Chapter Text
Witches give me strength, as I tell this tale of peculiar happenings, accidents, misunderstandings, and a lot of dragons…
It all started in the Hollyberry kingdom, while the meeting was not ‘needed’ per se it was... certainly also not /not/ needed in a way. What is it about then? Well… it’s about this wriggling thing, throwing itself to and fro in the cage it’s trapped in. Dark cacao sneered as he regarded the scaled yet furry menace that broke into his castle, it’s not quite anything any of the ancients have ever seen before. It’s long and snake like, yet has four hoofed legs and a mane. Its beady red and yellow ringed eyes darted up and down, left and right independently as it pressed itself against the sides of the glass cage it is kept in. It let out a pathetic, muffled, “MEEEEP” as it gave up and sat there all pathetic.
“….so..” Pure vanilla cleared his throat and looked around the table, gauging everyone’s reactions “Dark cacao, where did you find this… specimen again?” He tilted his head ever so slightly, eyelashes fluttering as he regarded the disgruntled man. Said man in question sat ramrod straight in his assigned seat, arms crossed and expression displeased. “My chambers, after the earthquake hit it came flying at my window so fast it shattered.” Hollyberry made a face, nose scrunching in displeasure. White lily and golden cheese peered at the slithering intruder through the glass, watching it sulk. Golden cheese inspected its shimmering white scales with mild interest, as it’s the only thing she finds herself interested in about this temperamental little thing.
“Well, at least it’s quite dazzling!” Pure vanilla couldn’t help but smile, and neither could white lily. “As shimmering as it is, Golden cheese, we need to address the Marzipan Elephant in the room… what is it?” Hollyberry chimed in, leaning over the table slightly to get a better look at it. Its eyes opened one by one, and blinked at her the same way. “It seems to be a lizard, yet it has legs and a mane. It seems to be a prey animal but has gummy croc teeth and a cream deer hoofs!” The creature in the cage stuck out its tongue, licking at one of its eyes. “…and that I guess” Golden cheese added on for the other cookie.
White lily kept a cool serene expression as she thought, ever the curious sort she practically devoured any and all visual information she could get of the creature. The way it moved, the sounds it made… it was undeniably a simple animal, yet… “it strikes me as something akin to a chimera..” she mutters. “The fantasy creature?” Pure vanilla turned to her, a questioning expression plastered across his face. “A-Ah well-…. Yes.. it’s more so a stray thought though!” She put up her hands, her chair sliding over the carpet floor a little as she moved back. “While they are undeniably fictional this… this is not. I have no other reference point so i feel forced to pull from Mythology..”
Dark cacao hummed, “Understandable. White lily, perhaps we could.. restore the chambers I had for you in my kingdom.” Golden cheese smirked just a little, but Dark cacao sent her a withering glare before he continued on “To perhaps try and find more, of course.” Pure vanilla rested his elbows on the table, tapping his doughy cheek as he thought “Maybe the earthquake revealed some sort of colony?… like a cavern nearby which was sealed now revealed?…” he mused out loud. So many possibilities, so many ideas, yet so little answers to pair them with. Golden cheese cookie chuckled, picking up the cage by its handle and bringing it close to her face “My! Well until then may-haps I could make arrangements for this little one to stay with me!” “You just want another pet, don't you?” White lily deadpanned and golden cheese sent her a dazzling grin in response. Hollyberry laughed heartily, and even Dark cacao couldn’t help the fond sigh which escaped him. “While that is darling, golden cheese.. it may not be suited for the weather in your kingdom. It’s from cacaos, after all. A snowy landscape.”
“Yet another oddity…” Hollyberry muttered conspiratorially under her breath and watched the creature with squinted eyecing as it was lowered back down onto the table. “What would a lizard be doing in a kingdom as cold as cacaos?” “Well, we did have a dragon..” “not the same thing ‘cao.” Hollyberry smiled, sighing softly as she laid her upper body on the table. “Whatever /IT/ is… it needs a name.” She lifted her head slightly “We cannot keep calling it the creature… or the like.”
White lily blinked, a little stumped. “How about.. sparkly?” Golden cheese supplied to the group and Pure vanilla laughed. The almost bell like sound ringing through the room “It’s cute-“ “I’m calling it chimera, sparkly is nonsensical.” Dark cacao interrupted and looked away, his dough a little reddish. “Whaaattt? His majesty embarrassed about being seen calling a furry noodle ‘sparkly’?” Golden cheese teased, stretching her wing to bonk him in the head to which dark cacao swatted at her. “Gah! Golden cheese, we must treat this matter somewhat seriously!” “I am! Holly asked for a name and I gave one!” She laughed, he didn’t. Not at all actually. Dark cacao looked a little genuinely agitated, and Golden cheese cookie either didn’t notice or ignored it as she laughed to herself. Pure vanilla cookie fiddled with his hands, his nervousness rising.
“How about a compromise?” Pure vanilla chimed in, laughing nervously. “Chimera is how we’ll label beings like it for now… but their personal name shall be Sparkly?” He looked around the table, and when no objections came he sighed in relief. “So it shall be.” He announced, and that was final it seemed. A little silence stretched on and on, the only sound int he room being the creatures occasional shuffling. White lily smiled despite herself “Sparkly is a little cute, right?,,,” she giggled and proceeded to lean left to see it a little better. “As cute as a spiky caramel porcupine is cuddly, Lily! Look at it……. Does it even have a brain??” Hollyberry cookie leaned over, knocking on the box a little. No reaction from the chimera. “Seems not…” pure vanilla snorted, covering his mouth as he looked away. Golden cheese burst into laughter as she watched the ever regal pure vanilla double over trying to hide his red embarrassed face. “Well, I suppose that brainless animals can be cute” dark cacao mused, “true true true….” Holly smiled, chuckling to herself.
The tension built by the confusion and minor debate over its name dissipated in a sea of laughter, even Dark cacao cracked a smile at his friends antics. Pure vanilla thought to himself that a well timed laugh snort can cure any tension it seems! As time passed and the five hero’s Conversed with each other a peculiar thing happened.. a soul rocking thing.
It started with small vibrations, a barely notable trembling of the surface of the water in white lily’s cup. They laughed, and so did the earth. So began the tremors, during which everyone stood up in alarm as the shaking of the castle around them intensified. Everything shook, water spilled, paintings fell off walls and clattered to the ground in alarmingly noisy ways as the chimera in the cage panicked. its glass casing came closer and closer to the edge of the table, the poor thing skittered against the smooth surface of its enclosure as the ground came closer and closer when-!
Pure vanilla dove to save the Chimeras cage from falling to the ground, barely saving himself from harm as a heavy candle fell from the chandelier above them. It Broke into cold waxy pieces on the floor, where Hollyberry held white lily close and shielded them from the debris as Dark cacao grabbed his two remaining friends and dove underneath the ever shaking table. White lily did not notice as she clenched her eyecing closed, and neither did pure vanilla as he saw nothing but his friends feathery wings and smooth metal but from outside the window appeared this bright light in sky. So bright Hollyberry hissed as if wounded and Cacao groaned, lifting his cape to shield his eyecings. It burned, bright purple and a garish greenish yellow one after another covered the rooms usually Pink self with its intruding Color’s.
And as quickly as it came… it left.. if it weren’t for the disarray and the sting in Hollyberrys eyes you’d think nothing had occurred. No otherworldly lights, no earthquakes that felt like the world had ripped by its seams…. Nothing. The world was still again as White lily tentatively lifted her head, looking around in a shocked stupor as guards rushed in. Dishevelled and just as shaken as the ancients are if not more. “Queen Mother Hollyberry cookie!” They called for her as she was the first to stand up. She looked over her shoulder and turned around to face the guards just as quickly “what are you doing checking up on us? We are quite alright! Go help whoever else may be in trouble!” She commanded, running out of the room alongside the scrambling Berry guards to tend to her kingdom.. her people. Meanwhile in the background, White lily caught her breath kneeling on the floor as the other ancients crawled out from under the table. She felt faint, that rumbling, that shaking… it all reminded her of that horrible— no good..—- cursed day. The witches laughter, thunderous, booming, rumbling- she.. s-she— “White lily Cookie!” Golden cheese yelled, and Lily gasped. Above her hovered her ever glowing friend, one hand on her shoulder and another on the back of her head. Her vision became less blurry as she blinked her tears away and a white sleeve joined Cheeses hand, rubbing at her eyes to dry them. “White lily, it’s over now.” Pure vanillas soothing voice burrowed itself in her ears. “I-im sorry- please forget it I-“ She got up quickly, legs weak from sitting on her knees. Dark cacao stepped forward incase she needed to be balanced but she recovered well on her own.
“Hollyberry is right- we must go help. This part of the world rarely experiences earthquakes likes this- the structures built were not meant to withstand them!” She called out as she stumbled out of the room, dodging broken vases and the like on the floor.