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Red Ridinghood

In a time when tigers used to smoke there lived a wonderful man and woman, in a little cottage by the sea. The cottage was small, but still felt very empty to them, and so they wished to fill it. Finally on a cold winter day they were granted a gift. A daughter they named Red- after her cute tuft of red hair.

She grew up well! With hair light as the fall leafs, and skin kissed by the sun, she was beautiful. The family were happy and well. Until, that is, Red's grandmother took ill. It was Red's job to run her grandmother supplies and help her take the medicine her mother sent her along each day, and Red was a very obedient girl. Though very mischievous!

It was one of these days that Red had a brilliant joke to play on her grandmother, though it was really her father who led her to the idea. You see, each day she left he would tell her " My little Redhood, remember the rhyme and heed it well. Watch for wolves, and Jackabelles."

Red would wander down the path singing the rhyme her father spoke;
Apple blooms,
Cherry leafs,
Don't forget to follow these.
For if you're lost,
Among the trees
You'll soon find
A wolf pack three.
Little girl,
all wrapped in red,
You'll be dinner,
So it's said.
So keep to the path,
Do not stray,
Or your death will come that day.

And so Red minded the trees until she could see her grandmother's house among them. Then she screwed up her face, puckered her lips, and let out a long drawn howl. She echoed the sound several more times before tumbling her clothes a bit and sprinting toward her beloved grandmother's cottage.

"Grandma grandma let me in!"She shouted though the cracks in the door."The wolves come for me!"

The woman flung the door open and pulled the girl inside, checking for bites and scratches."Oh dear did they hurt you?"

Red's shoulders shook with her laughter as she told her grandmother her prank had worked oh-so-well, but her grandmother only scolded her and told her what a rotten child she was. Red felt bad for scaring her grandmother, but the scolding only made Red angry for being punished. So she waited a week before playing the prank again, and even put scratches on her arms. Her grandmother once more flung open the door and began fussing over the rotten child, but once again Red only laughed until she was doubled over. So many times did Red pull the prank on both her grandmother and parents that they stopped heeding her cries of danger, and simply ignored her. This didn't sit well with Red, and she devised an awful plan to scare her family into loving her again.

The sun was bright as she was told to take her grandmother her medicine, and the bread and cheese she needed to get better, and Red happily accepted the basket and wandered down the path. Once she was out of sight of her home she veered off the path and into the woods.

"I've never seen a wolf."She declared, thinking it must have been her father's way of keeping her to her chore; and so she wandered deeper. And deeper. And deeper. It was almost dark under the canopy of the trees and she was becoming quite scared when she couldn't find her way back. She shouted for helped, and cried a lot, and even tried howling in hopes it would bring a hunter; and oh it did! One with yellow eyes, and a sniffing snout. Red was terrified to see a real wolf, and took off into a run to try to escape.

It followed her, never far behind, until she came to a clearing she knew very well. Her grandmother's house! She stumbled to the door and knocked with all her might."Grandma the wolf is real now I need to come in!"

Her grandmother frowned deep and shook her head."I won't let in a child so completely rotten!"

"Grandmother please!"Red sobbed, but she often cried in her awful joke, so the grandmother stayed in her chair and knit.

The growling was behind Red now and she cried harder, banging on the door as her grandmother tried teaching her a lesson that would not end well. The Wolf lunged, gobbling up the little girl in two short screams. The grandmother lept from her chair upon seeing the wolf through the cracks in her door, but Red was all gone. Eaten, because she couldn't understand the damage of a joke so cruel.