A Father's Dilemma

I tossed the silver earrings into the burning-hot furnace without another thought.

The fire quickly consumed them, and I was oddly surprised by how fast each was reduced to molten metal. Tilting the furnace toward the mold in front of me, I carefully filled a single cylinder with the silver. It only needed to set; the bullet would form itself.

A wash of cold moonlight filled the warmly-lit workshop as the full moon rose into the sky. In the distance, a wolf howled menacingly.

Peeking out from my window, I could see a lone fisherman retrieving his coins and net for the night, storing them safely in his boat. I did not recognize him but realized immediately that this was it; this unfortunate man would soon become the bait to my daughter's salvation.

A solemn smile cracked my cheek as I grabbed the musket from a nearby cabinet. Turning back toward the forge, I retrieved the still warm silver bullet, packing it properly into my weapon before returning to the window. As luck had it, the fisherman still had not yet left his boat, nor did he realize the monstrous and red-eyed beast quietly stalking him from the brush nearby.

The deafening scream of the fisherman's pain reached my ears just as I had raised the musket. In seconds, the beast had torn the man to shreds, leaving the dock bloodied with scraps of meat and hair. My finger reached the gun's hammer and tugged it back. I saw the beast turn in that instant to face me, its red eyes burning into mine.

I winced.

My finger firmly pulled the trigger, replacing the sound of screams with the roaring sound of gunfire. My eyes had opened just in time to see a beautiful, red-haired girl fall to the ground.