Red Riding Hood | BoyxBoy | COMPLETED

Bad Dad

Holly's POV

As soon as I step inside the cave, my heart starts pumping into overdrive. It's a lot darker than I expected. I fumbled in my pack to find the lamp. Colin and Chingu are standing very close to me.

When I finally light the lamp, what we see makes us all gasp.

"Woah," Chingu says in awe.

"Holly, I thought you said the sorcerer was dead." Colin fidgets nervously.

I smack at his arm. "Shut up," I hiss. "That's just a story. It's probably some illegal poaching store or something." If that's what it really was, we were probably still in danger anyway.

The glow of the lamp illuminated the jars stacked against the walls of the cave. They were filled with strange fluids that looked like blood and parts of animals. And right before us, was a stone slab and the biggest knife I'd ever seen.

The knife was as long as an arm and its decorative carvings gleamed in the golden light of the lamp. I reached out to touch.

"Don't touch that."

That wasn't any of us. I swallowed and backed up a step, bumping into Colin and Chingu. They were stiff with fear.

"Holly," Colin whispered shakily. "There's someone here with us."

Slowly, the three of us turned around. And looming over us was the scarred face of a giant.

I screamed. Colin was howling in his terror and Chingu was making sharp shrieking noises. The noise reverberated in the cave.

"Silence," the giant growled. "You'll cause a landslide."

Our panicking broke off into a whimper.

The ugly giant eyes us suspiciously, his scar puckering as he squints at us. "What are you doing here? You should not be here."

We are huddled together. He stepped forward and the three of us shuffled back.

The scary giant looked angry. "Follow me."

"Please," I sob. "Don't kill us."

He grabs all three of us by our packs and pushes us out of the cave entrance, corded muscles bunching at our weight. Chingu is too startled to cry. "Read the sign," he snarls.

"What sign?" Colin asks timidly.

He grunts and points at a painted board with the words 'Danger: Do Not Enter' in red. A sign we had missed our excitement and haste to prove ourselves.

The giant turns out to be one of the patrol guards and just a very big man rather than an actual giant, which we can now see in the clear light of the sun. I cannot smell emotions like most shifters can, but I know my friends and I are feeling pretty embarrassed of ourselves.

"Come along," the guard grunts, and marches us down the mountain. He follows us all the way back to the gates of the royal den and waits with us until Queen Tasha comes rushing out to greet us. She flutters about us worriedly until the guard explains the situation.

The queen sighs. "At least it's nothing serious," she admonishes and gently herds us indoors for a drink to freshen ourselves up.

As it turned out, Queen Tasha had been in a meeting with the council of Lupus. Which meant that she, and the entire council apparently, had heard us calling for help. I swallowed a gulp of my hot tea. Father was Councilman Laren. I was going to be in a lot of trouble.

Father walked in, his face a thundercloud. No, I was already in trouble. "Come, Holly."

I went. He stepped outside the room we were in and shut the door behind me. "Father," I tried to explain.

"No," he stopped me. "I will finish my meeting here and we will talk about this later. Go back inside and stay there until I'm done. Do you understand?"

I nodded miserably. I don't know why I tried. Father has never bothered to listen. And I'm always in some form of trouble since he's always looked like he was sucking on a lemon when he had anything to do with me.

Colin and Chingu kept me company while we waited for the meeting to end. They played some board games quietly while I sulked in a corner.

~

Much later, Father comes to get me after his meeting. He is terse and silent, and I don't say anything either as we get into the carriage that will take us back to our manor. Here we go again.

The ride passes in awkward silence and I hate it. I hate him for making me this way. Even then, I can't stop myself from trying to draw his attention.

"Father, why do you hate me?" I ask.

My father is startled by the suddenness of such a question. Personally, I thought he should have seen it coming. "I don't hate you," he says, face grimacing at the awkwardness of his answer.

I wanted to ask if he's sure, but I had other questions.