Wolf kept his nose covered as he watched Jack descend between two of the railcars, their speed beginning to slow soon after. Their set of cars rolled to a stop as the train’s main body crossed a wooden bridge, then wound its way into the mountains ahead.
The terrain is ascending on one side of the train, the densely packed pine trees seeming to be seated in a stadium and rising the further back they go. The other side is unbroken wilderness and relatively flat. Red made her way through some nearby brush and proceeded to collect bits of wood.
She looks down at the bundle in her arm and then shakes her head. Come on Sarah, she thinks. Work smarter, not harder. Her katana comes out of her scabbard, and she swings it, opening a portal, then tossing the wood through.
The wood tumbles across the ground, startling Wolf as he sits atop the train. He peers over the edge to see the new stumps that had just been dumped out of the air. He narrows his eyes at the wood and smirks.
Wolf grabs the train’s ledge, slides his hind legs over, and drops off as he settles back onto all fours. He can hear the brittle leaves crunching under Red’s footsteps as she moves deeper into the woods, but he isn’t sure where Jack wondered off to.
Wolf’s grin deepens as he slinks over to the pile of wood, hikes his leg, and proceeds to plant a flag for a small victory. His eyes cut back and forth as he starts to walk away with a bit of swagger in his step.
“Wolf!” Red calls.
He freezes, the hair on the back of his shoulders standing up. His head raises and he looks back over his shoulder to see Red standing on the other side of a portal with an arm full of wood. “Hmm?” he replies, words escaping him.
“Just what are you up to?” she asks, studying him. “If you’re trying to sneak off, no one’s stopping you.”
Wolf lets go of a breath that he didn’t know he was holding, then shakes his head with a smile. “I’m not doing anything and I’m not going anywhere. Just thought I’d stretch my legs is all.” His smile soon fades though as she doesn’t respond right away. The seconds of silence pile up, threatening to become a minute as Wolf’s anxiety continues to grow.
Was this a test? he thinks. She knows, right? “Anything I can help with?” he asks suddenly, breaking the silence.
“Uh huh,” Red says, stepping through the portal and dumping the wood with the rest of it. “Where’d Jack get off to?”
Wolf shrugs. “I’m don’t know. He disappeared after the train sto—” He suddenly stops, his nose contorting as he pulls his face out of the shifting wind. “Never mind, I found him. He puts one paw over his nose and points to the uphill side of the tracks. “Apparently, nature was calling and he’s up the hill there.”
Wolf proceeds to gag, sticking out his tongue and coughing over his shoulder. “It’s in my throat,” he says waving his face. “It’s like a carcass defecated another carcass.”
Jack rounds the end of the train to see Wolf’s glare aiming his direction. “What?” he asks, feeling like the talk of a conversation that he wasn’t a part of.
“You could have done that downwind somewhere,” Wolf says.
“Hey, I did go downwind, thank you very much. It’s not my fault that it changed directions halfway in. Besides, I had a nice view up there.”
“Jack,” Red says, “I hate to disrupt you reliving fond memories and all, but we need supplies. Do you care to grab some ammo and rations?”
“Sure thing. Do you need any of the Senzu beans?”
Red swings her sword, opening a portal to a small cabin while shaking her head. “No, it would be a waste. I just need food and rest for now.”
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“Should I take Wolf along?”
“That’s fine. Just keep an eye on him. I’ll get us a fire going.”
Jack steps through the portal with Wolf following. A dirt pathway leads them up to the front of the hunting cabin. Its walls are made of roughly hewn slabs of wood, each being eighteen inches wide and running the length of the wall they are set in. The front door and single window are in the only wall without full length beams, their framing requiring the beams to be cut in order to accommodate them.
“Where are we?” Wolf asks.
“This is the real world…the one we left before the train. We keep some supplies here.”
“Why is it you jump for her every command?”
Jack pushes the cabin door open, revealing a sparsely-furnished interior. A single bed sits to one side with a kitchenette to the other. An antler themed chandelier hangs in the center of the room with a large table sitting below it. Racks of various firearms adorn the walls and ammo cans sit on a rack by the table. “Geez,” Wolf proclaims. “Y’all are taking this Grandma-war seriously, huh?”
Jack grabs a bag inside the door and continues over to a table, then proceeds to fill it with ammo. “For starters, yes, we’re serious about fighting her grandmother. As for your other question, I know you don’t see it this way, Wolf, but she actually saved us. I guess, I feel like I owe her, you know?”
“How exactly,” Wolf asks, his words clipped, “has she saved anyone?”
Jack nods as he grabs another bag and heads over to a cherry colored pantry. “Well, there’s us. Obviously.”
Wolf shakes his head. “How is that obvious? For all you know, there was never a danger to our world, and if there was, who’s to say she wasn’t that danger? Just because I got jerked around and lead out of my world, doesn’t mean it was done to save me.”
“For her, the Little Red Riding Hood—the story of us—is important and not the way it is for us. I think it was important for someone else too, the story being something they had in common or shared. So that person would have to have been important as well. But I don’t know if the person was important because of our story or if our story was important because of the person.” Jack becomes distant as he mentally traces along his own line of reasoning, like it was something he had thought on, and this is the first time voicing those thoughts aloud.
Wolf clears his throat, prompting Jack to come back out of his musings.
“Right,” Jack continues. “There were a few stories that were important to her; Little Red, Hansel & Gretel, and something else, I think.”
“Well, why didn’t she go save them if she’s such a hero?”
Jack reaches for something on a top shelf but pauses, resting his hand on a loaf of bread as he sighs. “We both went, trying to do just that. Unfortunately, her grandmother guessed as much. When we arrived, there was some sort of bakery house that had been burned to the ground…along with the remains of two kids…on spikes.”
Wolf’s gaze drops towards the floor before looking back up. “It was them; I take it?”
Jack nods as he continues pulling things from the top of the cabinet. “The very same.”
“So she’s not really Red then. Not the one we know, I mean. What happened to ours?”
Jack turns back and brings the sack of food to sit next to the ammo. “Last I saw of our Red, Sarah knocked her out with a punch.”
“She actually punched Red? What is she, like 9? 10?”
Jack chuckles. “Sarah isn’t one to waste time with words. After she knocked out Red, she used her as a hostage to convince her mother to follow us into another world where they would be safe.” Jack becomes distant as his eyebrows furrow. “I don’t recall where that was though. After that, she let you chase her through one of her portals and you’ve been in the real world ever since.”
Wolf looks down at the floor again, then stands upright and walks over to the table with Jack. “Wow, our new Red is a real beacon of Sainthood. You think that’s worth supporting?”
“I do. Like I said, I’m in her debt. Besides, it’s not like she’s just going to through us to the wolves…err, no offense.” Wolf shakes his head, while suppressing a smile. “But she’s already put a lot of time and effort into getting me prepared. Some of her methods might be…strange, but there’s no denying the results.”
Wolf looks over the mountain man, then nods. “You do look a little more Jacked than I remember.” Jack stares flatly at him for a moment as Wolf waits, expectantly. “Come on! You know that was gold.”
Jack shakes his head. “Just, no. I’ll have to see if she can work some humor into whatever regimen she puts you through.”
“Wait, what? Regimen? What else am I getting into here?”
“Relax. Whatever she does, I’m confident that it’ll make you better at being you.”
“Just what did she have you doing?”
Jack smiles brightly. “It may sound kind of silly, but she actually linked me up with this Italian boxer. He had me chasing around some chickens, running stairs, and even some wood chopping, though my axe had a few weights strapped to it. I know it sounds crazy, but my strength and endurance shot way up. I’m sure she’ll come up with more training partners along the way.”
“Catching chickens? I can do that. Can we sign me up for that one?”
Jack grabs the two bags, then passes one to Wolf. “I can’t really say. We’ll just have to see what she thinks would be best. But, we can worry about that later. Let’s just get back with the supplies.”