Rose Red

A/N: I am sorry about the anonymous reviews. I would really like to allow them, but for the life of me can't figure out how to do it. >_< . If anyone has a hint, I'm happy to correct it. Until then feel free to drop me a line at ecrivain.le.lethe@gmail.com This is my writing only e-mail. And hopefully I'll have anonymous reviews available soon! In the meantime, here's the next "chapter."

“You shouldn’t be so rude to Reggie!” Snow said primly, fluffing her hair.

Red scowled and yanked on his other boot. Snow’s darling Reggie had turned out as bad as the rest of her suitors. Though Red didn’t have anything on him just yet he could see it in the way he treated her, it was only a matter of time. If only his sister was a bit pickier about which suitors she entertained then maybe an actual gentleman would come along and ask for her hand.

Outside the sky was already darkening. Night was coming earlier and earlier each day. Soon the first frost would come and signal the beginning of winter. Red hated winter. He had to stay home more often with the thick snows covering the ground and even when he got out the cold or the dark would drive him home again.

A thick fur-lined coat settled around his shoulders and he glanced back, surprised, at his mother.

“Be careful, Rose Red,” She said. “It is dark and the forest is hungry tonight.”

Red nodded and kissed her on the cheek before fastening the warm cloak and leaving his mother and sister to knit before the fire he had built.

Outside, winds tore around him and the pink-blue sky shifted darker with the rolling clouds. He broke into the woods sooner than expected and leaned against the sturdy trees that were blissfully protected from the increasing winds. Even the full moon couldn't provide light on an evening like this and his journey over the game-trail was made mostly through memory alone. An unknown tree root tripped him up and Red barely caught himself from landing nose-down on the ground. His elbows screamed and dug into the hard earth but he ignored it as best he was able and shoved himself to his feet.

Walking more slowly, cautious of more protruding roots or low branches, Red made to where he thought the woods opened to the fallen maple tree they had been using for fire wood. He could rest there on the soft moss and wait for the storm to come or pass as it would. Slow as he was going, Red still almost slid into a gully at the side of his path. He rarely came across the gully and it was far from where he intended to be.

Red surveyed the ground, trying to determine just how far off the path he was. A glint of silver caught his eye. Down in the gully a large black shadow lay curled up with something bright and silver wrapped around the end of it.

A fortunate streak of moonlight lit up the forest as clear as day. A bear lay with its paw caught in a trap at the bottom of the gully. Clear blue eyes flashed a moment in the new light and looked straight up the hill at Red before the bear laid it’s head back down, eyes closed.

Suddenly very afraid, though he couldn’t say what of, Red crouched down and eased into the gully intending to clamber down. A patch of dry leaves caught under his foot and Red went sliding too fast down the side of the hill. Holding his arms out to slow his fall, one caught the edge of a rock and as Red’s body rushed past it he heard the sickening crunch of bone.

His scream roused a thicket of bats from their meal and they filled the air with the beating of wings.

Red came to rest next to the body of the black bear, his vision white with pain. The bear shifted, raising its good paw, and Red couldn’t even move. But no claws came out. The bear rested it’s great warm paw over Red as though to protect it. The warmth and softness was unexpected and Red wanted nothing more than to curl into the soft welcoming body beside him.

But as the initial shock and pain from a broken bone faded, Red’s rational mind took over and he shifted to sit up. It wouldn’t do to stay hurt in the bottom of a gully in the middle of the night. He could be dead from fever by morning, and that was supposing no other, more vicious, beasts were roaming the woods.

Shifting back, careful of his useless arm, Red scooted from under the bear’s warm paw until he was seated in front of the closed trap.

It would be nearly impossible to open the trap with only one good arm, but he wouldn’t leave the bear to its fate.

Murmuring a soft apology to the beast and giving it a gentle scratch on it’s head, Red fixed the bottom of the trap firmly between his feet, pressing them together as strongly as possible. With his good hand he grabbed the top of the slick metal trap and pulled. It offered a brief, strong, resistant then began to slide up and away from the trapped bear’s paw.

The roar that filled the woods nearly made Red loose his grip and snap the trap closed again, but he clung to it until he saw the bear drag his paw free. Then he let the metal snap together, and lay useless in the leaf bed.

Red leaned forward, sweaty from pain and effort, and rested his forehead against the bear. A soft rumbling filled his body and Red laughed. The bear, for all intents and purposes, was purring.

Red stood and looked down the gully. It would be a long, painful trip home. But he had little choice. A body pressed against his legs and Red glanced down at the bear standing at his hip. He let his good hand rest gently on the bear’s back.

“Would you like to come home with me, bear?” He asked, not really expecting a reply. “There are good salted meats to eat and a warm fire for you to rest by. I think I shouldn’t leave you in the forest, lest you find more trouble to get into.”

The bear looked up at him and began lumbering forward in a three-legged limp. Red kept pace and an easy banter going the whole way. Talking filled the empty air and the bear never seemed to mind. It was nice, to talk without aim. And to be listened to so devotedly. Perhaps, Red thought, that was why Snow loved courting so much. It was really pleasant to have someone pay such avid attention. Though Red suspected he wouldn’t like it half so much if it were with anyone but the strange black bear.

Red’s mother waited anxiously by the window as the night got later and darker. When a dark shadow crossed their little lawn and a soft knock tapped the door she sprung to open it.

Red nearly collapsed into the house, caught only by the body of the bear who in turn growled with the pain in his paw.

The mother didn’t know what to think about her son appearing so late with a bear companion but she held the door open for them nonetheless.

Snow was dozing lightly by the fire, her knitting still in her lap. When the bear growled she jerked awake and looked around. As soon as her eyes fixed on the massive furred body she let out a piercing scream.

Red quickly slapped his good hand over her mouth, though the move cost him a great deal of color.

“Wha – what is that thing?” Snow asked in a thin, shaky voice.

The bear humphed as though to say the answer was obvious and Red privately agreed with his opinion. But out loud he said, “It’s a black bear, Snow, and it means no harm. Its paw is hurt and he is hungry. Let him rest peacefully by the fire.”

Snow pulled herself to her full height, an impressive five foot five, and said with her best injured tone, “I am supposed to wait on a bear? If you are so fond of it, brother, then you may feed it all the salt pork you like, but don’t ask me to see to its good health!”

And so saying she lightly shoved Red away from her. The move was his undoing. Her soft, gentle hands pressed firmly over the break in his arm and as pain again flared through his skull the solid wood floor came rushing up to meet him.

A/N: Another part tomorrow!