Little Red Riding Hood

"Put those in the oven, Red," mama instructed.

"Yes mama," I said as I followed.

Mama had thought it would be a good idea to teach me to bake. She said, and I quote,"A lady should know how to bake for her family."

She had hit me with a rolling pan after I asked her,"Didn't you say cooking is something a lady must do for her family. Now I have to bake- Ow!"

So here I was, with a bunch of dough in my hands and a wound on my head.

"Open the bakery doors, Red," mama said as she continued kneading the bread. She sure was strong for such a petite figure. I was already drained from doing one. How could she so so many and open a bakery!

I turned the sign of our bakery to "Open". Soon, customers started rushing in. Most were merchants who were about to head to the market place but stopped by for breakfast.

They waited patiently as I served them their breakfast.

"Hey, Red. Still wearing your hood indoors? Can't be that sick if you're helping out your mama, can ya'?"

"It wouldn't spread. Promise," I try to reassure the customer.

"I'm just kidding. You need to learn to take jokes, Lil' Red," he laughed loud. I let out a nervous chuckle.

"But seriously, Red. Don't ya' think you should let down your hood? Make some new friends?" another asked.

"I-I'm fine. I actually prefer just helping mama. Not much of a talker."

"Well," the customer got up. "Don't know until you try." He handed me a bag of coins.

"10 small bronze coins?" he asked and I nodded.

"Well, we best be going. Bye, Lil' Red," and they headed out.

I continued helping to serve customers in the bakery for the entire afternoon, occasionally helping mama bake. I was definitely going to write about how tired I was in my diary.

After an exhausting afternoon, I retreated into my bedroom. Atop my window sill, sat a raven. Mama had always warned me that ravens were bad luck. The elders had said that they were spirits of the Blackbirds. It made sense to me.

Though, that didn't mean I listened. I opened my window to touch the bird. To my surprise, instead of flying off, it jumped in.

"Okay...That's odd. Hi little Raven," I waved.

The raven tilted it's head at me. I hopped closer towards it and started biting my hood.

"H-hey! Stop that!" I yanked it back.

It let go, but it stayed where it stood.

I made sure to lock my door before going back to staring at that raven, still standing there, watching me.

"Even you want to know what's under my hood, huh?" I gave a small smile to the bird. It won't understand me anyways, so why not talk a little. Though, I won't tell it everything. It could be a nasty trick.

"Well, you can't-" I let out a series of coughs until I collapsed on my bed.

"S-" I coughed again. "Sorry little birdie. I hope I didn't scare you." I placed my hand above my chest to try and soothe the pain.

I watched as the bird flew back on the window sill. As if saying goodbye, it lifted a wing, before taking off into the sky. I watched as it flew and hoped that my eyes were deceiving me. Because I was sure that I had seen it fly past the gate turn into a shadowy figure.