PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

Rose always comes out at night, dressed in a red cloak, pale cheeks only just visible beneath her hood, carrying a basket of baked goods with her, for the brown bear that lives near their home.

One night, a dwarf offers her sister Snow a seemingly honest job. Rose knows the truth: that the work would be dangerous slave labor, in the dwarven mines.

The next morning, Snow goes to the house and finds it empty. She never needs to know what her sister saved her from and why she should have also chosen the bear.

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Thanks Rochelle and Sandra for this week’s inspiration! For more stories or to add your own, click here.

The picture made me think of Snow White and then of one of my favorite, lesser-known fairy tales Snow White and Rose Red. I thought it might be fun to make a 21st century mashup with the Internet meme about how many women would choose to be alone in the woods with a bear than a guy.

In the traditional story, of course, the bear is the good guy – a prince in disguise in fact and the dwarf is the bad guy. Part of the irony of the story is that you don’t really know until the end, when both the bear and the dwarf show their true colors.

Conversely, I never trusted the Seven Dwarves in the more well-known Snow White story because I read the Rose Red story first, so I knew better than to trust dwarves…. Moral of the story: always choose bear. Well, if you’re in a fairy tale anyway.