Key Ingredient (CRK Short Story)

Key Ingredient

Many, many years ago, long before the Kingdoms were formed and the Dark Flour War wrecked havoc upon the entirety of Earthbread, existed the Blueberry Yogurt Academy, a bustling academy home to one of the largest and most prestigious institutions of magic ever formed. I know it well, in fact, I was a professor there.

It was quite a big academy, if I may say so myself. There were many lush gardens throughout the premises, but the most wonderful part of them is that they had such assorted varieties of flowers. They came in all forms; the sunflowers with smooth petals, the lilies with an aroma so strong you could smell them from twelve feet away, and oh, don't get me started on the night flowers! The first time I walked passed them, they awoke and would not stop staring at me! Believe me, I was just as stunned as you are now.

The library was also a sight to behold. To say there were hundreds of books in that library is an understatement. When I inquired the librarian on just how many written works there were in a singular bookshelf from the ground up to the ceiling, he said that it was estimated to be at most nine hundred and fifty. Estimated! Even the librarian didn't know the exact number. Some students took on the challenge of reading every single book in the library before graduation, but obviously, none could achieve that goal. I did my best to memorize the numerous scrolls essential to my teaching career, but now that I'm much older, I can't seem to recall more than half of them.

Ah, excuse me for becoming distracted. You want me to talk about the students? Well, yes, many of the students that came and went were quite remarkable in their own ways. After all, these students were studying at the most well-regarded academy in the nation. I like to pride myself greatly in having taught Pure Vanilla Cookie himself in my spell casting class when he was here as a youngster. What a wise, altruistic cookie he grew up to be! Though, it's quite ironic that he had a friend that was quite the opposite of him. I remember her name just fine, only, I don't want to leave a bad taste in my mouth saying it. That's beside the point.

Yes, you could say this friend of his was quite academically intelligent, as she did make the Scholars' Plaque for scoring the highest out of her entire class. If you ask me, however, I'd say she lacked the actual capacity to realize how ludicrous it was for her to meddle with forbidden magic! And for what cause? Well, we'll never know because she didn't come back after opening the realm of spirits and destroying the entire academy! Us professors had to sacrifice our physical selves just to ward off those heinous beings.

That's not even mentioning how many students got injured, how many tomes and ancient scrolls went missing, and most importantly, how we didn't even know about her doing this until it was TOO LATE. On top of that, we found out that she stole some of forbidden books with the help of Pure Vanilla Cookie. PURE VANILLA COOKIE of all cookies? Stealing important books for such a stupid cookie? It was impossible to believe at first!

Oh, don't misinterpret my words! I wasn't as angry at him as much as the other professors were. After all, according to him, he didn't stay for long after she began experimenting with Dark Moon Magic, and he did try to warn her on multiple occasions. It's not as if I have a vendetta against him, I understand he was inexperienced to handle the situation. Still, I can't help but be so infuriated on how all of this could have been prevented. He could have told us about her and the headmaster would've swiftly stopped her, but oh no. It's all about 'keeping promises' and not wanting to out your friends even if they're on their way to destroy the entire world.

I've talked too much already. Go away, you travelers. I'm sure you get the idea of how horrible it was for us here, and you don't need some pitiful, old hag regurgitating the story.

—-

"Woah! Top marks for the 5th time, White Lily Cookie! I'm quite impressed!"

White Lily Cookie looked up from the floor of the observatory, where she was etching a symbol on the ground with white chalk and arranging a set of faded papers, to see Pure Vanilla Cookie beaming down at her with a proud smile.