To Tame a Wolf: A Little Red Riding Hood Fanfic *ON HOLD*

Four

Ah. That's better.

Red lowered the water skin from her lips after taking a long drink and twisted the cap back on it. She put it back in the basket and once again considered the dilemma of her back. It wasn't bleeding profusely, but still, if it continued, she surely wouldn't survive. But what to stop the bleeding with? Red grabbed the ends of her cloak and grimaced in regret. It would have to do.

Untying the strings across her collarbone, the girl took off her cloak and held it to her back. When she applied pressure, a gasp left her lips. Stinging pain erupted like flames of a fire, licking at her skin in agony. But she gritted her teeth and pushed harder. For a moment, her mind flashed back to a time when Arrik had still been only seventeen, and her fifteen. The young man came home from a hiking trip with his friends, one in Hush Weald. They had been attacked by the silverback wolves, and Arrik came out nearly unscathed, but he was still injured: a deep, bloody scratch leading from his left shoulder all the way to his right hip.

Red's eyes lowered when she remembered his yells of pain as Wist and Aariyn treated the wound. She watched half hidden by the door. He lay on his bed, fingers scrunching his pillow, tears wetting the sheets. Wist dabbed a clean cloth in water and continued wiping his wound as he yelled. Red's heart went out to him as tears came to her eyes. She hated seeing him in such pain. If she could, she would trade places with him. At least then, no one would hear her shouts of pain - she wouldn't even be able to make any noise.

"Red?"

Red gasped and looked back to see Azure staring at her with curious, large, blue eyes. Her blonde hair fell beautifully to below her shoulders, and she was dressed in a white nightgown.

"What-"the girl was caught off by Red rushing to her room, red cloak flowing behind her. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

Red blinked and found herself back in the cave, alone in Hush Weald. The memory was one of many she wished she could redo. Why hadn't she stayed to talk with Azure? The fear for Arrik she had seen in her sister's eyes reflected her own feelings; they could have comforted each other. But Red had been too afraid of her secret being revealed that she had just fled without a second thought. And there was no going back.

How many times had that happened in her childhood? How many times had she run from those who wanted to speak with her? Just because of her little, stupid secret? Curse her white hair! Curse her inability to talk! Curse her life!

Red took a deep breath and found her head felt dizzy. She looked down and saw blood covering the dirt she sat on. So much blood. That's when she remembered that Wist and Aariyn had had used stitches to close Arrik's wound - otherwise it would have stayed open and he would have bled out. The thought made Red swallow. She had no visual on her injury, so she didn't know how serious it was. What if this was it? What if this was how it would end? She hadn't been in Hush Weald for more than two hours, and she was already going to die. Azure had been right... why had she decided to go on this journey?

Red tightened her jaw and pushed the cloak harder against her back. Her moth gaped at the pain that ensued, but she forced it shut and squeezed her eyes.

I'm not going to survive this. Azure and Wist and Aariyn will never know what happened to me. And what about Arrik?

Red felt her heart squeeze as she pictured his face. His strong, square jaw and the barely-showing beard on his chin. The baby blue eyes she had stared into countless times, hoping... just for a small inkling of a clue that he wanted to stare into hers as badly as she his. Oh, how often she had yearned to have his arms around her, holding her tenderly like a lover should. Why had it been that the Oakens had chosen to adopt her? Why couldn't it have been another family? A neighbor, perhaps?