Violet Riding Hood

Chapter 14

Vallery was shaking and shivering in the most brutal cold that she had experienced in her life, protected only by a light dress and her violet cloak as the night plummeted to a temperature very far below freezing.

She could see the frost forming slowly on her eyelashes and her hair, and her teeth were clashing so hard that she feared they would start breaking like glass any moment. It seemed to her that the cold was going to end her life before the Wolf or the Fire would come, and she closed her eyes hoping that she would eventually pass out...

However, the ropes binding her to the wooden pole caused a pain so severe that it would not allow her to take the easy way out.

"W-where are you?" Vallery whispered through her shivering teeth, her weakened voice fading in the claws of Hypothermia- "Come for me, if you really w-wanted me to run away with y-you..."

Vallery opened her violet eyes, and she made an effort to move her head from one side to the other trying her best to take a partial look around her. The Square looked as snowy and quiet as though it were just a dream, and there was absolutely no sign that the Wolf could be hiding anywhere ready to show up and finally take her away.

Where was the monster? Why it was that the great black shadow had not showed up, after all?

Vallery did not know how late in the night it really was, but it had felt like a very long time for her since the Captain had abandoned her in that place. The Purple Moon was glowing at the highest part of the sky, and the countless stars began to look like long, fast-moving strips of light whenever that she tried to stare at them...

"It's not real" Vallery whispered in fear, looking away from the sky- "It's the c-cold, it makes me see s-strange things..."

The nocturnal wind was whispering between the trees and houses nearby, a raven was looking down at her from a frosty lightpost and there was an eerie blue light coming from the cathedral, but all of those perceptions could be hallucinations as well and she had no way to know for sure whether they were real or not.

Vallery was starting to lose contact with reality, the freezing cold was threatening to take her away and she would pass out any moment... and then, she suddenly spotted three mysterious, black-hooded figures that were hiding in the shadows of the church not a long distance from her.

One of the hooded individuals began to hit two stones together while the others waited, the stones released sparks every time they collided, the sound was echoing everywhere and then Vallery gasped with surprise as a wide, searing ring of fire was quickly formed all around her...

The intense light dazzled her eyes while the Square was quickly flooded with smoke and sparks, and then a voice that she knew very well screamed from somewhere beyond the great wall of fire:

"Vallery, we are coming!"

41-

Father Novembrus gasped and retreated from the window very fast, alarmed at how sudden and terribly bright the fire was.

The flames formed a perfect ring around the place where Vallery was held, and the smoke and sparks were so dense that they could barely see the rooftops around the Square anymore...

"What is that?!" he asked, perceiving an awful and acrid smell in the air.

"Shadowberry Oil, that's not the Wolf!" Sallyahel cried out in rage- "Follow me, they are trying to take my hostage away!"

Sallyahel and Novembrus abandoned the room and dashed downstairs as fast as they could, and meanwhile the crossbowmen were facing the full intensity of the Shadowberry fire in the Square. The fire was so dazzling that they could hardly see any target, especially not the three hooded figures that jumped through the ring and landed safely at Vallery's side...