Hunting Hood 2 - The Black Sheep of the Pack

The little girl, known as "Hoodie" by her grandma, had lived alone in the forest for as long as she could remember. She could not even remember a time when she had a mother, or a family. She could not remember a time when she didn't live in the old abandoned wood cabin in the heart of the forest. All she could remember was how she fended for herself, surviving on nuts and berries, all alone, in the middle of the forest, with only the animals as her companions, ever since she was a little child.
But the wolves remembered.

They remembered a time, once, a long time ago, when they came across a terrible scene of carnage. There was one and only one path leading through the forest. It was along this path that the wolves found the wreckage. There were carriages, or at least what remained of them. Piles of charrred wood and wheels were all that remained of a bandit attack the previous night. The wolves kept their distance from the wreckage. The smell of blood was in the air. The pack leader went ahead, sniffing the air carefully. Then, he heard a noise. A soft crying noise. Following the sound of the crying, the wolf poked his head around the bush, and found a little girl, curled up into a ball and sobbing into her knees.

***

It was a bright and sunny afternoon. Rays of sun poked through the leaves of the canopy of trees overhead. The little girl Hoodie made her way through the forest with a basket under her arm. She was on her way to Grandma's house, and as always she was bringing a basket of flowers and mushrooms with her.
Then, out of the bushes came a single wolf. Lone wolves were not common in the forest, but there were a few. Hoodie stopped and smiled. She loved all animals, but wolves had a special place in her heart. She approached the wolf and bent down to stroke the wolf's head.
"Hello there, little wolf," she said, still stroking the wolf's head. "What are you doing out here, all alone in the forest? Its not good to be alone, you know. Everyone need someone in the world."
The wolf looked up at her and whined.
"I used to be alone, too." Little Hoodie went on. "It was terrible. But that was before I met Grandma. She's such a nice old lady. I'm on my way to visit her now. Do you want to know where her house is?"
The wolf just stared at her as she stroked its head.
"See this little path on the grass here? Its not really a path, but since I've been taking the same route to Grandma's house everyday, my feet have kind of made a path on the grass. Just follow the path, and you'll reach Grandma's house."
Little Hoodie stood up. "Well, I had better be going now. Grandma's probably waiting for me." Then, waving goodbye to the wolf, she skipped off into the forest.

Once little Hoodie had left, the wolf slinked back into the bushes to continue its hunt for food. Suddenly, it caught a whiff of meat in the air. Following its nose, it came across a small clearing in the forest, where a piece of red and juicy meat was just sitting there, unprotected...
The wolf leapt at it, and ate it...
Then everything went black....
And when the wolf came to, it was drooling profusely, and its eyes were bloodshot red. It got up. It didn't know what it was, and it didn't know what just happened. All it knew was that it was very angry, and very, very hungry. And Grandma's house was somewhere in that direction.....

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Well, then! I'm back from the high hills. I don't have much to say about what happened up there, since telling other people what happened during my holidays is something other blogs do, and anyway my trips are practically uneventful most of the time. But the cool air and lack of internet was really refreshing, and I had loads of time to prepare more blog posts.

Today's chapter is basically knocked together using several classic aspects of story-telling. Little children raised by wolves is one, and animals going mysteriously berserk is, in a way, another. Keep in mind that there will be updates for the next three days at least, and probably more.


One thing about the trip to the highlands is, I finally got another picture of my little sister! Here she is, taking a nap in her baby seat in the car on the jouney: