A Tale of Red Riding: Rise of the Alpha Huntress (The Alpha Huntress Series Book 1) (15 page)

Chapter 17

“I couldn’t have been asleep more than a minute or two.” The instant Red’s eyes snapped open, there was no doubt they were in serious trouble. The foul stench of something dangerous was lurking in the air. Just from its odor, she could tell that it was huge and headed in their direction.

Red knew it would have been smart to wake Ash or Dote to take second watch, but they were both sleeping so soundly, and dawn was only a couple of hours away. Making things worse, Wolfgang was no longer in the spot where he had been sleeping only minutes ago.

Sniffing the air, she couldn’t find any sign of his scent. She knew Ash would say he’d ditched them at the first hint of trouble. That was unlikely considering how Wolfgang had saved them at Ice’s palace. Of course, Ash would then argue that Wolfgang knew by his own admission that Ice wouldn’t harm him, so technically the situation didn’t hold any legitimate risk on his part.

“Ash. Dote. Wake up,” Red whispered.

They were both only a few feet away, deep in sleep. Waking them should have been easy enough, if not for Red’s fear that the slightest sound could reveal their presence to the beast headed their way and getting closer by the second. Something had to be done soon or they were going to end up in a battle she was unsure they could survive.

“Will you two wake up?” Red spoke a little louder than before.

Both remained in blissful slumber without a care in the world. Left with no choice, Red gathered up a few pebbles from the dirt. One by one, she began to fling them at Ash. The first few hit him in the chest and stomach. After this failed to get the slightest reaction, Red decided to stop playing nice and aimed right at his head. On the third or fourth attempt, she scored a shot right between his eyes.

“Dorkus Ashley, you wake up this instant.”

Ash opened his eyes with a grunt of irritation. “Red, stop messing around. I’m trying to get a little sleepy time here.”

“Keep quiet,” Red whispered. “Something’s coming.”

“Define
something
.”

“I’m not sure. It’s smells big and hairy and dripping with sweat, and its breath smells like dead stuff.”

Ash leaped up to his feet. “It’s a bridge troll. We’re totally doomed.”

“A bridge troll?” Red felt ridiculous just saying it.

“You know, they live under bridges and lure unsuspecting travelers to their untimely demise.”

Red rolled her eyes. “I should have known that’s what you meant.”

“It’s been wandering aimlessly since Rowling’s bridge got trashed by a couple of crazy old wizards that were wand dueling on it.”

“That makes total sense,” Red muttered.

“How far away is it?”

Red sniffed the air. “Twenty, maybe thirty yards, at the most.”

“Which is it, twenty or thirty?”

“I don’t know. What difference does it make?”

“None if it smells us.” Ash began to rip handfuls of sweet grass from the ground and rubbed the roots all over his face and arms.

Red was about to ask what he was doing when Dote opened her eyes and sat up. “What did I miss?”

Ash shoved clumps of sweet grass and dirt into his shirt and down his pants. “Bridge troll, coming our way.”

Dote screeched. “What do we do, Red?”

“How should I know? I’ve never even seen a bridge troll.”

“I have,” Ash said. “They’re big and ugly and have a hankering for the taste of human flesh.” He began to rub his face in the grass.

“And how will whatever you’re doing help our cause?” Red asked.

“Bridge trolls are meat eaters. They hate the taste of vegetation. I’m making myself smell like a garden salad,” Ash said.

Dote shook her head in disagreement. “That’s just an old wives’ tale. It
never
works.”

Ash rolled in the grass. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, I’m following the teachings of the old wives club.”

“What happened to Wolfgang?” Dote asked.

“I don’t know. I guess he took off,” Red said.

“Why am I not surprised that he ran off at the first hint of trouble?” Ash said.

“Why am I not surprised you were going to say that?” Red mumbled.

“Maybe the troll ate him and got a stomachache,” Ash said.

Dote smacked Ash in the back of the head. “That’s a mean thing to say, Dorkus Ashley.”

Ash rubbed his head. “Dote. That hurt.”

“You deserved it for saying such mean things,” Dote said.

“Quiet down. The troll is getting closer,” Red said.

Dote gasped and started shoving sweet grass down her shirt.

Red gave her a look of disbelief. “You just said that wouldn’t work.”

“With a bridge troll coming our way, those old wives are starting to sound pretty smart right about now,” Dote said.

“We could just make a run for it,” Red said.

“Don’t you know anything about bridge trolls?” Ash asked. “Running only gets them more worked up.”

Dote whimpered. “Well, it’s going to be here in about a minute, so we’d better be ready to deal with it, however the holy heck we’re going to deal with it.”

Red sighed. “Fine. Give me some of that stuff.” She began to wipe sweet grass all over herself and shoved several clumps down her dress. “I might be making this up, but this reminds me of the time we all got into a mud fight with some weird boys.”

Ash cracked a smile. “Of all the things to remember. You got us in a mess of trouble with that little scuffle.”

“How was it my fault?” Red asked.

“It wasn’t totally your fault,” Dote said. “Those creepy Gruff Brothers were a mean little trio.”

“Serious bullies, more like it,” Ash said. “They took Dote’s snake, Mister Squiggly, and wouldn’t give him back.”

“You had a pet snake, Dote?” Red asked.

“Thanks to you, I still do. You whacked those mean Gruffs around with a big stick and sent them running like a bunch of little babies,” Dote said.

“The next day you decided to get them back by ambushing them with mud clods from a tree outside their house,” Ash said.

“I did that?” Red asked.

Dote nodded. “You were a seriously tough toddler.”

Red cracked a grin. It was hard to imagine that they had done such things at age five, and even harder to believe she was once a rough and tough girl. In the orphanages, the other kids often pushed her around. She had always considered herself to be a serious weakling. It was nice to learn that it wasn’t always the case.

“Everybody quiet, I think I hear it,” Dote whispered.

The three friends stopped cold and held their breath. The thumping of massive footsteps could be heard, getting closer and louder with each passing second. Red put a hand over Dote’s mouth to silence her whimpering. Soon the branches of a nearby tree began to shudder. The troll’s heavy breathing erupted nearby. It was seconds from discovering them.

“This is it,” Red whispered.

Tree branches snapped and sheared as the bridge troll forced its way into their campsite. With a massive fist, it knocked a tree out of its way with a single bash. The beast’s giant head was the first thing they saw. Its mouth was big enough to swallow a person whole.

Ash screeched like a baby and curled up in the fetal position on the ground. Red grumbled in disbelief. She was now certain that he was going to be a liability in battle, but this didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to protect him.

“You both get behind me.” Red said.

Dote didn’t hesitate to follow Red’s instruction. Ash was too busy whimpering to hear her. When the troll came into full view, a surge of crippling fear overtook Red. The beast was covered from head to toe in grungy wet fur and stood twenty feet tall. It stepped close to Red and gave a furious roar. The raunchy stink of its breath flooded her lungs, making her dizzy.

“Red, isn’t it time to go all Alpha on this thing?” Dote asked.

Ash spoke without looking up, “Dote, you should know better than that. The smell of hot werewolf blood can make bridge trolls go psycho with hunger. If Red transforms, that thing will rip the forest apart to get at her.”

“Why in the world would I ever know a thing like that?” Dote asked.

Red took a nervous gulp. “Good safety tip, Ash. Let’s just hope your theory about the smell of veggies is just as good.” She pulled a clump of sweet grass from her dress and waved it around at the bridge troll. “Take a good sniff. This is what we taste like.”

The bridge troll grunted in disgust from the smell and backed off a bit. Red flung the sweet grass at the troll, causing some to stick in its wet fur. The beast roared as it reached up to pull the grass off. Its fingers were so massive that it couldn’t get a grip. The troll got so angry that it clubbed itself in the chest with its own fist.

“I see you don’t like this stuff,” Red said.

She pulled more clumps of grass from her dress and flung them at the troll. The beast became frantic as it tried to get the grass off of its fur. The harder it tried, the more damage it inflicted on itself.

“Major good plan,” Dote said.

“Just making it up as I go along here,” Red said. “I could use a bit of help.”

“Helping out is what I do best.” Dote gathered clumps of sweet grass and piled them near Red’s feet. “I’ll gather, you fling.”

Ash looked up just as the troll clubbed itself in the face. “Are we winning?”

“We just might do that if you’d man up and help,” Red said.

“Hey, go easy on me. I had a bad experience with one of these guys that I’m still a little shaken over.” Ash finally got up and grabbed a clump of grass. He flung it at the troll, hitting it right in the face. The troll responded by bashing itself, this time hard enough to make it stumble backward, off balance.

“Red, you’re a genius,” Ash said.

“I couldn’t have come up with the idea without you,” Red said.

Red and Ash continued flinging sweet grass, driving the troll into a frantic frenzy.

“Why you hitting yourself, mister troll?” Ash taunted.

The final clump of sweet grass that Red threw went right up the troll’s nose. The beast wailed out in agony and began thrashing around. It swung a fist wide and smashed the trunk of a massive oak tree. The three friends watched in awe as the tree fell, crashing down on top of the troll. The beast twitched and trembled for a few seconds before it finally went lifeless.

“Is it, you know?” Dote asked.

“Totally.”
Red said.

Ash cheered and danced around. “Take that, you stinking troll. That’ll teach you to knock my house over.”

“When did a troll knock your house over?” Dote asked.

“It was a tree house. I worked really hard on it,” Ash said.

Dote glared at Ash. “You had a tree house and never told me?”

“I had just finished building it. I was going to surprise you on your birthday,” Ash said.

“Oh, Ash. You are the best friend ever.” Dote gave Ash a smothering hug.

“Save the mushy stuff for later,” Red said. “We need to get moving, double-time.”

“You’re right,” Ash said. “The scavengers will soon come looking for a free breakfast.”

Red cringed at the thought. “That’s not the reason I was thinking, but it is a good point.”

Just as they were about to start walking, Red stopped cold and sniffed the air. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Ash gasped in a panic. “What is it now? It’s too close to dawn for tree gnomes. Is it road snakes? Tell me it’s not road snakes.”

Red would have asked him what road snakes were if she weren’t too annoyed for the words to come out. All she could say was “Wolfgang.” She turned around right as the wolf boy was emerging from the bushes.

“And we were just starting to have fun,” Ash said.

“Whoa. Is that the troll from Rowling’s bridge?” Wolfgang asked.

Red gave him a hard stare. “Where’d you run off to, Wolf Boy?”

“I had some personal business to take care of,” Wolfgang said.

Ash stepped up to Wolfgang and gave him a tough glare. “Is that your secret way of saying you had to find a bridge troll to sic on us?”

“It means I had to go potty. Number two, if you want the dirty details,” Wolfgang said.

“You are so lying,” Ash said.

Wolfgang gave Ash a dangerous stare. “Listen up, Ashley. I don’t like being called a liar. If you want to see the evidence, I’ll be happy to bring it to you.”

Red stepped in between Wolfgang and Ash and nudged them away from each other. “It seems convenient that you took off right before the troll showed up, and then came back right after we finished it off.”

Wolfgang
growled
. “I didn’t want to give away our location so I hiked out a full mile to do my thing.”

“Lies, lies, and more lies,” Ash said.

“It makes sense,” Dote said. “The smell of our … you know … stuff … can attract razor-rats.”

Wolfgang clenched his fist tight. “Not to mention it’s a dead giveaway to a skilled tracker. Ice only hires the best of the worst to do her dirty work.”

Red shrugged. “It all makes perfect sense.”

“You’ve got that right,” Wolfgang said.

“I wasn’t done,” Red said. “It makes perfect sense. I’m just not so sure I believe it.”

“Finally.” Ash said.

Wolfgang’s face twitched with anger. “So you think I’m lying, Alpha?”

“I don’t know enough about you to know what to think.” Red turned her back on Wolfgang and started walking away. Ash and Dote followed closely behind.

“So is it cool if I come along, or what?” Wolfgang asked.

“If I say no, you’ll probably just do it anyway,” Red said.

Wolfgang bashed a fist into a tree, busting a hole through the thick bark. “I’m going to make you trust me, Red Riding.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Ash said.

Red looked back and saw Wolfgang bashing his fists into the tree. The intense rage in his eyes was both disturbing and tragic. It almost made her feel sorry for him, though she knew that thinking this way had too much to do with the strange attraction she felt for him. Telling him not to follow would be the most sensible choice, but that was a decision Red just couldn’t bring herself to make.