Red Riding Hood

Chapter Four

"Joyeux anniversaire!" Andrea exclaimed as she and Derrick came into the house. 

"Merci!" Mum gushed, hugging them both. 

We had been here for a few months now yet it felt like they had always been apart of our life. My London days were becoming a thing of the past. I had some great friends and was really getting settled so I prayed Mum wouldn't have the urge to move again anytime soon. Even if she did, I would consider staying. I finished serving the roast vegetables and set it all out on table as Mum opened her present from them. It was a beautiful cashmere scarf in a deep emerald color.

"Il est beau merci," she hugged them again and led them to where James and I were finishing setting the table.

"James my man." Derrick high fived my brother who grinned like a maniac at him.

"Hope you're hungry?" I greeted and we all sat down. 

Mum and Andrea chatted away in French while Derrick, James and I discussed if it would be better to be Spiderman or Batman. Well James and Derrick discussed, I listened because I could understand them. Just.

As we waved them goodbye and headed inside, something in the frost that covered the lawn around the front caught my attention. Large paw prints went up to the lounge window and then back towards the forest that separated us from Mr Callas. I looked around seeing nothing, and noticing the concerned expression on Mums face as I entered, I smiled halfheartedly.

"Happy Birthday, Mum." I gave her another hug and smiled seeing our present already on her ears.

"Goodnight my darling girl." She kissed me on the forehead and we went up the stairs to bed. 

As I got settled I wondered what would await me tonight. My dreams usually involved running around the forest as a wolf with another one by my side. I tried to see the wolf that I saw the world from the eyes of but she was never visible in reflections and looking down or around at myself I could never see. I knew it was a girl and I had control of her. It was a dream so who knew how these things worked. I wanted to know more about Red Riding Hood well that's what I called her, as no one had ever said her name and it seemed fitting. Getting comfortable I waited for sleep.

Opening my eyes it was cold, the kind of cold where your nose will go numb in seconds and your breath hands in the air. I felt like I was floating, perhaps a bird and seeing my target I lingered near. The man stood in the shadows, watching a deer before it disappeared. In the distance a wolf howled, seconds later the brown figure came before the man, shifting to a human. 

"Alpha, I came to find you, a few rogues were found near the cottage south of here" The black haired man nodded, "I will go, monitor their movements. Kill them if they enter our land" 

The light brown haired man nodded, shifting back to his wolf as the dark haired man ran. His speed was fast yet I kept behind him as if a balloon on a string.

An old woman greeted the dark haired man. 

"William, it has been some months". She frowned slightly; raising her hand towards his head. After a few seconds she spoke, "You came to protect me?" she croaked, almost amazed. 

He nodded, "A witch may be useful to me one day." 

The old woman nodded, "I will indeed be in your debt. But my granddaughter is due to visit with me before the winter snows arrived. She left the village this afternoon and should have been here by nightfall. What if they have her?" 

The fear the witch felt was thick in the air. "I will find her. I promise" he growled as he shifted into a large black wolf, bigger than the brown one from before.