The Royal Wolf

Four Robed Men

Arianna goes to her basket and picks it up, smelling the fresh lavender she picked before the commotion and she continues to look around. Still nothing. She gathers her apron in her hands and starts down the path after the other men, shutting the gate behind her. The men now nowhere to be seen. As she passes the fork in the road she stops suddenly, hearing a quiet growl behind her. Her heart picks up, but curiosity gets the best of her and she turns around. There behind her is the same wolf that they encountered earlier, its ears twitch and blue eyes watch her curiously.

Arianna crouches down, placing her basket down softly, as to not scare it off. The wolf continues to stare, its snout sniffing the air a few times before taking a cautious step forward. Arianna smiles and she adjusts herself comfortably on the ground, wiping her hands on her apron.

She lifts her hand out slowly toward the wolf hoping the action does not alarm it. The wolf continues to step closer until its wet snout touches her fingers, its ocean blue eyes so close she's lost in them.

"Hi there" Arianna whispers her fingers scratching slowly under the wolfs furry chin.

"My name is Arianna" she said reaching out to stroke the thick coat, the wolf cocks its head to the side and her smile widens. "You're not so scary after all are you" she says moving closer, the wolf makes a whining sound and watches Arianna intently. "You're beautiful" she whispers, following her fingertips down its fur gently scratching as she goes.

Its ears twitch as if to hear something far off in the distance and it stands up on all fours its nose in the air. "what's wrong?" Arianna asks looking around for whatever it is the wolf can sense. When she looks back at the wolf it's so close to her face, she can feel its hot breath along her face. Arianna's heart picks up pace only for a moment until the wolf gives her a lick right up her cheek and she giggles. "I hope we can see each other again too, I'll come back before the sun rises" she says standing up and brushing the dirt off her skirt.

The wolf puts its ears back and submits, moving in closer to her, its tail wagging in small snaps. Arianna smiles and picks up her basket and gives it one last scratch behind its ears. "Until then" she says turning around to follow the path back to the village. When Arianna turns to look back at the wolf, it's gone. She quickens her pace back to the cottage to clean herself up before she heads to the palace gardens where her grandmother said she would meet her.

At the cottage Arianna spreads out the new strewing and puts away the berries and nuts she collected. Her mind begins to wander back to the wolf and how their encounter turned out to be not so scary at all.

She wraps her hair up into her only cloth scarf, that she stained herself using rosehip and elderberries and hurries to the palace, she passes Sols hut but decides to visit him once she's finished with the banquet. He will be frustrated that he was not fit enough to take her to the banquet, she would remind herself later in the night to bring some food back to him when she returns home. The sun is now beaming down from the middle of the sky as she reaches the gardens and finds her grandmother there kneeling in the dirt picking vegetables and herbs for the feast. As she goes up to her grandmother she looks up and a small smile spreads across her face.

"What took you so long child?" she says moving to the carrots in the laden garden.

Arianna looks at her with a remorseful look and spoke softly "Sol and I were in the village garden picking strewing, and out of nowhere there was a wolf that appeared from the forest" she stopped, a small smile forming on her lips, and continued "Sol pulled me into some undergrowth that he was hiding in and the other men chased it off. It was beautiful grandmother you should have seen it" she said.

Her grandmother's eyes go wide, and she motions Arianna to come closer to her, putting a finger to her mouth and whispers as to not alarm the other maids.