From behind the bush came a petite girl with long greyish hair peaking from her red hood, the hood extended into a cloak, the cloak looked almost as good as new.
She was clutching a small, empty basket with both her hands close to her chest, she was wearing what appeared to be thick leather gloves on her hands wich extended further up her arms.
Other than that, she was wearing a pure white dress which was horribly stained with blood as well as boots, she didn't seem very panicked at all and brushed off her shoulders as if the few leaves that were stuck to her cloak was all she should be worrying about.
Her yellow-orange eyes stared straight at Gregory, piercing right through him with the same ease a battle axe would cut through his pinky finger.
She cleared her throat and walked up to the four adventurers, as she walked up to him, Gregory noticed that he had been fooled by perspectives, she was staring him straight in the eyes without any problem.
Bringing her right index finger in front of her mouth, her lips her pursed in a 'shhh' as she began talking in a low voice.
"Be quiet! Do you want to end up like this guy here?" she whispered while pointing at the emasculated ogre.
"Unless you have a career plan as an eunuch, you should really shut the hell up!" she added, while striking his chest with the same finger she silenced him with, leaving small red dots on his chest as she did so.
"Who even are you people? Here to gather my mushrooms? Are you mushrooms thieves?" she asked them multiple questions in quick succession.
"Your grandmother sent us to find you..." spoke Allema from the side in a quiet voice.
"Ah, what did you say long ears? My grandmother? That's a bad excuse, that old goat is incapable of asking anything to you lots unless she really lost it completely!" exclaimed the girl, uncaring for the noise she was making.
"Listen here guys, you should leave, this place isn't safe for people like you, especially when people like you are also mushrooms thieves" she then said, going back to speaking in a low tone.
"Weren't you lost for well over a week now though?" questionned Mirlini, the girl in red certainly didn't seem very famished in any way or even tired.
"It's none of your business what I do in the woods, do I ask this twig man what he does with three girls in the woods looking for mushrooms to steal? No, I don't care the what or why, I want you people out of this place!" she stomped her foot down while pointing in a random direction.
"Okay but why are you covered in blood, next to a corpse?" this time it was Kolgat who spoke, the corpse of the ogre was quite fresh in fact and so was the blood staining the girl's white dress.
"Question, questions... Do you have nothing better to do? Would it kill you to just go away already?" she swung her basket around like a battleaxe.
Seeing that none of them seemed to be even considering the go away, she sighed heavily as she pulled her hood down.
"Listen here, my grandma is sort of losing her mind recently, It's normal for me to spend long period of times in the woods okay? There are various uninhabited cabins, that's where I spend my nights and where I eat" she explained, her palms against one another right in front of her face.
"I just gutted this ogre while on my way back, shanked him real good if you know what I mean and some animals rushed over to snath some parts as they usually do around here, there isn't anything deep or mysterious"
"Also, did you get paid by my grandma? Did you take money from an ill and elderly woman, huh?" she asked them, looking like she was going to pounce at their throat if the answer was yes.
'That girl is intense...' thought Gregory, who had stayed silent throughout most of this, she was too close for him to be able to enact any social action.
"Alright but why do you go in the woods in the first place?" he managed to spew out after stepping back from her.
"You people are annoying, do you have to know my whole life?" she asked and looked around their faces, which appeared to be incredibly stupid in her eyes.
No sign of intelligence was sensed by the girl in red.
"You really do huh? Listen, as it turns out, sometime, two people realise they like each other very much and decide to meet in the woods, in the night to do what people who enjoy each other's presences usually do, get it?" she said as condescendingly as it was possible as if she was explaining it to a child she particularily despised the very existence of.
"I do... Get it but I still don't buy it very much, we didn't encounter a single of your 'cabins' while moving through the woods and neither have we seen any traces of animals passing near that corpse when we got here, right?" spoke Gregory, he had had a clear idea of what was going on since the very beginning, it was only because she was wearing a red hood but it appeared like the idea wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, there is nothing other than the footsteps of people" responded Mirlini.
Without any further ado, Gregory was already about to reveal his theory as if he was a certain famous professor.
Raising his finger high up in the air before bringing it down as if it was the gavel of truth and justice, he pointed his finger right at the red hood.
"You are clearly a werewolf!" he exclaimed with a smirk on his face, very proud of his deduction made almost entirely on the fact that she reminded him of The Little Red Riding Hood story.
"..." the red hood looked at him as if he had just stepped in cow feces while his three fangirls looked at her in anticipation of a werewolf.
"You are fucking lunatics, you fucking gobbled the mushrooms you stole didn't you?" she said before beginning to walk away.
"Listen, if you don't leave real quick, I'll get my boyfriend to break your fucking legs" she shouted out in the distance before leaving for good.
"Usually they at least sweat a little bit when you expose them..." muttered Gregory, he was certain that she was something along those lines, her actions and words made no sense.
She had first acted as if there was monster nearby before telling them that she was the one to kill that ogre singlehandedly and starting to speak less and less quietly.
By all accounts, she was extremely suspicious, trying to get them to leave instead of leaving herself, as if she wanted to keep that carcass for herself.
Thinking back on the mention of her boyfriend, Gregory felt like he shouldn't test if it was true or not and quickly led his group back to their carriage so as to avoid having to crawl there instead.
________________
"Oy grandma, what the hell are you doing while I am gone?!" spoke the red hood once she found her grandmother in the house.
"Me? Nothing..." responded the old woman, looking away.
"Your attempts at preventing me from having a life have gone too far woman! The wandought guessed that I was a werewolf by the goddesses tits!" the red hood spat reproachfully, causing the old woman to look in her direction with a confused expression.
"Why did you let them go then?" she asked, sounding slightly worried all of a sudden.
"Now you stop acting like a senile hag heh?"
"Grimmya! Why did you let them go?!" she asked again, panicked at the prospect of being found out.
"Calm down will ya? No need to be panickin' over it, he said that one of his friends was already on their case and that he would make sure no words get out" spoke Grimmya with a smug.
"Are you talking about that damned boyfriend of yours? I can't understand what you find interesting about a human, need I remind you that we aren't humans that can transform but actual beastfolk? The two have absolutely nothing to do with the other!" the old woman rambled but her granddaughter paid no attention and had already left before she could even finish her sentence.