Her mother had ordered her to stay strictly on the path.

Elsa's POV

"How did you sleep?" Grandma asked me.  I shrugged, gnawing on my piece of toast as Grandma sifted through the kitchen cupboards.

"Any dreams?" she asked.  I shrugged a second time.

I did have dreams last night, but I didn't feel like talking about them.  I'd been in the forest that surrounded our lonely cabin, playing with my white puppy Olaf.  Then I saw a dead rabbit.  Some sort of wolf had gotten to it and killed it, violently by the look of things.  And as I looked up, a terrible wolf man appeared out of nowhere and lunged for my throat . . .

"I'll have to make another trip to town soon," Grandma was saying. "We're running low on essentials again."

"I can go," I offered, perking up.  Grandma never let me go anywhere, but maybe this time she would trust me.  Maybe this time she would give me more responsibility. But Grandma was already shaking her head.

"No, I'll do it myself. I need you here around the house," she said. I slumped in my seat, putting down the last bite of toast. It tasted like cardboard anyway.

"Would you mind baking some more of your sugar cookies?" Grandma asked. "Carie back at the market loves them and was asking when I could bring another batch."

"Wish I could meet Carie," I grumbled.

"What was that, Snowflake?" Grandma asked.

"Nothing. I'm going to take Olaf for a walk. I'll bake the cookies later."

"Stay in the clearing," Grandma warned as I stood up. "The woods are dangerous. Full of poison ivy, and ticks, and hungry wolves."

I threw open the front door and stormed out, Olaf at my heels. Pulling my velvet blue cloak tighter around my shoulders, I forged deeper into the woods, regardless of what Grandma had said.

Grandma never seemed to trust me. I was practically an adult. I was nineteen, with long platinum blond hair and icy blue eyes. The velvet blue cloak was a gift from my mother before both of my parents had died, and I wore it any time I went out.

"She still thinks I'm six," I complained to Olaf as we walked down the sunlit path. "Why can't I ever leave the cabin?"

Olaf barked, crouching and sticking his snout into a gopher hole. I leaned against a tree, rubbing my eyes.

"Grandma's so paranoid about everything," I went on. "Ticks? Poison ivy? Wolves? I've been in these woods for years and I've never been hurt before."

Olaf yelped, jumping backwards as a gopher popped out of the burrow. As soon as Olaf decided the gopher wasn't dangerous, he padded forward to sniff again. I grinned faintly as I watched them.

"See?" I said. "Nothing but friends here."

Olaf tensed, nose quivering and tail sticking straight out.

"What is it, buddy?" I asked, crouching down. Olaf barked once and launched himself forward, darting between the trees.

"Olaf! Come back, boy! What is it!" I shouted, running after him. As we ran, the trees gradually grew closer together and the sunlight was growing darker. I pushed my way through a thorny bush, feeling the thorns tear at my arms and cloak. My foot caught on a twisting root and I tumbled headfirst to the ground, feeling a spike of pain explode through my ankle.

I crawled to my hands and knees, groaning as my ankle continued to throb. I glanced around.

"Olaf? I called softly. I was in a part of the woods I had never seen before. The thick leafy canopy prevented any sunlight from reaching the forest floor, and the trees were made of a strange dark mottled bark.

As I glanced around, I noticed something fluffy on the ground a short distance in front of me. A mass of white fur in a pool of blood.

"Olaf?" I whimpered, afraid to move any closer. I raised my eyes to the bushes beyond the heap of white fur as a low growl reached my ears.

Two slanted blue eyes glared out of the darkness above a jaw of glinting white teeth.