Cookie the chief baker and the little breads
It was quiet in the local tavern. Everybody was looking at the man in the cushioned chair. Some days had past by since the storyteller had told his first story. Today, it would be his second time. Because he liked the previous host town so much, the storyteller decided to hold his second storytelling event at the same place. He had done some research about the local urban legends and had discovered that there was one subject that fascinated almost everyone, which was ... cookies! The storyteller didn’t know why, but cookies seemed to be some kind of legend in this strange but fascinating world. So, he had gathered his imagination and creativity and had started wrtiting a fairy-tale about cookies. Since today was the day he would find out what the citizens thought of this story, the storyteller was quite anxious. He took a long breath and started telling...
“Once upon a time, there lived a little elf in a tiny town, far far away. The elf was called Cookie and wasn’t anything like the elves we know. Unlike them, Cookie was small, even smaller than a dwarf. Since he was the only one of his kind in the town, he was loved by everyone. Cookies mostly spent his time wandering around the streets. And whenever he was hungry, there was always a friendly citizen offering him a piece of bread. However, Cookie wasn’t very happy. Since he was so small, he couldn’t do much to help the other inhabitants of the town. He couldn’t find any work.
'There must be something I can do.’ Cookie said to himself.
While walking back to his house, he wondered how he could be useful to the town. Then suddenly, the little elf walked by a baker’s shop. He saw all the delicious baking products and immediately knew what to do.
‘That’s right! If I’m a baker, I can pay back all the bread and cake the people gave to me. I’ll open my own shop and call it Cookie’s bakery!’
No sooner said than done, Cookie had redesigned his house to make it a bakery. Where once stood his sofa, there was now an oven. Where his cat used to go to sleep through the days, there were now standing some flour-sacks, displeasuring his housemate. Once everything was set on the right place, Cookie immediately started baking. He had followed evening classes to master the baking skill. Enthousiastic as he was, Cookie made a whole bunch of breads and put them in the oven. The little elf waited some hours and then went back to take them out of the oven.
Only then, he realised what he had done. Because he was so excited, Cookie didn’t think while baking. Now, he had made bread with a suitable size to be eaten by himself. But of course, they were far too small for the other citizen. The were much smaller than a normal human hand. And that wasn’t all. Cookie has spent all the flour he had. The sacks were now empty, as empty as they could get. Angry, sad and with tears in his eyes, Cookie put all the useless breads in a bag and dragged them to the river, in which he throw it, making sure no one saw him.
The next day, the unhappy elf was so embarrassed that he just stayed in bad all day long. The morning after, Cookie got up very early and went out for a walk to the park, for some healthy fresh air. What he saw there, he couldn’t believe. People were eating his bread and seemed to enjoy it! Cookie thought he was dreaming and rubbed his eyes. Carefully, he walked a bit closer to a couple that was talkking and hid himself in the bushes.
‘... Found them at the shore, he said?’
‘Yeah. He said he didn’t know how they got there. But he had brought them to baker Louis, who baked them a second time.’
‘I wonder who made them. Must be a real chief baker. These are absolutely delicious.’
‘Ya, they sure are.’
Cookie couldn’t believe his ears. People were talking about his breads, saying they were delicious. After listening to others, he found out baker Louis has tried to make of them, but his hands were too big. Cookie, who was happy again, ran to the market as fast as possible, bought new sacks of flour and ran back to home. After jumping through his opened door, he made a happy dance in his kitchen. After that was done, Cookie started baking hundreds of such small breads.
The next day, he went back to the market to spread them around. As soon as the mayor and Louis heard about it, they came to the market to honor the inventor of the little and delicious breads and to give him the title of Chief Baker, and honor that for so far wasn’t give to anyone beside baker Louis. And since Cookie was the only one who was able to make such small breads, he had to work every day to supply the town with his creations, which he named Cookie’s little breads.”
The storyteller pauzed for a moment and then said:
‘Of course, Cookie lived happily ever after. And as you can guess, his creations got a shorter name after years past by. Now, they’re known as cookies and are still much much loved by everyone!’
