The Bloodiest Rose of All

Chapter 7

Snow White had lived with the brothers for several weeks. The weather had turned bitterly cold and snow covered the ground in great heaps and bundles. George, Harold and Sid were out in the forest to trim logs and gather dried wood most days but sometimes they would all sit by the fire and talk while Harold whittled.

Snow always would tell them stories about when she was a little girl and her father took her into the village near the castle or she would tell fairytales that she cook had told her when she was little. When she talked about her father she would always become sad. Of course the three brothers noticed this and they all tried to cheer her up whenever she began thinking about the past.

On one particular daw, while George and Sid had gone logging in the forest, Harold had stayed at home to help Snow wash and change the bed linens. She couldn’t wring out the enormous sheets herself and then hanging them out to dry was an impossible task because of her slight build and height. Every few weeks or so Harold helped her out and she was very grateful. It was long hard work and in the afternoon when everything was folded and put away Snow decided to start supper. She cut meat and vegetables and put them all in a pot to make a rich stew for their evening meal. She started to put more wood on the fire and then realized they were out. Going to the shed was not one of her favorite choress but she hated to ask Harold who had fallen asleep in his chair snoring.

Quickly she shrugged his coat on and buttoned it up. The sleeves were hopelessly long and she turned them up to her wrists. Careful not disturb the sleeping woodsman she opened the door and stepped outside. It was a brisk winter day and the sky was a vibrant blue. The sun twinkled on the snow as it made crunching noises when she walked across the yard. She opened the shed door and took out some larger logs and a few small ones. She would ask Harold to get some more when he woke up.

Snow was walking back up to the house when a strange noise startled her. It was like a low wail and she shivered. Hiking up the coat and setting the wood down on the doorstep she walked in the direction of the sound. She heard it again and picked up speed.

By and by she came to a small clearing in the midst of some tall trees. The snow hadn’t been disturbed and her footprints made a fresh trail as she walked. Snow stopped and looked around for the source of that wail but she couldn’t see anything. She heard that sound again and this time it was clearer but more muffled.

“That’s odd…” she thought. “I sounds like its coming from underground.” She knelt in the snow and started to sweep it away with her hands. She noticed it was packed hard and she got up to start walking a few more paces when she heard a snapping noise and without any warning started falling downwards!

Snow screamed and then groaned as she hit the hard bottom. When she opened her but a sharp pain in her ankle made her gasp and sit down again hard. She didn’t know what to think. Surely this wasn’t a regular depression in the earth…someone or something must have deliberately dug it out.

Snow thought for a few minutes and looked around again before realizing that this must be what Sid called a hunters trap. He had complained about it the day before yesterday. Someone had been digging all over the forest hoping to trap live game making it perilous for the woodsman to walk about safely. He wasn’t overly pleased with it and now Snow understood why.

“Everything seems to happen to me!” she moaned. “It isn’t enough that my step-mother tried to kill me and I almost die of poison…now I am in a trap and can’t get out because I’ve broken my ankle!”

Another low wail startled her and she looked to her right. In a cage made of twigs and bark was a beautiful dove. It cooed and looked at her with a startled expression. Snow almost laughed but sobbed instead. Of course, the hunters put some kind of bait into the trap to coax larger prey into the hole. Her only hope was that Harold would wake up and start looking for her when he realized she was missing. That could be a while though. He was famous for sleeping through a thunderstorm and not waking up for hours and hours on end. He was like a permanently hibernating bear and almost nothing could wake him.

Well, Snow thought, might as well make the best of things. She tried to find a more comfortable spot to sit, one that didn’t have rocks poking her every which way, but she didn’t have much luck. Every time she moved her ankle was jostled and she whimpered in pain. The high walls of the dugout did shield her from most of the wind and she was thankful for that but it would be dark in a few hours and the last she wanted was to sit in the forest in the blackness of night alone. She tried to scream or cry out for help but soon realized she was too far from the house for anyone to have heard.

She pulled Harold’s coat close. For once she was thankful for the extra length; it covered her entire body with only her feet sticking out, her hands buried in the long folds of the sleeves.

The cold slowly seeped into her bones until she was shivering. It would have been better if she could have fallen asleep or something but the ache from the chills racking her body made it impossible.

She must have lain in that hole for several hours before she heard something, the unmistakable sound of someone or something walking in the snow. Snow White froze and had to clamp her hand on her mouth to keep herself from making a sound when she again jarred her ankle. Tears rolled down her cheeks but she kept silent. If this was some wild beast she would rather not meet with it on top of everything else, she was quite literally sitting prey. The crunching noises grew faster and louder and she knew that whatever the thing was it was coming right to her current place of residence.

Then she heard a distinctly masculine voice that sounded excited. “I think we caught something Alfred. I think we finally caught something!”

Snow almost sobbed with relief. It wasn’t a wild animal after all. Perhaps the men would help her.

“Yes finally! Those scrawny wolves you caught last time were pathetic!” the second voice quipped.
“Would you stop ribbing me about that…I didn’t lure them into the trap myself now did I?”

By this time the voices were right above her. There was a pause before the unidentified voice said, “Hello, there is someone inside.”

“That’s impossible…no one lives around here.”

Snow White looked up and saw two men looking down at her. They were both quite young and dressed in brown cloth and leather like forest mean.  One had blonde hair and the other black and they looked so dissimilar that she knew at once they were not family.

The black haired one jumped into the hole and walked towards Snow. She cowered and tried to move away from him but her ankle hit a rock and she cried out. He was by her side in a flash looking worried. The blonde one jumped in with him.

“Are you alright Miss?” he asked gently.

Snow White looked at him in amazement and frustration. “No I am not alright! Does it look like I am all right?”

The young man stared at her and then grinned. “She speaks does she?”
“It would appear so, and quite forcefully.” The other man said.

“Let me then rephrase my question then… um, how did you get here?”
“Anyone would presume I fell…you seem to think I flew in.” She replied hotly. “I was trying to find out what was making that peculiar wailing noise when I suddenly fell into this pit and seemed to have broken my ankle so I couldn’t get out. Could you kindly help me out of here?”

“Well of course my lady,” the blonde one replied. "I am Alfred and this here is Damen. We are at your service.”

They both picked her up and with some difficulty managed to get her out into the open again. Snow White however, was barely staying conscious. Her ankle was  throbbing and she was still shivering from the cold. It was getting dark and even more chilling with each passing hour. They carried Snow by turn until they reached the cottage.