A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

She feinted in the one direction they didn’t expect-off to the side, where bracken led to the deeper woods. They streamed after her, unencumbered by thorns catching their clothing or small branches whipping into her face. Littlebit grabbed the first one she had to push aside, rapidly twisting it loose and continuing to run. She wasn’t sure what the ghosts could do to her, if anything. None of them had been able to touch her until she lay dying, but that was no reason to let those homicidal humans try! She dodged them as best she could, howling for help.

The howl was answered. Not from the direction of the town, but from even more deeply into the woods.

The women were suddenly there, howling as they appeared. The mutilated wolf and the old mad human led the charge of vaporous mothers, who gladly launched themselves at Littlebit’s persecutors. Leaving them to their spectral slaughter, Littlebit turned back to where the town. She was almost at the road when a half-wolf lunged out of the shadows and got there before her. For a split second, she was relieved to have company.

Then Benjamin turned to her, snarling. “You thought you got rid of me, but I outsmarted you all! You’ll pay for what you did to my tail! When Queen Red takes me back…”

“She’ll never take you back!” Littlebit wailed. “It’s over! You’re dead!”

He snorted. “Liar! I only got hit a couple of times.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Stop trying to confuse me! I’m strong! I’m invincible!”

“You’re insane!” she shrieked at him, dodging around him. Nothing can be worse than being stuck with him, nothing, nothing… As she thought it, a basket materialized in the middle of the road-a pale, familiar, gypsy basket. She hurdled it as she started to sob. Oh, Virginia, this is too much for you. No one is strong enough to erase all this! We have to get out of here, go home, go back to your dimension! They’ll never leave us alone! Never, never!

She was red-faced and out of breath when she finally staggered back to the square. “They don’t want me to go free,” she gasped.

“We’re going to make it right,” Virginia said. She seemed awfully confident-but then she hadn’t just run from her life from the dead.

For the second time in as many days, Littlebit faced the Mirror of Truth. Unsure of what to do, she thrust her little twig at it, the leaves at the tip dancing mockingly.

Wendell was there, right there on the platform with her. “Mirror!” he ordered it. “Show me the truth of the curse on the Disenchanted Forest!”

A bright white light rippled across the surface like a stone thrown in a pond. When it cleared, a wolf mother lay curled on the ground, her hair and intestines spread around her, her tail matted in the spreading blood. Above her stood the brutal-looking man, his hands and knifeblade as scarlet as Queen Red’s outfit. Under one arm were tucked two tiny, bloody, wriggling wolfcubs, wailing as wolf infants never did. On the ground between the two were two tiny tails, barely longer than fingers and still bleeding sluggishly.

“Bad luck to you,” the wolf gasped. “Bad luck to you and all who hurt a wolf in these woods. Bad luck follow you to your deaths!”

The mirror rippled again, and Wendell told it, “Hold!” He turned back to Cinderella, Virginia, and Red. “How do you suggest we break this one? I can pass a law that wolves cannot be hurt, but that won’t make everyone obey it.”

“I already broke it,” Littlebit said, a little proudly. “She told me so. Mirror, show them the truth.”

The magical ripples cleared, showing that terrible night. Was it really only a week ago? Again Littlebit fought the humans. Again the knife scored along her arm. Again the ghostly mother sobbed her frustration.

Wendell was frowning as the reflection of the square returned. “That means the curse has been broken.” He turned back to the platform. “So what’s the problem?”

“There is more than one curse, your majesty,” Littlebit reminded him. “That was the first night of killing. Many years later, the mothers had their revenge.”

Wendell lifted an eyebrow skeptically, turning back to the mirror. “Show me the truth of this revenge.”

When the lights cleared, the view was of the same glade where the wolf had been killed. But this time the big man was wary instead of triumphant, grey with age and the shock of the little bodies scattered around, their throats neatly cut. He and an old woman were shouting at each other, circling, looking for an opening to use the weapons in their hands.

“You will never leave these woods,” the woman hissed. “You will be trapped here beyond time, watching generation after generation of your descendants die, unable to help them. Always bad luck! Always tragedy! You will see it all, and change not a whit of it. Your only hope is to let the our children free! Let them go, let just one of our mangled, mingled children live as they wish and I will yet spare you!”

“Spare me!” He gestured at the crumpled bodies of his children. “You’ve already done the worst thing… all my children… all my babies…” He sobbed once, a harsh sound. “All your mongrel brats are dead and good riddance! I’m sorry I didn’t kill you traitors to humanity with them! You’ve brought nothing but ruin and misery!”

“I brought justice! You killed my whole family, punished me for who I loved… die in pain and sorrow!” She lashed out with her branch, hitting him solidly on the chest. A secondary branch had been split off it, leaving a sharp spar that sank deep into his side. He wrenched her weapon out of her hands, pulling it from his flesh and tossing it away. But as he drew breath to curse her in return, a bubbling whistle came from the wound. He covered it with a hand, but already his voice was starting to gurgle as his lungs filled with blood.

“You too.” She laughed at the inelegant response, but his fervent hate made it a curse anyway. “There will be no peace and rest for any one of you wolf lovers before or after death. No peace for your kind! Your spirits will walk these woods, watching my kind kill yours until Red Riding Hood herself blesses a wolf!” He coughed, going down on one knee. She came closer to spit in his face, and with the last of his effort, he swung wildly, caving in the side of her head with the rock in his hand.

The crowd moaned as one as his body fell across hers and the mirror once more went blank.

Red swallowed nervously. It was one thing to set the wolves free, knowing that they were still below her as her subjects. It was quite another to give her blessing to one! Particularly when there was a dark stain over there reminding them all of how poorly she did at caring for wolves. Oh, why did she have to do it? This wasn’t her kingdom! It wasn’t her problem!

She looked back at the crowd. To her surprise and slight offense, nobody else seemed to be thinking about that part of the curse. Everyone else was staring at Elizabeth, who had nervously knotted her hands in her skirt, dropping that silly twig.

“A mangled part-wolf,” a gravelly voice mused. “There is only one person here who fits that description.”

“I know, Great Wolf,” Wendell said smoothly, smiling reassuringly at the wolf woman.

Don’t let her free, Wendell! I want her to come sew for me again! Red thought peevishly, and then was ashamed of herself.

Wendell looked over to the royal platform, straight at her. Oops, he hadn’t missed that detail! “I think it would be best to let the wolves go free first. They have been persecuted for far too long. Don’t you agree?”

“Uh, er, yes,” Red stuttered inelegantly. Well, no hope for it. Can I just bless them in general, or do I have to pick one out? She looked wildly around. Dell? I really have no interest in that kid. He’s got heroes for parents, fairy godmothers watching over him-there’s nothing I can give him. Well, I suppose that blessing him will make the story tidy. Might as well get this over with.,P> She started to stand up, but a sudden tug on the side of her skirt almost knocked her over.

“Wur?” asked the fat little wolfcub as she pulled her skirt free. It seemed to take being tumbled over philosophically, rolling to its feet. Despite her efforts to shoo it, it steadfastly marched towards her, finally grabbing the hem of her sleeve and starting to chew. A sodden spot on her hem showed that he’d been sucking on her clothing for quite a long time. Just like…

“JIM!” two voices in the crowd cried.

“Nibbles!” Red blurted at the same time. “What are you doing here?”

Two embarrassed parents, this time in human form except for the tails sweeping behind them, squeezed through the crowd to the edge of the platform, apologizing profusely. “We’re so sorry for the inconvenience, my lady!” “He slipped away, I apologize!”

“It’s all right.” Red gathered the squirmy little bundle of fur up. “You came to see the trial?”

They nodded.

“Are any of the other cubs I... are there any of the other cubs here?”

“Only my cousins', that I know of, my lady,” the woman said. “My Jim and their Susan are inseparable." She gestured back into the crowd.

Red beckoned that couple forward and they nervously edged up, clutching their child. Susan turned out to be Little Licker.

“Come on, it’s okay,” Red coaxed, squatting in a most unroyal manner. “I have singled them out once for reasons much less worthy than this. Let me make it up to them.”

She took Little Licker and started to stand, only to hear another voice in the crowd call, “Wait!”

A blushing young couple pushed through. “My lady, if you wish to reunite your, uh…” the mother said awkwardly. Tubby was in a sling around her neck and shoulders, wagging his tail at the reappearance of his playmates.

His father scooped him out and held him up. “We trust you,” he said simply.

It was a juggle to hold all three of them, since they insisted on squirming, and Nibbles lived up to his nickname by promptly seizing on her earlobe with sharp little teeth. She flinched a bit, but he didn’t bite too hard, so she went on as best she could with the other two sliming her face everywhere that their tiny tongues could reach.

“I bless you.”

Nothing happened, so she elaborated. “May you have long, healthy lives and live happily ever after. You will never know a collar. May you never know injustice for what you are.” The last part of the blessing she delivered to the parents lined up hopefully at her feet. “And if you come to my kingdom, I promise you little ones that you will be taught at the best schools, and given every opportunity to use your talents.”

She kissed the tops of their little fuzzy heads. At the first one, she felt a shock, although that might have been the pain of Little Licker moving her head back to lick her and banging into her nose. At the second one, there was a distinct tingle. As her lips touched the last round skull, she felt something surge through her and the air blazed with magic.

Suddenly the crowd was doubled as women and children materialized before them, their injuries disappearing as magical sparkles danced along them. Empty sockets filled with shining eyes, newly regrown tails swished in happy wagging, the guttural sounds of missing tongues resolving into cries of “Thank you!” “Bless you, great lady!” “Thank you!” The children ran to their mothers, who grabbed them into deep hugs. As they did, the light shining from them grew brighter and brighter until they disappeared in a burst of sparks.

The last to go was the woman who had cast the first curse. Each of her arms was thrown around a fine, grown son. They turned to the platform and behind her, Red heard Elizabeth cry out.