She was foolish, wandering through these woods in that pretty red cape. The fae are looking for their princess, every creature knows this, and any girl they see is their target these days (even if the girl in question is nowhere near the right age — like this one).

And yes, they do have a way of seeing red.

I can see several of their shadows now, gleaming red eyes shining through the darkness of the woods. They’re hungry for blood, again, and they’ll draw some from this girl if they catch her.

Just, well, several pints of it.

She’ll be drained entirely if it’s been long enough since these foul creatures fed, which we all know it has been.

And she’s a Hood girl, I’m sure, Rhoswen, so if I try to save her, she’ll just kill me instead.

But I’m not here to hurt her. I’m here to help her, whether she understands me or not.

So I howl, and I run.

If I can get the cape off her, she’ll be fine. They can’t see much besides red. I’ve just got to make sure I don’t make her bleed at the same time…

(This is — sort of — a part of a project I’m working on somewhere else, twisting fairytales in different ways. The fae aspect is a key part in both Little Red Riding Hood’s retelling and the one for Snow-White and Rose-Red)