Dream or Reality?

Distance… is an interesting topic in my opinion. It can be measure in more ways than only in kilometers or meters. Distance can be also measured by the amount of differences, by the feelings of regret or hate. But… there exists a kind of distance that is really intriguing. That distances were destiny is in the middle and no matter how much you wish it happen it just… can't.

Once I knew a couple. A couple that suffers this kind of distance. They didn't disserve it, but they haven't any choice. It's cruel in so many ways.

My intension of this is telling you their story.

This town is not known. It can't appear in the map of a place so full of ignorance. There is a girl. Her hair is blond, her eyes blue as the sky. She had this costume of visiting her grandmother every weekend.

This older woman, ignoring every risk, decided to live in the deepest part of the forest. She made a gift to her granddaughter that risked herself to visit her. The gift was a red long hood.

The little girl was so excited with her present she never takes it off. Every time she went out of the house, no matter the occasion or season, she wears it. That's why everybody in town called her "Little Red riding Hood".

The years pass after that. The nickname never left even she was no longer a little girl.

Like any other weekend in the morning, she was getting prepared to go and visit her granny in the woods. She took her hood and a basket with cookies in it that her mother had made before leaving. On her way out she said goodbye to her mother and took direction to the forest road.

She walked really deep in it. She knew the road by memory. At the middle of it the road had a division. The "Wrong way/Right way" division to be more specific. She had been thought that is bad idea to take the wrong way path. It leads the same place, but it was longer and full of weird creatures. The name said it really clear. It didn't stop her to feel curious about it.

A wind blow on her in the moment she was taking the Right way path and took her hood in the way. She tried to catch it, but she couldn't and it had gone to the other path. The wrong way path.

Going or not? What a dilemma she had. She didn't want to lose her hood. Was to special for her. Without thinking it more she ran behind it through.

Her sight found her hood in the shadows, in what appeared to be a tree. She found herself relief now, tired also. She had been running for a big while before catching, well, finding the red hood. She approach to it, taking it and putting it back on her, when an apple felt out of the tree and heat her on the head. Her hands found the place it had strike and felt it hurt, while the apple road through the floor.

_Are you ok? _ she heard someone asking from the place the apple had gone.

It seems to be a person. Hidden on the shadows, so was hard for her to know how it looked. She could distinguish because of the voice he was a "he".

_a-am… yeah. I think so _ she answer barely _ who are you? _ asked curious approaching to him.

_I'm not… someone you should get approach to_ he answer in calm voice giving some steps back.

_why? _ she asked approaching even more.

She stopped at seeing the apple in the floor just in the middle of them. Remembering the hit she had received on her head.

_ Is this yours? _ he asked grabbing the apple from the floor approaching to her enough for her to see how he was.

She stood there. Watching the… guy. If she could call him like that. He had claws, a tail, and pointy wolf ears in the top of his blond quite long hair. But taking that out, he look… human. And handsome.

_ N-No_ she finally answers with a little blush in her cheeks.

_oh, well… In that case_ he grab her hand and placed the apple in it_ I give it to you

She looked the apple and then him with a little bit of confusion in her eyes.

_It's a gift_ he said with a smile in his lips.

What was she doing? She was talking with a wolf. Human like one, but a wolf! He was kind, yet it was dangerous to stay there with him. With any protection. Without thinking she start giving steps back.

_are you ok? _ he asked

_y-yes_ she answer with fear_ I better get going though

_you couldn't stay more?

She didn't answer. She just ran off. Her confusion and fear in that moment was so big to let her think clearly. She run until a rock made her felt down to the ground. Her breath was accelerated as her heart was and her knee hurt. She was alone, lost and hurt in the worst place she could be. The deepest dark part of the forest. After a while, she got sleep.

Hours pass. She opened her eyes slowly. Her body was still on the ground and the forest had get even darker that it already was. Her leg had stopped hurting. Maybe the cold air had work as a kind of amnesties. At least… one good news for her.

She gets back on her feet and cleaned her cloths as best as she could by palming them with her hands. The light in the place was almost gone. She could barely see something.

_This… is bad_ she said for herself.

He took a big breath. Another that has scared of him. Damn he hated been a wolf sometimes. It had its advantages like: good orientation, nose and hearing. But he was always alone. He couldn't have any friends with that appearance and there wasn't any other wolf than him. The creatures around him feared him just like the blond girl.

He knew she was going to get lost. He felt sorrow for her, so after she run up, he followed her. He was really fast. It didn't take long for him to found her. There she was sleep on the floor.

_maybe she felt_ he thought_ but why she didn't get up? _

He think in how ridiculous it was just to sat there on the cold floor when in any moment something can attack you.

The night was getting darker and colder. He was getting tired of waiting for her to open her eyes. Open her eyes?! What the hell is he doing so near? She would shock and run again. Really difficult for him to take her back to the right road if she ran again. What was he thinking?

The eyes of the girl start to get opened or getting prepared to. He ran to the nearest tree he found really hurried to get hide. He looked her getting up and cleaning her cloth.

She was really calm for being alone in the middle of the dark forest. She even looked kind of cute.

_Wait! _ he thought shaking his head.

She is a human. Humans can't be cute to him. Delicious? Yeah, but not cute! No matter how much he would like to be near one without being shut with a gun.

He looks her again. She wasn't standing there anymore. She had start walking. She expected just to top the road back home just by walking around with any orientation of the place? Was she dump or something? That… or she was brave. No! It was dump.

He would like to help her, but he couldn't step in front of her to tell her the way. She would panic!

That's when he looked on an apple and an idea cross his mind.

_Maybe…_

She was lost. Walking here and there without any clue of where to go. Something moved around her ad fear strike her once more. The sound came from her behinds. What if it was something harmful? She was on the "wrong way" side after all. Before she could start running, something came out of the darkness. It was…

_An apple? _ she asked herself feeling confused.

She approach to it and kneel to take it, but in the moment she was near it rolled away of her.

_Ha? _

She approaches to it again and the apple did the same. She didn't understand what was happening. The apple starts going to one side ad another. Then it starts getting farther in only one direction. Like telling "follow me".

She was already lost. There was just matter of time for something to attack her. She had already seen the wolf. Nothing to lose if she followed something as ridiculous as an apple that rolled through the ground "by her own". She had run behind the apple for a long period of time before she noticed she was following a road. It wasn't just a part of the forest. It was the road! Times after that she was back the forest road division.

She couldn't avoid smiling at knowing she could get back home in a piece. But something was giving circles in her mind. Who had helper? Apples don't move alone. Someone had use it to show her the road back home. She thought in the wolf she met back there. She had been rude by running like that, but she was scared and she wasn't even sure he was the one who had helper.

_Just in case… it worth the shut_ she thought.

She turned back to the Wrong way side, took a big breath and with a big smile on her face yelled "thank you wolf!" she turned back again. Walking the way back home.

_Thank you? She thanked me?

He was shock. This was the first time someone thanked him. He felt a blush. Was getting bored of this feeling. He shacked his head to take it off. It did… for a while, until the smile of that girl appeared in his mind and not only brought it back, it was even greater.

_Oh… Damn it! _ He thought out loud, while he comfort in the branch of the tree he was by placing his back on the trunk_ I… like a human.

Days pass. He was always waiting for her to come. After a while the fear she will never return shut him on the face. He really wanted to see her again. He hope it didn't became an obsession to him.

After seven LONG days (for him), he was going to give up.

_She is never coming back_ he said with sorrow in his voice and soul.

He walked to the forest division. He had lost already lost hope. But he hasn't anything better to do anyways.

Time pass and he decided it will be better to stop this madness, but something stop him of leaving. The wind blow like always, but this time bringing something that makes him smile… an aroma. Her aroma. He smiled. Exited as much as he could be. He approached again his sight to the paths division and there she was. The same hood, hair, eyes, and especially… the same beautiful smile. He got prepared to follow her through the Right way, but he was surprised by seeing she took the other one. Why? He didn't know. And neither care.

He starts following her behind every tree he could find in the way so she didn't saw him. She stopped seeing backwards and he quickly tried to get better hidden.

_why you hide? _ She asked smiling _ this place is scary… would you like to join me?

His surprised was bigger now. He got out of his hidden place and join her by her side. They walked without telling anything to each other. Finally, after a while, she cut the awkward silence.

_so… what's your name?

_Len_ he answered _ yours?

_ Mine is Rin. Nice to meet you Len _ she said with a smile on her face that make him turn the head to other side to hide his blush.

_Rin, ja? That is a pretty good name _ he said getting near to her _ like the one who wears it.

She really got blush. No one had told her something like that before. She didn't hang alone with the people on her town. For them she was only the weird girl that always wears a hood. That's why she loved the forest. It was kind of scary, but it was calm and different. That was one of the reasons she loved to visit her grandmother, besides seeing her of course.

While they walk through the path, they talked about them… getting known each other better. They felt really good. The wolf had someone who didn't fear him, and she had found someone who gets her. She found also… another reason to love going to the forest.

They were near her grandmother's house. It was time to say goodbye. She got sad, something Len noticed.

_you want me to join you the way back? _ He asked smiling. She nodded happily.

They stopped just near the house. None of them wanted to say goodbye. They just looked each other directly through the eyes. Before they noticed it they were getting closer. A better than saying goodbye, the perfect moment, but… they have forgot something. Len was still a wolf.

Rin saw how blood dropped out of lens arm, while she felt down through the floor. A hunter had appeared and shut Len. Him, by instinct, had push her out of the way. The gun was now in front of his eyes… ready to kill him.

She closed her eyes. Afraid of what was happening and what was going to happen. The sound of the shot gun makes her open her eyes widely and surprised. She expected to see the body of the wolf lifeless on the floor, but her surprise was bigger by seeing she wasn't on the forest anymore. She was on her room.

_ A dream? _ She thought

It couldn't be a dream… could it? She wasn't sure. She took her hood running to the way out to the forest. She wanted to be sure, sure it wasn't just a dream. She had to see him.

_Rin! _ her mom shouted from the kitchen _ don't you feel like forgetting something?

She was holding a basket. The same basket she uses to take cookies or meals to her grandmother. It was weekend? She took the basket and to the forest as fast as she could, pausing once more in the paths division.

There she was again. With the red hood she always wears. He smiled. It was weird thinking that moments a go he had a dream when a hunter killed him because he thought he was going to harm her. He was going to do something else; something he wishes he had. If it was or not a dream he didn't know, but at least he knew she wasn't. Her existence was real.

He moved a little bit upper in the tree so he could see her better. He stepped on a branch of the tree from which an apple rolled off. He got better hidden because that apple was rolling in Rin direction.

She heard something behind her. She turned curious and found an apple rolling to her. she took it and look up. She turned back again and a smile formed in her lips. She had seen a tail. A wolfs tail. He was real! He wasn't just a dream after all.

She took a big breath, trying to calm her excitement. She walked through the wrong way path being followed by the wolf.

Every weekend since that they, she would took the wrong way and he will follow her just behind every tree he found, hiding so she could see him.

She would pretend not to know. She couldn't avoid smiling though.

They couldn't see each other directly. They couldn't risk the story to repeat. That dream they were not sure if it had been just a dream. Maybe it had happened, but someone had turned the page back and give them a second chance.

Destiny was marked for them. Distance was placed even if they were just in front of each other. They would keep going with their routine every weekend of every week. Hoping that someday, somehow, someone… change the end of the story.