RED HOOD ✔

4: NEW GIRL

I sat there across the room while Apsychos filled Aunt Liza in on what went down in the woods. I was still riding the high of excitement, but they both just looked super worried. Pulling my quiver over my head to check it out, I realized I was totally out of arrows. "Um... Aunt Liza, I'm out of arrows," I mentioned, trying not to sound like I was interrupting. She didn't even turn to look at me, just tossed over her shoulder, "It's enchanted, Vincent, just say 'more' and it refills."

Cool, a magical reloading quiver. I mean, part of me wanted to be all heroic, like I was ready to take on an army by myself, but truth is, I've got a dad who's probably freaking out about me right now. I wanted to say something but figured I'd better hold off. They seemed swamped with enough drama.

"So... do we crash here, or does our energy just magically refill too?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Apsychos gave me this look like he was not amused. "Of course, we sleep here," he said, dead serious. Aunt Liza shot him a look—kind of like the one you get for being a smart ass. Then she pointed me to my room, "Vince, your room is the second one to the left. Training starts at eight in the morning."

Training? Seriously? I thought I handled those giants pretty well, but then I remembered what Apsychos said about those being just low-level scouts, and an actual army was on the way. "Alright, good night," I mumbled, kind of resigned to my fate, and headed to my room to crash.

That night, my dream was intense: I was back in the village, but it was chaos—buildings burning, people screaming. I saw this woman in a red hood standing off against a massive wolf in the middle of the road—no mistaking those glowing red eyes, it was the beast. And the woman was my mom, Moira.

"Moira, how does it feel to know you're about to die?" the beast sneered.

She was in a sorry state to say the least- battered and bruised all over "I don't care about my life, just spare the lives of this village."

"Of course, I'll spare them, at least half of them... Without a village, who would the next Red Hood protect? And who would I have to kill next?" the beast laughed.

"My son will end you, beast," she shot back.

"That's what your mother said, and her mother before her. Your threats are getting old, Moira."

Right as the beast raised its paw to strike, I woke up in a cold sweat. Maurice was right there with a sword in hand, standing on a box. "Time for training, Vincent." I wiped the sweat from my forehead, took the box from him, and opened it to find a red cloak and leather pants—definitely altered but unmistakably my mom's. I was so caught up in the gear that I almost forgot Maurice was there until he reminded me, "Get ready and meet me in the village center."

Decked out in my mom's gear, I headed towards the village center. Villagers peeked out their windows, whispering stuff like, "A new Red Hood already?" and "He doesn't look ready." I even heard someone say, "I heard he took down two giants by himself."

At the center, there was this girl training hard with a sword, chopping a wooden dummy's head clean off. I will try to introduce myself. "Hi, I'm Vincent, Vincent Leone." She just grabbed a bottle of water, ignoring my handshake. I couldn't help but take in her striking appearance. Her hair was styled in elegant blonde waves, perfectly complementing her adventurous white tunic that was neatly tucked into her belted, form-fitting trousers. Her outfit was accented with subtle hints of green, from the gem at her collar to the delicate trim on her sleeves, which matched the captivating hue of her eyes. The whole ensemble gave her a look of someone not just ready for combat, but someone who had mastered it.—definitely my type of woman being completely honest, but her vibe was all business. "I'm Susanna Lot, but my friends call me Anna," she said without looking at me.

"Nice to meet you, Anna," I tried.

"I said my friends call me Anna," she corrected sharply.

Got it. No friends here. Just then, Maurice chimed in, presenting us as sparring partners. "Well Vincent, meet your sparring partner." Susanna smirked, her gaze challenging. "Training starts now," she declared, and without warning, lunged at me with her sword.

I barely dodged, the metal grazing my shirt as I stumbled backward, falling to the ground. "Are we supposed to kill each other?" I blurted out, scrambling to get up.

"Relax, they're blunt... I think," Maurice commented from the sidelines, but his tone wasn't too reassuring.

Susanna wasn't holding back. She struck again, her blade sweeping toward my head. I rolled away, feeling the whoosh of air as the sword missed by inches. She was relentless, each strike precise and forceful, pushing me back. I tried to parry, but my moves were clumsy in comparison. On her next attack, she aimed a calculated blow to my midsection. I caught the blunt blade with my hand, wincing from the impact, and tried to push back, but she was too strong.

Overpowered and off-balance, I found myself at her mercy once again, her sword tip lightly pressing against my chest. "Guess you're not ready yet," she taunted, her voice a mix of scorn and challenge.

Defeated, I nodded, catching my breath, feeling a mix of embarrassment and frustration. But then, something weird happened. As she withdrew her sword and prepared for another round, I felt this sudden surge of energy coursing through me. It was like that feeling  felt before, with the giants—suddenly, I was dodging and weaving like a pro. This time when she came at me, I was ready; I parried her strike, spun around, and in a swift move, disarmed her, placing my sword gently against her neck.

"Guess I won," I grinned, surprised at my own skill.

Susanna knocked my sword away quickly, her expression sour. "You just got lucky," she snapped, clearly not pleased with the turn of events.

The rush of the moment left me just as quickly as it came, and a wave of dizziness washed over me. I stumbled, trying to catch myself, but everything went black as I fainted, collapsing into the training dirt.

I struggle to open my eyes, when I finally did I could see that I was back in the room I slept in the previous day, a girl is standing in the room with her back turned to me she was looking at a picture, "Susanna... What..." She turns back and puts the picture back in her pocket, I sit up straight, "what happened to me" I groaned, she had a straight face "you fainted" oh, that was embarrassing, I fainted right in front of her, I turn to the left and notice Apsychos smiling in a corner "Apsychos, you're awake" he nodded, the door opens and in comes aunt Liza "Vincent, you're okay" she said sounding excited, "why you guys looking at me like that, I just felt tired, I mean I was okay this morning" they all looked glum, Apsychos moved closer till he was at arm's length "Vincent, you've been asleep for a week"