Big Teeth: A Steampunk Fairy Tale (The Clockwork Republic Series)

by French, Katina

  "What in the name o' God are ya doin, girl?"

  "Takin care o' my own." Her hand was on the bar.

  "Don't be a fool! I won't have your death on my head. Get away from that door!"

  Lu paused. Did her grandma really think the Caravan, Pa included, had just deserted Ma? Did she really believe Ma had died abandoned? She almost wished she'd decided to try outrunning the wolf.

  But she hadn't. Now she was stuck in a cabin with a crazy old coot who made her think too much about her dead mother. Some mysterious character was dropping rocks down the chimney. And a metal monster was doing its best to bust through the door to claw her to bits.

  She came back to the fireplace and knelt on the warm stone of the hearth. Leaning over, she shouted up the chimney.

  "Whoever ya are, if you're offerin to help, we're listenin! How can ya help?"

  And who on earth are ya?

  There was only silence in response. Lu and Granny exchanged puzzled looks. That's when they noticed the creaking, as if something large was on the roof shifting its weight.

  Chapter Six

  Tenskwatawa looked over the edge of the cabin roof at the machine wolf, which still attacked the door with fierce determination. "How can you help?" was a very good question. He wished Squirrel had provided some guidance along with the painful reminder that the evil you turn your back on has a habit of following you home.

  He'd tethered the pack horse in the woods, just out of sight. The girl's paint horse wandered up, as if uncertain what to do without her rider.

  It hadn't been hard to slip around the edge of the clearing and clamber to the roof of the cabin unnoticed. The wolf was occupied with the girl inside. Whoever was inside was occupied with the wolf beating and clawing against the door.

  He'd grabbed a smooth stone from a stack of rocks near the edge of the back garden, thinking he might toss it behind the wolf as a distraction. Once he was up on the roof, he thought the better of that plan. He could hear two women arguing through the chimney. He wanted to get their attention, but shouting loud enough for them to hear him over their own voices might attract the wolf's notice. He pulled a small piece of charcoal from his pack, and wrote the only message that would fit on it before tossing it down the chimney. He wasn't sure what would happen next.

  Now he had their attention, and the girl in the red hood had responded to him with a new question. How was he going to help? He'd never studied with the shaman, despite having the right lineage for it. The life of a priest hadn't ever appealed to him. His uncle would know a way to break the curse binding the wolf spirit to the metal body. Unfortunately, Hokolesqua was back home and not here to ask.

  He still didn't know what would happen next. He shifted his weight and felt the wooden shingles creak and groan. It sounded like his joints. He hadn't laid down to rest since he'd left the mining village.

  Rubbing his aching knees, he remembered the dynamite.

  It wasn't something he usually carried around with him.

  He'd been trading in one of the coal mine villages, when a man had offered it to him. His people used it near the south, where there were limestone cliffs. Good for building, especially on the borders where they needed sturdy forts, but it was difficult to quarry.

  The flat rock had outlived its usefulness as a messenger. It meant risking the wolf's attention, but there wasn't much choice. The wolf probably wouldn't pay any attention to anything but the girl anyway. At least, not until she was dead. He was already involved. Might as well see this thing through.

  He took a breath and bellowed down the chimney.

  "Hey, Little-Red-Hood? You in there?"

  Chapter Seven

  Lu looked at Granny. It was possible the man yelling down at her was an agent of the Snow Queen. Like Granny, she was skeptical that a stranger would climb the cabin roof and offer help out of the goodness of his heart.

  If she could think of any other way out of this, she'd have told him to take a long walk off the short roof. Since she couldn't think of any other way out of this, she yelled back at him.

  "I'm down here. Who are ya, and how d'ya think ya can help?"

  Crack! The wolf's head bashed against the door again. A bit of creosote crackled and dropped down the chimney. The deep masculine voice tumbled down after it.

  "Call me Tom. Not sure yet."

  Lu looked at Granny, who frowned back, mouthing "Who is that?"

  She mouthed back at her "How should I know?" It's your cabin, you crazy old coot!

  She leaned over and yelled up the chimney again, shouting to be heard over the banging of the wolf at the door.

  "No offense, but that's not too reassurin Mister Call-Me-Tom."

  There was a long pause. The roof creaked a bit, as if the man were moving.

  Maybe he'd decided it was too much trouble, after all.

  Lu was beginning to rethink her candor. The man's voice bellowed down again.

  "Well, I've got a couple sticks of dynamite, in my pack just outside the clearing. I reckon it might do the trick."

  Lu's eyes widened. Dynamite? Who in tarnation runs around the woods carryin explosives in the middle of the night?

  Then again, it wasn't like she didn't do her own fair share of running around after dark, usually toting things she shouldn't possess. She didn't exactly have a plan of her own, either.

  "I reckon it might take care of the problem at that, assuming we don't all end up blown up along with it."

  "That's the problem, all right. That's why I wasn't sure yet."

  There was another long pause as all three considered what it might be like to get blown into tiny pieces.

  Crack! The wolf slammed against the door again, breaking their collective reverie. They were running out of time. Granny's door couldn't possibly hold much longer. She was grateful the hinges were made of iron. Even with the wooden bar, the usual rope hinges wouldn't have lasted past the first hit. Lu sat on the hearth and called up to their reluctant rescuer.

  "I got an idea, Mister Call-Me-Tom."

  "I'm listening."

  "That thing has a red-hot steam engine in its gullet. If we can get the dynamite down its throat, the fuse might catch. We might have time to get clear before it blows."

  "That's a lot of mights, Little-Red-Hood."

  "Well, we could light the fuse, then try to get it inside the wolf. Or we could light it, toss it at the wolf, run as fast as we can and hope it does enough damage to it from the outside without doing too much damage to us."

  At this point Granny piped up. "Does anybody have an idea that doesn't involve my cabin gettin blown to smithereens?"

  Crack!

  Granny looked at her cabin door, straining and starting to crack.

  "On second thought, let's try Lu's plan."

  Chapter Eight

  Lu stood next to the back door, which she'd silently unbarred. In the next room, Granny stood next to the shutter. Tom had snuck off to pick up the dynamite, but was back now, hiding next to the rain barrel at the back of the cabin. He'd signaled his return with two light knocks at the back door.

  The front door was going to give soon. They were going to have to try the plan they had, crazy as it might seem.

  Lu gave Granny a curt nod through the bedroom door.

  Granny pulled the rope which lifted the shutter and started shouting. "Hey! Wolf! Lookee here, ya idjit! A great big hole in the wall! Over here!" She waved a spindly arm in front of the oil paper, hoping the movement would attract its attention. Lu threw open the door and took off running for the back of the clearing.

  As they'd planned, the wolf charged at the window. Granny dropped the shutter as Lu ran out the back door. They'd all hoped the shutter would hold out the wolf long enough for Granny to hide safely away, and for Lu to get a reasonable distance from the back side of the cabin.

  None of that happened the way they'd planned.

  The wolf exploded through the shuttered window. It knocked Granny backwards in a hail of splinte
red oak. The metal beast bounded through the cabin and out the back door, hard on Lu's heels.

  "Tom! I think this pup wants to play fetch! Give him a stick!"

  Tom bolted out from behind the rain barrel, trailing the wolf by only a couple of feet.

  "Working on it, Red!" he yelled.

  The wolf was bearing down on her. Her boots flew over the ground, threatening to slip on the fallen leaves. Her red cloak flapped behind her, as if taunting the beast. One more leap, and it would have her.

  Tom caught up to the wolf before it caught Lu. He jumped onto its back like a trick rider from the circus mounting a moving horse. The brass plates on the creature's back were hot as a stovepipe, scalding his legs even through his thick leather leggings.

  He reached around to the beast's open maw, shoving a stick of dynamite down its throat as far as it would go. He tried to ignore the sharp sting as metal teeth raked across his arm.

  The creature stopped for a moment, baffled at the sudden weight hitting its back and the strange object now stuck in its gullet. It thrashed its head, as if trying to dislodge both foreign objects. Tom rolled off its back and ran towards Lu.

  "Let's get out of here, Red!" he screamed.

  Lu couldn't run any faster, nor could she spare the breath to tell him so. Terror had already pushed her to the fastest sprint she had in her. Her boots slipped on the damp leaves, and she slid to the ground right in front of the wolf. Searing pain shot through her ankle, radiating up her leg. Instinctively, she curled into a ball.

  The wolf flung a paw at her. Sharp, brass claws raked her side. The steel stays in her corset slowed them a little. They still ripped through it, along with her shirt. Blood splattered on the ground as the wolf lifted its other paw to take a second swipe.

  Tom grabbed her arm, jerking her out of reach in the nick of time. He scooped her up, dragging her away towards the woods as fast as he could go.

  The wolf made to follow. A thunderous blast erupted the ground in front of it, causing it to pull up short. Lu craned her head around.

  When's the dynamite gonna blow? How long was that fuse, anyhow?

  Granny was leaning against the back door, shotgun poised for a second shot. It turned towards her, snorting out smoke and steam, light flickering behind its red glass eyes.

  She aimed, pulling off another shot. Buckshot shattered one of its optical lenses.

  The wolf took two steps, stalking towards the cabin.

  Then the dynamite blew.

  A flare of red-orange light bloomed. Shards of white-hot metal flew in all directions. Lu couldn't see it well. Tom had managed to carry her past the tree line before she collapsed onto the ground. Her ears throbbed from the deafening explosion. She couldn't tell if Granny was shouting in exultation, or yelling in pain from getting hit with hot metal.

  Could be both, knowin her.

  "She okay?" Lu croaked at Tom, who was looking a little…wobbly. In fact, the whole world seemed to be spinning. He nodded. Judging by his face, she must look as bad as she felt.

  "Appears to be. She was already behind the cabin door when it blew."

  A light rain began to fall. The pale lavender glow of dawn brushed the edges of the horizon. Tom slipped his arms under her shoulders and knees. "You're the one who could use a little patching up. Let's get you back to the cabin."

  "Thanks," said Lu. Then, she passed out.

  Chapter Nine

  There are a few things in life that'll darn-near wake the dead. The smell of bacon frying in a cast iron skillet, mixed with the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee, is one of them.

  It was a good thing, too, because Lu felt like she was darn-near dead. A thick pad of heavy quilts pressed her into the straw tick mattress on Granny's bed. She tried to sit up, and immediately wished she hadn't. The noise she made, somewhere between a groan and a yelp, alerted the cabin's other inhabitants that she was conscious.

  "Stay right where y'are, missy. I didn't waste half my scrap muslin wrappin ya up just so ya could start bleedin all over my bedspread."

  Lu looked at her grandma. Behind the bluff and bluster, she could see concern mixed with relief etched in her face.

  "All right, all right," she rasped. "Can I have some o' that bacon? And a cup o' coffee?"

  The old woman chuckled. "Ya can't be that bad off, if'n you're demandin to be fed." She headed back into the kitchen.

  The man who'd saved her life, Tom, was taking up most of the doorway.

  "Caravan?"

  She nodded. Her clothes kind of gave that away, although right now she was wearing one of Granny's dressing gowns.

  "Cherokee?" she asked him. There were a lot of Cherokee settlers in the Republic of Tennessee.

  He shook his head. "Shawnee. Down from Indiana to trade before winter."

  "Why?" They both knew she wasn't asking about his choice in trade route.

  He shrugged. "Saw you in the woods. Might say my conscience struck me." He rubbed the back of his head absently.

  A minute later when Granny came back with a plate of bacon and biscuits and a mug of steaming coffee, Lu realized she and Tom had been staring into each other's eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time. She broke their gaze, and let Granny pull and prop her up into a sitting position. Tom faded quietly back into the kitchen.

  She'd always assumed she'd live her whole life in the Caravan. She wondered how Pa'd take it if she one day decided to leave. Maybe head up North. She thought about how hard it'd be, moving to a new place, trying a new way of life. How scary would that be, not just for her, but for all the people who cared about her?

  She looked at her Granny with a new appreciation. Not just because the old coot had risked her life to save Lu's, and earned a fair share of cuts and bruises doing it. Because for the first time, she understood her.

  Lu loved the Caravan. She'd seen the contempt with which outsiders viewed her people. She'd always assumed it'd been that kind of contempt which caused Granny Pearl to try and keep Ma from marrying Pa. She knew now, it wasn't contempt. It was fear, born of love and concern. It was fear of sending someone you loved out into the great unknown and losing them.

  Pa thought nothing of sending her on a dangerous mission. It was the kind of danger they knew well and faced often. Granny thought nothing of living alone in the wild woods, because that was a danger she knew.

  The world was full of dangers, but they were only terrors if they were also a mystery. They were only terrors if you faced them alone. When she got back to camp, she was going to have a long talk with Pa. If they were going to deal with the Snow Queen, he was going to have to start talking with the rest of the Caravan. If there were rotten apples in the bunch, it was time to sniff them out and deal with them. Then they could all face whatever Evelyn Derringer dished out, together. He was a stubborn cuss, but maybe learning how close he'd come to losing his daughter might make him willing to admit he could be wrong.

  Maybe she could talk to him about reconsidering his opinion on Granny Pearl.

  Lu drank deeply of the coffee. It would be a few days before she could travel. She would spend this time getting to know her grandma better. Maybe learn more about the girl Ma had been, before Pa and the Caravan. She hoped Tom would stay a bit, too.

  As if her thoughts summoned him, he leaned in the doorway.

  "You know, I've never visited the Cherokee villages down your way. Got a few weeks, before the weather turns for the winter. Reckon, you get feeling better, we could travel across the border together?"

  "I reckon we might, at that," she said, and hid a smile behind her mug.

  Author's Note

  I hope you've enjoyed Big Teeth, a steampunk retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood." It's the second book in my Clockwork Republics series. The Clockwork Republics stories are all based on classic fairytales, set in a steampunk world of mechanical wonders and alchemical magic.

  When I'm writing my stories, it usually takes a while for me to find a particular character's voice. I often have to g
o back and rewrite earlier passages of dialogue, once the character has a stronger personality in my head. That wasn't the case with Lulabelle. She's one of the few characters who sprang to life on the page almost complete. Her drawl, her wild appearance, and her feisty personality just sort of poured out.

  I don't know anyone in real life like Lu, but I wish I did. I bet she'd be a lot of fun.

  In contrast, Granny Pearl is based on my own maternal grandmother, Olivia Pearl Gaines. My Granny Pearl also lived in Kentucky most of her life. She was also a spitfire with red hair, a thick Bluegrass drawl and very strong opinions on pretty much everything. She believed I could do anything I set my mind to, and her belief carried me through some difficult times.

  Tenskwatawa is a Shawnee name, which means "the open door." The historical Tenskwatawa was the brother of the leader Tecumseh. He was also known as Lalawethika, or the Shawnee Prophet.

  About the Author

  Katina French is a science fiction and fantasy author from southern Indiana. An award-winning copywriter, she's been writing professionally for over 20 years. Recent works include "The Clockwork Republics Series," a set of steampunk retellings of classic fairy tales, as well as the space adventure serial BELLE STARR.

  Ms. French writes fast-paced, humor-laced adventure stories with a touch of mystery and romance that appeal to young adults and the young at heart.

  Books and stories by Katina French

  The Clockwork Republic Series

  Blowhard

  Big Teeth

  Mirrors & Magic

  The Belle Starr Series

  Belle Starr: Whiskey on the Rocks

  Belle Starr: The Skull Game

  Belle Starr: A Pair of Aces *

  The Exodus of Jerry B. Johnson

  Flashes of Wonder (Collection)