Quote:Chapter 10: Gift in Hearts


Days passed after the ice show day, and Christmas was getting near. In fact, the next day would be the Christmas day. The weather also somehow became warmer than usual in the last few days although snow still covered the land. I wanted to give all my friends a present, but I had no idea what to give and where to get the presents. So, I decided to go to Blueberry's place and ask for advices. The trip to Blueberry Valley was not so easy because of the snowy terrain, but I still managed to arrive there anyway because of my new device. Blueberry was home and warmly welcomed me. Inside her house I told her about my intention.

"Well, you know... We have the same exact thinking," She said.

"So, do you know where we should go and what to get?" I asked.

"Well, to get Christmas presents, there's always Holidayland," She answered.

"Holidayland? Raspberry mentioned that name before. What is that place?" I said.

"It's an absoloo-tely perfect place to get presents for Christmas, that's all I can say," She answered.

"Then let's go there right away," I said.

"The thing is, that place is quite far and the snowy terrain doesn't make the trip any easier," She said.

"Well, didn't you notice how I came here?" I said. "Come outside,"

Both of us went outside and then she saw the new device I had made a few days before, which was a snowmobile.

"This is Arrowhead. It can run through snowy terrain without much trouble. It has seats for two people so you can go there with me," I said.

"Wow, you are absoloo-tely amazing!" She commented, which made me blushed.

"Not really. It's just an ordinary snowmobile after all," I replied. "Anyway, shall we go?"

"Yes, of course. I'll get my warm clothes and we're ready to go!" She replied, going inside the house and came back out again shortly after. "I also brought some berries and books with me. Did I mention that we must have something to trade if we want to get anything?"

"Well, no. That means I have to go home first and take some things. Here, have the helmet," I said, giving her a helmet as I wore mine, and we set off to my home and then Holidayland.

The trip back to my home and to Holidayland was quite smooth and we arrived in Holidayland without much trouble. The town itself amazed me because the people living there are mostly dwarves with colored skin, with some living puppets and fairies accompanying as well. However, we had no time to waste so we entered a shop and see if we could find something. Once we were inside, suddenly a purple fairy appeared and greeted us.

"Welcome to Sugar Plumdales. Can I help you?" The fairy asked kindly. "But first, have a plum," she continued, magically made two plums and gave them to us both. I ate one and commented on how good the plum was.

"I'm not called the Sugar Plum Fairy for nothing. So tell me how I can help you," She said.

"We're looking for a present for our friends," I answered.

"Hmm, tell me about them," She asked.

"Well, there's Strawberry Shortcake..." I said before the fairy interrupted.

"Wait, is there by chance someone named Orange Blossom among your friends?" She said.

"Yes, how did you know?" I asked.

"Yesterday a girl in strawberry hat traded a sugarplum bush for a friend with that name. Hearing the name you just mentioned made me remember," She replied.

"Oh... that means we cannot trade for that one," I said.

"Why not?" Blueberry asked.

"I can't give the same present. That won't feel right. Let's see if we can find another thing here," I answered.

In the end, we didn't find anything in that shop. However, I gave the fairy some of the berries I had brought from home anyway in exchange for her patronage. Then we went through the town and arrived at a place named Candy Cane Mart. Inside I got the information that Strawberry had been there as well and had gone bringing a lot of candy canes and cookie cutters, as well as a wagon. That meant there was nothing we could get from there as well.

We proceeded again and arrived at a place named Holy Woods. In there an angel greeted us and once again I got to know that Strawberry had been there as well and had gone bringing all the wood could offer. Both of us then went from the wood in disappointment.

"Now this is what I call progress. Nothing at all for hours," I said.

"Well, we can try going to the northern outskirts but... that place is not so safe," Blueberry said.

"Still better than going home with empty hands," I said, driving Arrowhead towards the northern outskirts.

The northern outskirts was indeed not as safe as the previous places. The snow there were somewhat more slippery, and to make it worse there were steep slopes and crevices. I tried not to fall into any of those, but the windy weather and the dark night sky didn't make it any easier.

"*Sigh* I guess we have no choice but to go back with empty hands..." I said.

"I guess so... Watch out!!!" Blueberry yelled, warning me about a crevice ahead which I didn't notice. However, it was too late and both of us fell deep into the crevice.

Both of us didn't know how long we had been unconscious. When I woke up, I looked around and saw that Blueberry was still unconscious near me. I shook her body trying to wake her up.

"Blueberry! Wake up!" I said.

"Ugh... Blackberry? Where are we...?" She replied slowly.

"We fell into a crevice and it seems we are now at the bottom of it. Are you all right now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess..." She replied.

"Now we should try to find a way out," I said while looking around.

The place where we ended up was narrow and quite dark, but I could see the sky far above which was bright blue. That meant it was already Christmas day and we were too late. However, I put that aside because the main thing at that time was to find a way out.

"Blackberry... I can't move my legs," Blueberry said. I looked to her legs and noticed that her legs were stuck under broken Arrowhead. I tried to move it aside but it was no use because it was very heavy. I kept trying but it was futile, until I heard a voice.

"Let me help," The voice said.

I looked at the source and found that the voice came from a reindeer with purple tail.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"The name is Ralph. Let's move this thing together," he answered.

With Ralph's help, I finally managed to move Arrowhead aside. Arrowhead indeed had become broken because of the fall.

"Can you stand up?" Ralph asked Blueberry, who then tried to stand up but with no success.

"Ugh... I think I have a twisted ankle," She said, holding her left leg.

"Mount her on my back, will you?" Ralph said to me, which I did right away.

"Do you know the way out of this crevice?" I asked.

"If I had known I would have gone away from this place since ages ago," Ralph replied. "I have been living under this crevice for months, or maybe years?"

"What? How did you survive here for that long?" I said.

"Me as a purple-tailed reindeer does not need any food to live. For drink I can swallow some snows and let them melt," Ralph replied.

"Oh... That means me and Blueberry won't last for long..." I said with a deep sigh of despair, but I saw that Blueberry was still calm. "Hey, Blueberry. How come you are still calm in this situation?" I asked.

"No worries, Blackberry. Have you read about another special ability of a purple-tailed reindeer?" She said.

"Well, no," I answered. "What is it?"

"If it swallows one purple hair from the tail, it can fly for the next one minute," She answered. "More than enough for us to get out,"

"Indeed. I know about that and have tried several times to bite my own tail, but with no success at all," Ralph replied. "Pull one hair from my tail and feed it to me. With that I can get you all out of here,"

So, Blueberry pulled one hair off Ralph's tail and fed it to Ralph. I then mounted on Ralph as well and he flew upwards and out of the deep crevice.

"Finally I'm out of that place after this long time," Ralph said as he landed on ground. "And it was all thanks to both of you,"

"Don't mention it. We met because both of us fell down there by coincidence anyway," I said.

"By the way, why did you come to this northern outskirts of Holidayland?" Ralph asked. Thus, I told him everything about my intention to give my friends a gift and the misfortune of Strawberry already gotten the same gifts. After hearing those, Ralph offered to give us a ride to a special place in northern outskirts, which I agreed.

Ralph brought us to a house similar to some I had seen in Holidayland. As we entered, we all saw quite a number of dwarves walking around.

"What is this place?" I asked Ralph.

"This is my home. Ho-ho-ho!" A voice answered from behind us. I looked on the source and realized that it was Santa Claus himself.

"Santa! This must be the absoloo-tely luckiest day in my whole life!" Blueberry said.

"Santa! I missed you!" Ralph said.

"Well, well. If it isn't my dearest reindeer Ralph. You have been missing for years! Where have you been?" Santa said.

"I fell into a crevice and today these two kind people helped me," Ralph answered. "I thought you would have known,"

"Even though I am Santa who knows things, there are still some things I don't know, dear. I apologize for my ignorance," Santa said.

"It is fine. Anyway, these two people need your help," Ralph said.

"I'll be glad to help. Now tell me," Santa said, and I told him everything.

"But forget all that. Now my only wish is to bring Blueberry back home safely," I said after that. "She's injured and need immediate treatment,"

"Why should you forget? You already have your gift!" Santa said. "They're all in your heart, and in everyone's heart as well,"

"What? I don't understand," I said.

"You will figure that out soon," Santa replied. "Come with me. I will take both of you home on my sleigh,"

So, me and Blueberry had a ride on Santa's sleigh. The trip back to Strawberryland was the best trip I have ever had in my whole life, and it seemed the same for Blueberry as well. She kept looking at the astonishing scenery we could see from the heights.

"Thank you, Blackberry. This whole trip is absoloo-tely the best gift for me," She said, which rendered me speechless.

We got off right in front of my house. As Santa flew away, I could hear him yelling ``Berry Christmas!`` with laughter. I then remembered about Blueberry's twisted ankle, which had gotten better but still made walking quite difficult for her.

"Wait here, Blueberry. I will come back soon," I said, going inside my house. Then I came back out bringing Phoenix Tear and then I used it on Blueberry's leg.

"Wow, this is absoloo-tely amazing!" Blueberry said.

Both of us went inside my house. As I put Phoenix Tear to the shelf, I asked Blueberry if she knew about what Santa had meant about my gift. She shook her head, telling that she was actually confused too. Then, suddenly someone knocked on my door. I opened it and saw that the guests were Raspberry, Lemon, Apricot, and also, to my surprise, Peppermint.

"Merry Christmas!" All four of them said, which made me speechless.

"Hey, Custard got your tongue?" Raspberry said.

"Umm... no. It's just that... You all surprised me, really," I answered.

"It's all we could give, actually. We couldn't find any gifts to give," Lemon said.

"Hmph, no luck for me either," Peppermint said.

"Blueberry is here as well, huh? Now that we are all here, why don't we go now to Strawberry's house? I think everyone else are there as well," Raspberry said.

"Yeah, that would be totally cool," Apricot added.

We all agreed and began the trip to Strawberry's house. On the way I kept wondering about what Santa had said about my gift, but since he had said that I would figure it out soon, I didn't bother thinking too much about it because I believed in all his words. Soon I would figure it out.

--End of Chapter 10--

Quote:Chapter 9: First Snow at Winter

Winter had come. All the leaves covering my house had fallen, completely leaving my house visible from the outside. The first snow had fallen as well, making the grounds covered with it. I walked out of my house in my winter outfit, which actually was just double jackets on top of my normal outfit plus a fur hat. I then felt the cold weather which I didn't really like. I looked towards my house and once again I saw the not-so-rare sight that reveals my house having the shape of a giant blackberry in the middle of the tree's branches.

I walked towards Huck's fort because right before the arrival of winter he had promised to teach me to ice-skate on this day. He had said that ice-skating was not much different from using in-line-skate, which I could do fairly well. However, whenever I imagined that ice-skating is done on slippery ice and with sharp blades replacing the wheels, my confidence dropped to nothing. Thus, Huck promised this plan.

After I had arrived inside Huck's fort, I saw him preparing two pairs of ice skate for both of us.

"Hi, Huck," I greeted.

"Hi, Blackberry. Nice outfit you got there," He replied and commented on my winter outfit.

"And you too," I answered, although I noticed his winter outfit was only a green jacket on top of his normal outfit, just like mine.

"Nah, this is nothing compared to what Strawberry and the others have," he said. "They completely changed their clothes,"

"Really? I'd like to see them," I said eagerly.

"They won't wear those often though," He continued. "Those outfits are too good in repelling cold weather. They will only wear those when the weather is very cold, like today's weather is,"

"And then once the weather becomes warmer, what will they wear?" I asked.

"Just the usual outfit, except for Strawberry. She will wear a red jacket on top of her usual outfit when outside," he answered.

"You sure know a lot of things," I commented.

"Now that you mention it, I myself wonder why I know those. We have been friends for only half a year, but sometimes I feel it has been longer," He answered.

I actually knew the answer to his wondering, but I felt there was no need to tell him about my trip to the past with Time Remote which caused a memory loss to every Strawberryland residents. It seemed that some memories were kept under their consciousness, which might cause something like what just happened.

"Anyway, let's go to the pond now. It's almost midday, and I bet they are already there since some while ago," He said.

We went to the pond where everyone else were supposed to be, but when we arrived there was nobody there.

"Ah, I think we are too late. Everybody has gone for a lunch break already," He said. "But we still can start anyway. Put your skates on, Blackberry,"

"This is even better for me. I will easily lose confidence if there are other people around," I said, putting on my skates.

"I see. Okay, now that you have put your skates on, come over here," Huck said.

"I'm coming..." I answered with a little bit of fright.

I slowly walked to the surface of the frozen pond. When I stepped on the edge, I became afraid and couldn't move my legs. Huck was already on the surface, trying to convince me to step in, but I was already defeated by my lack of courage.

"Here, take my hand," Huck said, offering his right hand.

"O.. Okay.." I answered, reaching to get a grip on his hand. Then he suddenly pulled me over to the surface, causing my fall.

"Sorry, I thought you need a little push," He said, and then helped me to stand up. "You said you could use in-line-skate right? Now try to do the same,"

Both of us spent the next few hours without significant result. I finally could do a few basic movements, but I still fell down from time to time.

"You're getting better, I believe you will get the hang of it soon," Huck commented.

"Thanks, but I still feel this will take forever," I answered, suddenly noticing a girl I had never seen before. "Hey, do you know who that girl is?"

"Hmm, no. I have never seen her before," Huck answered, looking at the girl, who was crossing the bridge above the pond. "Want to check on her?"

"I'd like to, but look at me now," I said, reminding Huck that I was still in the middle of the pond. "Moving out of the pond and changing my shoes will take too long,"

"Oh... indeed... In any case, we should call it a day now," He said. "Do you want to visit Strawberry before going home?"

"Yes, I'd like to," I answered, and then we walked to Strawberry's house.

When we arrived, Strawberry greeted us and we had some talks with her inside. There we learned about the new girl with the name Apricot, and her home being a 40-room castle. Although, I felt I couldn't trust that statement. I had seen the whole Strawberryland with my Eagle Eye and I had never seen a castle or such. But I didn't feel the need to tell that to everyone else so I kept silent.

At the next day, Huck came to my house asking if I wanted him to teach me again for the day. Because I was watching the Eagle Eye monitor and didn't notice him asking, I didn't give any reply at all. Then he came closer to me.

"Watching something good?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm watching the girls' ice dance performance. Their skills really make me envy them," I answered. "Look, especially Strawberry. I only can dream being able to do something like that,"

"I heard she had trained for a really long time," Huck said.

I saw that Apricot was there too, boasting on how she could do all the moves easily. Then I also saw Strawberry's too-generous attitude of giving away the position as the main star of the upcoming ice show.

"Huck, do you agree with me that Strawberry has had too many generosity pills?" I said.

"Well, kinda. But that's the way Strawberry is, and with that she makes a lot of friends," Huck answered.

"Now look at Apricot's face. I won't be surprised if at the D-Day she pretends to have a twisted ankle or such," I commented. "Anyway, I don't feel like training today, with that many people around,"

"Well, there is another place if you want to train alone," Huck said.

"Really? Where is it?" I asked.

"It's right there," He answered, pointing at a lake visible from my window quite far away. "Punch Bowl Pond is the name,"

So, both me and Huck spent the rest of the day training at Punch Bowl Pond. Unlike the pond where I trained the day before, Punch Bowl Pond's water was pink and slightly more slippery, which made it more difficult to skate on. That was actually good because once I got used to it I would have easier time skating on the usual pond. We also spent the whole next day training there until it was almost dark. I knew that the day after would be the D-Day of the ice show so I decided to visit Strawberry at her house. Huck was already too tired so he went home while I went to visit Strawberry by myself.

It was already dark when I arrived at Strawberry's house. I knocked on the door but there was no reply. At first I thought she hadn't arrived home yet, and then suddenly I heard a greet from behind.

"Hi, Blackberry," the voice said. I turned around and saw that it was Strawberry herself.

"Hi, Strawberry. I know that tomorrow is the day of the ice show so I decided to give you a visit tonight, if you don't mind," I said.

"Why should I? Please come in!" She replied with smile. "Come on, Custard, Pupcake... Hey, where are they?"

"Your pets are missing? Do you want to go looking for them? I'll help too," I said.

"No, I don't think it is needed. They will be fine," She replied.

"Well, if you are so sure, then fine," I said.

Inside her house, we had a conversation on how everyone were eager to seeing the show, how well the rehearsals were done, and also about Apricot.

"You know, Strawberry. I won't be surprised if tomorrow she comes with twisted ankle or such, pretending of course," I said.

"Don't be silly, Blackberry. You have to give her a chance, and you'll come to like her," She replied with her usual smile.

"Heh, you all can be too trusting sometimes, but that's what I like from you all," I commented. Then, suddenly the front door opened and both of Strawberry's pets came in.

"Come with us, Strawberry. There's something you have to see," Custard said. "Oh, Blackberry is here as well?"

"What is it, Custard?" Strawberry asked.

"It's Apricot. We just found out where she actually lives, and it's NOT a castle," Custard answered.

"Oh... Okay... Do you want to come with us, Blackberry?" Strawberry asked.

"No, I will go home now. It's almost bed time," I answered as Custard and Pupcake went out of the house.

"Promise me not to tell anyone about this okay?" she said.

"I see, you want to wait until she tells us herself right? Don't worry, I will keep silent," I answered and went home.

After I arrived home, I felt so tired and went to bed right away. Then at the next day I woke up and realized that I had overslept. I hurried to the pond although I knew that I have already missed the ice show. Midway I met Huck who apparently had overslept too, so then it became two people hurrying towards the pond.

When we arrived, we saw everyone including Apricot laughing together in the middle of the pond. It seemed like we indeed were too late. I approached them anyway as they moved to the edge.

"Hi, Strawberry. *Pants* It seems... it is too late for me, isn't it?" I asked with my breath running out.

"Yep, you're late. Sure you do," Ginger said.

"*Pants* Oh well, what's done is done," I said. "It was my own fault anyway because I overslept,"

"Well, sounds like a sign for an encore, isn't it?" Strawberry said to the others.

"Yep it sure is," Ginger said.

"No no no, don't bother doing that just for the two of us," I said. "It doesn't feel right,"

"*Giggles* It is fine, Blackberry, and it won't be just for you. Look at our spectators," Strawberry said, and I looked towards the spectators repeatedly yelling ``Encore!``. Thus, the ice show was repeated and all of us had a wonderful time.



--End of chapter 9--

Quote:Chapter 8: Cake Contest

"Time flies," I thought, looking at the falling yellow leaves outside the window. Fall season had come, and that meant my house would become visible again since the leaves which had been covering my house would all fall down. That was good since it meant my friends will have easier time finding my house. It did not matter much though, since I had put a mail box in front of my house a few days after the adventure on Dream Fairy Fields, just for a ``Blackberry's house is here`` sign. I was sure that there would be no mail coming.

I was sure of that until one day I saw the little flag pointing up, which meant a letter had come. I opened the mail box and saw that there was indeed a letter inside. I opened and read it, and realized that the letter was from Strawberry. It was an invitation for a camping trip, and that made me had a mixed feelings. I'd love to have an activity together with them, but at the same time I was not an outdoor boy. I couldn't even properly fill a backpack, let alone setting a tent up. Knowing that the D-day was the next day confused me even more, because that meant there was not much time to think.

While I was still confused, someone rang my doorbell. I went out and saw that it was Raspberry who rang the bell, and Lemon was with her as well.

"Hey, Blackberry. Did you receive the letter?" Raspberry asked.

"The camping invitation from Strawberry?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Yes, I received it. How about you two?" I asked back.

"We received it as well, but probably both of us won't come," Raspberry replied.

"Oh, how come?" I asked again.

"Actually, both of us had planned to go to Chocolate Town tomorrow," Lemon answered.

"Chocolate Town?" I said, wondering.

"Haven't been outdoor much, have you? Chocolate Town is a place where everything is made of chocolate. Roads, buildings, fences, furnitures, literally everything," Raspberry said.

"Yeah... Okay... So what are you two going to do there?" I asked while trying to imagine what Raspberry had said.

"In two days there will be a cake contest in Upper Hat Rack. We're going to participate there, but we ran out of chocolate for one of the ingredients so tomorrow we will go there to get some," Raspberry answered.

"Although, now there is one more problem," Lemon addressed.

"Yeah, the rules say we need a group of three to participate. We intended to ask Angel Cake since she is good at this, but... Hey, how about YOU?!" Raspberry continued.

"Huh? Me? No way, I can't even cook anything," I replied.

"What you have been eating? Only plain berries? In any case, it does not matter. The two of us will do all the work, and you can just watch," Raspberry said.

Raspberry was right in her first part. I had been only eating blackberries I had picked right from the bushes and nothing else, which was pretty embarassing if I thought about it. Although I didn't know if Huck could cook or not since plain huckleberries had been all the food he had given to me so far.

"Well okay if you say so. Then we have to inform Strawberry that we won't be in her camping event, otherwise she'll be left wondering," I said.

"That's what we're going to do," Raspberry replied, and then the three of us went towards Strawberry's house.

In the middle of the trip, I saw Huck passing by on his skateboard. Because I wanted to talk a little with him, I told Raspberry and Lemon to go on ahead, and I approached Huck.

"Hey, Blackberry," Huck greeted. "Are you going with us tomorrow?"

"You can't expect someone who cannot properly fill his backpack and set up his tent to come along, can you?" I replied with a little giggle.

"No worries about that. I can't do well in either as well," Huck answered, which surprised me. "Being together is all that matters. So, are you coming tomorrow?"

I explained about my plan with Raspberry and Lemon. He understood and wished me luck in the contest, which I didn't really need anyway since I wouldn't be the one cooking. After that I went to Strawberry's house, in which Raspberry and Lemon were there already.

"Hi, Blackberry," Strawberry greeted. "I have heard about your absence tomorrow from Raspberry and Lemon. I wish all three of you luck for the contest,"

"Thank you, Strawberry," The three of us answered at the same time, and then from the inside we heard Apple's voice.

"Strawberry, continue the story," Apple said from inside the house. Strawberry said goodbye to us and went back into the house.

"Okay. Now that it's settled, let's start collecting the ingredients," Raspberry said as we walk.

"What are you going to make for the contest by the way?" I asked.

"Do you think I have my name for nothing?" Raspberry asked back. "I'm going to make a torte,"

"Torte...? What is that?" I asked with confused face.

"Just wait and see it in the D-Day. In any case, today we will get sugar and flour and tomorrow we will go for the chocolate and colorings. The rest is already in my house," Raspberry replied.

"Why taking so long for collecting them? I thought we can get them all in one day," I asked.

Raspberry sighed and said, "Lemon, answer that for me. I'm out of breath..."

"We can get all in one day from one place, but what we need is the best of each kind. The best chocolate is from Chocolate Town, the best flour is from Upper Truffle, the best sugar is from Lower Lollipop, the best..." Lemon said.

"I see, I see. That means we need to go quite a distance right?" I interrupted.

"Yeah, you see. From here it will take hours to go to Lower Lollipop, and then Upper Truffle is located on the opposite side of Strawberryland..." Raspberry said.

"Hey... did you two forget THIS?" I interrupted with a smile, showing them a remote I had been keeping inside my pocket. The two girls stared at the remote for some seconds until they showed me a happily surprised face. I noticed that, pressed one button, and a few seconds later Falcon came landing besides us.

"All aboard," I said, and the two girls went inside. I followed them and sat on the pilot seat.

"Where are we going first?" I asked.

"Lower Lollipop, please," Lemon answered.

"Next stop, Lower Lollipop. Fasten your seatbelts and we're ready to go," I said, and then we arrived at Lower Lollipop... three hours later. As we stood in front of the Lower Lollipop's gate, Raspberry seemed upset.

"Why didn't you tell us first that you didn't know where Lower Lollipop was?" She grumbled. "You have wasted time bringing us all the way to Tangerine Bosque and back here again,"

I blushed and said, "Well, sorry. I thought flying southwards would have done the job,"

"Now the time it took to get us here is the same as if we had walked..." Raspberry said with a little facepalm, and giggled afterwards. "Quite silly, don't you think?" She said, and all of us laughed.

It didn't take long for us to get the sugar we needed. In just less than ten minutes later all of us were already inside Falcon again.

"Next is Upper Truffle, right?" I asked.

"Yes, it is north of here," Lemon answered.

"But don't take us all the way to Holidayland this time. It's empty now anyway because now is not winter yet," Raspberry warned, and then we flew northwards slower than when we had flown towards Lower Lollipop.

"By the way, for someone who hasn't been living here for that long, you two know quite alot about Strawberryland," I said.

"It does not take years to know those. You only need to go out more," Raspberry answered, which struck me directly.

We arrived safely and got the flour we needed without any trouble. However, the day started to get dark so we had no choice but to call it a day and continue the collecting at the next day.

"In the end, this flying vehicle didn't help us to collect the ingredients faster," Raspberry said.

"At least we didn't have to walk," Lemon said. "For that we thank you, Blackberry,"

We landed behind my house and then each of the two girls went away to her home. I spent the rest of the day attempting to invent new devices, and finally went to sleep at bed time.

At the next day, we collected the chocolate we needed from Chocolate Town without any trouble because a kind brown bunny helped us by pointing the way to a pot at the end of a rainbow, which contained an infinite amount of chocolate coins.

"Take as many as you like, just like how the girl in fuschia usually does," The bunny said.

"That must be Ginger Snap," I addressed as we all took some of the coins.

The colorings didn't gave us any trouble as well. We simply just squeezed some of the sponge cakes which grew from sponge cake trees in the Sponge Cake Forest.

"All right. Now that we have all the ingredients, it's time to practice," Raspberry said as we walked away from Sponge Cake Forest. "Your house has a kitchen, right Blackberry?"

"Umm, yes. Why is that?" I asked.

"If you don't mind we want to use your kitchen for practising. Especially that your house is the closest from here," Raspberry said.

"I don't mind. It has never been used anyway," I answered.

Nothing special happened afterwards. All of us spent the rest of the day practising, including me even though I wouldn't have to make anything at the next day, but just in case they taught me to bake my own blackberry tart. I also got the better part of the deal because that night I became the one in charge for tasting what both the girl had made.

"Great! Even if we don't win, this will not be an embarassment for sure!" I said after tasting Raspberry's torte and Lemon's meringue pie.

"And your blackberry tart isn't that bad. Still needs some things but this is already fair enough," Raspberry commented.

"You need more practice, but it is already late and we have to spare the remaining ingredients for tomorrow," Lemon added, and later the two girls went home.

At bedtime, before I fell asleep I thought about a conversation that happened during the practice we had done...

Blackberry : I actually wonder why you want to participate in this contest?
Raspberry : Umm.. Well...
Blackberry : It's fine if you don't want to tell.
Raspberry : No, I'll tell you. Do you know the details of my adventure in Land of Dreams with Strawberry?
Blackberry : Well, no actually.
Raspberry : There was one occassion where the situation was near hopeless, and Strawberry fell into a state of despair.
Lemon : And she sang a sad song about how silly it was to be a dreamer.
Blackberry : Oh...
Lemon : Everyone cheered her up to make her regain her spirit.
Raspberry : Everyone... except me.
Blackberry : Oh, how come?
Raspberry : I was as desperate as her at that time. Maybe even more. I wanted to cheer her up as well but... I was out of words.
Blackberry : I see...
Raspberry : I want to apologize to her for that, but I feel that words alone will not do
Lemon : So Raspberry came with an idea of "Cake of Apology"
Raspberry : Strawberry is very good at making cakes, and I'm sure she will win if she participates in this contest.
Blackberry : Let me guess. If you win this contest then you can be sure that your cake is worth giving to Strawberry. Am I right?
Raspberry : That's right.

I thought that her method was not wrong, but I felt that she didn't have to do that. I knew that Strawberry didn't need that much of doing for apologizing. I didn't even think that Raspberry needed to apologize at all. But of course I couldn't stop a good intention so I let it by and went to sleep.

At the next day, which was the D-Day, we went to the contest and participated in it. All of us, me included because I wanted it, made the best cake we could make. It all went well, and then later the winner announcement began. All of us waited with quite an anxiety until the judges announced the winner.

Later, we were on the way home. Our feelings were quite mixed.

"And so... We didn't win after all," Raspberry said.

"At least our team got the second place," I said, trying to cheer her up. "But yeah, I'm sorry about that,"

"It was me who didn't read the regulations well," Raspberry said. "I didn't realize that the final score is the average of all the team's cakes if the team make more than one,"

"But still, it was because my cake was not good enough. I shouldn't have made that cake," I said.

"It's fine. *Sigh* I also didn't notice that the regulations actually require each participant to be a team UP TO three. No wonder some other teams consisted of only one or two persons,"

"The winner was a single-member team. She must be very good at it," Lemon said.

"Ah, the girl in blue with blueberry ornament on her hat," I remembered. "I have a feeling this won't be the last time we see her,"

"And hear more of her absoloo-ootely talk? I'll pass on that," Raspberry commented.

"By the way, what was the prize for the winner?" I asked.

"Books. Lots of them. Not for me obviously," Raspberry answered.

"Not for me either," Lemon added.

"And not for me as well," I said. "Let's just hope that girl is quite a wormbook so she won't throw them away,"

All of us gigled after my last line, and then I remembered about Raspberry's "Cake of Apology" so I asked her a question.

"By the way, will you give Strawberry that ``Cake of Apology``?" I asked.

"Nah, screw it. I didn't win after all," She answered.

"But..." I said before Raspberry interrupted.

"Yeah I know what you are going to say. However, that is not the real reason," She said, knocking fences with a branch. "Last night I thought about what will happen if I give her that cake. From her attitude she will probably say that she does not need such thing for an apology, and she will also say that I don't need to apologize at all. You have known her for longer than me, Blackberry, so I suppose we have the same thinking. Thus, I think I will just bring that cake when Strawberry has an event going,"

"You hit me on the spot," I replied agreeing with her, and so our day ended.



At the next day, I thought about Raspberry's words of me having to go out more. I thought that she was right so for that day I decided to have a walk around Strawberryland, testing my new device as well in the process. I went out of my house and walked towards the back side of Blackberry Bushes instead of Huckleberry Briar which I had been usually doing before.The device I named Swallow's Flight worked out really well. With it attached to my shirt like a badge, my body became much lighter that I could run very fast and jump very high.

While I was having fun with my lighter body, I noticed something at a distance. It was an old abandoned house on top of a small hill. The shape of the house was a little bit similar to a muffin, if only it was much cleaner. I landed right in front of the house and observed it for a moment until someone greeted me from behind.

"Hi there," The voice said. I looked behind and saw that the voice came from the girl who won the cake contest.

"Hi, you are... the contest winner," I said.

"The name is Blueberry Muffin. Nice to meet you," She said.

"I'm Blackberry Bun," I said, offering a handshake which she accepted.
"What are you doing here?"

"I just loooove old houses and I see this one looking sad and abandoned so now I'm asking myself if I can make this place look great," She replied with joy.

"And have you gotten the answer?" I asked.

"Absoloo-ootely yes!" She answered. "I'm going to fix this house and live here,"

"Where have you been living before?" I asked.

"Upper Hat Rack, in a small room I have been renting. My stuffs are still there and I'm going to move them here as well," She answered.

"I will help you," I offered, and she seemed happy to hear that.

So, for the next few hours both of us were busy moving Blueberry's stuffs from her old place to the soon-to-be her new house, and I got to know her pet mouse Cheesecake as well. We finally managed to move all the stuffs when it was already dark. Blueberry lit a candle so we still could see inside the house. We worked on the house some more until some light entered the house from a window.

"What was that light?" Blueberry asked, still walking around moving some stuffs.

"I have no idea," I answered, checking outside a window and saw nothing at all at the source of the light because of some fog. But then, the light went off and I heard a scream, which slowly faded away.

"Now what was that scream...? Sounds like a scream of fear," I remarked, and both of us went outside to check.

"I see nothing weird," Blueberry said, and both of us went back inside.

Later, I realized that I had to go home because of bedtime so I wished her goodbye and said that I would come tomorrow to help her again. She agreed and I went home.

On the way home, I noticed that I still had Swallow's Flight on my shirt but I didn't feel any effect from it. At first I thought that it broke down or ran out of energy, but then a bad feeling came to me.

When I was finally inside my house, I lied down on my bed preparing my mind for the worst case, and took the badge off my shirt. My bad feeling came out to be true. My body suddenly felt so heavy that I could barely move. It was caused by the body adapting to the badge, and ended up becoming dependant on it. I had no other choice besides going to sleep and hoping that my body would re-adapt when I woke up.

At the next day, I woke up quite late that the sun was already high. My body had mostly readapted but still felt quite heavy. I decided to go to Blueberry's place anyway because I promised, and when I got there I saw that the house had been cleaned up.

"Did Blueberry do this herself?" I wondered and went to the front door. When I opened the door I saw not only Blueberry but also Strawberry, Orange, Angel, Ginger, and Huck. They were eating muffins together.

"Hi, Blackberry!" Strawberry greeted me.

"Oh... Hi," I replied.

"This morning these absoloo-ootely nice friends came and helped me in the works. I am very grateful," Blueberry said.

"You're berry welcome, Blueberry. Come and join us, Blackberry. We could use one more slot," Strawberry said.

I agreed and joined the crowd. We had a nice conversation with each other and in the end all of us had a toast.

"To new friends!" Strawberry said.

"New friends!" All of us cheered.

--End of Chapter 8--

Quote:Chapter 7d: Fake Lie

I didn't know how long I had been unconscious because of Mary's spell. The next thing I saw was a horrible vision of Raspberry and Lemon being locked in a prison with their arms chained to the wall. Raspberry seemed very upset while Lemon just stood still with tears leaking from her eyes. How could they do this to them? No, this couldn't be...

"No!" I shouted, and realized that I was on a comfortable bed. It seemed that I had been dreaming, but I felt that it was too real to be just a dream. I looked around and saw that I was in a quite nice and well-furnished room, but thinking that my two friends were getting a completely different treat...

"Finally awake?" A familiar voice said. I looked at the source and saw Mary who was smiling at me. Her size somehow became much bigger than the last time. She had been very small, but this time she was as tall as me.

"Why are you..." I said, intending to ask a question, but stopped by myself because I suddenly realized that my voice became high-pitched. "Huh? My voice..."

"Your voice is the side effect of a magic. In here you have to be at the same size like us to fit into this land," Mary said.

"You mean, I was shrunk?" I said.

"Indeed. Welcome to the Dream Fairy Fields," she said, waving her wand. A set of food appeared on a table. "Have your meal. I know you are hungry," she said.

"No..." I refused. "I don't want to sit, enjoying meal while my friends are suffering,"

"What do you mean?" She asked, seemed confused.

"I heard what you said. Raspberry and Lemon were going to be put in prison, while I get this nice treatment. I can't just simply accept this... unfair thing," I answered.

Mary seemed to be thinking, until she said, "Oh, come on. I said ``probably`` and that didn't mean it was going to happen for sure,"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Wait a moment," she answered, walking out of the room and a few minutes later came back along with Raspberry and Lemon. "See? They are here safe and sound. Her Majesty was in her generous mood so she gave your friends the same treatment as yours,"

"But now I'm wondering..." I said, and I told everyone the horrible vision I had seen.

"Oh, it seems a stray nightmare has gotten over you. Sorry, I must have missed it," She answered.

"Stray nightmare...?" I asked, wondering.

"Oh, the bats I turned into butterflies," Raspberry said.

"Not necessarily bats. Nightmare is an entity without any definite shape. It can transform itself into any kind of creature. For unknown reason, nightmare seems to be fond of bats so it is almost always seen in that shape," Mary explained.

"Bats for nightmares... Poor bats, they seems to be misunderstood by many..." I said with low voice.

"What did you say?" Mary asked.

"Nothing, just a little mumbling," I answered. "In any case, I'm glad that you two are okay,"

"Yeah... Yeah..." Raspberry answered with weird high-pitched voice, seemed still upset.

"I'm glad that you are okay too, Blackberry," Lemon said, also with high-pitched voice.

"I suppose you can have your meal now, Blackberry," Marry said, blinking her eye with a smile.

"Oh, yes... I forgot. Thanks," I answered, and the three of them went away.

After finishing my meal, I went to a closed window in my room and opened it to look outside. The scenery I saw at the next second was so breathtaking. I was in a high place seeing houses below and stars above.

"Beautiful scenery right?" A familiar voice asked. I looked around and saw Mary floating just beside the window. "This is what we call as Dream Fairy Fields, and you are now seeing it from Her Majesty's castle,"

"Yeah, indeed. By the way, was I asleep for a long time? It was night when you put us to sleep, and now it is still night," I said.

"Oh, you don't know yet? Land of Dreams never sees the light of day. Now that I remember it, they still don't know about it either. Anyway, you want to go out and walk around?" She asked.

"Well, why not? Bring Raspberry and Lemon along as well," I said.

"Okay, I'll get them. Meet me at the castle entrance. It should be pretty easy to find, just follow the purple carpet," Mary answered, flying away.

I walked out of my room and followed the purple carpet I saw. I kept walking inside the big castle for quite a while until I finally arrived at the castle's entrance with the large main door just in front of me. Mary and the others were not there yet so I stood around waiting for them. However, suddenly I felt something strange. I looked around and realized that the strange feeling came from a nearby door. I approached the door and examined it. The door was a wooden door which had a small opening with bars.

"Seems like a prison door," I thought. The door was locked and the opening was positioned too high for me to look into. I still stared at the door for the next few minutes until a voice called.

"Hey, what are you doing there?" the voice asked. I looked at the source and saw Mary with Raspberry and Lemon. "Shall we go now?"

"Umm, yeah. By the way what is this door?" I asked.

"Oh, that is the dungeon entrance. There is no need to go inside. There are only prisons there," Mary answered.

"Oh, so this is the place..." I said. "Anyway, yes we can go now,"

All four of us walked around Dream Fairy Fields. A few times I saw Lemon acting strange, seemed like she was concentrating to gather some kind of power.

"What are you doing, Lemon?" I asked.

"I wanted to try that again, but I can't seem to do it now," she answered.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Transforming into a fairy. I did it once in Dream Factory," She answered.

"It was our doing," Mary said "All the magics you and your friends have done were all our doing,"

"Hmm, can you explain it further?" I asked. "There are some things I still don't understand,"

"Okay, we Dream Fairies have the ability to give someone power depending on what their strongest dream is. Lemon's strongest dream was to become a princess of fairies so we could transform her into one. Strawberry's dream was a garden so all we could do was growing a bush to block Pie Man, which ended up pretty useless frankly speaking," She answered. "And Lemon, you cannot use the power here because Her Majesty prohibits the usage of this power in Dream Fairy Fields,"

"I think I have to thank whoever helped me to make my new Falcon," I said.

"It was me who was there, but all I did was just giving you the toolbox. You made your Falcon on your own, so be proud of yourself," she replied, which surprised me. "Speaking of thanking, yeah maybe you should thank me anyway. It was me who protected the three of you when your old Falcon fell down. And before you said it, you're welcome,"

"Umm, yeah... Thank you," I said with a little laugh.

"Wait wait wait. The three of us didn't crash last night. Did I miss something?" Raspberry aksed, still with upset tone. And so I ended up telling her, and Lemon as well, about my secret visit along with Huck and Apple. "So YOU were the cause of Dream Boat crashing. I thought you are better than that, but it seems I was wrong. Screw it, I'm off!" Raspberry said in an even more angry tone and left towards the castle.

"And that's a friendship ruined..." I said with a deep sigh. "Just because I wanted to help..."

"Raspberry..." Lemon said, starting to follow her, but stopped midway. She looked at me with confused looks, seeming to be in a dillemma whether to stay with me or follow Raspberry. In the end, she chose to follow Raspberry. I was left with Mary, and due to the unpleasant atmosphere I decided to go back to my room and sleep again.

The vision came to me again. Raspberry and Lemon chained to prison wall with unpleasant mood on their face, Raspberry was towards anger while Lemon was towards sadness. The vision was too real and horrible for me that it woke me up with my whole body covered by my own sweat.

"The door... There must be something there..." I thought, walking out of my room and then following the purple carpet until I reached the door with bars. "I hope I still carry it with me,"

I searched my pocket and took a key-shaped device I named as Key Master. I inserted it to what looked like a keyhole on the door, even though the hole was too big for the device. A light shined from the keyhole and then the lock opened. I entered the so-called dungeon and saw that it was really a dungeon. There was a long staircase leading down, which I followed. In the end I saw rows of bars which obviously implied that I was in the hallway of the castle's prison. I walked through it, looking left and right and saw that there was nobody inside any of the jail as far as I had been walking through.

However, as I reached the last jail furthest from the entrance, I looked into the jail and saw what exactly appeared in the visions I had had. I saw Raspberry with upset face and Lemon with sad face, standing with their arms chained high to the jail's wall.

"Raspberry! Lemon!" I shouted towards them.

"Blackberry! Glad you have come! Please release us fast and escape from this place!" Raspberry replied.

"Please release us, Blackberry," Lemon said with weak voice.

"How could they do this to you two?" I asked.

"How could I know? They probably have some kind of silly rule? In any case, release us and then we should leave this nasty place as soon as possible!" She answered.

While opening the jail's door with Key Master, I asked, "Then who were the Raspberry and Lemon I saw this morning?"

"What do you mean...? Oh... Probably just fakes made up to confuse you. The next thing we knew after last night was being here chained to the wall," Raspberry answered. "We have been suffering here for what seemed like forever without seeing any light of day. Hmph, like if this land sees any light of day anyway... In any case, please hurry up before we're found out!"

"Okay okay, I'm on it," I answered, entering the jail and going to release Raspberry's arm from the chain, when I realized something strange and stopped.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and release us!" Raspberry said.

"You're not Raspberry... You, both of you are fakes..." I said.

"How could you say that? Of course we are real! The ones above are the fakes! They confuse you and ruin your feelings!" Raspberry shouted.

"If you have been here since the time after all of us were knocked unconscious, you should not have known that Land of Dreams never sees the light of day. But you knew..." I said. "Then, you just said that the fakes ruin my feelings. How did you know that I just had a dispute with ``Fake Raspberry`` this day?"

"It was just assumptions. You can't just mistake us from those points!" Raspberry said, seemed upset.

"Lastly, somehow in Dream Fairy Fields, my voice became high-pitched, and so did Raspberry and Lemon I met today. However..." I said.

"What's with that? Our voice are high-pitched as well now!" Raspberry interrupted.

"Now that is the proof. Somehow my voice came back to normal from the time I entered the dungeon, while your voice is still high-pitched," I said, which seemed to struck ``Raspberry`` directly. "You two are not my friends. You are stray nightmares!"

The last sentence I said made the two fakes transformed into two giant bats, which then charged towards me. However, they suddenly transformed into beautiful butterflies and faded away leaving some light glitters before completely disappeared. I looked behind and saw Raspberry, along with Lemon.

"Are you okay, Blackberry?" Raspberry asked, with her voice back to normal like me.

"Yes, I'm fine," I answered.

"Glad that I still can do that," She said. "Changing nightmares into good dreams... I thought we needed a dream fairy for that as well,"

"Let's get out of here," Lemon said, also with her voice back to normal like me.

All three of us walked through the tiring upward staircase with some conversations along the way. Also, we realized that the higher we went, our voice gradually became high-pitched again.

"By the way, how did you find me here?" I asked.

"Well, I wanted to apologize for what happened last time, so I went to your room. However, I couldn't find you there and anywhere around. Then I remember you showing some interest to that door so I went there, also meeting Lemon on the way. When we arrived, we saw the door left open so we entered and... you know what happened next," Raspberry answered. "Yeah, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. You didn't mean to do that, you only wanted to help us,"

"It's okay," I said.

We finally arrived at the door, but what awaited us behind the door was something we did not expect at all. Many dream fairies were waiting in front of the door with unpleasant expressions. Mary was among them and stepped forward.

"You three have trespassed a forbidden area. According to Article 4A paragraph 33, anyone who enters the abandoned dungeon has to be brought to Her Majesty to be given a sanction," Mary said. "I'm sorry, but we have to stick to the rules,"

"Another silly rule..." Raspberry muttered. "Like we have any choice anyway,"

So, the three of us were brought to the throne room where the Dream Fairy Queen would decide the punishment for us. As we all stood in front of her throne, she opened her mouth and began speaking.

"Raise your face and look at my eyes, my dear guests!" The Queen spoke. "I have heard the words that you have trespassed the forbidden area. For that a heavy punishment is inevitable!"

"Please leave my friends alone, Your Majesty. I will take all the blame. It was all my fault that I was foolish enough to be tricked into entering that place. They only helped me," I spoke to the Queen.

"No, Blackberry. You can't do that!" Raspberry said.

"I'm the one who dragged you two into all this trouble, so I'm the one to take all the blame," I said.

"Silence, my dear guests. No matter what happened down there, all three of you have trespassed the forbidden area. For that, all three of you will be given the same punishment which is..." The Queen spoke.

All three of us stood in silence, waiting for any words that would come out next.

"A permanent exile to The Awake Realms," The Queen spoke with a warm smile.

At first, we didn't understand what the smile meant, but we suddenly did. Awake Realms was our home, and that meant we would be home again soon. Expression of happiness came to our faces, and the Queen seemed to notice that.

"Now go to the Dream Fairy Fields' main gate. I will meet you there to exile you all personally," The Queen spoke again, and we obeyed with pleasure.

After we left the throne room, something happened without any of us knowing. The two butterflies which had disappeared from the dungeon appeared on each side of the Queen. Then, each of them transformed into a dream fairy. Both of them were themed around orange color.

"I thank both of you for your service, Daisy Dawn and Diana Dusk," The Queen spoke.

"I'm glad to be of service, Your Majesty," Both of the dream fairies answered at the same time.

"I'm sorry that you had to do such chore, but that was the only way so they all can go home. I blame myself for this, on one side I know that they are not happy here, but on the other hand I have to stick to the rules I have made myself," The Queen spoke.

"It was not a problem, Your Majesty. All we did was just giving two fake visions in the boy's dream, attracting his feeling towards the dungeon, and a disguise play to buy some time for some random fairy to find out that someone has entered the dungeon," Daisy answered.

"Although, we actually planned him to ``release`` us and get found out by others at the entrance. I didn't think that the boy could be that critical. It was my fault though, for giving away that one point," Diana continued.

"Two actually, and also another one since we didn't know the dungeon somehow returned their voice back to normal. In the end we only could improvise and adapt with his words. It became a game of chance, but fortunately it still ended up in our favor," Daisy said.

"Indeed. Not only they are now able to go home, the friendship between the boy and the girl has been restored as well. A happy ending for everyone, what could have been better?" Diana said.

"All right. Now I have to go and exile them personally. Once again I thank you both for your exellent service, and I hope you will continue to do more in the future," The Queen said.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Daisy and Diana answered at the same time as the Queen walked away from the throne room.

Shortly after all three of us arrived at the main gate, the Queen arrived there as well with many other dream fairies. While waving her magic wand, she also spoke some more words, "We will surely miss you all, my dear guests. Have a safe journey in your exile,". And then we disappeared before all of the dream fairies' eyes.

"I will surely miss them. Too bad they never get to know Daisy and Diana because of this scheme Your Majesty have made with them," Mary said.

"Oh, you know it? Glad I did not make you chief for nothing," The Queen said with a smile. "The same with Daisy and Diana as well. All three of you has shown great performance,"

"I am honored to hear that, Your Majesty," Mary answered.

"Although it was your fault that their friendship was ruined at the first place. All right, get back to works, everyone!" The Queen said her words and Dream Fairy Fields went back to its usual activity.

We reappeared inside my Falcon, which was parked right behind my house. It seemed like everything that happened was just a dream, but this time we all knew that it had been real.

"It seems that Mary was right about the magic being not usable twice, huh?" Raspberry said.

"Yes, it seems so," I answered.

We got off Falcon and walked to the front of my house.

"I guess it's time for us to go back home," Raspberry said.

"It is?" Lemon asked.

"Well, you can decide for yourself. I have been thinking about it. Our friendship became overprotection because of one reason or another. I cannot let the overprotection continue, it is not good for the future of us both." Raspberry answered. "And Blackberry, I also want to apologize for even thinking that you distrust me. I don't know what was in my mind back then,"

"I understand, Raspberry. I thank you for being a nice friend, and I hope we will still continue to be friends," Lemon answered.

"It is fine, Raspberry. It was me myself who was too timid that it came to your mind, and I will learn to get rid of that," I answered, and then the three of us had a big group hug.

--End of Chapter 7--

Quote:Chapter 7c: Do You Know The Way to The Dream Fairy Fields?


It has been three days since the day we have had our adventure to The Land of Dreams. The garden has fully grown into a rich garden full of berries for everyone over Strawberryland, and all of us have been having nice dreams over these three days. It seemed that everything has returned to normal, although until then I was still wondering about the Dream Fairies. There was a time when I didn't believe in magic or anything magical, including magical creatures such as fairies. Recent adventures had made me think different, but there were still doubts inside my mind.

I was a person who does not fully believe until I see something for myself. That night I only had seen lights, so then I wanted to see the Dream Fairies for real. However, I didn't know how to get to them at all. I had thought over it for a while, but no idea had come.

I was still lying under a tree, thinking over a way to see the Dream Fairies, when a voice greeted me.

"Hey you. You're... Blackberry right?" That voice said. I got up and saw a girl in purple looking at me with strange gaze, and another girl in yellow alongside her.

"Yes, I'm Blackberry. And you are..." I replied.

"Raspberry Torte," The girl in purple answered.

"Lemon Meringue," The girl in yellow continued.

"Strawberry has told us about you," Raspberry said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, you're the one whose house is hidden inside a large tree," she replied. "And that's all. Huck and Apple, those two were the only ones who had ever visited you,"

"Yes, that's true..." I said.

"Well, make it four," she said.

"Huh?" I wondered.

"We want to visit your house. Me and Lemon," She replied.

"We do?" Lemon asked.

"Okay okay. I want to, and I was asking you to come along as well. So you come?" Raspberry replied.

"Yes, of course," Lemon said. "Knowing more about a new friend is always a pleasure,"

"So, we go now?" Raspberry asked me.

"Well, umm... Okay..." I answered timidly.

"What's wrong with you? You don't like us to come? Then fine, we won't come," Raspberry said in a not pleasant tone.

"No! I mean... It's a pleasure... Really..." I said.

"You don't sound like that..." Raspberry said, examining my face. "Hey, we don't bite, you know,"

I myself wondered why inconfidence struck me again after all this time. But if I remembered it again, at the time I had introduced myself to everyone and also at the time I had talked with Peppermint, Huck had been there alongside me. That meant I always needed Huck to keep my confidence, and I saw that as not good since that also meant I was too dependant to Huck.

"Y... Yeah... Of course you don't... Let's go..." I said, still timidly.

The three of us went deep into Blackberry Bushes until we arrived in front of the large tree where my house was hidden.

"So this is the tree? Indeed it hides your house very well," Raspberry commented.

"Yes..." I said, pressing the button on the tree, which unhid the ladder. "Please, come in,"

When the three of us got inside, the two girls looked around and found their way to the three invention shelves: "Successful" which displayed quite alot of devices, "Unfinished" which was empty thanks to Huck giving me moral supports, and "Danger! Do not touch!" which until then only contained Time Remote's aftermath.

"Umm... You can go ahead and play with the devices... But please don't..." I said before interrupted by Raspberry.

"Yeah yeah. Who will dare to touch that one anyway if there's this big ``Danger do not touch`` sign above it?" She said.

"Whew, this place is quite hot... Hey, this one looks like a mini-fan. Let me try it," Lemon said, taking one device from the ``Successful`` shelf.

"Oh, that's Gale. Be careful using it since the wind it produces is..." I said before she turned it on, blowing her hat away out of the window at the back of my house. "...very strong..."

"Oh no! My hat!!" She shouted.

"Come on, it's not the end of the world. And I'm sure it will not fly far," Raspberry said.

We all looked out of the window searching for the hat until we found it below, floating in mid-air. The two girls seemed confused, but I knew why it happened. The hat had landed on the invisible Falcon.

"Wow, my hat is floating?" Lemon said.

"This is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen," Raspberry commented.

"Well, looks like I cannot hide it now..." I said, taking Falcon's remote from my desk's drawer. "Let's go out,"

The three of us walked to the place where Lemon's hat was "floating" and I pressed one button which put Falcon's invisibility off.

"Whoa... What is this...?" Lemon asked, seeming astonished.

"Falcon. My aircraft. You want a ride?" I answered, taking Lemon's hat from the roof and giving it back to her.

"That would be great," Raspberry said

"Yes, of course," Lemon added.

"Then all aboard," I said, before entering Falcon.

The two girls entered Falcon as well, and I started its engine. Unlike the previous ride with Huck and Apple, this time I was able to fly the aircraft smoothly. We flew around Strawberryland, seeing alot of beautiful sceneries from above.

"Blackberry, you're great to be able to make a vehicle that can go anywhere like this," Lemon said.

``Anywhere...`` That one word struck me. Why hadn't I thought about it from the start? Yes, that was quite possible seeing that this vehicle had come from there.

"Thank you, Lemon," I said.

"Huh? Thank me for what?" She asked.

"For what you have said," I answered, and we continued our ride.

That night, unlike what I usually did, I didn't go to sleep. I went into Falcon and flew it high. I intended to use it to go to Land of Dreams once again and ask about the Dream Fairies. However, even after some hours of flying, I couldn't find the Land of Dreams. I remembered the Dreamboat flying through some kind of portal with the shape of a star back then.

"Looks like this is eventually useless..." I said to myself with a sigh. "You two can come out from your hiding, Lemon and Raspberry,"

After I said the last sentence, Raspberry and Lemon came out from behind the rear passenger seat, seemed confused.

"How did you know that we were here?" Lemon asked.

"This monitor shows me since the beginning," I answered, pointing at the monitor in front of me. "It shows that there are two persons behind the rear seat, and from the silhouette I could recognize that it was you two,"

"If you say so, why did you pretend not knowing?" Raspberry asked.

"Well, I..." I said, trying to think of a good reason, but I couldn't find any so I ended up in silence.

"What is it? You don't want to tell us? Are we THAT untrustworthy?" Raspberry said with upset tone.

"No... It's just that..." I spoke timidly again until Lemon interrupted.

"Hey! Look there!" She shouted, pointing to the front. I looked to the front and saw a glimmer of light flying around. The more I observed it, the clearer it was to me that the light was the...

"Sleepbug!" All three of us shouted at the same time, then we looked at each other.

"You know that too?" Lemon asked.

"That's what I was going to ask you," Raspberry replied. "I thought it was just a dream. But looks like it's not,"

"Let's follow it," I said, piloting Falcon to follow the sleepbug. "By the way, I want to ask why you snuck in,"

"Well, you saying ``Thank you`` for what she had said was suspicious. So we decided to sneak in this ``vehicle that can go anywhere`` and see what you're going to do," Raspberry answered.

"We did?" Lemon asked.

"Okay okay, it was just me, and I brought her along," Raspberry said.

"You two have a very close friendship huh? I have never seen one of you without the other," I commented.

"Well..." Raspberry said before a bright light appeared in front of us. It was the star-shaped portal, and we flew through it.

The next thing we saw was the Land of Dreams, still as beautiful as before, in front.

"It's the land..." Lemon said.

"Indeed..." Raspberry added.

"The Land of Dreams," both of them spoke together.

I piloted Falcon around the whole land and then landed it on the field in front of PJ's. The three of us then came out and looked around, once again astonished by the beauty of the land.

"The dream was not a dream after all," Raspberry said.

"Or maybe we just continued our dream...?" Lemon wondered.

"Come on, we have been awake all the time since this morning. There's no way this is a dream," Raspberry said.

We walked towards PJ's, and when we got close the door opened. We entered and met a lady inside, who was nobody other than PJ herself, holding her usual pencil and notepad.

"Let's see... Blackberry Bun, Lemon Meringue, and Raspberry Torte... Welcome to PJ's," she said.

"It's nice to meet you again," Lemon said.

"Indeed, it's a pleasure," Raspberry added.

"Me too," I said.

"And me too, dear. Please have a seat," PJ said, and we sat around a round table. "So what brought you here now?"

"Well, I want to ask about something, but first I want to ask... Why your face look unhappy? Is there a problem?" I asked, looking at PJ's face, which has been showing depression since the beginning.

"Uh? Well, I cannot hide it forever... Truth to be told..." She began speaking.

"You cannot go home. Or to be exact, we cannot let you go home," A voice interrupted. We all looked towards the source of the voice, and saw a tiny girl with butterfly wings.

"A fairy? Who are you and what do you mean you can't let us go home?" Raspberry asked.

"I am Mary Midnight. Chief of the Dream Fairies. Pleased to meet you," The fairy answered.

"Okay, now explain why we cannot go home, and what are these Dream Fairies you have spoken about? I really don't understand a thing!" Raspberry said.

"Okay, maybe I should explain everything from the beginning," Mary answered, flying above the table we were sitting around, and waving her wand. A rotating hologram-like image of Land of Dreams appeared on the table.

"This is Land of Dreams," She said

"Uh-huh..." Raspberry muttered.

"Land of Dreams consists of three levels. First is the top level, where Sandman and Dream Builders work to make dreams. Then there's the bottom level where we are on now. In here the Dream Senders receive the dreams from the top level and then they do the delivery to everyone in the awake realms," She explained.

"Then the middle level?" I asked. "I don't remember seeing anything special there,"

"Well... It seems as there's nothing there. But the middle level is the place where we, The Dream Fairies live. Our role is to go to the awake realms and make sure that everyone there receives the dreams safely. We also do other things like inducing sleep powder to insomniacs, driving stray nightmares away, and other things too many to mention. We are so busy that unfortunately there are always some people left out," Mary said.

"Okay okay. Now I understand about who you are. But you still haven't answered why we cannot go home," Raspberry said.

"The existence of The Land of Dreams is not to be known by anyone from awake realms. That's the bottom line," Mary answered.

"Hey, but all of us could go home the last time. Not to mention that Pie Man seemed to know this place since the beginning," I said.

"Well, how he knew that is still a mystery. But we have taken care of that by erasing that knowledge out of his and his sister's head at the time you all sent him back to the awake realms," Mary answered.

"Wait wait wait. You said you can erase knowledge out of one's head. Why won't you just do that once we get home if you really want us not to know this place. I can live without it anyway," Raspberry said, seeming upset.

"Unfortunately, the magic cannot be casted to the same person more than once. So now no matter how hard we try, the memory cannot be erased from you," Mary answered. "That's why we cannot let you go home,"

"Come on! What bad thing is going to happen if we go home knowing about this place?! I can keep my mouth shut. Or you think I am THAT untrustworthy?! That's it! I'm tired of everyone thinking that I am untrustworthy! First Blackberry, and now this fairy!" Raspberry shouted, seemed frustated.

I was quite shocked by what she just said. She thought that I considered her not untrustworthy? I had never had that kind of thought in my mind. Although, I knew what had made her think like that.

"I don't care about this! I'm going home!" Raspberry said, walking to the door. However, suddenly she collapsed right in front of the door and didn't move anymore.

"Raspberry!" Lemon and I shouted, running towards her. However, as we got near her both of us also collapsed.

I still had my consciousness, but I couldn't move any muscle. I could hear Mary and PJ talked to each other.

"Glad I had put Tranquilizer spell on the door right at the time I came," Mary said.

"Do you really have to do this to these dears? They are just kids..." PJ asked.

"If I had had freedom I wouldn't have done it. Her Majesty is very strict about this..." Mary answered.

"Now what are you going to do to them...?" PJ asked.

"According to the information I have and judging from Her Majesty's personality... The boy will be nicely treated. But the two girls..." Mary said.

"What about Lemon Meringue and Raspberry Torte?" PJ asked.

"Her Majesty probably will order me to put them in prison... And if she does I won't be able to object..." Mary answered.

As I heard all those, my consciousness diminished little by little until I finally fell unconscious...

-To be continued-

Quote:Chapter 7b: True Dreams

The three of us: Me, Huck, and Apple were still following Ginger Snap's Dream Boat using my aircraft I named Falcon, which was connected to the boat by Falcon's invisible harpoon, when we saw what our destination came to be. It was a beautiful three-level land made of mostly clouds.

"So this is what they call as The Land of Dreams..." I said.

The Dream Boat flew around The Land of Dreams, which was not good for Falcon's harpoon. The force from the propelling movement broke the harpoon loose from the boat, and if I haven't done anything Falcon would have been thrown far away. I attempted to turn on the main engine and luckily it has cooled down enough. Our rough ride started again.

The Dream Boat did not have a better luck either. Because of the sudden loose of the load, it became nearly uncontrollable and we saw it landed very roughly at the second level of the land.

"We will land there as well right?" Huck asked.

"I'm trying to," I replied. "But to tell you the truth, I have never landed this aircraft."

"What? Are you serious?" Huck said, surprised.

"Yes, all this time I only have gone as far as testing the engine without making it fly. This is really my first flight..." I answered, which was certainly not a pleasant answer.

I attempted to smoothly descend down to the part of the land near the Dream Boat. However, luck was not on our side. Falcon's main engine overheated again and this time it exploded along with most part of the float engine, giving Falcon no choice other than a near-free fall.

"Huck, brace yourself and Apple. This is going to be a very rough landing," I said, and he did it immediately. Falcon fell down hard to a place quite distant from the Dream Boat and all three of us fell unconscious.

We didn't know how long we have been unconscious. The thing that woke us up was the sound of a violent thunder.

"Are you two okay?" I asked, rubbing my head without looking at them.

"I'm okay, I think," Huck answered.

"Pretty much..." Apple answered. However, when we looked at her, she was not the same toddler we knew. What we saw was a girl with the same age as us.

"Apple? What happened to you? I mean, you're now... different..." I asked.

"Apple Dumplin' don't know," she answered.

"Anyway, let's get out of here first," Huck said, which we agreed.

We went out of the aftermath of Falcon. When we looked back at it, what we saw was an unrecognizable wreck. Falcon was damaged beyond any kind of repair.

"Woah, can't believe that we made it out unscathed," Huck said.

"Well, I can't believe it as well. But this is The Land of Dreams, so anything is possible I think. Like the thing that happened to Apple," I replied, looking at Apple. "Anyway, let's move. We have to help our friends,"

We walked until we arrived at a place where we could see two buildings. The bigger one looked like some kind of castle, while the smaller one had a clock on its front. We went to check the smaller one first, and when we arrived right in front of it, the door opened and a lady greeted us.

"Come in here, kids," She said with a friendly tone, and we came in right away.

"Welcome to PJ's. Do you have reservations?" She asked.

"Well, no I think..." I replied.

"Let's see... Table for three: Blackberry Bun, Huckleberry Pie, and Apple Dumplin' right?" She said, holding her notebook and pencil.

"That's right. But how did you know?" Huck asked.

"I know many things in The Land of Dreams," She answered with a wink.

We sat down around a round table, and a glass of hot chocolate appeared right in front of each of us out of nowhere. "Anything can happen in the Land of Dreams, right?" I said.

"That's right, dear. Now tell me why you are here," She replied.

So I told her everything that happened starting from the moment I had overheard the sleepbug until the moment we ended up at her place.

"I see. You come with a good intention at heart. But unfortunately, you can't help them..." She said.

"What? How come?" Huck asked, surprised.

"Your friends are now in Sandman's Dream Factory. To get there the only way is to ride Butterscotch Butterflies, and unfortunately your friends have used all of them," She answered.

"So now our friends are there and we can't help them? Oh man..." Huck said with a little bit upset tone.

"If only I can repair Falcon..." I murmured.

"You can, dear. You only have to believe," She said, which I didn't really believe.

"Anyway, now that we are here, can you tell us what happened to Apple Dumplin'?" I asked.

"Well, she was supposed to be... younger right?" She observed. "In the Land of Dreams we can become anything we want to be, and this is no exception,"

"Yeah... Apple Dumplin' wants to be bigger, as big as Strawberry and Friends," Apple replied. "Apple does not want to be too little to do anything. Apple does not want Strawberry to limit Apple because Apple is too little anymore"

"Hmm, I once saw you playing around Strawberryland all by yourself. Is that what you call "limiting"?" I asked.

"Strawberryland is safe so Strawberry let Apple play around alone," She answered. "But Strawberry never let Apple help her in tending garden, making cookies and cakes with her, any other thing. Apple wants to help her but..." She continued with a little sob.

"Strawberryland is safe? Maybe I should not tell about what happened to the group at that Telekinator accident day," I thought. Then I was going to say something to comfort her, but a violent thunder sound interrupted. A boy in pajama rushed in with a frightened face.

"PJ, this is bad! The Dream Fort has been struck by a big lightning bolt and is now on fire!" He shouted in panic.

All of us rushed outside, only to be presented to a horrible scene. The castle-like building we had seen before was covered in flames. A large number of boys and girls in pajamas were crowding the open field in front of PJ's.

"Is everybody here?" PJ shouted, calming the crowd down.

"Some Dream Senders are still inside! They are so scared that they won't move from their place!" One of the boys answered.

"Dream Senders...?" I asked.

"Come on Blackberry! They have no time to explain that! We have to do something fast or the ones inside will be burnt!" Huck interrupted.

"We don't have anything to put the fire off, so we have to focus on rescuing the ones trapped inside," PJ said. "Someone will have to enter and escort them to outside,"

Nobody offered to enter, until someone raised hand. That person was nobody other than Apple Dumplin'. "Apple will do it,"

"But Apple, it's too dangerous! You'll be hurt, or even worse!" I said.

"Apple not too little! Apple believes Apple can do it!" She replied, which left me speechless as she went inside the Dream Fort.

"I will go too!" Huck said, going inside following Apple.

I could feel some embarassment struck my chest as they went in. The cowardly me, standing around doing nothing outside. What would others say if they knew about this? I would lose friend again for sure. Nobody would want to be friends with a coward. I tried to gather all the courage I had until I finally said those words.

"I... I... I'm going in too!" I said, starting to move towards the Dream Fort. But suddenly PJ grabbed my arm. I looked at her, and she pointed her finger towards the Dream Fort with a smile. I looked at the way she pointed and saw both Apple and Huck, along with a number of children in pajamas, coming out of the Dream Fort. They had succeeded.

"Anybody can do anything in the Land of Dreams. You just have to believe. And you have a more important thing to do, dear. Remember, you have to believe in your dreams, and in yourself," PJ said, pointing at my chest. I immediately understood and ran towards Falcon's aftermath.

When I arrived there, and saw the wrecked Falcon once again, I doubted. But I had to believe in myself so I closed my eyes and concentrated. "Believe in my dream, believe in myself," I said in my thinking over and over again.

When I opened my eyes, suddenly all Falcon's problems became clear in my mind, as well as the solutions that could be done, and even new ideas that could make Falcon better than ever. "Now I need a toolbox to realize all these," I thought, and a toolbox appeared immediately at my grip. I was delighted, and began working immediately.

I didn't know how long it took me. All I knew then was me standing, looking at the new Falcon, and said to myself, "Talk about a dream come true."

Huck and Apple came at me running. Huck said to me, "Hey, Blackberry. PJ is looking for you because... Wow... You have fixed Falcon? Not only that, you have made it much different than before... Wow... Neato..."

"Apple thinks so too. This is great, Blackberry," Apple said.

"Believe in my dream and believe in myself. That's the key. Anyway, why is PJ looking for me? As soon as I'm done we will go to help our friends," I replied, which made Huck and Apple giggled. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"You took so long to do your work, Blackberry. Our friends have already solved the problems themselves," Huck answered. "Now the Land of Dreams residents are fixing the Dream Boat and our friends will depart soon,"

"What? Oh... Sorry, I'm not as fast as Ginger Snap. Now we came here for nothing..." I said.

"Not for nothing. Apple and Huck saved the Dream Senders, and Blackberry made his dream come true," Apple interrupted.

"Umm, yeah. But still, we didn't help our friends after all," I replied.

"Not really. I haven't told you why PJ is looking for you, right? The Dream Boat's damage turned out to be far worse than it looks. Even after it is fixed, it will still can float, but not be able to fly properly. So with your Falcon..." Huck said.

I immediately understood that we would be having the trip in a reverse order. On the first trip the Dream Boat had towed Falcon, and now Falcon would be towing the Dream Boat on the trip home.

"Oh, on a side note, none of our friends know about us being here. Me and Apple and many others were so busy restoring the Dream Fort back to the way it was. Not so long after we had finished it, through a window we saw our friends celebrating for their success," He said.

"Then Apple and Huck heard a loud noise from everywhere. When Apple and Huck stepped out of Dream Fort, PJ came and told us to tell Blackberry what Huck had explained to you," Apple continued.

"Okay, I see. I think it is better for them not to know about us being here after all. I cannot imagine how everyone's face will become if they see both of you, especially Apple, having that kind of face. Haven't both of you realized that your face is full of black marks from the fire's smokes and whatever you were doing back then?" I said, giggling a little. The two of them looked at each other and giggled as well.

"We have, but you didn't realize about yourself, Blackberry. We giggled at the first time because your face wasn't much different than us," Huck replied, and the three of us laughed together.

Later, I had attached Falcon's invisible harpoon to the Dream Boat, with Falcon itself being in Invisible Mode. The three of us waited until the Dream Boat turned on its main engine and floated, then I controlled Falcon to tow Dream Boat smoothly. I could hear everyone outside wishing our friends, and us as well, goodbye. I also could hear a beautiful song coming from Dream Boat.


It's never silly to believe
And in the morning when you wake
If you take your dreams with you
You can make all your dreams come true

So good night, and with the morning light
You can make your own sweet dreams
Come true...


"Beautiful song, isn't it?" I said, but there was no answer. I looked at Huck and Apple, to saw that both of them had fallen asleep. Also, Apple has already reverted back to the toddler she was. "Ah, well. I'll just let them have their peace,"

I landed smoothly in front of Strawberry's house, and waited for the crews to get out. However, nobody stepped out of the Dream Boat. I went aboard it to check, and realized that all of the crews were fast asleep.

"Okay, now what should I do?" I said to myself, scratching my head, until a number bright lights that seemed similar to the Sleep Bug but quite bigger, came and circled around Dream Boat. I could hear one of the lights speaking to me, "We will take care of the rest. Thank you for your help and have a sweet dream,"

The next thing I knew, I was already home on my bed, as well as Apple and Huck, who were still fast asleep on theirs. I was under impression that all that happened last night was just a dream, but then I took the same remote from my drawer and went outside. I pressed one button to put Falcon's invisibility off, and what I saw next was the new Falcon, not the old one.

"Yeah, all the things that happened last night was not a dream after all," I thought, before finding a note stickied to Falcon. I took it and read it.


Blackberry,
What we were doing last night was putting your friends on their bed and rewriting a small part of their memory so they would think that everything was just a dream. We actually did the same to you, but in the end this vehicle of yours would prove that you were not dreaming, so I put this message for you: Please do not tell anyone about the existence of The Land of Dreams.

It has been a regulation for a long time not to let anyone in the awake realms know the existence of The Land of Dreams. They are openly welcomed on occasions where they somehow able to come. But after they go home, we the Dream Fairies will do the same like what we have done last night. Although I can feel that you and your friends are trustworthy, I cannot risk any more break to the regulation after this case of yours. So please do your best to keep the secret.

Kind Regards,
Dream Fairy Chief

P.S. If you are wondering where we took the Dream Boat away, I will let you know one thing: We have entrusted it to a different group of fairies, and you can rest assured that it is in good hands.


"Dream Fairies, huh? And a different group of fairies? Now I wonder if there are Berry Fairies as well, looking at the size of the berries in this land..." I said to myself, putting the note in my pocket and walking back inside my house. When I got inside, I put the remote back into my drawer and then the daily alarm clock rang, waking the two friends up. "Rise and shine everyone. It's already seven thirty,"

"Apple has just had a strange dream..." Apple said with drowsy eyes.

"I think me too. I went into this amazing place... But it was just a silly dream... wasn't it?" Huck said.

"Well, it might be a dream, but it was not a silly one, I believe," I said, when Apple walked to my desk and gazed at one drawer.

"Apple dreamt that Blackberry had a remote inside this drawer, which revealed a flying car outside," she said, opening the drawer.

"Apple, it is not nice to open someone else's drawer," Huck interrupted, which made Apple close the drawer without seeing what was inside.

"Oops, sowwry," Apple replied.

"No problem," I replied, although I was really scared just a few seconds before. "Who's hungry for breakfast?"

After having our breakfast, we all agreed to check on Strawberry and friends. We went all the way towards Strawberry's house. When we were nearby the garden-to-be field, we saw our friends there as well as the two villains. We didn't hear what they had said, but after seeing the two villains went away, we were assured that now the field is safe.

"I will revert Nature's Blessing back to its original function," I said, walking to the place where I had hidden the device. After I had finished tweaking it, I put it back and turned it on. It emitted its usual bright green light, but then it malfunctioned with black smokes coming out from it.

"Whoa, what happened?" Huck asked in surprised tone.

"Overheated, or maybe a hint that I should not play with nature..." I said with a straight face. "A good garden is grown not with a machine,"

"But with what?" He asked.

"Wove..." Apple said.

"Yes... Love is what makes a garden grows, not this machine. Machine can help but love is the most important one," I said.

"Oh, yes. Forgot about that," Huck agreed. "But what about the Growing Better All The Time garden? This device succeeded right?"

"Well, I don't know about that. Anyway, I'm taking this home. You can go ahead and visit her," I said, walking away with the device in my hand.

"Apple will go with Blackberry. Apple still wants to know Blackberry more," Apple said, following me.

"I will go with you too," Huck said. "Strawberry already has five friends accompanying her now. Seven if we count Custard and Pupcake in as well. But you now only have the two of us,"

Of course I couldn't refuse. The three of us then went back to my home, not knowing anything about what happened next. We learned about it in the afternoon that the garden had finally grown, and it grew faster than the other garden I had helped growing with my device.

"Indeed, love is a strong power," I thought, gazing at the beautiful garden Strawberry and friends have made with hard work, faith, and most importantly... Love.

-To Be Continued-

Quote:Chapter 7a: Sweet Dreams

Day by day, I became more open to everyone. I went out and play more often and I managed to establish closer friendship with everyone around Strawberryland, although Huck was still the closest of them all. Well, it couldn't be helped since his fort was the closest from my house, and he was the only boy around besides me.

One day in the afternoon, after passing through five days of sickness, I went out to visit Huck in his fort. When I arrived there, I saw him on the rooftop and he saw me too. Then we met inside.

"Hey, Blackberry. Long time no see," Huck welcomed me.

"Yes, I have been sick for these past five days but now I'm okay," I replied

"Oh, why didn't you tell us? We could have taken care of you. We thought you have been concentrating on your work so we didn't want to disturb," he said.

"I didn't want to bother you all. I could take care of myself just fine," I replied.

"Hey, next time don't hesitate to ask for our help okay? That's what friends are for. Too bad you have missed a great event," He said with his hands on my shoulders.

"Don't worry about that. I saw them all," I replied.

"Hmm, let me guess. Eagle Eye?" He guessed, which was correct.

"Well, what else? With that I saw everything that happened in the competition. I found it funny that none of you noticed the obvious fact," I said, remembering all Peppermint's cheating there.

"Well, that couldn't be helped. We thought she had learnt her lesson from the previous event, so we trusted her," he replied, making me remember the time she used my walkman for cheating in the pet contest.

"You all can be too trusting sometimes. That's what I like from you all," I said, chuckling. Right after that, a toddler came in. I knew I had seen her a few times before through Eagle Eye, but I still didn't know her name. I approached her and asked with a smile.

"Hello, what is your name cutie?"

"Apple Dumplin' wants to know yours too," She replied.

"I'm Blackberry Bun. It's nice to meet you, Apple Dumplin'. Where do you live?" I asked.

"Apple Dumplin' lives with Strawberry. Apple Dumplin' is Strawberry's sister," She replied, which surprised me a bit and made me look towards Huck, who immediately nodded. I then remembered seeing her in the Time Monitor on the day the group re-introduced themselves to each other so it became clear to me.

"You are not with your sister now?" I asked

"Strawberry and friends are out collecting berries, Apple Dumplin' go to Huckleberry's house," She answered.

I still had questions in my mind. Where was she on the day I had the accident with Telekinator, and the next two days when I had my first introduction to Huck? Why it seemed like she was totally free to roam around Strawberryland without supervision, like in the day I saw her with Angel Cake a few days ago? And in Time Monitor I saw her coming out from a falling giant flower. How come? This world was indeed mysterious in some ways.

I didn't ask those questions, though. The child has already been asked enough. For then I would just accept those things as they were. I knew I would get to know the answers someday.

The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon together. When the sun began to set, Apple went home on her own, and so did I. I was still wondering about all the questions in my mind, but I decided to save them for later when I met her again someday.

At the next day, when I was home alone working at another device, somebody rang my doorbell and I opened the entrance. Huck, along with Apple, came in and I welcomed them.

"Hi, Huck. Hi, Apple. What brought you two here?"

"Strawberry is out growing a garden with friends. Apple Dumplin' play with Huckleberry. Apple also want to visit Blackberry," Apple replied.

"Well, I'm happy to welcome you two here, but wouldn't it be better if we all go help them?" I asked.

"Strawberry did not want apple to work too hard. That was what Strawberry told Apple," she replied.

"Well, there is a way to help without working too hard," I said with a smile, then I took Nature's Blessing from Successful Invention shelf.

"What is that Blackberry?" Apple asked.

"Nature's Blessing. With this, plants will grow before your eyes. I have used this once and I'm sure Huckleberry knows when," I answered with a meaningful smile to Huck.

"Huh...? You mean... the Growing Better All The Time Garden was your doing?" he said with surprised tone.

"Well, kind of. If the said garden is the one which once had a problem with crows. By the way, I didn't see you that time Apple. Where were you?" I said, trying to divert the topic before I accidentally told him that I was also the one who invited the crows, unpurposedly.

"The same as now. Strawberry did not want Apple to work too hard," she replied.

"I see. Let's go then. The sooner we help our friends, the better," I said. Then all three of us left Blackberry Bushes.

When the place where the garden was supposed to be made was on our sight, we didn't see Strawberry and friends there. All we saw was two strangers, one male and one female, planting something there. We stopped and spied on them from afar.

"What's going on here? Who are they?" Huck asked, and Apple was as clueless as he was.

"Whatever they are doing, I can feel that they are up to no good..." I said.

"So what should we do?" he asked.

"Well, if they want something to grow there, nothing will grow," I said, planting Nature's Blessing, but not without tweaking it first. "Now this device will prevent anything from growing in there instead," I turned it on, and the device emitted pale green aura instead of the bright green it once had.

"I think now we should go to see Strawberry. I'm kinda worried about her," I said, which everyone else agreed. Then we left for Strawberry's home.

When we arrived there, we saw Strawberry throwing some things I recognized similar with the thing I saw in Time Monitor. She was throwing butterfly letters. We then approached her.

"Hi, Apple. Hi, Huckleberry. Hi, Blackberry," she welcomed us.

"Hi Strawberry. I want to ask you something," I replied. Then we had a conversation where all three of us learned about Purple Pie Man and his sister Sour Grapes, then the dispute that happened because of Angel Cake's careless talk (also the presence of two new friends as well), and Strawberry's plan to overcome it.

"Well, that's what will happen if someone does not think before talking," I said. "Glad that you have a good plan, Strawberry. The letters should be at their hands by now, and I guess we should not stay here any longer because we don't want to interfere with your plan,"

"Well, I guess so. Good luck, Strawberry. I hope you can restore their friendship," Huck said, agreeing with me.

As me and Huck went away, Apple pulled my shirt and said, "Apple wants to sleepover at Blackberry," which surprised me a bit, and I was speechless on that. "Apple wants to know Blackberry more," she continued, and I couldn't refuse. Strawberry also didn't mind so the decision was made easily.

That night, I was no longer alone in my house. Apple was with me, and so was Huck (I invited him too because I thought the more the merrier). We played around with things Huck brought from his fort, and also some of my devices which could be used to play around such as the Telekinator I had remade. All in all we spent good time in my house.

"You know, I'm kinda curious about Strawberry's plan. Did she succeed?" Huck asked me.

"Well, we can check if you want. And you know how," I replied with a wink, and he understood it clearly.

I turned on Eagle Eye and threw the satellite out. We checked on Strawberry's house and saw that her plan was indeed a successful one. Nobody in her house seemed to have a dispute any longer, and we ended up listening to them singing a very good song about Sweet Dreams. After that, we went to sleep. I left Eagle Eye turned on because I was too tired to call it back.

Later that night, I heard something from Eagle Eye's monitor. Something that cried for help. I woke up slowly, scrubbing my eyes, and walked to the monitor. What I saw there made me wonder if I was awake or still dreaming. A talking shining bug asking for help? However, the longer I saw the monitor, my drowsiness gradually diminished to the point I became sure that I was not dreaming. I woke Huck and Apple up and asked them to take a look. It took some time for them to believe that they were not dreaming, but in the end they believed it.

"We should help them," Huck said.

"But it is too late. It took so long for you two to believe that you are not dreaming. Now Ginger Snap has somehow finished making that huge boat she called as Dream Boat and now it is departing... except if..." I replied.

"Except what, Blackberry? Hurry up if you know something!" Huck said, and I nodded.

"Come here," I said, taking a remote from my desk's drawer and running to the outside of my house. I pressed one button of the remote, which revealed a small aircraft that had been invisible this whole time. Huck and Apple looked astonished.

"All aboard!" I said, entering the aircraft and they came in as well. "Now fasten your seatbelt because this will be a rough ride,"

I turned the aircraft on and tried to pilot it as smoothly as possible. But as I had said, it became a rough ride although the aircraft managed to fly.

"What is this Blackberry?" Huck asked with weird tone due to the massive vibration inside.

"The most difficult thing I've ever tried to make, which I named as Falcon. As you may already noticed, Falcon is still not perfect yet, and I couldn't find any way to fix the problem so I gave up and put it into invisibility so I could forget it as a whole," I replied, almost biting my tongue several times.

We had a really rough ride for a short while until we saw the Dream Boat Ginger Snap has made flying in front of us. However, Falcon's main engine suddenly overheated, slowing down the aircraft significantly.

"We are losing them! What should we do?" Huck said, quite panicked.

I pressed a button which made Falcon shoot a harpoon to the back of the boat. The harpoon softly attached itself to the Dream Boat without making any damage, and then Falcon and Dream Boat became connected through a long invisible wire. The sudden load that the boat had to carry made it have a similar rough ride for a short moment, but after that everything went fine.

"Now that the two vehicles are connected, we won't lose track of them and our ride will be smoother," I said, turning off the main engine leaving only the float engine on. Apple was afraid of this trip and started to cry. I then attached my walkman to Falcon's sound system, which then played another astonishing song I had recorded from another universe.

Don't cry, don't be blue
We're sailing toward a day that's new
Who knows all the joys in store?
When you're sailing toward tomorrow

The sun will shine so bright
And we'll be guided by the stars at night
They remind us we can dream of more
'Cause we're sailing toward tomorrow

So don't be scared or ill at ease
Afraid the sun won't rise
The endless possibilities
Are as limitless as the skies

The rain will splish and splash
But then clouds will disappear in a flash
And a rainbow will appear from shore to shore
'Cause we're sailing toward,
Yes we're sailing toward tomorrow

The rain will splish and splash
But then clouds will disappear in a flash
And that rainbow's gonna make your spirits soar

'Cause you'll be sailing toward
You'll be sailing toward
'Cause you'll be sailing toward
Sailing sweetly toward tomorrow

Yeah, nobody knew what we would be facing at the destination of this trip...

-To be continued-

Quote:Chapter 6: Precious

It has been three days since the day I successfully made a friend. In those three days I started to go outdoor more often although I still didn't get close to the ones beside Huck. I did manage to introduce myself to them but that's all. Well, at least now I know the name of each girl. Strawberry Shortcake, Ginger Snap, Orange Blossom, and Angel Cake.

However, in this day I was not as happy as three days before. Somehow, somewhere, and somewhen I dropped my precious item I usually carry with me in my pocket. The item itself was just a regular device which I could make again myself, but what made it precious was the content of the item, which was not replaceable.

The last time I remember still having it was the day before in the morning. I remembered carrying it when going outside. But then the problem was, on that day I went everywhere around Strawberryland, and that meant I had a large area to search.

I started from the closest one, Huck's fort. But there was nobody there. Then I went to other houses one by one, but like before, there was nobody in any of the houses. I continued searching to the outfield, under a tree where I used that item for some while. But I didn't find the item there. I gave up searching outdoors and hoped one of my friends found it and kept it with them. I walked home and then near Huck's fort, I saw him doing something to his pet frog.

"He put a coat and a hat on his frog...?" I thought. I felt funny seeing a frog wearing coat and hat. I wanted to ask him what is he doing but he already left the place as I was going to approach. I was too tired after the search so I decided to go home and watch them using Eagle Eye.

At home I immediately took Eagle Eye out of the Successful Inventions shelf, put the monitor on my table, threw the satellite out of the window, and began watching. I saw the five kids with their "decorated" pets and a trophy.

"They are making a pet show. Too bad I don't have a pet," I thought.

Then, I saw a girl I have never seen before. A girl in red clothes and white pants. It looked like she told the five kids something and then her pet, which was a chameleon, began singing a song.

"Since when a chameleon can sing... and from where does background music come out...?" I wondered, which gave me a hunch.

Later all the kids went back to their home. I decided to order the satellite to follow the girl I didn't know yet. I wanted to know more about her, and that resulted to me knowing a fact that she indeed actually cheated with a walkman. However, what made me surprised was that the walkman was the item I lost. The walkman I made myself which has the ability to produce high quality sound no matter how bad the tape was and no matter what medium is used as the speaker.

"I have to get it soon," I thought, calling the satellite back.

After I put the Eagle Eye back to the shelf, I walked out of my house. I wanted to go as fast as possible but I was still too tired so I couldn't walk at the usual pace. I kept going anyway until quite a long while later I arrived at a stage built on the outfield.

There was nobody around. The stage was quite in a mess with a hole on the back wall, oil and gum littered on the stage, and... the walkman I was looking for lying there as well. I picked it up and found out that it was almost broken. That didn't matter much to me since I could make a new one in a flash, but the tape inside was not my precious tape.

"I have to ask that girl," I said to myself.

I walked around looking for the girl until I found the five kids with their pets and...

"Five trophies? Did I miss something?" I wondered, approaching them.

"Hi, Blackberry Bun," Strawberry greeted.

"Hi," I replied. "Did I miss something here?"

"You bet. There was this pet show which turned out to be a mess because of someone cheating, but in the end we all realized that our pets are all the best and they are our berry best friend. So all of our pets get a trophy. What do you think, huh?" Ginger answered.

"Umm... yeah. And about that girl..." I said.

"You mean Peppermint Fizz?" Angel asked.

"Yes," I replied. "I want to see her. Can someone take me to her?"

"Okay, I will," Huck offered, which I accepted.

Both of us went to a place they call as Peppermint Place. In there I saw a house in a shape of a soda beverage.

"That's her house," Huck said.

We went to the front door and then I knocked it. A little while later the girl opened the door.

"Who are you, huh?"

"I'm Blackberry Bun. I..."

"Yeah, yeah. I suppose the others have told you my name. So what do you want here?"

"I want to ask about this," I answered, showing the walkman.

"I found that yesterday under a tree. Just take it away. It left a bad taste in my mouth,"

"Of course I will. This is mine. I made it myself,"

"So what do you want to ask then, huh?"

"I want to know where the tape that was inside is,"

"I have it," She replied, going inside the house and came back out a while later bringing a tape which I recognized as my precious tape. "There you have it. What's so important with this anyway?"

"It has my favorite songs in it. That's all," I replied.

After that, both me and Huck left the place. On the way, he asked me.

"Was that the main reason you wanted that tape? I thought it was something more special,"

"For me this is very special," I replied while listening to the walkman with my earphone. "The songs inside were recorded from a different universe. I don't have any copy of this and there's almost no possibility the singer will sing this again,"

I walked home, listening to my one most favorite song.

Home is where the heart is that's what people say,
Home's what makes it special when you get to go away,
You can travel new horizons, you can sail to distant shores,
But home is where the heart is...

Home is where you come from, home is who you are,
Home gives you the courage to decide to journey far,
And wherever the journey takes you, you'll remember all the while,
That home is where the heart is...

See the world and all its wonders, have adventures big and small,
But the greatest destination is the closest one of all,
We may meet new faces see just ev'ry sight we can,
But there's always something special 'bout the place it all began,

Home is what you come home to,
Home is what you dream of,
Home is where the heart is,
Home is where the heart is,
'Cause home is love...

--End of Chapter 6--

Quote:Chapter 5: Friendship Grows Once Again

I turned off the Time Monitor with a sigh, knowing that the accident caused by my carelessnes have made my very first friend forget everything about me. I then carefully put the post-overcharge Time Remote to the place where it belongs, "Danger, do not touch!" shelf. If only I have done this sooner, this accident would not have happened. But what's done is done, I had to start the friendship all over again.

It was already late-afternoon. The sun was setting, I had nothing to do at the moment, and no idea for a new invention. So I went towards "Unfinished Work" shelf, picked up an unfinished device, put it on my working table, and I started trying to finish the unfinished.

However, even after an hour, no progress was made at all. My mind always got off somewhere. So I just went to bed and slept, leaving the unfinished stay unfinished.

At the next day, I decided to walk around Strawberryland. "Who knows, I might be able to make friends for real this time," I thought. So I went out of my house, through all the journey until I was in the outfield again.

I went to the orange-shaped tree house, but no one was there. Then I tried the cake-shaped house, but there was nobody there as well. So was the same with the cookie house and the strawberry house. I wondered where everyone were at the moment, and kept going until I arrived in front of Huck's fort, which I didn't visit earlier.

"Watch out!" came a voice, which made me look behind. I saw Huck on his skateboard, which was speeding uncontrollably towards me. He tried to evade me and succeeded, in exchange of him crashing his fort's wall.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Then he stood up, looking unharmed.

"Yeah I guess," he replied. "Glad I had my helmet on," he continued. In my mind I agreed with him. His head collided with the wall. It could have been much worse if he didn't wear a helmet.

"Hmm... have we ever met before?" he asked. That made clear to me that the energy had really erased his memory about me.

"Practically yes, but can also be a no," I answered, which made him look confused.

"Anyway, I'm Huckleberry Pie, but you can call me Huck. What's your name?" He asked.

"Blackberry Bun," I replied. "Do you know where everybody else are?"

"Well, yesterday I found a letter in front of my fort saying that Strawberry Shortcake, Angel Cake, Orange Blossom, and Ginger Snap were going to have a festival of the fillies on Ice Cream Island. They wanted to take me along but I was not home. Strange, I don't remember why I wasn't home," He answered. Of course I knew why.

"Anyway, I have nothing to do at the moment. Do you mind if I come to your house?" He asked.

"You're always welcome," I replied, wondering why this time I didn't get struck by inconfidence like it usually used to be.

So both of us went to my house. When Huck got inside (I left the ladder not hidden) he looked around, seemed wondering about something.

"Have I been here before? This place look familiar," he said.

"Well, actually yes. But it's quite a long story," I replied, which made him look confused again. So I decided to tell him the events that happened yesterday.

After I finished telling him, he said, "So my memory about you got erased?" and scratched his head. I nodded.

"Well, I think... it makes sense," he said.

"It's up to you to believe it or not," I said with a pessimistic feeling.

"Of course I belive you. Friends trust each other," he said with his hands on my shoulders, and that made me relieved.

"By the way, what is that?" He asked while pointing to the unfinished work on my table.

"An unfinished work," I replied

"Why is it unfinished?"

"Because my mind always got off somewhere. It might be caused by my regret yesterday."

"But now I'm here to support you. Friends support each other."

I was convinced by his words and decided to start finishing the work. It took quite a while until it was finally finished when the sky was already dark. The end-result was a monitor with similar shape to the Time Monitor but with more buttons, and a small satellite.

"Finished!" I said with satisfaction.

"Great! So what does this device do?" He asked.

"With Eagle Eye we can see what's going on in any places," I replied while throwing the satellite out of a window. The satellite then flew away. "I now want to use this to see what everybody else is doing," I continued.

Through the monitor I controlled the satellite to fly to Ice Cream Island.
.
.
.
(To make a long story shorter, the two boys ended up witnessing the events on "Festival of The Fillies" episode starting from the moment Raven talks to the four girls until the moment they reunite with Honey Pie Pony)
.
.
.
"Phew, glad it ended well," He said, looking relieved. "For a short moment I felt upset because we could see what's happening but we couldn't do anything to help them"

"Me too," I replied, calling back the satellite, which soon entered through the window and landed gently on my table.

"Well, time to go home I think. It's already over bed time," he said. "And I can't wait to tell everyone that there's a new friend here."

"Thanks," I replied.

That night, I went to sleep in joy that I have succeeded for real, in making a friend.

--End of Chapter 5--

Quote:Chapter 4: Friendship Grows...?

I walked home with pain in my hands. The pain was so great that I often felt dizzy and weak. The only thing that kept me walking was the joy from knowing that the wound I got was from saving the lives of my soon-to-be friends. It kinda felt like a battle scar for warriors.

I slowly walked through the whole Strawberryland, passed the Huckleberry Briar and Blackberry Bushes, until I finally arrived at my home. As I pressed the hidden button that unhid the ladder into my home, I realized that getting into my home would be so difficult because of this wound. I attempted it anyway, because there are no other way to get into my home.

I put my grip on the ladder, and quickly released it because it gave me even greater pain. After many failed attempts of putting my grip on the ladder, I realized that I was stuck outside my home, and I started to regret my home being a tree house with a ladder instead of stairs like that orange-shaped tree house.

Knowing that I got stuck outside, I had no choice other than looking for help. I slowly walked through Blackberry Bushes, but in the middle of Huckleberry Briar I once again felt dizzy and weak. This time I couldn't endure it and finally collapsed.

I didn't know how long I have been unconcious, but when I woke up I was on a comfortable bed. Someone had wrapped the wounds on my hands with bandage, although the wrapping was quite messy. I looked around, still sitting on the bed, and I heard a voice.

"Finally awake? Good morning. You have slept for a whole night," said that voice. Then someone whom I recognized as one of the five kids, the only male one to be exact, came to me.

"Umm... Yes..." I replied.

"Haven't seen you before. What's your name?" He asked.

"...Blackberry Bun..." I replied.

"Welcome to my fort, Blackberry Bun. I'm Huckleberry Pie, but you can call me Huck for short," He said. "Yesterday, while I was looking for some huckleberries I found you unconcious. I brought you here and took care of your hands, although I was not good at it,"

His words explained the messy wrapping I was having. Then he walked away and came back bringing a plate of berries.

"Here, have some," he offered. I took one and ate it. It tasted good, like the blackberries I have been having. "By the way, how come your hands got wounded so bad?"

"...Exploded invention..." I answered.

"Invention? Are you an inventor like Ginger Snap?" He asked curiously, which gave me the answer that the girl in fuschia jacket was named Ginger Snap and was also an inventor.

"Yes..." I answered.

"Cool! May I visit your house someday?" He asked.

"We can do that right now," I replied.

"But your hands...?" He wondered.

"One of my inventions is a device which can heal wounds. The sooner I get there, the better," I replied, which made me wonder how I could say those words without hesitation.

So both of us walked through Blackberry Bushes until we arrived in front of a large tree where my house was hidden. The ladder was still unhid because I forgot to press the button once again to hide it. This time the pain was not as severe as before so I could climb into my house just fine.

Inside my house, I went towards the "Successful Invention" shelf while Huck was looking around. I took a metal sphere from the shelf, put it on the table at the center of the house, and turned it on. The sphere radiated blue aura and I put my hands on it. A moment later, the blue aura faded away. I opened the bandage on my hands and saw that my hands have been healed. Better yet, it seemed like the wounds had never been there before. Huck witnessed all that happened and was astonished.

"Glad that I have made this Phoenix Tear," I said. "Too bad it can only be used once a week at most,"

I took the device and went to put it back in the shelf. As I was doing that, Huck asked me, "What is this?" with his hand going to touch the broken Time Remote.

"NO! DON'T!" I shouted, but it was too late. He got zapped by the aftermath of the Time Remote. I then regretted forgetting to put it into the "Danger! Do not touch!" shelf.

"Whoa! What was that?" He asked.

"Umm, something for playing pranks," I lied.

Some hours later, Huck went home. I carefully put Time Remote's aftermath into the place it should be, and checked the Time Monitor. I saw that the Time Remote would mess his memory up and...

"In five minutes he will forget about me and everything that happened here?!!" I shouted.

Well, what's done is done. I turned the Time Monitor off with a deep sigh...

--End of Chapter 4--