Part I
First Encounter

　It was a questionably peaceful morning in the Raisin Village. Questionably, because mornings never were “peaceful” in such a place located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by weary hills and mountains.

　Every villager in the Raisin Village was doing their own things, with kids playing around while they had the chance and time. 

　Peaceful morning in the Raisin Village it was indeed, until…

　“Black Raisin Cookie!” someone yelled.
　“Black Raisin Cookie~!” someone… sang?

　The cookie in dark with a raisin crow on the shoulder, — the one whom someone called for, — looked in the direction of the voice. It took her a few seconds to notice a small cookie in a hood running up to her, while waving their hand eagerly.

　“Black Raisin Cookie, there you are!” they cheered when they finally reached her. “I’ve been looking for you.” they said. Seemed like they indeed were looking for her and for a long time, by the way their breath seemed to waver.

　“Kid, did something happen?” she asked them, already expecting some horrible trouble.

　The day’s morning was too quiet after all, and she knew that was never a good sign. She knew, that something would happen sooner or later.

　“Erm,” the young cookie stuttered. “Not really?”

　That seemed to confuse the crow keeper, which led her letting out a puzzled ‘huh’, frowning. 

　“I mean— not that I know for sure.” The raisin kid mumbled uncertainty. ”I just—! Have you heard anything weird today? Like a strange roaring sound? I mean, not really roaring, it was like an explosion but not in explosive way? No, that doesn’t make sense… uh, like an earthquake but without the shaky part? Like—” they began to ramble, trying to explain what exactly they had heard and what made them come to her, even trying to recreate the sound they heard, which was not very helpful for the crow keeper.

　Black Raisin Cookie knew this kid, and quite well: she knew if they start rambling, they start rambling, and on any other occasion she’d let them, but she, unfortunately, had to interrupt their downpour of words, especially if something dangerous might be awaiting.

　“Kid—” she sighed, palming her eyes with her only hand, the black crow sitting on her shoulder flew over the top of her head, landing on it like a nest. “Look, just tell me where you heard the noises.” she said, looking at the troubled cookie.

　“Ah, right! It- it was this way.” the cookie went in the direction where they came from, while Black Raisin Cookie was following them behind.

　They went past a few tents before the troubled kid came to a stop, humming.

　“It was…” they mumbled to themself, or at least it seemed so.

　They paused for a second or two, looking around as if trying to remember where exactly they had heard the noise. They then let out a happy ‘ah’.

　“Right! It was that way!” they claimed, pointing somewhere in the direction of the hills, away from the village. “That way is where I heard something.”

　“You sure?” Black Raisin Cookie asked them in case of maybe they weren’t sure and looked at the direction they pointed at.

　She would check it out anyway whether they were sure or not. But it was better to ask, because maybe there were any other suspicious things going on around them and she, — somehow, — didn’t notice it. Again, it was a pretty peaceful day, it just could never be that easy in a place like this.

　“Yes! Yes, I’m sure it was that way!” they assured her, still pointing out, even shaking their hand in the direction as if emphasising it. 

　“Okay, okay. I will go take a look.” she said with a serious expression on her face, lips pressing in a thin line.

　“I can go with you if—” they were about to offer, but she suddenly interrupted them.

　“No. You are to stay here.” she stated. “Look, what if it is actually something dangerous out there, I can’t just let you go with me.”

　“Oh…” the cookie looked disappointed at the negative response, but at the same time they didn’t blame her, they knew she could be very protective and for a good reason as well. “Okay. But what if something happens here?”

　Black Raisin Cookie took a deep breath, thinking about it. Because they were right, what if something happens in the village while she’s gone. But she still needed to see what was it they had heard. What a mess.

　“Okay, how about this,” she started, as the idea got in her head. She put her hand over her mouth and made a whistling sound. A few seconds later and a few crows made their way to her.

　“You take one of the crows.” she extended her only arm out, letting one of the arrived crows sit on it, while the other two crows that had arrived with it flew away back to where they came from. “If something does happen you will have this little girl, she will fly out to me if there’s any problem in the village, and while she’s on her way, you all will hide as good as possible.”

　After she finished, the crow jumped from her arm to the top of kid’s head.

　“O-okay.” they agreed. They trusted Black Raisin Cookie, they truly did, but it was really nerving knowing that she won’t be there for a while.

　“Actually, tell about this to the elders as well, so you all know that I will be away for some time and if in danger, we have a plan.” she told them.

　After that, the kid told her that they will do everything she asked them to do, and then she went on her way, the kid waving their hand, sending her luck.

　Black Raisin Cookie and her loyal crow friend had been going down the path for about half an hour, yet they still hadn’t found anything that could have been the source of the ‘roaring earthquake sound’.

　The cookie in dark coat looked around and then stopped on her way. The crow looked at her somehow puzzled.

　“I think it’ll take us too long if we continue this way.” she frowned, before giving her crow a look. “Say, could you fly up and see, maybe it’s something in a  long distance?” 

　The crow did something that looked like a nod and flew up right from her shoulder, while the raisin cookie looked at her flying friend. “Maybe I should’ve asked that at the beginning…” she mumbled to herself, making a mental note for herself in case something similar happens later again.

　While the crow was searching for anything suspicious, she looked around again but found only hillocks and nothing that might be interesting or unusual in general.

　Minutes had passed, and she finally saw her winged companion flying back. She was about to extend her arm for the raisin crow to sit on, but the crow looked alarmed, which usually meant that it probably found something not so great.

　“What’s wrong? Have you found anything?” she asked as if she wasn’t expecting a positive response. The crow croaked at her, telling her to go after it. 

　And she did.

　Now she understood why it took her friend that long to find something. It didn’t take them too long to arrive at the spot. It wasn’t even far away from the place she had been waiting, yet it wasn’t really easy to find, which is weird considering everything in this oven hole is mostly dead and empty.

　She couldn’t understand only one thing though. Perhaps she was seeing things, which would be understandable given her position in this world. 

　She stood around some ruins, and she couldn’t tell where they all came from, they seemed old but at the same time somehow… new? As if something old had been just recently destroyed. She didn’t even know of this place until now.

　But aside the ruins there was one thing that made her put her guard up.

　Not a thing, but a cookie. And how horribly they looked.

　Before her stood a cookie, they had blondish hair yet its ends gave a greenish hue and you could barely see the white hairs here and there. Was that jam? They seemed to wear a black long-sleeved turtleneck underneath a greyish dress? Robes? Alb? The ends of the sleeves, upper and lower parts of the said dress seemed to have a hint of crimson red. Their tanned body seemed to be in a lot of pain. But there shouldn’t be so much strawberry jam.

　Their, — also jammed, — hands were leaning on the strange looking wooden stick with a dangerously sharp end. A cane of some kind? It seemed to be the reason they could stand at all in the first place, because they were gripping it as for dear life. Why was there so much jam?

　She couldn’t see their face though — their messy hair was hiding it from her eyes.

　And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to come to them at all. What were the odds of some cookie appearing in the middle of nowhere in ruins all covered in strawberry jam?! Were they the reason for the noise that scared the kid? It just didn’t make any sense.

　She didn’t know what to do. She could ask them if they wanted her help, — and Witches they needed help, — but what were the odds this wasn’t some sort of trap? What if this was a setup?

　But… what if this wasn’t one? What if in front of her actually stood a really injured cookie with no one else to help them?

　It could be a really dirty trap.
　It could be a cookie in need of a help.

　All this thinking made her feel a little dizzy. Or was it all because of the amount of jam she saw?

　She needed to choose. She needed to make sure she had chosen a right choice. She couldn’t make a mistake.

　…

　The cookie in front of her seemed to stumble a little, which led them to let out a little whiny noise. Looked like they were about to fall.

　‘I made my choice.’ Black Raisin Cookie thought to herself, as she suddenly ran to the injured cookie.

　“Are you okay?” she asked loudly, as she was getting closer and closer to the cookie. The crow was flying right beside her. She didn’t understand why she asked that question in the first place if she already knew the answer.

　The cookie seemed to hear her, since their head moved as if in her direction. But a few seconds later, and they lost their balance.

　The raisin cookie noticed their sudden fall and she quickly ran to them, successfully reaching them on time and getting their arm around her neck for them not to fall, their cane-thing still in their hand, dead-grip.

　Black Raisin Cookie let out a relieved sigh and looked at the injured cookie and their, — now almost open, — face.

　Her heart must have missed a beat.
　She had had questions before, but now she had much more questions than ever. She was horrified.

　Their hazy eyes, — more particularly their eye, — had yellowish colour. They seemed to have some kind of a baked mark on their forehead but Witches you could only see the half of it now.

　Half of their face was covered in jam.

　And the said half of their face was gone,  covered in cracks that ran from the hole to their right side under their only eye. This was what their hair hid oh so perfectly.

　This was the reason why they had so much jam on them.

　Black Raisin Cookie wanted to throw up. This strong sugary scent, this sticky jam, these cracks and dull eye looking at her, — at her? — it didn’t make sense, all of this didn’t make any sense. How are they still alive with such injury?!

　She couldn’t get herself together, she wanted to move, to do something, but  stare at them.

　And Withes she needed to. She needed to.

　She turned her head away from them and took a deep, deep breath, two, three, slowly coming back to her senses. Four, five, the scent was too much. She let out a deep breath and looked at them again, thinking what to say.

　They didn’t seem to register anything though. She thought they looked at her, but now it seemed like it wasn’t what they were actually doing, — they were looking nowhere, unfocused. So much red—

　No. She wasn’t going to panic again. She needed to act.

　“Hey, I-I don’t know if you hear me, but I’ll try to help you, okay? Just try to hold on, we will have to walk through this together.” she told them, yet she couldn’t tell if they heard her or missed everything. It didn’t matter.

　“Buddy, I need your help.” she called her raisin friend. The crow in question, — who was now sitting on the ground, — flew up, listening to the raisin cookie closely.

　“I need you to lead the way,” she said, while adjusting her grip on the injured cookie. “Better to get the fastest and safest way possible. Can you do that?”

　The crow nodded in a way of flying up, dropping down and flying back up again. And it started to fly in a not too fast, but steady speed. Black Raisin Cookie and the unknown cookie right behind it.

　“Just hold on.” it wasn’t clear if she said that for them or herself.

　The way home wasn’t that long, even if combining it with frequent stops they took, — not because Black Raisin Cookie’s ‘passenger’ was heavy, they barely weighed anything to her, but because they weren’t in the greatest condition to be moved around, even though it’s just the walking, — she didn’t know if the cracks would spread or not, and she didn’t want to test it.

　When she reached the village, she suddenly realised that she left it without her for about two hours if not more. But fortunately for her, everything seemed to be fine, as she saw the hooded kid talking with their little friend group.

　Although, she’d have to interrupt their little talk. She understood that making kids to see the horrors would be a horrible, terrible idea, but they would still see it whether she allowed it or not. And she needed help now. Too irresponsible of her, but there was no other villager in sight.

　She was about to interrupt them, as the kid in the glasses noticed her.

　“Oh, g-guys, there’s Black Raisin Cookie!” they cheered, their voice wavering.

　The said cookies looked her way, and instantly dropped whatever they were talking about, coming up to her.

　When they reached her, all of them stopped, looking at the unknown guest with a strange stick in their hand.

　“Is— is that a cookie? What happened to them?” the cookie with a raisin braid asked, shaking a little at the view of strawberry jam, — both fresh and already dried. 

　Black Raisin Cookie adjusted her grip on the cookie she had been holding all this time, saying:
　“I’ll explain everything later. Do we have some bandages left?” she asked. The crow keeper remembered that they had some bandages left, yet she wasn’t sure if they were already used or not.

　“Y-yes, yes, we still have some left. They are in o-one of the tents, not sure where though.” the hooded cookie admitted, nervously looking at Black Raisin Cookie.

　She sighed. “Okay. I need your help. I’ll go get them to my tent, while you guys find the bandages, deal?” she asked them. She didn’t know if the cookie she was holding was still truly alive, — maybe she was holding a stale cookie for a while, — but even so, if they do find the bandages, they’ll know where to find them again next time.

　“Yes, ma’am!” all of them replied in unison, before scattering in different directions in search of bandages.

　Without any other words, she and the half alive cookie went to her tent, — their legs movements were the only way to say that they were still somehow alive.

　The inside of the tent was warm enough for a cookie not to freeze and crumble. It wasn’t a big tent, but it was just enough for her, and for the unfortunate visitor. Crow decided to sit on a table, pecking its own feathers. 

　“Okay, let’s sit you on the bed…” she told them, even though they still probably didn’t really register her saying anything.

　The said bed was more of an old thin mattress lying on the ground and a thin, — in some places even ripped, — blanket with another, much thinner blanket crumpled into a something that resembled a pillow. It really could have been worse.

　The cookie in dark was about to take the still dangerous stick out of the injured cookie’s hand, but when she just touched it, the cookie tightened their grip on the staff.

　“Oh, so you do understand something. Look, I need to take it whether you like it or not.” the grip never lessened. Not good. “Okay let’s do this then. Hope you are listening because I won’t repeat myself: I will take your… cane-thing, and all I’ll do is just move it to the corner, so when you are more… aware, you take it with a more of a clear mind. How about that?”

　The cookie in front of her seemed like they heard her, their jammed face still not showing enough for her to understand what they thought about though. The grip didn’t wave at first, but after a few seconds, they slowly lessened their grip on the stick.

　“Good,” she nodded to herself. “Now, let’s sit,” she helped them to sit on the really low bed.

　She took the cane in her now free hand and placed it in one of the corners of the tent near the table, making sure it wouldn’t accidentally fall and injure someone.

　“See, your stick is here. Safe and sound.” she said, which was kind of a lie it was not really safe and actually half broken. She looked at them, realising they weren’t looking her way at all, but at their trembling hands.

　She was about to comment on their uncommunicativeness, but the injured cookie suddenly lost their consciousness, falling sideways where the ‘pillow’ lied. 

　Black Raising Cookie instantly reached out to them, checking them up. After some seconds of looking at them in silence, she let out a relieved sigh, mumbling: “Just passed out. Okay. That’s okay…”

　Saying that seemed to calm her down, but then her racing thoughts were thankfully interrupted by someone loudly making their way inside the tent.

　“Black Raisin Cookie! Black Raisin Cookie, we found the bandages!” the cookie in hood cheered, — them being the one to open the tent, while the others remarked about them being ‘too noisy’.

　“Good.” The crow keeper said, getting up and taking the handed bandages in her hand. “You all did good.” she could swear she saw these kids shine for a second.

　“A-are they good?” the young cookie with glasses asked, noticing the now lying cookie unconscious.

　“Could’ve been worse. Thankfully they just passed out.” she tried to calm them. She wasn’t the best at that, but she tried anyway.

　Looking at the bandages in her hand, she decided to move topics to the important part. 

　“Now to handle this—” she looked at now somewhat familiar? cookie. Weird. “—Cookie. I need a hand to bandage them.” They started to remind her of someone she heard of, but she really couldn’t tell who… maybe it was just her imagination.

　The kid with dark mask reached their hand up, so she agreed and let them help her with bandaging.

　“Okay, here’s the end, hold it while I get this over with. Hopefully there’s enough bandages for that.” the kid nodded as they held the end of the bandages, while Black Raisin Cookie did the rest of the job. Perfectly it’d be much better if they had some clean soda to clear some of the jam, especially the dried one, but unfortunately they didn’t have such luxury at the time. Which is unfortunate.

　But fortunately, they had enough bandages to wrap it around their head, and, — after quickly examining their legs and arms, — some of the parts of their limbs, where the cracks seemed to be too big. Hopefully their chest was not as damaged as the rest of their body. When the work was done, Black Raisin Cookie and her little helper tried to lay the now bandaged cookie in a more comfortable position, laying a thin blanket over him. Him? No, you don’t know them.

　“All done. Thank you, guys.” she thanked the kids. “Without your help it would’ve been hard for me to do it all by myself.” another spark in their eyes. Weird.

　“We are really glad to help you, Black Raisin Cookie!” one of the raisin cookies said, smiling. “Do you need anything else?” they asked her. 

　The crow keeper took a pause, thinking. She didn’t really need anything, and the cookie they she took probably wouldn’t need anything if until they wake up.

　She shook her head as ‘no’. “Thank you, but I think I’ll be fine now. I’ll handle this from now on.”

　“Aw, okay.” they all reacted as if they were kind of disappointed by this answer, but they didn’t pry or really showed it. The kids told her their byes and went on their way doing their things. 

　Black Raisin Cookie waved her hand at them and then she was left with her thoughts, her now sleeping crow, and a passed out stranger who, — even through all the bandages and jam, — started to seem to be someone she saw and heard about in the old books the elders were reading to her before, but even so she still couldn’t tell for sure. 

　‘What a great start of the day.’ Black Raisin Cookie thought, letting out a tired sigh.