people closest to Red.
“Because the wolves are part of Elder,” Red replied.
I had been on the receiving end of her glare and didn’t blame the guy that asked for blending back into the crowd. Red didn’t sound happy in the least. Bringing Elder together had been her goal as the Red, and it was so close. Her dreams for the kingdom were shattered. While I worried that she was against the wolves when she had told me not to spend time with them, I could see that it wasn’t Red, but the people, against the wolves. They were easily forgetting the past eighteen winters.
“But they are hunting our children. They will come and snatch them in the night,” a woman with a bright green scarf around her head called to Red. “If they don’t kill us, they’ll change us into monsters. I don’t think anyone wants to be around for either of those.”
“We are safe in our trees,” Red replied, downplaying the concerns. “Stay in the trees at nighttime, and they can’t hurt anyone. We’ve been through this before. We survived for hundreds of winters with the wolves cursed. This is nothing new. Stop being so irrational.” Red sounded like she had winters ago when I was a child that needed scolding.
The wolf curse was why more than half the people of Elder lived in the trees. Red had told me once about when she was a child and how people were raised and spent their whole lives never setting foot on the ground. It wasn’t the best way to live, but no one questioned it. It kept them safe. Why were they questioning her and their way of life now after hundreds of winters?
It was no different now, except for the guns my mother had stockpiled. I knew that most of the tree people knew about the arms, and it seemed the bolder ones now wanted to use them. Red had never intended for the guns she had bartered from other kingdoms to be used to kill off the wolves. She might have told me to stay away from the wolves, but I knew in her heart that she supported the wolves as much as she could. She saw them as part of Elder, not the enemy, as most of the tree people saw them right now. The guns were for safety only, not mass murder.
“Safe? Safe is when we can walk around our own kingdom without being afraid,” a short, balding man towards the front replied. He stared at the ground as he talked, but that was probably the only way he had the courage.
“Yes,” the lady from before cheered him on.
Red looked from face to face. I could tell that while she looked strong and intimidating, she was actually sad. All her work was for nothing. One small moment and everything went back to the way it was. The tree people and the wolves hated each other again. The bridge she had spent eighteen winters building was torn down in one night. Her shoulder stooped a little as she looked around and shook her head at the people before her.
“We need to keep Elder safe for everyone, including the citizens that can shift into a wolf. None of you are going off hunting without direct permission from me. The armory will remain closed under lock an
d key that only I have access to. You can’t kill citizens of Elder without being punished, and I will punish each and every one of you that thinks they are above the law,” Red informed them.
The people turned to their neighbors and talked. The whispers that I heard were all disagreements. Some were calling for Red to step down. It seemed that many knew that Sera was almost ready to take over. They wanted that to happen now instead of later as they thought she’d allow them to hunt the wolves. They were all upset, and anger was coursing through most of them that weren’t afraid of Red and the power she held. The only thing keeping them from outright mutiny was that they needed her. Red was their only true protection.
“Will I be punished for hunting deer?” a young man off to the left wearing a deep yellow hat asked. I couldn’t see his face, but he had to be someone I knew. He didn’t seem much older than me.
“That’s not a reason to be punished,” Red replied, falling for his innocent face as he asked his question.
“Then why will I be punished for hunting a wolf?”
Sera huffed next to me and shook her head. She’d seen that coming just as I had.
Cheers went up around the young man. Most, if not all, of the people agreed with him. It was sad to see how much changed in just a few short days. Not even ten moons ago, the tree people of Elder were living side by side with wolves that had moved into Azren. I knew none of them were there now since Red kicked them out, but that didn’t change anything. How could someone you viewed as your neighbor now be your enemy?
Red rubbed her head. I don’t think she expected that level of hatred from someone younger than me. She had tried to raise the new generation of Elder to love everyone that resided in the kingdom, but it didn’t seem to stick.
“The wolf tribes in the north are humans. They may change into wolves, but we all know that they are human. Raul, didn’t Cameron help you just last moon cycle when your house burned? He got the water to put out the fire in the middle of the night and then let you live with him while you rebuilt? Now, you want to thank him by killing him and hunting his children?”
The large man turned his red-cheeked face to his feet to avoid her stare.
“And what about you, Michael? Did you take Raven on a date just a few moons ago? Now, you want to hunt her like an animal? So you go on dates with animals? You like animals romantically since that’s what you are telling me now?”
The young man turned as red as the older man while the people around him chuckled. Even next to me, Sera was giggling. Red might not have fallen for his innocent face after all.
“We are one Kingdom of Elder, and we need to remember that,” Red scolded the crowd like they were unruly children. “The moment we forget that makes us the bad guys. Our kingdom will crumble, and it will be our fault. We are stronger than this curse. All of you need to believe that.”
“But what about the guns?” someone near the back yelled. “Why do we have them if we aren’t going to use them?”
Red nodded to the man.
“Yes, I have us stocked well with guns. I worried that the curse could come back, and we need to stay safe. We can’t let the wolves take the children. They are our future. But we also can’t hunt people like animals. The guns are for protecting the city, and that’s it. No one will be leaving with a gun to hunt wolves. If I find anyone has done just that, we will go back to the old punishments.”
Eyes facing Red all bugged out at her words. Elder was a kingdom that was self-sufficient. Most of the time, people traded for what they needed. We didn’t have the latest technology of the other kingdoms, but no one cared. One of the things we really never had was a prison. It was a simple solution. The old punishments were an eye for an eye. If you killed someone, then you forfeited your life. While Red had done away with the laws and allowed people to seek retribution through goods and services, she wasn’t joking when she said she’d reinstate it. I knew it was her last attempt to keep control of the mob, and I hoped it would work.
“I’ve enacted the wards to Azren. Anyone crossing them without first notifying me will be marked and retrieved for everyone’s protection. Stay in the trees and don’t venture into the woods until Micco and I say it is safe. I’m working hard with Micco to find a solution and keep tabs on our wolf population. I will keep you safe as I have been doing my entire life, but to do so, I need you to follow the rules. They are in place for a reason. We’ve survived this before and will again.”
The people stared at her, and a few nodded.
“I have to keep all of Elder safe. It would do you all best to remember that we are all one nation. And remember your friends that have gone home to face the scariest thing in their life. They didn’t ask to be a wolf or to be cursed. All they wanted was to live like everyone else. The wolves you all know are kind and helpful people. I can’t begin to list all the things they’ve done in the past eighteen winters to help the tree people out. Stop acting like they are the enemies. They are our friends, family, and neighbors.”
Red had a presence that commanded everyone to look at her. Not a single face was turned away as she talked. She pulled them all in with her words. Red was serious, and they all knew it.
“Start acting like the people I know you are. Keep track of your children, stay in the trees, and remember that your friends are trying their hardest to keep Elder safe for everyone.”
Red nodded to the crowd, dismissing them. No one said another word as the crowd dispersed back into the trees.
“Did that about sum it all up?” she asked as she turned to Sera and I still standing out of view in the woods.
“I’d say so,” Sera replied as she stepped out of the trees to Red. “But I still wouldn’t trust them.”
Sera shrugged. I didn’t blame her. I didn’t trust them either. Red could scare them and punish them, but that didn’t mean they would do the right thing. I saw their faces. I had seen their anger and their fear. Those two things were enough to make the most decent man change. They would do things they never would normally do if pushed. I just had to hope the wolves stayed in the north, and the tree people stayed in their trees.
Red shrugged back to Sera.
“They have to be given a chance to be good. We both know that. Now how about the two of you come back home and get cleaned up. I have a feeling this isn’t just a friendly visit. You can update me on everything once you get freshened up and fed.”
I nodded to Red as I stepped up beside Sera, who was already walking towards the cottage we grew up in. Things were getting scarier for the wolves. Not only did they have the curse to deal with, but now, also the tree people of Elder who had access to guns. The wolves didn’t stand a chance if the tree people turned on them. We had a lot to discuss and an answer to find, just as soon as we cleaned up and ate like Red ordered us to. It wasn’t quite the welcome home I wanted, but it would have to do.
I wasn’t expecting much, maybe a little awkwardness at being home, but Red went full out. After we cleaned up, she prepared a feast for us. There were carrots, squash, corn, noodles, mash potatoes, fresh bread, lamb, beef in gravy, apple pie, cookies, and a cake. It wasn’t one of our regular supper meals that I grew up on. I felt a little guilty eating so much while the wolves starved, but I wasn’t about to tell Red no. She was more than happy to have both Sera and I home with her; it was a bit strange.
Red was my mother, but she had never been overly motherly. Sera and I were accustomed to helping with meals and doing our share, but Red fussed and made everything herself. I felt like maybe she had been hit on the head and was too crazy to tell us. We’d notice if she went’ crazy, right? I’d hoped so.
We spent the meal making small talk. Mainly our mouths were full, and Sera and I could only get a nod in every now and then to what Red was talking about. As usual, it was nothing personal but just about people around the kingdom she had been talking with for the past couple of days. It seemed the whole of Elder knew the curse was back even though it rarely affected the farmers to
the south. It was the gossip of the kingdom.
After we ate, we told Red of everything we had done with Grace. She was as disappointed as we were, but that was all she said. It was dark by then, and Red asked to go to bed early. It was very unlike Red. I had begun to believe as a child that she never slept, that the Red wasn’t allowed to sleep. I had a feeling Red’s powers were fading more than she’d ever admit. I didn’t want to broach the subject and let her go to bed in peace before finding sleep myself after our exhausting day.
3
13th March
When I woke the next morning, I found Red already awake and in the kitchen cooking. How in the world she thought we needed more food after the feast the night before was beyond me, but I was reassured to see that the faint lines that had marred her face the night before seemed to be gone even if her gray hairs were still there. I searched to see if there were any more signs of her aging, but nothing stood out. Was she getting old because her powers were leaving or because, in fact, she was old? It had been three winters since I last lived at home. That was enough time for her to start going gray.
“Sera is already running the perimeter to make sure no one had the idea to leave town without permission,” Red told me as she continued to cook.
I made my way over to beside her and took the spatula from her hands to take over making the eggs. She nodded to me and then moved to the cupboard to cut up the fruit she had. You couldn’t have traded me anything as a child to get me to help her cook. It was beyond my least favorite chore. I’d offer to do the most tedious tasks in the village to get out of cooking, but after living on my own, I was more than willing to help, now that I knew how much time making meals took up.
“Is she coming back for breakfast?” I asked, eyeing up the abundance of food. Either Sera was returning with an appetite or Red was having guests. That wasn’t unusual. There was always someone who needed her attention.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 18
