Night Tale - Chapter 1

"Mom, tell me about Little Red Riding Hood."

"Well, dear, you must sleep already. It's late now."

"Mom! Mom! Mother!"

"Gretchen, stop it. You'll wake your father."

"Tell me about Little Red Riding Hood!" Mom!"

"Quiet, baby. Quiet. I will tell it. Just turn on your side and try to sleep, okay?"

"Tell me, Mother."

"There was one little girl..."

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Behind the turn of the path she met a stranger and frightened. Mom told her never to talk to strangers.

"Good day, fraulein," said the stranger.

He was in some ways very sad and very tired stranger. The face and white fur collar of his leather jacket were stained with soot. He sat on a stone buried in the ground with an inscription "Black Forest". Between the legs, shod in high boots, lay a large wooden case.

"Good day," the girl said, and wanted to pass by.

Saying hello isn’t really a conversation. And nothing terrible can happen after a small greeting.

But then the stranger rose from the stone. He was very tall, so that the girl had to lift her head to see his gray eyes.

The stranger’s face wasn’t beautiful, but pleasant. It wasn’t beautiful because on his right cheek he had a few terrible scars and also many white uneven scars, from the eye to the chin. But overall his look was pleasant.
 
On the forehead, the stranger had funny round glasses with dark glasses. They were with a thin leather strap. The girl wondered why he needed such glasses. But she was uncomfortable to ask.

After all, they were unfamiliar.

"My name is Rudolph," he said, and ceased to be a stranger.

Squatting down, he pulled off a large black glove with crochets. And he held out his hand to the girl.

She was a very polite and educated girl. So she shake his hand with cold fingers and made knoxen.

"My name is Erica," the girl said. "Erica Braut."

"It is nice to meet you, Erica," he said. "Twenty minutes from here I saw a house. On the mailbox was written Greta Braut."

"This is my grandmother," Erica said. "I'm just bringing her medicine from the pharmacy."

She decided that she probably chatters too much. Mom may get angry at her if she finds out.

Erica decided to say goodbye to Rudolph quickly and run to her grandmother’s house.

Maybe she will be in time to see Ludwig and he will treat her with another candy.

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To be continued...