RRH

When Anya wakes up it's still dark outside but she gets out of bed anyway, she has things to do and they need to be done quickly. She spends the time before dawn collecting wood and kneading dough, preparing all the little details of her daily chores long before anyone else in the village is awake. By the time dawn breaks she has finished everything required of her and returns to the cottage in time to join her family for breakfast. Aaron, her younger brother, is making a nuisance of himself by running around the small room bumping into things. Anya loves him, she doesn't understand him at all, his mind seems empty and his actions foolhardy to her but he is her brother and she loves him. When her family has eaten Anya volunteers to travel through the forest to visit her grandmother because while it's meant to be Aaron's job, Lucas saw a wolf in the forest yesterday and no way is her younger brother heading into that kind of risk. Her parents agree and Anya packs a basket, adding in a knife she knows will do little against a real wolf.

When she leaves Anya is wearing her mother's best cloak, it is bright red - an expensive dye - and warm, but most importantly her mother loves it and Anna wants it to be what she wears if she ends up mauled to death. How dare her parents think of sending Aaron out into danger.

The path to grandma's is convoluted and long, winding where it doesn't need to and generally meandering. Anya has never followed the path properly and she's not about to start today, not when the longer she spends in the forest the more likely she is to encounter the wolf. Cutting through the brush is natural to her and she's careful, noting landmarks and listening for unusual rustling. She hears nothing. She eventually stumbles into a small clearing, proof that she's heading the right way, and it's filled with flowers. For the first time that day Anya hesitates, her grandmother isn't really into flowers but Anya can see several medical herbs that will heal coughs and aching bones, things her grandmother covets desperately. She stops to pick the flowers. Her time in the clearing is short, she grabs the flowers and puts them in her basket, no dawdling involved, that doesn't matter to the wolf who is now approaching her, he is not the type of wolf she expected, no fangs, claws or fur, just silken words and honeyed promises. She deflects and leaves but he follows and internally she screams because her story shouldn't be about dangerous men and fear. She walks as fast as she can through the woods and her red cloak is getting caught on branches now, she's panicking and shamefully she wishes that she hadn't volunteered, then she remembers Aaron and sets her jaw. The man is uncomfortably close to her and she wants to flinch back or push him away but she does neither, standing tall and stating clearly that if he doesn't get lost by the time she gets to her grandmother she'll clock him in the mouth. He wavers, not used to conflict, but then he leaves and she can breathe again so she keeps walking and she wishes she wasn't here but there are wolves in the forest and she loves Aaron so she won't change her mind.

When she gets to her grandmother's cottage the door is open and swinging in the wind and there is mud on the floor. She enters carefully, a hand in her picnic basket, clutching her knife. When she encounters the wolf in her grandmother's bed she is not surprised, only horrified. He tries to get her to come close, to play his game or to lie with him but she refuses even as the hand on her knife begins to shake. She wants to leave but her grandmother is missing and she needs to keep this beast from devouring her whole.

Anya is frantically throwing doors open to desperately peer inside, searching for a grandmother she's afraid she'll never find. The wolf follows her around, trying out the sounds of bargains on his tongue and she wants to scream, she is alone in the forest with a wolf and thank God Aaron isn’t here but she wishes that she wasn’t either. The wolf is enjoying this, she thinks distantly, he feels in control and she’s trapped so he thinks she’ll cave sooner or later but Anya has a knife in her picnic basket and wants to scream. She walks past the hall cabinet for what feels like the hundredth time and her legs begin to shake, she’s stressed and scared and her body is treacherously tired, part of her wants to lie on the floor and sob. She shoves that part of herself away immediately, disgusted by her fear, her story will not be about dangerous men and fear. The wolf is leaning against the door frame of her grandmother’s bedroom and Anya is angry now, this time when she reaches the kitchen she throws open all the cabinets and tosses the cutlery to the floor, the sound of the knives hitting the floorboards has the wolf flinching. Anya isn’t done yet, not by a long shot, she walks through every room in the cottage, emptying linen cupboards and trinket cabinets alike and the wolf is feeling anxious now so Anya keeps pushing. She empties out everything and she knows her grandmother will hate the mess but the wolf is also afraid now and Anya is in control so she keeps going and when she reaches her grandmother’s bedroom the wolf is still leaning on the door frame but he looks worried. When she shoulders past him he finally moves, grabs her wrist and wrenches her away from the wardrobe and Anya knows where her grandma is. The wolf is holding onto her and trying to push her into a wall but she has a hand in her picnic basket and she’s not going to let her story be about dangerous men with cowardly hearts and fear so great that you cannot move.

Anya looks the wolf in the eye before producing the knife from her picnic basket, placing it carefully against his throat because she doesn't want to kill him and she thanks her lucky stars that Aaron isn't here. The wolf backs off, he doesn't look much like a wolf any more, more like a mouse, quiet whimpers escaping his throat as she forces him into the bathroom before locking the door. Anya makes her way to her grandmother’s bedroom, heading directly for the wardrobe but as she grasps the handle she hesitates, her grandmother might not be in there, or she could be dead or hurt or dying, Anya doesn’t know what she would do if that were the case so she takes a breath and opens the door.

Grandma, as it turns out, is totally terrifying when mad and the man in the bathroom not only is chased off, he is also forced to clean up all the mess that has been made and then some. Anya feels completely and utterly safe as she helps her grandmother reinforce her front door and attach two more locks to it and when they're done her grandmother sits her down and makes her a cup of tea. It's only then that Anya realises that she is shaking like a leaf and all the strength in her legs has left her. Grandma gives her both time and space, something Anya utilises to reflect, eventually coming to the conclusion that she couldn't have made a better decision than to listen to the warning about wolves in the forest.

She and her grandmother watch as the sun moves higher in the sky, bathing the cottage in warmth. Anya has to head home soon but not this moment and she quietly realises that her story will not be about dangerous men and fear, it will be about older sisters protecting younger brothers and about the dangers of girls trapped with a wolf.