PSL ~ Wolf & Red (Grandmother's House) : Wolf watches Red

[lassyhood]

Grandmother's health has gotten worse. She now coughs all the time and the last handkerchief that Red had put against her grandmother's lips to cover a fit came away with a bit of blood. That was two days ago, the same day she met that wolf on the path. She thinks that perhaps she'll see the wolf again -- strange feeling, perhaps? Oh, the villagers would not approve of Red's reckless curiosity. Oh no. But so long as they have Red's mother as the village baker, they for the moment they leave Red be.

Today, Red finds herself once more on the long-beaten path in the woods, on her way to her grandmother's house. She's sporting her signature red cloak and toting muffins and herb leaves in her little whicker basket. Unlike the villagers, she does not fear the forest. It is almost a second home to her; much more welcoming than the village with every day she passes through the tree-framed entrance, leaving the cold civilization behind.

Comments

[alwaysawolf]

Wolf is already cursing himself for a fool. The last time he'd wandered this close to the village he'd almost gotten caught in some hunter's trap and that girl--the one with the scent that was still itching at his nose, even two days later--had patched him up. Which had been surprising. He'd expected her to scream, to run. Maybe call for one of the woodsmen to come with a gun. But she hadn't done either. She'd wrapped his injured leg in a handkerchief and fed him something that had smelled and tasted sweet.

Now he was back, stalking along the edge of the path, just out of sight in the dim greenness of the trees. He had smelled her again and had decided he wanted, needed to see her again. So he moves with his usual silent tread, bright yellow eyes turned towards the path to watch her. Her scent is still there, bright and tugging at him and he still has no idea why.

[lassyhood]

Red is unaware of Wolf''s presence or that he is watching her. She's too busy with her thoughts, wondering what she can do for her grandmother. She knows that at this point in her grandmother's help, all Red can do is make her grandmother as comfortable as possible before she passes away. It's a hard thought to accept and it makes a lump in Red's throat that she just can't swallow.

She nears her grandmother's house, sunlight peeking out of the covering of trees where the house sits beyond.

[alwaysawolf]

Wolf follows, slinking closer and closer as the path draws nears the clearing where the old woman lives. He's incautious, perhaps because she'd reacted so strangely before. Maybe because her scent is so needling. In any case, he misses a step and finds that he's half out of the cover of the deep woods, his head and nose exposed to the sunlight and the mottled dust that dances in it.

He freezes, staring at Red, bracing to run if her reaction today is different than it was before.

[lassyhood]

Red spots walks past Wolf, onto the cobblestone steps that lead up to her grandmother's house's door. She digs her hand into her dress's front pockets and procures a little gold key. She unlocks the door and then stuffs the key back into her dress's pocket. She pushes the door open and enters the house, shutting the door behind her. Her grandmother's house is clean as the day Red's grandfather had died, her grandmother unable to move anything since her health confined her to her bed. It's also dark, since all the curtains are closed.

Red opens all the curtains in the house and props open one window a tad to let fresh air into the stuffy abode.

"Grandma!" she calls from the kitchen, emptying her basket onto a silver tray which she brings into her grandmother's bedroom. "It is me, Red, here with baked goods!"

[alwaysawolf]

Wolf is surprised he wasn't spotted. But all the better. He moves closer to the house, prowling beneath the open window as he listens to them speaking. The old woman was related to her somehow, that much he knew. She approaches the window, sniffing after that scent again, then hops upwards, resting his forepaws on the window sill to look into the house for a brief moment. Then he hurriedly drops again and goes back to pacing. He mutters to himself in his own way, head shaking back and forth.

"Stupid. This is stupid, Wolf. She's a human girl, not worth the trouble. You should've just gone to the stream and forgotten about this nonsense." He sits back on his haunches, scratches an ear. But that scent...

[lassyhood]

Red's grandmother is in a constant position in her head every time Red visits. She's lying down beneath the covers, her messy white hair in an equally messy ponytail, and a little basket of several handkerchiefs at her side. She is hardly ever really awake, always caught between a state of conscious and unconscious, fading in and out. But she makes little movements that tell Red that she has been heard.

The elderly woman's fingers twitch and she opens her chapped mouth.

"...Redding?"

"Yes, Grandma. I have come to see you. Look! I brought your favorite snack and some herbal leaves for your hot water." Red goes to her grandmother and helps the elderly women sit up against the headboard, Red stuffing a plump pillow behind her grandmother's back so that the woman has support.

[alwaysawolf]

Wolf's ears prick up again and he pauses beneath the window, listening to the snatches of conversation. He doesn't get humans. When a wolf is too old, they might be hunted for for a while, but it wasn't as if they could keep them supported when there were cubs to feed and all of that sort of thing. Humans seemed to like keeping their old around as long as possible.

Strange. He sniffs around the edge of the door, then resumes his prowling about the house.

[lassyhood]

Red tears up one of the muffins into smaller pieces for her grandmother to chew. She places them in her grandmother's open hand and then closes her fingers over her grandmother's palm. As her grandmother brings the snack to her mouth, Red begins to talk about how Red's mother is doing in the village's bakery. She talks about the different treats being made and then remarks that the other night she found a gardening book in the back of her mother's closet and now she wants to make a little garden.

"...maybe I could use some of Grandpa's seeds. Would that be all right, Grandma?"

"Mhhmm."