day three. regina confronts homophobia. set in young!regina times.
tw: a bit of blood?
Red
Her sisters lead her to the forest, and she isn't alone anymore.
Because she doesn't have to run, never again, because a failed hunting trip brought consolation, comfort and the possibility of healing. Red surrounds her when she wakes, slowly, breaths coming back to her like gentle waves.
"You alright, miss?"
The girl speaks softly and smells of blood and fresh, she has brown earth around her fingernails. But there's red, too, with it's the color of her cloak and patches her hands, and Regina retreats cowering like a hunted rabbit.
But the sisters of the moon believe in justice, they chase down her almost-captors and pull her between them, there in their nest of furs and candles. The girl is a wolf, Regina isn't, they make it work – it stings at her nostrils when she smells the odor of death, but Red has eyes like stars and they run, together, they run – magic permeates that hidden corner of the forest where no one can touch her, kings or witches – no one.
Red is the droplet from her knife when she steals the life out a stag, red are her lips when her lover bites her when they make love, and red is the fury – it is not often that they go at the inn, and what of the words of a man who speaks ill of her love?
If they chase him down, her fingers curling around Red's fur, she will laugh and bask into the knowledge that for once, she's in the right. How could a love like this be wrong?
The man spits red when he dies.
But red is now Regina's happiness – she runs in the forest, and isn't alone anymore.