I do not own Red Riding Hood. I only invented a few characters.

Chapter 1 – Arrival

The carriage slowly came to a halt and I saw all townspeople standing in front of their houses, expecting something bad to happen. Obviously they had bad experiences when carriages arrived in their town. It was autumn, which meant it was harvest season. Most of the men were out on the fields, working, harvesting. I was too young to help in the fields. Normally girls at the age of seventeen are allowed to go for their first time. I would have to wait a little bit longer.

As the carriage-doors opened, a pretty young woman, maybe in her twenties, peeked inside to have a look. It was a shabby carriage, so there was nothing to be found inside. She pointed me to get outside and I slowly descended from the stairs.

She smiled warmly and greeted me when I arrived safely on the ground.

'Hello, my dear. It's nice to see you. We've been awaiting you,' she gestured into the round of citizens, which were all gathered on the market place. I felt like an animal in a cage, 'This is our village. We know why you came here. We all appreciate a new face in our midst, please be welcome. My husband's the town's govner, but he's sick at the moment, so I was the one to welcome you. Follow me; I will guide you to your new family.'

The nice woman led me through the not-so-large crowd and down an alley.

'Your family is happy you chose to live with them,' she smiled warmly at me, and I smiled back.

I chose them? Who told her that? I was happy where I was. It wasn't my choice to leave. Leaving my old city was the worst thing they could do to me. New people always were suspicious about different people; especially about different girls.

'I'm sure you will feel right at home after some time.'

We stopped in front of a woodcutter's house. It wasn't hard to notice, because the house was built in a very special wood. Only an old and wise woodcutter could find such wood.

The woman knocked on the door and a very old woman opened the door.

'Hello Rose, who is this handsome girl you brought with you,' the old woman asked.

'This is the foster child.'

'Really? It is nice to finally meet you. What is your name, my dear?'

'Vanessa,' I answered carefully and silently.

'You look quite old for your age,' the old woman still smiled, 'how old are you exactly?'

'Thirteen.'

Rose and the old woman looked surprised at me and mustered me along. Suddenly the old woman talked normally again.

'Well, as I said, you're quite tall for your age,' she smiled again.

Rose's eyes narrowed and got smaller as she mustered my face hard again.

'You seem familiar,' she whispered. I looked into her direction and wondered. I had never seen any of their faces before.

'Your eyes must be tricking you,' the old woman suddenly said. She sounded as if she wanted to have this matter away quickly, 'Come in, my dear.'

The old woman led me inside and inside it even looked more beautiful than outside, if that was even possible; a large living room with an eating-table and a doorway to the kitchen and stairs to the upstairs rooms. It really seemed like home. No foster family of mine ever had such a beautiful house. I had to admit that one looked a little bit like this, but none of them were so welcoming and warm and had such a wonderful smell inside.

'It's getting late, you should go now,' the old woman suggested to Rose and nearly pushed her outside.

'Vanessa, when something's wrong; you can come and tell me, okay? I live in the smithy; or if you don't feel at home,' she smiled a last smile and vanished through the door.

The old woman closed the door quickly and locked it afterwards. I noticed that it hadn't been locked before when Rose and I had arrived here.

'It's not a palace, but it's enough for living,' the old woman smiled and came into my direction, 'You can call me grandmother.'

What a suspicious woman. She offered me to call her grandmother from the first day on? She had to be crazy.

I walked to a window and looked outside. It really was getting dark already. A big red ball was hanging at the sky and was covering everything in a dark red fog. Blood Moon. I hadn't noticed that it was a Blood Moon week this week.

Grandmother placed herself beside me and looked up to the sky.

'Most of the villagers connect Blood Moon with bad memories.'

'It's my first Blood Moon.'

'You were born in a Blood Moon year, weren't you?'

I nodded. Of course I didn't know exactly when my birthday was, but I never celebrated it, so I didn't care. I had been an orphan since my birth. At first I was at an orphanage, but people always picked me, because they thought I looked cute and well-groomed. This well-groomed girl always turned out to be strange and different, so I was returned all the time. But now I was growing too old for the orphanage, so they searched a family for me. This family was so grateful to let me stay and took me as their foster-child. Only that I didn't look like a child anymore. All my life I grew faster than the other kids, but not only on the outside. I spoke my first word with three months and could walk after one. Thankfully the growing stopped a year ago, but I stayed at my looks as a seventeen year old girl; and I wasn't acting like a thirteen-year-old. That was also a reason why I never had friends in the orphanage. I spent most of my life there, but still had no real friends, except one, but I didn't dare thinking about him for six years.

'The townsfolk fears that it will return this week.'

'What will return?' I asked Grandmother and looked at her. What was about that Blood Moon? I heard about it before, but what had happened thirteen years ago that frightened the people of the town like that?

'Don't scare our new family-member with such news on her first day,' a woman said from behind us, 'welcome in our home, I hope you like it. I am your foster-mother.'

She spread the warmth of a real mother and the smell of a good cook. 'Thank you, I really like it.'

'I'm glad,' she intended to hug me, so I hugged her. I appreciated it. I had never felt this way about any woman before in my life.

Someone tried to open the entrance door, but since Grandmother had locked it, it stuck.

Grandmother hurried quickly to see who was trying to open the door and quickly unlocked it.

'Why is our door locked again?' a man in his middle age said. He suddenly stopped and looked shocked as he spotted me, 'Who is that?' he asked panicked.

'This is Vanessa, your foster-daughter,' Grandmother answered him and tried to calm him again.

'She looks exactly like-.'

'We know,' Grandmother interrupted him quickly and shoved him upstairs.

'I'm sorry for my husband. He can be very...moody sometimes,' my foster-mother smiled warmly and vanished upstairs too.

Why was he suddenly so panicked? Who did I look exactly like? Maybe they knew my real parents! No, I always put too much effort into that sort of thinking. I hadn't met my parents for thirteen years. They won't just turn up and say 'Hello Vanessa, we're your parents. We are sorry we show up now.'

Somehow I longed so much for my real parents. I wanted to know who brought me to the orphanage and vanished without being seen again. I had always been told that I had been brought by an enormous wolf, but that was only a fairytale to keep me from asking all the time.

Outside the moon seemed to get brighter, but it was only because the sun descended behind the horizon.

I hope you like it so far. Don't get angry with me if I get information wrong.