Little Red Riding Hood

There once was a girl who lived in a cottage in the deepest part of the forest. She didn't have parents, not anymore, but she never felt alone. 

She befriended all the animals in the forest. They helped her find her way to avoid getting lost, and in turn she kept them warm and fed during winter. They swore an oath among them that nothing would harm the girl. Not one of them, not nature and definitely not some outsider. 

The leader among the forest dwellers, the wolf, was the girl's favourite, her best friend. They spent hours walking in the forest following long forgotten paths and talking about anything and everything. 

They spoke with the wind and the trees and anyone who would listen. On cold winter days everyone cuddled in the heat of the girl's cottage to listen to the stories they would tell over the course of a couple of weeks. 

During the summer they spent hours chasing each other through the trees, the girl's melodic laughter audible for miles. Their friendship brought an atmosphere of hope and happiness wherever they went. 

One day on her way back home with a basket full of flowers from the meadow she maintained, she met a man. A hunter. 

He asked why she was in the forest. Had she by chance seen any wolves? Or maybe some deer? 

Determined not to let him spot her wolf nearby, she lied and told him she was visiting her bedridden grandmother, deep in the forest, where no animals dwelled. No, not even deer. 

The man huffed. Despite her efforts, he continued with his hunt, and the girl ran home, her wolf following in the shadows of the trees. She had to warn her friends. They had to be careful.

The next day she crossed paths with the hunter again. He warned her of a wolf nearby, one who's pelt would hang from his wall by sundown. 

There was an evil glint to his eye, one of a man who killed without hesitation, for sport. 

It unnerved her, being so close to a killer. One wrong move and he would kill her wolf, her best friend, and hang her pelt on his wall. She would be alone again. Alone, in the middle of the forest. All her deepest fears would become reality. 

The girl's heart sank and tears sprang to her eyes. She felt sick before unmeasurable fury consumed her. She attacked the man without warning, plunging a hidden dagger deep into his heart. 

He fell at her feet. She knelt at his side and whispered to the dying man that the wolf was her best friend and sister. Her tears fell. The light left his widened eyes as his blood pooled around them, soaking the ground and staining her cloak red. 

The wind blew her fallen tears away and with it, all her fears. All was as it should be.

That night, a leather jacket hung over the back of one of her chairs. In her drawer she had a new knife, good for cooking. The girl fed the wolf and her pups homemade stew as she wore a new pair of boots.

Years later, after the girl had passed from this world on to the next, the forest still remembered the girl. Her cottage still stood, deep in the forest, a haven during cold winter months. The paths she walked well worn into the ground and her meadow blooming with flowers. 

The wind whispered of her friendship with the wolf, the earth of her blood red cloak, and on lived the story of Red Riding Hood.