Free Girl in the Red Hood by Brittany Fichter Page B

mountain as she could
get. He was the one who found her in the forest and saved her from
the unnerving man and his wolves. He was all she had. And deep
down, she somehow knew that would be enough. Against her will, a
small smile crept to her lips. As she nodded, she felt a foreign
sensation wash over her. It took her a moment to realize it was
peace.
    They stared out at the massive ocean of
treetops for a long time before she remembered a question she
couldn't shake.
    "What did that man mean when he said I was
the one who believed in magic?" Kurt frowned in disgust.
    "My uncle has always been far too obsessed
with magic for his own good, my father says."
    "Your uncle?" Liesel shivered. How Kurt
could be related to that frightening man was beyond her. But Kurt
didn't seem to hear.
    "We've had enough of that around here, thank
you very much!" He muttered underneath his breath. The look on his
face was so ominous that Liesel didn't dare ask what he meant.
Instead, an idea formed, and where there had been none before, hope
suddenly surged in her heart. Aside from her mother's healing, she
knew instantly that she had never wanted anything more in her
life.
    "Come with me!" She grabbed his hands
without thinking.
    "Where?"
    "Away from here! Anywhere! We can see the
mermaids! We can climb the mountain and see what lies beyond it. We
can go anywhere we want...together!"
    "Now?" He was looking at her as if she had
lost her mind.
    "No," she shook her head and gripped his
hands more tightly. "When we are older. We'll escape this place and
never look back at! No dark magic, no more secrets. We can see the
world!"
    "Leave the woods?" He shook his head, his
golden-brown eyes sorrowful. "Liesel, I can't. My father will need
me to help with the family."
    "Your brother can help!" Liesel was
desperate. She had seen this imagined future so clearly, as if the
fairies had crafted a vision made just for her of Kurt walking
beside her as they left the forest behind, their faces pointed
towards the sea. And although it had existed for just a moment,
Liesel clung to the scene like the air she needed to breathe. For
in a way, it was her air. She couldn't bear to live trapped in this
existence, forever in this wood haunted by secrets. Liesel needed
hope. And, she realized, she needed Kurt as well. He filled the
void she hadn't known was there until that moment.
    "You deserve more than this," Liesel
whispered up to him, suddenly very aware that his breathing has
sped up as well. After an eternity of staring into her eyes, he
finally have her a small lop-sided smile.
    "Very well," he said softly. "I
promise."
     
     
7. MY FRIEND’S KEEPER
    Liesel sat back and wiped her forehead on
her sleeve. For a forest without sun, it could get strangely hot.
Nevertheless, her garden looked wonderful, and Liesel was proud of
her work. The plot was small compared to the one she had shared
with her mother back in the city, but it would keep them fed
through the next winter.
    Liesel wished again that Kurt's father would
let him visit her garden. She didn't get to see him as much as she
had the year before, now that she had her garden to tend and his
father kept him busy with the family. Still, she would have liked
for him to see it. After all, it would not have been there at all
if it hadn't been for Kurt. Liesel and her father wouldn't have
made it through the winter if it hadn't been for Kurt, either.
    The winter had been a hard one, and it had
come without warning. The supply wagons that always brought in
grain had been unable to make it through the ice storms with any
regularity. Though the forest ceiling was too thick to allow much
light through, it certainly let the ice in uncontested. Everyone in
the town was assigned rationed amounts of grain, but Warin was
often in the tavern on the days it arrived. And by the time he made
it over for their share, it was all but gone.
    For Warin, it was simply an inconvenience.
The tavern keeper had stored much ale, but that