A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

The matronly stranger’s smile wavered as the plate of withered vegetables and dry meat was set before her. The girl with her was less polite, although her disgusted exclamation cut off quickly, as if she had been kicked under the table.

Barbara Peep flinched as if she’d felt the blow. It was hard to be a Peep in Little Lamb Village these days-doubly hard to be the Peep in charge of the Baa Bar. Almost a year had passed and she still grieved for her murdered daughter Sally, the grief mixed with undimming anger and horror that her own brother-in-law Wilf had done the deed. If that wasn’t bad enough, the entire Peep clan was in disgrace. Now that everyone knew that they had hoarded the waters of the magic well, they were forbidden to use magic at all anymore. Their stock and fields had rapidly shown the effects of overfarming, and they had soon gone from being the most powerful to the most destitute family in town.

The Baa Bar remained open, for all the good it was worth. Not many travelers had ever come though, and now the few that did were only coming to gawk at the local yokels who had almost murdered the wolf who saved all those kings and queens. At least that humiliation was shared by everyone, not just Barbara’s clan.

It was all that Virginia’s fault! If she hadn’t come through, looking for that evil travelling mirror, then none of it would have happened! Sally wouldn’t have lost the Beautiful Sheep and Shepherdess competition to her, so Sally wouldn’t have wrecked the secret well, and then Wilf wouldn’t have... wouldn’t have...

And then when they had that convenient Wolf to blame everything on, there went that meddling Virginia again, insisting on a trial and making such a fuss that her father and that dog found out everything. Wendell wasn’t forgetting how that trial was run, either. As soon as he’d been safely crowned, he’d sent a guard to come take their judge away for corruption and sent a new one in his place-a stern, horrible man who didn’t let them use sheep juries and who strictly enforced the anti-magic act against the Peeps.

Barbara knotted worn hands under her apron. All that was about to change. It was awful to go the way of Wilf, but something had to be done! They couldn’t go on this way!

Her children had done everything they could. Betty, Sally’s little sister, was keeping the judge busy with a series of complaints against the Morris boys, and considering the way they’d been hanging around and propositioning her, it was a legitimate case! In the meantime, her sons Filbert and Fairfax had gone out and torn up the road between the garrisons so that anyone trying to get down from the Eighth Kingdom border would be forced to go through their village instead.

Anyone like the nursemaid the papers talked about, the one Wendell had ordered to take care of the mutant brat of that Wolf and that horrible Virginia.

The woman and her daughter picked at their plates, in no hurry to eat. Barbara shuddered and closed her eyes. Once upon a time, people lined up to eat her food... Well, best be sure these were the people she thought they were. “So, what brings you here? Travelling the path of the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms?”

“We’re on a mission for King Wendell!” the younger woman announced proudly.

“I used to be one of his nursemaids when I was my daughter’s age,” the matron said, nodding at her companion. “He remembered me fondly and was kind enough to recommend me and Betsy to the Lady Virginia when she asked for help with her child. So I’m travelling down from my family farm to New Sanctuary.”

“So, you’re going to go work for that wo-I mean, for Wolf and Virginia.”

“Yes. We’re very excited.”

“Of course you are!” Barbara’s smile was strained. “You know, my Sally was about the age of your Betsy when...”

“When what?” the matron asked, unaware of Filbert and Fairfax coming in behind her. The boys looked at Barbara questioningly, and she nodded back. With a couple quick swings of firewood, it was done.

“When that happened to her,” Barbara told the bodies sadly. “I’m sorry, but someday everyone will understand why we had to do this. The reign of the wolves has to end.”

“They’re here!” Littlebit waved at the coach as it stopped in front of the gate. “Wolf, Virginia, the nursemaids are here!” She ran back inside the house, shouting the news so loudly that nobody ever heard the small voice wailing, “Bad humans! Bad humans come!”

Queen Red stifled a sigh. Travelling between garrisons was easy, but it also meant days on end with nothing to do but look at the backside of an ox and think.

There was a lot to think about. She hated to admit it, but this garrison idea of Wendell’s was one of the best military strategies she’d ever seen. Every garrison after Wolf’s Gate had known of their coming and been ready for them. After two stops, the pubs even had their favorite foods ready as soon as they arrived. It was creepy and pampering all at once. Obviously, the network did work, although without military information to pass on, they seemed to have been reduced to discussing mundanities.

If only she could find the manpower to make a network of her own! Perhaps if she could find a few fast wolves and their handlers, perhaps putting a little message container on their collars...

Surely she could find a few wolf handlers. She was becoming more and more used to the animals herself. It was almost... nice... to be eating with Benjamin every night. He was such a sweet, concerned soul, always worried about her and her comfort. She could almost even see what Virginia would see in a wolf-but to marry one! Red shuddered. That really was going a bit too far.

“We’re going too far,” Lucy complained, as if she could read her ruler’s thoughts. “Why haven’t we turned around yet? We’ve seen five of these garrisons and they’re exactly the same, just as we were told.”

“I want to see New Sanctuary,” Red insisted. “All we see in the garrisons are soldiers and workers. I want to see how regular wolves and humans interact. I can’t combat the image of this utopia of Wendell’s until I understand it, and I won’t understand it until I see it.”

That silenced Lucy, and Benjamin was always quiet, leaving Red alone again with her thoughts. She wanted to see New Sanctuary, but did she want Benjamin to see it? Every stop she watched her pet anxiously, to see if he would be seduced away by the life he saw. So far he seemed content to stay by her side, but would New Sanctuary tip his allegiance?

Soon they would know. The woods were in the distance. They’d be there tomorrow.

“Bah-bah-bah!” Dell burbled determinedly, grabbing at Littlebit’s brightly colored flosses as the wolf woman and Wendell’s matronly nursemaid passed in the hall. The nursemaid held his hands, but Littlebit just laughed.

“Oh, it’s all right. Come, let’s sit together downstairs and you can dangle the scrap ends for him.” It was a bright day, but she could see the ghosts clustered outside. They had been as thick as fleas ever since Edwina and her little Betty had arrived.

Stupid ghosts! Their souls may have survived, but their brains had obviously rotted. Rabbiting on and on and on about “bad humans” every time everyone without a tail walked by their door. Now they were all set against their new helpers, not that any of them ever lifted an ephemeral hand to change Dell’s diaper or wash the dishes or sweep the floor, oh no! These last few weeks had been almost as relaxing as a vacation with the new help, and Littlebit had no intention of letting the ghosts ruin such a good deal.

Even as Edwina carried Dell off to the other side of the room, he twisted in her arms to stare at the flosses. He never took his eyes off the shining colors, even as he was set down on a blanket.

Virginia, coming to join them, laughed at his expression. “You look just like your daddy when there’s something you want!” She plumped onto the floor next to her baby. “What a big boy you are! Who’d believe you’d grow so fast in just a few months?”

Dell ignored them all, still staring at the colors. Littlebit waved a skein of purple at him, setting her sewing basket down on the floor.

“Buh!” Dell hefted himself up to his hands and knees. Littlebit had to stifle a giggle-he really did look like her brother when he frowned like that! “Buh! BUH-duh-dah-duh-DUH!” He grabbed at the air, and when that didn’t get him anything, slapped a chubby hand to the floor. He tried with the other hand, missed that way too, and had to put it down before he fell on his button nose.

Now his weight was on his hands, and his fat little body was stretched out. Uncomfortable, he brought a knee a little forward to balance. That ground his other knee into the blanket, so he moved it too, and then stopped, swaying, blinking in surprise to find himself a little bit closer to those tantalizing colors.

“Look at him!” Littlebit whispered. The advice was hardly needed-Virginia was riveted to the sight.

“You can do it, Delly!” she urged. “C’mon, you can do it! Go get ‘em!”

“Guh! Buh!” Dell agreed, trying it all again. And then with a triumphant “BUH!” he scrambled across the floor quick as lightening, upsetting Littlebit’s basket before anyone could catch him. Not that anyone other than the over-cautious Edwina was trying too hard to do so. Littlebit was laughing as she hastily grabbed up needles before his eager hands could get to them, Virginia was cheering, and Dell’s little tail was wagging as quick as it could as he triumphantly waved two fistfuls of flosses in the air before cramming them into his mouth.

Virginia snatched him up before he could do more damage, still laughing and praising her child. Littlebit threw back her head and howled in joy. Edwina slapped her hands over her ears at the din, but Dell tilted his head back in imitation, echoing a little “Oooooo!” that only made his mother laugh harder.

Dell squirmed, trying to get down to try his new trick again. “Time for your undenning, little one,” Littlebit told the fighting child.

No one but the ghosts noticed the expression on Edwina’s face.