A/N: Just because I don't think Red Swan gets enough love...
Her entire life, she'd seen red. She'd grown up with it surrounding her, with no idea why. She didn't know why a lot of things happened to her.
Why her parents had left her. Why her Granny was so strict. Why her life seemed like a cage she just couldn't break through. Why she felt so trapped sometimes, she longed to take off running in the dead of the night and never stop.
God, how she wanted to take, no, rip off the mundane red cloak she wore day after day and never see it again. Even if she did run, she knew though, she'd never get rid of the color that seemed to be the harbinger of entrapment. Because she could run as far as she wanted, but her name would still remain.
"Red!" Granny stomped her feet on the porch, creating a rumbling that rolled through the air. She glanced back and forth, craning her neck so she could see behind the tree where Red so often liked to hide.
"Red! Get in here! It's getting dark and so help me…" Granny booming voice trailed off as she saw Red strolling up to the house casually, not at all concerned by the urgency of her voice.
The young woman continued her slow pace, picking apart a flower in her hand. She held the stem between her thumb and her pointer finger, twisting it slowly. Her other hand plucked off petals freely, tossing them into the air only to watch them flutter down.
"Tomorrow you're washing the clothes. We'll see how you like what happens when you get me worried." Granny, satisfied that Red now on their property, swiveled around on her calloused heels and disappeared into the house. Red listened to the thuds of the older woman's footsteps as she undoubtedly went to the kitchen to finish making dinner.
The young brunette looked back down at what was left of the flower she still held in her hand and stared purposefully at it. She breathed in deeply, her chest expanding with the intake of air before she let it out slowly. With one quick pluck, she pulled off the last petal that remained on the flower. It was decided.
While Granny had most likely thought she was being lovesick and doe-eyed, plucking off petals to see whether 'he loves me, or he loves me not', Ruby was simply putting her life in fate's hands. And fate had decided that tonight was the night she was going to break free.
Red twisted the stem in her fingers once more and tossed it behind her. The side of her lips curled up, reveling in a smile only known to her.
It was the middle of the night when Red finally dared to stir from her bed.
"I'm finally going to be free," she whispered to herself as she pulled on her boots. She dressed in her corseted dress, wishing she had something easier to move around in. This will have to do, she thought to herself.
Kneeling down, she slid out a leather bag that contained food and supplies she would need. With one delicate finger, she swept back brown strands that were rapidly slipping in front of her face while simultaneously hoisting the bag upon her back.
Slowly, she unhitched the window and swung one leg over the sill. While sitting propped up, she took one last glance back into her room, bidding an overdue goodbye to the red cloak that remained on her bed.
In the woods, she found herself relaxed, cheerful even, and ignorantly so. Red was currently heading straight into the thickest part of the forest.
The only people that traveled in these woods were peasants like herself, but even then, they moved throughout it only in the daytime, and always with caution. But even so, Red moved as though she was part of the forest.
With each passing minute, Red felt as though the was able to bend with the branches. Her footsteps seemed lighter, quicker, as if she were slightly floating in the air. Somehow, her senses seemed to sharpen. Which she attributed it to the weight of her old life off her back.
"This is the new you, Red," she said to herself, not knowing how true it was about to be.
While Red's movements were smooth and natural, there was something to be said about the quick and deliberate movements of another creature of the woods. The common thief. Not that the Emma was one, that was her father.
The thin blonde woman had yet to figure out what she wanted to be. For now, she was content to wander the forest and explore. Her favorite pastime included lifting bread from the local vendor's cart, and eating it while reclining twenty feet above the ground in one of the many trees that made up the forest.
Most of the time though, her peaceful world was shattered by the many con people that frequented the forest. Not the harmless ones though that begged for a quick buck to gamble on, the ones that hurt and killed when they didn't get what they wanted.
When these scumbags would happen to stumble in an area where Emma was roaming, she made sure their plots were foiled. All in all, she'd turned over forty muscle flexing, thigh showing, weapon wearing con men and women into forty poison ivy rashed, confused, weaponless ex-con men and women with their pants on fire and their hands tied behind their back. And she had enjoyed every minute of it.
She figured by saving the local travelers from the harms these people could have cost them, paid off the loaves of bread she snuck off the market cart almost daily.
On this very night though, the forest seemed pretty quiet. She continued her nightly stroll tossing a rock up and down in one hand, her other hand clutching a handmade slingshot. Her blonde hair spread over her shoulders in near perfect ringlets.
Suddenly, her body tensed. She stealthily stalked over to the nearest tree and stood behind it, her back leaning on the rough bark and she loaded up her sling shot.
The footsteps she had heard were those of an expert, she could tell that for sure. They moved fast and light, and if she wasn't mistaken they didn't sound very humanlike. But before she could sneak up on the thing that was currently rustling around in the leaves, it seemed to discover her first with its narrow yellow eyes.
Emma pressed even harder against the bark of the tree as a chocolate haired wolf approached her slowly. Its head was hung, its ears pert while its eyes focused only on Emma. It was a position that the blonde knew well, one she often replicated. A position of hunting. And there seemed to be only one target in sight.
Just before Emma released her slingshot to shoot at the wolf, she faltered. There was something different about the wolf's eyes. They seemed to be swirling between the narrow yellow ones and round brown ones, as if the wolf was fighting with someone inside of it.
Whether Emma's curiosity was struck, or she just decided the chances weren't in her favor with the slingshot, she changed her plan and took off sprinting.
She could feel the wolf on her heels, its breath against her calves. She only had to get a few more steps. Just a few more.
She jumped over what appeared to be an invisible trigger string and halted five feet beyond it. She turned around to see the wolf sprinting at her, a growing smirk on her face. This was not her first triggered trap rodeo.
In fact, this was how she caught most of the con people. She taunted them enough to come chasing after her and before they knew it, they were swinging above the ground.
She had the traps set up almost everywhere in a half mile radius, and only she knew how to avoid them. As planned, the wolf was immediately captured by a handmade net hidden beneath the leaves, and was hoisted into the air. The wolf struggled and twisted, trying to get its bearings on a surface that only brought discomfort.
After a solid couple miutes of struggling, which Emma respected considering the disappointing struggle many of her other deserving victims gave, the wolf stilled. It tilted its head towards Emma, looking back into her eyes.
Emma pulled her hair back, which had gotten wild around her face on the run and took a couple steps closer. She could hear the intake followed by a sharp outtake of breath traveling through the wolf's nose.
It seemed to breathe faster as she got closer, now nervous of the woman.
Once they stood face to face, they mapped each others features out with their flickering eyes. What caught Emma so off guard though was how misplaced the wolf's eyes looked close up. She had noticed something off when it was coming towards, feral. But now, it was unmistakable.
The wolfs eyes were soft. Pleading. Begging. Emma felt herself being swallowed up by those eyes. She wanted to comfort the soul that felt how those eyes looked.
Without thinking, she inched her trembling hand towards the wolf's back. Both of their breathing rapidly quickening as their hearts pumped correspondingly. Once Emma's hand made the slightest of contact with the think fur that covered the wolf, a whine escaped from the canine creature.
Startled by the sound, Emma stumbled back, tripping on an upturned root. The wolf, who had been so still and calm just seconds ago began twisting and struggling as if in pain. Emma pushed off a bent leg to stand back up while she watched what was happening in front of her.
Laying in the net was no longer a wolf, but a woman curled up in a ball. Seeing an actual person take the place of the wolf scared Emma into slashing the rope holding the net up with her knife. She raised the rope up slowly, allowing the net to lower increment by increment until the woman was set gently on the ground.
Emma kicked a root and ran her hands through her hair. Keep it together Emma.
She took a step each minute, convincing herself the worst was over. People don't bite off other peoples heads. Wolves do.
Then why did she feel so much more comfortable with a half rabid wolf chasing her, than a seemingly beautiful woman sprawled out on the ground. Well, you don't know if she's beautiful yet, Emma thought.
Emma berated herself for being such a wimp and kneeled down next to push the hair out of the brunette's covered face to see if she was awake.
When she finally moved the shockingly silky brown curls away, her heart seemed to stop at the beauty of the woman. She found herself noticing features that had only existed before. Cheekbones. Eyebrows. Lips. God, those lips.
But what Emma wished to see most of all, the thing that had drawn her in from the beginning, her eyes, remained closed. With a rustle of leaves under Emma's foot, the woman on the ground began to shift. Emma froze, completely unsure of what to do.
Ruby blinked her eyes open. She was confused to say the least.
She had no idea where she was.
Why she was on the ground.
Why her neck hurt.
Where her bag disappeared to.
And what was this underneath her? A net?
There was only one thing she was sure of.
That a flash of blonde hair was rapidly disappearing into the woods.
If you guys like this, please let me know! I'll make a decently long fic out of it :)