Jason blinked dazed by the sudden sunlight. He couldn't remember much, except that he was a wolf, and this was the forest Arden. He knew the forest, all the caves, paths, domiciles, forts, cabins, creeks, and roads in it. His ears perked up as he heard the sound of feet on gravel. Someone was walking along the road. He frowned the wind was blowing the wrong way, and he couldn't pick up the person's scent. So silently, Jason dropped to all fours and trotted along on a parallel path with the plan to get in range to intercept the sight or scent of his possible quarry. He shivered slightly, it might also be a huntsman.
Danielle pulled her red hood over her face and limbs. It was a warm day, and the sun beat down on her, but she was very fair. She knew that the sun would burn her if she allowed her skin to be exposed. She looked down at the basket in her hand. It was imperative that she took it to her grandmother at her cottage by the fork in the road.
The witch laughed as she lay back in the down feather bed and sipped her tea. Red Riding Hood was the perfect one to bring her the herbs she needed for her spell. She wasn't totally up on her fairy tales, but she recalled that a huntsman - or was it a woodsman - well, someone would arrive at the last minute and save grandmother and the girl from the evil wolf. Jason would make a nice pelt, and as she recalled Red Riding Hood got married off to the rescuer. She chuckled as she imagined Daniel's memories returning the moment he lost his/her virginity. Now all she had to do was sit back and wait for the story to unfold.
Jason sniffed the air, and could smell the sweet scent of a pubescent female in estrus approaching. His jaws hung open and drool dripped from his fangs. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt his body shifting. His fangs retracting, his fur being reabsorbed to expose bare skin, and his claws reshaping into human hands. Jason adjusted his fur loincloth, and stood as a man. A wild man, but still a man. He seated himself on a rock where the forest path diverged from the road. He dug at the base of the rock, and unearthed a couple of bones that he'd made into a pan flute and buried previously.
As Danielle proceeded down the road, she heard a sweet melody playing up ahead. She accelerated her pace toward the lovely music.
Jason was debating on what he would do to the woman when she got to him. He might just wolf out and devour her on the spot, or perhaps he- He paused and looked up as the red cloaked woman appeared at the bend in the road and started toward him.
"Greetings, ma'am," Jason said politely, as he stood up and bowed.
Red Riding Hood eyed the half-naked man with caution. He didn't seem to have any weapons, but he was bigger than her.
"Good day, sir," Danielle said cautiously.
"Mighty hot day to be all wrapped up like that," Jason noted.
"Oh, well, better warm than sunburnt," Danielle replied.
"Suppose? Wouldn't know. I personally don't sunburn," Jason lied, as he stretched his arms to display his muscular torso. He did like this one's voice, scent and face. Her cloak concealed too much. "So where are you going on such a hot day, as today? Wouldn't it make more sense to travel at dusk or night?"
"I'm on my way to Grandmama's cottage at the fork in the road, and she desperately needs the medicinal herbs in my basket. I spent all morning picking them for her. Besides, it's too dangerous to travel at night, what with werewolves and vampires about."
"Werewolves and vampires?" Jason said as he toyed with his Pan flute. "Well, I suppose if the moon were full, but then it's daylight, so why don't you take the forest path. It's shaded all the way, and if you follow it, it will take you straight to your grandmama's cottage." He pointed to the path.
"It leads to Grandmama's?"
"Yes, and you can take your cloak off or at least open it up. You look so hot in that thing, I feel hot in sympathy," Jason said with a laugh. He was thinking Grandmama might make a nice appetizer. The forest path was pretty, but it would take Danielle at least an hour longer than the main road as it wound its way through the forest.
"You do play those pipes beautifully," Danielle said. She let her hood fall back as she stepped on to the shaded dirt path. She shook her curly long hair which cascaded over her shoulders, and her cloak flew back like a cape with a quick flick of her arm. Jason found her form quite comely.
Danielle thought Jason might look handsome if were properly clothed. She grinned to herself, and thought or if he were completely naked. The grey fur loincloth had seen better days.
"Thank you, milady," Jason said with a bow.
On impulse Danielle stepped forward and kissed the man on his forehead.
"In payment for your kind advice, good sir," she said with smile. It was quickly followed with a blush, and she spun and trotted down the forest path.
"Whew!" Jason said with a grin. He glanced down and laughed. His loincloth was elevated by his rock hard erection. He slapped his knee, "No wonder she blushed and ran. What a woman! Good enough not to eat." Jason's stomach growled, and he started to run down the road toward Grandmama's house.
As he ran, he began to shift into lupine form. His back, chest, and limbs were soon completely obscured by thick grey-black fur. He dropped to all fours and was soon running and howling as he ran.
In the forest, Red Riding Hood froze as she heard the not too distant howl of a wolf. She did feel cooler, but she somewhat regretted walking into the woods. She had hoped the man might accompany her, but then she had been afraid he might try to take advantage of her. A squirrel scampered by, and she smiled, and resumed skipping along the path.
The witch frowned as she looked at her empty tea cup. She was all nestled snug in her bed, and really didn't want to get up to make more tea. Where was that girl with her herbs? She could make her Grandmama some tea, and where was that wolf? If he ate her before she got here? The witch yawned, and frowned. Maybe she should have had black tea instead of herbal, this stuff made her sleepy. She closed her eyes for just a moment, and soon was snoring.
A rapping at her door woke, the witch. Half awake she called out, "Nibble nibble mousekin, who's nibbling at my housekin?"
"Nibbling?" whispered the wolf Jason. He shrugged, and adjusting the pitch of his voice, he replied, "Grandmama, it is I, Red Riding Hood!"
"Oh, it's about time you got here. Abracadbra," she said and the bolt slid back, as she sat up in bed, "Raise the latch and come in."
Jason lifted the latch and prepared to pounce on the woman behind the door, but no one was there. It was a one-room cottage, and on the far wall next to fireplace was the old woman in her bed. She was yawning, and only could see the shape silhoutted in her doorway. It didn't look like a girl. She squinted her eyes against the streaming sunlight. The door swung shut as the wolf pounced.
"Wha-" was all the witch said before the wolf swallowed her whole.
A moment later there was a knocking at the door. Jason was mortified. He had planned to come up upon Red Riding Hood from behind, and help her try to find her missing Grandmama, and to console her at her sudden loss. But now he had to change plans. He pulled on the witch's dressing gown and cap, and climbed into her still warm bed.
He adjusted the pitch of his voice, and called out, "Raise the latch and come in."
"Grandmama, it's I," Red Riding Hood announced from the doorway.
The witch trapped in the wolf's gullet murmurred, "Is this the way the story goes?"
The wolf burped, and his stomach started grind on the witch inside him.
"My what big ears you have, Grandmama?" Red Riding Hood asked cautiously hovering near the open door.
"The better to hear you with my dear," the wolf replied.
"My what big yellow eyes you have, Grandmama?" Danielle asked suspiciously. She didn't remember her grandmother's eyes being yellow. She sniffed the air, it had a musky masculine scent which made Danielle clench her legs together and squirm.
"The better to see you with my dear," the wolf replied.
"My what big teeth you have, Grandmama," noted Danielle.
"I could say the better to eat you up with, my dear, but I shan't. Now did you bring those medicinal herbs? They should help your Granny get well. Now, tell me about your journey here my dear. Did you take the path or the road?" Jason asked in a high pitched voice.
"Uh, herbs? Yes, they're right here," Danielle said with confusion. She had been sure that the creature in the bed was not her grandmama, but it had known about the herbs. Perhaps her illness gave her that horrific appearance. Oh, she hoped her grandmother wasn't a werewolf. One of the herbs was wolfsbane, perhaps it would change her back?
"Bring them to me my dear. You know I get so lonely out here by myself. If it wasn't for that nice man who brings me my firewood, I don't know what I'd do. He usually walks along the road playing his Pan flute for coins."
"Oh, that's your friend? I saw him at the road, and he told me to take the forest path," Danielle said.
Inside the wolf, the witch struggled, she knew this wasn't how the story was supposed to go.
"Oh, yes, I think if he got himself cleaned up, he'd make a decent husband for a young maid such as yourself," Jason said with a grin.
"Husband? Well, his body was quite comely," Danielle confessed.
The wolf's grin grew wider and more unsettling.
"Uh, what do you want me to do with these herbs, Grandmama?"
"Ah, yes, the basket of herbs. Set them on the table by the fire. Then if you please my dear, take that bucket by the door out to the well and fill it with water."
"But you've got a whole barrel of water right next to the fire?" Danielle protested.
"Yes, but it's bathing water, not drinking water," the wolf in grandmama's clothing said.
"Yes, Grandmama," Red Riding Hood said rolling her eyes, and setting the basket down. She hung her cloak by the door, and headed out with the bucket to the well behind the cottage.
Quickly Jason leapt from the bed and tore off his bedclothes. He shifted once more into a sweaty young man. He stepped out of his smelly loincloth and washed it in the barrel then hung it by the fire. He knew he had about 10 minutes, so he quickly made the bed, and hid the witch's clothes. Then he took a hand full of herbs, and put them in the tea kettle with boiling water, and poured part of it into the tea cup. He then climbed into the barrel of cold water and began scrubbing himself with the soap.
Along the road, a huntsman was tromping along, and he noticed fresh wolf tracks in the road. He followed them toward the cottage. A young woman carrying a bucket of water emerged from behind the house as he arrived.
"See any wolves about miss?" he asked.
"Wolves in the day time around here?" she asked thinking about her grandmama's odd affliction.
"Odd, I know, but there are wolf tracks along the road," he said knowingly touching his nose. The woman had good hips for childbearing he thought, as he adjusted his codpiece.
Danielle was uncomfortable around the brutish man.
"I haven't seen a wolf, but I heard one howling in the woods earlier," she said.
"Ah, the woods, perhaps it went down this path then?" the hunter said nodding at her and heading down the path.
Danielle opened the door and was surprised to see the man from the road washing himself in the barrel, and that her grandmama's bed was empty.
"Where's my grandmama?"
"Oh, excuse me," Jason said with mock modesty. He covered his lathered chest with his hands and ducked down into the barrel causing water to overflow, "Your grandmama remembered that she had drinking water in the tea pot and made herself a remedy from your herbs. She said she was renewed, she made her bed dressed, told me to take a bath because I stank, and said she was going to run a few errands. Urp! Excuse me."
The witch was losing consciousness now. She knew she would be digested, her plans had gone awry. Somehow, Jason hadn't tried to eat Daniel yet. She didn't understand why. It was all getting dark, she could no longer think. Where was the huntsman? she wondered, and passed out.
The huntsman had gone about 100 yards along the forest path, and found no trail there. He headed back to the cottage, and raised the latch and burst in brandishing his war-axe.
Red Riding Hood turned with a start, and Jason jumped up in the barrel covering his genitals.
"Who are you?" asked the huntsman.
"I'm Danielle and this is my grandmama's cottage. This man is her friend, but who are you?"
"I'm a wolf hunter, and the trail leads to this cottage," he said glaring at Jason, he added "This axe is silver and will kill werewolves."
"Werewolf or man, I'd say that blade is quite lethal," Jason replied, "and I'm naked and unarmed."
"Where's the old lady?" the huntsman asked.
"Urp!" belched Jason, "I'm sorry I burp when I'm nervous, and that blade makes me nervous. Can I get out of this water, and put my clothes on?"
"Stay where you are until I say otherwise."
"My grandmama was feeling poorly, and she made herself a tea from the herbs she requested I collect, and apparently made a rapid recovery and set off to run some errands," Danielle said nervously.
"Herbs?" the huntsman asked suspiciously. He looked at the open basket of leaves, the half-empty tea cup, and the kettle on the table, "These herbs?"
"Yes, she wrote my mother for me to collect them and included sketches of the leaves so that I got the right ones. They're medicinal herbs," Red Riding Hood explained, and reached into her cloak and pulled out a packet of folded papers.
The huntsman adjusted his stance questioningly. He took the papers and examined the sketches.
"Mandrake, hemlock, wolfsbane, blackthorn, and the lot are not medicinal herbs! These are poisons that witches use."
"Are you saying my Grandmama is a witch?" challenged Danielle.
"Or worse! You say she just left here? There are fresh wolf tracks, she may be a werewolf, and so might he?" He said pointing at Jason. Then he spread his feet and eyed Danielle again, "And for that matter so might you be? Best be safe and behead you all!"
He raised his axe toward Jason who tumbled out of the barrel splashing water everywhere as he reached for his wolf-manskin loin cloth. The axe was blocked in its descent by a bedwarmer which Danielle had thrust in its path. The huntsman turned on Danielle. She backed away from him, and was trapped in the corner as he raised his deadly axe. The axe clattered uselessly to floor. A great wolf stood where the huntsman had. Jason had swallowed the man in one bite.
The blast of fresh air, suddenly flesh pressed against flesh. The witch groaned and gasped, "Red riding hood?" she asked hopefully in the darkness.
"No, I'm the huntsman," came the reply.
"Damn," said the witch forlornly.
Red Riding Hood stared at the yellow eyes and fangs looming before her. Then she watched in horror and amazement as the great beast began to shrink. The hair receded, the teeth shrank back, and wolf became a man- a man she recognized.