Tales Of A Lonely Moment [ Cookie Run: Kingdom ]

Recital VII: Who's got a story to tell, anyways?

Gingerbrave watched his friends across the field. White Lily was with them- or more so, with Custard.
Sometimes he wished they'd never found out the truth.
The bittersweet ending to the war ended with a rather large group of traumatized children.
Gods, what had he been thinking?
In both timelines, he's risked his neck time and time again to save this godforsaken place- what use did it give him? He knew he could survive on his own. He didn't need anyone else.

What was he saying? It had been the right thing to help. The war needed to be won, or all would be lost.
And they had, they had won. They had won. Dark Enchantress was no more. But he couldn't shake the feeling, not even after all these years, that it wasn't over.
He always felt a disturbance. What it was, he wouldn't know.
He nodded goodbye to his aunts and headed out the gates of the Hollyberry Kingdom. Strawberry and Custard were staying; had some royal business to attend to anyways.
Wizard held his hand naturally, as if they'd been doing this for years. Everything felt in place when in came to him, really.
It was probably false hope to think that this would last forever.
He shook his head aggressively, alarming the other boy. Stop thinking like that.
"Brave?" Wizard stepped in front of him. "You alright?"
"..yeah. Just..thinking." His voice was barely a whisper.
"Where we headed, anyways?" Wizard laughed. Gingerbrave hadn't thought of that. He hesitated, before impulsively spitting out;
"The kingdom."
"That's so..far away?" Wizard snickered nervously.
"Yeah. We'll manage, won't we? We've done it before." He grinned, faltering as Wizards didn't match his.
"Yeah but.." Wizard gripped the others hand tighter.
"What?" Gingerbrave stopped walking, concerned.
"Is there even anybody..still there?" He tilted his head, genuinely asking.
"Well, yeah!" Brave let go to put his hands on his hips. Wizards hand lingered for a second, falling to his side a moment later. "Sparkling and the others are there- well except for Herb, obviously." He continued, not stopping.
"Milk is there sometimes, but I think he lives in the Milk Tribe again. Red Velvet and Pastry live, uh.." He paused. "In the Vanilla kingdom. I didn't see them when I visited though, I was there for Custard."
He ticked citizens of their kingdom off of his hand, listing each off and mentioning where they were now.
"And uh.. I'm not sure about Pomegranate."
The silence was thick as Pomegranate was mentioned, but it only lasted a second. Gingerbrave laughed, letting slip the nervous tone.
"Seriously. Are you ok?" Wizard frowned. Gingerbrave pouted.
"I'm fine." He dragged the last word, whining. He tipped forward, leaning against Wizard. He outstretched his arms, his chest on the others, who had his arms crossed.
"Brave." Wizard said darkly. Freaky how worried he got.
"I'm good, Wiz. Just.. thoughts." He shrugged, brushing it off as something irrelevant. It wasn't, of course. Wizard didn't need to know that.
"Whatever you say." They huffed, glancing around.
"Y'know, we could just take the Jelly Bear Train."
"..does it even allow cookies on there?"
"Not sure."

They, in fact, did not take the train. The conductor was sympathetic, but the train did indeed not allow cookies on there.
So they were taking the long way.

Again.

"Funny, huh?" Gingerbrave stared at the sky, hands on his hips as he walked. "Just like when we were kids."
"Yeah, but we had the others too. This is just..you and me." Wizard muttered the last part. Gingerbrave smirked, which made Wizard grimace.
"Please, never do that again." Wizard groaned. Which only made him to it again.
"Oh my god" Wizard mock whined, pretending to faint. "Stoooopp"
They both laughed, until Wizard snorted, which made them laugh even harder.
"Come- come on, we gotta keep going if we don't want to run out of daylight." Wizard sighed, wiping his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." Gingerbrave snickered.
The rest of the walk was quiet. The woods were mostly empty, the occasional bird or snake passing by.
Then it got too quiet.
Neither thought anything of it. Too used to it being so silent it's deafening.
A branch cracked, and the two froze.
"It's..probably just an animal. We're being paranoid. Plus, since we took the woods and not the way we did when we were younger, we'll get there faster." Gingerbrave assured himself more than Wizard. Wizard stepped forward and grabbed his hand, whispering;
"There's someone watching us."
Gingerbrave stopped. He flicked his eyes to the left, to the right, to the left, and back again. Nothing. Nothing but the ruby glint in the trees.
Shit.
"Wizard, we have to go. Now." He's run into her a couple times before. She'd been so nice when they were children, even if she was a little odd.
"Wh-" Wizard barely got his words out before Gingerbrave pulled him forwards, speed walking the way to the edge of the trees.
"Gingerbrave, what is going on-.." She trailed off, their face paling. In a flash, the animal lunged at them, throwing them to the ground. It sent Wizard into a coughing fit from the dust as Gingerbrave tried to clear his vision. The fox snarled at them, her muzzle dripping with jam. Gingerbrave looked over in alarm, only to see Wizard unharmed. Then who..?
Another flash of movement as Kumiho whimpered in pain. She was thrown into the trees as the man landed, breathing heavily. Without his hood and mask, he was barely recognizable to most citizens of their kingdom.
"You said.." He growled, and Wizard and Gingerbrave immediately knew who he was. "You said you'd leave.. the kingdom alone.."
Ninja glared at the fox, who slowly changed back into her cookie form.
Her eyes were full of bloodlust and her voice shook as she spoke.
"..hungry. Strangers. Not part of..kingdom..traitor.." Her teeth were sharp, and Gingerbrave noticed those too were covered in jam.
"You idiot!" Ninja snarled. "Don't you recognize them?!"
There was no understanding in Kumiho's eyes, only confusion and anger.
"Not..kingdom.." Kumiho growled. "Left.. not kingdom..anymore.."
"You must be kidding." Ninja sighed, punching the bridge of his nose. "It's Gingerbrave and Wizard."
Kumihos eyes immediately widened, before smiling at Ninja.
"Oh, dear.." Kumiho was suddenly behind him, whispering in his ear. "You're going to let me starve like this, honey?"
Ninja froze. Gingerbrave made eye contact with Wizard, who couldn't mask the terrified look on his face.
Ninja made a shaky sigh, and took a step back. Kumiho smiled.
"N-ninja-.." Wizards voice was hardly a whisper at this point, his breathing quickening. Ninja closed his eyes. Everyone blinked, and he was gone.
Fuck.
"Shit, shit, shit.." Gingerbrave whispered under his breath, grabbing Wizards hand and struggling to stand up.
He stood on his feet, and cried out. As soon as he put weight on his right foot, it felt like he was being stabbed by thousands of needles.
Kumiho giggled, transforming back. Her red eyes sparkling, she lunged, and as Gingerbrave yelled in alarm. She forced him into the ground, her claws digging into his shoulders.
She didn't bite down immediately. They stood on top of him, breathing heavily. Drool dripped down from her mouth, and she stepped backwards. Gingerbrave stiffened. What the fuck was going on?
She growled, and that's when he realized- she wasn't going for him.
He blinked, and Wizard yelled aloud. She disappeared into the trees as Gingerbrave ran towards his partner. She clearly wasn't looking for a fight, though she'd had to expected it attacking two people at once. It was difficult to run, his leg slowing him down an immense amount.
He stumbled over to Wizard, who coughing again. Once more, and his hand was covered in jam. Fuck.
He could barely keep his eyes open.
Shit, fuck, no. I just..I just got to see him again..
"No no no, hey, come one, what happened?" Wizard pulled at his scarf weakly, revealing the large bite in his neck.
Fuck, shit.
"Hey, dude, just-"

He jolted awake, covered in sweat. Holy fuck.
He was still on the train, and it was dark. He wondered what day it was.
That's a stupid question. Yesterday was March thirty-first, wasn't it?
That meant it was.. April first? Funny. April Fools Day.
Ironic, considering the bullshit he dreamt.
Jesus Christ.