Little Red Riding Wolf (Book 1 of Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs the Series)

Chapter 14

Red

"So what kind of Fae are you planning on trapping?" Arthur asked uninterestedly the next morning. They were currently setting up the trap.

"I'm not sure," said Red once they were done. "The trap is not big enough for a fairy, but it might work for something small like a gnome or goblin. Maybe even a pixie."

"And just how are you going to lure it in? Because I doubt one is just willing walk into a trap. They are too smart for that."

"By using this," she said, taking out a strawberry tart from her bag, and showed it to him. 

"You think a pastry is going to attract it?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yes, because everyone knows that some of them like sweet things," she replied. "What? Did you have a better idea?"

"Yeah because everyone knows that besides sweets the Fae are also attracted to shiny objects, like jewels or anything made of silver or gold," he said.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you but my family doesn't own anything good or silver, and we don't have any jewels. So we are sticking with the pastry." The closest thing to a shiny jewel was her mother's family ring, which she had then passed down to Red. It was thin silver band with a small ruby in the shape of a heart.

There was with a legend about it: that whoever wore it would find their true love. Mama claimed it worked for not only her with Red's father, but her late mother and her mother before that and so on. Personally, Red didn't believe it but even so it meant a lot to her, so wouldn't dare even think of using it as bait.

"Ok," he said. "I was just giving you some advice."

"Thank you but I don't need it," she said. "For I am certain my plan will work."

"Fine, don't listen to me," he said as she set the pastry on the trap. "Although, I would rather go off and find that princess, but I am stuck here until our bargain is fulfilled." He glared at her.

She looked up and glared back. Honestly, she wasn't glad to have him as company either, but she had no choice. Mainly because he now knew her secret and she couldn't let him heading back to town and revealing it to the other villagers.

So she had made the deal with him, to keep the guy near her despite his obnoxious personality. Even if she had to lie about knowing the Sleeping Beauty telling her location, so he could be break his curse.

The first part wasn't technically a lie, for Red did know her, sort of. She briefly met the Princess once when she went with Snow to a ball thrown in Rose Castle. They just stayed hello to each other and that's all. After that, the princess was mainly hogged by princes, which included the F7, of course. Despite that, she had no doubt in her mind that the princess was the most beautiful of all.

The second part, about knowing exactly where she was, was a lie. Once his part of the deal was done and she was free she would tell him her best guess on where the princess was, which would be far, far away from here. But Arthur didn't need to know that. Besides, maybe he might get lucky and he would find her and both wake her up break his curse. Then they would probably fall in love and live happily ever after. Either way he would be gone and they would be out of each other's hair forever.

Once she was sure the trap was ready, they went to hide behind a log.

"I still don't think it's going to work," Arthur said.

"Shh," Red hushed him and Davey made a hushed sign. "We don't want it to know we are here and it will work."

"Ok," he whispered. "If it does, and you manage to catch a fae, how are you going to make it take you to the Queen?"