Grimm Files #101 - Fallen Victim
Title: The Grimm Files #101: Fallen Victim
Author: grimmfiles
Series: Grimm Files Season 1
Paring/Fandom: Can't tell, it will give the plot away...
Rating: None
Summary: A murder has been committed in the Kingdom of Ferefortshire. It is up to Sherriff Red to figure out who dunnit, and why.
Genre: Fairy Tale Fantasy
Warning: Contains improbable situations, impossible characters, implausible plots, cheesy comparisons and atrocious humor.
Second warning: I don't know what I'm doing! I'm not a professional writer, but I enjoy this too much to stop.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't say I own them, but the idea and plot is my own. Characters have been borrowed, abducted, mutated and blatantly copied from existing fairy tales. There has been no response to my ransom demands, but I promise I'll put them back where I found them once I'm done. Please don't hurt me.
Beta: Thank you to rromantic and akintay for proof-reading and catching those invisible grammar and punctuation gnomes.
A/N: This story started when I let my mind wander one day when I was bored at work. I'm not bored anymore, but my mind still wanders...
Chapter 1 - Fallen Victim
Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, there was a beautiful young woman called Red...
Okay, maybe not drop-dead-gorgeous in a fashion model way, but she was healthy, fit, still had all her own teeth and no unmentionable skin diseases. And whilst most girls her age wished they were a princess or a maiden waiting to be rescued by a hunky prince on a white horse, Red never yearned for of any of that. She had better and much more interesting things to do. Like beating up people. And blowing stuff up. And sneaking around in the dark. And finding out secrets. The best part of it was; all of it was legal. Red was the kingdom's Sheriff, and at the moment she was on her knees, scrutinizing the muddy ground with her magnifying glass. She was fairly sure that she could make out wolf tracks amongst the scuffed up and trampled mud next to the Castle's outer wall. Unfortunately, footprints were not clear enough to make a cast from. She sighed and got up, dusting off her old leather cloak. She stopped wearing the red one her mother gave her soon after she started her career in law enforcement. The well-worn, stained brown cloak was not only waterproof, but blended in perfectly with the forest; an important factor to consider when one didn't particularly want to be seen whilst gathering 'clues'.
The sun was shining cheerfully, and Red could hear the birds chirping away in the nearby forest. It was almost impossible to believe such a hideous crime could have been committed in such peaceful surroundings. She walked up to Jack, her deputy, who had been standing nearby, staring blankly at a tree. Jack was a big and handsome lad, but not very bright. He was dressed in his usual attire, which consisted of a flannel shirt tucked into his all-seasons shorts held up by suspenders, and a pair of very old boots. His jacket pockets were bulging with an assortment of tools, things he picked up, today's lunch and last week's banana. Perched on his head was a brand new bowler hat, a birthday present from Red. In his one ham-sized fist he held a piece of rope. At the other end of it was a brown and white cow with soft brown eyes and a huge, pink, wet nose. Red suspected Daisy was probably the more intelligent of the two. She filled the role of the transport, dairy and gardener for the Sheriff's department (which currently consisted of two people and one cow). Red started paging through her little black notebook, making a mental list of what needed to be done next.
"Okay Jack, you can gather the shell shards and take them to old Mrs Mandrake. Be careful with it. Here, you can use my basket to put it into. The samples I took from the wall and the ground are already in there. Ask her to perform an autopsy and to test... are you writing this down, Jack?"
Red had learned through trial and error not to entrust anything to Jackís wandering mind, so she insisted that he write down everything he had to do. His spelling and grammar were atrocious, but at least things got done.
"Jez miz Red."
"Good. Ask her to test everything for any unusual substances. Anything weird. And tell her I'll drop by sometime this afternoon."
"Jez miz."
"And Jack?"
"Jez miz?"
"No dawdling at the market, selling Daisy or any such nonsense, you hear?"
Jack shuffled his feet, looking embarrassed.
"Jez miz."
"And stay away from the beans."
"Jez miz."
"Ok, carry on. I'm going to the castle now to see the King."
Jack quickly started gathering the shards lying around everywhere. His mother kicked him out of the house after the beanstalk incident, and he was very lucky that the Sheriff was looking for a deputy at the time. He was almost finished picking up the pieces of shell when he felt a big, wet nose pressed in his neck.
"Aw, c'mon Daze, knock it off."
Daisy huffed a wave of hot hay-flavoured breath into his ear, and pushed him again, harder this time.
He almost fell over.
"I said knock it off, Daze! Geez, I'm tryin to work around here!"
The cow gently took him by his collar and dragged him around so that his face was pressed to the ground. It smelled like raw egg.
"Daze! What is wrong with you... oh."
His eyes focused on an object lying near his nose.
"This must be one of them clues miz Red always talks about. Wow, she'll be so impressed!"
He took out a pair of tweezers from his jacket pocket and delicately picked it up. The object was carefully wrapped in a piece of paper, just like Red had taught him, and stowed away safely in his breast pocket. He patted the cow's head.
"Thanks Daze! You da best!"
Daisy HrmMMMMrrrrmm-ed appreciatively, and watched as Jack quickly finished gathering the rest of the pieces. She waited patiently until he and the basket full of evidence were squarely on her back, before trotting off into the forest at a generous speed.
Next time: All is not as it appears to be with the monarch of Ferefortshire, King Henry the Fit.
Author: grimmfiles
Series: Grimm Files Season 1
Paring/Fandom: Can't tell, it will give the plot away...
Rating: None
Summary: A murder has been committed in the Kingdom of Ferefortshire. It is up to Sherriff Red to figure out who dunnit, and why.
Genre: Fairy Tale Fantasy
Warning: Contains improbable situations, impossible characters, implausible plots, cheesy comparisons and atrocious humor.
Second warning: I don't know what I'm doing! I'm not a professional writer, but I enjoy this too much to stop.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't say I own them, but the idea and plot is my own. Characters have been borrowed, abducted, mutated and blatantly copied from existing fairy tales. There has been no response to my ransom demands, but I promise I'll put them back where I found them once I'm done. Please don't hurt me.
Beta: Thank you to rromantic and akintay for proof-reading and catching those invisible grammar and punctuation gnomes.
A/N: This story started when I let my mind wander one day when I was bored at work. I'm not bored anymore, but my mind still wanders...
Chapter 1 - Fallen Victim
Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, there was a beautiful young woman called Red...
Okay, maybe not drop-dead-gorgeous in a fashion model way, but she was healthy, fit, still had all her own teeth and no unmentionable skin diseases. And whilst most girls her age wished they were a princess or a maiden waiting to be rescued by a hunky prince on a white horse, Red never yearned for of any of that. She had better and much more interesting things to do. Like beating up people. And blowing stuff up. And sneaking around in the dark. And finding out secrets. The best part of it was; all of it was legal. Red was the kingdom's Sheriff, and at the moment she was on her knees, scrutinizing the muddy ground with her magnifying glass. She was fairly sure that she could make out wolf tracks amongst the scuffed up and trampled mud next to the Castle's outer wall. Unfortunately, footprints were not clear enough to make a cast from. She sighed and got up, dusting off her old leather cloak. She stopped wearing the red one her mother gave her soon after she started her career in law enforcement. The well-worn, stained brown cloak was not only waterproof, but blended in perfectly with the forest; an important factor to consider when one didn't particularly want to be seen whilst gathering 'clues'.
The sun was shining cheerfully, and Red could hear the birds chirping away in the nearby forest. It was almost impossible to believe such a hideous crime could have been committed in such peaceful surroundings. She walked up to Jack, her deputy, who had been standing nearby, staring blankly at a tree. Jack was a big and handsome lad, but not very bright. He was dressed in his usual attire, which consisted of a flannel shirt tucked into his all-seasons shorts held up by suspenders, and a pair of very old boots. His jacket pockets were bulging with an assortment of tools, things he picked up, today's lunch and last week's banana. Perched on his head was a brand new bowler hat, a birthday present from Red. In his one ham-sized fist he held a piece of rope. At the other end of it was a brown and white cow with soft brown eyes and a huge, pink, wet nose. Red suspected Daisy was probably the more intelligent of the two. She filled the role of the transport, dairy and gardener for the Sheriff's department (which currently consisted of two people and one cow). Red started paging through her little black notebook, making a mental list of what needed to be done next.
"Okay Jack, you can gather the shell shards and take them to old Mrs Mandrake. Be careful with it. Here, you can use my basket to put it into. The samples I took from the wall and the ground are already in there. Ask her to perform an autopsy and to test... are you writing this down, Jack?"
Red had learned through trial and error not to entrust anything to Jackís wandering mind, so she insisted that he write down everything he had to do. His spelling and grammar were atrocious, but at least things got done.
"Jez miz Red."
"Good. Ask her to test everything for any unusual substances. Anything weird. And tell her I'll drop by sometime this afternoon."
"Jez miz."
"And Jack?"
"Jez miz?"
"No dawdling at the market, selling Daisy or any such nonsense, you hear?"
Jack shuffled his feet, looking embarrassed.
"Jez miz."
"And stay away from the beans."
"Jez miz."
"Ok, carry on. I'm going to the castle now to see the King."
Jack quickly started gathering the shards lying around everywhere. His mother kicked him out of the house after the beanstalk incident, and he was very lucky that the Sheriff was looking for a deputy at the time. He was almost finished picking up the pieces of shell when he felt a big, wet nose pressed in his neck.
"Aw, c'mon Daze, knock it off."
Daisy huffed a wave of hot hay-flavoured breath into his ear, and pushed him again, harder this time.
He almost fell over.
"I said knock it off, Daze! Geez, I'm tryin to work around here!"
The cow gently took him by his collar and dragged him around so that his face was pressed to the ground. It smelled like raw egg.
"Daze! What is wrong with you... oh."
His eyes focused on an object lying near his nose.
"This must be one of them clues miz Red always talks about. Wow, she'll be so impressed!"
He took out a pair of tweezers from his jacket pocket and delicately picked it up. The object was carefully wrapped in a piece of paper, just like Red had taught him, and stowed away safely in his breast pocket. He patted the cow's head.
"Thanks Daze! You da best!"
Daisy HrmMMMMrrrrmm-ed appreciatively, and watched as Jack quickly finished gathering the rest of the pieces. She waited patiently until he and the basket full of evidence were squarely on her back, before trotting off into the forest at a generous speed.
Next time: All is not as it appears to be with the monarch of Ferefortshire, King Henry the Fit.