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Rose Red	By : Le_Lethe Category: Fairy Tales, Fables, Folklore, Legends, and Myth > Fairy Tales Views: 9912 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: "Snow White and Rose Red" was originally written by the Grimm brothers. This is fiction. Any resemblance to person(s) living or dead is coincidental.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
A/N: The conclusion!
Winter came slowly to the valley and every night the bear came back to the cabin after the suitors had left and slept beside Red in front of the fire.
Snow would sometimes stay awake to see it and soon grew comfortable enough to roll the beast back and forth with her feet and whack him with switches until he growled deeply. Red would take the switch from her and toss it from the house. Snow White would then pout and work steadily on her knitting until their mother called a truce and sent Snow White to her bed and Red out back for his nightly bath.
When the spring came the bear would stay out longer and longer until one day it didn’t come home. Red tried not to be sad, he knew the bear probably had other things to do and long hunts that would take it far from the little valley. But he still couldn’t stop the few traitorous tears that slipped out when he curled beneath his empty sheets.
***
“Why did you have to come?” Red grumbled at his sister.
They were on an errand for their mother to retrieve firewood from the forest. Red could have done it alone, and much quicker than with Snow along, but when she had simply flipped her hair and followed him out the door.
“I’m tired of sitting at home,” Snow replied, tossing her hair again.
Red sighed and held out a stretch of soft leather. “You’d best tie up your hair or it’s going to get twigs and leaves in it,” he said.
Snow took the hair tie without a word and bound her long blond hair up in a simple knot.
Red scrubbed his rusty brown hair self-consciously. It never quite looked tamed or clean and he had stopped trying years ago, but beside his sister he still felt every scruffy imperfection.
A large thunderstorm had broken down an old oak tree in the forest. Red lead his sister over the small game trail towards the clearing that held the felled tree. The broken limbs and twigs they could break off would fill their house with enough firewood for summer.
As they got closer to the clearing something small and white could be seen jumping around.
“What is that?” Snow asked.
Red shrugged and moved a bit closer.
“It looks like a rabbit or maybe a baby deer,” he told her, still watching the strangely jumping creature.
“A rabbit!” She cried.
Before Red could stop her, Snow was rushing over the rest of the wood and into the clearing. Red rushed after her, nearly knocking her over when she stopped abruptly at the edge of the path.
In front of them at the fallen oak a small man leapt back and forth with his long white beard caught fast in the tree.
“Funny little man,” Snow said, “What has you hopping about like a bunny?”
The man stopped when he heard her voice and looked at the siblings.
“Ah young girl,” the man said, “I was trying to get some small firewood for my kitchen when the tree closed up so fast it caught my beard in it and now I cannot pull it out again. Please come and help me.
Snow laughed at the little man’s story and hurried forward again to grab at this beard and try to tug it from the tree.
Red, however, didn’t like the man. He had a hard glint in his eye that belied his cheery nature.
“Come help me, brother!” Cried Snow.
Red sighed but could not deny her the help she requested so stepped up to the man’s other side and tugged hard on the beard, but indeed it was held true and fast by the tree.
“This beard is well and truly caught,” he told Snow who was still twisting and tugging the long hairs. “We should go find help.”
Already disliking the little man and now wary of an enchantment, Red was prepared to grab their wood and leave and send the woodsman back to see to the man’s beard.
Snow, however, pulled a pair of sewing scissors from her apron pocket and before anyone could speak had snipped the end of his beard off.
The change in the dwarf was instantaneous, “Why you wicked girl, you!” The man cried. He spit on the front of Snow’s apron. “You cut off the tip of my beard when all I asked was that you free it from the wood. Bah! You are a wicked child.”
So saying the dwarf grabbed a bag of rubies from their hidden place in a bush and disappeared down a small hole next to the tree.
“Well!” Proclaimed Snow, “Have you ever seen so ungrateful a little man?”
Red said nothing but looked at the small white hairs still caught in the tree and thought they looked a bit like steel.
Ignoring the thought he silently went to work gathering the fallen wood.
*
One day when Red and Snow were wandering through the forest in search of wild flowers – though really to give their poor mother some peace in her own home – they saw a peculiar site at the little pond. A small man with wrinkled features and a long white beard was hooting and howling with his chin jutted out and his hands around a small tree.
“Sir, what are you doing there?” Snow asked.
“Can’t you see the fish has caught my beard up in my line. Quick, quick! Come pull me free!”
Red still didn’t like the little man, but he took the man’s hips and Snow his shoulders and they tugged and tugged but his beard remained fast in the line.
Quick as a flash Snow pulled out her little scissors and snipped off the offending bit of beard, laughing all the while.
Now the little dwarf was red in the face and hopping around.
“Cut off my beard?!” He howled at her. “First you cut off the tip and now you’ve cut off the best part!”
So saying he grabbed his sack of diamonds from their place among the thrush and dashed into his hole in the ground.
Red frowned at Snow who had unknotted the little hairs and was winding them about her pale finger.
“You shouldn’t, sister,” he said, “That dwarf is no good luck.”
But Snow ignored him and tripped off down the path leaving Red to follow obediently.
*
A few days later they took a trip into town to purchase some ribbons and lace for Snow’s new dress.
Along the way they came across the same funny dwarf, this time dangling from the beak of a large eagle.
Without a word, and laughing as at a great game, Snow ran forward and wrapped her arms around the little man’s legs. As her own toes began to lift off the ground Red snatched her waist and tugged back hard. Finally the bird let go and all three tumbled into a pile on the dirt path.
When the little man recovered from his shock, he was madder than Red had ever seen him and he took up great fists of dirt and flung them at Snow’s pretty, clean dress.
Furious with the ungrateful man, Red sprang forward and tackled him to the ground. Just as he did a great black bear with deep blue eyes came lumbering out of the wood.
The dwarf quailed and squawked, “Take the children, great beast! They are sweet and tender and good for the taste. They are my gift to you.”
Red stared down, shocked at the dwarf’s audacity. But he wasted no time on the little man and instead stood up to approach the bear.
When he was a foot away the bear growled at him, wet teeth shining and his great paws digging sharp claws into the earth.
Red stopped, shocked. He was sure this was his bear. He couldn’t mistake it. He could even still see the glint of gold in his fur. But the aggression in its stance was undeniable.
With the bear focused on him the little dwarf lifted a rock much too big for him and tossed it at the bear’s head.
Red saw it too late and yelled as the rock collided with its target.
He rushed forward, heedless of the danger, and wrapped his arms around the injured bear’s neck.
Slick blood coated his arms and ran down his chest and Red couldn’t stop the hot flood of tears that blurred his vision. The bear’s head seemed too close, but he couldn’t think about that. Instead his shaking fingers felt along the shallow cut above the bear’s eye. It didn't’ seem to be bleeding too much, where was all the blood coming from then? He thought passively.
When the bear growled he could feel the vibrations in his very bones. Craning his neck he could just make out the long sharp muzzle wrapped over his shoulder and barely registered the pain of rows of sharp little teeth.
When Red’s body went limp, his arms slipping from around the bear, the beast let him go, moving forward to stand over his vulnerable body.
The little dwarf was sneaking across the path, a bag of pearls dragging behind him.
The bear let out a roar and leapt forward, smashing the dwarf’s head in with one great blow.
The dwarf turned to ash and dust as soon as the life left him and the bear became a beautiful man, dressed in the finest of clothes, with a coat of pure gold draped on his shoulders.
Seeing this, Snow White threw herself into the man’s arms and began weeping hysterically.
The man took one glance at her and casually tossed the girl down. He turned and strode back to the fallen body of Red.
His deep blue eyes were wide with grief and his throat sounded of water over rough gravel when he spoke. “Go home and tell your mother what has happened. I will take the boy to my palace,” he told Snow White.
Without waiting for an answer he gathered Red’s limp body in his arms and began walking towards the capital.
Red drifted in and out of consciousness. He caught glimpses of bright cloth and lots of movement, shrill voices and slick tonics.
But mostly warmth and a tight, comforting embrace. He though it might be his bear’s and curled into it, waiting for the pain around him to fade.
As he slept, softly sung lullabies drifted through his head.
“Rosey-red, Rosey-red
Would you beat your lover dead?
“Sleep not, wake not
Then you’ll know of things forgot.
“Blood, bone, and tears
You shed without a fear.
“And beast or bane
A human I am made.”
Red woke to a soft male voice humming above him and papers rustling at his side.
With a grunt he shoved himself back and into a stranger’s warm, hard chest. A chuckle as deep and gravely as a bear’s filled his chest and made his heart ache.
There was a moment of silence then Red was suddenly being lifted and turned and his lips caught up in a deep kiss.
The move was abrupt but not unpleasant and Red returned it in a daze.
Finally he was able to push back and look down at the man he had just been kissing. He was handsome, with thick black hair and blue eyes. A long fresh scar over one eye gave him a dashing touch.
“Um, where am I?” Red asked, blushing as the man made a clear, and thorough inspection of him.
“My home, of course.” The man said casually, his hands wandering over Red’s skin, beneath his thin shirt.
“Ah, and who - ” It was so hard to focus with the man running his fingers over Red’s nipples like that, “Who are you, exactly?”
The man jerked as if slapped and abruptly removed his hands.
“Do you not recognize me, love?” he asked, hurt.
Red inspected his face again, looking for some clue that he knew the man. A suitor of his sister’s perhaps?
He looked at the scar, the blue eyes, the black hair. It couldn’t be.
“You’re dead.” He blurted out. “You’re dead and you’re a bear!”
Now he was fringing on hysterics and began beating the man’s chest with weak fists.
The man caught his hands up easily and pulled him into another kiss. When the boy was calmer the bear-man murmured against his lips, “Rosey-red, Rosey-red. Would you beat your lover dead?”
“Never! Never!” Cried Red and buried himself against the bear turned man.
The man sighed and wrapped his arms tighter around his lover. “You spilt your blood, and bone, and tears on my behalf, Rose Red,” He said, “And so you have broken my curse and let me kill the dwarf who stole my riches and cast a spell and turned me into a wild black bear.”
“Why did he do that?” Red asked.
“I am a duke, and was selfish and stupid in my youth,” the man replied, “And had to learn my lesson the hard way.”
It was good enough for Red who took the man’s lips again in a desperate kiss and throughout the night gave as good as he got.
The duke and Rose Red were wed shortly after and Snow White found a suitor who owned a farm not far from her home. And they lived happily ever after.
Fin
A/N: This is the conclusion. HEA! But I am sad that I didn't write any smex scenes into this story, so as a treat to my dedicated readers I will write you a little epilogue tonight to post tomorrow :) We will see what trouble Rose Red can get into in his Duke's mansion.
To my Lovely Audience!:
maegerakawaii: As you can see, you were right! Lol, what tipped you off? Though it wouldn't be very romancey if there wasn't a love interest, right?
Lynz: I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I hope you enjoyed the ending just as much and will give me your opinion! I'm very excited to write the epilogue tonight. I was kind of sad this story was so short, but I'm used to writing epics, so I wanted to try my hand a nice little fairytale like fic.
kylee: Hoo hoo, all is finally revealed! Alas, I think we've seen the last of Kieran, he was a cowardly coward, though, so I'm glad to be rid of him. Hope you enjoyed the end!
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Rose Red