The Red Riding Hood

What Big Eyes You Have

Adelaide walked for hours. Hungry and thirsty, she decided to take a short break to eat and rest her legs.

Perched on a stump, she reached inside her waistband and retrieved a small coin purse that pressed into her side. It was filled with a few coins Dilys gave her to stay the night at the small cottage at the edge of the woods. In the morning, it would be another half day walk from there to the prince's manor.

Adelaide dropped the coin purse through neck of her dress where it rested in the top of her corset. Shen then untied the waterskin she carried in the basket. The cool liquid soothed her parched throat.  As she rummaged through her basket, she heard a strange noise. It sounded as if the wind had blown some leaves, but she had felt no wind. After a moment, she went back to her meal but was quickly interrupted by a strange whimper.

Adelaide quieted herself and listened. She heard a rustle of leaves behind her. When she turned, there was a bush trembling. There was something in the bush and believing it to be possibly injured, she pushed apart the branches and found two large amber eyes staring at her.

Startled she fell back. The whimper turned to a growl which was now accompanied by a metallic clanking. Frozen, she watched a mass of onyx fur rise above the bush, amber eyes locked on hers. An enormous wolf!

Adelaide could not get her legs underneath her. She scrambled away from the eyes, which grew larger with her movement. Two rows of white teeth appeared through the black, two of which seemed extremely sharp.

Fear turned to terror as Adelaide's back hit a tree trunk. Quickly, she patted the ground around her, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. Armed with small branch, she swung it out in front of her.

"Back, beast!" she cried.

It snarled and took a step back. She could see its back hind leg stuck in a metal trap, the chain dragging behind it.

Still swinging the branch, she got to her feet. The beast did not move nor take its eyes off her. "I do not wish to hurt you," she said. "Please let me be on my way." She tried to take a side step and the wolf snarled again.

Neither moved. Finally, Adelaide dropped her arm. "If you are going to eat me, then get on with it!"

The beast leaned back on its haunches. "I do not eat humans." it growled.

"You talk?" said she.

"How else would you prefer me to communicate with you?" his voice was gruff.

"Howl?"

He guffawed. "I am not a dog Miss."

"Then what are you?"

"You already seem to know. What was it that you called me? Ah, yes, a beast." He snarled.

"Are you not?"

"I assure you that I am not the beast you need to worry about in these woods."

"Then what would you have me call you?"

"Marius."

She let the branch drop to her feet, her heart returning to a normal rhythm. "I'm Adelaide."