Hah and Grr: A Retelling of Hansel and Gretel Read online

  Part 3: The Witch

  Grr awoke suddenly. She stiffened her legs to stretch them then shook herself, nudging at Hah to see if he was awake. She felt eyes on her then and looked up to find Man staring at her through the hole. She stared back, curling her lips away from her teeth and growling. When the trunk moved, unblocking the way out, Grr stopped. Sniffing, she padded past Hah, investigating the gap that had appeared.

  She whined and went limp when Man grabbed her by the neck. This was something Grr understood - and was used to, being the weakest of the pack. Grr lay on the floor when she was carefully released and showed Man her belly. It seemed surprised by this and stood, as if uncertain, but then reached into the fur at its own belly and withdrew a sweet-smelling brown thing. Grr's nostrils widened with pleasure. She came up onto all paws and approached gingerly, sniffing at it. Her eyes lifted to Man's face. Am I allowed to eat? She found it hard to read Man's expression but decided to chance it - snatching the food from Man's paw, she hunkered down and scoffed it quickly.

  Grr froze when she felt Man stroke the fur on her back, but then she turned about and nudged along Man's legs to return this sign of affection. When Man stopped, Grr moved away and padded about the strange space of this den. Although the hole leading outside was blocked, she was less panicked now that she had more room to move about in. She sniffed at things, tested them with bites, and eventually squatted to pass urine and faeces. Then she padded back over to the strange creature who had given her food. It held both paws to its face and smelled ? unhappy.

  When Man went out the hole Hah and Grr had come through from the outside, Grr tried to push through behind it, but the tree trunk was closed in her face. She scratched at it, whining, then paced across the room and scratched at the wood that kept her separated from Hah. He did not wake, although she whined very loudly.

  Man came in and out several times, ignoring Grr each time until the last, when it stood by the large hollow rock it had filled with water and stared at Grr, considering. When Grr saw it approaching, determination and dominance in its huge form, she cowered. Man picked her up by her neck and belly and dropped her into the water! Grr thrashed about, startled, but she was not afraid of water, although this felt strangely warm. She hunkered down, like she might with the pack in the river in the hot summer, and laid her head on her paws, dreaming - until Man gripped her and started scrubbing. Then Grr howled and mewled and complained. She dared not bite, for Man was dominant, but Grr was miserable.

  Man tried to run slivers of bone through Grr's fur and, when the polished bone would not budge, Man took a sharp tooth and hacked Grr's fur right off. Grr howled piteously and heard Hah join her. He scratched and barked and ran at the wood that separated them, but to no avail. Grr was at the mercy of Man.

  When Grr's face had been scrubbed so hard she thought her furless skin must be bleeding, Man gave a little cry and then gripped Grr's muzzle between its paws. Man must have wet its face as well, because water leaked from its eyes. Meaningless rumbles poured from its mouth. Grr relaxed when Man closed its eyes and leaned close and licked her on the forehead - well, not quite a lick, but something like it. Something Grr could recognise. She licked Man back companionably and it leaned away, clutching a paw to the damp patch on its face. Then it poured more water over Grr's head and scrubbed what was left of Grr's fur. Finally, it lifted Grr from the water and lay her on the floor. It rubbed at her with a cloth and then tried to wrap Grr in strange furs. Grr let it, but when Man rose to open the high hole between this room and Hah's room, she crept over and scratched at the wood.

  Hah was growling and slavering and barking as Man stared down at him, and when Man opened the wooden barrier, Hah did not peer around the gap cautiously as Grr had - he leaped through, snapping his teeth. Man shrieked and Grr cowered on the floor away from them as they struck the ground. Hah bit and clawed at Man's throat and shoulders. Grr did not assist him, for Man had established itself as her pack-mate; Grr had already submitted to it; this was Hah's dominance fight. She watched, whimpering, as Man scrabbled about, suddenly grasping a metal stick and, pushing at Hah with one paw, hitting him with this in the other. Hah went limp, not because he had submitted, but because all the life went out of his eyes: one small explosion of sound from his mouth and then slackness.

  Man sat up. It held Hah's limp body in its arms and rocked it, howling. Grr approached cautiously, lifting her nose to look, to sniff. Was Hah dead? Man held its ear to Hah's chest, listening for that beat that every warm-fleshed thing had before it was meat. Grr snuffled her face into Hah's then drew back, reassured by the puff of his breath through his nostrils.

  While Hah was still unconscious, Man put him in the water and scoured his limp body as it had scoured Grr's flailing one. It cut off all Hah's fur and scrubbed his face, then dried and clothed him as it had Grr and set him down on the long fur-covered rock in the other room. It sat beside him then, stroking Hah's short fur and his face and his arm, making meaningless rumbles to Hah as it had to Grr. Grr snuffed and padded in beside them. She squatted at the bedside and laid her nose on her paws, looking up at Man. Man stroked Grr's short fur, too, and Grr sighed contentedly. But when it left the room, Grr stayed with Hah. She clambered up onto the bed and curled up beside him, though he lay unnaturally straight, like a tree.

  When Hah woke, he rose to all paws, growling softly, but Grr could see the pain in his eyes that meant the strike to his head was still smarting. Man was there, abruptly, bending over them both, with brown things in its paws, making noises at them in its nonsensical way. Hah hesitated for a moment, glancing at Grr, then he took the food from Man's paw, hunkering down to eat. Grr licked Man's paw when she took hers and Man stroked that paw across Grr's short fur.