The Dark Fur Of The Forest: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Chapter 3: The Night Terror

     I woke up to a noise. Being totally calm, I kept my breathing the same as if I was still asleep. Then slowly I half opened my eyes. I saw….nothing! It was still pretty dark in the woods. I quickly closed my eyes and listened to the sound. I could tell right off that there were three different noises around my camp. Then the smell hit me. It was whiskey mixed with smoke. Oh, No…..No that is bad, very bad.
     So. . . .I forgot to mention that there are other people who are also crazy enough to go into the woods. That would be The Hunters! That is another reason the woods are dangerous. The Hunters go kill the craziest animals they can find and sell them to the black markets or they keep the animal alive for other things. I hate them so much. They are more like bandits than anything else.
     I slowly moved my hand toward my dagger that was by my hip. I was lucky to feel that it was still there. I clenched it into my fist and felt the strong handle dig into my hand. I silently counted to three and strang up to my feet. The sky had more light that I was able to spy the figures quickly. I rushed at the first guy who had turned around when I had strang up. I kicked out out him and punched him in the stomach. He went down fast.
     Guess he wasn’t much of a fighter. I turned around to see the other guy coming straight towards me. I held out my dagger in a threatening way and we started to circle each other. I looked at my opponent to see if I can detect any weakness. He was stronger than the first guy, but probably not as good. I launched at him towards his ribs when I heard the screeching of metal on metal.
    I realized that he had pulled out a wicked dagger. I grinned despite the situation I was in. I kind of always wanted to fight someone with a dagger. We kept circling each other when a thought came to me. Wait for a second, I thought I heard. . . Three!
     I spun around but was too late. The third guy came out of nowhere. He pushed me into the waiting arms of the guy I was fighting. I struggled out of his grip in the process of throwing my dagger towards a tree. If I go down, I don’t want to be killed by my own weapon. I struggled and kicked out and yelled in an attempt to get out of the grip of the bandit.
     “ Tie her against the tree!” Said the third guy, which I assume was the leader. As I was pulled and forced upon the tree, I saw that the sunlight was starting to spill into the dark woods. That was when I got a good look at my opponents. The leader had blood dripping down the side of his head. There was a gash from his left part of his forehead down to his cheek.
     I smiled and started laughing. My handiwork had given him a pretty nice scar along with his ugly face. I felt a slap on my cheek and looked up to see Scarface staring at me with anger in his eyes. They all wore pirate like clothing with one guy was wearing a golden earring.
     “ So, I guess you guys lost your ship and your crew. Too bad, you look the part anyways.” I said. Scarface slapped me again. I still had a stupid smile on my face. He turned away from me and started to whisper to his pals.
     I tried looking around the forest floor for anything that can help me. I then spotted my dagger a few feet away from where I was tied up. Good, now for when the time is right. . . . I stared back at Scarface.
     He had my backpack in his hands and was pulling clothes and wrapped up food. Seeing the food, the hunters grabbed at it like animals and ate all of it up before I can cry out.
     Well, there goes my lunch. Lucky for me, I tied the basket up in a tree, so no animal can get to it. I couldn’t believe that I was caught off guard this morning and now my things will stuffer. After they finished the food off, they continue to search for more things to sell. They started growing angry for not finding anything worth of value.
    “ Hey, girly. Where are your valuables?” shouted the guy that I had knocked him out earlier. I kept silent and try not to look at any of my weapons. My bow and arrows were behind a tree that last night I hid. Scarface came up to my face and said,
     “ I know what, That red thing your wearing looks. . . sweet” Oh No, over my dead body is he getting my cloak!
     “ What do you think boys? Doesn’t her cape look like a thousand or maybe a million.” He continued. His eyes looked greedy hungry for power. The look he was giving me, made me feel dread.
     “ Untie her!” He commanded. The fighter guy came towards me with his dagger when he stopped in his tracks. His face held pure terror. I then noticed that Scarface and Wimpy also had mirrored the same expression. That was when I heard a loud snap behind me and the hairs on my neck stood up. I wanted to turn around to look behind me, but I was tied up pretty good.
     The bandits stood there like idiots. They had their mouths open in horror. Then quick as a flash they ran. They were so scared of whatever the thing behind me was, that they left my things. Now’s my chance. I reached my foot over to where the dagger laid.
     Quick as a flash, a powerful force speed past me. All I saw was a humongous reddish black blur. But before it was gone it turned to me for a second that I glimpsed the brightest green eyes that I have ever seen. Then it was gone.
     I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding in. I then proceed to bring my dagger over to me. Slowly inch by inch I was able to get it into my hands. I held it and started to rub it against the rope. I was working slow in case I cut myself, for I always keep my dagger sharp.
     Then suddenly a piercing howl like roar sounded. If I could, I would have put my hands over my ears. That was how loud it was. After the thing made the noise. It left me to have ringing in my ears for a bit. But I didn’t care, I was more worried that it would come after me.
     I decided that I would rather have a missing hand than for me to be something's food. I slashed at the rope that held me in. I bit down pain as I cut myself on the wrist. At last, I felt the rope snaped.
     Quickly I ran to at my things. I first grabbed an old shirt and treared it up into stripes for my wrist. Then after getting that squared away, I pulled everything back into my backpack. I grabbed my bow and arrows then turned to the secret latch of cluster branches.
     I swang my dagger at it and retraced a few steps in time to catch the fallen basket. I saw that it was kind of banged up but otherwise okay. I then heard another howl and this time covered my ears. Finally, when it stopped for a second time I realize that it was getting closer.
     Fearing for my life, I ran. I keep running until I couldn’t run anymore. Then I collapse by a tree. As I was taking shallow breaths I noticed that the tree my back was against was. . . soft.
     Freaking out, even more, I turned around. Lucky for me it was just moss. I started crying with the last of my energy. I would have been laughing if only I can muster that. I stayed like that for a couple of hours. Finally seeming to get my energy back, I started walking again. I didn’t realize that I didn’t need to walk long.
     For almost about 30 minutes later I saw a clearing with a small cottage house. I made it, and I wasn’t even eatern! Yeah. I walked closer until I was at the edge of the meadow. I stopped in my tracks before taking a step into the clearing.
     Something was wrong! It felt like a burning fire that was starting to grow. What was it?! I listened for a long time. Then it hit me. No bird calls, no noise, no nothing! It's too quiet. I search the clearing with my eyes to see if anything would give me a clue. My eyes latched onto my grandma’s house. Since when did grandma paint the house? I thought confused. The color red almost looks like. . . . . . . . . . . . BLOOD!!!!