Short Stories

Fairy Tale Remake for English: Gingerbread Man

This is just something I had to write in English. It is based on my favourite Fairy Tail, 'The Gingerbread Man' and I will probably enter it in this years short story competition.

Running was usually a fun activity for Ginger. Feeling her feet hit the ground, the whistle of the wind as she passed by her trackmates... All of the joy seemed to disappear when you were running just to continue living.

She didn't know how it had happened. One minute, she was on a singles cruise with her brother. The next, she was being dragged into the forest by a cannibalistic tribe. Her brother had thought it would be great idea and a month full of fun. Not really her idea of fun...

But, she had gotten lucky. She gave one of the children a piece of gum, and he untied her.That's when the chase started.

The boys grandparents had come out to help with the feast, you could call it, when they saw a frizzy haired girl sprinting through the forest. The family had chased her until they couldn't run anymore. But there were still more hungry freaks after her.

Ginger stopped for a small rest beside a well. She would have had some water had she known how to operate the mechanism. It was nowhere near as simple as it looked.

She heard two people come up behind her and took off faster than the Flash. They yelled at her in a mixture of English and some foreign language as she sprinted closer to the forest. She had come through said forest to get here, she would go through said forest to get out.

She stopped again, to catch her breath, and two men approached her. They looked like they were from the cruise. "You one 'o the natives?" A tanned, well muscled guy asked.

Ginger shook her head and answered with a, "How'd you escape?"

"They... Uh... Let us go." The second guy answered, eyes flickering to the side.

Ginger knew that the only reason these men would be let free, were they were helping to catch her. They might have been waiting for others to arrive, but Ginger was already gone. She flew through the forest at light speed until she tripped on a tree root, her right knee skidding against the bark.

She sat up on the ground and examined her knee. It wasn't a bad scrape, but it did sting. She stood up with the help of the tree and looked around, supposing she could walk for a while.

That idea went out the metaphorical window when she heard heavy breathing and the sound of crunching leaves and twigs. She whipped around to see a big, brown furred Grizzly, lumbering towards her. Didn't have to tell her once, she was out of there.

As Ginger was running, she heard a growl and looked to her right, seeing a white wolf. It was at this point that Ginger thought she was destined to be eaten. What kind of luck lets you escape a cannibal tribe, only to run into not only a bear, but a wolf as well.

She thought her luck had returned when the white furred beast stumbled into a bear trap and let out a howl of pain. Now she only had an actual bear chasing after her.

She managed to find a small cave and crawled in, sighing in relief. The bear couldn't get in, there were no creatures in her cave, she-

There was a creature in her cave.

She caught sight of a fox lying, in all of it's glory, amongst a bunch of leaves. It was staring at her with piercing eyes, ready to defend itself if needed.

It stood up and walked out of the cave before stopping. Ginger decided to follow it out of curiosity. The bear had left, but she knew it was close by, still looking for her. She followed the fox into an open area where it simply sat.

Ginger scratched the back of her neck, unsure what to do next when the fox suddenly jumped and ran in the direction they had come.Ginger was about to follow when she saw bear tracks and turned to run the other way. Only to come face to face with a native.

A group of the cannibals escorted her back to the village. They walked until they made it to a sort of throne and Ginger was seated on it. She looked on in confusion as the people dropped to their knees in respect.

"You did not fall for the trickster's trick." A man said.

You go on a cruise and end up being the Queen of a cannibalistic tribe. Who would've thought...