What would happen on the day she turned eighteen?
For the past dozen years or so of her life, Little Red Riding Hood had done her best to avoid thinking about this question. Although she had always acted as the most mature member of "Fairy Tale," the dependable big sister in the hearts of all her younger siblings, and although she often discussed her coming of age and the possible future with an unconcerned tone, if someone had genuinely asked how she planned to spend the day she turned eighteen, she would have said... It wasn't anything special.
She thought the day would be much like every other birthday in her life, because that was how the previous Little Red Riding Hood had taught her to spend it. She would attend class as usual, talk to people, look at the world, then go home and return to her younger siblings before dark. Everyone would prepare cake and presents for her, but this time, she probably wouldn't need to make a wish.
At the very end, before curfew, she would go to a special room in West Building and lock herself inside. There, she would unwrap her birthday presents one by one. King or Snow White would stand guard outside, or perhaps one of the other children skilled in combat.
If she had to make any plans for this day in all her past lives, her only thought had been that she absolutely had to finish unwrapping the last present, then arrange them properly around herself.
But now, that special room in West Building was gone. It had turned into a bubble that vanished when she awoke from Ankaela's fall-induced nightmare.
The rest of it, however, had gone just as she had once imagined.
She had gone to school and seen