Deniere Danse

A New Start.. (and strawberry tarts)

    The smell of strawberries and warm dough fills the air around her as she opens the oven, pulling out three magnificent pastries. The glistened almost magically like gold, and the sunlight from the window shined perfectly upon them. Sara smiled softly, looking at her hard work. Took her two hours to make, but they were the best in the entire kingdom for sure. She sat them gently on the open window seal to cool. The baker softly hummed a song she heard the bard singing a while back, a tale of war and love, under her breath as she grabbed the broom. She cleaned the floors quickly and prepped the kitchen for a batch of brownies she needed to make next.
She was just starting to mix the bowl when she heard someone step through the heavy wooden door. She hurriedly wiped off the flour from her dress. When she got to the front room she saw one of her most frequent customers. Leah often came with her son after he finished his lessons. She waved Leah over to the counter where she had all of the baked goods stashed. "What can I do for you today, Leah?" She asked.
Leah gave her a broad smile, "Well what do you have today, Sara?"
Sara knew her weak spot when it came to sweets. "Well, I have some chocolate snickerdoodle muffins fresh from this morning," She leaned down for a tray, "We both know they're your favorite."
Leah thought for a moment, hesitating for a moment before nodding. She finally agreed "Chris likes them as well, he'd be mad if I didn't get them."
Sara started to get a basket and fill it with muffins. Leah licked her lips, immediately taking one and biting into the muffin. Her face filled with bliss and her shoulder relaxed. "I don't know how you make them taste so magical. Maybe you were blessed at birth or something,"
She nodded slowly before sarcastically replying with, "Or something,"
Leah gave her the money to Sara and started to leave before pausing. "I almost forgot to tell you," she laughed, "The princess is visiting the village this week for her sixteenth birthday,"
"Maybe she will visit my bakery," She laughed, doubting that would ever happen.
"You've built a fairly good reputation now, I wouldn't be so skeptical," Leah stated before leaving the cottage style bakery.
Sara laughed and put away the remaining muffins. The princess would never know about such a small business like her own. She sat at the counter with a book she hid for when she had freetime. She was almost a chapter in when she smelled a burning smell from the kitchen."My brownies!" She exclaimed as she ran to see if they could be saved.
She pulled the brownies out of the oven quickly. Fortunately, only the edges were lightly crisped. They could still be sold, even if only for a fraction of the price. She sat them on the wooden counter. She took the strawberry pastries she made earlier and took them back to the front room. The pastries looked good so she sat them on the counter so people would see them immediately. She had enough treats to last for the rest of the day now, so it would probably be very slow. She pulled out a little chair waiting for the next person to come in.
Overall, about fifteen people stopped by in the next three hours. Sara still had a lot of food to sell, but it was still early afternoon. There would be more people as the children finished their lessons and came to spend their allowances on their favorite treats. She usually closed the bakery in the late afternoon, but today she was gonna close a little earlier so she could practice on some side projects she had. Right before she was about to put the closed sign up. A girl in a maroon cloak with brown hair that framed her round face perfectly. Sara stared at her for a second, she had never seen her before. "Excuse me, is this the bakery?" She asked shyly, looking down at the sign in Sara's hand.
Sara stood for a second unsure about whether to let the girl in, but gave into her amber puppy dog eyes. Her project could wait. "Yup!" She answered nervously. She opened the door for the lady and walked in after her.