by Laura Wolf
Scarlet picked up his bowl, and began to feed him, taking in his visage once again. It was strange to think a couple hundred years earlier there would have been fae and human weddings. She wondered what it would be like, to go to the fairy kingdom - Elphyme, he had called it - and become a witch instead of a housewife. It sounded wonderful, but also dreadful if it was destined to end in war and death.
Scarlet finished serving the wolf his breakfast, before taking a bowl in to set by her grandmother's bed. She rested her wrist on the old woman’s forehead and was encouraged that her fever had receded completely as well.
"It's your choice in the end," her grandmother told her quietly, her eyes opening into sad crescents. "Whether you become the Huntsman's wife or not."
"There are not many options to choose between," Scarlet answered her just as sadly.
"Just promise me," her grandmother gripped her hand tightly. "If you're faced with an opportunity, you won't go back for your jacket."
Her tone broke Scarlet's heart, and she leaned forwards to kiss the regretful old woman on the forehead.
"I promise," she swore. Fastening her cape around her shoulders, and shouldering her bow, she turned and left.
CHAPTER NINE
Scarlet led the wolf down the forest path in the early morning light. The mists had not yet receded, but the first rays were penetrating the canopy of leaves. The wind rustled lightly as the walked, Scarlet in front, the wolf a few feet behind. The silver cord was still tied fast around his wrists and gripped tightly by Scarlet on the other end.
The wolf had grumbled at being led like a donkey, but Scarlet had pointed out it was better than being buried like a corpse.
"You could just release me here," the wolf had suggested. "And save us the embarrassment."
"If I released you now, I would have no guarantee you would leave me be for the rest of my journey. No, it's better I leave you at the other entrance."
"And if we come across the Huntsman?"
"We left early. If he's traveling the road today he won't start for another hour at least."
The wolf had glowered into the distance.
"You're really going to marry him?" he asked, after a while.
"Thanks to the Piper I'm not left with much choice," Scarlet said moodily. "The next oldest unmarried boy in my town is only seven years old."
They had both remained quiet for a long time after that.
"Are you married?" Scarlet finally asked, making the wolf snort.
"There's a reason I'm roaming the woods on my own, and not back in Elphyme playing house," the wolf answered in amusement.
"And do you plan to elaborate on that?"
"I don't get along with people," he said simply. "Human or fae."
"Huh," Scarlet frowned in thought. "I actually thought we were getting along quite well."
The wolf flicked her with the rope that was secured around his wrists and raised an ironic eyebrow.
"Well, apart from the obvious," she shrugged. "You're really not what I thought a fae would be like. Or a shifter - whatever you please."
"You're not what I thought a human would be like."
"It's a shame we won't get the chance to know each other more," Scarlet sighed. "I was quite glad to be proved wrong about you."
"Me too."
Scarlet stopped walking, and they looked along the road ahead. The hours had faded together, and now they were faced with their cross roads.
"That's your town."
"Junk Hill," Scarlet agreed.
"Why do you want to live somewhere that’s named after junk?" the wolf said, sounding genuinely upset. "I don't understand."
"It's not named after junk," Scarlet sighed. "It was the major junction between two cities once. It's just... gotten junkier since... Well, since the Piper came."
The wolf looked cross but lifted his hands up for her to untie.
"I'm..." Scarlet frowned. "I'm not sure I can do that."
"You promised!" the wolf hissed. "I walked all this way with you, you have to release me."
"I can't just let you free like this. You could still turn around and kill me."
"I'll owe you a boon," the wolf said, wincing. "If you spare my life you can ask one thing of me. I'll be bound to it. You can ask for me to never lay eyes on you, or come within a stone’s throw of you again. It's your right."
"I appreciate you telling me that," Scarlet gave him a lopsided smile. "But... I don't think I'll ask that of you. I've got another request in mind."
The wolf was caught between relief and concern.
"But I do still have to be cautious," she said, loosening the coils of silver rope from her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" the wolf asked, a little panicked.
Scarlet looked up and stood beneath the bow of a tree. She tossed the rope up and caught it when it came down on the other side of the branch.
"You can't just leave me here tied to a tree."
"You'll be safe, don't worry," Scarlet promised, pulling the rope taught.
"What do you mean?" the wolf asked, still deeply concerned, as she hoisted the rope and he was yanked into midair with a yelp.
She tied the other end of the rope around his legs and arms, altering the existing knot until he was hanging upside down by his limbs, his hair falling straight downward off his head, and an expression of utter contempt on his face.
"Don't leave me like this," he pleaded. "The Huntsman-"
"I'll let you down once I'm over there," she nodded at the boundary line.
"How?"
She shrugged, making her quiver of arrows rattle.
"You're kidding me."
"I'm a good shot."
"You damn well better be."
"About this boon," Scarlet bit her lip as the wolf glared at her. "You know where my grandmother lives."
His gaze softened.
"I want you to promise you won't harm her, nor let her be harmed if it is within your power."
"I promise," he swore. "I won't cause her harm, nor will I allow it to occur under my watch."
Scarlet reached out and brushed his hair. It was dirty, and full of moss, but soft like fur.
"Was that all?" the wolf asked, discomforted.
"No."
"Then what?"
"Hood."
The wolf looked at her in confusion. "Hood?"
"My family name," she said, and his eyes widened in shock.
She bit her lip, then leaned forwards and brushed her lips against his as gentle as a whisper on the wind.
"Scarlet," he whispered, her name sounding like an incantation.
"Wolf."
"Wilfred," he corrected. "It's Wilfred."
"There's not much difference between Wilf and Wolf," Scarlet quirked her lips in amusement.
"I'd not thought of it," he admitted. "There are not many who know it."
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For trusting me with it."
She let her fingers fall from his hair, and began to walk away, leaving him slowly turning at the end of the rope. She turned back to him only when she reached the exit to the forest, readying her bow and shooting one arrow. It cut the cord clean through, and her wolf fell to the floor in a heap.
By the time he had untangled himself and stood to look after her, she was gone.
In the following days, weeks, and months, she found herself looking to the woods often. The Huntsman had come and gone and secured her hand with little effort. Her parents had been sympathetic to her hesitation, but duty was duty and children were the backbone of the town. Without children, she was reminded, there would be no future. She could be grateful at least, for a prolonged engagement, with her wedding delayed until her eighteenth birthday.
Although she didn't see the expressive yellow eyes she longed for watching her, even on her trips escorted through the forest, she took comfort in the smell of moss that often lingered around her regular haunts. Even if she couldn't meet him face to face, it was comforting to know
she had a friend of the fae.
To be continued...
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Scarlet Hood: Dreams or Duty
Chapter One
"Scarlet, what do you think of this one?" her mother handed her the card with the knitting pattern illustrated on the front. A tiny cherub face smiled out angelically from a little waffle weave cardigan with a pointed hood.
"It'll be a bit small," Scarlet shrugged. "I hardly think I'd get any wear out of it."
"It's for the baby, not you," he mother rolled her eyes.
"I'm not even married yet," Scarlet shot her mother an icy look, annoyed by her insistence. "Isn't it enough to have to deal with wedding preparations without having to think of clothes for a baby that doesn't even exist?"
"Come now, Scarlet," her mother sighed, and shuffled her cards, bringing another cardigan to the forefront - this one with an equally joyful, clean baby smiling happily out of a striped ensemble that she thought made it look more like a teddy bear than a human child. "We've delayed your wedding long enough. You'll be eighteen soon, and you're sure to have your first baby shortly afterward. If you want to have enough clothes for them you'll be best to start now. You'll hardly have time to knit for subsequent babies once your first is born."
"Subsequent!"
"You'll hardly stop at one," her mother pulled out another. "I hope you haven't forgotten your older brothers just because they have moved away to start their own families. Peter will most likely be down for your wedding, you know. Here, what about this one for a girl?"
Scarlet huffed, and turned away, dumping the napkins she had been embroidering on the table. Her stitches looked sloppy and sad, her poor excuse for needlework having never been a high priority. She pitied the poor child who would be subjected to wearing any shapeless form she managed to knit.
"I'm going for a walk," she announced, feeling suddenly claustrophobic.
"A good idea," her mother agreed, her voice thin. "Rest your fingers for a while. When you return you'll have a lot of unpicking to do."
She had to make a concerted effort not to slam the door on her way out.
It wasn't her mother's fault. It wasn't even the towns fault. Nor her dear fiancé, the Huntsman, she thought bitterly. If anyone was to blame for the pressure to marry young and bear the maximum amount of children she could manage, it was the accursed Pied Piper.
When he had gutted the neighboring town of Girdlebrook of its children only two generations previous he had set all of their lives in motion. The girls of Junk Hill, as a satellite town of Castle Crag were gifted with the high honor of being mothers to the next generation. Indeed, she discovered only recently she had been valued for her womb from the day she had been born. Her mother, having been married at sixteen and become a mother to her eldest brother at eighteen, had been indulgent of her only daughter and allowed her every freedom knowing the summer of her youth would pass before long. Having tasted freedom, even in the smallest dosage, Scarlet was dreading giving it up.
But her expectations were clear, and her choices were few. She let her feet express her anger, and began to run through the long grass, trampling the wildflowers as she went. Wildflowers that would never make it into her bouquet.
Finally, she doubled over, out of breath and collapsed on the ground, staring up at the clouds as they swam lazily across the expanse of the sky, uncaring of the problems of humans below. In a mere month she would be eighteen, and she would no longer get to do this. Leave her house without the permission of her husband. Run in the fields. Be free.
Wives were too valuable a commodity.
"You're upset," she heard his voice before she heard his movements, and she closed her eyes as she inhaled his scent. Moss, bark and the underlying smell of peppermint. She noted with amusement that meant he had taken her suggestion regarding his breath to heart and had started to chew on the herb.
"Wolf," she greeted him as he sat heavily next to her. She opened her eyes and they both started at the small town in the distance, rooftops peeking out behind the tall stone walls that encircled it.
"You're upset," he repeated, giving her a sideways look.
"I don't want to grow up."
"You don't want to grow up, or you don't want to get married?"
"Neither," she sighed. "Or more... I don't want to become just a mother."
"Being a mother is an important job," her friend cocked his head at her, his raven black hair falling to the side to reveal his warm yellow eyes. "I hardly think it's just anything."
"I know," she sighed. "It's just..."
"You don't want to be with him?"
"There's nothing wrong with the Huntsman," Scarlet shrugged. "He's an honorable man, as far as men go. He'll always provide for me."
Her friend watched her closely, and she felt her skin prickle under his perceptive gaze.
"You kissed me once," he said finally.
"It hardly meant anything," she blushed. "It was what, almost two years ago? I just wanted a choice."
"What if I gave you a choice?"
Scarlet turned to him eyes wide, but her breath hitched in her throat.
"I... I can't just leave my family," Scarlet winced. "I'm expected to - I mean, what would they say if I married one of the fae folk?"
"I'm not offering to marry you, you stupid woman," the Wolf laughed. Scarlet blushed red and slapped him hard on the arm.
"Although it's interesting to know your hesitation is only on your family’s behalf, and not your own."
"I don't want to marry you anyway," she insisted belatedly, crossing her arms. "What are you offering me. You owe me no boon."
"No," the shifter frowned. "But I had rather thought we were good friends at least. And I... Well, no adult humans are allowed into Elphyme."
Scarlet watched him expectantly, awaiting the rest.
"We consider eighteen - for a human - the cut-off point," the wolf shivered under her scrutiny, his eyes taking on a wary look. "You hadn't shown any inclination to leave your world before now... but if you were unhappy... I could take you to the Fae Queen. You could apply for residency."
Scarlet stared at him in shock. She had never considered that a possibility. It was her grandmother's desire, to be sure - as the only child left behind by the Piper, her Grandmother had dreamed of the fae world her whole life. Scarlet, by comparison had been taught forbidding tales of kidnapping, trickery and death since before she could talk. Only her acquaintance with the Wolf - Wilfred of the Whispering Woods - had caused her to see beyond the propaganda. The idea of Elphyme was something so completely beyond her comprehension she didn't quite know what to make of it.
"Wilfred," she whispered, daring to invoke his name. The thin black hairs along the back of his arm prickled and rose as the word left her lips. She reached out and smoothed her hand over his goose bumps.
<
br /> "It's not without risk," he placed his hand over hers, halting her movement. "The Queen does not know I've been visiting with you. Contact between fae and humans is... frowned upon."
"Once I'm married, I don't think I'd be allowed much opportunity to see you again regardless," Scarlet sighed unhappily.
"It's not just that... If she disproves... she may take your memories of me. The moss I use to bend perception is nothing compared to her abilities. You may be allowed to live in Elphyme - or you might forget it ever existed."
"Along with you," Scarlet frowned. "I can't just walk away from my duties either. Regardless of what I want, children are needed in our town. The Piper saw to that."
"You could meet him you know," Wilfred gave her a lopsided smile. "Give him a piece of your mind."
"Very tempting," she fingered her bow. "But I can't go. My mother would be heartbroken. My grandmother..."
The wolf hung his head, his fringe flopping in front of his eyes once again.
"I had hoped..." he said, his voice sow low she had to strain her ears to hear him. "I had hoped I could ask your help in return."
"Help with what?" she squeezed his arm gently, treading carefully. Although Wilfred was her friend, he was wild at heart and had more in common with wolves than just his appearance.
"I've had news of my parents," he whispered, his voice husky.
"I thought they had been killed," Scarlet gasped, and he looked up to her suddenly, his amber eyes burning with an intensity she had never seen before.
"As did I," he growled. "But... there have been rumors. A witch held up at Castle Crag. A beast in the dungeon. Bluebells growing year-round in the gardens."
Scarlet inhaled sharply. "Belle and the Beast."
"Exactly."
"Wilfred," she gripped his hand with her own. "You know I'll help you. It doesn't have to be a trade, of course I would help you."
As he was about to respond they heard a voice calling her name, and saw one of the village boys running through the fields, obviously searching for her.
