nce upon a time, on a beautiful sunny day,

a girl was running the path at the edge of the forest. Her mother sent her with a basket full of goodies for her grandmother. Everyone knew this girl. They called her Red Riding Hood, as she was wearing a red coat with a red hood. Her gra-ndmother lived lonely in the depths of the forest and recently was not feeling well. The girl liked to visit her grandmother very much, because then she could better know the magical forest.

Before the girl left her house, her mother had warned Red Riding Hood that the backwood could be dangerous. Despite the warnings, the girl went deeper and deeper into the forest, delighted with the nature surrounding her.

Suddenly, a strange creature appeared in front of her, wearing a thick fur coat, having a pair of feelers on its head, thanks to which it could quic-kly find out the direction the girl was heading in.

It swept the basket of goodies out of her hands and teleported into an unknown place.

The whole event was seen by the forest animals which watched everything from a hiding place. When they saw the despair of the girl, they wanted to cheer her up.

– Do not worry Red Riding Hood. Together

we will find the basket of goodies.

– But how? We don’t know where the strange creature went – said the distressed girl.

– Look! This creature left us a message! – the Fawn shouted. And indeed, from among all of the animals, he was the girl’s best friend. The Fawn pointed to a blue sheet of paper which was lying next to the girl’s foot.

– Oh my, really! What is written here? – Red Riding Hood reached out for the sheet of paper, started to turn it around in her hands and looked at it from all sides. Unfortunately, the note was written with some completely unknown signs.

– Oh, no! I cannot understand any of it! It must be a joke – said excited Red Riding Hood. She ruffled the paper and threw it into the forest thicket.

The Fawn, who knew the girl’s short-tempered character, jumped into the thicket and quickly grabbed for the sheet of paper.

– I have an idea! – the Fawn said.

– And what is this great idea? – the girl snorted angrily.

– Let’s go home to your mother. She always knows how to solve your problems. Maybe, she will be able to decipher this message.

– Perhaps we should do that. I don’t know at all how to get the basket back and my dear Granny is waiting for the sweets. She is surely worried that I am still not at her house.

They were walking slowly, in silence, very worried about what had happened.

Suddenly, the earth started to tremble and

the trees were leaning and falling down. The Fawn and Red Riding Hood started to run quickly. The darkness came and they didn’t even notice that they fell into a forest swamp.

– Oh, what's going on? – the girl shouted and started to cry loudly.

– The Fawn tried to say something and for a moment dipped his muzzle in the swamp.

– Red Riding Hood, the swamp tastes like cho-colate! I am sure that soon someone will come,

because I’ve heard that swamps have their good fairies. We’re going to be fine! – the Fawn said with excitement.

Indeed, they were right! In the distance they saw a figure approaching them. Oh, no! It was

a Furry Worm. The creature had a thick fur on its back. It looked scary, but it was not the same creature which carried the basket away! That one had a pair of feelers. They were afraid nee-dlessly, they noticed it was smiling at them.

– We will save you, don't worry!

– Save? – asked the Fawn.

– Yes, we'll do. Good fairies are walking with me – when the Worm said that, the next good fairies started to appear slowly behind him – we are looking for our colleague that had stolen our food.

– Yours too?

It occurred that not only Red Riding Hood had lost its basket with picnic. The fairies helped Red

Riding Hood and the Fawn to get out of the swamp. They thanked everyone politely and set out to continue their journey to the mother.

However, they didn't go far. Red Riding Hood’s mother was already coming towards them. The Fawn took out the blue paper so that the mother could help them decipher the message. For the mother it was not difficult to decipher: “Red Riding Hood, do not go further because a danger lies in wait for you”.

They decided together to find the bad creature, the teleporting Furry Worm which took the Red Riding Hood’s basket with pressies for her Granny.

They were walking in the forest for a long time, feeling safe as the mother was with them. Sud-denly, they noticed a pair of feelers behind a tree.

They came closer and saw the Furry Worm. Red Riding Hood saw the stolen basket with sweeties and noticed that something was missing there.

– Where are some of the goodies? Did you eat them? – she asked angrily.

The Furry Worm wiggled the feelers and ans-wered timidly:

– I was very hungry and our food is sweets. We have to eat sweets to survive. Unfortunately, this was not my first basket stolen. The creatures with no feelers do not allow me to eat from the chocolate swamp. When I noticed your basket I couldn't control myself and I grabbed it.

I was ashamed very much so I teleported quickly. Fortunately, I managed to leave a mes-sage for you about the big danger of the magical forest.

– Red Riding Hood, you have to know that creatures living in this forest are divided into the good ones, with feelers, and the bad ones, with no feelers. We have always helped your Granny. The leader of bad creatures wants to destroy our magical forest! – shouted the Furry

Worm out.

Red Riding Hood and her companions – the mother and the Fawn – were shocked with the news and they could not trust that creature. They could not understand the whole situation because the bad creatures saved them from the chocolate swamp.

The Furry Worm smiled softly and continued:

– Your Granny is the protector of the magical forest. She is old and weak already. The crea-

tures with no feelers used to be humans one time but they wanted to destroy the magical forest. Then Granny decided to transform them into creatures to diminish their damages to the forest. The only way for them to return to a human form is to remove Granny from the magical forest. The chocolate swamp was a trap. The creatures wanted to kidnap you. Fortunately, your mother already was coming to you, and the creatures were frightened of her and escaped.

Everything was a mess for Red Riding Hood at the moment. She didn't know what to do and asked her Mum:

– Mummy, is all what the Fury Worm said true?

– I am not sure my daughter. I remember that when I was a little girl, I saw strange and mysterious books at Grandma's. I think she wanted to protect us and that is why she did not tell us about the magical forest.

– We must warn Granny about the bad creatu-res! – resolved Red Riding Hood.

The Furry Worm quickly teleported all of them to Granny's house. There was no one inside the cottage. They were worried with this situation very much and the Furry Worm said to console them:

– Do not worry about your Granny, possibly she is working on new magics. Come here, there is the secret passage here.

Suddenly, they heard a strange noise. A chest with books opened up and they saw Granny smil-ing behind it. Red Riding Hood gave her a hug and told Grandma what happened to her that day.

Granny responded softly:

– This house is protected with a magic and no-body would hurt you here. The bad creatures wa-nted to kidnap you and force me to escape from the magical forest. You should have listened to

your mother and not to leave the lane leading to your Granny's cottage. I will teach you how to defend yourself and others, and one day you will become the protector of our forest.

Red Riding Hood promised her Grandma to be very careful and to always listen to her mother.

And Granny delivered her promise and taught her granddaughter all she knew about the magic protecting the magical forest against destruction. The girl became the best protector the magical forest ever had.

THE END.