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Three days…They had been wandering this endless damp cave for THREE DAYS.
It wasn’t the walking…
It wasn’t the dark…
It wasn’t the humidity or even the mountains of guano that bothered them, no no…
It was Cheese’s incessant griping.
Even now, the golden queen fidgeted restlessly, yearning to flex all the feathers on her wings to dampen the chill. Sadly that wasn’t a feasible option for her. The humidity and moisture in the air would seep into her perfectly dry layer of downy fluff underneath. The exterior of her plumes were at least moderately water resistant, but any excessive amount of water in the creases of her beloved feathers would weigh her down significantly, cutting the surface area of her wingspan with her downy all clumped up and unable to air dry in a sunbath.
Most of the caverns were too narrow to fly comfortably or safely through. They were just walking slowly along, trying to avoid slipping on the slick limestone ground, guided by the light of Pure Vanilla’s staff. What a shame that Golden Cheese was the only one in their posse who didn’t own any shoes on principle. She swore her feet would go numb from the cold contact. Occasionally Hollyberry or Cacao would carry her on their backs, which spared them all of her fluttery spazzes briefly when she would doze off on their shoulders.
That was no permanent solution, however… She’d have to suck it up and continue as the Five tried to find their way through. The other four couldn’t really blame her for being antsy. This cave was the embodiment of all her least favorite things, and anyone would go nuts without seeing the sunrise for seventy two hours straight, especially for their golden goose of a girlfriend. She belonged in the open sky…and they tried to comfort her for it. That didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be fed up with her endless whining, though.
Pure Vanilla brushed a gentle hand against the cold, smooth cavern walls. The eye of the orchid on his staff was guiding him foremost, but his sense of sound was well attuned. He quietly pressed his ear to the wall once again, trying to track the rush of water beneath the stone. Cave systems could run for miles, but the water that carved them over millennia had to flow in from somewhere.
The healer softly sighed in exasperation when any faint sound was drowned out by Golden Cheese groaning loudly again sending echoes bouncing off all around them.
“Jewels…” White Lily admonished softly, “Distracting Vanilla is counterproductive, the longer it takes him to find the river vein, the longer we’ll all be stuck down here.”
“I’ll tell you what’s counterproductive.” Cheese snapped back and waved her arms and wings around. “All this BULLSHIT! We’ve been following around invisible veins for days, and all we see are dead ends! This is pointless!” She pointed at the ceiling at an upward slant. “If…If we just blast our way through, tunnel through the rock, we will inevitably hit the surface.”
“Or inevitably suffocate in a cave-in.” Dark Cacao rumbled. “You’re not thinking rationally.”
“These caves are sacred to the Umami people, desecrating them is not an option.” Vanilla had his face pressed to the wall again. “The fruit juice bats that roost here must leave the cave to feed at dusk and dawn. There is a way out, you must have faith, Cheese.”
“You would rather bend to the sensitivities of cookies we don’t know than focus on our survival?” The golden queen growled, but the other four were well used to her pressing tactics.
“Calm yourself, dear.” Hollyberry tugged her girlfriend to her chest, “We have three weeks worth of rations. I’d hardly say we’re in danger yet.” She wanted to run her gloved hand over the goldenrod plumage to try and soothe her partner but the queen hissed and drew back. A clear boundary not worth testing when she was already so stressed.
“Everything is going to be alright, Goldie…the sun and the sky aren’t going anywhere.”
———
All was mostly quiet in the open. The only sounds that came to the hunter’s ears was the jingling of metal chains and the stressed panting of his Cake hounds. He meticulously wrestled with the rusty metal wires, and drove stakes into the ground with a mallet. It took a great amount of strength, even with multiple coils, to draw back the sling to its hook and load the bolt. He couldn’t afford to mess up now, not when untold riches lied so close to his grasp.
Today, he would kill a god. Now, most would look at his pathetic set up with old rusted parts and only company of a few starving cake hounds and call him a lunatic. Perhaps a mere fragment of him was. However, he had spent far too many years…meticulously calculating the migratory flight path of the Legendary Sugar Swan. He couldn’t be wrong, not after he dedicated so much time to his search…his obsession. He was right, it was here somewhere, it had to be.
He gingerly rotated his set up and calibrated all the necessary components, granting him a wide range in the sky. Now, all he had to do was wait, hold onto his patience for perhaps a day or two…and it would all pay off…
———
Pure Vanilla tumbled to his knees as Golden Cheese leapfrogged over his shoulders without warning. The head of his staff clunked against the ground which sent a wave of dizziness through him. Cacao and Lily helped him to stand as they heard the gleeful squeals of an ecstatic queen outside the mouth of the cave. It had only taken another hour to find it, thankfully. The sun was pleasantly warm on their skin and the sky was perfectly clear. Stunning weather for a flight, and Cheese was taking advantage of every opportunity. The four watched her spin in circles, beating her wings vigorously to zip around the sky. She had started singing in bliss, throwing herself into loops, backflips, and aileron rolls galore.
There was something beautiful and enchanting to the others to see this side of her. Boisterous and youthful, shining in the sun like a second star in the day-lit sky… They could all breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“Marigold!” Hollyberry tried calling out to her, “We need to make camp before dark!” But alas, she went unheard, the golden queen flat out ignoring them as she continued to fly.
“Hollyberry, let’s just let her blow off some steam. She may just need some time alone to stretch and cool down.” Pure Vanilla tapped his staff against the grass. “She’ll come when I send out a flare, and she can make up for her duties by gathering resources on her own.”
“…I suppose you’re right, darling…” she sighed, stretching her back. “Perhaps she could do a spot of hunting as well, and we can all share a warm meal tonight!” The two started walking along the hill towards a distant clearing. Behind them, Cacao eyed Golden Cheese’s figure in the sky with a light scowl and snorted.
“Cacao? Are you alright?” Lily asked him gently.
The king hummed lowly and redirected his attention to the smaller mage, “…She is spoiled…entitled and rash…and we only continue to enable her behavior…” he and Lily began to follow after the other heroes. “How many more times will Pure Vanilla and Hollyberry let her off scot free while she lazes about and refuses to pull her weight…?” He growled softly.
Lily noted his heightened aggravation. “Dark Cacao…that cave took a toll on all of us. I agree that they give her too long a lead…but she was absolutely miserable from the start. You do remember how much patience she tried to have for the first day in that cave, right?”
The king’s purple eyes lowered in thought, recalling scenes of Golden Cheese being oddly quiet and cooperative, curt and dutiful. Even with her twitching wings and wary eyes, she swallowed her pride and had indeed tried to have faith in Vanilla’s plan to take the cave through the mountain instead of waiting for them to hike up or around it. She had stuck with them, but she had a short fuse. They had pushed her fairly far out of her comfort zone on a whim, squeezed in tight cold corridors. Ultimately they didn’t save any time upon losing their way in the caverns, and Cheese’s patience and willpower wore thin and snapped long before theirs. Cacao let out a long and tired sigh, “I do…but stressed or not, she ought not to ignore us or the needs of the group out of pettiness…”
“I agree…” Lily readjusted her grip on her staff. “It is something we should talk to her about once she calms down. I can understand needing a little bit of distance but…”
Dark Cacao only nodded in silence. After a few more minutes of quiet walking beside each other, he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “You always have the right words, Snowdrop…Truthfully, I am glad to be out of that wet hole…”
She leaned back on him as they entered the clearing and made themselves ready to help set up the campground.
———
A soft whine loomed into the quiet air. One of the hounds had let out a long yawn, resting its weary chin on the dirt. The action caused the metal chained collar to shift.
The man chewed restlessly on a strip of jelly jerky, firmly planted in his seat with his eyes trained on the heavens above. There were no clouds within which to hide. The sky was a bright cerulean blue, but the sun had moseyed past its center.
All he could think about was a running checklist in his mind of all the possible things he should be looking for, but he’d grown jaded enough that his thoughts were beginning to blur together. Perhaps his mind was beginning to play tricks on him, making him see glimpses of her, but his hounds laid still, confirming the mental ruse.
He was aware that he was running on no sleep for the past fifty hours or so, resigned to the minor possibility that his calculations had a minute margin of error. At the very least, he would be early for a migration, and to his credit, he had seen plenty of flocks of birds and waterfowl crossing the sky earlier in the morning. Most would roost at midday to rest in the hot sun, but the Sugar Swan was no normal bird.
His hands grew sore on the handles, and he could feel his body swaying. The man stopped thinking, staring into nothingness as his eyelids drifted close, not of his own accord.
Not two seconds later, the chains began to rattle and the hounds started to whine in anxious excitement. The pack leader’s throat warbled and rumbled.
His eyes shot open, a break in the routine sending a reserve of endorphins through his veins. His gaze shot up into the sky, and he was nearly blinded; but not by the sun. His shadow was cast in front of him, so the celestial body had to be canted at an angle slightly behind him.
It was said that her wings were made of twice tempered sucrose, sparkling diamonds of pure crystalline sugar of the sweetest kind. She was a grand prism of great size, casting rainbows across all she soared over. Earthbread’s crown jewel, bedazzled in gemstones and saccharine riches. She graced all who witnessed her with the most elegant of sky dances.
Those were mere stories. The creature he had locked his eyes onto had to be massive, with a wingspan that wide, though perhaps not as exaggerated as the books said. Though that was all fine and good. Discrepancy was an integral part to written media of oral tradition.
To his astonishment, he could have sworn this being was made of solid gold, like the ores of the desert lands.
She twirled in the air, soaring high into the atmosphere before free falling and letting the jet stream catch her. She did it again, and again, and again once more. If that wasn’t a display of a sky dance, he didn’t know what was. The sun’s light glinted off her feathers, obscuring her against the blue. He couldn’t see the living angel clearly but he was nonetheless mesmerized. So much so that only when she began soaring farther west, away from his post, he shook himself in anger, desperately grappling onto the handles of his weapon and spinning it on its axle.
He cursed and tore at his hair, ramming his forehead on the console in frustration. The bird had been in range, but now was flying far away, and his rig was too clunky and large to follow in quick pursuit. Perhaps that was how such a being evaded capture, not by hiding, but by being so breathtakingly radiant that no mortal could resist being entranced and immobilized by the view.
*CRACK*
He spun eastward, seeing the magic trails of some kind of light spell fired straight upwards into the air from beyond the forest tree line. A triangle of sparks formed, and then twinkled as they fizzled back down towards Earthbread’s surface and evaporated. The sound had triggered his mutts to start barking, at least he had assumed it was the sound.
He glanced westward once more, gasping as the distant figure of the swan made a wide circling bank turn. The course correction had her sights set on the remnants of what must have been a magic flare. There was no more dancing, merely a straightforward languid glide.
The man was filled with a feeling most giddy. There was no way he could be this lucky, but he ought not to jinx himself.
The math was unbelievably simple, two plotted coordinates, a steady speeding object…He leaned the rig backwards, calculating angle of descent and projectile motion.
He resisted the urge to stare at the beast’s sparkling visage, merely lining up his eye with the crosshairs.
He sucked in a breath, like pulling back an arrow, and as he exhaled…
He pulled the trigger.
———
Pure Vanilla sighed calmly as he stroked the petals of his staff. Dark Cacao stood by his side with his arms crossed across his chest. They waited for any sign that Cheese had responded to the signal.
The leader of the Five prided himself on having an eager ear to lend all his companions. There were no secrets between them. If any concerns arose, he would be happy to hear them out with an kind heart and open mind. Dark Cacao’s was no different. Vanilla listened and allowed the other two members present to corroborate with the concern addressed. With a day or two to de-stress and recuperate, he was confident that all of this would be water under the bridge. Good communication was the answer to any minor dispute.
He had to give Cacao credit, perhaps he was too forgiving with Golden Cheese. He always saw the best in others, and had a lot of empathy to spare. His soft touch was another virtue he took pride in, but it was just this reason why he valued the others so much. They all saw things he didn’t.
He was briefly distracted by a bluebird tweeting in the trees when his fellow king let out a low grunt. “Here she comes.”
Sure enough, beyond the tops of the canopies, Cheese’s form appeared. She seemed to be taking her time, gliding slow.
Pure Vanilla smiled, “Did you assume she wouldn’t?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her to play Keep Away on the tree line until dusk. She’s akin to a mischievous wooly cake hound pup, complaining when her master tells her to come in from the cold snow, when she’s right in her element.” Cacao smirked lightly.
The healer giggled at the thought, “When I was a boy, I had a lamb in my flock who acted as such. He wanted me to chase him around the pasture. I didn’t get any work done, sure, but I still enjoyed that pleasant afternoon.”
“There is a time for work, and a time for play, Sunlight.” Cacao shifted on his feet at they watched her drift on slowly.
“Of course, Starlight. I understand that very well. Just bear in mind that it’s been a long day for all of us…” The other girls trailed up behind them.
“It’ll be an even longer one if she starts fussing.” Cacao smiled back in greeting as Lily and Holly flanked them.
Hollyberry slung an arm over the tall king’s shoulder, “Have some heart, Cacao, she looks blissed out. I’m sure she-“
Lily stumbled back with a terrified gasp, causing the other three to stiffen and look up.
There’s a sudden explosion of red and orange.
The four are taken aback in horror as they watch their lover plummet out of the sky, followed by a shower of fluttering golden feathers, spiraling listlessly into the treetop canopies.
Pure Vanilla’s heterochromic eyes stared wide, hints of tears starting to form before he and the others burst forward into the forest, frantically calling her name.
For twenty odd minutes, there was no sign of her. The healer grew desperate, gathering the others to him. He touched a hand to his brooch, hand on the beating blue soul jam fastened in place. The others quickly followed suit, accessing their own light.
“Concentrate…” he tried to keep his tone level despite the shaking panic befalling all of his loves. “Find her.”
They dipped inwards, accessing the internal bond that they all shared. The very blessing that granted them their power and longevity. A field of energy pulsed out from the stones, and to their relief and worry, their heads all whipped up in the same direction as they were met with a singular weakened pulse in response.
“CHEESE!” Hollyberry cried out as they sprinted into the direction of the desert queen’s crown. “COME ON BABY, GIVE US SOMETHING! Where are you?!”
“Downy feathers! Here, on the ground!” Pure Vanilla briskly kneeled down to the forest floor and scooped one up. Golden Cheese shed them semi-regularly, and were at times a nuisance to clean. What couldn’t be denied was the soft silk-like feel of them, fluffy and ivory in color. The average cheesebird’s downy feather was the size of a crumb. Hers were the size of a gold coin. A few select flocks of her citizens, mostly specialist collectors, even treated her shedding as a form of currency.
“There are some over here too!” White Lily responded.
Hollyberry looked skyward, “I think I see them falling from the leaves! Do you think she’s stuck up in one of the trees?!”
“The wind’s got them spread out over half the grove.” Cacao’s voice thundered, “We’ll never find her following them, focus on her Soul Jam!”
“JEWELS!!!” White Lily had the highest pitch voice of the group, and her tone was shrill as she called out into the open air at the highest volume she could muster. It was quite an alarming sound for someone so quiet.
Only Pure Vanilla managed to hear a weakened mewl come from a nearby patch of thorn bushes. He spotted broken branches and an opening poke-holed through the canopy far up above. He stiffened as he caught a glimpse of a frantic fluttering wing buried beneath the bristled vines. “OVER HERE!!! SHE’S RIGHT HERE!!”
“Merciful heavens…!” Lily’s voice squeaked when she parted the bushes to reveal Cheese’s crumpled body. Hollyberry steeled herself and lurched forward to pull her out of the brambles. The action yanked a gargled cry from Cheese’s throat, her ragged feathers bathed in dark red. The agony in the sound struck a chord amongst all of them.
Cacao was frozen in shock, stock still like an idiotic statue as Vanilla and the other girls swarmed their avian partner.
“Q-Quickly! Back to camp. Lily, grab the medical supplies from your tent!” The healer’s heart started racing as he tried to hold in his distress and lead his team back to safety. He spotted Dark Cacao bringing up the rear, eyes scanning the area for whatever may have caused Cheese’s downward spiral.
Hollyberry felt russet sticky blood starting to seep into the white ruffles of her dress. She only held Golden Cheese close as they ran through the forest and back into the clearing, listening to the queen’s trembling gasps.
———
“Here, here! Place her here!” Vanilla skidded to the mat in front of his nearly erected tent, the others following close behind. Hollyberry was trembling herself as she swiftly settled Cheese on the mat. They all cringed at another screeching wail.
“No, her front! Lay her on her belly, not her back!”
“Ah-s-sorry, I’m sorry…” they were all descending into panic and starting to make little fumbling mistakes. Holly gently maneuvered Cheese around, trying to block out the sounds of her muttering unintelligible whimpers. Only now did they see the horror of the full scope of the damage.
Pure Vanilla held a hand to his mouth as all three of his eyes frantically scanned over her form. He reached out his other hand to her tangled tangerine locks, running his fingers through the fluff. “Shhhhh…Cheese, can you hear me, dear…? I need you to lie as still as you can for me, Little Bird…I’m going to make the pain cease, I promise…”
Whether she decided to heed his words for once or was quickly losing strength and awareness, her body’s muscles started to loosen. The avian started to unfurl from her instinctive curl. Her wings lied limp against the grass on the clearing, though it became clear that one was significantly shorter than the other. Lily was quick to cast a soothing spell as Vanilla attempted to clean away the blood that was pooling in the grass.
“Tourniquet…I need a tourniquet!” He barked aloud.
Cheese struggled and hissed defensively as they had to pin her in order to strap the bandage tightly to the base of her carpals on her right wing. Vanilla’s magic hadn’t fully kicked in and they were applying massive pressure to the grievous wound.
Nearly half the wing, from the wrist joint down to the tips of her primaries had been completely shorn off. A few of her secondaries had also been blown off by whatever had shot her. Vanilla was confident that he had sealed all the veins and arteries on the stump of her wing, but the blood was still dripping heavily from her, baffling him. He was supposed to know everything about cookie anatomy, he was the most advanced healer in their troupe. Except his knowledge hit a limited wall when it came to animals and birds, especially considering damage this complex and severe.
“I-I think I’ve seen this before!” Holly stuttered, “The shot must have brutalized the shafts of her blood feathers. If we want to stop her from bleeding out, we’ll have to pull them. I-I’ve just never seen so many broken all at once.”
The next few frantic minutes were no picnic. Despite being in a pretty serious long term relationship, Golden Cheese only allowed the others to help preen her wings once in a blue moon, and only under very specific directions. Early on in their friendship, she would squawk at the slightest touch against her feathers. They may have been inclined to call her over-dramatic, but truthfully, her wings were just that incredibly sensitive. Pulling feathers was not like pulling strands of hair, they were sturdy with thick roots. Not only did they have to sift through several thousand feathers to find the life-threatening damaged ones, they had to yank them out. With her still bleeding out but not quite numb, they didn’t have time to allow her to adjust to each plume being pulled. After about seventeen pulls and drenching her wings in water to check for more, it was finally over. It was quite a heart-wrenching sight, seeing their proud and confident lover reduced to a trembling mess, but perhaps worst of all, a bird that had her wings clipped, grounded…
White Lily retrieved some blankets and towels to drape over her girlfriend while Hollyberry looked at Vanilla shakily. “You…you can fix her, right? Vanilla, I-I’ve seen you reattach severed limbs-“
Cacao, who had taken a few steps away to decompress, looked up in surprise as the healer snapped. “It’s not that simple!” The regret in his tone was clear in his heterochromic eyes. He lowered his voice to a whisper, “M-My Heart, I’m sorry…but I fear that I’ve hit a wall…cookie limbs already take a lot of energy to mend…but an avian wing, one as large as Golden Cheese’s…” he dipped his head, fingers gripping against the hair on his scalp. “I-I’m not skilled enough to save that…a cookie’s anatomy is simple and straight forward, but a single solitary feather is structurally equivalent to a giant tree, and each branch is another tree…and each of those branches on the smaller trees is ANOTHER tree…It’s a carefully crafted miracle of nature to allow an creature to fly…and I…” Tears welled up, “I’ve failed her…”
“You have not…Vanilla Bean, I won’t let you spiral into another one of your episodes…” Hollyberry grappled him to her, squeezing him tight to her both plush and toned form. “It’s far too soon to say that…we need to exhaust all options before even considering letting her stay on the ground…There must be a way…I’m sure of it…”
Pure Vanilla sniffled, accepting her bear hug…she was always the best at giving them. After a few moments, he uttered, “If…if I had more material to work with…her lost flight feathers, bone, doughy tissue, anything that was severed…there’s a slim chance that Lily and I…could salvage something…though I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking in that forest…several dozen square miles of thick trees for one or two square feet of material…” he let out a shaky sigh. “…After everything she’s gone through today…all that physical trauma and overstimulation…she needs us all here with her…to comfort her and love on her…I can’t begin to imagine how broken she must feel…physically, mentally…and her bright spirit crushed…”
Hollyberry nodded solemnly, placing a soft kiss against his blonde hair to try and break him from the tangent before he internalized it and started self-deprecating again.
He pulled back from the hug. “We need to try and encourage an appetite from her…get her something rich in nutrients but easy on her gullet…Cacao, you packed those vitamin jellies and grain bars in your rations, right?” Vanilla looked up with the soft question.
Silence, no response from the warrior king. In fact, the three lucid remaining ancients looked around the campground and didn’t see any sight of him.
Hollyberry called out assertively, “Bitterbean! Dark Cacao! Answer us!”
———
The king of the Black Citadel didn’t bother to wait around for direction. His mind was clouded. He took a deep breath and brought his gloved hands to his face, pressing them into his skin before brushing them up to his scalp and through his long silky hair. The image of her refused to leave his mind. The sounds of her cries echoed in his ears…
He shook his head, trying to focus on scanning the forested trees for any signs of drastic color contrast. Cacao would rifle through every bush, and turn over every tree in this entire forest if he had to. By sheer luck, he knelt down and found a lone feather. By its size and color, it’s clearly hers. He wasn’t good at remembering specifics, but it wasn’t one of her flight feathers, rather a feather that layered over the surface of her wing…but it was a start, better than nothing. He brought the plume close to his face, studying its structure in oddly mesmerizing detail. He removed one of his gloves with his teeth, before running his bare fingers along the plume’s shaft. It was soft…and in relatively good condition. It had drifted gently to the forest floor unlike its owner.
With a soft sigh, he stood up from his crouch, holding the delicate thing in his hand as he continued the search.
After an hour or so of fruitless search, he had resigned himself to picking downy feathers out of the brambles Cheese had landed in. It was getting moderately difficult to carry them all, being so lightweight. They would catch on the swift breeze and scatter out of his hands, and the local static electricity made them sticky like barbs. He regretted not bringing some sort of bag or container on him. Pockets were a novel concept but even if he had them, he wouldn’t want to risk any more unnecessary damage. Dark Cacao leaned back with a grunt and cracked his spine. Days slaving at a desk over paperwork had thoroughly messed up his back. Perhaps there was some credence to letting attendants handle that with supervision. Cheese had called him old fashioned for doing it all himself.
He sighed again, before his ears picked up on the sounds of baying. He clutched the feathers close to him with one arm, readying his other hand to the sword in its hilt. Cacao wasn’t alone in the grove.
The king shuffled behind a series of trees, watching several cake hounds come into view. It wasn’t uncommon to see various species of hounds intermingling with cookies if they didn’t cause trouble. His own kingdom had variants of brown and fluffy canines that were mellow like yaks. They made nice companions for children. These hounds didn’t look so well.
There were about three of them, each one with dull ragged fur and gaunt bodies. They panted heavily and sniffed along the ground. The leader of the pack followed the stale blood to the bramble bush. It reared up on its hind legs and began baying loudly up a nearby tree. These dogs had been trained to hunt, to trap small animals high in trees to be shot down. Soon enough, their master came into view.
The hunter was a stout man with a ragged beard filled with smoke. In fact, the man reeked of tobacco, enough that it made Cacao lightly gag. This man’s bad habits had dulled the color of his dough to a dusty grey, and caused him to wheeze slightly with each step. He was covered in traditional hunter’s garb, down to some leafy camouflage around his shoulders. He carried a barbed whip around his waist. Following the hounds to the tree, he looked up at the canopy for a few moments. He then growled angrily and lashed the dog. The hound let out a shrieking yelp when the barbs of the whip met raw skin. The sound of the close range whip crack made the king flinch. The two other dogs flanked the larger one and shrunk to the floor with fear in their eyes, letting out whimpers and whines.
“You worthless beasts!! You lead us to another empty fuckin’ tree!” He shouted and cursed, surely causing any small animal in their vicinity to flee, if the hounds’ baying hadn’t scared them off already. With his back turned, Cacao had a perfect view of the man’s large pack he hauled on his back. The king’s eyes widened when he spotted a long teal-tipped flight feather peaking out from within the pack’s zippered opening.
He immediately stepped into view, focused solely on Cheese’s plume. He then realized that this man had collected a hoard of flight feathers, crammed into his pack like quills in a jar.
“Sir.” His tone was gravelly and deep, pointed but poised, “Are you in need of assistance?”
The hunter spun around with a hand to his chest and another on the handle of his whip. “Oi! For heaven’s sake, I nearly coulda knocked your block off. It’s bad manners sneaking up on an aging man like me. You’re so fuckin’ tall, I could’ve mistaken you for a large beast!”
“My apologies.” Cacao rumbled, “What is it you’re-“
“Oi!” The king was abruptly cut off and he shuffled back a step as the hunter speed walked right up in his face, the tobacco on his breath and rotten teeth nearly overwhelming. “Where’d you get those, huh?! Give them to me!” The man barked.
Cacao stared for a moment before he saw the man forcefully reach out for Cheese’s feathers in the bough of his arm. The king warned with a growl. “These belong to my companion, as do the feathers in your pack.”
“Huh?? Your friend?! You’re not one of those new age hippy dippy freaks, are ya?” The hunter sneered. “These beauties are finders keepers! I earned my kill fair and square! So back off!” The man attempted to provoke and shove him away, but Cacao skillfully outmaneuvered him, slipping the pack off the man with little effort and sending him skidding to the ground.
“You didn’t kill her, we made sure of that.” Cacao narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. “Why would you hurt her?”
“Bullshit!” The man stumbled back on his feet, his hands balled into fists. “You’re just another hunter looking to mooch off my prize! The Sugar Swan is *mine!*”
The Sugar Swan…? Cacao pulled the cords open on the pack and saw how Golden Cheese’s feathers were stuffed inside, the man had likely used his dogs to track down all this material while searching for the body of a bird that didn’t even live remotely near here. Another peek let him notice that the main severed limb of Cheese’s wing was also inside. By incredible luck, this may be enough.
“You’re a fool…” Dark Cacao glowered, “The Sugar Swan protects all in the embrace of her wings. I have met her myself, and no being should disturb her, much less attempt to slay her. You gravely injured my partner, a fellow cookie instead!”
“GIVE THAT BACK!” The poacher snarled, “I’ve spent too long tracking that damn bird, invested too much to turn back! Im not about to let some idiotic giant lying tree hugger get in my way!” He pulled out his whip and let it crack in the air, causing the dogs to shrink away in fear. “Get your own fucking trophy.”
Images of Golden Cheese mutilated in the brambles flashed across Cacao’s mind. Her pained amber eyes… Many turned their gaze to Queen Golden Cheese and described her as a living jewel, a treasure in the center of the desert to be cherished and admired. He had grown numb to the glorifying nature of her Cheesebird subjects…but something about the way this filthy man called her a goddamn trophy filled the king with seething rage. He poured his pile of feathers into the pack and gently tossed it to the side. He took up arms and snarled as the man rushed him.
This was far from a fair fight, more like an idiotic bar brawl where the drunk fool picks a quarrel with an opponent twice his weight bracket. For every jab the poacher managed, Cacao laid him flat on the ground with one swing. With as much rage as he felt, the sword would be overkill for a lowlife like this man. It felt like sinful indulgence, but he savored the sound of his fist colliding with the man’s jaw. This poacher was certainly a beacon for punishment, as he continued to straggle to his feet no matter how many times Cacao knocked him down. The king had yet to break a sweat, and the man’s energy seemed to be waning, and with it, his foolhardy desperation grew tenfold.
Cacao raised his armored forearms to block his face from being grazed by the whip. The barbs screeched against the cold Cacaoian steel, but managed to snag onto the leather straps fastening them in place. The whip sheered off one of his gauntlets, and Cacao grunted as a hot searing pain fastened itself around his forearm in the gauntlet’s place. Barbs dug into the palm of his hand as his blood dribbled from his fist and arm. The leather whip was pulled taught, and the two men planted their feet in the ground and pulled.
While the hunter yanked with all his might, scraping open wounds into Cacao’s arm, he was no match for the brawn of the king of the north. Dark Cacao snarled, reaching out with his other arm to reel in the hunter like a fish. The man was effortlessly pulled to him, his knuckles white from his grip on the handle, before he got his chest kicked in by Cacao’s leg, sending him flying into the base of the tree.
Dark Cacao tightened his grip on the weapon in his hand, taking both ends and yanking with unholy strength. The braided leather snapped from the pressure, and the king tossed the handle half of the broken whip to the ground. The dogs cautiously stepped forward and sniffed it, seeing their cruel master beaten bloody by the one he challenged. Cacao hissed lightly at the steel barbs digging even deeper into his wrist and forearm the more he moved it, blood streaming down from the leather slack. The man’s face and body were swollen, and he spit out a few broken teeth. “Yoouu…son of a *bitch*…I-I’ll-“
“You’ll…what?” Cacao glowered, causing the man to flinch. “If I were you…I would start running…like the wretched vermin you are.”
The king of the north was no stranger to commanding a hunt. He brought a pair of fingers to his lips and blew a sharp series of whistles. The former hunter flinched, seeing his cake hounds turn to him with drool on their jowls. Their pack leader snarled.
“You fucking traitors!!” The man screeched, “I-I’m your boss, not that freak!” The hunters prowled slowly to him, growling and licking their teeth. They were starving.
Cacao snorted and turned his back as the man shuffled on his ass into the bushes, scurrying away like an infested rat. The dogs gave quick chase. Even if he somehow managed to get away, the hounds were sure to know his smoky scent by heart. They would find him…and devour him.
He ignored the distant howling shrieks as he ransacked the pack, finding all matter of tools and the diagrams for a ramshackle ballista. Weapons that powerful were meant to fire javelins and blow down stone walls. A direct shot from a bolt that large would be more than enough to blast his dear canary out of the air. He glowered at the paper and crumpled it in his hand. The king picked up the pack with his good arm, praying that the feathers the man had haphazardly collected weren’t too damaged, before lumbering out of the forest and back in the direction of the camp clearing.
———
Golden Cheese shivered and whimpered in her tent, each of her partners flanked her sides and tended to her. There wasn’t much they could do for her wings, so they bandaged the scrapes and made sure she wasn’t riddled with fractures. White Lily was holding her close, brushing nimble hands through her locks. She quietly forked out any tangles and removed any burrs. She made sure to sneak in a gentle peck on her bruised cheek as Cheese’s chin rested on her shoulder. Her flowery scent could calm anyone in the group, and it was working wonders on the avian’s panic. Sadly, nothing seemed to prompt the queen to eat, too distracted by her newfound asymmetry. She felt sick inside, depending on the others to keep her grounded in reality, lest she would spiral in her horrifying new circumstances.
They all perked up as the leaves rustled and Dark Cacao lumbered back into view, roughed up and worse for wear.
“He’s injured.” White Lily said with worry, but she and Pure Vanilla stayed with Golden Cheese as Hollyberry’s brows furrowed. She stood abruptly and met him halfway as he shuffled over to the tents.
“And where on Earthbread have you been?!” The berry queen rarely became visibly frustrated, and she got right up in his tired face. “I’d expect something like this from Cheese, but not from you. How could you just vanish without a word?! We needed you here!”
To Cacao, hearing an accusation like that from Hollyberry was like watching a pot call a kettle black, but he didn’t wish to argue, weary and lightheaded from blood loss.
Her tone was cut off as he gingerly shrugged a foreign pack off his shoulder. She gasped softly at the sight of the bushel of feathers draping out of the leather. “…I’m sorry…” he said sheepishly, casting his eyes to the side. “…I’m here now.”
Holly shifted on her feet as she stared at the feathers, sucking in a breath while she sifted a hand through her pink hair, further loosening her buns. She exhaled, stepping foreword to bring her forehead to his. “…Alright, you old fool…let’s get you patched up…I’m not the one you should apologize to, but I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you. Vanilla will be grateful for this, but we’re all exhausted, and it’s time you make up for your lost labor…That’s the rule.”
“That’s the rule…” he parroted back quietly with a soft nod. The king watched her pick up the pack with one arm and gently take his good hand with the other, leading him inside the healer’s tent. Within minutes, the barbs were extracted and the cuts sealed without issue. With some food in his belly and some sleep, he would be right as rain come morning. No one was immediately deeply interested in how he had managed to end up with a whip draping from one forearm, and any question referring to the pack and such was met with silence. Explanations would come later after recovery.
———
Vanilla and Lily were busy in their makeshift study tent, in deep conversation about old alchemical science, drawing up diagrams and workshopping a spell that could fix Golden Cheese’s wing. Hollyberry, usually in charge of maintaining the weapons, was focused intently on refurbishing the feathers from the pack. She had a handful of Cheese’s preening combs at her disposal, and gingerly cleaned and picked each feather from the tangled mess it was in.
In the meantime, Dark Cacao was in charge of moral support, to make up for the distress he had caused by leaving. To his worry though, from her makeshift nest on her stomach, still a bit groggy and shaky, Golden Cheese had not spoken a single word to him since his return. She still hadn’t eaten either, turning her face away from any food offered to her. She had her one remaining good wing coiled tight to her back, a clear indication of her closed off mood.
The king was silent as well, though that was his default state, always keeping a vigilant watch. His wine colored eyes flicked down to her prone form again, and he readjusted the blanket over her shoulders, attempting to avoid messing up any feathers should they get caught on the fabric and pulled up against the grain. It was usually why Cheese didn’t use blankets and the like, her wings usually large enough to trap in heat when fluffed up and fully able to cocoon her. Her crown was rested off to the side, and she had been changed into a loose long sleep gown to give her more warmth but still give her a range of maneuverability. Most, if not all her outfits had the back stripped out, this simple gown was no different.
Cacao let out a sigh through his nose and reached out to stroke her hair. Lily had done a great job brushing it out, it was light and fluffy. His large fingers brushed along the base of her neck, lightly scratching the light downy covering that trailed up her back and meshed with her golden mane. It sent a shiver down her spine, causing the feathers to reflexively puff out. She cast a cautious side-eye back at him but didn’t seem to object. He hoped a light rubbing would relieve some of her muscle tension in her neck and shoulders, as it wasn’t uncommon for her back to cramp after long flights, though usually Vanilla administered that treatment.
He smiled as, for the first time that night, she let out a barely audible purr. Cacao was happy to see that she hadn’t completely shut down. “I…um…H-How are you feeling…?” His natural stutter made its way out given the heightened anxiety in the air around camp.
The avian didn’t say anything for a few moments, but she did shift around, leaning from one cheek to the other in her folded arms as she focused on his face. Her amber eyes were exhausted, the pigment around her eyelids darkened. “Less…hopeless…I suppose…” she sucked in a light sniffle, “I thought I had lost…was going to lose everything…that my life was almost over…” her eyes flicked downwards and stared at nothing in particular.
Cacao brushed some of her locks out of her face, “You are a hardy cookie, Golden Cheese, you have many years ahead of you yet. We weren’t going to let you slip away so easily…”
Her wing twitched, and she shook her head lightly, “My entire life revolves around the sun and the sky…Dark Cacao…My Cheesebirds need a leader in their flock to guide them…I’m the group scout…I provide cover from the heavens above…without my wings, I am useless…to them and to you…” her tone weakened as she curled a bit to her chest, but Cacao refused to let her isolate herself. He gently reclined himself on his side, his form dwarfing her own beside her. The king took the queen’s palm in his massive grasp, and he brushed a thumb over the back of her hand.
“…You know in your heart that isn’t true…even if it must feel that way…Your worth to us and yourself isn’t tied to the state of your body…and you must not give into despair, Canary…there is still hope.” He rumbled softly.
“I suppose I have you to thank for that…” Cheese replied, “That doesn’t make you any less of a dick though…” she puffed up her face into a light pout, “You wandered off during my mental breakdown, after pinning my back and pulling on my poor feathers…You’re cruel, Cannoli, and I’m gonna hold that over your head for the rest of your days.” She stuck her tongue out a bit at him, and he couldn’t hold back a light chuckle.
With a light sigh, he scooted up to prop himself on his hip, before leaning down to press a light peck to her temple. “I am…truly…very sorry for that…I don’t regret leaving to search, had I not, who knows where your wing would have ended up…We hit a stroke of extraordinary luck in that aspect…” The king bowed his head, “…but the thought of the agony you were in didn’t leave my thoughts for a moment…”
Cheese let out a weak chuckle, “Don’t sweat it, you big lug…” Silence for a few moments, “…Where did you find…it…?”
“…In the hands of a worthless wretch not worth wasting any breath on…don’t worry, I took care of him. He won’t harm anyone or anything again.”
“So…he was the one who…shot me?”
Cacao nodded his head with his eyes to the floor, fiddling lightly with a lock of his own hair, “He mistook you for the Sugar Swan…somehow.”
Her fingers dug into the cloth beneath her, “I should be flattered…there’s no being on all of Earthbread prettier than her…but it doesn’t make me feel any better…”
“Perhaps it’s best we don’t dwell on it…I don’t want to think about what might have happened if that vermin had stumbled on you first.” His voice grew more gravelly near the end of the sentence, which Cheese picked up on quickly.
She grinned with her teeth, “Our noble protector…is that a growl I picked up on? A hint of possessiveness perhaps? Not gonna lie, that’s kinda hot.”
Cacao rolled his eyes with an annoyed smirk, “I’m uh…happy to see you perking up back to a bit of your usual self, perhaps you’ll eat a little bit then?” He reached over and slid the dish of vitamin jellies near her.
The queen grimaced a small bit, but she let out a soft sigh, “The soreness, the empty feeling of my missing limb…it’s like it’s still there…itching…”
“Phantom pains…” Cacao rumbled.
“Yeah…” Cheese sunk into her blankets, “Pure Vanilla’s spell dampens out the worst of it…and Lily’s got me mellowed out…but despite all that, it’s hard to focus on anything else…but if I can stomach it…I’ll try to nibble on something…for all of you.” She went quiet for a moment and then smiled weakly, “If anything to get you all to stop nagging me about it.”
———
As the sun dipped below the horizon and day wore into the evening, progress was grinding along at a snail’s pace, but any step forward in the process was a good sign.
Ultimately, Cheese’s lack of appetite persisted, and she only managed to force down a few of the jellies before she started to feel a bit queasy. Thankfully, as a consolidation, the queen kept herself well hydrated. She currently had her head in Hollyberry’s lap as she dozed, treading in and out of listless dreams. Cacao found himself just as tired, and retired to bed beside Cheese shortly after the group finished their meager dinner. Apparently everyone had small stomachs today, who would have guessed?
Holly looked out the silken entrance to see Vanilla and Lily still slaving away in the study. She could sense the caffeine flowing, their pupils narrowing into slits ever so slightly as they worked. They wrote out lines of symbols and then scratched them out again. They were doing untold amounts of math, and looking at the hints of diagrams made her own head spin. It was best to leave that sort of thing to the ones with book-smarts. She was always more at home with the artistic sides of life, whether it be sketching lightly or polishing their weapons.
Hollyberry let out a long but soft yawn, feeling her eyelids grow heavy. The queen looked down from her book to her girlfriend’s face nestled into the frilly ruffles of her pink nightgown. Holly could spy Cheese’s features and brows twitching. So, she shushed her softly and brushed a thumb over the teal marks on the desert queen’s cheeks. A soothed hum was evoked from Cheese’s chest and she settled.
Holly smiled at that and let her gaze wander over to her boyfriend, listening to his soft snores. It probably wasn’t often that he got to indulge in Cheese’s choice of nesting material. It was some of the softest and most expensive cotton from her homeland. They would all sleep like rocks tonight, that is, if Vanilla and Lily decided to join them.
The berry queen didn’t like having fidgety hands, she always needed to keep her mind active, needed a task to keep busy. She had finished cleaning up the remainder of Cheese’s wing hours ago, wrapping it tight to keep the material as preserved as possible. Sadly, she found it difficult to sit in content silence like Cacao, Lily, and Vanilla. With Cheese bedridden, she could have gone out foraging, but didn’t want to leave her partners after everything.
“I suppose I’m not being very helpful if I exhaust myself…” She uttered to herself, “Better get some shut eye, old gal…”
She closed her book.
———
It was nearly dawn before White Lily looked up and noticed just how long she and Vanilla had been working. She handled pulling all-nighters a lot better than her old school mate. It wasn’t uncommon for him to fall asleep sitting up on any given day. Said healer was currently slumped over the table, short ivory bangs splayed out over a million papers. The spell and procedure was fully finished, she had just spent the last few hours quadruple checking their work. It wasn’t every day one had to develop entirely new magical techniques on the fly in an emergency, but if anyone on all of Earthbread were to accomplish it, she and Vanilla were more than worthy of such a challenge.
She leaned back in her chair, her hips and legs quite sore from sitting still on a hard surface for so long. The mage stood up slowly and moseyed over to Pure Vanilla, lazily shaking his shoulder.
“…nnghh?” He was startled awake, looking up at her with squinting eyes.
“Come on, partner…if we wanna cast a decent spell, we need actual sleep…” she yawned now that she was actively thinking about sleep. “I wanna get good cuddles in before the sun goes up…and Holly and Cacao will go on watch…”
“Mmm…kay…Lily Dear…” He let her help him out of his own seat. He wrapped an arm around her waist as she lead him to Cheese’s nest.
The two less than gracefully fell in, but were quickly grappled on and eclipsed by the bulk of both Cacao and Holly. They were aware enough to avoid Cheese’s injury. She understandably didn’t wake from the disturbance, she was passed out cold. As for the rest of them, exhaustion was contagious, and within minutes they were all sprawled on top of each other. All was safe and warm and secure.
———
“Cheese, darling, you need to hold still.”
“Y-You say that like that’s just an easy thing to do…” She grumbled at Holly as she sat in Cacao’s lap, only because he was the strongest among them, capable of holding her reflexes in place if the need arose. The warrior king sat unmoving, unlike the queen who had her toned arms wrapped tight around his torso. She swallowed and occasionally started visibly shaking like a leaf…or a toy berry poodle.
“Easy…” He attempted to comfort her by stroking her head. “Everything is fine…they haven’t even started yet. They just need to lay out everything in the right place.”
“I know that.” She said rapidly, huffing in a sharp breath without moving, her cheek smushed against his chest. Vanilla’s procedure called for simulating an average day for Cheese’s body; levels, chemicals, and so on. Most of her surface level injuries had been fully healed, but aside from the barest amount of numbing for the root of her sudden partial amputation, she was for all intents and purposes, unmedicated. She was in a state of active pain, no herbs, no healing magic, no calming spells. Vanilla had to ensure that nothing extra interfered with the fusion.
Unfortunately, Cheese had a history of medical anxiety. There was an element of intimate trust one had to share with a medical professional as they pressed on sensitive spots, poked and prodded. The queen only ever really trusted Vanilla to handle examining her, and she did. She really did. There was no one on Earthbread more gentle-handed and reliable than her beloved Pure Vanilla…but once again, they were asking a lot from her. There were no other avian cookies in all the skies the Five knew of. This spell had to be created just for her, and there was no way to verify that it would work, or wouldn’t have any side effects. This was foreign territory and though she wouldn’t admit it, it terrified her.
“Alright dear…” Vanilla put on a soft smile, “You can pull your good wing back, try and get comfortable…”
She hesitated slightly, resisting the urge to rapidly flap her wings to rid herself of the dreadful anxious energy in her bones. Cheese folded up her left wing, feeling pins and needles prick up her spine as they unwrapped the stump of her once perfect right wing. Her harsh breathing grew in tempo as they smoothed out her feathers gently, lining up all the broken plumes like a puzzle. It was taking a meticulous…agonizing long period of time. Her already thin patience broke, and she trembled again, her injured wing jerking back slightly away from the center of the alchemic drawn circle.
Vanilla sighed, “Cheese, please-“
“Blondie, you’re taking forever! I just want this to be over with!” She bared her teeth, breathing dipping into ragged hyperventilating. Vanilla, Holly, and Lily instantly pulled their hands away from her.
“Alright, okay…take a deep breath and relax…Try to calm down…” Lily looked at her with worry.
Cacao’s large arms pulled her close, and after a few minutes of quiet, Golden Cheese steadied.
“It’s only taking a while because we don’t want to make any mistakes…we want this spell to go perfectly…as if you were never injured to begin with…” Vanilla smoothed out the primary feathers on the remaining chunk of her wing still laying on the grass.
“It…” the queen gulped as she soaked up Cacao’s silent comfort. “It doesn’t need to be perfect…”
The other four looked at her…and then eyed each other.
“Golden Cheese,” Vanilla said softly, “Gilded Queen…Little Bird…my sweet Angel…light and love of our lives…” he leaned in slightly, “I…highly…doubt that.”
Cheese grumbled a little and puffed out her feathers. “Grrrr…alright alright! Maybe I’ll care just a little bit if it’s not perfect, but I’m not gonna hold it against you, who do you think I am?!” She let her forehead hit Cacao’s chest. “I just want it back, please! Just get it done…I love you, I trust you…but I’m begging you…I’m trying to hold onto my sanity here…” She grimaced as she tried to straighten her injured wing again, despite the pang of fiery pain rolling up her shoulder.
“Okay love…I’m sorry…you’re doing so good…I promise I’ll try to be quick.” He nudged her ever so slightly so she’d be lined up again.
“Vanilla Bean.” Hollyberry said, “It isn’t going to be perfect, it was never going to be possible to find every single feather out there, but we have all the important ones. We just have to hope that when it’s reattached that with time the missing material will regrow. I’ve looked her over at least a dozen times, and I believe with certainty that we’ve got this right. Let’s just gird up out loins and get on with it. Diminishing her stress is the most important thing.”
Vanilla gently made his way to his feet, holding his hand out as Lily passed him his orchid staff. “Alright…no more delays…White Lily, are you ready?”
The other mage took ahold of her own staff, standing across from him. She nodded quietly as Holly stepped back to give them room, moving over to sit on Cheese’s left.
“Alright, Cheese, we’re going to start. I won’t lie to you, love, this may hurt at first, but I designed this procedure to reconnect your nerves and then apply overlapping pain management spells. If all goes well, it should only last a few moments…but you must not move, not an inch.” The healer began speaking in a serious tone. “We don’t want your muscles, tissue, bones, or joints to end up misaligned…when you feel ready, we’ll begin.”
Golden Cheese’s amber eyes were wide with unease. “J-Just a…m-moment…” She slowly turned her head to face away from towards Hollyberry, who gave her a warm and supportive smile.
Cacao rested his chin on her tangerine hair, “Everything will be alright…we’ve got you.”
“Yeah…” She swallowed a lump in her throat, bowing her head down and closing her eyes tight. “Fuck it, do it, go.”
The desert queen bit down hard on her cheek as she felt a burning blaze engulf her wing. Her mind briefly flashed to her near white out when the ballista’s bolt pierced through her, and her fingers clawed hard into Cacao’s back, drawing out a hushed hiss from him. And then, just as Vanilla said, the pain vanished almost as soon as it presented itself. She lost all sensation along the length of the appendage, right down to the muscles that connected it to her back. She tried to focus on regulating her breathing, and she seemed to quickly calm down.
Cacao chose to avert his gaze as well, in solidarity, but Hollyberry got a full view of the incredible feat of magic being performed. The clearing was engulfed in a chaotic warm glow, with flashes of colors and lights dazzling the air. The circle illuminated, and the berry queen watched as spindles of tissue and cells began to bridge between all the separate pieces, multiplying and manifesting until the seams between them were nonexistent. Broken feathers were mended, dropped secondaries were reattached, and bald patches were showing signs of the beginning stages of molting. More light began to flow from Vanilla and Lily’s Soul Jams, the energy in the air bringing a calm and relaxed atmosphere to all of them.
The entire process lasted four minutes.
The healer swayed and stumbled once the light dissipated, and he gazed now at the product of his and Lily’s labor with a smile. He chuckled weakly, eyes heavy as he leaned on his staff, “…All done…” He said that in a tone as if he had given a child a spoonful of bitter medicine.
Cacao cracked open one eye and allowed a rare warmth to adorn his face, “Well…would you look at that…” he said in a contented awe.
Cheese slowly lifted her head, taking a few moments to gather herself before she dared to peek at her wing, which was gently regaining sensation. She willed herself to lift it, and Holly gasped in excitement as she almost immediately flexed the reconnected joint, flaring her primary flight feathers. Having a pair of wings was like having a second pair of arms, and Cheese examined her regained mobility the way one would explore the movement of their hand and fingers on a whim. The four waiting in baited breath as she looked herself over, experimentally beating her wings once or twice. A gust of air kicked up around them in response.
There was no pain, not even any discomfort. It was a tiny bit patchy, and her feathers were a little ragged, but…
“It’s…completely healed…” Cheese uttered with a newfound tearful grin.
Hollyberry let out a high pitched giddy squeal, scrambling up from the grass and launching herself at Lily and Vanilla. She scooped them up off the ground, each in one arm and spun them around. “YOU TWO ARE INCREDIBLE!!! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT, YOU GENIUSES YOU! C’MERE!” The mage and the healer giggled with joy as the berry queen planted a myriad of rapid smooches on their faces and cheeks.
“Congratulations…” Cacao let go of her and let Cheese stand and adjust to her regained balance. She finally shook out all her built up reflexes, crowing as she rapidly shuddered and fluttered her wings. She then stiffened at the sight of blood on her fingertips.
“Your nails are just as sharp and manicured as ever…” Cacao rumbled amused, “Don’t worry…nothing Vanilla can’t fix once he’s rested.”
Lily hissed in sympathy at the sight, “Let me at least put some bandages on it, she got you good…”
“Cacao’s one tough cookie, Dandelion, at least blood doesn’t show up well on his clothes.” Hollyberry chuckled.
The avian wiped her hands off on a nearby cloth as she watched the others laugh and mingle. She sniffled a smidge and rubbed moisture off her tear marked cheek. A bright and bittersweet look overcame her face as she dashed towards them and grappled them all into a large hug, one they graciously accepted.
She nuzzled her face into their hold, “You all…You’re…you’re something else…you know?”
“We’re just glad you’re okay…” Vanilla pressed his starred forehead to hers. “I would recommend allowing yourself to adjust for the day and to try flying tomorrow…you’ll need a lot of energy.”
“-And energy means a hearty meal!” Holly chirped with glee, full of vim and vigor.
“Y-Yeah.” Cheese chuckled, a bit fatigued, “With the pain gone…I’m actually feeling pretty starved.”
“Well I wouldn’t blame you, you’ve barely touched your food for the past week.” Lily said. “Someone should go hunting.”
“I can handle Golden Cheese’s duties on that front. When she’s well and truly back to her strength, she can double down on her lost labor.”
“My what?!” The queen questioned with a confused chirp.
The other four recited the old chant in sync, “That’s the rule.”
———
It was night…and Golden Cheese gently fiddled away in her tent, granted a bit of privacy for the first time in five suns…aside from that disastrous flight…
She shook her head, gently applying more polish to her golden crown. The queen felt lethargic, suitably filled from all the freshly cooked jelly meat stew that Holly and Lily prepared together. She sighed quietly, charmed by just how much everyone cared…of course they would…she had known them all for years.
She wasn’t quite sure why she didn’t feel…ecstatic…not like when she burst free from the cave. Cheese should be happy, and to an extant she was! Of course she was.
The queen tilted her head upwards, finally meeting her gaze in the reflection after avoiding it for so long. She opened her wings, eyeing the smooth and organized covering on one…and the ragged patchiness of the other. She set her crown aside, gently resting it on its pedestal, before lurching over into her nest with her arms over her eyes.
Cheese fidgeted around in silence, curling her wings around herself. Her hands found themselves wandering…wandering over to her left wing. She fiddled…picking at one of her feathers…She felt an itch, and she scratched it gently.
Golden Cheese bit her lip and her plumage puffed out as she plucked the feather from her wing. It stung.
She beat her right wing, briskly blowing out the flickering candlelight...