Suddenly, red-capped maiden balked, for there in front of her on the path was a large black frowzy creature. His face was hirsute, dark and shaggy. Two lanky limbs grew from his thick, broad body, two hind limbs bore his weight on the ground. The ends of his paws curved into macabre nails, and his elongated face sharpened into a lupine snout. His vest and trousers (from which protruded a bushy tail) were foppish, but upon his shaggy head he wore an outmoded top hat, under which gleamed two rapacious eyes.
The girl was neither craven nor especially doughty, and so her countenance merely descended into mild perplexity, unaware of how hapless was such an encounter. She was just slightly flummoxed, for with the great beast hunched on the path, the way was impervious to her.
"Hello, good sir!" She ventured.
"Hello my dear," the creature gave her a lascivious smile, revealing rows and rows of resplendent and pointed teeth. "Where are we off to today?"
His breath was severely malodorous and noisome, she noted. "I am off to my grandmother's, for she is quite infirm."
"Is she now?" The insidious creature furled his snout lugubriously, his eyes doleful and lachrymose. "The dear old woman was always most munificent to mendicant folk like myself. Rare are such souls so magnanimous, not in the least bit parsimonious. I would be simply impecunious without her aid; it would be quite impertinent if I not visit her as well, quite imperative that I do! Do tell me, dear child, where your granny's cottage is, so I may give her most profuse blessings."
Not known for her acumen, and moved by the creature's maudlin monologue, the guileless maiden told him. "Through the woods on this path is all, take the left road where it forks. It is the first house past the stream."
"My gratitude is all yours. Please, if you would allow it, in return I will divulge to you the grove where the most pulchritudinous flowers grow: you can see them just off the path near that rivulet there," he pointed with curved claw. "What a befitting gift for dear granny they would make!"
Sure enough, profuse blossoms bloomed under those trees, and the red-capped girl saw that they were multifarious, simply bursting with every imaginable hue. She exuberantly thanked the shrewd creature and began to sedulously gather the blooms into her apron, lost in their fragrance.
The wolf grinned nefariously, egregiously to himself and turned tail towards his newfound destination.
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1. gratuitous (adj) - not earned, free
2. unwieldy (adj) - not easily handled, cumbersome
3. ingenue (n) - an innocent, inexperienced, unworldly young woman
4. inexorably (adj) - relentlessly, unable to be persuaded to stop
5. milieu (n) - surroundings
6. esoteric (adj) - mysterious or secret
7. extant (adj) - still existing
8. garrulous (adj) - talking too much
9. voluble (adj) - talkative
10. strident (adj) - harsh, insistent, discordant sound
11. balk (v) - thwart / stop short and refuse to go on
12. frowzy (adj) - dirty, untidy, neglected in appearance
13. hirsute (adj) - hairy
14. lanky (adj) - awkwardly or ungracefully lean or long
15. macabre (adj) - gruesome
16. fop (n) - dressed like a dandy
17. outmoded (adj) - out of style
18. rapacious (adj) - excessively covetous/greedy/ravenous
19. craven (adj) - cowardly
20. doughty (adj) - brave
21. countenance (n) - disposition
22. hapless (adj) - unlucky
23. flummoxed (adj) - confused, perplexed
24. impervious (adj) - not permitting entrance or passage OR unable to be affected or disturbed
25. lascivious (adj) - lewd
26. resplendent (adj) - shining
27. malodorous (adj) - having a bad order OR highly improper
28. noisome (adj) - offensive to the sense of smell
29. infirm (adj) - weak, often physically esp. because of old age
30. insidious (adj) - treacherous, seductive
31. lugubrious (adj) - sorrowful in a dramatic and often comical way
32. doleful (adj) - full of grief
33. lachrymose (adj) - mournful
34. munificent (adj) - greatly generous
35. mendicant (adj) - beggar
36. magnanimous (adj) - nobility of feeling and generosity of mind
37. parsimonious (adj) - stingy
38. impecunious (adj) - penniless
39. impertinent (adj) - insolent, rude
40. imperative (adj) - necessary
41. profuse (adj) - great abundance, pouring forth without restraint
42. acumen (n) - discernment, keenness of perception
43. maudlin (adj) - overly sentimental or silly
44. divulge (v) - reveal
45. rivulet (n) - small stream
46. multifarious (adj) - of great variety
47. exuberant (adj) - joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic
48. sedulous (adj) - diligent
49. nefarious, egregious (adj) - flagrantly evil
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