Little Red Riding Hood
She still dreamed of Elphaba even though she knew she was gone. The blonde woman couldn't help what her unconscious dreamed of but she wished with her heart that her mind would stop torturing her.
But she didn't know whether to be thankful or not when her carriage suddenly stopped, sending her head flying into the interior of the transportation vehicle and her dream ended right there. Her recurring dream about Elphaba not dying was over for the moment by the jolt.
Rubbing her now sore head with a hand, Glinda woke up to find that it was now nighttime, nearly midnight if her calculations were correct. The moon hung high up in the sky, shining down on the tree-infested forest she was now near.
A sigh escaped her lips as her mind began to focus on reality instead of her dream. Her skirts shuffled as she reached for her red velvet cloak to wrap around herself in the cold night air. She exited the carriage quite cross and strode over to where her drivers were. The horses were neighing and backing away from the entrance of the forest as if they were scared of something.
"What is the matter?" snapped Glinda, irritated that she had to leave the warm carriage and venture out into the night air that whipped around her. The blonde woman shivered even in her cloak as she waited for them to answer her.
"Well, Ma'am the horses have stopped. They won't go any further, we tried coaxing them with apples and treats, we even whipped them a few times but there's no use," explained her head driver, Maxan.
Glinda huffed, her patience wearing ever so thin.
"There is no time for dilly-dallying boys, I need to be home in the morning for my speech," pressed Glinda. She shifted her weight to her other foot as another bout of cold air wrapped itself around her body.
"We're trying, Your Goodness," piped up her other driver, "But these are the Dark Forest Woods we're going to be traveling through. The horses have a good reason not to want to go in there."
Glinda was neither impressed by the mystery he told, nor interested.
"Let me guess," she cut in quite shrilly, "There are lions and tigers and bears in there?" She struggled not to roll her eyes at the stupidity that seemed to be in the majority of her fellow Ozians in this point of time. She expected him to say yes, and was a little surprised when he didn't.
"No, Your Goodness. The local people at the village say that the Wicked Witch is still alive and that she lives in there. They say that she magicked the forest and that the animals who inhabit it are her spies. Some even said that they-"
"That's quite enough of that silly nonsense!" snapped Glinda harsher than she had ever spoken to her servants before. Her words echoed in silence. She had had enough of the citizens of Oz 'seeing' Elphaba everywhere. Glinda knew that she was dead, or at least she thought she knew. Though with the number of sightings and rumors had made the Good Witch have doubts, she pushed them away, not ready for more heartache if she actually believed one of them and then it turned out to be fake.
"Well, um Your Goodness," sputtered out Maxan with his head hanging low, "I don't think it's silly nonsense. I believe that the Witch really inhabits these woods, and I- I won't go a step further into that forest."
Glinda was flabbergasted. She stared at them both with her mouth hanging wide open and her eyes glaring.
"You're joking?" she asked in a grave voice.
He shook his head and Glinda let out a shriek of frustration. She was too tired, too angry, and all she wanted to was to go home and these people wouldn't let her because of some stupid myth.
"And what about you, Yackly? Do you believe this allegation?" she asked, her voice as cold as ice.
He too did not look at her, "I do, Ma'am, " he managed to get out shamefully.
Cursing under her breath, Glinda bit her lip hard and settled her hands on her thin hips as she pondered over to what to do.
"Well, you're not just going to leave me, are you?" she asked after a moment, "Surely there is some other way we can go to get back home…"
Maxan was the one to break the news to her, "Well, there actually isn't. We can't go back now; it will take us days to get back on the main road. The horses branched off on a different trail a mile back and we couldn't find the main road anywhere… so we're stuck here."
"And neither of you bothered to tell me that we were on the wrong course?" Glinda all but screamed.
The two drivers looked scared of her now, "Well," started Yackly, "We were going to but we thought we'd end up on the main road eventually. We didn't know we were headed… here."
Glinda seethed, her hands gripped the soft velvet fabric of her cloak that hid her white chiffon dress tightly.
A wolf howled in the distance and although Glinda didn't seem to notice both Yackly and Maxan flinched at the sound.
"Well, pity for you two," she spat out in anger.
She quickly decided that she was going home no matter what and she hiked up her skirts and began walking through the prickly bushes and coarse trees.
Her red cloak billowed out all around her from the wind and Glinda had walked quite a ways before she realized that neither Yackly nor Maxan had followed her.
Disappointment, anger, fear, and a sense of determination all slowly welled up inside of the woman. Stopping for a moment Glinda took in her surroundings while the owls hooted, the squirrels scurried along the forest floor, the wolves howled, and the birds sang their nighttime lullabies.
The moonlight shone in through cracks in the forest canvas as Glinda walked on, determined to get to at least a nearby village before dawn broke.
"Those fools," she muttered to herself, "thinking that Elphaba is still alive and hiding in these woods… there is nothing to fear here."
But her feelings of fear hadn't developed fully until she heard rustling and cracks of branches and leaves from behind her as she rested for a while. Her body was exhausted from walking in her laced up boots, and she sat down next to a tree. With her body resting on the tree, she closed her eyes for a moment and relished in the peace and quiet of the darkness.
Panting of some sorts that was coming from behind the tree disturbed her peace and quiet. Nervous for the first time in the forest, Glinda swallowed hard and wondered if she even should look behind her. She now wished that she had been really listening to what Yackly and Maxan had been telling her earlier. She could only hope that it wasn't a killer beast, or a murderer or a rapist. Summoning up all of her courage Glinda peered around the trunk to see gleaming gold eyes staring at her.
Scurrying away from the eyes quickly, Glinda unsteadily got to her feet and trembled with horrible fear.
She heard slight laughter coming from where she had seen the eyes and that only frightened her even more.
Suddenly a large animal emerged from its hiding spot deep in the woods, its silvery fur coat gleaming like newly polished silver. Its golden eyes stared at Glinda and the wolf licked his chops hungrily.
"Stay- stay away!" but Glinda's command was futile as her voice trembled and shook.
She backed up even further away from the wolf and she was horrified when a chuckle seemed to escape from its lips.
The wolf's eyes seemed to roam over her body as the wolf paced in a circle around her, its huge paws pressing into the dirt below in a beat.
"Don't you worry, dearie…" said the wolf as it stopped pacing right in front of her. The fact that the wolf could speak startled Glinda and seemed to make her freeze with fear while the wolf took a few steps forward so that he was mere inches from her, "I wouldn't hurt a pretty little morsel like you. I just want to help you…you know, help you get to Grandma's house…"
The wolf appeared to smile for a moment before snarled and snapped its glistening teeth at Glinda, as if in warning.
"Wait, please!" cried out Glinda raising one arm over her face as if that would protect her. Her mind raced as she thought of a plan. She remembered what her driver had said about the animals being Elphaba's spies…
"I know Elphaba!" she shouted as she heard the wolf crouch down, prepared to pounce on her.
Opening her eyes, which she hadn't realized she had shut in the first place, Glinda saw that her words had stopped the wolf.
"Do you really?" he asked, still crouched. Those golden orbs of his seemed to swirl as he stared her down.
"Yes, I do. We used to be friends…" Glinda whispered, ready to tell him everything if it kept him from eating her.
Silence filled the forest for a few seconds as the Wolf pondered over that.
"Well then," he said as he straightened his massive body, "That changes everything if you know her…"
Glinda remained somewhat doubtful, "It does?" she asked in high-pitched voice as she slowly lowered her arm to look at the Wolf.
"Yes," The Wolf looked at her with a resemblance of a sly smile on its furry face, "It does. Now come on Blondie, I'll take you to see her…"
Doubt and fear now seeped into Glinda's body as she watched the Wolf stealthily begin to walk away, deeper into the forest.
"You coming or what?" asked the Wolf as it turned its head to look at her, "Don't worry, Blonde you can trust me now…"
But Glinda didn't know if she really could, and she voiced that.
"Can I really?" she asked, her voice still trembling but it had regained some composure.
The Wolf shook its head at her. He turned and showed her a half-smile half smirk.
"Guess we're going to find out, aren't we?" he said as he started walking once more.
The hope of maybe seeing Elphaba again consumed Glinda though she sorely wished it hadn't, and that it also hadn't involved a Wolf taking her to see her old friend. But the hope was too great to suppress and before she knew it, Glinda was walking besides the Wolf.
I got inspired to write this little three-shot after listening to the song L'il Red Riding Hood by Amanda Seyfried. The next chapter will be posted sometime this weekend hopefully... and I promise I will upload more to The Main Attraction someday... :) I have Feb vacation coming up next week but I'm working a tournament at work all week so I'll have limited hours to write but I will try. On another note I survived the snow storm in my area, even though my family and I were out of power for two days and there's two feet of snow on the ground. Enough of my life... hoped you all liked this.
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