Yeasty fresh rolls wrapped in rough textured linen, unpolished like the girl who carried the basket. Mist rose from woody ground to fill the heavy air. The young girl parked herself to rest under a tree.
Behind her, a rank smell rose. A wild laugh accompanied the odor’s owner, a creature of the forest who embodied all that tangled in trees and clung to rocks. “Tired? I have a shortcut for you.”
“Where am I going, then?”
“Give something, get something.”
“I’ll give you what for.” She pulled out an ax from her red riding cape and cut things short.
Monica's Monday Morning Flash 
Love it. Have you read James Thurber’s version in “Fables for Our Time? Picture is perfect, too.
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I haven’t read it. But I will. I am in the middle of Kelly Link’s “White Cat, Black Dog,” another take on fairy tales. The prompt for this story came from Grant Faulkner’s new book, “The Art of Brevity.” Thanks for the comment!
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