Once Upon A Time

by hara-leah

Once Upon a Time, they were beautiful and strong. Once Upon a Time, they were the evil-doers, the malicious ones. Once upon a time, they were magnificent. Once Upon a Time, they didn't need their children to be beautiful and cunning and powerful for them. Once Upon a Time, they didn't need to send their kids to rule the world for them, because they were already doing it themselves.

10. He Was Their Protector

Once Upon a Time (He Was Their Protector)

The fire was red. Everywhere he looked, he just saw red. Blood and fire. Everywhere. It became his greatest fear, the colour red, a terror, a reminder of his failure to protect the forest from the destructive nature of humans.

And that would just not do.

He was Shere Khan, fearsome and terrifying and a monster (protector). So he embraced red. Everything he owned was the colour of fireandbloodandroses. And when a little -human- boy was left outside his den (Just like Mowgli), he refused to let his mates eat the child. Instead, he named it Red, a final conquering of his irrational fear.

And so he swore to never let the child want for anything. He was the protector, of the forest and his son.

Red was raised as a tiger, on raw meat and blood and violence, and he loved it. He built up a craving for it, so bad that he'd sneak out and kill for the sport because hunting could no longer satisfy the urge, the desperate desire for human blood. (Because he wasn't human, no matter what they said, because humans were weak, that was what father said, and he wasn't weak, he refused to be weak).

And when little Alice crept into their den and brought an axe down on his father's neck, Red watched from the shadows, eyes glinting. When she picked up the severed head, he pounced, claws extended, and brought them down against her skin, leaving eight deep scars, dripping with blood. And he picked up his father's head, placing it back against the body (no one on the Isle of the Lost would die, but they couldn't be reborn without all the original pieces. Many people walked into Felicia Facilier's shop and walked out with a single finger, keeping their enemies from rebirth after death).

He let Alice (not the Alice) go, though. He admired her bravery, her bloodlust, her madness, her willingness to kill. And his father attempted to punish him for it, but Red just smirked and walked out of the cave, putting his most human qualities to use, applying for allocated living space and smirking at his father as he prowled through the streets, blaming his kills on the tiger pack, until he was forgiven and allowed back into their midst.

{By that point, he and Alice already met regularly.}

When High Queen Mal the Powerful finally took over Auradon, no one in Shere Khan's pack turned against each other (or so he thought, because couldn't he see his son's glistening eyes when he hung back while the pack hunted?). Instead, they worked together, and he and Red ripped Mowgli (that bastard) limb from limb.

Then the slaughter came. Red killed his entire pack, cackling and screaming, demented and driven by bloodlust. And he stayed feral, because he was a human, and humans were monsters and he was red and his father never truly overcame his fear.

(Because tigers were liars, and you couldn't trust any of them, and Red was raised as a tiger.)