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

Chapter 6: A Lonely Shadow in the Night-P.O.V Of Irvin

I looked back at the small seamless house. I still could smell the coconut and rosemary of the girl. I realized that I don't even know her name. I was shocked to see her alive and well. I was grateful. Especially after the income with the bandits. Of course, I had to help. I may have probably been watching her the whole time since she came into the woods.

I saw how she had handled the wolf by feeding it than killing it. I don't know why, but the moment she had stepped into the woods I felt like I knew her. I didn't know why....

I entered the woods and looked around the beautiful trees. I had night vision and so I was able to see clearly as if everything lightened up. I started to walk the faint trail some ways until I came up to the landmark. I really didn't need to see the landmark, for I knew the forest in and out. I still liked to brush my hand against the tree that bore the mark. The mark was a carved wolf into the wood. I had carved it years ago and the tree didn't heal itself as I would have thought.

I stepped off the path and followed an unseen trail towards my home. I had been walking for hours when I heard a howl coming ahead. I smirked and shook my head. Yup, he is definitely here. I walked into the small sort of clearing. There was a huge cave next to a tree that had a treehouse built into it. Beside the cave is a small stream that flowed down into a lake miles away. I grinned when I saw the big midnight black wolf tearing at a pile of deer. I walked over to it, not even scared.

" Hello, big buddy!" I said with a big goofy smile plastered on my face. The wolf looked at me with its purple eyes. It was bigger than a horse but smaller than an elephant. What do you want! Can't you see I am busy eating? I heard the wolf's voice in my head.

" Yeah, but you always seem to be hungry and you know if you turned into your human form, you could make a stew and be filled instead of eating all the deer at once," I explained to my big hairy brother. He growled at me as he answered. I would rather die than to change forms just to eat a meal.

" Suit yourself. I shrugged and went to the deer pile. I quickly yanked out a deer's leg and walked toward the treehouse. You were with the human again? Weren't you? I stopped and felt a chills go down my back.

" And so what? I gave Murphy the fever and so I should help her! There is nothing wrong with that!" I uttered out not turning around. So! I told you to not go! Especially, since that other human entered the woods. I am still not happy for you showing yourself to her as you chased the bandits. You should leave them alone! I felt the earth vibrate as Darce jumped over me and landed in front of me with his fangs bared at me. Blood was running down his face from his meal. I should have eaten the humans when I had a chance. It would have been fun to chase my prey and tear them up in-

" Stop! That is horrible! I won't go to them if you would please stop!" I growled letting out a little bit of the wolf inside me. He laughed and walked back over to his meal. He knew he got me to be upset. I clenched my fists and jumped into the tree house. I landed on the porch as a thud. I had still part of my wolf out that made me able to jump to the house than to go up the latter.

I slammed the door behind me and flopped to the ground. I saw that my vision had red spots dancing in it. I looked at my hands to see reddish-brown fur was poking out of my skin. I calmed down a bit to go back to human form all the way. I sigh and stood up. I walked through a few rooms until I came to my bedroom. Not before dropping the leg of the deer on the kitchen counter.

I knew it was childish, but I had a journal that I wrote down my day in it. I picked up the leather made journal and flipped through the pages. I stopped at a red spot on some pages. I grimaced as I remembered what had happened that day to make me wipe my blood on the pages for me to not forget that was the day that everything changed. My mind flashed back to that fateful day.

I saw my older 14-year-old brother swing from a vine and splashed into the lake beyond. I smiled and climbed up the tree to reach the swinging vine. I was about to grab it when I heard screaming. The scream was my brother' voice. I looked around with dread and saw him on the far shore of the lake. He was against big rocks and there was a shiny bear. It looked like the bear was purple. The bear was right next to my brother, batting him around. I saw it raised its paw for what I feared was going to be the death of my brother.

I swung on the vine and jumped as far as I can, even though I knew it was going to be too late. Instead, I felt tingling all over my body. I was surprised to land on the shore. Barely! My tail and hind legs were in the water. Wait, tail and hind legs. I was confused and realized that I saw differently also. Everything was bright and clear. I looked up at the bear and growled. It had turned to me as I had landed on the shore. I let my instinct take over and jumped at the bear. I don't remember exactly what happened. All that the bear was gone.

I went over to my brother and saw that his head was cracked open and a lot of blood was all over him and on the ground. I sense that if he didn't get help now, then he was going to die. I myself tingled again and was back to my human self. Not waiting to ponder about what happened I ran over to him. I held his head in my arms as I try to stop the flow of blood with a few leafs I found in the rocks. It didn't help.

I then felt in the deep of myself that my brother was going to die. I cried and sobbed as he lost consciousness. This is how it ends, I thought. I felt a weird tingling pain coming from my heart to my arms. Am I going to die too! I thought. Instead, out around me came a haze of green mist. It fell on my brother and slowly it started to heal him. When it stopped, I felt drained and my brother looked like as he was supposed to.

" Wake up, I shouted to him. His eyes flickered to awake.

" Am I dead?" he asked still out of it.

" No," I sobbed. "You're all right." I held him in a brotherly hug.

After that, I discovered that my brother could also turn into a wolf creature. However, I learned what my healing does. It changes the person, thing or creature that I heal. It was a side effect. For example, when I healed my brother he simply grew arrogance and prideful. He used to be kind and a great teacher to me about the manner of the wild and know when enough is enough. Unfortunately, nowadays. . . .The roles have been switched.

I stared out the small window beyond to spy by brother finishing the last of the deer. If he keeps this up, we won't have deer for a while. I stood up and walked over to my kitchen. I pulled the things out needed for my stew. All the while letting my thoughts turn to Red. She was braver than her grandma had explained. But also, pretty foolish. I shook my head at my memory of her wrist. She should have patched it up before it made her vulnerable. I smiled as I recalled her fiery personality towards me. She was different than other prissy girls that are stupid enough to go a few steps into the woods. That night, I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. It was full-blown dark, properly around midnight. I was still up and my thoughts kept racing to Red. I fell asleep wondering what tomorrow would bring.