Chronicle I – Red Riding Hood
In a world filled with monstrous creatures of myth and legend, there is little room for the weak and timid. And at first glance, a quiet sixteen-year-old girl fits right into the latter. But make no mistake. This is no helpless child wandering through the woods with her little basket of goods. Not anymore.
“Survive against all odds.”
From Little Red Cap to Lethal Survivor
Everyone knows the story of little Red Riding Hood and how a harmless visit to her grandmother led to a harrowing, life-or-death encounter with the ravenous Wolf. But in our tale, this is merely a bloody prologue to a sprawling epic that will force our heroine to leave the familiar trappings of the woods to seek out her missing mentor.
Red’s life was indeed shattered that day. While the Huntsman arrived just in time to cut her free from the Wolf's belly, it was far too late for her grandmother. Red’s ailing mother succumbed to grief and sickness shortly thereafter, leaving the terrified young girl orphaned in the woods.
The Huntsman sensed Red’s resilience, even as her grief threatened to suffocate her. So, he took her in as his own, determined to harden this frightened child into a capable huntress who could survive in a world that callously grinds the weak and timid into dust.
Eight years later, Red is a lethal survivor capable of handling nearly any threat in the woods. She can snipe targets with lethal precision, seamlessly blend into the shadows, and track her quarry with the dogged perseverance of a bloodhound. Years of play and practice in the unforgiving wilderness have taught her to scale cliffs and trees with breathtaking agility.
However, she is far from perfect. One wrong step can lead to a painful slip or her supper escaping through the trees, a stark reminder that the woods and its denizens have little mercy for error.
The Heart of the Huntress
So, who exactly is Red? Raised apart from the subtleties and deceits of civilization, she is naturally shy, socially awkward, and prone to taking things literally. Her sentences are short and to the point, and her naivety leaves her vulnerable to silver-tongued predators — not unlike the one from her past. Yet, beneath her guarded exterior is a curious teenager with a deep yearning for connection. She often speaks to herself when no one else is around, sharing her thoughts with the only world she has ever truly known.
The harsh realities of survival in the woods have also forged a strong sense of pragmatism within her. She understands that to live, one must kill. And although a number of the forest’s animals are sentient, she does not hesitate to hunt them for food and resources. For Red, this is not an act of cruelty, but rather a revered part of the cycle of life and death that embodies the wilderness. She honors every life she takes, thanking each creature for its sacrifice as the Huntsman once taught her. In fact, she utterly abhors cruelty for cruelty’s sake — hardly surprising given her past dealings with the Wolf.
