Little Red Riding Hood

"Cedric, this is horrible. The Redhead village continues to harm the forest and Blackbirds," I sighed, exasperated.

"If this continues, and we provide them refuge, our territory will be overpopulated."

"I know... But where can they go? Their houses were burned down! And..."

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "My lady, surely you cannot think that you are to blame for this!"

"Well, not entirely. But I did grow up in that village. And I'm one of the supposed missing children. Even though I'm already nineteen," I mumbled the last sentence under my breath.

"My lady, what the Redheads do is not your actions to take responsibility of. You are working so hard to rehouse them. How can it possibly be your fault?"

I bit my lips. "Cedric, you're older than me, so you must remember when I was born, right? Or at least some recollection."

Cedric nodded. "I was a mere five year old child. When you were born, the wolf pack howled in mourning."

"Huh? Was it really that bad for me to be born?" Why were they mourning for?

"M-My lady. Please tell me you know why those with purple eyes are known as 'born-murderers'." When I shook my head, Cedric looked as though he wanted to yell at me. "It is not so complicated a name, My lady. You killed someone when you were born. Your mother."

"Oh? Oh... That's rather anti-climatic." I couldn't say I felt sad. I didn't know who my mother was. All my life, I only had Mama. Even though I knew I was adopted, she was still my mother.

"Indeed. Your mother's death was sad. Your father, her husband, attempted to kill you. Wolves are loyal to their partners, so he was overcome with grief. The wolves had to isolate him from you, and he killed himself soon after as he wanted to join his wife. It's not an uncommon case for born-murderers to lose both parents."

"If both my parents died, then who named me Reyna?" I asked.

"Aloysius did. He said it was a fitting name for one with bright purple jewels for eyes. It means queen."

"I know what it means," I rolled my eyes. I'd found out when looking through a list of baby names with Marian. But it was quite strange that Aloysius would be the one to give me that name. "Why did the others just accept the name?"

"No adult wanted to be around you. Purple eyes are a bad omen. And parents kept their children away from you. Not even Aloysius was allowed to, and he was a candidate to be Alpha."

"But then didn't the Redheads try to attack the wolf clan because of me?"

"They did. But wolves are always loyal to their pack members, even if you were a born-murderer."

"Then... where does Robin come into all of this?"

"Oh... him. The Red fox clan betrayed us, and he kidnapped you. We figured he would give you to them, so Aloysius chased after him. But turns out he kept you safe. He is still very suspicious though..."

"I saw him yesterday. In my dream. He was there with the other villagers as they burned down Leonard's dens. And he could see me."

Cedric's eyebrows travelled high on his forehead. "That's- that shouldn't be possible, right? I am aware you can interact with reality, that's how you helped the other clans in your dreams. But from what I've heard, they couldn't see you." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe it's because you two know each other so well. He might be familiar with your aura, somehting along those lines?"

"Yeah, maybe," I rested my head on my hands. I didn't want to think of the other option. The only other person who could see me was the Pied Piper boy, because he was just like me. But Robin had beautiful dark brown eyes. But then again, Robin hid the fact that he was a Blackbird so well. He dyed his hair, but could he change the colour of his eyes.