Red Riding Hood; Editing

Dreams, day dreams, and remembering the past

             He turned and when he did something hit me and I blacked out to the world.

     I woke, into the pitch black and felt around into the blackness and felt the cold hard dirt and rock, dazed and confused. There was a light ahead and I got up walking to it, searching around in the dark to find the knife I must have dropped and the spell book in the basket that I brought. I could not find anything but cold hard stone and as I came to the light I had to shield my eyes and as I did I saw the outside world.

     Green grass, blue sky, flowers, dirt and rock. I was enveloped by light as I came out of the cave and I blinked taking in the light and I looked around. It was an all normal but something was off, there where no sounds or living thing to be heard or seen. the wolf was not even there, only me, alone.

      I thought to myself, what was he thinking leaving me here alone where I could easily escape and run away. I felt a weird since of Déjà vu and I remembered my dream, and I panicked looking down at my arm quickly and sighed at the clear white skin, pale and unbroken, no red blood splashed across my arm and I almost sobbed in relief. The woods were dark, and I was scared, I planned on killing him but the dream spooked me more then even he did. So much blood, it was so red and the bite so deep, it was an angry bite.

      So, I did what came to instinct, I ran. I ran faster then the other children and probably as fast as a wolf without having to stop for air. The trees went by me in a blur and I even smiled feeling the soft ground below me, my feet feeling the earth as I go by. I saw eyes as I ran, peeking from behind the trees and bushes but none of it mattered. I ran and I had no idea where I was going and in which direction it was I was headed to. Finally I came to a clearing and I stopped breathing hard and looking around. Nothing much, just a small clearing with green grass but a small circle of mushrooms in the very center of the clearing which was strange.

      I remembered my father telling me stories about the woods and about the ring of mushrooms and I gasped as I remembered the day he told me....so long ago it seemed, nine years ago when I was seven...

       I ran from the crowd and they chased me but of course I was faster. Sobbing I ran to the only place I could, the woods. My father was cutting wood and as I came up to him he stopped and came running to me, and hugged me tightly to him and the other children stopped in their tracks and slowly backed up as my father glared at them. I cried and cried and he let me as he stroked my hair saying I was safe.

      "I will never be safe, only as long as your here daddy."

      "I won't always be here, you now that right?"

     "Yes but I don't like to think about it, it's like not thinking of grandmamma."

     "You know she used to tell me a story, about protection."

     "Really?"

     "Yes, it's about faeries, you like faeries don't you sweetheart?"

     My eyes shone bright and I yelped excitedly clapping my hands in excitement. "Yes! They are in the woods, I think I have seen them, I think."

     My father laughed and his eyes shone brightly, "Is that so, well maybe you should here this story."

     "Yes I would like that very much."

     "Ha, ha, okay" he laughed and sat down placing me next to him as he picked a mushroom.

     "This is sacred to the faeries."

     "Daddy, don't lie, why would an ugly thing like that be special to the faeries."

     "I'm not lying, really, No one really knows why but there is a story to it,so stop talking and let me tell you it."

     He was laughing and I sat there glaring at him but was unable to and started to laugh but he shushed me and started his story. "Once in a land far away, there was a young woman who was rather like a child. Iit's not a bad thing really, children are normally happy and full of life just like she was and she loved nature, she was always picking flowers and humming.

     "People were mean to her and thought she was weird even her parents and the man she always loved rejected her and broke her heart, so she had no one to turn to so she ran, ran into the woods and when she did she found a clearing and in the middle were a circle of white mushrooms and she did what she always did, believed, and she curled into a ball in the circle sobbing her heart out. The faeries saw her and knew she was so like the children they play with and they could not stand to see her cry so they came to her and protected her and played with her and when it grew dark she started to cry again and it broke the hearts of the little creatures and they knew the place she lived was no place to be so they took her deep into the woods. They made her a beautiful princess where she laughed and played the day's away and some times you can hear her laugh when your lost in the woods, guiding you out safely."

      "Wow! So what happened to her?"

     "Well, after that she was never seen again?"

     "How do you know she is happy then?"

     "I thought you liked faeries?"

     "I do, I just am saying she might not be happy."

     "That might be true, what do you think?"

     I thought about it, I really did and then I said "I think she is happy."

     "Well then I guess it must be true." he was laughing and patted her head softly standing up. "Well it's time to leave, you mother will have dinner ready."

      I stood up too and said "Daddy, do you think I am weird?"

     He laughed and picked up his axe shaking his head at his daughter. "Yes you are, but I don't think I can picture you any other way."

      "So, you like me right, not like the parents of that girl in the story.?

      "Sweetheart, I love you very much."

      I laughed and giggled starting to walk with my father and we walked for only a minute when I heard something from the woods, a soft kind laugh that was beautiful and I stopped walking and turned around listening to the laugh trying to see through the trees and the only thing I saw was bright eyes gazing at me and I smiled at whoever it was.

      "Destiny, what is it?'

     I looked at my dad and I knew that I was different and I did not want him to think I was hearing things too, so I smiled and said it was nothing but he looked up and stared hard at the trees and then grabbed my hand and smiled slightly at me lifting me high on to his shoulders as I laughed all the way home.

      I never heard the laugh again, but after that night my life started to get worse, because it was when I started to see wolves again since I was a little child and I somehow think that the woman was trying to help me, feel better and to feel better with the days to come and I silently thanked her for it and I walked to the mushrooms and sank slowly in the middle feeling the protection of it and started to cry and as I did I heard singing, a soft whisper and as I cried I fell asleep to the voice and somehow I knew I would be alright and that I was safe, safe at last. I fell asleep thinking about Aaron and I smiled the whole time, knowing soon we would be together again.