Rose Red leaped over a dead log in the Forest of Blood, pursuing bandits who had kidnapped her queen. Studying the woodland path, she had followed the footprints and broken tree limbs from her small dwelling on the edge of the wilderness. Now, with night settling in, finding the telltale signs of the criminals was more difficult, and she had to rely on her knowledge of this area. The party she hoped to catch had most likely headed for a clearing large enough to accommodate their number.

Earlier that evening, Rose and her husband Lolander—Lol, to his friends—had come home from a night in the village to find furniture strewn about their house. Their eight-month-old son Hildegrant wailed from his crib, terrorized but unharmed. Equally serious, the babysitter was nowhere to be found. And since Rose had allowed her best friend and queen of Kingdom, Snow White Whisper, to watch their child, she assumed responsibility for Snow’s abduction.

After calming their tyke, Rose surveyed the wreckage in their house. Examining the ground, she traced the footprints with her index finger, estimating at least six people had invaded her home. Rose commanded Lol to remain with their son while she retrieved her favorite hickory bow and a quiver of arrows from a locked cabinet. She had only four arrows and had meant to make more, but her son came first. With so little inventory, she removed a short sword from the wall. “I am going to kill them, Lol.”

Her hirsute spouse crossed his arms. “Rose Red, you know they cannot harm Snow White. She cannot be harmed or killed by violence. But the people who did this will have no qualms killing you.”

“The trail will be cold if we wait for help. No, I shall have vengeance. They kidnapped a royal monarch and my sister in spirit, trespassed into our home, and frightened Hilde.”

Lol’s face contorted at the thought, and her werebear husband’s muzzle extended and contracted. Best to leave him at home to calm down, otherwise he would murder anyone he crossed. 

“Go!” Lol growled.

Nodding, Rose departed, threading through the forest under a canopy of trees. She mumbled to herself. “First night the two of us have time alone and see what happens! Bother! Snow, why did you insist on watching Hilde alone?”

Her thoughts returned to the scene in her cabin when Snow White had arrived to babysit their child. Rose had asked a similar question. “No guards? Are you watching him alone?”

Snow White removed her cloak and hung it on a peg near the door. “I don’t want to share my treasured nephew with anyone, Red. He’s the delight of my life.”

“Now make sure he has his favorite toy when you tuck him in.” Rose presented a rag doll of a purple-haired pixie. “And for his milk—”

Snow White had gestured for her and Lol to leave. “You have instructed me three times in your letter about how to care for him. Now shoo, and leave me to spoil our handsome tyke.”

Returning to the present, Rose moved along the edge of a path, and her eye caught a boot print she had seen before on her cabin floor. Re-assured she was headed in the right direction, she sprinted forward until she spied a puddle the group had marched through. She smacked her lips.

Could it be?

She leaned down and plucked a thin piece of hair from the water. Not a hair, but a whisker.

Puphalump!

Puphalump, the half-human, half-cat species known as a felinorian had kidnapped Cinderella and Snow White years ago for ransom. After they had thwarted his plan, he had escaped but continued to commit larceny around the Forest of Blood. Puphalump had always been a thorn in Snow White’s derriere.

Picturing her location on a map, Rose realized she stood less than a mile from the area everyone called the Copse of Blades. Brigands ruled the copse and placed traps to defend it. Every royal of Kingdom tried but failed to root out the denizens of “The Blades.” If the criminals managed to transfer Snow White there, Rose wouldn’t survive long enough to rescue her. If the traps didn’t kill her, the bandits would.

She sprinted through the forest, exerting all of her might to reach the abductors before they arrived at the Copse of Blades. Rose moved as swift and silent as a jackal, gliding past nocturnal animals busy with their own tracking. When she heard voices ahead, she cautiously approached their source.

“Rise, Slow White. Either you will march, or I will have you carried!”

The nasal voice could only belong to one person in Kingdom—Puphalump. And his insulting name revealed her friend’s presence among them. Rose’s pulse quickened with the news her friend had not passed into the Copse of Blades.

“You are brutes of the worst kind.” Snow White’s voice cut through the darkness. “I will have you in a cell for this, you mangy cat!”

Rose tiptoed forward, scoping out a vantage point when a slap pierced the serene sounds of the night. The archer stepped behind a massive elm and peered around it. The gathered crowd consisted of at least eight figures—some human, some not. From her position, Rose viewed the back of Puphalump’s doublet. Beyond the cat’s posterior stood Snow White—three lines on her face dripping blood.

Snow White lifted her chin. “You cannot hurt me. Claws or no.”

“Hurt? No. Disfigure you? Probably.” Puphalump fingered his whiskers. “Shall I test if the rumors are true? Our youngest queen is a bit vain?”

“You’re a beast, not worthy of the title of felinorian.” Snow White’s shrill voice startled a squirrel along a branch. “You haven’t half the honor Nip has. She’s a credit to her species.”

“She is a traitor,” sneered Puphalump. “How she serves royalty who outlaws killing rocs, I do not know.”

Snow White examined the sky. “My feathery dears need protection. Is this why you have targeted me? Because of the roc edict?”

Puphalump lifted a paw, and a single claw emerged. “One, you and your sister escaped from me. No one escapes from me.”

“Until we did,” snapped Snow White.

“Two.” A second claw rose from his paw. “You and Nip exposed my operation in Dol Garath and captured my top enforcers.”

“The disguises were fun to wear!” Snow White’s eyes sparkled.

“And three,” spat Puphalump, lifting a third claw. “You protect the birds.”

Snow White blinked.

Puphalump lifted his paws, exposing a golden bracer on his left wrist. “I am half cat. Birds are our natural enemies. No, Ms. White, you are my nemesis. I play rough with my prey but abhor murder. ’Tis beneath me. But since I cannot kill you, I shall play rougher than normal.”

Snow White’s face turned more pale than usual. “’Tis true since the kidnapping, I have targeted you. You struck a nerve when you proclaimed me unfit to be a queen. I suppose your denial of my right to rule has made you my sworn enemy, too.”

Puphalump retracted his claws. “Then we agree on our mutual dislike of each other, yet we still differ. I acknowledge my vanity, but you will not admit yours.”

Snow White raised her tied hands. “Oh! How dare you call me vain.”

Rose Red gulped. Snow White was a trifle vain but hated when others drew attention to it. Rose avoided the subject with her at all costs. Saying she spent too much time in front of a mirror brought out a different Snow White—an indignant tart of a woman.

The cat chuckled and stepped back while Rose surveyed the lot for a better position to begin her assault. She debated climbing an oak when a furry hand clamped over her mouth. Rose nearly screamed until inhaling an all-too-familiar scent. Turning around, she found Lol hulking behind her. Her husband had shapeshifted into a werebear, a strapping eight-foot-tall ursine with oaken brown fur. Rose admired both forms, thinking him beautiful in either.

Lol removed his paw from her mouth. He pointed at the gathering then at himself, indicating he had come to aid her. He tapped his nose. He had used his sense of smell to track her.

She folded her arms and pretended to swaddle a baby, then lifted her shoulders. What had he done with Hilde?

He cupped his ear as if listening to a seashell. Rose’s maiden name was Schell. Apparently, Lol had transferred Hilde to her parents’ home.

Rose nodded.

Lol pointed at himself, then drew the number seven in the air. He touched her and drew three and a question mark.

She rolled her eyes, pounded her chest, and held up five fingers. She had four arrows in her quiver but could use her blade on the last brigand.

He shook his head, laid a paw on his chest, and traced a seven figure again.

She sighed and made a sign to be careful. Lol could fight seven at a time and not suffer a lethal injury, for only weapons forged of silver could kill him. Recounting the shafts in her quiver, she agreed to engage the lesser amount of targets. She poked him, pointed at Puphalump, and tapped herself repeatedly.

Lol read her determination and nodded.

Rose gestured to two fallen logs lying on top of each other. If she knelt, they would provide cover for her to shoot at others. She mimicked pulling back her bow.

Lol extended both his paws, and Rose took them. Holding hands in this way signaled their agreement of the plan. As a bear part of the time, they often practiced non-verbal communication.

“Hurry up. We depart.”

The command from Puphalump broke Rose from her exchange with her loved one. Without another gesture, she and Lol headed off in opposite directions.

Rose crept to the fallen logs and crouched down. She reached for an arrow while a shout arose from the campsite. Her enemies were reaching for their weapons to arm themselves. Across the site, Lol charged forward on all four legs.

As the werebear approached the guards, he reared up on his hind legs and spread his arms, transforming into a furry tidal wave of terror. His arms swooped away his opponents right and left while they shrieked with terror. Gasping, Rose eyed a bandit holding a silver shortsword. Zing, and her missile pierced the man’s arm. Three arrows remained.

Screams, cries, and weapons striking fur sounded across the campsite. Expecting to leave and not be attacked by a form-changing bear, the men were at a disadvantage. Lol threw Puphalump’s allies as an athlete threw a shot put, each landing in a crunch of bones. But not every villain in the campsite attacked the animal intruder. Puphalump grabbed a wiry man and turned him toward their captive. Thrusting a sword into his henchman’s hands, the cat-man pushed his accomplice toward Snow White.

Oh no. Snow White couldn’t be killed if he stabbed her, but Rose assumed her ability had limits. What if the man decapitated her? Rose couldn’t take the chance. She nocked an arrow and shut one eye.

Blast! Her friend stood in her line of fire. She screamed, “Snow White! Move!”

Snow White’s head snapped in her direction. “Rose? Why are you not with Hilde?”

Of all the responses! She would have a few choice words with her friend about priorities when she finished saving her. The thin man raised his weapon behind Snow White, and Rose couldn’t get a clear shot. Well, Snow, you asked for it.

Twang. Rose aimed at Snow White’s midsection. The missile entered her abdomen and emerged from her back, passing directly through her. Uninterrupted, it entered the man’s stomach and stopped him from advancing.

Snow White regarded her friend with horror until the sound of a body dropping to the ground prompted her to turn around. When she spotted the assassin behind her, Snow White muttered an “oh.”

The tide of the battle turning against him, Puphalump stepped away from the mêlée. He clutched the bracer on his arm and turned it. At once, three versions of Puphalump appeared side by side. They turned and ran in three different directions. 

Wolves’ droppings! The magic bracer created a triplicate image of the person wearing it. Rose bit her lip at the identical retreating figures.

She grabbed another arrow and threaded it. Only one projectile left after this shot! She squinted at one of the three Puphalumps heading for the undergrowth of the forest. This image had to be the living one as the true Puphalump would seek cover first. She pulled back the bowstring and released it, targeting the lower back. Unfortunately, the missile passed through the felinorian.

Curses. An image.

Rose grabbed her last arrow. A version of Puphalump scrambled up a maple tree with his nails allowing him to scale the trunk. The other sprinted for a dark path into the woods. Which one was real? The fleeing copy, correct? Why would he climb a tree and trap himself? Lol could climb trees too.

She positioned the bow and aimed its payload at the far-off felinorian, pulling taut the bowstring. When she had the cat in her sights, she let the string go. Whoosh. Her projectile passed harmlessly through the cat figure and embedded in the ground.

Cursing five different ways, Rose viewed the real version of Puphalump racing along a branch to a hickory tree deep in the forest. After he disappeared, her attention shifted to Lol, who had approached the last two of his attackers, including a man with a silver sword.

Rose rushed to Snow White while she kept an eye on her husband dodging the silver blade. Lol grabbed the man’s wrist and squeezed, and the weapon fell to the grass. Five seconds later, the attacker was airborne. The final guard dropped his mace and ran for the protection of the woods.

Rose approached a scowling Snow White, holding her midsection. Sucking in a deep breath, Rose said, “I am sorry, Snow, but I had to shoot you to save you from—”

Snow White waved away her apology. “Where is Hilde?”

Rose examined her friend’s stomach, already beginning to stitch itself together. “Does the wound sting? May I help you?”

“You may answer my question.” The queen tapped her foot.

While Rose fumbled for a response, Lol joined the two women. Shocked, Rose said, “I…he is with my mother.”

Snow White snorted. “But I have not put him to bed yet.”

“Snow White, you were kidnapped! Should we not follow Puphalump or capture his companions? They committed a crime against the crown.”

“They certainly did,” Snow White responded. “They interrupted me while babysitting my little snuggle buddy. For that, they will pay…but not tonight. I want to cuddle my favorite nephew instead.”

“Snow White! Really! What is more important?”

“Bother royal duties.” Then, her friend’s eyes twinkled. “You should go after them. I will proceed quickly to your mother’s and make sure Hilde is safe.”

Without another word, Snow White ran into the woods. Jaw hanging down, Rose watched her go. “Did she just dismiss me, Lol?”

Lol turned back into his human form. “Appears our son has replaced us as her favorite people.”

“The nerve!” Rose gritted her teeth. “Queen or not, I shall have my say.”

“Now, Rose.”

Rose retrieved one of her arrows from the ground. “We shall never catch Puphalump. Let us go after Snow White.”

Lol rubbed his chin. “In her current state? Are you sure following her is wise?”

“Yes. Snow White is heading in the wrong direction.”