Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

The loss of the giants hurt the trolls a lot. When they’d started the war, their idea of forcing battles through the day and night made sense because the giants had been handling almost half the work. Now with them gone, the trolls had to send in more troops for the day shift. Which meant they lost some on the night shift. They were spread very thin, as they tried to conduct a war on four different fronts and over two countries.

And then the full moon came up.

The wolves that had had the day off were more than ready when the full moon hit the sky. They tore into the battlefield with boundless energy, taking with them even some of the wolves that had fought during the day. It didn't take long for the trolls to realize that fighting wolves during a full moon was a serious mistake.

The cannon crews were still near where they had started out earlier in the day. They had achieved their first goal by getting the giants to leave the war. Their second goal was to force the trolls out of Red Riding Hood’s castle and then take the Third Kingdom itself. Till that happened, to save on magic traveling dust, they were all staying behind their respective fronts and awaiting orders.

With the full moon in the sky and Virginia far away, Wolf would much have preferred to be in battle. He’d told Rose that he wanted to go with her that evening but she’d refused to let him.

“You should stay here,” she said, “in case a situation comes up where we need the cannons.”

“Nooo,” Wolf said. “I’m more valuable to you on the battlefield.”

“Not tonight,” Rose said. “You stay here. That’s an order.”

What could Wolf do? She outranked him now. With a well-orchestrated whimper, he gave up and started away. Then he looked back to see if he’d gotten her sympathy. But she’d already begun a conversation with an elf about carrying more arrows to the front in the morning.

Ultimately, Wolf went off and did a little hunting. Then he sat under a tree and howled his troubles to the moon as wolves often do. When the rest of the world couldn’t understand, the moon did.

There was a fable among the wolves that it had been moon goddess who’d raised the wolves above the other animals in the forest, giving them the power of speech and reason because she’d admired their cleverness, their bravery, and their loyalty to one another. She thought they’d make a wonderful addition to the other dominant species of the world and would over time be greatly respected. So, she worked her magic. And from that moment on she became the spiritual mother of all wolves, alpha and not. She came and visited them each month as usual, never staying as long as she wanted.

And the wolves always met her and told her about all the wonderful things they were doing with their newfound powers. But over time, the moon began hearing reports that the wolves had taken to warring among themselves like many of the other dominant species. And she heard they were bullying weaker animals in the forest and misusing their new power in the world. On one particular month, she left the sky to come to earth and see these things for herself, leaving the sky dark when it should have been full of light. When she found all the reports were true, she became very angry. As a punishment, she proclaimed that every month when she appeared, they would feel a call to the wild so they would remember the animals that they had once been. In this way they would no longer be able to indulge their self-importance.

Wolf himself felt no conceit on that night. He was far away from his succulent wife, with her deep blue eyes and delectable body. His heart, soul, and body craved her beyond measure. He wanted to chase her through the woods and then slowly make love to her the way she liked.

What had the world become, he wondered. He was far away from his lovely wife on a full moon night. And he’d become a prince, of all things. What a ridiculous idea! He certainly didn’t feel like one. I mean, huff-puff, imagine him a king, trapped inside a castle all the time? He was glad Red Riding Hood the Third had survived because he certainly wouldn’t have wanted her throne. But his sister was going to be on a throne . . . his baby sister, who now outranked him in the army. She was going to be the queen of a man who hadn’t liked wolves before Wolf had rescued him from being a dog. Things were just moving too fast.

And all that stuff Raphaela had shown him about Tony and his younger self. He didn’t remember any of it because, from the point of view of history, it never happened. All he knew of the past was what happened the first time and what his older self directly saw during his visit there. Had Tony really been so protective and friendly with his younger self? Had he saved him from dying with his parents and given him his own talisman so he and Virginia could return home? So much of that night was a blank to him. Had he perhaps been a bit hard on Tony? Maybe he should do more to get along with the older man.

Virginia was not a wolf so she wasn’t anywhere near as aware of the full moon as her husband was. In fact, she didn’t notice it at all till she went to bed around one o’clock in the morning. She had dived into her new job as Queen Leaf Fall’s assistant and found herself quite good at it. Leaf was very demanding and more than a bit of perfectionist. But since Virginia was intelligent and competent, the two got along very well.

Virginia’s chief job was the elf dispatches. She took them in, read them and handled what she could, advising Leaf of the rest. For instance, after Spider the giant was killed in the morning, they had to decide what to do with his body. Leaf suggested contacting Prince Brutus who was still up in the Eighth Kingdom. She thought Brutus could transport Spider north and keep him on ice till the end of the war. Then they would return him to the giants. But Brutus had another suggestion. He wrote Virginia that he wanted to magically transport Spider to the world at the top of the beanstalks. It would be a difficult spell but he was confident he could do it. It was the decent thing to do, after all. But more importantly, it would show the giants they had a powerful weapon. Then they’d think twice before attacking again. Virginia O.K.’d this and stayed in touch with Brutus till he succeeded in his task. Then she had told Leaf Fall that the problem had been solved.

When she finally went to her room, Virginia looked out the window and saw the moon. She sent her love to Wolf through it, although not in howls like her husband. Then she slipped between the clean sheets of her bed. No doubt about it, living in a castle had its perks. Like fresh sheets and maids who kept your room tidy and chefs who prepared meals for you. But sleeping alone without your husband was lonely indeed. Wolf’s side of the bed was cold and barren. She wanted so much to curl up against his warm body and run her hand over the hair on his chest. If she’d had a choice, she would have stayed up and continued working with Leaf. But the baby growing inside of her needed rest.

As she lay down, she ran her hand over her stomach and said good night to her unborn little one. Her ring sang softly in the dark to keep her company, using the same lullaby that it had sung to her in the past. This time, however, it didn't sing the part about the fairy queen watching over her. “I guess Matilde’s doing other things tonight,” Virginia said to the ring. But in place of that part was a new phrase.

“Though your love is far away,” the ring sang,
He will come home soon to stay.
Then a king and queen, you’ll see,
Soon will join your family.”

Virginia laughed when she heard that. It didn’t make any sense to her. She didn’t know of Rose’s engagement to Wendell yet. And both she and Wolf had left the courtyard that morning before Tony had kissed Matilde so publicly. So, of course she had to ask, “What’s that supposed to mean?” But the ring just repeated the whole lullaby again.

King Wendell had spent the evening well to the rear of the fighting. He usually liked to be close to see how it was going. But tonight with the full moon and the relentless energy of the wolves, he just couldn’t keep up. Neither could most of the human soldiers. The wolves were flooding across the border of the Second Kingdom and into the woods on the other side with a ferocity that even frightened the trolls.

There wasn’t much to do, so Wendell took the opportunity to rest. He sat himself under some trees inside the Second Kingdom not far from the border. His aide visited him twice, first to give him a report and then to bring him a couple of blankets because the King had decided to spend the night in that peaceful spot.

Meanwhile, Rose was fighting with the other wolves, pushing back the trolls and dividing up their ranks. It was satisfying work. She was pushing the invaders off her native soil, regaining the world of her ancestors. It felt good and powerful. And she gloried in it. Then, somewhere in the vicinity of midnight, she began to feel hungry for something else. For someone else. With a growl she turned back toward the border.

Even from a distance she could catch Wendell’s scent on the air. It was enticing beyond endurance. She had to go to him. He was easy to find because he wasn’t moving. Each step closer to him made her more and more hungry.

At some point, Wendell had the sense he was being watched. Or maybe even stalked. It was wartime, so he was understandably cautious. He stood up and unsheathed his sword. “Who goes there?” he asked. “Identify yourself.”

But Rose was not in a mood to talk. With a ravenous growl she jumped out of the shadows and threw him to the ground, knocking his weapon aside in the process. Then she began kissing him and ripping at his clothes.

Needless to say, Wendell quickly realized who was attacking him. This was not an average maneuver of war and the woodsy smell of the long hair sprawling over his increasingly naked body definitely belonged to Rose. He hadn’t intended to go this far before the wedding. But his fiance obviously had other ideas because she had him pinned to the ground and was practically raping him. There was no way he could resist her passion. Nor did he want to. Her lovemaking left him gasping. And he wondered how he was going to keep up with such a fiery lover. But somehow he knew he'd find a way.

Tony and Matilde did not have the option of physical closeness that night. But thoughts to that effect were very definitely starting to occur in their minds.

At moonrise, Tony contacted Matilde in his mirrored medallion. All he did was call her name and her face appeared out of its gray depths, shimmering slightly in her darkened surroundings. His first words were, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” she said.

Their kiss that morning had incited a deep longing for more in Tony. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, and feel her under him. Instead, he was on a lonely battlefield behind the action, with Lord Rupert and a bunch of elves and serious faced dwarves. Talk about frustration! If he’d thought of it, he would’ve howled at the moon like Wolf. “I saw Virginia’s dispatch this afternoon,” he said. “Speaking as the inventor of our wonderful weapons, I feel mighty proud.”

“And so you should.”

“I’m proud of Virginia too. She seems to be doing a good job back there. I didn’t know she was going to be handling dispatches.”

“I suggested she help Leaf Fall. I had a feeling they would work well together.”

“And they obviously do.”

They were silent for a moment, each in their own romantic thoughts.

While watching Tony sleep in the past, Matilde had wondered more than once what it would be to like spend the night with him. And that morning when he’d kissed her, she’d very much enjoyed the feeling of his body against hers.

“Do you hear the wolves howling from afar here in the background?” Tony asked.

“Yes, some elves from our cannon crew flew up and over the Second Kingdom to see how things were going. Evidently, our side is doing very well with the help of the moon. At this rate, I'm pretty certain the war won’t last much longer.”

“I hope not.”

“When it’s over, it would be nice if you could come up with a special invention of some kind for the dwarves in thanks for the help they gave you.”

“An invention? What kind?”

“I don’t know. I leave that up to you. After all, you’re the inventor.”

“But I was going to build a boiler for Wendell’s castle.”

“So? You can still do that. You don’t have to build anything for the dwarves. They're great builders in their own right. You can simply draw up some plans.”

“I’ll try and think of something.”

“Good,” Matilde said. “From what I read in Virginia’s dispatches, you and Lord Rupert were really quite brilliant today.”

“Thank you, we tried.”

“Is Rupert proud of himself?”

“Do you have to ask? You should see him dancing around, telling and retelling our adventure. The elves fly away when they see him coming.”

There was a pause again.

"We should probably get some rest," Matilde observed.

“I don’t want to say goodnight,” Tony said.

“I don’t either.”

So, they continued talking of this and that and nothing at all. Till Tony finally felt the pull of the day and dropped off to sleep. Matilde left the mirrors on so she could watch him as he slept.

The next morning when Wendell woke up, he quickly realized that he and Rose would be needing some fresh clothing. The ones they had had on the night before were a little worse for the wear and scattered about in every direction. But what did it matter? His beautiful naked love was by his side, curled up under the blankets he'd had the foresight to order the night before. Rose had her head on his chest with her red hair cascading in every direction. He didn’t move for a long time because he didn’t want to wake her up. When she finally did, he kissed her and they made love again, this time more gently because the extreme hunger of the night had been spent.

Afterward Wendell said, “We really should be going. My aide will be looking for me.”

“Mm,” Rose said, sort of agreeing, but not quite.

“I should get us some new clothes. I don’t think ours are in good shape anymore. I have a spare uniform back at the main camp. And I’m sure we can find one for you too.”

“Mm,” Rose said again. She was enjoying the naked cuddling.

But war was war and they had to get back. Wendell kissed her forehead and got up to route among in the clothes on the ground. It was cold that morning and what he found was a bit ripped. But it would have to do. He left Rose and started off in the direction he thought his aide would be coming from. “Lenworth!” he called through the trees several times.

Finally Lenworth’s voice answered back. “Your Majesty? Is something wrong?” Lenworth walked quicker through the hemlocks, but came to a total stop when he saw the disheveled state of the King. “Your Majesty! Are you all right? Were you attacked last night?”

“In a manner of speaking. But I’m quite all right. What I need is for you to bring me my spare uniform. And an extra one as well in a slightly smaller size.”

Puzzlement floated across the aide’s face. “Your Majesty?”

“It’s not for me. It’s for someone else.”

The aide’s looked back over the King’s torn clothes, noticing the pattern of destruction. And the truth finally dawned on him. “Ah, ha,” he said. “I’ll go at once. It won’t take but a few minutes.”

When Wolf saw his sister coming toward him from a distance later that morning, he was puzzled to see her in the regular navy uniform of the Fourth Kingdom instead of the deerskin suit she prized so much. But when she got closer, he understood completely. People who spend the night together, leave a lot of their scent on each other. So wolves often know the truth about other people's sex lives. It can be very embarrassing at some times and great fun at others. In this case, it was the later. “I guess I’ll have to say yes to Wendell's marrying you now,” Wolf said.

“Oh, stop."

“Virginia and I couldn’t wait either.”

“I need you to do something for me.”

“Whatever you need, sister mine,” Wolf said with a smirk.

“My clothes got a little damaged.”

Wolf’s smirk got wider and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Wendell’s aide brought me these to wear. But I think it would be more proper if I wore brown. Would you try and borrow some clothes from some of the other part-wolves? If I do it, they’ll know everything, just like you do.”

“And huff-puff, we can’t have that. No siree.”

“Stop it,” Rose said, giving him a push. “Just go!”

“At once, my future Queen,” Wolf said chuckling. At least his sister had enjoyed the full moon.