The Bakers and Beasts of the Sourdough Mountains
is a Web Original Fiction short story, written by Yookee-Mookee and uploaded to FictionPress.
The elves that live atop the titular Sourdough Mountains make a living baking and selling their delicious breads and pastries to the people of the "Lower World" (a.k.a. at the base of the mountains). Unfortunately for the elves, there are many people and animals that like stealing their baked goods, with Yufka the Fox being the most infamous of them all for her speed and cunning. However, Yufka seems to steal purely for the thrill of it, as she always tosses what she steals into a cave located ever higher in the mountains, where the food's presumably left to rot.
The elves have grown tired of Yufka doing this and ask their leader, the Mayor of the Mountains, what they should do about her. The mayor decides that Yufka must be killed, and to make that happen, he has his people bake a giant pie and have it sit on the windowsill of his house. One night, when Yufka's scurrying about the village, she catches a whiff of the pie and snatches it instantly, then hurries to her cave. The mayor and a group of elves, all armed with giant forks and knives, follow Yufka inside her cave, intent on killing her. But they reconsider immediately when they see the real reason Yufka has been stealing from them:
She's a mother with three kids, and she's been feeding them the baked goods she's been stealing from the elves all along.
The mayor, touched by this, orders the group of elves to stand down, and they all leave Yufka's cave without a fuss. The next day, the mayor announces to all the village that, from hereon in, they shall cater to not only the people of the Lower World, but to the animals of the Sourdough Mountains, as well, under the condition the animals help the elves with baking and getting food to the people of the Lower World. The bakers and beasts of the mountains then work alongside each other, spreading their baked goods—which are now even more delicious than usual—all around the world, and they all lived Happily Ever After.
Except there are still people and animals that steal the elves' food. It's being taken care of, though, with a little help from the mountain animals.
That, and with advice from a certain fox...
It has since been deleted from FictionPress.
The Bakers and Beasts of the Sourdough Mountains contains examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Hero: Yufka. She sneaks around every night to steal the pastries the elves bake, but does so because she's got children to feed.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Mayor of the Mountains decrees that the elves shall cater to the animals of the mountains, under the condition that the animals help the elves with baking and distributing food to the Lower World in exchange. However, thieves are still robbing the elves blind on a regular basis. The animals help the elves with this by taking care of the thieves while the elves bake... but considering they're wild, hungry animals, it isn't hard to imagine they aren't just scaring the thieves off.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Mayor of the Mountains mentions that Yufka once stole his red pillow. When the mayor and his group of elves are in Yufka's cave and allow her to put her kids to bed, she places her kids on top of a "big red cushion".
- Cunning Like a Fox: Yufka's a fox and is the craftiest and most cunning of all the thieves the elves deal with.
- Disproportionate Retribution: It's hinted the Mayor of the Mountains wants to kill Yufka less because of her thievery of his people's food and more because of her thievery of his pillow.
- Expy: The elves are pretty much the Keebler elves if they lived on a mountaintop and baked pastries instead of cookies.
- Yufka herself is basically a female Mr. Fox.
- Filching Food for Fun: The elves assume Yufka is doing this, as they always see her fling the food she steals into a cave for no particular reason. Once they follow her into the cave, however, they see she's been feeding her children the food all along.
- Hidden Elf Village: Downplayed with the village the elves call home. It's situated near the top of a mountain in a mountain range, but the elves trade with the people of the Lower World regularly, and thieves from said Lower World constantly steal from them.
- Sweet Baker: Downplayed with the elves. They're all bakers and are a very sweet people, but have no qualms getting violent towards those who dare to steal from them.
- Talking Animal: Yufka and presumably every other animal that lives in the mountains (and in the Lower World).
- The Fair Folk: The elves. They love baking and are cheerful to a fault, but the fact they beat up the people and animals they catch stealing their baked goods, and the fact the mayor was fully prepared and willing to kill Yufka, shows that they really shouldn't be messed with.
