Page 13 of Hansel and Gerhardt
The stark words brought Hansel’s eyes down to the helpless animal, and his hungry stomach sank.
Gerhardt was right.
This hare probably was their only means of survival.
“Okay,” Hansel said. “Let’s take it with us. But if we don’t find a means to cook it soon, then the game’s up, anyway.”
“Very well.” Gerhardt glared down at the hare. “You’re coming with us.”
Dinner Time!
The hare had not shut up once, and having staggered hours on and into the dusk, both Hansel and Gerhardt were ready to strangle the animal just to have some peace.
It gave them nothing of interest—no help whatsoever. Grass was good enough for the hare. Grass and water. Had they considered eating grass? Every hare he’d ever known was satisfied with grass. But no, he didn’t know of any other food, or of any other hares, not that he’d tell them if he did. All he did know was that they were most definitely going to die.
“What’s that now?” Gerhardt asked.
“The last time I saw anything even half your size,” the hare replied, “it got caught in one of the traps, then dragged off. Screamed for days, it did.”
“Traps?” Hansel gasped out, pulling to a stop.
“Oh, yes. That one—the trapper—he especially goes for… What are you?”
“Men,” Hansel returned. “Humans. It goes for humans?”
“It does. Mighty grisly deaths too.”
“Well, what kind of creature is it?” asked Gerhardt. “How do we avoid it?”
“Hmm.” The hare slipped its chin onto Gerhardt’s forearm. “I might tell you, if you let me go.”
With a huff, Gerhardt trod on. “You’re trying to trick us. And it won’t work.”
“What if he’s not?” Hansel asked quietly, eyes sharpening on every log and clump of grass as if they were all unsprung traps in wait.
“Then I’ll be here to pull you out of whatever mess you get yourself into,” Gerhardt returned.
“I’m just warning you,” the hare went on. “You’re going to die, so there’s no need to drag a gentle forest dweller like myself down with you. You should accept your fate, and take it like—”
“Could you please shut up!” Gerhardt wailed.
“Though…” The hare wrinkled its little nose. “There was the red one, earlier…”
Gerhardt kept moving, ignoring the animal as best he could, but Hansel stumbled in his urgency to lean down and talk with it. “The red one?”
“Yes. Passed through some time back. He might have lasted. He looked quick. But I saw the wolf after him, so…”
That made them all stop.
“Wolf?” asked Gerhardt.
“What wolf?” asked Hansel.
A deep, preternatural, hair-spiking, gut-rumbling, existence-shaking, oddly sexy growl crept out of the darkness.
“What the fuck was that?” Hansel whispered.
“Get behind me, Hansel,” Gerhardt hissed.
