Girl in the Red Hood

by Brittany Fichter

  "Odo, town mayor."

  "Well, Odo, we're here to see your healer." The mayor's sweaty smile faltered for a moment before reappearing on his face. “Surely you'd like to see your new home first-"

  "The healer. Or we're leavin'." Liesel felt a small flicker of hope in her heart. Perhaps this healer might know something the others didn't. And when Amala awoke, she could convince Warin to leave the forest and take the family home. The mayor looked a bit unnerved, and paused before answering. Finally, though, he glumly nodded and turned, motioning for the family to follow. Warin hopped back up into the cart and clucked at the horse. Just two streets over, they stopped before a small cottage.

  It looked no different than the other cottages, with the exception of an herb garden that lined the path to the door. Liesel felt another stab of unease as she glanced at its contents. The garden itself was barely larger than her mother's had been, and she recognized every plant in it. Most of the plants looked sick, which Liesel guessed was from the lack of direct sunlight. The weedy plot hardly looked like it belonged to an herbalist from another land, just as the woman walking out of the house to greet them hardly looked like she was from the Far East. She had pale skin, as did everyone else in the forest village, mousey brown hair pinned back carelessly beneath a dirty blue cap, and a thin face with dull eyes.

  As Warin gently lifted his wife from the back of the cart, the mayor fairly sprinted over to whisper in the woman's ear. Her eyes widened a bit, and she looked over the mayor's shoulder to glare at Izaak. By then, Warin was heading up the path. Liesel didn't miss the look of panic that flitted across the woman's face as she opened the door for them to walk inside.

  The cottage room was dark with just one candle to see by, but there really wasn't that much to see. Liesel had been inside the healer's house back in her old city, a building that was full to the brim with dried plant pieces in jars, other plants hanging upside down to dry, a large variety of mixing bowls, mortar and pestle, and a large pot to boil mixtures in. This house had only one shelf of jars, and most of them were covered with dust. The mayor cleared the table so Warin could lay Liesel's mother on top of it.

  "What-" the healer began to ask, but Izaak interrupted her.

  "Remember the sleeping sickness I told you about, Doffy?" The woman stared at him blankly until a look of nervous recognition came to her face.

  "Oh...oh, yes." She walked over to her shelf of jars and stared up at them for a moment before pulling four down. Grabbing the dirty mortar and pestle from another dusty table, she went to work grinding and mixing the herbs. Liesel watched intently as she worked, running through the plants and their uses her head. Her mother had been an expert with herbs. Although this mixture of herbs the woman had concocted seemed a bit simple for the kind of illness her mother was suffering, nothing was too alarming until she pulled out a dried clipping of a dark green branch with spiky leaves and fluffy orange buds.

  "No!" Everyone jumped when Liesel cried out. "That's fox heel!" Everyone, even the healer, stared at her as if she'd spoken another language. Only then did Liesel realize how rude it must seem for a girl to correct a grown healer. But Liesel knew all about that plant. She'd nearly eaten it when she was two. Her mother had looked over just as Liesel had raised it to her mouth, according to the family story. They kept it in the garden because it could heal skin wounds, but it was absolutely never to be eaten. Amala had run so fast she'd dropped and broken a clay bowl to keep Liesel from touching it to her tongue. When she was older, Amala had taught Liesel how to safely apply it to a bruise, but never was it to be eaten or drunk, according to her mother.

  "Crushing the flowers into the herb makes it poisonous," Liesel explained softly as her father's look of shock turned into a glare.

  "Liesel, outside. Now." Liesel felt her face redden with embarrassment as she followed her father out the front door like a small child. Warin bent down to look her in the eye. "Just what do you think you're doin'?"

  "I told you," Liesel whispered. "Fox heel is dangerous."

  "You think their healer doesn't know her own trade? That a girl of thirteen knows better than she does?" Liesel felt resentment rise in her throat. Glaring back at her father, she huffed.

  "They lied about the sickness. There's obviously been no blight here. They lied about their healer being from the Far East! Doesn't it seem that they might lie about this, too?"

  "One more word out of you, girl, and you'll regret it!" Warin gave his daughter a withering look.

  "I don't care!" Liesel shouted, tired of watching such foolishness play out. "If you let them give that rubbish to Mother, she'll die!" She could be just as stubborn as her father when she wanted to be. Warin stared at her in awe for a moment before giving her a sneer and stalking back inside. Liesel took off after him, darting around his large frame, just in time to see Doffy prepare the mixture for a tea. Without a second thought, Liesel knocked the spoon out of the woman's hands.

  "I don't know what you think you're doing, but I'll not let you poison her!" she yelled. Two strong hands grabbed her from behind, however, and Warin said,

  "I apologize for my daughter's behavior. She's just upset about her mum being sick. Please, do what you need to do. She'll see eventually that she needs to trust those who know better than her." After giving the mayor a nervous glance, the healer lifted another spoonful of the mixture out to prepare the tea again. Liesel felt like her heart had stopped beating and dropped into her stomach as she watched the woman mix the poisonous orange tinted tea. Tears began to slide down her face as she realized she was going to watch her mother die. She shrieked for her father to stop them, pleading with him to save Amala's life. Warin put his hand gently but firmly over his daughter's mouth as he continued to restrain her.

  "It'll be alright, Leese," he whispered kindly into her ear through her weeping. "I know you're frightened, but this woman will save her. She'll be better. I feel it in my gut." All too soon, the deed was done. Amala had swallowed the tea, and the family was taken to their new cottage.

  "The old tailor lived here," the mayor had explained. "He passed away three years ago. It's yours now. Let Izaak help you carry your wife in so she can rest." Liesel watched it all with dead eyes. The mayor and Izaak left soon, and then it was just their family. Liesel sat with her mother, holding Amala's hand as Warin emptied the cart.

  "Is she showing any signs?" he asked hopefully. It was all Liesel could do to stay silent in response, when all she wanted was to scream. She glared instead and shook her head. "Well, then I'm off to the butcher's. Take care of your mother. I'll be back." Liesel silently loathed his hopeful tone, ignoring his wave as he left. It wasn't long after that that Amala's breathing slowed and her hands grew cold. Through the blur of her tears, Liesel finally saw her mother's gray-blue eyes flutter open for the first time in a year.

  "My Leese," Amala's hand shook as she lifted it to touch Liesel's face. Her voice was raw, but it was sweeter than Liesel remembered. Liesel grabbed her mother’s hand and held it to her cheek.

  "Mother," she sobbed, "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen! Father wouldn't listen!" In some part of her mind, Liesel wondered why she was blubbering about the tea when her mother's eyes were finally open. Didn't that mean she was better? Besides, there were so many other things she wanted to tell her about that had happened in the last year, but all she could do was sit there and cry like a child.

  "I know, sweet girl," Amala's voice was faint. "I couldn't see you, but I could hear.”

  “You could hear?” Liesel frowned in confusion. Coughing, Amala nodded.

  “I could hear everything."

  “Since the day you fell sick?”

  Amala nodded, wincing as though in pain.

  "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 fel
t 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.

  3. FINDING THE SUN


  "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."