The meeting wasn't going well in King Wendell's eyes. Anthony being the subtle man he was immediately questioned Queen Riding Hood on where Linda was blatantly accusing her of the kidnapping which she in turn was plainly denying. Wolf seemed more like he was struggling to keep himself under control and remained silent. Virginia was rather quiet as well. Wendell was desperately trying to call order but it seemed rather hopeless.
It took everyone by surprise when Virginia stood up suddenly. "That's enough of this! My daughter is missing and there are many other problems at hand. This isn't the time to be acting like children!"
"Yes, my land is on the brink of civil war and my time on the throne grows short as well. She is quite right in saying that we need to stop this pointless bickering." Queen Riding Hood said quickly.
"I agree." Wendell stated. "To put to rest one topic quickly, as far as the revoking of the wolf pardon to try and prevent the civil war in your kingdom is something that I can not abide to. No matter how we argue the subject I will always refuse and we should try and think of other methods to prevent war at a later date." Queen Riding Hood looked appalled at that statement but remained silent. Something rather out of character for her.
"As far as Wolf and Virginia's daughter, Linda having gone missing, I urge that you tell us anything you may know of where she might be Queen Riding Hood or who took her. As of right now we have no leads and are in a desperate search." Wendell continued looking rather pointedly at the queen.
"I am afraid I have no information that could help you King Wendell." Wolf growled quietly hearing that. "If I hear news, I shall inform you immediately but as for now I feel there is nothing left to discuss today." She said.
"I agree" said Anthony suddenly rising to his feet. His tone was cold. "I am glad we were able to talk with you after such short notice."
"Yes, may we meet again then to discuss these matters at another time." Wendell said with a polite bow as he led the Queen toward her carriage.
"She is lying." Wolf said as he finally rose from his seat taking Virginia into a tight embrace.
"Yes I know" Virginia said.
"Don't worry too much. Linda is a strong girl and she'll be fine." Tony said with a bad attempt of a reassuring smile on his face.
Virginia turned to her dad. "I hope."
One of the older maids pushed her way into the mirror room in the white castle. She was one of those sweet older ladies who were more on the plump side and she was rather clumsy. Her eyesight was beginning to fade as well due to old age and her glasses were often forgotten in her room. She walked toward the traveling mirror and immediately began to dust the already well polished frame. The maid hardly even noticed that the mirrors image didn't reflect the room she stood in.
She moved the cloth over the outside, moving the catch that stick out in place without a second thought. She turned to fetch another rag to clean the glass when she bumped into the table besides the mirror. The poor old woman was in such a rush to grab the candlestick that was toppling over that she failed to notice a small sheet of parchment fall to the ground and slip behind the mirror. When her job was done she picked up her things and left the room also failing to note the part of the room which didn't quite fit with the rest on the far side.
Linda sighed heavily as she walked aimlessly through the trees that surrounded her. Her throat was parched and she hoped that she would find something to quench her thirst, even though she knew that she was in nothing more than a dream. It was then that a rather large lake suddenly appeared before her wandering feet. Not bothering to question where the lake had come from, she bent down to take a drink of the clear liquid.
After her hand dipped into the water once and was about to again, she noticed shapes forming in the ripples. She waited till the water was nearly still and leapt back with a small shriek. It was the images from the mirror again though herself was missing. Just the girl in the red cloak and the wolf. She was on her feet in less than a second and was running faster then she thought possible not really understanding why she was so frightened.
Linda was running blindly through the trees till her foot snagged on a root and she nearly hit the ground. Linda looked up to see a woman holding her wrist who had caught her in her fall. Linda was quick to twist out of the woman's grasp and leapt back keeping her own eyes focused on the woman's dark brown ones. She had a carefree smile and was running a hand through her blonde hair. She also had a red cloak on that reminded her too much of the image from the lake.
"No reason to be so jumpy." the woman chuckled softly.
"And who might you be?" Linda said with suspicion she stood stiff as if at any second she would take off.
"Oh, well I'm your grandmother from your fathers side… though I suppose you could consider me like your fairy godmother. My name is Cecile." she said with childish tone.
"Right…" Linda stated with skepticism.
"Whether you believe me or not is your own choice, but I am here to help you none the less."
"Help me? And what would I need help with anyways?" Linda grumbled.
"I am sure that you have quite a bit of questions considering all the things you have been through." Cecile suddenly acquired a more serious manner. "Like the images you saw in that mirror…"
"What do you know of that?"
"The mirror was showing you the very near future in a rather strange way but then again your path in destiny is rather mixed. First though reach into your pocket and remove the cloth from it."
Linda looked at Cecile like she was mad but stuck her hand into her pocket anyway only to feel her fingers seize a piece of smooth satin. She pulled it out to reveal the embroidered cloth that had been forgotten. Linda unfolded the cloth to see a bunch of golden swirls decorating the entire cloth in an intricate design.
"Say 'reveal your secrets to me' out loud." Cecile said moving closer to Linda so that she was able to look at the cloth as well.
Linda shrugged not seeing the harm in doing so, it was all a dream after all. "Reveal your secrets to me." The golden thread suddenly moved and began to form delicately written words. "What is this?!" Linda yelled in surprise.
"The cloth is enchanted to hold the names of entire House of Red bloodline from the first queen to the current young prince."
"What does this have to do with me?" Linda said scanning over some of the names. There were several names that covered the fabric that broke off from the main branch.
"Look at the bottom."
Linda looked at the bottom only to see two names listed, Chris's was on the far left and to her surprise in golden letters was her own on the far right. "W…wh…why is my name here?" She noticed that Cecile's was listed there as well.
"Your father is a descendent of the House of Red though few know of it. If you follow your name up the line you will see that your great grandmother was a sister to the queen but she married a wolf which caused her to be denied her birth right of being a lady of the House of Red. Thus why neither I, your father, nor you have become dignitaries of the second kingdom. It may be distant, but you are related to House of Red and you are the one who should be taking the throne since the law states that only a female of closest relation to the queen may take up the throne once she reaches the age of sixteen. Thus why you saw the image of yourself in the red cloak traditional to the House of Red."
"Well I suppose a few things are starting to make sense. But I'm no queen, I'm just an ordin…" she paused fiddling with the cloth before placing it back in her pocket, "well I'm most definitely not made out to be a queen of a kingdom. Especially not the second kingdom." Linda said leaning against one of the trees. 'Me a queen? I'm the last person who should be queen of that kingdom.'
"There is more. You also say yourself in a wolf form. As you well know, wolves are disliked in the second kingdom. I can testament to that if being burned has anything to do with it and the kingdom is on the brink of a civil war. So it will be an obvious obstacle for you. Also, thanks to that lovely prison you wound up in, you now have a spell to deal with."
"Wait. Who said I was going to become queen anyways. And for another thing its not my fault that I got stuck in that damn cage," Linda hissed out the last words, "and what spell are you taking about? I don't remember any spell."
"You have been feeling different, right? You have been getting headaches and you are irritable, if I'm not mistaken. There is an enchantment on that particular cell that effects wolves. That stain glass window that gives the moon a crimson color when its light shines through it was what casts the enchantment."
"Wonderful…" Linda grumbled with sarcasm. "and what does this enchantment do?"
"For one you will be placed under the House of Red's control to be a servant to whomever gives you a command. Though you are a member of the House, even if distant so I'm not sure how that part of the spell will work. The other part of the enchantment is that you will act like a wolf more and more, losing yourself."
"So I become a mindless wild dog who only obeys its master." Cecile looked sadly at her granddaughter.
"The spell can be broken though but you must do it before the next full moon. Now I must go. Farewell dear." With that the area around Linda faded away into white light. Linda awoke with a start to immediately shield her eyes from the morning sun. She collapsed back upon her bed having a lot to think over.
Author's Note:
Here's another chapter, though I had some issues writting it. I finally got to the meeting which I have been avoiding too. Also I was wondering for somethings that may happen later on the chapter if half wolves are able to turn into real looking wolves cause they really don't tell you in the book or movie. Tell me any ideas you might have for this story too, I would love to hear them and Please Review!