A Sort of Fairytale (closed to Elisa)

[not_the_philistine]

There seemed, on the surface, nothing mysterious about the events that had transpired as of late in a rural Irish town. A wolf had slain several Irish women in as brutal and bloody a way a beast could, and this was not the only attack by wolves on humans across Europe recently. The Irish culprit had already been killed by a local human, to the relief of all the mortals who lived nearby.

The mystery of the case was that the Irish wolf that had done the killing was a faoladh, an Irish wolf guardian of a clan that shared their land peacefully with mortals. For one of their sons to brutally murder a pair of humans was a strange and terrible thing, wholly unexpected.

Combined with the epidemic of recent European wolf attacks, it suggested any number of conclusions that people could draw. Disease, a curse, cold blooded murder - and the job wanted a detective to determine which conclusion was the right one.

Fortunately for the Guardians, they were recently fortified by one.

Goliath exited the snowglobe wormhole into Ireland first, checking that the scene was clear before Elisa followed behind him. The morning mist turned the sun into a bright smudge over the trees of the nearby forest. The wolf's beheaded body lay on the grass in a browning patch of old blood outside one of a small collection of old, simple homes. A bloody massacre had taken place in one.

"Only one house has windows unlit," Goliath pointed out, looking around instead of closely at the body. His job was to keep Elisa safe and attend to their surroundings while she did her work of attending to small details. "That must be where the murders took place."

Comments

[toserveandprotect]

She gasped and pulled short to a stop with the low resonant voice from the shadows. Red, for she had been so nicknamed ever since granny had knitted her the hood of fine red wool she wore, knew of the dangers of the woods. Mother and father and granny and all would tell her to stay on the path, to only follow it's sleepy winding way.

But she had strayed and not moved back before she had been noticed by something. She peered into the shadow and grasped the basket handle tighter to her. The voice was thick with power and intelligence. It made her want to run.

But... it wasn't a threatening tone, the timber wasn't unpleasant or terrifying. It didn't fill her with the fear of a boar's roar or a wolf's howl. Why not?

She took half a step and leaned slightly in, peering into the dark an dark of the shadow. "The forest is no place for travelers alone or not."

[not_the_philistine]

"And yet you've come here. Why?"

He did not ask skeptically, but curiously. What made her so confident?

If it had been a human who'd attacked him mere hours ago, if it had been a woodsman or a hunter he might have assumed she was safe. Safer than he where a hunter was involved, anyway. What little he knew of humans included that they did not hunt their own.

But the thing that had attacked him unknowing had barely had a form, neither man nor beast, and though it had retreated fast, it had retreated from a mighty battle that he'd known was meant to take his life. He'd followed, but had been outpaced and found no tracks. He stopped at the road to think, but as he'd done so, along came the woman in red.

He stepped out of the shadows slowly, eyes on her. Maybe she did not know what lurked in the woods. Maybe the sight of him, powerful and grim as a monster out of myth, naked but for a wolf's pelt, a creature stranger to her than her kind were to him, for all that he had seen many humans, would be enough to send her running away from danger, not towards it.

[toserveandprotect]

"Because..." She faltered, the reason seemed hollow to her, but in a moment it came to her clearly like an old favorite story. "Because I am visiting granny, I bring her treats and things and always follow the path."

She came because she had to, and her parents sent her, an unarmed child because... there was no good reason or explanation for it. She couldn't even recall how long she had been walking. She was just here and knew where and why she was going. Going to granny's like she always did, but this was a dark and forbidding forest.

There were wolves and worse in the dark and she wasn't so foolish as to think she was immune to anything there. So why was she so confident,how did she know she would be alright?

"I guess I just do what I have to do." Do what was right, that felt right anyway.

"Why are you here?" And why wasn't she terrified and running?

[not_the_philistine]

Why wasn't she indeed? Striking terror was one of his stronger talents.

This woman was braver than the men of her village. He had never expected such a long conversation.

"I am a beast of the forest. I know what dwells here and I am a match for it." He let the words out in a growl. "But you - your -" he paused over the unfamiliar word. He had no grandmother himself. "Your 'granny' is worth this risk?"

Something in his mind flared up, told him that family was worth any risk, but he wondered why he thought it. He was a lone wolf ... metaphorically speaking. He had no family. What did he know of family?

Only that if he did, he would brave danger for them, too.

It was in his bones, a thing that came to him without him having to be told it.

Like he knew that this woman, for all that he had seen few women, was lovely in her courage. And in her red cloak.