The Trail

Never stray from the trail.

It was a warning told for years. A warning older than the villagers, some would say even older than the village itself. It was the only protection they had, to stray from the trail, was to tempt death, to invoke the blood lust of the beast that resided in the haunting forest.

The beast that called to her.

Asena's twenty-first birthday was approaching fast and as it did her life as she knew it began to change rapidly. The village she'd once called home felt foreign and strange. The people she'd known her whole life began to treat her like an outcast. She found herself drawn to the woods, waking from her sleep only to find herself standing at the edge of the forest. The people resented her, the woods beckoned her near, and a sense of foreboding washed over her.

And it was all because of creature in the forest.

(This is like a twist on Red Ridding Hood.)