A Tale of Red Riding: Rise of the Alpha Huntress (The Alpha Huntress Series Book 1) (3 page)

Chapter 4

“Papa? Where are you?”

Red dashed into the living room expecting to see her father, though without a single memory of him she couldn’t even guess what he might look like. Her heart sank when she discovered nobody around. Not ready to give up, she shot over to the front door and pulled it open.

“Papa, are you out there?”

“Your father is not here,” Grenda said as she entered from the kitchen.

“That can’t be. I heard his voice call out my name so clearly.” Red slumped in disappointment as she closed the door. “How can that be?”

Grenda placed a comforting hand on Red’s shoulder. “You’ve had quite an adventure just getting here. Why not get some sleep and we can talk more in the morning?”

Red was more exhausted than she had ever been. The idea of going to sleep was tempting, but there were so many questions that she needed answered. “I just can’t wait, Granny. Please tell me what happened to my parents.”

“My dear, you’re home now. I’m not going anywhere.”

Red nearly broke into tears. Her granny calling this place her home was the most comforting thing she had ever heard. For the first time in her life, all of her cares and concerns faded away. She cracked a little smile and nodded in agreement.

“That’s a good girl.” Grenda gestured toward the stairs. “Your room is all ready for you.”

“My room.” The words were music to Red’s ears. She could never recall having a room of her own. In the orphanages, she had to share a room with five or six other children. “Which one is it?”

“Just head on up. You’ll remember easy enough.”

Grenda extended her arms for a hug. Red hesitated before she finally embraced her granny. The feeling was more comforting than she could have imagined. It was the first time she could recall hugging anybody. It’s just not a thing that happened in orphanages.

“Thank you, Granny.”

“Welcome home, Red.”

Grenda turned away and headed back into the kitchen.

A surge of anticipation filled Red as she approached the staircase. With each step up, she got just a little more nervous about what might be awaiting her at the top. She tried to imagine what her bedroom might be like. It was safe to assume that it was probably quite childish considering she hadn’t stepped foot in the door for nearly ten years; not that it mattered a bit, for the simple reason that it was hers.

In the upstairs hallway, faint hints of moonlight peering in through a small window at the far end provided the only light. Red did a quick search of the walls for a light switch, but instead found an old glass lamp mounted on a wall. A closer inspection revealed it didn’t have a cord or switch. She realized she hadn’t seen a sign of anything in the house powered by electricity. It made her wonder if she would have to get accustomed to living without such modern conveniences.

From a rickety old bookshelf, she picked up a candle and a box of wooden matches. It took a few moments of fumbling around in the dark before she was able to light the candle. The faint flickering of the flame provided just enough light to see what was around her. Standing in the center of the hallway, she could make out the outlines of four identical doors. She looked to each of them, but none felt familiar enough to brave opening it.

Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine herself as a young child walking the hall on the way to her room. The distant memory she was searching for finally came. With a hint of doubt, she approached the door nearest to the stairs. A strange tingling sensation filled her body as she reached out for the doorknob. It felt as if the house was looking right into her heart to assure she belonged there.

Her mouth curved into a smile as she pushed the door open. The candle provided just enough light to make out the features of the room. It was indeed childish, just as she had suspected, but was also wonderfully ornate. The smell of cedar wood hit Red’s senses as she took in the sight of the handcrafted furnishings with finely carved details. The wallpaper had images of red birds flying through puffy white clouds.

All through the room were handmade dolls, along with a collage of colorful stuffed animals, from bears to frogs, and a few other creatures that were not so easy to identify.

Red approached a wooden rocking chair and picked up a beaten-up rag doll. “I named you
Neoprene
. You were quite the mischief maker.”

A small desk stacked high with fairytale books caught Red’s attention. With a gleaming smile, she dashed over and grabbed a book from the center of the pile. It was titled
The Dragon Princess
. The cover had a faded picture of a young girl standing next to a gigantic green dragon. “This was my favorite story.”

The spine cracked a little as Red opened the book. It was worn and brittle from being well read and much loved. Browsing through the pages, she recalled insisting Grenda read it to her every night before bedtime. The specifics of the tale were a little foggy in her memory.

From what Red could recall, it told of a young girl who set out on an adventure to put an end to a dangerous dragon. It had been making a lot of trouble for the people of her village. When she finally met the beast, it turned out that it was merely trying to make friends with the villagers, but his massive size and fiery breath created all sorts of trouble. The girl befriended the dragon, and together they saved the land from a terrible tyrant king. She was crowned the princess of the dragons and kept the land safe for all of her days.

As Red sat the book down, she noticed a few crayon drawings tacked to the wall. The first was a scribbly image of a small child with red hair, standing between a man holding an axe and a woman wearing a red cloak. “I bet that was me with my mom and dad.”

She was fairly certain the next drawing was of herself as a small child, along with a boy and girl of similar age. They all had big smiles and were waving. “I think we were the best of friends. I wish I could remember your names.”

The final drawing was the most peculiar of all. It depicted a little girl in a red cloak holding the hand of a boy with the face of a wolf. Something about it was so chilling that it made her feel lightheaded. After a lingering moment of staring at the image, she shook it off and turned away.

Red came face-to-face with her reflection in the cracked glass of a full-length mirror. It was a dreadful sight to behold. Dry mud caked her face and dress. Some kind of weird, sticky goo was in her hair. She picked up a fluffy towel from the dresser and tried to wipe herself clean, but it was a hopeless effort that just smeared the mess around more than it got it off.

As much as Red wanted to continue exploring her room, she’d become so tired it was hard to keep her eyes open. She was relieved to discover that her bed wasn’t child-sized, as she feared it might be. It was large enough that a full-grown adult could sleep in it with room to spare.

She slipped off her sandals and let her tattered dress fall to the floor. The fluffy feather mattress was the softest thing she had ever lain upon. It was so warm and comfortable that she was overcome with a feeling of safety the likes of which she had never imagined possible.

The moment was/seemed so perfect that she feared it was nothing more than a wonderful dream. The thought of waking up in the orphanage brought a sinking feeling to her stomach. Dismissing this dreadful thought, she blew out the candle on the nightstand. It wasn’t more than a moment later that she drifted off into blissful slumber.

Or, so Red thought …

A thundering crash echoed all around, causing Red’s eyes to snap open with a fright. She looked up to discover the ceiling of her bedroom was no longer above her. Instead she saw the blazing red moon on a backdrop of a million twinkling stars in the midnight sky.

Her head was aching with so much pain that it was hard to think straight. Even through blurred vision it was clear that she was again in the forest meadow, in the same place she had the head-to-head encounter with the mysterious rider.

A few feet away, her little motorcycle was on its side with the front wheel still spinning. Not far from it, a motorcycle tire trail was leading away into the forest, but there was not a sign of the mysterious rider.

Red’s body ached as she pushed up to her feet. She was so dizzy that each step forward made her feel more nauseous than the last. Of the many thoughts jumbled around inside her throbbing head, one stuck out above all. She feared that the journey to her granny’s house had all been a dream.

The sky above ignited with fiery red light. Red looked skyward and gasped in fear as a massive explosion erupted on the moon’s surface. It sent countless shards of blazing rocks scattering in every direction. At first, they looked like thousands of falling stars zipping across the night sky, ready to grant the wishes of those who gazed upon them. Red smiled and made a silent wish that she would find the happiness she had desired for so long.

The moment of bliss turned to terror when the twinkling moonstones began popping and exploding in the atmosphere, and plummeted toward the earth like blazing comets. Red could not stay in the meadow any longer, so with no direction in mind, she ran as fast as her feet would carry her. It wasn’t long before she was once again racing down a dark path deep in the woods.

The ground rumbled as the moonstones slammed into the earth and exploded on impact. The air rapidly filled with so much smoke that it was hard for Red to see a thing beyond her nose. With the forest ablaze all around her, she feared there would be little chance to escape.

A burning shard of moonstone hit the ground not more than a few yards away, blowing a tree into a million flaming splinters. Red covered her face and ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction. It wasn’t long before she was gasping and choking from the smoke filling her lungs.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse, she reached the edge of a steep embankment. A blazing rock pelted the ground nearby, causing a shockwave that knocked her over the edge. Tumbling down the grassy hill, head over feet, her efforts to stop the fall proved useless.

When she finally stopped, it came with a hard flop that left her breathless and flat on her back. It took a painful moment of gasping and wheezing before she was able to come to her senses. With the aid of a splintered tree branch, she strained to get to her feet. Her leg was throbbing from a sharp pain shooting up her thigh. She wasn’t sure if the muscle was twisted or the bone was broken, but there was no chance she would be able to run with such an injury.

Using the branch as a crutch, she stumbled onward, each step requiring relentless determination as the pain grew worse and worse. After stumbling for another mile or so, a blaring red light suddenly erupted up ahead. It wasn’t like the amber flames that had burned so brightly earlier in the night. The pulsating glow emanated from deep within the trees. What was causing it, Red did not know, but it was beckoning her toward it.

The need to find the source overwhelmed Red so much she forgot the pain in her injured leg. Whatever was calling to her was growing louder with each passing moment. The final steps required her to push through thorny bushes, ripping her clothes to shreds and leaving her covered with cuts and scrapes.

When she emerged into a forest clearing, she saw a glowing red stone that sat atop an ancient pedestal. Somehow its identity was as plain to her as anything she had ever laid eyes on.

“The Omega Gem.”

The scorched red stone wasn’t much larger than a gumball. At face value it appeared to be nothing more than a worthless chunk of rock, yet the power it emanated was anything but ordinary. Red could feel its energy crackling in the air around her. She knew without doubt that it was a force unparalleled by anything on Earth.

“Why are you calling to me?”

As Red reached out to pick up the gem, a furious roar erupted from behind. She spun around to see a powerful white wolf perched a fee yards away, showing its razor-sharp fangs, ready to pounce. The deep rumbling growls of more wolves erupted from all sides.

Red looked around as four more wolves emerged from the trees. Each must have weighed at least two hundred pounds and had its own uniquely colored coat—black, grey, brown, and yellow.

“What’s happening to me?”

Red’s senses spiked as her body began to twitch with strength she had never before known. She was astonished to see three-inch, razor-sharp claws protruding from her fingertips. A pair of canine fangs was forming inside her mouth. Hair began growing all over her body, from the tips of her pointy ears all the way down to her elongated wolf feet.

Letting out a furious roar, the white wolf lunged forward to attack. Red raised a claw to smack the beast in the face. An instant before it connected, she snapped awake in her bed at her granny’s house. She swung her arm wide, so fast it made a whooshing sound like a knife cutting through the air.

Red leaped to her feet and dashed to the mirror. She let out a huge sigh of relief upon seeing she wasn’t covered in fur and had no fangs. With her heart still pounding in her chest, she stumbled backward and flopped down on the bed. Reaching up to scratch an itch on the back of her neck, the tip of her fingernail poked into her skin like a sharp needle. The fear of what this might mean was more than enough to set her heart racing even faster.

Slowly holding out her trembling hands, she discovered razor-sharp claws protruding from her fingers. They were shrinking down and gone within seconds, but the fact that they were ever there was enough to send her mind spinning into a frenzy of confusion. For the next several hours she sat awake, pondering how much of what she had experienced was merely a dream, and how much of it might have been real.