Red Werewolf Hunter Short Story

Little Red walking alone in the woods
All by her lonesome she explores
Never worried about the dangers
For she always carries her trusty ax

I walked away from my grandmother’s house with blood dripping down my ax. My mother always told me to be careful when walking through the woods. She heavily insisted that I take some sort of weapon with me for protection. At first, I didn’t see why I needed an ax. But today had made me see why my mother always insisted so much that I carry the family ax with me. The ax had been passed down from generation to generation starting with my great-grandfather who was a famous hunter of large beasts.

It was a normal morning as any other. My mother gave me a basket filled with bread and honey to bring to my grandmother who lived in the woods. She reminded me to take my ax, to stay on the path, and not to get distracted.

I went on my way through the forest taking the paths I knew so well. The sun was shining through the foliage and the birds were singing. Everything seemed so normal then.

That was until the werewolf showed up.

He sneaked up behind me. I felt his foul breath on my neck as he sniffed my hair and wrapped his fur covered arm around my waist whispering in my ear, “Where are you going on this fine day Little Red?”

I struggled for a bit and tried to get him away from me while covering myself with my red cape, but he was relentless and kept pursuing me. I finally gave in and had a cautious conversation with him. As we talked, he kept staring intently at me as if he was judging how well I would taste if he devoured me whole.

During our conversation, I had accidentally told him where my poor defenseless grandmother lived! He was so persuasive, it just slipped out of my mouth. And before I could stop myself, I had told him the directions to her house as well!

Not only that, but he also distracted me with beautiful blue flowers that were off the path as he slipped away down the path. After I had made a bouquet of flowers for my grandmother, I started back on the path towards my grandmother’s house. By the time that I arrived, I noticed that the front door was ajar and that light was on.

Curious, I quietly walked inside the house while looking around assessing the state of the house. Nothing was stolen from what I could tell, so that was good. When I got to my grandmother’s room, I saw that her bed drapes were closed and all I could see was a silhouette of the figure sitting in bed.

Carefully, I approached the bed and asked my ‘grandmother’ some questions about her appearance or at least the appearances I could gather from the silhouette. As I questioned her and walked closer to her bed, I was slowly raising my ax above my head.

When I was right next to the bed, the werewolf jumped out of the bed at me with his mouth open to devour me whole. On instinct, I slashed at him with my ax and caught him in the face. His face opened in a spray of blood as the ax cleanly opened a narrow slice diagonally from brow to chin blinding him in one eye. While he was reeling in pain from my first hit, I recovered from my swing and slashed out again at him again, this time catching him in the throat. Blood fountained from the stump of his neck as his head was separated from his body and arced across the room.

My chest heaving, I looked at what I had done and how my distracted state had wrought so much unnecessary destruction.

That was a year ago. Now I travel these woods seeking and hunting the werewolves. A few months ago, a strange woman had asked to meet me in the local tavern. Baffled at who wanted to meet me so badly, I went. A woman named Casse was waiting for me. She bought me a meal and we had an awkward conversation about the weather, the local gossip, and whatnot. After that I asked her what she wanted to really talk about. That’s when she told me she was a leader of a secret organization that was determined to destroy evil fantasy creatures.

She wanted me to join her little club and said that if I joined her, I would be doing the world a huge favor in joining her cause to terminate the monsters that threatened humanity. She told me that that was what my great-grandfather had really been doing. He had hunted large beasts but he had also served as the guardian of the village by hunting the monsters that stalked the villagers. She even told me that the ax I carried had been specially forged with silver laced into the blade and the handle had been carved out of hawthorn. The ax had also been enchanted by a powerful wizard so the blade would never grow dull and the handle would never break.

Not knowing if I could trust her, I refused her offer and left the tavern. Ever since, she has been sending me messages about joining her group. I ignore them each time and burn them immediately.

The snow was falling gently in the woods. Winter was probably my favorite time of the year. The trees were bare and covered in snow and it was easy to follow the tracks in the forest. As I was walking, I was tinkering with my wrist bow and checking the bow string tension. Once I had tightening the string, I adjusted the familiar weight of the ax that was strapped to my back.

Today I was hunting down the notorious Pack, a group of werewolves who have been accosting (and devouring) unsuspecting travelers. Their faces both human and wolf form had been on wanted posters in various villages for many months now. Recently I had gotten a tip from a travelling merchant I met on the road between villages about these woods and how there were many mysterious tracks and that many people had gone missing there.

The forest was silent as the birds had flown south to warmer weather. The sound of my foot falls crunching in the snow was a rhythmic music in the woods. I was getting closer to the area of the woods that was known for its vast caves. Surely, the werewolves would hide in there to keep out of the snow.

Slowly and carefully, I checked each cave I came across. So far, my efforts were fruitless that was until I heard the howl-like laughter that only a werewolf can make. From a cave not far from where I was standing, I could hear the sound of a lively conversation reverberating off the rock walls. Listening for the sounds of the echo, I was able to locate the cave the werewolves were residing in.

Making sure to hide in the shadows of the surrounding trees, I examined the people in the cave. I recognized them all as being members of the Pack. I notched an arrow into my wrist bow and aimed carefully at the closest werewolf. From what I could see, they were sitting in a messy circle around a campfire. Using the light from the fire, I was able to clearly aim at the werewolf’s neck.

Letting loose my arrow, the silver-tipped arrow cleanly found its mark and the werewolf collapsed to the ground dead. His companions were startled. They moved like quicksilver quickly standing up, shifting into their full dire wolf forms. Slowly, one by one, the wolves came out of their cave in search of the assailant who had killed their packmate. While this was all happening, I had already reloaded my wrist bow and was aiming at the next wolf’s neck. Letting it fly, it missed its mark but lodged in his shoulder instead still poisoning his blood with silver with each beating of his heart. As that wolf was limping off licking at its wound, the rest of the pack finally found me.

The three of them (not including the injured one) ran at me with their mouths wide open and their teeth glinting in the light. I quickly grabbed my ax and ran at them. Swiping at the first wolf I encountered, I hit its stomach as it jumped at me while I dodged to the left. The wolf fell to the ground heavily his guts spilling out onto the ground and I quickly slashed at it’s neck to put him out of his misery.

The two wolves circled me as they intently gazed at me. As we continued to stare at one another, a loud gunshot was heard and I saw the wolf to my left fall down dead his head blown open like a can of beans. There was a bullet wound in the side of its head. While the wolf to my right jumped in surprise, I quickly shot a bolt at it with my wrist bow hitting it between its glowing golden eyes. Another woman appeared in the forest dressed in a earth tone cloak and hood. In her gloved hands she carried a black camo hunting rifle.

She smiled at me in greeting and said, “Casse told me that I would find a lone woman clad in red patrolling these woods hunting for werewolves all by her lonesome. Looks like I found her”.

“Casse needs to stop getting in contact with me, I already told her that I have no interest in joining her little club,” I replied snarkily.

The last wolf, the one injured in the shoulder, was limping away from us while we talked.

Without so much as a glance, I shot another arrow at him while the woman shot him.

“But we think we can convince you to join us,” the woman enticingly said as she took something out of her pocket. She walked over to me and handed me a picture of my grandmother.

I flinched and replied hastily, “But she’s dead”.

The woman grinned at me and explained, “We found a way to get the people who’ve been devoured by werewolves free”.

Incredulous, I looked at her warily. “And I’m assuming that you’ll only help me out if I join you?”

The woman nodded as I hit the bullseye.

As much as I hated joining some sketchy group, if there was a chance to save my grandmother, I would take it.

I slowly nodded my head and agreed to join Casse and her organization. As we were leaving the forest, I asked the woman what her name was. She told me she was Lièrén and that she has also been hunting werewolves for a while but in a different region. Like me, one of her family members was devoured by a werewolf right in front of her, but Casse was able to figure out how to save them.

Lièrén led me to their secret organization headquarters and brought me in to see Casse. When I entered the room alone, I saw that Casse was standing looking out of a large set of windows with her back towards me.

When she heard the door close, she turned around and smiled at me. “Welcome. I see you finally decided to join us”.

“Not like you gave me much of a choice. Once you tell me how to save my grandmother, I’m out” I stated boldy while looking her in the eyes.

Casse laughed. Once she stopped she continued, “Oh, but once you’ve been here, you aren’t allowed to leave unless your a full time member! I can’t have you going around freely with the risk of you spilling our secrets. So, in exchange for saving your grandmother, you must work with us for life”.

I wasn’t prepared for that. But if that’s what it’ll take . . .

I huffed, “Fine. I’ll stay”.

Casse grinned widely and set a down a contract onto the desk. She then handed me a quill made of a raven feather and ink to sign it. Once I signed it the contract glowed a bright gold briefly, she shook my hand and said, “Welcome to our fantasy fighting faction of feisty females, Scarlet!”

With weapons at the ready
The red cloaked girl enters the woods
Sunlight gleaming off the steel
She seeks and hunts her prey