Rose Red

Princess Rose Red, also known as the monster-hunter Red Riding Hood, is a character in the fantasy book series "Fairest" created by Fabian De Sousa and illustrated by drachenmagier. She debuts in the first instalment of the series.

Rose Red is based on the character of the same name from the fairy tale "Snow-White and Rose-Red", as well as "Little Red Riding Hood", by the Brothers Grimm.

History
Rose Red (and her fraternal twin sister Snow White) were born in a cottage in the Enchanted Forest and were the result of a brief love affair between their father, the Good King (who was disguised as a peasant traveller) and their mother, an unnamed peasant woman.

As children, Snow White & Rose Red encountered a talking bear who was really a prince of a faraway kingdom, cursed into his animal form by an evil imp named Rumpelstiltskin. After spending a winter with the Bear Prince, he leaves to guard his treasures from the evil imp who cursed him, and during the summer, Snow White & Rose Red unknowingly encounter the same evil imp while walking through the Enchanted Forest together. Rumpelstiltskin, trapped by his beard stuck in a tree, asks the girls for help to escape because he is being hunted by a wild beast and cannot use his magic. The sisters help by cutting his beard, which infuriates him, and the Bear Prince arrives too late to stop them. Now freed, Rumpelstiltskin curses all three of them to be separated and have their memories erased.

Rose Red is sent to live with her unnamed maternal grandmother in the Enchanted Forest, who makes her an enchanted red hooded cloak that would protect her from monsters and enchantments. Rose Red loves this cloak so much she wears it everywhere, and is soon given the nickname "Little Red Riding Hood".

One day, Rose Red's grandmother becomes sick and needs medicine, bread and cider from a nearby village, which Rose Red retrieves while wearing her enchanted cloak. A monstrous wolf sees her and wishes to eat her, but cannot attack because of the cloak, so instead tricks her into picking flowers for her grandmother to slow her down. The wolf travels to Rose Red's grandmother's house, eats her, and then wears her nightgown and hides behind the drapes of her canopy bed. Rose Red returns and the wolf asks her to remove her cloak, which she does while asking why her grandmother has large ears, eyes, nose and teeth. Once the cloak is removed, the wolf attacks. Luckily, a passing Huntsman rescues Little Red Riding Hood and kills the wolf with his axe, and Rose Red begs him to teach her how to hunt and slay monsters. She then grows up to become the greatest monster-hunter in the Enchanted Forest, thanks to a combination of her physical talents and her enchanted red hooded cloak.

Fairest (Book One)
Rose Red first encounters her long-lost sister Snow White when the latter searches for the monster-hunter to recruit Red Riding Hood to help defeat the Evil Queen and her Cabal of fairy tale villains. Both women have no idea they're related at this time, but Red Riding Hood agrees when she realizes that aiding Snow White will help her find the Big Bad Wolf, who has joined the Evil Queen's Cabal, and whom Rose Red has been hunting for years. In the final battle between the fairy tale heroes and villains, Red Riding Hood is pitted against the Big Bad Wolf, but ultimately tears herself away to rescue Snow White from the Evil Queen with a blast of red Fairest magic, revealing her connection to the princess and queen. The Evil Queen steals the red Fairest magic from Rose Red with the Crystal Ball, weakening her greatly, but she is still able to fight the Big Bad Wolf with her enchanted cloak and sword. When the Crystal Ball is shattered and Rose Red's powers are returned, she uses them to obliterate the Big Bad Wolf, and later threatens to kill Rumpelstiltskin for his manipulative actions that separated the two sisters, but Snow White stops her.

At the end of the book, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Prince Charming farewell the other fairy tale heroes and Snow White leads Rose Red to the Magic Mirror, which proceeds to tell them everything about their past, which presumably restores Rose Red's erased childhood memories.

Fairest II: East of the Sun & West of the Moon
Rose Red, concerned about the fate of the Bear Prince, asks the Magic Mirror what happened to him, and she learns that the Bear Prince was transformed into a Beast and made an ill-conceived deal with his wicked stepmother, the Evil Ogress. Before a Beauty could fall in love with him, the Beast is whisked away to his home kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon, where he is forced to marry his stepsister, a young Ogress. The Magic Mirror tells Rose Red that she must rescue him by gathering three golden items and arriving at his home kingdom before the wedding to break his curse.

With a tearful goodbye to Snow White and a promise to return safely, Rose Red sets out to help the Frog Prince break his curse in return for a Golden Ball. Then, with the help of witch-hunters Hansel & Gretel, Rose Red slays the Sea Witch and returns the Little Mermaid her voice in return for a Golden Comb. And Rose Red helps Prince Charming's cousin, the Silver Prince, slay a dragon and rescue the Sleeping Beauty in return for a Golden Spinning Wheel. Finally, Rose Red helps rescue Odette the Swan Princess from the evil sorcerer Rothbart and his daughter Odile, and in return the Swan Princess's six Swan Maidens carry her to the enchanted kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon in the Land of Norge (home of the Norwegian fairy tales). There, she meets the young Ogress and buys her way into the palace for three nights using the Golden Ball, Comb and Spinning Wheel. Rose Red and the Bear Prince reunite, discover a romantic love together, and plot to absolve him of his deal to marry the young Ogress.

At the night of the wedding, the Bear Prince tricks his stepmother and stepsister into washing his shirt, but as ogresses everything they touch gets more stained and dirty. Rose Red (no longer wearing her iconic cloak) is tasked with washing the shirt, because whoever cleans it earns the right to marry the prince. The Evil Ogress sees through the deception and curses the Bear Prince to transform into a Beast and kill Rose Red. During the massive battle, the young Ogress intervenes and is killed by the Beast. A horrified Evil Ogress attacks the Beast and Rose Red, who defends herself with her Fairest magic. The Evil Ogress is defeated, and Rose Red proclaims her love for the dying Bear Prince. The curse is broken and the Bear Prince restored, and the kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon celebrate now that their prince has found his true love. Rose Red and the Bear Prince return to the Charming Kingdom in the Enchanted Forest to reunite with Snow White and announce their engagement.

Appearance
Rose Red is described as looking similar to Snow White in height, weight and body shape, but has an olive complexion and less-than shoulder-length hair as Red as Blood. As a monster-hunter, she wears a custom forged armour and leather outfit with gloves and knee-high boots, as well as her large iconic red hooded cloak.

When dressed as a princess, Rose Red wears a long gown patterned after red roses and petals, including a small floral crown (also made of red roses).

Personality
Rose Red is a sensible, determined and independent young woman who achieves everything she sets her mind to. Her first life mission was to one day slay the most powerful monster of them all (the Big Bad Wolf), and later to rescue the Bear Prince from his metaphorical imprisonment in the kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon, two missions she completed.

With the early loss of her mother, sister, and later her maternal grandmother, Rose Red learned how to take care of herself from an early age, gaining independence and confidence that served her in life. While Snow White's personality and beauty were wholesome and garnered different reactions from different people, Rose Red's personality and beauty tends to garner one specific reaction: making everyone she meets fall a little bit in love with her (specifically in a romantic sense).

Powers
Rose Red inherited and shares the power of the Fairest with her fraternal twin sister, Snow White. Rose Red wields the "red" portion of the Fairest magic (Red as Blood) which is described as not as powerful as the other two, and the result of the harsh life Rose Red has lived.

These powers allow her to heal, rapidly grow roses and rose vines/brambles, and form blasts of red energy powerful enough to combat those of the Evil Ogress. It is unknown whether or not Rose Red can teleport or change her appearance like the Evil Queen, but her red Fairest magic does appear to work in tandem with the magic of her enchanted red hooded cloak, making it the only kind of magic that can work near or with the enchanted cloak.

Enchanted Red Hooded Cloak
Rose Red owns a one-of-a-kind enchanted cloak that glows when it protects her from magic and repelling monsters. Because of its iconic appearance, when she meets new people wearing it, they usually instantly recognise her as Red Riding Hood the monster-hunter.

It also protected Rose Red (and the Silver Prince) from dragon's fire, implying that dragon's fire has magical properties.

Trivia

 * Rose Red is a combination of three different fairy tale characters: Rose-Red from "Snow-White and Rose-Red", Little Red Riding Hood from "Little Red Riding Hood", and the main protagonist of the Norwegian fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon".
 * Rose Red is described as having hair as Red as Blood, but the character of the same name from "Snow-White and Rose-Red" actually has dark (black) hair.
 * Red Riding Hood is the first fairy tale hero Snow White recruits for her team of fairy tale heroes to combat the Evil Queen's Cabal of fairy tale villains.
 * Rose Red's enchanted cloak is a reference to the fairy tale "The True History of Little Goldenhood" collected by Andrew Lang.
 * While Rose Red has royal blood (like Snow White), she is actually never referred to as a princess until after her engagement to the Bear Prince. Before then, she is interchangeably referred to as 'Red Riding Hood', 'Rose Red', and simply 'Rose'.
 * By Fairest (Book One), Rose Red encounters three different monstrous wolves: The first is the Talking Wolf who ate her grandmother and wore her grandmother's nightgown; the second is the Howling Wolf who she caught with the help of three little pigs as bait (a reference to the fairy tale "Three Little Pigs"); and the third is the only one explicitly called the "Big Bad Wolf" (and is possibly from the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats").