"Grandma! Grandma!" the little girl cried as she ran to hug her grandmother. Both were covered in saliva and the juices of a wolf. The elderly woman feebly reached out and grasped her granddaughter wrapped in a silky red cloak she had knitted once long ago. Her feeble hands shook as the woman's bony fingers clenched around the little girl's body.
"Rhea…" the old woman breathed out. "Oh, my little Rhea…" The girl's body shook against her grandmother's as she let out a high sob. She buried her face in the old woman's chest.
Rhea held her grandmother for a few more tense moments, then turned to look back. The hunter that had so graciously saved them in the nick of time put a boot on the wolf's dead body, standing over it triumphantly. He looked down at the creature with a disappointed look, his rifle slung over his shoulder, hands at his hips.
She slowly released her grandmother and walked over to the hunter standing over the ferocious beast. The calm hunter glanced at her. A concerned look crossed his sharp features. "Are you alright, little one?"
Rhea didn't answer because she didn't hear the man's question. She was too busy gazing on the huge, silky fur of the wolf that had decepted her so well. How could she be so naive to tell him where she was going?
What had her mother said before she left? Stop for no one. There are strangers out there ready to prey on a young girl who will not know this one principle: Stranger danger.
A solid tear slid down her soft face before she quickly wiped it away with a bruised hand. "Yes. I'm fine, thank you." She managed to answer.
The hunter knelt down and hugged the girl tightly. Rhea threw her arms around the man's thick neck, inhaling his timberwood scent.
"Oh, my daughter…" Rhea's father sighed deeply. His mustache bristled against her small shoulder as he gripped her with a protective grasp. "What would I have done if I hadn't come sooner?"
Rhea sobbed into his big shoulder and she heard her grandmother sigh wistfully behind her. Her father didn't know what her mother had told her about strangers, but it still hurt to know that Rhea was as weak as ever without her powerful parents.
Or, at least, that's how she perceived her family.
Little Red Riding Hood was nothing but an oblivious, foolish girl who succumbed to weakness.
What have I done?, she thought tearfully. What have I done?
As her father departed back into the woods to his lumber shack, he slung the wolf's limp body over his strong shoulder. He laid a hand on Rhea's shoulder. "Be safe, my daughter. Stay here until dusk. I shall return for you and we will travel home together."
Rhea smiled up at him gratefully and held his hand. "I will, father. Thank you for saving us."
Her father smiled down at her, then glanced over to his mother-in-law. Her silver hair was re-done in a loose, twisted style and her clothing changed to fresh white linen. She dimpled at the ebony-haired man and nodded. He nodded back.
As he walked away and Rhea bid her father good-bye, she couldn't help but glance at the wolf slung gracefully over her father's shoulder. His black fur tail swung back and forth with her father's stride.
How cunning he was. Rhea made a decision. She would never be weak again. She would train every day at the edge of the lumber woods, where it was safe. She would learn to fight, forge weapons, and exercise her skills in hunting.
She would no longer be a naive little girl. She will follow her father's path, become a huntress, and make the creatures of the woods fear her.
Rhea turned away from the wolf. Little did she know a bigger war was to follow the battle between wolf and human in the lumber woods. All they needed was a few years...