Red Riding Hood

Chapter Nine

Love makes you question the things you
thought were important.

 

Rays of pink and orange streak the aqua sky, as the sun peeks its head over the horizon. The forest seems eerily silent then it normally would, Scarlet observes, as she lingers in the shadows of the town wall, hiding herself from Grey’s hunting party as they prepare to leave for their morning hunt.

“Grey, let’s go. She’s probably already a mile away.” A man taps Grey on the shoulder as the rest of the pack nods their heads in agreement.

“Fine…” Grey leans his axe on his shoulder, taking one last look around the village entrance, to make sure Scarlet is nowhere in sight. The pack set out on a slow jog, with Grey as the leader. Scarlet smirks and steps out of the shadows. She slowly makes her way to the village gates. She stares into the abyss of sun streaked greens, while she places her hood over her head and pulls up her matching crimson mask, which covers everything up to her eyes. Her body jolts itself forward as she sets off at a run, sprinting into the woods, in the opposite direction to Grey and his hunting pack.

***

 

As a streak of red disturbs the stillness of the forest, Luca smiles mischievously. After patiently waiting for any hour, he leaps out of the tree he had been perched in and follows the dash of red that is quickly immersing itself in the forest. He rubs his hands together in delight and leaps into a run, sprinting at an unnaturally fast pace as he stalks his prey.
Within seconds Luca trails quietly behind Scarlet, He sticks to the overhanging ridge that looks down on Scarlet. Avoiding protruding roots and grasping branches, Luca keeps his unnatural pace whilst trying not to overtake Scarlet. After she thinks she’s submerged enough, she gradually stops running and then stops all together, to catch her breath. Luca hides in the shadows of the trees as Scarlet draws her bow from her back and loads an arrow, surveying her surroundings. She treads carefully downhill, listening for anything that could be unsuspecting prey. Her ears twitch as something rustles through the hedge of bushes to her left. Scarlet pulls the string to her cheek and steadies her breathing. The next few seconds happen fast, as a noise above Scarlet scares the creature from out from under the shrubs. A boar bolts from the shrubs and follows the unmarked path that winds round the stone wall of the ridge.  
    “No. Not again.” Scarlet fires after the boar, misses, and reloads. She chases after it, jumping over and dogging gnarled branches that grab at her cloak, making an attempt to slow her down. She sends five more arrows whistling through the air, the fifth one barely pierces the boars hide, the shaft shatters on collision with a tree as the boar shrikes and stumbles to the ground. But before Scarlet can even draw another arrow, the boar lifts itself off the ground and takes off at the same speed that it was sprinting at before.
Luca leaps from ridge to ridge, watching Scarlet hunt the boar in the chasm below. He races ahead of the boar, knowing that the chasm will soon end with a moss covered stone wall. Luca leaps down into the chasm once he is well ahead them; landing gracefully at a running start. Luca jumps over his traps that still remain untouched, buried beneath fallen foliage. He hides in the shadows of the stone walls and waits for his prey to wander helplessly into his grasp.
The boar stumbles around sharp turns, with Scarlet closing in, firing aimless arrows as she goes. The boar flies around the last bend, its legs stumbling over each other until its body becomes too much to bear. The boar stumbles and rolls down into a ditch-like area. Scarlet glances her eyes up the might of the wall that prevents the boar’s escape. She smiles at her chances of victory, but her grin soon fades. As the boar tumbles further down into the ditch the leaves that cover the ground move. Like a hurricane exploding from the ground, the boar is engulfed by a giant net of red and green leaves; that were lying silently on the ground. Scarlet gasps at the sight and tries to slow herself down, but she’s going too fast to stop in time. With another loud snapping noise, something coils around Scarlet’s legs and grows tighter and tighter. Before she can even blink Scarlet can feel the gravity that holds her to ground, let go and disperse away from her. In a blur of brown, red and green, Scarlet is flung into the air, her breath is knocked out of her, preventing her from shrieking in terror. Her bow lays on the ground beneath her, along with the rest of her unfired arrows, which fell from her quiver. The world around her spins like a top. The sky becomes the ground and earth becomes the atmosphere.  Tears well in her eyes from the fear surging through her and flakes of dirt that fill her eyes. She thrashes violently around and tries to claw at the rope which ties around her ankles, but the whole all deal becomes too much and Scarlet falls back down, hanging straight in the air with her arms dangling above her head, pointing towards the ground. Amongst the squealing of the trapped boar and disturbed foliage falling back towards the ground; Scarlet can hear the faint chuckle of a man laughing, getting closer and closer. She tries to spin herself around to see where the laugh is originating from but the spinning just makes her want to throw up.

“Well, well, well. It must be my lucky day.” The man laughs from below Scarlet.

“Luca!” Her rage replacing her fear. “Get me down!”

 

***