Tales of the Big Bad Wolf: The Red Riding Hood Arc (A Fairy Tale)

Chapter 19, Part B: The Monsters in My Backyard (cont.)

Everyone - I don't know what's going on, but as the stats appear to show that we've now doubled the regular readers, so I'll go ahead and post synchronously with the website. THank you folks for continuing to stick with the story.  I do love hearing from folks about the characters they like, the questions they have, and such!  For example - the lions seem very popular with the website readers, so they keep squirming their way into the story xD.   FEEDBACK IS SUPER. :D

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As night lengthened, four unhappy beasts of magic grumbled their way around greater Winchester.

 Two moved away from the Northern Highway, their noses tracking unseen currents of energy deeper into the forests. 

 The stone beasts made for excellent trackers. They did not need strong arguments to do what they were requested.  Nor did they care whether it was a warm night or cold day or require rest and feeding. Like the golems that they had been mischievously likened to, they were brutishly single-minded when given a task.  

 Uwaine and Galahad were commissioned to find the magical “guards” that their master had indicated were buried on his lands.  Even if they told him they knew where most already were, he would not allow them to rely on the fragments of memories they had obtained from the remains of the souls buried in the earth.  The master had said that the shape of the land continued to shift and that the knowledge they drew from could hold errors.  They did not argue with the master for arguing was not in their nature.

 They were diligent as they went about their way. They kept their backs to the elven road and moved in opposite directions from one another.  Each step, each foray into the trees and brush taken by the creatures was an attempt to refamiliarize themselves to this new world they had woken to. 

 One broke ice several times, trumbling through a creek that zigged and zagged in a somewhat westerly direction.  The other creature retraced its steps through the estate and beyond the slopes that defined its posterior, moving gradually downwards towards a series of rocky ledges.

 They moved with enthusiasm, in spite of this chore being less exciting than what their two fellow lions had decided to do.  Uwaine and Galahad would have gladly exchanged places with their other two companions who were to keep an eye on two of Winchester’s current residents.

 Humans were a novelty to these beasts. They were frail and weak, unpredictable and oftentimes irrational.  And yet, two of them had laid their hands upon their cold surface and breathed figurative life into them.  It would be near impossible for any of the four wakened beasts to simply ignore the whereabouts of their benefactors.

 One of four such lions was crouched behind a bush gathering snow (by the inch) many yards from the home of Elanore Redley.  He had not been able to march right up to the backdoor and present himself for petting and adoration as he had hoped.  An owl had taken up position on a tree that overlooked the home.   Had it been an ordinary owl, the lion might have come closer and pounced on it, but there was something preternatural about it.  Every few minutes the bird’s head swiveled around -- its bright eyes circling the darkness with purpose.

 The lion dared not move, dared not test whether the bird knew it was there. Gawain waited and watched.

As for the other lion, Lambegus, he was a bit more fortunate in that there was no such pesky interloper blocking his work this gloomy night.  The magic creature stood and peered over the window sill to the young man’s room.  He was not as impulsive as Gawain and would not have dared pushed his way inside the house.  All he would do is observe, for his master had made it clear that was all they should do for now for the boy.