Chapter Text
One early sunny morning, when birds were singing and flowers were blooming, Pure Vanilla woke up from a wonderful dream in his golden princess bed. The blind king grabbed his orchid staff, stretched, put on his robes for the day, and exited his room. He walked through the halls of the castle and approached an oriel. Reaching it, he saw a blue bird on a tree branch next to the window. With a spark of joy, he set his staff down and opened the window. He reached a hand out towards the bird. The bird noticed him, slowly hopped to the end of the branch, and leapt onto his hand. He scratched her head, fondly, and fed her some seeds from a jar he kept on the window sill.
"Hello, Little Blue," Pure Vanilla says to the sweet little blue bird.
When she was all filled up, Pure Vanilla gently lifted his hand and the bird flew back to the branch. Pure Vanilla closed the window, grabbed his staff, and made his way down to the castle kitchen.
He meandered over to the cupboard and grabbed a mug. He picked out a tea bag and made himself a nice cup of warm chamomile tea. As he drank it, he wondered how the other Ancients were doing. He finished the last sip of his tea, and thought to himself, 'This morning is so peaceful and quiet. How relaxing...' Then, SLAM! as both the kitchen doors slammed into the walls, startling Pure Vanilla.
Gingerbrave ran up from behind him and said, "PURE VANILLA! PURE VANILLA! I GOT THE MAIL!"
Pure Vanilla smiled at them and said, "Good morning, Gingerbrave!" He noticed that Gingerbrave had bags under their eyes, and asked them, "Did you sleep well? You look exhausted."
Gingerbrave's excitement lessened, and they responded with, "I- I just had a bad dream, that's all!"
Pure Vanilla peers skeptically at him.
Gingerbrave panicked, "IT'S THE TRUTH! I- I PROMISE!"
Pure Vanilla looked even more unconvinced.
Gingerbrave took a deep breath. "I promise that it was just a bad dream. NOT EVEN THAT BAD! Anyways, I got the mail. From what I saw, it's mostly junk."
Pure Vanilla shook his head, and decided to let it go for Ginger's sake. He set his staff in the crook of his elbow, grabbed the pile of mail from Ginger's hand, and shuffled through the letters to see if anything good had arrived. An invitation in a dark purple envelope sparked his interest. He opened it excitedly. It was from Dark Cacao for tea on Sunday! A letter from Black Raisin Cookie was also in the pile, telling him that the village was doing well. Lastly, there was a mysterious blue envelope. The only thing on it was a stamped eye... a very recognizable eye, known to be connected to a certain jester! He stared at it for a moment with a slight frown.
Ginger made a nervous chirp, but before they could say anything, Pure Vanilla spoke up, "This letter is from Shadow Milk." Pure Vanilla noticed a micro-flinch from Gingerbrave, but didn't say anything. Something was going on with Ginger, and he would have to figure out what. But, first, to read the letter. He opened the envelope, took out the letter and read:
Pure Vanilla furrowed his brows. He paced back and forth and put his thumb and forefinger to his chin, rubbing it absently. This could be a trap, he thought, but.. he hoped that wasn't the case. But, then he noticed the heart and his cheeks grew warm. He took a deep breath and thought it over. If it was a trap, he better be prepared. And, if it wasn't, this "truce" could potentially benefit every cookie on Earthbread... saving everyone.
Vanilla read over the letter one more time. Shadow Milk didn't really give him much to work with, but like the letter said he could ask Shadow Milk, himself, at his old Spire. He should find Time Keeper and see what she thinks about this after he asks Shadow Milk questions... But, how was he supposed to get in contact with Time Keeper Cookie? She's a notoriously hard cookie to find.
He looked to his left, and noticed that Gingerbrave was reading over his shoulder. They looked nervous - no, terrified! It was an odd look to see on his beloved child friend's face. It was time to figure out what was going on.
He set the letter down on the counter and grabbed their hands, "Gingerbrave, are you... sure you're alright? With that bad dream and how you're acting about this... you just haven't been yourself."
Ginger looked at him for a moment, then sighed, looking bashfully to their left, "My nightmare was about Shadow Milk and his Spire of Deceit. I guess I'm just on edge, BUT! I'LL BE A-O-KAY AFTER SOME GOOD BREAKFAST!" they said, with their iconic grin. Pure Vanilla was still unsure, but he decided to finally drop it.
He stashed the letters in a drawer for safekeeping after sorting through the mail, then threw the junk mail in the bin. He decided that he should start making some breakfast, so he tossed some ideas around in his head about what he could make for the GingerGang. As he pondered, he paced from the fridge to the stove.
As he was doing this, Gingerbrave ran to their room, threw open their drawers and ran back after grabbing themself some paper and a pencil.
Pure Vanilla shook his head, smiled and thought to himself, 'You wouldn't know it, but Ginger was an amazing artist, although they struggled with literature and.. just being literate, in general.' Pure Vanilla had tried to help them in the past, but it was the one thing Gingerbrave couldn't seem to grasp. They were good at Art, Science, P.E., etc., but literature... or anything similar, was just too complicated. They liked History, but needed someone else to read the historical text.
Pure Vanilla's thoughts stopped as he realized that he had lost his original train of thought. He got his mind back on track and continued pacing. After about three to five minutes of pacing, he concluded that he would make eggs and cheesecake. He started on breakfast by pre-heating the oven, and Gingerbrave grabbed the ingredients in-between drawing. He grabbed a 9-inch pan and took the ingredients that Ginger brought down, then grabbed 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter and combined it into a bowl, mixing it well. He scooped it into the 9-inch pan and put it into the oven at 350°F (180°C). It had to sit there for eight to fifteen minutes so he started with the filling next.
He grabbed a small bowl and beat 32 oz softened cream cheese with 1 cup sugar, vanilla, sour cream, and eggs. After the crust was done he poured the filling into the crust and slid the cheesecake into the oven to bake at 350°F for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, he dropped it down to 300°F (150°C) and set a timer for around thirty to thirty-five minutes.
Ten minutes or so later, Strawberry and Wizard Cookie finally left their bedrooms and arrived at the kitchen. Strawberry sat next to Gingerbrave and Wizard Cookie yawned as he sat down next to Strawberry. Wizard then pulled out a book and promptly started reading. Gingerbrave was curious about the book. They looked over Strawbs and read... The Eye of an Ancients' Evil. They think to themselves, 'huh,' before going back to drawing.
(.<*)v/(.o.)\v(*>.)
A bit earlier...
This morning had been very, very mundane. It's started to make Strawberry Cookie miss camping in the woods and fearing for her life.. Is that weird? 'Whatever' she thought, 'I suppose I have to get up for breakfast. If Pure Vanilla isn't making anything, I suppose mundane toast will do the trick.' So, she got up from her bed and changed out of her pajamas. Having donned a hoodie, she looked in the mirror to make sure her hair wasn't peeking out of her hood. After she was dressed, she put on her shoes, grabbed her GameBoy, and left her room. Apparently, Wiz had the same idea, as he also exited his room, but he was still in his pajamas. They both headed to the kitchen, happy to see Pure Vanilla and Ginger there and an amazing smell coming from the oven! Strawberry sat next to Ginger and Wizard sat next to her and pulled out a book.
Strawberry looked over Gingerbrave's shoulder to see what they're doing. She noticed they're drawing some sort of... garden? She asked, with a smile in her eyes, "What are you drawing, Ginger?"
Gingerbrave blinked, smiled back, and said, "I'm drawing the garden from my dreams."
As Strawberry looked, she noticed that the garden hedges were covered in flowers; and at the ends of the hedges, a pine tree grew with more flowers. In the center of the garden was a giant Willow tree and below that was a hatch in the ground. A note floated next to it, but she didn't see letters - just scribbles where letters should be. Around all of that were trees with hardly any leaves and spotted with weird fruits. Below the trees were milk flowers and rose bushes. Off to the side was... a sheep? She couldn't make it out., but it looked like it was coming out of a plant? And, as she looked more at the drawing, she noticed more things. The flowers on the hedges didn't really look like flowers. They looked too... cubical, like dice. The hatch had what could be an eye on it, and so did the fruit on the trees. She decided to look away to keep memories from coming back and told them, "It looks great. I like the Willow tree." She didn't see it, but they were smiling.
(.<*)v/(.o.)\v(*>.)
Pure Vanilla turned on the stove and grabbed a big pan. Gingerbrave had already grabbed the eggs, so Pure Vanilla lifted one of the eggs they gave him and cracked it on the side of the pan. He split the shell one handed, then watched as the egg oozed out onto the hot pan and begin to sizzle. He glanced over at the kids, took a head count, and cracked five more. He realized that he should never have let these kids join these battles. That was a mistake on his part. The battle with the Beasts... the Dark Enchantress War... this war with Shadow Milk and his new timeline circus. They didn't deserve to go to war... to see their friends die... to go through copious amounts of pain while being so young. it was... horrible. And it was mostly his fault! They didn't have to be the ones to deliver his letters to his friends. They didn't have to go with him to Beast-Yeast. THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO FIGHT DARK ENCHANTRESS OR ANY OF THE BEASTS!! The Truth was... this was his duty, and he gave it to children. He must fix this.
As he pondered, and absently watched the egg whites turn white, he looked over at them... just being kids. By now, Strawberry Cookie had grabbed her GameBoy and was playing some random game he didn't understand. She played it without a care in the world! He made a decision, then and there. He covered the pan and walked over to the kids, and told them, "I have to go meet Shadow Milk to talk. I shall go alone. Please do not follow me. I'll have Madeleine Cookie watch over you until I get back." They sat with blank wide eyes, starting at him. He went back to what he was doing, and dished two eggs each onto their small plates. He turned around, pointedly not looking at them, and started back towards the stove.
But, just as he took that first step, Gingerbrave grabbed his hand. "Pure Vanilla, we aren't kids anymore. Let us help you!"
They all nodded eagerly and smiled with smiles so bright and preciously endearing. He suddenly felt verklempt.
Then, Wizard Cookie stated, "We may still be young, but, we don't need protecting anymore... (Or babysitters) We can handle ourselves! If you truly want us to stay, we will listen to you, but, we are old enough to be by ourselves."
Then, Strawberry also came around the table and grabbed Pure Vanilla's other hand, "But even though it might be better if we stay here... We would rather stay by your side and help you if you get into trouble."
Gingerbrave suddenly perked up, "AND!" Gingerbrave said, startling Pure Vanilla. "What if he brings his minions! You could need some back-up! Especially with the Ashen Assassin!"
Pure Vanilla was suddenly very misty-eyed and looked at the Gingergang. He realized, then, how much Gingerbrave had grown... how much all of them have grown! It may have been that he was too late to realize this revelation. 'I still failed them.' But, as he looked into his kids' friends' eyes, he saw their determination and their hope. 'I know I can't change things, but I can make sure they can flourish and thrive, from here on out. They used to be so small, yet so brave. Now, here they are, teenagers, and already proving to the world just how much they've grown.' And, he couldn't have been prouder!
He decided that yes, they were right. They were nearly grown and he would need their help if he was to succeed! He should bring them!
Oh, but, alas... how wrong he was...