"Little girls, this seems to say
Never stop upon your way
Never trust a stranger friend
No one knows how it will end
As you're pretty, so be wise
Wolves may lurk in every guise
Now, as then, tis simple truth
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth"
Sometimes there is a dark secret within a fairy tale that parents do not want their children to know about. You may be wondering just why wasn't Red Riding Hood's mother was never seen within the town of Storybrook.
Well, I'll be happy to tell you why. Who better to hear it from than the woman herself?
Let me introduce myself to you before I tell you this rather unfortunate tell, shall I? My name is Rosalyn and I am the lost mother to Ruby Red and I was the young girl that stopped upon her way in the forest and was conned by a man with a sweet tongue but hid wicked sharp teeth.
It started long ago, just as winter hit its peak. I lived in a region where mountain and forest collided so you can imagine that the nights were very cold and with winter, as every winter before, there was nothing for the wolves to eat. The pigs and the goats had all been placed safely in the barns. If you were to see a wolf during this time you could count the ribs on his thin body. It was a terribly horrid thing to see.
It was during this frigid winter, Christmas Eve to be exact, that I happened to wander off of the well beaten path, something that my mother's mother told me to never do, just as my mother tells Ruby to this day. And I am happy that she listens to her grandmother, it is a trait that I am glad that she did not inherit from me.
In my homeland, you see, the trees seem to be against you, they are your enemy, especially on a cold winter's night. As I walked through the woods, it seemed as if the trees were plotting along with the wolves that howled around me.
I could hear them all around me. That sad music that they sing, it can break your heart. I grabbed my father's hunting knife that he had willed to me after his unfortunate death and held it tightly in my hands.
You never knew what could be in these haunted forests. My grandmother had always warned me of the beastly men that lived off the trails. She had said on a number of occasions that if I were to ever run up on a man that was naked in the woods that I was to run as if my very so depended upon it, because he was the naked man was a devil taking a little stroll.
Anyways, as I was walking through the woods, I heard a cracking noise from behind me; I just knew that a wolf was behind me. I turned quickly and to my surprise a very handsome man in the finest of silks stood behind me. He was nothing like the boys that lived in our village, they were all idiots and were not worthy of my attentions you see.
"Where did you spring from," I asked as I looked over him in curiosity and a bit of fear as I looked over the stranger.
"Did I scare you," the handsome stranger asked in a thick accent that could be comparable to a French accent in your tongue, "I am sorry."
I backed away slightly as he moved toward me.
"At least you have your clothes on," I informed him with a hint of a smile.
He smiled. It was one of the prettiest and whitest smiles that I had ever seen in my short little life. You see straight white teeth were not the norm in my village.
"Huntsman are you," I asked as I looked over the dead pheasants that drooped over his shoulder. "Have you lost your horse?"
He looked at me with a mischievous look in his eyes as he replied, "Lost my horse and lost my companions young lady."
He moved closer to me but this time I did not move. Oh how foolish of a girl I was!
"And lost your way too," I replied softly as he moved around me in an almost predatory like fashion.
"I do believe that I just found it," he answered as he looked over me with a smile. My red cloak hung to me like a protective blanket, it shielded my ample breasts from his sight for the time being.
I watched as he moved toward my basket that was filled with small cookies, a glass full of alcoholic ale, and a little bird that my mother had cooked just for my Granny.
"I say, do you think that you could spare me a drink out of this," he asked as he held my basket in his hands.
"But I would but it is for my Granny," I replied like an obedient child must, but I was not what I wanted to be for I was as far away from an obedient child as they came.
"I know the very place up the way," he informed me as he pointed deeper into the forest, "for a picnic."
He held his hand out to me and slowly pulled the knife out of my hand that I had been holding in hopes that it would somehow protect me of its own accord. I watched as he placed it to the bottom of the basket and then he handed me his arm like all respectable gentleman of that time did.
It was a mistake of me to do it, but it was a mistake that I would choose all over again to make. I took his arm in mine and walked with him deeper into the woods and further off of the path.
This man is in fact Ruby Red's father if you haven't caught on yet.
"I have the most remarkable object in my pocket," I heard him announce as we sat and enjoyed the little picnic together. "That means I never lose my way in the wood."
"In your pocket you say," I asked in curiosity and a hint of flirtation in my voice as he pulled the object from his pocket. I leaned forward to get a better look.
"This object," he announced as he stood and walked around me, "goes everywhere with me."
"Whenever that is," he said with a small laugh, "I wear my trousers."
I could feel the redness flush my cheeks at the thoughts of this handsome man without his clothes. I handed him a small piece of the cooked bird and watched him bite into it with curiosity.
"Go on," he announced and held the meat out to me, "Bite it."
I looked at him and then down at the cooked meat. I leaned in to bit at it but he quickly pulled it away in a teasing like manner which I played a long like the foolish girl I was. I watched as he placed it in his mouth and waited for me to move closer, which I did. I hurried and bit into the meat that he had in his mouth and quickly pulled away with my small prize.
He giggled at me and then reached down to drink the alcoholic beverage that I was to bring to my grandmother. I felt a rush of anger and betrayal fill me as I watched him take a large swig of the drink. I quickly pulled it out of his hands and prepared myself to scold him.
"Don't you know how strong that stuff is," I asked as I placed it back into the basket. He looked at me with wide eyes. I am quite sure that I have been the only woman in his life to pull him away from what he wants.
"A man in our village keeps a still," I informed him, "He's the reddest nose you've ever saw."
I took this moment to look him into his dark brown eyes. His eyes were so brown that you could sink in them like it was a large vat of chocolate.
"He tells lies too," I informed him softly. "Like you."
He looked at me in disbelief.
"I don't believe there is such a thing," I informed him in reference to the remarkable object in his pocket.
"Seeing is believing," he answered as he stood and walked around me as I watched him in curiosity as he dug into his pocket.
He knelt down beside me and showed me the object. There really was an object in his pocket. It was made of the purest of gold and it had a needle on the inside. I had never seen such a thing in my life.
"The little needle always points North," he informed me as he watched me look over the object with interest. "No matter where I go. So I always know exactly where I am."
I took it from him and inspected it closer. I smiled at the sight of this strange and foreign object.
"I don't believe it, and even I can see it," I exclaimed in disbelief.
"It was this compass that brought me safe through the wood," he informed me.
"But you lost your way in the wood," I reminded him with harsh eyes. I knew he had been lying to me. He seemed to perfect to be true.
"But," he answered as he placed his hand behind my ear and twirled my brown locks between his long fingers, "it led me to you."
I looked away from him in slight embarrassment. I had never had a man talk to me in such a way or even touch me with soft hands like he was. It filled me with the strangest emotions. Emotions that were too strong for a young girl to understand.
"Are you sorry," he asked. He had obviously misinterpreted my look of confusion for distress.
"No," I admitted honestly and looked at his smiling face, "I'm not sorry. They're clowns…the village boys."
"Well then," he announced with a large smile.
"But don't you know that you should never leave the path," I asked him in curiosity.
"I've only just got on to the path," he explained with his kind brown eyes, "I was perfectly safe before."
I looked at him in confusion as all my grandmother's stories came back to my mind.
"Aren't you afraid of the wolves," I asked as I shook my head.
I watched as his eyes went wide as if I had just insulted him.
"Now why should I be frightened of the wolves," he asked.
"You must know that the worst wolves are hairy on the inside," I replied.
What I had said must have gotten off with him because he had stood quickly and looked down at me.
"Old wives tales, peasant superstitions, what? I bright young girl, pretty, intelligent young girl like you believing in werewolves," he announced with a strange passion in his voice as he walked around me once more.
"But my Granny said that," I started to reply, I could hear the fear that was entering my voice and I knew by the change on his face that he could hear it as well.
"Well for believing in old wives tales," he announced as he moved back to my side.
I watched him closely as he moved closer and closer to me. I could feel my heart beating with fear and something else. It was the strangest feeling at the time.
"You deserve," he added softly as he placed one hand behind my neck.
"To be," he whispered as he took my hand in his warm and soft hand.
I leaned in expecting for the best thing that he could give.
"Punished," he announced happily as he toppled on top of me.
I fell softly into the snow and giggled along with him. He really was a handsome chap. The laughter stopped quickly as his eyes locked with mine.
"I'll show you that I am not afraid of the wolves Rosalyn," he informed me. I almost melted from the way my name rolled off of his tongue.
"I'll make a bet with you," he whispered to me as I still looked into his deep brown eyes.
"I bet you anything you like that I will get to your Granny's house before you," he informed me with a devilish grin.
"How," I whispered as if I was entranced by his eyes.
"Because I will use my compass to help me across the country," he informed me, "while you drudge along the dreary path."
"Bet me your compass," I asked rather foolishly. Of all the things I could have in the world and that is what I wanted. Shows you where my priorities were located.
"Bet you, your heart's desire," he whispered to me and leaned in close to me.
"And if I lose," I asked as I looked up at him with a strange sort of longing.
"You can," he replied slowly as he looked down at my chest that was no longer covered by my red cape, "give me a kiss."
He leaned in close and then a panic over took me. I pushed him away quickly and looked over him. It was moving way too fast for me at this young age.
"Here," he announced happily as if I had never pushed him away, "Take my hat as a token of good will. Wear it until we meet again."
I smiled as he placed his beautiful blue feathered hat upon my head. I watched helplessly as he grabbed my basket and started to walk away from me.
And this is where the well-known of Little Red Riding Hood comes in. It happens just the way it is usually told, except my grandmother was killed and the idiot axman never showed up. But who did show up was my mother and father just a few minutes before this strange huntsman had taken away my girlhood and transformed me into a woman.
When she found me, I was now a werewolf that lurked the Enchanted Forest.
Of course, after the years I had become pregnant with our first child. My husband and I thought it was safer to have her brought up in a village where she was free to make her own decision of whether she wanted to stay on the well beaten path or stray like her mother did. I had no doubt that my mother would protect her unlike she did me.
It's a strange world that we live in now, this town of Storybrook. My husband and I depend on Mr. Gold to protect us in this world.
I do hope that one day my dear little girl will follow in my footsteps and stray from the path and meet a man that is not really a man.
Sometimes there has to be a fairy tale where the prince, or the axman, never shows up, and the princess dies. I guess I was the perfect candidate for that fairy tale because my human life ceased to exist once I fell in love with my little wolf.
A/N: I own nothing of Company of Wolves! It belongs to Angela Carter and Niel Jordan! Which if you have not seen or read The Company of Wolves, do it now! I also do not own Once Upon a Time.
This oneshot just came to me because I did not like the Red Riding Hood episode (I thought it was idiotic myself and too much like Twil..I mean that Red Riding Hood movie). And I was wondering why you never heard from her mother! So this connection had to be made!
Also if you like this I have a True Blood Story that takes a lot of elements from The Company of Wolves. It is honestly the only story I have put my heart and soul into.
Reviews are always welcome :)
