Where Wolves Fear to Prey. (Fairy Tales, Red Riding Hood.)

[allira-dream.livejournal.com]

Title: Where Wolves Fear to Prey.
Fandom: Fairy Tales.
Warnings: None.
Characters/couples: The Wolf, Red Riding Hood.
Summary: The wolf considered the human girl, but he made to leave her there. The forest was his territory, but he wasn't the one who said who lived or died within its ground.
Rating: PG.
A/N: Written for springkink: Fairy Tales, Red Riding Hood/Wolf: straying from the path; full moon; protection vs. fear; stubbornness; "I didn't ask for the Hunter to save me"; "My god, you make a lot of noise"

Where Wolves Fear to Prey.
Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.
Lord Byron

In the forest, the wolf was the king and master of everything, from the small mice that hid within the earth and trees to the cougars and wild cats that bowed their heads towards the wolf, for the wolf was stronger than them, and braver, and much more just. The wolf was fearsome but not feared; powerful but not an oppressor. The wolf was, if not loved by everyone, respected by most, and those animals that did not respect him, at least feared him enough not to challenge his absolute rule within the forest.

“One day,” those animals said, sheltered by the shadows. “The wolf will grow old. One day, he will be weak.”

For the wolf was the last one of his kind, they knew these words to be true.

One day, as the wolf roamed, he heard a cry quite different than those the animals of his forest ever made, a sound he had heard before, once upon a time. When he approached, he saw a small human child, her face covered with her hands as she cried in despair, a brown cloak around her thin shoulders. The wolf considered her but then he turned to leave for he had no qualms against the human girl but he had no business helping her. The forest was his territory, but he wasn't the one who said who lived or died within its ground.

But before he could turn away and leave, the girl took her hands from her face. There was no light in her eyes, her face dirty with mud and tears.

"Who's there?" she asked some fear in her voice. She moved a hand in front of her. "H-Help me, please."

The wolf considered her, and he could have left, for he had never seen this girl and he would have no troubles leaving her there for another one of the animals to feed from her, or simply for her to die there, for the nights were cold and her cloak was thin. But instead the wolf approached, and he allowed the girl's hand to touch his flank. Slowly, the girl's hands touched his head, his ears, the bristle fur from his back.

"A doggy?" the girl asked, her head cocked to the side. "You're a big doggy, aren't you?"

The wolf ignored that insult, nosing at her face, where hear tears were still fresh. The child's arms wrapped around his neck and back, and the wolf could feel the way her face rubbed against his fur. The sound of her heartbeat was slowly starting to calm itself.

"I want to go home," the child said, a wobbling on her voice.

The wolf snuffed, but he stood up again, pushing with his nose at the child to stand up. She did so slowly, picking up a long, thick stick that seemed to aid her know where she was, but one of her hands remained on his back, and so the wolf showed her the way towards the village near the forest where the humans laid, though it was a long way through the forest to get there and dangerous for his kind.

The girl moved slowly, one of her legs injured, but she didn't complain at all as long as he remained by her side. When the wolf caught the first sounds of humans nearby, the child perked, a smile to her face.

"My village!" The girl cried. "That's Micah's hammer, I can hear him! And that's Matthew's wife calling for their children! You brought me back home! Thank you!"

And so the wolf left her there, walking back towards his forest where he belonged before they could hunt him, expecting never to see the human child again as she walked her way back towards the village, the humans calling after her, and he heard her laugh.

But three nights and three days after that, he found the human child again, her sightless eyes open, her smile wide, her face clean, the brown cloak over her dark hair.

"I have food," the child said, and she searched near her feet were a basket laid, moving her hands through the things inside before she could offer him some meat that had gone through the fire before. "I have cheese, as well. I couldn't bring much. Father would get mad at me."

Her hand still offered him the food, and the wolf knew about paying his debts, so he approached the human child, taking the meat from her fingers, and even allowed her to scratch his ears, to caress his back. And then, she shared the cheese with him taking half of it and eating as well.

"I have to go back," the girl told him, picking up her stick and her basket. "I said I was going to get some berries, but grandmother will worry if I'm not there before noon."

So the wolf walked besides her again and though this time her leg wasn't injured the child put her hand on his back and they walked in almost perfect silence, except for that of the girl's stick touching the ground in front of her. Again the wolf stayed behind when they approached her home, and again the girl smiled at him, scratching his ears and caressing his back before she walked on her own, and the wolf retreated again.

Three sunrises and three sunsets went by before the girl came to the forest again, no debt between them this time, but she shared her food with him and the wolf allowed her to touch his back and caress his fur, even wrap her arms around him once before he walked her back to her village. And when the next three days and nights had gone by he was waiting for the child with her brown cloak and her dark hair, her walking stick and her little basket by her side, and they walked within the forest, deeper than the girl had gone before, but he showed her where the berries were and the girl gave him meat and scratched his ears, and for this the wolf allowed the girl's presence alone.

**

Years went by, as they happen to do, and every three days the human child would visit the wolf until the child was no longer a child and the wolf wasn't as young as before. But the forest was still his and his alone, and though the wolf knew that this would end the moment he died, he wasn't afraid of his demise.

"You're here! I missed you!" the young woman said, her smile wide, her sightless eyes open, her cloak resting upon her shoulders. The wolf approached her, nosing at her face and at her throat, her scent as familiar to him as the forest, and she laughed as her arms wrapped around his back, as she rested her head against his back.

But she wasn't as she usually was, for her sadness wrapped around her much closer than her clothes did. The wolf nosed at her face again, hoping she would speak at him the way she usually did when something had her upset.

His human sighed, clever fingers touching his jaw, his ears, rubbing between them. The wolf allowed her touch and leaned down, so his face was on her lap, waiting until she decided she could talk.

An hour had gone by like this, and the wolf was starting to think that maybe another one would go through before she spoke again.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep coming here," she told him, her voice sad and lost.

The wolf moved from her lap and looked at her, and the young woman moved a hand to his flank again, her face lost within its misery.

"Father says... father says I'm no longer a child," the woman told him. "I am not a child to keep going on by myself. Father says I should marry and have children of my own."

She lost her words. The wolf said nothing.

"Grandmother agrees with him. Father has let it know that he's searching for a husband for me. Lots of men respect my father and my brothers. I heard father speaking to Micah yesterday night, and they said that the eldest son of the Lake clan lost his wife and she left him with no child at all. I think they will send me there, and secure a truce between our clans."

She lost her words. The wolf said nothing.

"The lake... is so far away," the woman started again. "Three nights and three days, Micah says. I have never been there. Matthew says it's beautiful, and that they have boats to cross through the lake and that they bring out fishes of every color out of its water, and that the lake is so wide that even they with their good sight can't see through the other side. That scares me. I know I can find my way when I'm on land, but should I fall there, I know I would disappear."

She lost her words. The wolf said nothing.

"... I'm going to miss you," the woman said after a pause. She started to cry, her arms going around him, holding tightly to him. "You have been the best friend I could have ever asked. You have showed me so much. I'm going to miss you so much."

She lost her words again, this time with a sob. The wolf said nothing, but he bent his head against her shoulder, feeling the way her tears touched his fur.

He walked with her again as he had done through the past years, her hand on his back, a soft touch from her calloused fingers, her feet almost as light as his paws, and she hugged him again before she left, this time twice as long. She tore the hem of her cloak, tying it around one of his paws.

"So you will remember me, my friend, if only every other day," the human said, and her face was once more covered with the tracks of her tears and the dirt, but she smiled at him and at least her smile was true. The wolf touched her face with his, and he watched her go to her village from within the shadows of his trees.

Three days and three nights went through again. Then three days and three nights more. The young woman didn't come again, and the wolf heard humans speak about the clan's chief and his eldest son traveling away to the lake that was three days and three nights away from his own lands.

The wolf walked through his lands, through his forest, alone for the first time in years. In this forest where he was the king and master of everything, from the small mice that hid within the eart and trees to the cougars and wild cats that bowed their heads towards him, for the first time in years he felt the stranger, for there was no part in this forest he hadn't walked with that woman by his side, no tree and no rock where she hadn't lean down towards him, her voice kind and wistful and sad. Her scent was mixed with that of the trees he knew, with his own scent, with his life.

The wolf started to walk, even beyond the limits of his forest, never turning his back towards the lands he was leaving behind. He walked and he ran, following the scent of the cloth around his paw, running, running, three days and three nights until he reached unknown lands for himself, water mixed with the air so much more than how it was within his lands.

The sun was setting when he arrived, and the humans were celebrating, their drums loud within the night, their voices just as loud. There was a big fire between them where some of the humans were dancing around it, their rituals strange to the wolf, but he moved within the shadows, and he finally saw the woman, sitting side by side with a man. She was wrapped in furs and white clothes, flowers within her hair and jewels on her arms and neck, no stains at all upon her face or clothes. Nothing of the woman that had rolled on the grass of his forest, who had eaten berries and let their juice cover her face and clothes.

But her sadness, the wolf knew, was there. He could feel it as well as if it was his own, and her face was turned away from the man that had been chosen as her mate, turned all the way towards the forest the wolf had abandoned for her, her yearning obvious, and the wolf knew he had made the right choice.

**

Three nights and three days after her wedding, the woman was left to her own so that she could learn her way through the village without help, her walking stick on her hand, the other hand with which she usually touched his back moving in front of her, the way she had walked when she had been young, so many moons ago.

The wolf followed her until no other human would see him, and as his woman was sitting down on a rock, her despair clear now that she was alone, he approached. She looked up immediately, turning her head.

"You!" She called, turning towards him. The wolf approached her as the woman fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around him. "I can't believe you came! Oh, I've missed you so!"

Yes, the wolf thought, and then he thought that he had missed her too, and he nosed at her face until there were no more tears falling from her eyes, until there was nothing but her smile.

"Why?" the woman asked, but perhaps she knew that her question didn't need an answer, for she simply rubbed his ears, his back, the paw where she had wrapped the torn piece of her cloak. "I thank you. I'm happy now. Will you stay, my friend? Or did you come to say goodbye?"

The wolf laid down, his head on her legs, and that was answer enough for him.

It took a while before they could find the same rythm their visits had had before. These weren't his lands and so the wolf had to fight for his right to remain and he wasn't a young wolf any more. His woman wasn't a child anymore and so people expected more from her, but whenever she could, usually at night, she would leave her mate's house and come to find him, her clothes white but her smile pure, and though it wasn't his forest, here at least, the moon shone brighter than before.

Still, it was harder than before, for back in his forest the humans had known he had been there and they respected his rule and his right to hunt, but in this new world the wolf knew he was hated and feared, his howling aggressive to their ears. 'A wolf', they said, and the wolf could see the hunters getting their spears and arrows ready, and he knew that come the new season they would hunt him down.

But he would not leave his woman alone.

"I'm sorry, I'm tired," the woman told him the night the moon was full upon the sky when she came to find him, dressed in her white clothes, her hair loose, no cloak to keep her warm during the night, and she shivered even as her arms wrapped around him, her head against his shoulder. "I'll just sleep for a moment, then we can walk, alright? I have so much to tell you."

The scent of her mate was mixing up with hers, but she rested her head against him and the wolf allowed her to sleep as the night went through, looking at the way the moon shone twice in the sky and on the lake, and he felt the way his woman slept, her hand upon his fur and the wolf wrapped around her, and he felt at peace.

They both were woken up from their slumber when people started screaming in fright.

"Oh, no, they're looking for me," the woman said, worry in her voice. "I stayed outside too much, I have to go! Go hide, if they find you they'll kill you!"

But her warnings were late, for the man she had married had come forth, and he saw with his hunter eyes, perhaps even his male eyes and he saw his wife on the floor, looking scared, and he saw a wolf, and he cried:

"Wolf!"

People started running towards them, screaming, and though the wolf fled to hide so many humans with their torches followed him, and this wasn't his forest, this wasn't the place he had spent years living through where he knew every cranny and nook where he could took shelter, where he could hide. The humans here had the advantage on him, and the wolf was made to turn back, running towards the place where he and his woman had slept once more.

And there, his woman, being held by an elder woman that smelled like her and his forest, but the old woman was holding her back, not allowing her to move even though his woman was begging please.

"Kill the wolf!" someone cried.

"No, please, no!" the wolf heard his woman cry, her eyes wide, her fear ever present. "Please! Please! I'm begging you!"

And the wolf was looking at her when the hunters got him with their arrows, and when he howled and fell down she screamed.

The wolf could feel blood running from his wounds, could feel himself bleeding out, and then he heard his woman running towards him, even crawling as she took his head, resting her on her legs the way he had rested there for so many years.

"Please," she begged, tears rolling down her face, as she caressed his face and his flank. "Please, don't leave me. Please, my friend, please, don't leave me."

His blood was turning her white clothes red. The wolf whined gently, just once, at peace as he closed his eyes against her lap, dying with the sound of her heart and the scent of his forest around him, with the touch of her hands on him.

Comments

[lune-lointaine.livejournal.com]

His blood was turning her white clothes red.
That part is very sad, but it makes the last fix to do with the original story an alternative universe in which the main characters can become friends, thought there is a lot of possesivity in the feelings of the wolf. Good, even when the suggested plot sounded slightly to love-furry tale. It's interesting to see how you managed to write something so innocent (in its injustice. It would have been lovely too if Little Riding Hood just killed with poison or a machine gun the entire town and ran away with the anthropomorphic!wolf. Or even to turn in a wolf herself and give him puppies. But maybe I'm thinking in Ludwig revolution and not so much in Wolf's rain. Also, can be taken as an Alternative Universe of the Twilight saga by meyer, with Bella and Jacob in a vampire-community ruled by evil Cullens. Poor them) using that prompt. With some ilustrations, it would be a great book to read a child and make him or her learn about prejudices and friendship.