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

Chapter 16

Red

"This is it," said Red when they came to a part of the forest with a good amount of sunlight.

The two crouched behind some bushes to be sure no one saw them in the case of a trap set by those guys they saw earlier. Although, she kind of doubted those two were smart enough to do that.

There they saw an activated sack trap hanging from a big tree, the source of the scream. The bag was jingling and someone was screaming from inside it.

"Looks like I'm not the only dwarf who is prone to accidentally getting trapped," Arthur said.

"I don't think it's a dwarf," she said. "For I can scent it and it's definitely not human. It's more animal, but not quite. This smell is also something unknown to me." Like when she scented magic on Arthur.

"It might be member of the Fae," he said. "I heard some of them can take on animal forms."

"Maybe," she said. After all, she had never met a Fae before, so she didn't know their scent.

"This is great," he said. "We can take that Fae and have it take us to the Faerie Realm. That way it will save us a lot of trouble and time."

"Are you mad?" Red hissed. "This is someone's else's trap, and if we just take their catch that's stealing. I thought you were a hero?"

"I am," he said. "See by taking the Fae, we are freeing from the trapper, who will probably want to kill it and display it as a trophy. While we are just going set it free so it can take us to the Queen. So this is a good thing."

"We don't even know the trapper is a bad guy or even if he was intending to capture a Fae," she said. "For all we know the trap was intended for normal animal and the creature accidentally got trapped instead. Either way I would stick with my own traps."

"Fine be that way," Arthur said, getting up. "Meanwhile, I am going going to get ask it to take us because the sooner we get there the sooner you can-"

He wasn't able to finish because Red suddenly pulled him back down just as he started to take a step forward. "Wait, shh," she hissed, sniffing the air. "Someone's coming."

She tilted her head and focused her senses on everything around her. Soon enough she heard footsteps coming up from ahead of them. She knew it wasn't the guards they saw earlier from the scent, which was still slightly familiar. Plus, the footsteps (which was only one set) sounded slightly less heavy.

The owner then appeared and Red was startled to see that it was the mysterious figure from the mercantile. Along with him was a big brown and white horse. What was he doing here in the forest and was he the one he set the trap?

"Isn't the guy we saw in the store," Arthur asked quietly. "What is he doing here?"

"I have no idea," she whispered.

"Well whatever it is," he said. "It can't be good. So we should take that Fae and get far away from him. I told you he might be dangerous."

"And as I told you before," she told him. "He is not dangerous. I know because of his scent."

"You can tell how someone is bad from their scent?"

"Yes,," she replied. "It's how I know whether someone I first meet is a good person or not."

"Did you do that with me?" He asked nervously.

"Yup," she said.

"And it told you I was good right?"

"Yeah," she said. "As well as cursed, though I didn't know it until now."

"Really?" He said, interested now. "What else did you learn about me from my scent."