Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, right? She's a little girl who's namesake had come from the fact she wore a red hood over her head whenever she left her village and went on a trip to her grandmother's house to deliver her aging mother plenty of home-baked goodies to cheer her mood up.
But what would you say if someone told you they found a different version of Little Red Riding Hood? What if, in this particular version of the story, Red Riding Hood was not a little girl at all, but a full-fledged grown adult who lived with her middle-aged parents and had a love for cooking and made frequent trips through the woods to her sickly grandmother to deliver her all kinds of goodies to cheer her up? What if...I told you in this particular version, there was more to the wolf than meets the eye, and that the huntsman also had a few secrets of his own that weren't revealed in the original story?
Well, sit back as a story of Little Red Riding Hood unfolds before you.
This isn't the Little Red story that was beloved by so many for generations and generations. It is not the Little Red Riding Hood story that was told to children as a goodnight story. This version of the story...Is a much more mature version of the story.
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It was a nice cool Sunday in Bakersville and the smell of warm apple pie, that was enough to make any mouth water in anticipation, had perfectly scented the air.
Red's mother had recently gotten sick and found that she was unable to complete the normal every day tasks that she loved and enjoyed submerging herself in so much. And so, understandably she had to have her beautiful daughter take over the duties of cooking and cleaning and had suggested that Red prepare a pie to take to her grandmother through the woods later on that day. It went without saying that Red had her work quite cutout for her since her mother wouldn't be able to help carry any of the slack.
Her father had left before the sun had ever set to head out into the West path of the woods to go and chop some wood to bring home for the fire that they needed. The fire that they had was already growing dim, and with winter beginning to approach around the corner, and her mother now so weak and sustainable to many possible dangers that could come with a lack of fire, it was all the more crucial that Red's father kept the fire burning in the old log-cabin house.
"Red, sweetie, how's that apple pie coming along?" Her mother's voice was full of coughs and hacks.
"I think it's coming along nicely." Red replied to her mother from the kitchen; sprinkling a little bit of ginger around the top of the pie as she prepared to place it in the brick oven.
"I can smell it from all the way in here, sweetie, thanks to the wind; maybe there wasn't even any reason in asking about it. You've got my cooking secrets, after all; you're my only other rival when it comes to baking, second only to your grandmother."
Red couldn't help but grin at her mother's flattering compliment and giggled softly to herself while she put the pie in the oven and started baking it.
"I hope that father comes back soon with that firewood, Momma. It'll probably be snowing in only a few weeks, and I don't want you getting any sicker than what you already are."
"Red, stop worrying about me, all right?" Her mother said sternly. "All your worries and concerns should be redirected towards your grandmother: She's eighty eight years old, lives all by herself in the woods in a house where the only visitors she gets is her own family, and can't even go walk around the wood trails because of her old age and the wild animals lurking."
Red sighed as she nodded her head to her mother's words. Every word that left her mother's mouth rang true: Her grandmother lived a really unsafe life and Red constantly found herself wishing she could talk her grandmother out of leaving the old house that her grandfather built with his own two hands, and left behind to her grandmother in his will. But alas; her words could never quite convince her grandmother to leave that old house behind and the risks of danger were always on Red's mind when she thought of her grandmother living all alone.
"Yes, Momma, I know about the dangers that grandma faces. And I do worry about her quite often; I don't think a single day goes by that I don't think of her safety."
"Then, all your worries should go on her." Red's mother concluded.
Red sauntered herself over towards the aged rectangular table-set and lowered her firm bottom against the seat, setting herself down while her deep blue eyes watched the fires of the cracking brick-oven as they nearly engulfed the delicious pie that was inside.
The sounds of the winds howling bounced off the walls as the front door to the log-cabin house creaked open, and Red turned her gaze to meet the face of her father who had entered with sweat rolling down his forehead and both of his arms holding tons and tons of lumber that nearly rolled out from underneath his grasp and spilled to the floor below.
He looked absolutely exhausted and was breathing quite heavily as he stood there.
Red lifted herself from the table and approached him, her head tilting slightly to the side while those blue eyes of hers gazed deeply at her father with a look of concern for his well-being. And when she was standing in front of him, Red went to lessen the burden he held in his arms and took at least two small logs from his arms, to which her father gave her a ginger smile of appreciation.
"Talk about windy out there." Her elderly father said with a slight laugh as he walked towards the living room area with the firewood. Red followed right behind him.
"Honey, is that you?" Red's mother called out from the bedroom.
"Yes, dear; it's me and I just got back with the firewood."
"You didn't wear yourself out, did you?"
"No, dear," he replied. "I'm still plenty a full of vigor."
Her father just chuckled for a few minutes before he started unloading the firewood from his arms and started placing the cleanly-cut logs into the fireplace with Red placing her own logs on top of those. He wiped the sweat from his brow and then sniffed the air taking in the scent of the pie that she was baking in the oven.
"I'm baking a pie for grandma." Red stated.