Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!" - Charles Perrault

She had a package to deliver, if she could only knew what it was. They'd sent her out to give it to someone important, and said not to get lost on the way. She remembered a man with a smooth voice taking it away from her, and she remembered the click of metal and the consuming darkness that followed it. The kind man who woke her said that her path would go to the city, so that's where she set off for.

She was a Courier. She was number six in a line. She'd been going to the house of an old man- her grandfather, perhaps. Or was House his name? Her memory hadn't been working well since that horrible night (or perhaps it had never worked well- it wasn't as if she would remember if it did.) Among the personal possessions they'd found her with, there were no records of a family, no pictures of loved ones, and no way back home- if there even was a home.

The only way to go was forward. To grandfather's house (or Grandfather House, or perhaps just to an old man of no relation to her at all.)

The path was marked on her map, and she told herself she wouldn't stray from it. They said there were monsters all over, things that would devour her whole if she went too far in the wrong direction. She had some small protection against them- a pretty girl with a bright smile had given her a rifle and showed her how to aim it- reminded her, rather. She could feel her hands moving into place by themselves, as if she'd done it a thousand times before she lost her memory.

"I know Doc and Victor told you the way to go," Sunny had said, "but are you sure you want to? It's a tough trip, especially for someone in your condition."

"The doctor told me I'm in better condition than he had any right to expect. I can tell my mind is running slower than it should and no amount of waiting to heal will fix that. It's sweet of you to worry about me, but I have to go where they told me. I'm the sixth courier, and I was supposed to make a delivery."

They waved her off with a small bag of food and best wishes. The mechanical man gave her a cheery cry of "So long, Red!" Maybe he was referring to her hair color, or to the way she'd been stained when he found her nearly dead.

Red was as good a name as any, though. At least it was more personal than Six.

On the road, Red found she was somewhat hardier than Sunny had given her credit for. Her eyes were quick, and if she had forgotten what monsters looked like, it was simple enough to shoot things that charged her. She could build a fire and forage for fruit, and could even read the discarded books that littered the floors of abandoned homes. She wasn't stupid after all- if she stuck to the path, she was sure she could find her way.

Of course, things became much less clear when she met the Wolf Man.

There was no one else with her when Red stumbled into the woods. It wasn't a forest of green leaves and shade; she didn't think those had existed for hundreds of years. Nevertheless, her walk was lined with trees, tall and sturdy and brown, a patch of forest in the middle of the desert.

The forest was called Nipton, and the trees were made of the dead and dying. Blood dripped from the branches as rainwater might after a storm, the branches formed from human arms. Birds perched on the branches- scavengers, snatching flesh while the tree itself writhed and moaned. Red stumbled and fell to the ground at the sight of them, and when she looked up she was staring into the eyes of wolves.

In her shock and horror, it was at first difficult to tell one wolf from the other, but her vision soon cleared. One beast was standing on four legs, a low growl threatening her from the back of its throat. The other wasn't really a wolf at all, just a man wearing the skin of one. If he hadn't been wearing sunglasses, she might have checked to see if his eyes glowed like those of his pet.

"This is a strange place for a little girl to visit. Did you have business in Nipton?" The Wolf Man's face flickered with the hint of a smile. "Family?"

"I just need to get through here, I have to deliver a package..." Red felt herself choking on the words, unsure if she should be talking to a man undisturbed by the death around him. His voice was calm and tranquil, though, and he reached out a hand to help her off the ground.

"Do not waste your pity on the men you see here. Criminals, degenerates. They would have happily raped you without a second thought, keeping you with them by underhanded means. Girls shouldn't walk alone through places like this."

"I'll be going, then-"

"You're not alone now, though." The Wolf Man gave her a wider smile. "Just where were you going?"

"The city. There's a house I have to reach. A house with an old man."

As they were talking, Red had failed to notice the placement of the Wolf Man's hand. He'd held her fingers when pulling her up, but his own fingers were now holding her, ever so gently, by the wrist. It was instinctual for him, the way a dog would rush at the smell of food. She did see his eyes, though- even through the sunglasses, she was close enough that she could see the outline.

What big eyes he had...

"I might suggest you take a different path. The main road leads through rough territory, unguarded as Legion roads are. I'll show you the way if you spread word of this place."

Red stammered a quick thank you, blushing for reasons she wasn't quite sure of. Then, again with little reason, she asked his name.

"Vulpes Inculta." She knew the name must have been Latin, with the V's pronounced as W's. Vulpes the Wolf Man.

Red must have known more than a little Latin at some point in her prior life, for as she walked in his suggested direction, his name came to mean something to her. Was it shaggy dog?

Wolves kill to eat, but dogs are trained. They kill for sport, as do so many trained animals. If Red could have seen the way Vulpes looked at her as she left, it would have occurred to her that they also sometimes play with their food.