Chapter Text
Pure Vanilla and his friends took a rest stop back in the now run down pub outside of the spire; as it turns out, the town was Real, just not as lively as it looked when they’d gone through previously.
Gingerbrave insisted they use the stone oven to roast some jelly hams before heading back to the shores and catching a ride back to crispia. If only they had access to the other realm, though Pure Vanilla was too weak and too wary to try opening a portal at the present moment.
They settled themselves in the cushioned booths and Pure Vanilla insisted he take watch. The kids needed rest after all Shadow Milk cookie had put them through. Between constant transmutation, getting thrown off the highest tower and having to physically fight the beast with their combined strength, he imagined they were beat.
He let them each settle into their booths and went outside to catch his thoughts. Now that his staff was awakened, he could see so much that the naked eye could not; almost as if he had an x-ray scanner on command. He ensured no dangers surrounded the inn and sat himself on the broken fountain in the centre of the square.
What a long day it had been. Or set of days, though he wouldn’t know until they arrived back in crispia.
Intuition told him he was meant to go looking for something, so he went to take a walk.
It was merely the forests around the spire, not far from the town.
From somewhere within, he heard a rustle, holding his staff at the ready to light the dark forest to expose the new company.
Doing so revealed a tiny cream sheep, possibly separated from its flock and looking for some kind of safety.
“Oh…” he leaned down and it approached to sniff his gown and his hand. He rubbed the top of its head, “Are you lost, little sheep?”
It only baa’d in response, but he seemed to sense its emotions, his staff showing an aura around it. It was alone and afraid. He pulled it into his arms. Its weight was far more than he was supposed to carry after such a tiring battle, so he put it down and beckoned it to follow. His staff was pulsing to tell him something was afoot. Just what was afoot became clear in the form of a loud crash and a scared bleat from the sheep. It ran in the direction of the town and he followed it.
Once he’d managed to calm it down, he showed it to a patch of flowers on the boulevard and it settled down.
He wanted to stay with it, but he had cookies to check on, to protect.
The next morning he awoke to the sounds of someone running around the square, shouting out for any company.
Black Sapphire cookie?
Pure vanilla reluctantly slipped out from underneath a table and peeked outside. Making sure to avoid being seen, he slipped behind a stack of empty crates and scanned the square his the staff’s clairvoyance to sense there was in fact Two new presences. Black sapphire and Shadow Milk cookie, who limped along beside him. Neither looked to be injured, but for shadow milk cookie to be walking on the ground like that…
He waited and watched as black sapphire instructed him to sit on the fountain, the same place where pure vanilla had sat before. Black sapphire said something about looking for help, and shadow milk looked around with a skeptical expression on his face. Still, black sapphire headed in a direction pure vanilla couldn’t see from this angle.
Who to confront first… Black sapphire was the far less dangerous option, but if either cookie was left to their own devices… if they found the cookies resting in the pub-
A sheep’s baa startled him out of his thoughts. It nudged against him, drawing far too much attention to him.
“Hush, hush little sheep. It’s not safe to be noisy right now!” It looked at the beast sitting on the fountain and back to pure vanilla cookie, sniffled and walked out into the open. He tried to call after it, but shadow milk saw it first and… instead of flinching away, he seemed to watch it approach him with an open curiosity. The sheep seemed similarly curious, despite his claws and shifting eyes in his hair. Some of them focused on the sheep, while others looked around for where it had come from.
“What… what are you?” He stretched his arm out so the sheep would come closer, “I don’t think I’ve seen anything like You in this place.”
While the eyes in his hair scanned the surroundings, the sheep came closer to nuzzle its cheek against his hand. He struggled not to hurt it, as if he’d never tried to use his claws to pet anything before.
Then one of the eyes landed on Pure Vanilla’s hiding spot, and then another and another until the eyes on his face looked up too. Pure vanilla supposed that a being like him would have the intuition to know he was there even if he couldn’t be seen. Slowly, he stepped around the boxes and into the light. His staff was on the lookout, Clairvoyant sight at the ready. Shadow milk seemed already to go from curious to nervous as he approached, the eyes in his eyes going every which way as soon as he tried control them to look more at the cookie before him.
“Are you its owner…? I’m sorry, it just found me here, and-“
“Shadow Milk Cookie?”
The beast waited a heart beat before responding, “Who?”