Autor: Daniel Fdez

2. nce upon a time, there was a young woman named Ruby who lived with her grandmother, Widow Lucas, who she called
Granny with much affection. They had a little house in a poor village that was terrorized every full moon by a large and malevolent wolf. She often
dreamt of running away with her true love, a blacksmith's son by the name of Peter.
One day, during a third night of wolf’s time, Peter secretly visited Ruby at her home. After a short conversation and a kiss, she was called
away by her grandmother to the front door. There, she saw Mayor Tomkins, the leader of the village, who was asking for more volunteers to help
the hunting party in order to try and kill the wolf, once and for all. Widow Lucas refused to help and called them fools, since she firmly believed
that there was no way of killing the wolf, and the only thing they could do was to stay hidden inside their houses.
As soon as they left, Ruby helped her lock down the house, in order to keep the wolf away. On her way to her room, Granny reminds her to wear
her red cloak, as the colour red repels wolves. Ruby didn’t believe in such thing, and was tired of this superstition, because since she was always
wearing the cloak, everybody had started calling her Red, but since she loved Granny so much, she did as she was told.
The next morning, as soon as she woke up, Granny told Red to check on the chickens to make sure the wolf hadn’t hurt any of them. As Red
was collecting the eggs and preparing to leave, she noticed one nest was empty. Suddenly, she saw a young woman who run out from behind and
confessed to stealing a few eggs for herself, with a voice full of remorse, since she had been starving for long. When asked about who she was, the
thief hesitated to reveal her identity, confessing that she was on the run from someone.

3. Red was fine with this, as she felt pity for the woman, but replied that she needed something to call her. The stranger introduced herself first with
the alias of Frosty, only to then switch to Margaret, and finally settle on Mary. Although Red didn’t know this, the girl was actually Snow
White, and the person she was hiding from was the Evil Queen, who had been searching for her everywhere after the huntsman spared her life.
Red invited her to stay in the house until she could find a place to settle down, and they went to the well to fetch some water . As Red was hauling
it up, she noticed something strange with the water: its marvellous burgundy red colour. When she asked for Mary's opinion, Mary did not
reply, but rather told her to look beyond the well. When Red turned around and stared at the snow, she got horrified at the trail of mangled
corpses which once formed the wolf hunting party.
When they returned to Red’s house, they discovered that Mayor Tomkins had called a town meeting. The Mayor expressed regret at the
village's loss and demanded for an even larger hunting party so that they could put an end to the massacre of people and livestock. However,
Granny protested, arguing to the villagers that with her own experience with a former wolf, which had once preyed upon the village, she knew that
all attempts to defeat the beast would be futile. To prove her history, she rolled up her sleeve to show how she herself was marked by the creature,
with long claw marks along her arm.
That very same night, in Red's bedroom, Snow White mentioned how it was a pity the wolf was keeping her from leaving the town with Peter.
Red realizes that Snow was right, and started giving a second thought to the idea of killing the wolf. Snow White claimed it would be crazy to
try it, but Red persuaded her to help her look for the wolf.

4. The next day, they set out to hunt down the wolf and kill it in its sleep. When they eventually found the wolf's tracks, it was only to have them
lead back to Red's house. They came to the conclusion that Peter was the wolf, as he had been by the window the night before, talking to the girl.
Red, horrified by the idea, presented her theory to him, and Peter agreed that they should tie him up in chains, just in case, because he didn’t
want to risk hurting her. Meanwhile, Snow would remain at Granny’s house, posing as Ruby, in her red cloak, while pretending to be asleep.
However, that night as the full moon showed itself, Peter did not shifted into a wolf. It was Red who was starting to grow fur, claws and fangs,
with no sense of her human self. Peter tried to calm her to make her recognize him all to no use. The wolf growled and lunged at him.
As soon as Granny’s discovered Red’s ploy, she explained to Snow that they needed to find Ruby as soon as possible, and return the red cloak
to her, for it was the cloak the only thing that kept Red from being affected by the genetically-inherited lycanthropy, which would turn her into a
beast at every full moon time. While the wolf was eating Peter's remains, Granny and Snow White arrived, and Granny shot the wolf with a
silver-tipped cross bolt.
Snow White laid the magical red cloak over the unconscious wolf form of Red, and she turned back into her human form. Red was disoriented at
first, but then she tearfully realized that she was the wolf, and therefore, the only responsible for Peter's death. Suddenly, the torches of the
hunting party appeared in the distance on the other side of the clearing, and Granny urged them to leave while they still could. Snow White led a
devastated Red away while Granny was left to fend for herself. They didn’t fear for her well-being, as the wolf curse was also upon her, and she
could handle a crossbow with great aim whenever she needed to.
Red and Snow White ran through the woods to escape the hunting party.

5. Unfortunately, the soldiers of the Evil Queen had resumed the hunt for Snow White too, so they were running from both groups to save their
lives. Red discovered her hood was torn from running around the woods, since it would catch in branches and rocks, and she got worried that it
would not be able to stop the transformation anymore. Concerned about the possibility of potentially harming Snow White too, Red made the choice
of leaving for the night. Snow White parted with the promise to seek Red out later, after the dawn.
Next morning, before starting the search to reunite with Snow, Red removed her cloak to wash up her hands and face in the stream. Before she
was done, a stranger appeared from the woods, grabbed her cloak and ran off. Red chased him and discovered the stranger holding her cloak over
a torch. As she was begging the man not to burn her cloak, he revealed that he was like her and introduced himself to her as Quinn.
Astonished to find there were others like her, she followed Quinn to a sunken city where she saw the pack’s leader, a woman named Anita.
When Red approached her, Anita hugged her, and revealed hat she was her mother. Red, who hadn’t meet her until then, as her mother had
fled when she was born, could believe what she was hearing, as Anita revealed to Red that her own mother, Widow Lucas, took Red from her
because she did not want her granddaughter to grow up as a wolf, against Anita’s will.
After learning about Anita’s true identity, Red spent time among the other "Children of the Moon" and was taught how to control the wolf.
However, the respite was short lived. Snow White, in her search for Red, was caught by the Queen’s guards. Red tried to convince Anita and
the other wolves that Snow meant no harm, but as the Queen's guards burst into the hideout after following Snow White's trail, they shot
Quinn and killed him.

6. Anita was furious and after dispatching both guards, she made preparations to execute Snow White. However, unable to watch how her friend
was going to get executed, Red saved Snow White by transforming into the wolf and tackling Anita, which caused her to land on a pike and
wounded her severely. With her last breath, Anita accused Red of choosing a human over her own pack, but Red asserted that she did not choose
a human; she chose herself because she is not a cold-blooded killer.
After burying Anita with the help of Snow, Red thanked the girl for supporting her to be herself,. After all, her grandmother always tried to
keep her in her human form thanks to the clack, and her new found mother wanted her to embrace the wolf, but the princess was the only person
that though it was ok for her to be both.
Many weeks after her mother's death, Red brought food with her once a month, to Snow White's secluded forest hideout while she was still
avoiding the Evil Queen's forces. Red kept Snow White fed, as well as up-to-date on all of the Enchanted Forest's current events, including
Prince Charming's wedding to a neighbouring kingdom, with King Midas's daughter, Abigail.
Snow White was very upset at this, and asked for some magical cure to heal her broken heart. Red kept quiet, which made Snow White think
her friend knew something.
After some prodding, Red couldn't keep the truth from her beloved friend any longer. She told Snow White about Rumplestiltskin, a man with
great powers, who might be able to help her take away her love for Prince Charming.
The next day, Snow White set out to meet with Prince Charming at King George's castle after he sent her a love letter requesting to see her
urgently. She did not return for several days, and Red started to worry about her.

7. * * *
Some days after, Red came across Prince Charming when he arrived at Snow White's hideout, searching for her. She told him that Snow
White went to see him to the castle because she loved him. To help Prince Charming understand better, she explained that Snow really loved him
and had been intending to tell him so, unless something had changed her mind. Just in the middle of the conversation, King George's men
arrived, in an attempt to kill Prince Charming. She helped him, and they escaped together briefly.
However, after several days of camping while escaping from the king's men, those caught up to them. Red saw the full moon, and asked Prince
Charming to run while she tried to hold them off. Prince Charming left to find Snow, while turning his sight towards the young woman, who was
taking her red cloak off. Ruby's eyes flashed gold as she run at the approaching soldiers; shape shifting into wolf.
Though Prince Charming eventually found Snow White, the two were separated when King George's men finally captured and brought him back
to the king. Snow White enlisted the help of Red, Granny, the Seven Dwarves and the fairies to rescue Prince Charming. They took control of
the castle, but the rescue attempt turned out unsuccessful because Prince Charming had been traded to the Evil Queen.
Snow White agreed to a deal with the Queen; she would meet her alone and without arms. Despite everyone's pleas—including Red's, for her
not to meet the Queen, Snow White stubbornly followed the Queen's rules, if that would mean the safe return of her prince. Shortly thereafter,
and fearing for the life of the girl, they went looking for Snow White, and found her lifeless body. Red discovered Snow White was not
breathing, and they believed her dead.

8. When Prince Charming found Snow in a glass coffin and said goodbye to her with a kiss, the nature of the sleeping curse the girl was under was
revealed. A true love's kiss would break the curse.
Soon after, Red helped in fighting alongside Prince Charming and Snow White against King George in order to take back the kingdom and
free their people. King George's forces fell in battle, and the Evil Queen was captured. Red took part in a war council meeting to discuss the
Queen's future fate, which they decided should be death. She, along with the rest of the war council, watch the Queen deliver her last threats
before the execution, but Snow stopped it at the last moment, and decided to free her, to give her one last chance, and commanded her banishment
from their kingdom.
* * *
Many months later, Red and her grandmother joined in on the council yet again when they heard about the upcoming Evil Queen's dark curse.
They listened to the Blue Fairy's solution of using the magic wardrobe to send a pregnant Snow White to a land without magic for 28 years
until her child could save them from the curse. Red Riding Hood, along with everyone else was engulfed by the Dark Curse.
- The End -