Quote:Chapter 11: Ginger Snap's Dimension Door


Somehow, spring was delayed. Looking at the date it should had been spring already, but snow still covered the land and the weather was still quite cold although still not as cold as the beginning days of winter. For me the delay was a mixed blessing because on one side I didn't like cold weather while on the other side I still had the chance to make use of the new Arrowhead I had remade after the accident at Christmas day. Speaking of which, Santa's words were true. The gift he had spoken about was the gift of friendship, as Strawberry and the others at her home had told me when our group came without any presents.

In any case, because I had nothing else to do at that time, I decided to ride Arrowhead and give some of my friends a visit. At first I wanted to start with Huck's fort but when I arrived there he wasn't home, so I decided to go to Blueberry's place instead. However, all of a sudden, on a distance I saw something flying around. As I observed it I came to realize that it was a fairy in green, although her size was bigger than any other fairies I had seen. I didn't know what she was doing until I realized that the snow around me started to disappear. Arrowhead couldn't run on surfaces other than snow so I had no choice other than driving it home before the snow completely melted.

I arrived home just in time. As I parked Arrowhead right next to Falcon all the snow disappeared completely, which means from that time I had to walk to get anywhere. I lost my intention to go to Blueberry Valley so I went to Strawberry's house instead. For unknown reason I grew tired so quickly on the way, but I kept walking because it was already more than halfway. When I arrived there I saw not only the usual group of five but also Honey Pie Pony and the fairy I had just seen before.

"Hi, Blackberry. Welcome to the planting party!" Strawberry greeted. "Come with us, we could use one more slot."

"Hi, Strawberry. I'm sorry but I can't," I answered. "Somehow I feel so tired just walking from my house to here."

Right after I said that, I suddenly fell down and fainted. That of course surprised everyone else there and caused some panic. I didn't know what happened next, but when I regained some of my consciousness I heard a conversation.

"Is he going to be fine?" Huck asked.

"I don't really know. I don't even know why he suddenly has a fever so high," Strawberry said.

"I have no idea," Orange said.

"Me neither. Yep, no idea at all," Ginger said.

"This reminds me of the days I had spent in the..." Honey Pie said before the next person's words interrupted.

"Spring, do you have any idea?" Angel asked.

"Hmm... Probably because of the sudden change of weather. Some people can't handle that and suddenly get sick. That means it can be my fault..." a voice answered, which probably belonged to the fairy in green.

"It is nobody's fault that this happened. Now the most important thing here is to take care of Blackberry," Strawberry said.

I tried to get up and out of the place they put me on, which was a sofa in Strawberry's living room. They saw me doing that and attempted to stop me.

"No, don't bother. Just let me go home and I will take care of myself," I said.

"There's no way you can walk to your home in this condition," Huck said. "It is fine, just lie down and rest."

"No, I don't want to be everyone's... burden," I said.

"You are not and will never be a burden to us," Strawberry said. "You are our friend, and we help each other especially when there's one in need."

No matter how hard I tried, they kept trying to convince me to rest on Strawberry's bed. In the end, probably because of all the talk, I collapsed again. I was lucky that I didn't fell onto the floor because Huck quickly caught me and then carefully put me on the sofa. Later, there was a conversation I didn't hear at all.

"His fever isn't getting any better. We have to do something," Orange said.

"We need a doctor," Angel said.

"But where can we find one? You know, until now none of us has ever gotten sick, am I right? So none of us know where to find a doctor, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"That's true..." Strawberry said.

"This reminds me of the trip I had in..." Honey started to speak until interrupted.

"Come on, Honey. This is not the time to tell about your past adventures," Huck said.

"Hear me out to the very end, will you? I was going to say that I heard about a local doctor when I was walking around Lower Lollipop. That doctor was so good that people say sick patients who come into his workplace will run out jumping around like a horse," Honey said.

"Sounds worth a try," Huck said.

"But Lower Lollipop is far from here. The trip there will probably make Blackberry's condition worse," Orange said.

"I don't think I'm strong enough to carry him all the way there..." Spring said.

"If only there's a way to bring him fast and safely..." Strawberry said.

"We have! We sure do! Huck, you remember that thing don't you?" Ginger said with excitement. "I will go get it. Back in a flash!" She continued, going away.

"Oh yes! I forgot she had made THAT!" Huck remarked with excitement.

"What is ``that``?" Angel asked, wondering.

"Just wait and see," Huck answered.

Just a few minutes later, suddenly a blue vortex appeared in the middle of the room. Everybody except Huck were quite surprised and leapt away from it. Before everyone wondered for long, Ginger jumped out of the vortex and it disappeared.

"Here I am!" She said.

"Ginger?" Orange said, wondering.

"How did you come here?" Strawberry asked.

"This is the newest invention of mine. I named it The Amazing Dimension Door Remote," Ginger answered, showing a device that indeed looked like a remote.

"Hey, you forgot the deal?" Huck said.

"Oh yes. It's name is Dimension Door Remote because Huck asked for it, although the previous name sounds better am I right?" Ginger said.

"Cut all the talk, please! Now how do we use it to bring Blackberry to a doctor?" Angel said.

"It is simple. It sure is. Just type the name of the place we want to go to and then draw a circle with its antenna. Then poof! The dimension door appears, ready to take us to the place we want," Ginger explained. "I will do it right now. I sure will."

Then Ginger typed Lower Lollipop's name on the remote. The remote's antenna then produced some kind of electricity waves. As Ginger waved the remote in a circling movement, the antenna left a trail of electricity which then completed a drawing of a circle once Ginger finished the movement. After that, the circle emitted a bright light and a blue vortex appeared.

"Okay, it's now ready to transport us all the way to Lower Lollipop," Ginger said. "Let's go!"

Then, Huck carried me on his back and we all walked into the vortex Ginger had just made. All of us made it into Lower Lollipop safely and successfully brought me to the doctor in the area. I didn't know what the doctor had done to me and nobody else knew since the doctor, who apparently was a living ginger bread, brought me into his room while everyone else had to wait outside. When I woke up my condition was already much better than before.

"You're awake?" A voice said. "Before you ask anything, I'm a local doctor of Lower Lollipop, and this is my workplace. Your friends brought you here."

I stood up from the bed he had for patients, then I felt that my sudden illness had almost completely gone.

"Your disease was only a reaction to a sudden change of weather. It's not something my magic touch cannot cure," The doctor said.

"Thank you. How can I repay your service?" I asked.

"No need. You give me a good knowledge anyway, because I actually haven't examined a human before," The doctor said.

"Huh? So who are your patients usually?" I asked with curiosity and also a bad feeling.

"Animals. I am actually a vet," The doctor said.

The doctor's answer made me lose words. My friends had brought me to a vet, a doctor for animals. Of course I knew they probably hadn't known about it, but still, this could become a good laughing stock for years to come.

"You sure have good friends. They all rushed in my workplace and told me to examine you, and I didn't even have time to explain that I am a vet," The doctor said.

"Too good sometimes," I commented and both of us laughed.

When I walked out of the doctor's room, my friends were overjoyed seeing me in a good condition. However, when I told them that the doctor was actually a vet, the joy became a huge laughter. When all of us had our laugh, the doctor came out of his room.

"Kids, I would appreciate it if you could have your laughter outside," he said.

We realized that we were in a place where sick people, animals actually, gathers. We then apologized to the doctor and left his workplace. When we were outside, I remembered something and approached the fairy in green who had been with us.

"We haven't introduced each other properly. I am Blackberry Bun, nice to meet you," I said to her.

"I am Spring, the one who brings spring season to everyone. Nice to meet you too," She replied.

While walking, we had a conversation about her being late in bringing the spring season and in the end I learned the truth. It didn't matter much to me though, because we finally got to enjoy the season after all.

"By the way, who carried me all the way here? I must say thanks for carrying me this far," I asked.

"It was me, but I didn't carry you that far," Huck said. "It all thanks to Ginger's dimension door."

"Dimension door?" I asked, looking at Ginger.

"Here it is! Amazing huh?" Ginger answered, showing a remote to me. Then she typed something on it and drew a circle with its antenna. A blue vortex appeared, surprising me.

"Now's the time to go home, am I right?" Ginger said, jumping into the vortex, followed by everyone else. I believed in her so I jumped in as well, and when I realized it I was already in Strawberry's house along with everyone else.

"Ginger, may I borrow that remote for a while?" I asked.

"Sure! You can use it anytime you want," Ginger answered, handing me the remote.

"Thanks," I said, typing Blackberry Bushes and drawing a circle with the antenna. "See you later all, and thank you for bringing me back to my good health."

I jumped into the vortex that had appeared and ended up right in front of my house. Then I brought the remote in and examined it on my working table. Later I discovered about how the device worked and used the new knowledge to make modifications on the aftermath of Time Remote I had been keeping for so long. The work took three days, and during that time I didn't get to meet anyone at all. In the end I managed to make Time Remote Mark II, which had the same function as the previous Time Remote but also capable of transporting people into a different dimension. All in all, I actually just had copied Ginger's Dimension Door Remote and merged it with my Time Remote, not that special. Another difference was that instead of typed words, it used voice commands to specify the destination.

"Okay, let's try it... Cookie Corners! Ginger Snap's house!" I spoke to the remote and it made a lightning bolt to strike open space one meter in front. The strike produced a purple vortex and I jumped in. Then, I ended up right in front of Ginger's house. Ginger was in the yard and she had seen everything.

"Woow, Blackberry! You surprised me! Yep, you really did!" she said.

"Really? What did you see?" I asked.

"You see, I was sitting here enjoying the sunny day when suddenly a lightning bolt struck right over there three times! One two three! Then a purple thing similar to my dimension door, except that my dimension door is blue y'know, it appeared and poof! You came out of it!" she explained.

"Lightning strikes? I see that I still couldn't control the electricity waves after all. I need to fix it or I will cause heart attack to everyone I visit," I said.

"What is that? You made your own Dimension Door Remote?" she asked.

"Pretty much, except that with this I can travel through time as well," I answered. "The name is Time Remote Mark II."

"Wow, neato!" she remarked.

"I'll try this once more... 10 meters in front!" I spoke to the remote, and a lightning bolt struck from the remote to the ground one meter in front of me. Also, three lightning strikes occured ten meters ahead and two vortexes appeared, one right in front of me and the other at ten meters ahead. All Ginger had said were true after all.

"That will hurt ears. Yep it sure will," Ginger remarked.

"Indeed. I need to fix it soon. Can you help me with it?" I asked.

"I sure do! Please come in!" she answered.

We spent the next few hours attempting to fix the problems of my Time Remote Mark II. After we were done, we tried it out in front of the house. This time, the single strike from the remote was replaced by many small electricity waves, and the triple strike at the destination had completely gone.

"Now that's much better am I right?" she said.

"You sure are," I answered. "Oh, almost forgot. Here's your Dimension Door Remote. I won't be able to thank you enough for your help."

"No problem. Yep, not at all," she replied.

I then went home with the refined Time Remote Mark II. Looking at how it worked well, I couldn't wait to have adventures with my friends using it to go to places I had never been before.

--End of Chapter 11--

"David" Lee logging in!

Well, I guess I need no introduction, but just in case: I'm currently a real life sysadmin in Malaysia who had a strong interest in SSC. I generally try to be nice, but after a certain incident a few years ago, I'm more careful nowadays.

Anyways, I'm back in duty on the forums, and hope that is the last time this'd happen.

My name is Sandy, and I roleplay the fan fiction character Blackberry Bun. I like drawing with my rusty but trusty tablet PC, and I also like writing fan fictions about my own character.

All in all, I'm generally nice and helpful. Or at least I try to be.

Alright, I'll try to rephrase the ages of characters in 2003 and 2007 period. Future World period which only exists in fan fiction is also included.

2003 earlier episodes
Apple Dumplin' -- 1 year old
Strawberry and friends -- 6 years old

2003 later episodes
Apple Dumplin' -- 2 years old
Strawberry and friends -- 7 years old

2007 episodes
Apple Dumplin' -- 6 years old
Strawberry and friends -- 11 years old

Future World
Apple Dumplin' -- 13 years old
Strawberry and friends -- 18 years old
Peach Streusel -- 11 years old
Mango Jubilee, Persimmons, Jackfruit Jam: 6 years old

Correct me if I'm wrong, Prudie.

Quote:Chapter 5: Future World Revisited


Two days have passed since the day we had gone to Porcupine Peak to rescue the mermaids. The result of the journey was well worth all the effort. We got to meet Cinnamon Muffin who was a very friendly girl, and Licorice Whip had finally realized his mistakes and since then had become a good guy. However, the journey had also left me with a big question. What had happened to Albatross?

Ever since the day it had mysteriously come back together from burning pieces, Albatross had become somewhat alive. I could no longer control it from the cockpit, but it could fly by itself and it seemed to always understand what I wanted. I just needed to get onboard and it would take me to the place I wanted to go to without me telling the place. It felt like the ship could read my mind. Still, the big question was about how and why it had become alive, and if it was indeed alive, why it was loyal to me? Could it be... Black Currant's soul possessing the ship like how it happened to many vehicles in Greenhill? But in their case the possessed vehicles became able to talk and I could see that they were alive because there were visible signs such as the presence of functional mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. Albatross still looked the same as before the crash landing, so it probably was not the case. I really wanted to know the answer but I didn't even have a clue, so I decided to let it by for then.

This morning, after having breakfast I suddenly felt like visiting the future Sour Grapes, or Stella Grapes to be exact since she had left her previous name by then. I also wanted to know more about her children because I hadn't got to know much about them. Peach Streusel was a bit like Ginger Snap in talking. I also could guess that she was as active as Huck because she had shown good skateboarding skills. She was also unique to me because out of all Strawberryland kids I knew she was the only one who wore shorts, which in my opinion matched well with her activeness. I still didn't know much about the twins Mango Jubilee and Persimmons, but as far as I had noticed Persimmons seemed to lose hope easier than Mango, while Mango seemed a bit harder to trust new people compared to Persimmons. Jackfruit Jam had not shown notable personality, so I still couldn't tell much about him. As for Grapes' husband, I didn't even know his name yet, but the couple seemed to love each other and had been living a peaceful life.

In any case, because I had not remade my Time Remote II, I had no options other than using Albatross' time travel ability to visit Future Strawberryland. I had not written in the last journal that unlike with the Time Remote II, time travelling with Albatross was a bit harder. After disappearing, it didn't simply reappear at the destination time. Instead, it reappeared in a hyperspace-like tunnel which was the place where time flows. The ship then had to fly against the flow to travel to the past or along the flow to travel to the future. At this time, the monitor would show the current time period the ship was on, and after the destination was reached the ship would disappear and reappear at the world.

Without any more thinking, I stepped out from my house and approached Albatross where it had parked itself next to Falcon and Blackbird. As if it understood, it opened its canopy, letting me to get onboard. After getting in, I sat on the pilot seat.

"Albatross, maybe you know this already, but take me to seven years in the future," I said.

Right after I had said the line, the canopy closed and I could hear the engine roaring. The ship then floated up and disappeared from Strawberryland. The next thing I saw was the hyperspace tunnel of time, still giving rough shakes like before. Albatross then flew along with the flow of time and the monitor in front of me showed increasing dates. The trip went fairly well for the first one minute, but suddenly the monitor flashed red with a siren blaring.

"What's happening?" I asked, but a sudden massive shaking answered the question. I looked outside and saw the tunnel having an upheaval. Everything outside looked distorted compared to the usual and lightning strikes, or at least something that looked like them, happened everywhere. Immediately, some text appeared on the monitor.

ATTEMPTING TO FLY THROUGH TIME TUNNEL UPHEAVAL. BUCKLE UP, INTERNAL GRAVITY FIELD IS POSSIBLY NOT ENOUGH TO KEEP THE COCKPIT STABLE

Without questioning anything, I put up the seatbelt on the seat and held onto the seat tightly. I was quite afraid, but I had experienced worse things while staying in Oz so I still could keep calm and trust everything to Albatross, or whatever was controlling it. I still saw everything visible from the cockpit windshield, and apparently the upheaval also caused various debris to float all over the place. There were rocks, trees, water, and many other things including vehicles and furnitures. I could never guess where those debris had come from, and I could only hope Albatross was skillful enough to avoid them.

Fortunately, Albatross was indeed very skillful in flying through the upheaval while avoiding all the debris. Little by little the amount of debris decreased and the shaking outside seemed to be calming down, implying that we were almost through. However, suddenly a lightning strike hit a large rock nearby and shattered it into pieces of various sizes. The largest piece, which was as large as myself, was launched straight to Albatross. Everything had happened so quickly that Albatross had nearly no time to react. It managed to avoid fatal impact, but the rock still hit one thruster on the right side of the body, causing it to explode and burn with thick black smoke. Another line of text appeared on the monitor.

RIGHT THRUSTER HAS BEEN DESTROYED. ENGINE STILL OPERATIONAL. CONTINUING FLIGHT WITH THE REMAINING LEFT THRUSTER.

The flight continued and soon enough we had been through. I was really glad this kind of experience had not happened at the last trip. I couldn't imagine what kind of panicking would have occured if my friends had to experience such danger.

"Albatross, are you all right?" I asked, but there was no response. The monitor once again showed increasing dates, but there was a message under the numbers.

RECENT EVENTS HAVE INTERFERED WITH DATE CALCULATIONS. DESTINATION DATE IS POSSIBLE TO BE MISSED BY RANGE UP TO SIX MONTHS.

"That's fine. It's still the future Strawberryland after all," I said. One minute later the ship stopped flying and disappeared from the tunnel. The next thing I felt was an extremely cold air temperature. Everything was white with snow outside, which meant that I had arrived at winter season. Albatross then landed on an open field and didn't move anymore. Another line of text replaced the previous line.

REGENERATING RIGHT THRUSTER. FLIGHT IS NOT POSSIBLE UNTIL TWO HOURS LATER.

"So you indeed can regenerate," I said. I was shaking quite badly because of the cold weather and I was not wearing my winter jacket. The snow outside was pretty thick, but fortunately the sun was shining and there was no snowfall. There was nearly no difference in the temperature of inside and outside Albatross, so I decided to jump out and walk around instead of staying put.

I walked away from Albatross, hands covered in armpits. I knew that not wearing warm clothes in winter was a bad idea, but I had never thought that it would have been that bad. That was also the first time I regretted for having short sleeve shirt as my casual outfit unlike most other Strawberryland kids. The weather felt so cold that I started to feel pain in my hands, and then I heard someone calling.

"Blackberry!" the voice called. I looked towards the source and found out that it was Peach Streusel in her winter outfit. Her hat seemed to be a thicker and furry version of her usual hat. She wore pink fur coat and purple gloves, and looking at her neck area I could guess that she wore her purple sweater underneath the coat without the orange shirt. She still wore the same orange shorts, and she wore violet boots along with purple thigh socks. I kinda wondered if she didn't feel cold, because her shorts and thigh socks were not long enough to cover the entire legs, leaving her thighs not covered. She then approached me running.

"Hi, Peach," I said, still shaking.

"It's been five months since the last time we met! Where have you been? And why aren't you wearing warm clothes at all?" she asked.

"Well..." I replied, not knowing what to say.

"Mom said that you came from the past! May I guess that something wrong happened in your time travel and you ended up in winter?" she asked, which made me speechless because she was so right. "Looks like I'm right! Here!"

After saying those, she put her coat off and gave it to me. Of course I couldn't accept it because the coat was most likely her biggest cover from the cold weather.

"No, I can't accept this," I said. "What will cover you from the cold then?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me!" she said. "I insist!"

"Well..." I said with a brief pause following. "Alright."

I then took the coat and wore it. I felt a little better, but a single coat was apparently still not enough.

"Let's go to my house! It's warm there!" she said. We then walked towards Peach's house. On the way, I wondered a bit because she seemed not to feel cold even though she had given me her coat.

"Umm, Peach?" I asked.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Don't you feel cold?" I asked. "I mean, you have given your coat to me, and... you wear shorts."

"Pants are just too hot for me! I love running and playing around! Wearing these shorts and socks keeps me warm enough already!" Peach replied with excitement. "But now without my coat I will get cold pretty soon, so let's run to keep us warm!"

After she had said those lines, she started running. I followed her running, and indeed not long after that I felt even better. Soon, we arrived at the log cabin located at the woods between my house and Huck's fort. The cabin's roof and some other parts were covered in snow.

"I'm home, Mom!" Peach shouted as we approached the front door.

"Welcome home, sweetie!" a voice I recognized as Grapes' answered from inside.

"Mom, I brought a friend!" Peach said as we entered through the front door.

"Who is it, dear?" Grapes asked as she came out from a room. She still wore her purple longdress, but in this cold weather she also wore a long purple coat. She then saw us. "Little Blackberry?"

"Uhh, 'little'?" I asked.

"Sorry, hun," Grapes replied with a giggle. "The Blackberry I know is already as tall as myself, so seeing you makes me think that you're little."

"Yeah I see that.." I said.

"Oh, please have a seat near the fireplace!" Grapes said. "I'll make hot chocolate for you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Sour... uh, I mean... Mrs. Stella Grapes," I said.

"You're welcome, hun," Grapes said, starting to walk towards the back. "By the way, you can just call me Mrs. Grapes."

I then walked to the fireplace and sat down on the floor in front of it. My hands had not been covered well so even though my body was warm enough, my hands hurt and were nearly frostbitten. I then put Peach's coat off, returned it to her, and positioned my hands near the fireplace. She then put it back on her body and stood there, but I could notice from her behaviour that she actually wanted to go outside again.

"You can go play outside again if you want," I said.

"Really?" she asked.

"I think I'll mostly talk to your mom for now," I said. "Don't worry about me."

"Okay then, thanks!" she said, and soon she went outside. Two minutes later, I realized that even though I was sitting near a fireplace, not wearing any warm clothes was not a good idea at all. I felt a bit cold again, but I was too embarassed to ask for warm clothes. Suddenly, a blanket was put on me from behind. I looked at the one who had put it on, and saw that it was Grapes' husband. He was still in the outfit I had seen before, which made me wonder because it didn't seem warm, but he didn't seem cold. The smile on his face expressed kindness.

"You are..." I said.

"Somnus. That is my name," he said. "Thank you for your help back then."

"Oh, it was not a problem," I said as Grapes returned with three cups of hot chocolate.

"Where is Peach?" Grapes asked.

"I noticed that she actually wanted to go outside again, so I told her to," I said.

"That's my Peach," Grapes said, looking towards the already closed front door.

"To tell the truth, I am impressed that in such outfit she can easily withstand cold weather," I said.

"I would rather have her wear pants in this kind of weather," Grapes said. "Well, she actually complied once, but..."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Let's sit down on that sofa first," Grapes said.

The three of us then sat down on a sofa located in front of the fireplace. I sat inbetween with Grapes at my left and Somnus at my right, with a cup of hot chocolate held by each of us. I felt quite timid because I had never sat between two adults, and the fact that they were couples made me felt even stranger.

"So, what happened that she now wear shorts again?" I asked.

"One day, I heard her singing alone in her room," Grapes said.

"What did she sing?" I asked.

"Let me help answering that," Somnus said. He then stood up in front of me and Grapes, put one hand on Grapes' forehead, removed his glasses with the other hand, and then he stared at me with glowing eyes. I immediately felt something strange, and then I saw a vision of Peach, wearing her winter outfit with pants, sitting on her bed alone in her room. She sung a song with sad melody.

My mommy put me in pants,
And I feel... hot and stifling.
My mommy put me in pants,
And I feel... stiflingly hot.
My mommy put me in pants,
Why did my mommy put me in pants?
I thought she loved me...
I'm sad...

The vision then ended, and Somnus sat down on the sofa again. I was a bit confused about what I had just seen. What had he just done? It seemed like he had just projected one part of Grapes' memory into my mind with hypnosis.

"That was... weird and kinda exaggerating," I said.

"That was her tactics," Grapes said. "She knows that feel guilty easily. She made me feel guilty with that song, and it worked."

"Eh, wouldn't that make her spoiled in the future?" I asked.

"I can only leave that matter to my darling..." Grapes said. "He knows how to love our kids but still being firm with discipline, while I'm just a big pushover."

"You are still the best mother I ever know, dear," Somnus said.

"So, what brought you here, hun?" Grapes asked me. "Are the others with you?"

"I just wanted to visit," I said. "I came by myself."

"I see, but coming at this time without warm clothes is not a good idea," Grapes said.

"I know that..." I replied. "There was a problem with my time travel which made me land five months later than I wanted."

"Is time travelling like this fine?" Grapes asked. "I'm actually worried history will be changed."

"It's fine because I traveled forward," I said, taking a sip from the cup I had. "Of course the story would be different if I traveled backward."

"But what if we tell you something important about yourself?" Grapes asked.

"It won't matter. It will be just like I hear the words of a diviner," I said. "I met one during my stay in... a place far away. He told me some things about my future, but I just continued life normally."

"He's right, honey. You shouldn't worry about that," Somnus said. "My cousins also agreed with me."

"Cousins?" I asked.

"Oh, I forgot to properly introduce you," Grapes said. "This is my husband Somnus, the younger cousin of PJ and Sandman from a place named The Land of Dreams."

"Eh? You are their cousin?" I asked, quite surprised.

"Your future self was not surprised when she told him that," Somnus said. "Apparently you have known it already because of your visit here."

"You know them already?" Grapes asked.

"Yeah, I have visited the place a few times," I said. "So you are not... human?"

"I am half human," Somnus said.

"So that's why you don't need warm clothes," I said and he nodded. "And that also can explain about what you just did, although I thought the magic of your kind can only work around dreams."

"Dreams and memories are not much different," Somnus said. "Both of them reside in our mind."

"By the way, where are your other children?" I asked.

"The twins are not at home now, but Jackfruit Jam is upstairs," Grapes said. "He can't stand cold."

"Yeah, that's right," a voice suddenly said from behind us. We looked behind and saw that the voice came from Jackfruit Jam himself. He wore rather thick warm clothes compared to what I usually wore in winter.

"Come and sit here, my son," Somnus said, standing up. Jackfruit then sat on the sofa right next to me.

"I think we will leave you two here," Grapes said, standing up. "Oh, and you can have that cup of chocolate," she continued, looking at the cup of chocolate which was actually for Peach but had been remaining untouched. Jackfruit nodded and then the couple left.

"Uh, hi Jackfruit," I said.

"Hi too," Jackfruit said. "And thank you for your help back then."

"Oh, that was not a problem," I said.

"As you might have noticed, I'm weak," Jackfruit said. "I get cold easily, I get sick easily, my three sisters and my cousins and can all outrun me, play sports better than me, and tire out later than me."

"Eh, I don't think it's that bad," I said.

"Oh,it IS that bad," Jackfruit said. "You probably haven't noticed it, but my legs were not born to walk right."

"Really? Indeed I haven't noticed anything like that," I said. "Wait, did you just say 'cousin'?"

"Yeah, my cousins and their parents also live in this house. Back then you didn't meet them because they stayed inside," Jackfruit said. "Too bad you can't meet them now either. All of them are on vacation to somewhere warm."

"Don't tell me that their father is..." I said. "Purple Pie Man?"

"Yeah, he's their father," Jackfruit said. "Is there something wrong?"

"Uhh, nothing," I said, deciding not to bring up anything more about him. "And their mother?"

"The mother's name is Cranberry Crisp," Jackfruit said. "But we used to call her as 'Berry Princess' until she gave the title to someone else."

"Berry Princess?" I asked. "I think Mango said that when we introduced ourselves back then."

"Yeah, we were confused because mother used to tell stories about her past, and the names you all mentioned were the same as the kids she met in the past," Jackfruit said. "And one of you had the same name as the new Berry Princess."

"Eh? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Strawberry Shortcake is the new Berry Princess," Jackfruit replied, which surprised me.

"That's interesting to hear," I said. "What does she do?"

"I haven't been told much, but there sure is a great deal of responsibility in the title," Jackfruit said. Then suddenly we heard something from the front door.

"We're home!" a voice I recognized as Mango's was heard. The door opened and we saw the twins coming in. Both of them wore their winter outfit.

"Welcome home, dears!" Grapes replied, approaching them. "We have a visitor here!"

"Really? Who?" Persimmons asked, then she saw me. "Ah, little Blackberry!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm still little compared to my real self in this time period," I said.

"Little or not, you're still our hero!" Mango said. "You cured Jackfruit!"

"Eh, that was nothing. Really," I said.

"Hey, now that there are four of us, how about some board games?" Jackfruit suggested, and we all agreed. We then played some board games for some hours.

"It's lunch time now, dears!" Grapes said from somewhere inside the house.

"Okay, Mom!" Persimmons said.

"Come have lunch with us, Blackberry!" Mango said.

"Eh, may I?" I asked.

"Why not?" she said with a smile.

"Thank you then," I said.

"Wait!" Jackfruit said. "Where is Peach?"

"She's playing outside," I said. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, no matter how she loves being outside, she always comes home before lunch time," Jackfruit said.

"Come on, Jackfruit. You don't need to be so observant!" Mango said.

"That's right," Persimmons said. "She will eventually come."

"I don't know..." Jackfruit said. "I kinda have a bad feeling."

"Come on, Jackfruit! Don't scare us like that!" Persimmons said.

"Don't worry! Peach is tough!" Mango said.

"But..." Jackfruit said.

"Alright then," I said. "I'll go look for her."

"Eh? No, you don't have to!" Mango said.

"If I use my ship it shouldn't take long," I said. "But..."

"But what?" Persimmons asked.

"Could any of you lend me some warm clothes?" I asked.

"Here, you can have mine," Mango said, giving her coat to me. Persimmons also lent me her scarf and Jackfruit lent me his warm hat.

"Thanks," I said as I wore those. The variety of colors made me look somewhat strange, but as long as I felt warm enough I could care less. "I'll be back soon."

After saying the last sentence, I walked outside.

--End of Chapter 5--

Quote:Chapter 4: "That's what friends are for."


We all walked through the plains of Porcupine Peak Island. As I had previously mentioned, it was a nearly lifeless plain without many trees. Most of the land were occupied by weed. Lightnings roar regularly from the storm clouds above, which made sunlight dim, but there was no rain at all. Many of the plants were dying from drought. Some houses stand on the plain quite distant from each other, and all of them are in poor condition they were better said as shacks. I could see that everyone else were stunned by the rather horrible scenery compared to Strawberryland. It was comparable to a gloomy part of Oz we had visited, but it was still hard to believe that such gloomy place existed in our world. While still walking, a conversation happened.

"Cinnamon, could you tell us about this place?" Strawberry asked.

"Well..." Cinnamon replied. "This place is the western region. I used to live here with some others, but father said that not too long after he brought me, everyone else moved to the northern region."

"Northern region?" Angel asked.

"I don't know much about that place, but father also said that now most people live there," Cinnamon said. "One funny thing about this island is that no matter how hard it is carried by waves and winds, it never spins."

"What about the eastern and southern parts?" Orange asked.

"I don't know. I have never been told about those regions and I have never been there," Cinnamon said.

"Have you heard anything about the mountain?" Huck asked, looking at the mountain which was covered with storm clouds.

"No, everyone were too afraid of the storm clouds," Cinnamon said.

"So, most likely your father and the mermaids are at the northern part now?" I asked.

"I think so," Cinnamon replied. We kept walking for some more minutes until suddenly I heard Strawberry shouting. I was at the very front of the group at that moment.

"Seaberry!" she shouted. I quickly looked behind and saw that Seaberry had collapsed and Strawberry had to hold her to prevent her from hitting the ground. She was still not fainted yet, but she seemed very weak.

"What's the matter?" Coco asked, looking worried.

"No fever," I said, touching Seaberry's forehead. "You must be still exhausted from using your magic back then."

"Is there a place to rest here?" Angel asked. "This plain does not look like a good place to rest."

Cinnamon looked around, seeming to recognize the place. She then said, "My house is nearby. Let's go there."

We then continued walking with Cinnamon leading at the front while I and Huck had to hold Seaberry, who could barely walk, to our shoulders.

"You shouldn't hide that you were tired," I said.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't want to slow everyone down."

"Now we're slowed down anyway," I said. "No difference."

"Here we are," Cinnamon said. We looked at the house we have just arrived at. The shape of the house was a bit similar to Blueberry's house before tidied up, which made sense because they both had the word 'Muffin' in their names. We entered the house and got a bit surprised because the inside of the house was much cleaner than we had expected. The furnitures were placed neatly, and there was no dust. We then brought Seaberry to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed. After that, we gathered in the living room.

"Hey Cinnamon. Your house doesn't look abandoned. Nope, not at all! There is no dust here, am I right? A house abandoned for a long long time should have a lot of dust, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"At the day I left this house, I told father that I was worried about this house. He then said that he would take care of this house everytime he comes back to this island," Cinnamon replied. "I doubted him at first, so he made a pinky promise."

"Pinky Promise? Like this?" Peppermint asked, suddenly hitching her little finger to mine, who was the closest from her position. Cinnamon nodded.

"It looks like he kept the promise," Coco said, looking around the house. "I can't believe that he's the same man who kidnapped me and the mermaids."

I didn't hear the conversations afterwards. I went outside the house alone and sat on a stone large enough for me to sit on. I mused on the storming sky for a moment, and then I took something from my pocket. It was Albatross' remote, which had become useless because Albatross was no more. I pressed the button to call the ship, but a red light flashed above the button, indicating that Albatross could not be called. I then mused at the remote for some more seconds.

"May I sit here?" A voice I recognized as Huck said from my left.

"Yeah..." I replied while musing to the front, right hand still holding the remote.

"Is that the remote?" he asked, sitting on the ground next to me. I only nodded and then I put it back into my pocket. There was a silence for a few minutes until he spoke again. "You know, I think you have been acting weird recently."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The way you have been talking," he said. "It made everyone else feel..."

"Bad?" I interrupted.

"Not really..." he said. "It's just that you have been... not you."

"Oh..." I said. "Sorry about that."

"You have been hiding it, am I correct?" he asked. "Your feeling about your ship."

"How can you say that?" I asked back.

"Hey, I'm the one who has been your friend the longest," he replied. "Alright, only longer by two days. Or one day if we don't count the day where I erased my memory. But still long enough to notice that you have been acting weird."

"Well..." I said with doubt.

"And long enough for me to know why you have been hiding it," he said.

"Really...?" I said.

"Yeah, two reasons. You don't want to be pitied by anyone, and you don't want anyone else to see you cry," he said, which was true. I kept silent and he spoke again. "You'll have pain in your chest if you keep doing that. Let them all out to me. Don't worry, nobody else is here."

"You know..." I said. "It took a long time to build Albatross,"

"Yeah, four years," he said.

"It also took a lot of trips to get the materials," I said.

"Yeah, I remember the adventure in the Sun Temple to get the Sun Stone. That was really exciting,"

"And it took a lot of efforts to make use of them," I said.

"Oh yes, I remember you blowing up something in the workshop. You inhaled a lot of smoke and fainted for hours. You have no idea how everyone else were worried about you," he said.

"Yeah, I was glad that Glinda knew a spell to drain all smoke from my lungs," I said. "Four years of memories, four years of joy and sorrow... and it's now gone..."

As I said the last line, I started to sob and leak tears. I couldn't speak any further. I tried to hold myself from crying, but it only caused pain on my chest. Huck seemed to notice and he stood up.

"Come here, Blackberry. You can cry on my shoulder," he said, giving me his hand. I looked at his hand, kept silent for some seconds, and finally took his hand. I then stood up, looked at his face for another few seconds, and began to burst out in tears. He then hugged me tight and I cried on his shoulder. It lasted for around one minute until I finally managed to stop my tears. I then released the hug, wiped my tears, and took a deep breath.

"Feel better now?" he asked.

"Yeah... Thanks," I said.

"Hey, that's what friends are for!" he said. Both of us then returned to Cinnamon's house.

It took about two hours of resting until Seaberry regained enough strength to walk again. The two hours were spent mostly telling Cinnamon about how great Strawberryland was, how nice the friends were, and many other things. Nothing was told about our recent journey to Oz, probably because they didn't want to accidentally remind me about the loss of my ship. But they seemed to have noticed that I had gotten over it.

We then continued walking towards the northern part of the island. The trip took about one hour and nothing significant happened along the way. When we arrived there we saw that the northern region was filled with quite a number of people. As we walked through the place, we noticed that the environment was quite similar to most villages in Oz where the inhabitants walk around doing their own businesses, but the difference here was that most people have sore face. There were many adults but children were there as well. We could notice that some of them looked at us in suspicion and whispered to each other.

"We don't seem to fit in here, I think," Huck said.

"I think so too," Orange said.

"Yeah me too, but I have no idea why. Nope, not at all," Ginger said.

"Apple Dumplin' doesn't like the look of this," Apple said.

"I think I know," I said. "Our group is a bit too colorful, and you can notice that all people here has something purple worn on them."

"I think that can be right," Peppermint said, looking around. "In any case, where should we go now?"

"I think that answers the question," Cinnamon said, looking at a poster placed on a wall. The poster advertised about a circus having a new spectacular attraction. There was a picture of Licorice whip and a silhouette of a mermaid on the poster, so we were convinced that we have just found what we were looking for. To our convenience, the poster included a map of where the circus tent was located, so we went to the location immediately. On the way there was a conversation.

"By the way, has any of us figured out what to do once we find them?" Strawberry asked.

"No, I have not," Seaberry said.

"I haven't either," Orange said.

"Neither have I," Angel said.

"Nope, not me," Ginger said.

"Apple still has no idea," Apple said.

"Don't ask me. I don't even have a clue," Peppermint said.

"Don't ask me either," Raven said.

"Sorry, I still have no idea," Coco said.

"I don't know..." Cinnamon said.

"Hey, does that mean none of us have any idea?" Huck asked.

"Well, there are two options," I said. "Convince him to give the mermaids back, or sneak them out at night."

"I don't think we can do the first option," Peppermint said.

"Yeah, he won't just give them back," Angel said.

"So we will sneak them out at night then," I said. "But that makes another question."

"What is it?" Coco asked.

"Well, where should we bring the mermaids once we have them?" I replied. "My ship is no more, so that's out of the options."

"I'm thinking of bringing them to the nearest beach and throwing them into the sea so they can swim away," Peppermint said.

"That can be done, but I don't think they are willing to leave us," I said.

"Well..." Cinnamon said. "I have an idea but..."

"Tell us, Cinnamon! Any idea is berry worth hearing!" Strawberry said.

"My father once said that he always docks his boat at the port. Maybe you can... borrow his boat to bring everyone out of this island?" Cinnamon said.

"That's a great idea, yep it sure is! You should have said that sooner!" Ginger said.

"But that feels like stealing from him..." Cinnamon said.

"Hey, listen!" Peppermint said. "He stole our friends, so we will steal his boat to get our friends back. That's fair for me."

"Peppermint, I don't think that's a berry good way to say that," Strawberry said. "We will only borrow the boat."

"Alright, sorry about that," Peppermint said.

"Let's put it this way," I said. "We are going to borrow his boat and hope that he will realize how bad it feels to be stolen from. Hopefully that way he will realize the mistakes he has been making."

"I don't think that would work. He has felt that feeling already when we rescued the horses," Angel said. "But we don't have any other choice, so yeah..."

With the new plan set in mind, we continued walking to the circus tent. We arrived at the tent 15 minutes later. The tent was just like any other circus tent I have seen in books, although the size of the tent was rather small. The tent was situated near the bottom of a small hill, and there were no other buildings near it. According to the poster, at that day there would be a promotional performance which was free of charge. That could explain the crowd entering the tent.

"How about going in and watch the performance?" I suggested. "We still can't rescue them at this time anyway, so we can use this to rest a bit and also to see the situation."

Everyone agreed to my idea, so we entered the tent and took our seats. In the middle of the tent, we could see a huge box-shaped thing covered in cloth. I could guess that the thing was a huge aquarium and the mermaids were put there. Not too long after, Licorice Whip himself came out to the middle stage and officially started the circus.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the most spectacular, most unique, and the best circus in Porcupine Peak!" he shouted, and the crowd cheered. "Today, in this special performance, I will show you something very spectacular! These are the legendary creatures we have been believing to exist only in fairy tales, but they are really real!"

"Creatures? How dare him mentioning them as creatures!" Peppermint said.

"Well, they are not humans like us so he has a point," I said. "But it still doesn't sound right indeed."

"Boss... You haven't changed at all..." Raven said.

"Now, without further speech, I will show you..." Licorice said, holding a rope connected to the huge box. "Mermaids!"

As he said the last word, he strongly pulled the rope. The cloth covering the box fell down, and as I had guessed it revealed a huge aquarium with all five mermaids in there. I was a bit surprised that the mermaids had not changed at all since the last time I had seen them. It just seemed that they had not aged at all after being cured from petrification. The mermaids then started to swim around in a stylish way that all of us were dazzled by their performance. They were smiling during the performance, but I could notice that their smiles were not true smiles. Soon, Licorice pulled a different rope and a huge cloth fell from above the aquarium, covering it once again.

"Alright, that's all for this promotional performance!" he shouted. "Come back tomorrow for the real performance, of course not free of charge!"

All of us then left the tent. Before leaving, I could see Licorice moving the huge aquarium towards the back of the tent.

"I'm going to sneak to the back and check on them. Meet me again on top of that hill in one hour," I said, pointing at the small hill nearby.

"You can't go alone. I'll go with you," Huck said.

"No, I must go alone," I said, taking Blind Spot from my pocket. "I only have one of this."

"Oh, your invisibility badge. I see," he said. "Be careful then."

"I will," I said, putting the badge on my shirt and disappearing.

As they had promised, everyone else went to the top of the small hill located not far to the front left of the circus tent and waited there. From that place, they could see the circus tent on the right and the port on the left. The port itself seemed not to have many boats docked, but the distance was still too far to recognize if Licorice Whip's boat was docked there. They then waited for me to come, but I didn't came even though one hour almost passed.

"Where's Blackberry?" Coco asked. "It's almost one hour."

"None of us know," Peppermint said.

"I'm worried about him," Angel said. "Licorice might have caught him."

"It's still not one hour yet," Huck said. "He will come. Believe him."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," a voice they recognized as my voice spoke. I then took Blind Spot from my shirt and revealed myself.

"See?" Huck said. "So, what did you find out there?"

"This won't be as hard as we have expected," I said. "He separated them to five smaller aquariums and put all the aquariums into five separate cage carriages, the same type he once used to keep the horses he horsenapped. Probably to prevent them from talking to each other and making any escape plan."

"So, first we have to look for the keys?" Seaberry asked.

"No, I have my Key Master. We don't need to look for any keys," I said.

"How should we carry them out? I don't think we are all strong enough to carry all aquariums for long," Peppermint said.

"Fortunately, there is a wheelbarrow left in front of each carriage. We can use them to carry the aquariums," I said.

"That sounds good! Let's do it right now, shall we?!" Ginger said.

"No, we should wait until nightfall," I said.

"I will be just slowing you down then," Cinnamon said. "I'll be blind again at that time."

"You will wait at the entrance and watch if someone is coming," I said. "Your hearing is very helpful in this case. Raven can help watching as well."

"I see," Cinnamon said.

"Ok, boss," Raven said.

"With Cinnamon and Raven watching, there are ten of us going in. Two of us for each aquarium will be best to save time. After we get them out, we will bring them to the port and use his boat to carry us out," I said.

"What about the barrier?" Seaberry asked.

"I saw in Albatross' monitor that the barrier only works one way. We can't get in but we can get out," I said. "So, I think we are settled?"

Everyone agreed that the plan was settled, and then we waited until nightfall. Once the time came, we slowly sneaked into the back of the circus tent. Cinnamon and Raven stayed near the entrance to watch as planned, and everyone else continued sneaking towards the cage carriages. Soon, we arrived at the first carriage where Mermaid Strawberry was held. She was asleep, but she soon woke up and saw us. She seemed very relieved and excited, but I immediately put my finger on my mouth, signaling her to keep quiet. She seemed to understand. I then used Key Master to unlock the carriage.

"Here, take this and use it to unlock the next carriage," I said, giving Key Master to Strawberry. "Remember, two persons for each aquarium."

Soon, one by one the carriages were unlocked and the aquariums were put on the wheelbarrows. We then quietly pushed the wheelbarrows to the entrance, where Cinnamon and Raven was still keeping watch. I was glad that nothing happened to get in our way. However, I got relieved too early. Suddenly there was a loud noise of clanking cans. It seemed somehow one of us had activated some kind of alarm without knowing.

"What's that noise?" Coco asked.

"Sounds like an alarm," Orange said.

"What we're gonna do?" Angel asked.

"Run to the port as fast as you can and don't look back!" I shouted, and all of us started running towards the port. It was hard to run fast while pushing the wheelbarrows. Cinnamon ran hand in hand with Coco, so there was no need to worry about her. Soon, we arrived at the port. There was no people because it was still in the middle of the night, but there were enough lightings for us to see our way. We immediately went to the only pier the port had, and as we had expected we saw Licorice's boat there.

"Alright, let's bring them into the boat and..." I said before there was an interruption.

"That is as far as you go, meddling kids!" a voice shouted. We looked at the source and found that the voice came from Licorice Whip himself. Standing next to him was Seaberry. Her arms were tied with a rope around her body, and Licorice held an extension of the rope with his hand.

"Seaberry? Since when..?" Coco said in shock. Everyone were surprised as well.

"Ha! All of you were so focused in running that none of you noticed this kid tripping and falling. That was an easy catch for me!" Licorice said, laughing.

"I'm sorry, everyone," Seaberry said.

"Don't do this, boss!" Raven said.

"Heh, why should I listen to you, no good bird? You betrayed me!" Licorice said.

"Father, please stop this!" Cinnamon said.

"No, Cinnamon. I need the mermaids for my circus, so I can become silly rich!" Licorice said. "Now give the mermaids back to me, or I'll have her in the performance tomorrow instead."

"Father, please!" Cinnamon begged with some tears leaking, but Licorice seemed unaffected.

"You will understand in time, Cinnamon," he said. "Come on! Quickly!"

"Ugh..." I said, looking at the bad situation. None of us would leave Seaberry behind, but if we gave the mermaids back our whole effort would be just for nothing. None of the options were good, and even if we gave back the mermaids there was no guarantee he would return Seaberry to us. We were totally out of luck.

However, suddenly a lightning strike fell down to the space between our group and Licorice, surprising everyone. Immediately, more lightning strikes fell down all over the port, tearing some buildings down and starting fire. All of us looked upwards and saw a large spiraling fire floating above the sea towards us, firing more lightning strikes.

"What is that thing?!" Peppermint asked.

"Don't ask me! I have no idea!" I replied.

Suddenly, the fire increased its speed and flew towards us. Without even having time to think, all of us including the mermaids and Seaberry were sucked by the fire. Most of us screamed in fear, and then everything went dark.

I didn't faint at all. After hitting some sort of solid ground, I attempted to stand up. I could feel that the space I was in was crowded with everyone else lying down there. After I managed to stand up, the next thing I noticed was the most surprising thing I have ever experienced.

"Albatross...?" I said in disbelief. "But how...?"

"What, we're inside Albatross right now? That couldn't be, am I right? The ship has exploded into pieces, am I right again?" Ginger said, getting up.

"Is this real? How could it happen?" Orange asked. I then immediately went to sit on the pilot seat.

"Everyone, I know you all have a lot of questions, but believe me that I am as clueless as you are," I said. Then, without me touching anything on the cockpit, Albatross flew by itself away from the island. As expected, the barrier only worked one way so there was no trouble getting past it. I then turned my pilot seat around so I could see everyone else being cramped in the passenger space because of the five additional passengers who were the mermaids.

"We should untie Seaberry now," I said, looking towards Seaberry, whose arms were still tied up. The extension of the rope were clamped at the place where the canopy and the body were attached whenever the canopy was closed. Apple, who was the closest to Seaberry, quickly untied the ropes.

"HELP!!!" suddenly we heard someone yelling for help. The scream seemed to come from behind. I tried turning on the monitor to see the source, but there was no response. I then tried looking through the glass of the canopy, and saw that the one screaming was Licorice Whip. He was dangling on the rope extension, pushed to the back because of Albatross' high speed.

"Father!" Cinnamon shouted.

"At this speed he will be crushed by the sea water if he falls down!" I said.

"Blackberry! Stop this ship!" Strawberry shouted.

"I'm trying, but the controls are not responding!" I said, trying to stop Albatross in futile attempt.

"Then there's only one way!" Huck said. "Everyone, grab the rope! Open the canopy, and we pull him in together!"

"Okay!" I said, manually opening the canopy. We then pulled the rope with all our strength.

"H-HELP! I CAN'T HOLD ON MUCH LONGER!" Licorice shouted, his grip were starting to slip towards the end of the rope.

"Hang in there! We are pulling you in!" Strawberry said.

"I C-CAN'T HOLD ON ANYMORE!" Licorice shouted, dangling on the very end of the rope.

"Father! Please! Don't let go! I don't want to lose you!" Cinnamon shouted. "I love you, father! So please! Don't leave me alone!"

Cinnamon's lines seemed to have become an additional strength for Licorice. He then started to climb the rope while we kept pulling the rope into the ship. Soon, he reached the passenger space and climbed into it. After he was safe, I closed the canopy. Everyone then fell into sitting position, panting a lot.

"Why...?" Licorice said, still panting. "Why did you help me? After what I have done?"

There was a silence for a few seconds.

"Do we need a reason?" I asked back. "We don't need a reason to help someone. Everybody are basically born to help each other. If someone is in danger and needs help, we will help without any question."

"Yeah, that's right," Peppermint said. "And besides, you're not as bad as we have been thinking. Cinnamon told us a lot about you."

"Eh, Cinnamon?" Licorice asked, looking at Cinnamon. She then started to sob and jumped to hug Licorice. "Hey, what are you...?"

"Father! I'm so glad you are safe!" Cinnamon said. Licorice was silent for a while.

"Maybe I have been wrong all this time," he said. "I wanted to earn a lot of money and become silly rich," he continued. "I wanted to make my daughter happy by becoming rich. That has been my goal."

"Father, I don't need you to be rich!" Cinnamon said. "I only need you to stay with me! Like how we have been doing!"

"I understand, dear. I won't leave you again," Licorice said, hugging Cinnamon back. Soon, Albatross suddenly stopped. I looked outside and it turned out that it had landed right in front of Licorice's house. Cinnamon and Licorice then jumped off and looked at us. Raven followed them.

"I will continue to live here with my daughter," Licorice said. "I think I will just forget the idea of making a big circus."

"I have decided to trust my boss once more. Please tell the horses on Ice Cream Island that I will come to visit them sometimes," Raven said.

"Thank you for your help, everyone!" Cinnamon said.

"That's what friends are for," I replied.

"Come visit us some time if you can. We will gladly welcome you," Licorice said.

"Of course we will!" Strawberry said with a smile. I then closed the canopy and Albatross flew away by itself. Both Cinnamon and Licorice waved their hands at us. Soon, Albatross stopped and floated above the sea near Coco's house. I then opened the canopy.

"Thank you berry much for helping us!" Mermaid Strawberry said.

"I absolooootely have no idea what would have happened if you didn't come," Mermaid Blueberry said.

"You can say that again, matey," Mermaid Rainbow said. Mermaid Coco and Mermaid Seaberry hugged their 'twins' and then all mermaids jumped into the sea. Albatross then flew by itself again and landed on the beach next to Coco's house. I hadn't even gotten the chance to close the canopy, so we all got off immediately.

"You know, I didn't think that your ship could do those things," Huck said. "Making lightning strikes, becoming a spiraling fire. Those were amazing!"

"Yeah, Albatross has a lightning cannon and two flamethrowers," I said. "Henry said that I would need some sort of defense sooner or later, so he put those weapons into it."

"And he was totally right!" Ginger said.

"Now comes the big question," Peppermint said. "How did this ship come back together? I mean, it exploded into burning pieces!"

"Well," I said. "If I think about it, the material I used to build the whole body came from a strange stone which can regenerate."

"Regenerate?" Orange asked.

"You don't say..." Huck said. "The stone from the Center of The Planet?"

"Yes, that one," I said. "Whenever I scratch it, the scratch mark disappears within an hour. But I didn't care much about that ability because the stone was nearly as light as feather while as strong and durable as steel. That was the most important thing for me."

"Alright, maybe that answers the first question," Apple said. "But Apple still wonders why the ship flew by itself."

"Yeah, it was like it is alive and can think by itself," Angel said.

"I have no idea about that," I said. "But we are now here, safe and sound. Everything ended well."

"Yeah, that's the most important thing!" Strawberry said.

"Thank you everyone," Coco said. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Yeah, me too," Seaberry said.

"That's what friends are for," Strawberry said, and we all had a big group hug.

--End of Chapter 4--

Quote:Chapter 3: Entering Porcupine Peak


The sun had risen, and everyone inside the cabin in Licorice Lagoon were awake. Some who had to sleep on the floor complained about backache, but everything went normal. Not long after, we all gathered to have breakfast. From the sunglasses she was still wearing I could recognize that Cinnamon Muffin was still blind because there was no moon yet, but she amazed us with her ability to prepare breakfast for us without anyone's help.

"Here you go!" she said, putting a tray full with brown muffins on a table.

"What are these?" Angel asked.

"My namesake. Try it!" Cinnamon replied.

"These are cinnamon muffins?" Apple asked. "Apple Dumplin' has never seen these."

"But they sure smell berry nice," Strawberry said, taking one muffin and eating it. "Berry delicious!"

It didn't take long for everyone else to grab one muffin and eat it. I also ate one and I had to admit that Cinnamon was a very good cook. Everyone including me complimented on how delicious the muffins were, and she seemed very pleased.

"So, we will go right after this, won't we?" Huck said.

"Yeah, the sooner the better," Orange said. "We have to save the mermaids."

"But there is one problem," I said.

"Not another bad news," Peppermint said. "What is it anyway?"

"I don't know where Porcupine Peak is located," I said.

"Eh, doesn't your ship have a map?" Peppermint asked.

"Albatross doesn't have a map. It's Blackbird which has one," I said.

"Er, sorry to interrupt, but..." Cinnamon said. "It's not that easy to find Porcupine Peak."

"Why?" Strawberry asked.

"Porcupine Peak is located on an island. The island is far in the middle of the ocean, and it is not on the map," Cinnamon said.

"Not on the map?" Angel said.

"Yes, and to make it even harder to find, the island does not stay in one place," Cinnamon said. "It floats on the ocean like a huge boat, so waves and winds can carry it around."

"Really? Then how can your father find it?" I asked.

"My father has a special compass. Its needle always points towards the island, so he only needs to sail towards where the needle points to," Cinnamon said.

"Does that mean... There is no hope for us to save them?" Coco asked, looking very worried.

"Unless there's a duplicate of that compass, I'm afraid so..." Cinnamon said, bowing her head. "I'm sorry. I should have told you earlier."

"Wait!" I said, realizing something. "You said 'duplicate'?"

"Uh, yes..." Cinnamon said.

"I think I have a way," I said, walking towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Seaberry asked.

"Wait here. I'll be back soon. Oh, and don't give up hope," I replied.

Everyone waited inside the cabin anxiously, having no clue on what I was going to do. Nobody spoke anything, so everything inside the cabin fell into deep silence. The silence was broken when twenty minutes later the front door opened and I came in. In the grip of my right hand I was holding a thing which looked like a compass. It had dark purple color and on its surface there was one needle under glass cover which kept pointing to a direction, which was not North.

"Cinnamon, is this the compass?" I asked, giving the thing I was holding in my right hand to Cinnamon. She then held the thing and examined it with her hands.

"Yes, this is it!" Cinnamon said. "But how?"

"Yeah, how did you get that compass?" Angel asked.

"Well, it's hard to explain. But I must say that it's not the one your father has. It's a duplicate," I said.

"Duplicate? But the scratch I accidentally made last month is here!" Cinnamon said, rubbing the bottom part of the compass.

"Perfect duplicate," I added, taking the compass back. "In any case, we should go right away."

"Wait! Let me go with you," Cinnamon said. "My father has done something horribly wrong, and I must make him realize it."

"We'd like to, but there are only nine passenger seats in Blackberry's ship, am I right? And there are ten of us besides Blackberry himself, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"No worries. I have thought of that while I was away," I said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Angel asked as I walked outside. Everybody soon followed me towards where I had parked Albatross. I then opened the hatch and sat on the pilot seat. Everybody else looked at the space where the passenger seats were located. They were surprised that there were no seats at all there.

"Is this what you meant? No seats?" Peppermint said

"Without the seats, there's enough room for all of you to sit on the floor. Don't worry, it's still comfortable enough," I said.

"I see what you mean, but how can we buckle up if there's no seatbelt?" Peppermint asked.

"You don't need to. The gravity field will take care of everything," I said.

"If you say so, alright," Peppermint said, and everyone else entered the passenger space. I then closed the hatch and soon the ship's engine roared to life. Within the next minute the ship flew towards the direction pointed by the compass I held.

"Are we going yet?" Cinnamon asked.

"We're already flying, Cinnamon," Apple said.

"What? I don't feel anything," Cinnamon said.

"That's because of the gravity field," I said. "It makes you feel like this ship is not flying even though it is. Kinda complicated I know."

"Rather than that, I'm wondering what you actually did to get the compass," Huck said.

"Yeah, Blackberry. How did you get that?" Orange asked.

"Well, I went home to remove all the seats. Then..." I said.

"Then what? What did you do?" Coco asked.

"To put it simply, I travelled back through time and used Replicator on the compass," I said.

"Travelled back through time? You mean, you went to the time when Licorice was still at the lagoon and copied the compass using your copy gun? Is that what you mean, huh Blackberry?" Ginger asked, and I nodded.

"That's clever. But why didn't you instead bring us all back to before he kidnapped Coco and stop him from kidnapping her?" Huck asked. I sighed.

"This is why I didn't really want to tell how I got the compass," I said. "It's too complicated to explain and gives me headaches."

"Well," Strawberry said. "If we did that, then we would never meet Cinnamon, right? I think it's better this way."

"Yeah, I sorta agree with you," Peppermint said. "Anyway, how far are we from the island?"

"I have no idea. The compass only shows direction, not distance," I replied. "I just fly to wherever this compass points its needle."

The flight lasted for the next ten minutes until I saw something on a distance. It looked like a mountain surrounded by storm clouds.

"Cinnamon," I said.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I see an island with storm clouds above it. Do you think it's Porcupine Peak?" I asked.

"That's right," Cinnamon said. "Storm clouds always cover the island, but rain happens very rarely. Because of this, nothing can grow there."

"So that's our destination," I said, then suddenly Albatross crashed onto something unseen. The crash was so hard that everybody inside could feel the impact, even with the gravity field still activated. The ship then fell to the water below and ended up floating on the surface.

"Everybody okay?" Strawberry asked around.

"Yeah," Huck said.

"Pretty much," Angel said.

"Not really, and I will get worse if this kid doesn't get off me right now," Peppermint said, lying on the floor with Ginger lying on her body.

"Oh, sorry!" Ginger said, getting up.

"What just happened?" Cinnamon asked.

"I have no idea?" Orange said. "Blackberry?"

"I have no idea either," I said, opening the hatch and jumped to the ship's nose, which was badly damaged. I then tried reaching my right hand to the far front, and it touched something invisible. It felt like a hard wall. "Invisible barrier?"

"Invisible barrier? But this ship should be able to go through such thing, right? Like the one in the sky?" Peppermint asked.

"This is not the case," I said, getting back inside. "Limit in The Sky is just a pushing force, but this one is a hard wall," I continued, turning on the monitor at the cockpit. A figure of the island appeared, and it was shown that the whole island up to one mile away was covered with a dome-shaped barrier. "Cinnamon, do you know about this?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but my father once told me that the island doesn't want 'good' to come if not accompanied by 'evil'," Cinnamon replied.

"Well, in other words, we can only get through the barrier if someone evil is near us, right?" I said.

"Then, how we're gonna go to the island?" Angel asked.

"I think the question is, 'How can we go anywhere?'," Huck said. "The crash damaged this ship badly. How's the ship, Blackberry?"

"Hmm..." I said, checking the ship's condition. "Many parts are damaged, but the ship can still fly."

"That's good to hear, but now we are back to the first question," Seaberry said.

"Well, the barrier covers the island like a dome, and it reaches underwater," I said, looking at the monitor again. "But not all the way to the bottom of the sea. There's a gap right at the bottom, wide enough for Albatross to go through."

"Then let's go through the gap!" Coco said.

"The problem is, this is Albatross, not Falcon. It can float like a boat but it cannot dive," I said.

"Not another problem..." Angel said.

"Um, Blackberry. Could you explain why this ship cannot dive?" Seaberry asked.

"Two causes," I replied. "First, the engine is not waterproof. Getting wet is still fine, but if submerged I can't promise anything. Second, our room here is not waterproof either. If the ship is submerged, we all will drown."

"That means, if we can keep the ship dry it will be fine, right?" she asked.

"That's right," I said. "Why asking that?"

"Seaberry, don't say that you're going to do that!" Coco said.

"What is 'that'?" Apple asked.

"Could you explain to us?" Strawberry asked.

"You all know that I can breathe underwater thanks to the magic stone in my hair ornament, right?" Seaberry said.

"No, we don't. You only told us about being able to breathe underwater yesterday," Peppermint said. "Continue anyway."

"Two years ago, I learned that the magic stone was not the only source of my ability. There is magic inside myself as well. Both the magic stone and my own magic helped each other to give me the ability," Seaberry said.

"You have magic in yourself? Whoa, I've never heard of that!" Ginger said.

"After learning that, I thought of training the magic within me. I hoped that maybe I would be able to share my ability with my friends, so they could visit my house," Seaberry said.

"Did you succeed?" Orange asked.

"Yes, she did," Coco said. "She now can envelop my head in a large bubble so I can breathe while swimming underwater."

"So, maybe if I can envelop this ship it will be able to dive," Seaberry said.

"No! You can't do that!" Coco said.

"Why?" Seaberry asked.

"You know the reason yourself, Seaberry!" Coco replied. "You get tired everytime you use that on me, just so I can swim to your house! If you use that on this whole ship, I can't imagine what will happen to you!"

"Remember that we have to save the mermaids," Seaberry said.

"But..." Coco said.

"Don't worry about me, Coco," Seaberry said. "I will be fine."

"Please promise me that you'll be fine," Coco said.

"I promise," Seaberry said, then she looked at me. "Ready, Blackberry?"

"Let's see..." I said, checking the monitor. "It will take around one minute to dive into the bottom of the sea and go back up again at the other side of the barrier. Can you last for that long?"

"We won't know until we try," Seaberry said.

"Okay, let's do this," I said, turning the engine back on, and it roared to life. Seaberry then stood in the middle of the passenger space, clasped her hands, and closed her eyes. Immediately, she let out blue glow from her body, and Albatross was enveloped in a large bubble.

"Go now! We don't have much time!" Coco said.

"I'm on it!" I replied, and then I controlled Albatross to dive towards the bottom of the sea. As planned, within half a minute it reached the bottom of the sea and went through the invisible gap below the barrier. But then things went bad. Seaberry kept concentrating like before, but she started to sweat and the glow around her body started to dim. I controlled Albatross to get to the surface quickly, but suddenly the glow around Seaberry's body disappeared completely and she fell down fainted. Everyone else panicked as water started to invade the ship, shutting down the engine and filling both the passenger space and the cockpit with sea water. Looking at the desperate situation, I pressed a button which had the same function as the one which brought us out from Black Hole four years before.

Right after pressing the overcharge button, the engine roared to life again and spit out bubbles. The ship then accelerated towards the surface with increasing speed. Soon, it reached the surface and emerged with a jump. It then landed back on the water surface and continued to run towards the island with high speed. I was barely able to control the movement.

"Everybody brace yourselves!" I shouted, and soon Albatross crash landed at an empty beach. I was glad that the gravity field still worked well that nobody got hurt. After it came into a complete stop, I opened the hatch and shouted, "Get away from this ship now!"

Immediately, everyone except Coco and I ran for their lives. Seaberry was still fainted so I carried her on my back with Coco's help, and both of us ran away with all our strength. Right after we were far enough, Albatross exploded violently. All of us then looked at the remains of my ship without anyone saying anything.

"Bye, Albatross," I said quietly. I then laid Seaberry down on the ground. A few minutes later, she regained her consciousness.

"Ah, you're awake!" Strawberry said.

"Huh? Where am I? What happened?" Seaberry asked.

"You fainted while using your magic," I said.

"What? Then what happened? Did we all make it?" Seaberry asked, looking surprised and worried.

"Don't worry about us. We all made it," I said. "Although my ship was not so lucky."

"What happened to your ship?" she asked, and I looked towards the remains of Albatross, which was then a pile of toasted metal falling into pieces. She then looked at the remains as well, and she got surprised.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I was not strong enough," she said.

"What's done is done," I said. "Let's now go and save your friends."

"Wait a second! How can we get out from this island after we save them? Without Blackberry's ship we can't go anywhere, am I right?" Ginger said.

"We will figure it out later," I said, starting to walk away from the beach. Everybody followed without saying anything, possibly because they thought I was still shocked from the loss of my ship. Indeed it made sense for them to think like that. Albatross had been made with immeasurable effort, sweat, and tears. It had taken numerous tiresome trips to many places just to get the materials, and more tiresome works to process the materials. Four years had been spent making it, and I only got to use it for two days until it had blown up to pieces.

"Hey, Blackberry," Peppermint said right behind me as we all started to climb up a small hill. I was in front of everybody else.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"For someone who has just lost his ship, you look calm. Sorta too calm actually," she said.

"Peppermint!" Strawberry shouted, obviously not allowing her to ask about that.

"Sorry, Strawberry. I just can't help it!" Peppermint said. "I mean, if I were him I would have been shocked and cried like... like I've lost something very important."

"So..." I said, stopping my climb and sat down on the slope facing everyone else. "Do you expect me to do that right now?"

"What?" she asked.

"Do you want me now to burst into tears, cry hysterically, and then muse into blank space like I'm in shock for losing Albatross?" I asked again.

"Uh... No, but..." she said, losing her words.

"Will we gain anything if I do that right now?" I asked again. There was a brief silence. "I'd rather focus on the matter at hand."

"Sorry..." Peppermint said, bowing her head. "You're right."

Immediately, we all resumed climbing the slope of the small hill. Further behind, some of them whispered things I didn't hear.

"That was not like him to say that," Angel whispered.

"Yeah..." Orange whispered. "I mean, he has a point. But the way he said it to Peppermint..."

"Yeah, it made her feel bad..." Angel whispered.

"I'm just fine. Don't worry about me," Peppermint whispered. "He's the one you all should worry about."

"Huh?" Angel asked.

"You realized it too, Peppermint?" Strawberry whispered.

"Yeah. He's in shock," Peppermint whispered. "But he's trying hard to hide it. He doesn't want us to pity him."

"Ah, I see," Angel whispered.

"That's the Blackberry I know," Orange whispered.

"But that still leaves the question," Angel whispered. "How we're gonna make him feel better?"

"I have no idea," Peppermint whispered. "Let's just act normal for now, I think."

"I hope we will figure something out soon," Strawberry whispered, and soon we all reached the top of the small hill.

From the top of the hill, we could see an overview of Porcupine Peak. It was a nearly lifeless plain without many trees. Most of the land were occupied by weed. Lightnings roar regularly from the storm clouds above, which made sunlight dim, but there was no rain at all. Like Cinnamon had said, it seemed that rains happen very rarely there, because many of the plants were dying from drought. Some houses stand on the plain quite distant from each other, and all of them are in poor condition they were better said as shacks. All of my friends looked at the view, stunned because of the extreme difference from Strawberryland.

At the horizon I noticed moon rising and I looked at Cinnamon, who took off her sunglasses. She had just gained sight, thus she could see the scenery of her birthplace she had not seen for years. No words came out from her mouth, and her face expressed a bit of sadness. There was a deep silence for the next few seconds.

"I have never thought of coming back here again," Cinnamon said.

"Cinnamon, I can't believe that you were born at this horrible place," Angel said.

"It must have been hard for you," Apple said.

"How does it feel to be back here again?" I asked.

"I... I don't know," Cinnamon replied. "This place holds the memories of my horrible past, but it still feels like home to me. I don't know how I should feel."

"Oh..." Strawberry said.

"Now comes the hard part of our rescue mission," I said. "Everyone ready?"

I could hear everyone agreeing, and then we all started walking down the hill to Porcupine Peak.

--End of Chapter 3--

Quote:Chapter 2.5: Sunrise


I couldn't sleep well that night. I had to sleep on the floor because there were not enough beds and sofa for everyone. Sleeping on the floor gave me unexpected backache, which woke me up when it was still fairly dark. I looked at my watch and realized that there were only around 20 minutes left until sunrise, so I decided to wake up. I took my glasses from where I had put it the night before and quietly walked to the front door. Once I got outside, I exercised a bit and noticed that I was not alone. I saw Cinnamon Muffin sitting alone on the beach. I then approached her and sat next to her.

"Good morning," I said.

"Good morning, Blackberry," she replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"Well..." I said, pausing a bit. "Not really to be honest. I got a bit of backache."

"Oh, sorry to hear that," she said.

"It's fine," I said. "By the way, do you wake up this early everyday?"

"Not always, but pretty often," she replied.

"I see," I said. There was a silence for few seconds, and then she started to speak again.

"Blackberry, have you seen sunrise?" she asked. "Is sunrise beautiful?"

"Yes, definitely beautiful. Why is that?" I asked.

"I have never seen sunrise," she replied.

"Really? But if there's moon you should..." I said.

"I can gain sight from any kind of moon, whether it's crescent moon, half moon, or full moon as long as it is visible. But the sun has to be full," she said with a sigh.

"Oh, I see," I said.

"Even if there is moon, everytime I gain sight sunrise has already been over. I only can see early sun," she said with another sigh. "It's still beautiful, but for once I really want to see the real sunrise."

There was another silence after her last line. I then looked forward to the horizon. The barrier island was nearly as low as the sea level so the horizon could be seen without much obstruction. The color of the sky at that direction was very beautiful, and I felt bad that Cinnamon couldn't see the nice scenery. I then decided to help her with the device I had never told anyone about, which is my glasses. I took it off and gave it to Cinnamon.

"Here. Wear this," I said, putting my glasses on her hand.

"Isn't this... your glasses? Why should I?" she asked.

"Just try it," I said.

"Okay..." she said, and then she put it on. I then pressed a small button located at the frame, and she suddenly looked surprised.

"I... I can see?" she said. "But how...?"

"Well, it's hard to explain how it works. But to put it simply, the lenses see for you and the frames transfer what the lenses see into your brain," I said.

"I... I can't believe it. This is the first time I can see without the sun!" she said, looking excited.

"But don't get too excited. There's a problem with it," I said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It depends on the person, but after a while you will start to feel dizzy. Keep using it and you will start having bad headache. If you insist on using it after that, you will eventually faint," I said.

"How long do I have then?" she asked.

"Like I said, it depends on the person. I start feeling dizzy after using it for 30 minutes. I have been using it only when the lights in my house broke down at night so I could see in the dark and find my flashlight," I said.

"Oh..." she said.

"Anyway, there's a more important thing now," I said. "Look there."

Cinnamon then looked to the direction I pointed, and for the first time ever in her life, she saw the sunrise. I could see her astonished face looking at the beautiful scenery she had never had the chance to see. I couldn't see much of the sunrise scenery though, because without my glasses I only could see blurred scenery. However, I felt that Cinnamon's happy face was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.

"Thank you... Blackberry..." she said, holding my hand and still looking at the sunrise.

--End of Chapter 2.5--

Quote:Chapter 2: The Chase


"Licorice Whip? The horsenapper you once told me about?" Peppermint asked.

"That's right," I said. "It seems that he has returned."

"Oh man, that guy again," Huck said.

"Coco is in danger! We have to help her!" Strawberry said, seeming very worried.

"Yeah, we must hurry!" Angel said.

"I know! But we have no idea where Licorice has gone to," I said. "I don't even know why he kidnapped Coco."

"Alright alright, everyone step away and give me room to think, will ya?" Ginger said while walking around. "Hmm, we all know that the no good Licorice Whip needs horses for his circus, am I right? That's why he wanted the horses on Ice Cream Island, am I right again?"

"That's true," Orange said.

"But now it is much much harder for him to get the horses, am I right? That's because Raven now guards the island and he encourages the horses there to stand against him whenever he comes, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"That's also right. But I was glad that he never returned and they have never had to fight him," Angel said.

"Hey, don't tell me that..." I said, realizing something.

"What is it, Blackberry?" Strawberry asked.

"He's probably going to use Coco to capture the horses," I replied, which made everyone other than Ginger gasped.

"Yep, you're absolutely right. Either threatening the horses using Coco as hostage, or using Coco to deceive the horses, either way he's going to capture the horses on Ice Cream Island again!" Ginger said.

"No, we can't let that happen!" Strawberry said

"We have to go to Ice Cream Island and stop him!" Huck said.

"Everyone, to Albatross!" I said, starting to run towards where I had parked Albatross. Everyone else followed except Strawberry.

"Papaya, you should stay and rest. You're hurt," Strawberry said.

"But I..." Papaya said before Strawberry interrupted.

"We will bring Coco back. I promise," Strawberry said.

"Oh... Okay... But you must bring her back!" Papaya said.

"We will!" Strawberry said, starting to catch us up. Once she got onboard Albatross, I closed the hatch and started the engine. Then with high speed Albatross flew towards Ice Cream Island. We then arrived there in less than one minute, and I immediately landed on one open field. We then jumped off Albatross and looked around. The island seemed peaceful like nothing bad had ever happened.

"Hey, kids! I haven't seen you for years!" A familiar voice greeted us.

"Raven!" Strawberry shouted in joy as Raven approached us from above.

"I heard from other kids that all of you have been mysteriously missing. Where have you been? And what about this amazing new flying vehicle?" Raven asked.

"Well, it's a long story," Huck said. "But this is not the right time to talk about that!"

"Huh? What happened?" Raven asked.

"What? Nothing bad happened here?" Angel asked.

"No, this island has been as peaceful as ever," Raven replied. "What's wrong?"

Immediately, I realized that we had made a wrong conclusion. Licorice had kidnapped Coco not to use her to capture the horses on the island, but for a different reason.

"To put it simply, your boss has returned and he has kidnapped our friend Coco Calypso," I said, which surprised him.

"What?! He kidnapped Coco?! Spumoni won't be happy to hear this!" he said.

"Spumoni?" Orange asked.

"Well, you know that every once in a while Coco and Seaberry come to visit this island, right? While you all were missing, one horse grew to like Coco very much that ever since then they became very close! Not only that, Seaberry also got Pistachio to like her!" Raven said.

"Alright, we understand. But now that we have thought it wrong, what should we do?" Peppermint asked everyone else.

"I think our best bet is to return to Coco's house and rethink about it," I said, and everyone else agreed.

"Raven, let us know immediately if he comes here with Coco," I said as everyone else got onboard Albatross.

"Ok, do your best to get her back!" Raven said. I nodded and went to follow everyone else. Within the next minute, we arrived at Seaberry shore again. After we jumped off, to our surprise, we noticed Seaberry sitting on a stone and weeping. We then immediately approached her.

"Seaberry! What happened?" Strawberry asked. Seaberry then lifted her face and I could notice a deep sadness on her face.

"Strawberry? Is that you?" Seaberry asked.

"Yes, it's me! Tell us what happened!" Strawberry said, and then Seaberry hugged her crying.

"He took them away from me!" Seaberry said.

"Them? He kidnapped someone else besides Coco?" Huck asked.

"Not only Coco, but the mermaids as well!" Seaberry said, still hugging Strawberry and crying.

"Mermaids?" Peppermint asked. "The ones who look just like some of you?"

"I think that's right," I said.

"Please calm down, Seaberry. Could you tell us what happened?" Strawberry asked.

"Okay..." Seaberry said, still sobbing a bit. "I was playing together with the mermaids under the sea when we heard someone calling from above."

"Under the sea? How can you play with mermaids under the sea? I mean, how can you breathe?" Peppermint asked.

"I... can breathe underwater," Seaberry said. "I have never told anyone because it makes me... too different."

"Ok, sorry for the interruption," Peppermint said.

"I went to the surface to check first, and then I saw the horrible thing," Seaberry said.

"What was it?" Angel asked.

"It was a man on a ship, and next to him was Coco in an iron cage," Seaberry said.

"How horrible!" Orange said.

"He called me mermaid and told me to call other mermaids to come, or he would throw the cage into the water," Seaberry said.

"That was mean! Yep it sure was!" Ginger said.

"I panicked and went to the mermaids, and then I told them everything," Seaberry said.

"And then what did they say?" Apple asked.

"They realized that there were no choice, so they decided to do what he had said," Seaberry said. "Mermaid Seaberry told me to stay underwater."

"She took your place, or maybe we should say that you had taken her place at first and then she took it back?" Ginger asked. "But never mind!"

"From afar, the last thing I saw was the mermaids being put into sealed aquariums on the ship which sailed away..." Seaberry said and she started to cry again.

"The mermaids..." I said. "I didn't think about that. Mermaids will surely become a spectacular circus attraction."

"We have to chase Licorice Whip and save our friends!" Strawberry said.

"I know, but how can we chase him if we don't know where he is going to right now?" I said.

"Did you hear anything from him, Seaberry?" Angel asked.

"Oh, I think I heard him saying about going to his home first!" Seaberry said. "But that's all I could hear..."

"That doesn't make any difference. We don't know where that no good man lives," Peppermint said.

"No, it does make a difference," Strawberry said.

"What? How?" Orange asked.

"Yeah, Strawberry. Apple Dumplin' don't understand," Apple said.

"Oh, I see what you mean," I said. "Raven definitely knows where he lives."

"Well then, to Albatross again?" Huck asked.

"Let me go with you!" Seaberry said. "Coco is my friend too, and I have to save her!"

"Ok, let's go everyone!" I said, and immediately we all got onboard Albatross. At that time I was glad that Albatross had enough seats for nine people besides myself. Soon, I started the engine and we arrived back at Ice Cream Island within the next minute. After landing and jumping out from Albatross, Raven approached us from above like before.

"Hey kids! Did you made it?" Raven asked.

"No, but now we need your help," I said.

"Huh? What is it?" he asked, and then I told him everything. "I see, then he must be going to Licorice Lagoon."

"Licorice Lagoon?" Strawberry asked.

"Yeah, like its name, it's a lagoon and it's located quite far from here," Raven said.

"Which way?" I asked.

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain. It's been years since the last time I have been there and I'm starting to forget," Raven said.

"Please, we need your help to save Coco!" Strawberry said.

"Maybe you can come with us to show us the way?" Huck suggested.

"That's a good idea," Raven said.

"Then let's hurry," I said, and all of us went onboard Albatross. Raven sat on my shoulder so he could show the way while I pilot the airship. However, because Raven had nearly forgotten the way for real, the flight to Licorice Lagoon took hours. By the time we arrived, it was already late afternoon.

"There it is!" Raven said, pointing below. Indeed there was a lagoon there with hills surrounding most of the inner side, while at the outer side the lagoon is separated from the sea by a barrier island, although not fully separated. There was a channel between the barrier island and the mainland, wide enough for a ship to go through into the lagoon. All the lands around the lagoon, including the barrier island, were green with plants and the water were blue. Together, they created a very beautiful scenery.

"Umm, are you sure this is the place?" Peppermint asked, looking at the lagoon below.

"Yes, why is that?" Raven asked.

"It's kinda hard to believe," Angel said, also looking at the lagoon.

"Yeah, I honestly can't believe such a mean man lives in such a beautiful place," Huck said.

"Oh, that's because of his daughter," Raven said, which surprised everyone else.

"Whoa whoa whoa, did you just say 'his daughter'? That no good mean horsenapper has a daughter? My, this sure is shocking, yep it sure is!" Ginger said.

"Well, I have to say that she's not really his daughter. He kinda adopted her," Raven said.

"Okay, I know we are now wondering a lot of things, but we have to save the details for later and save Coco now," I said.

"Oh yes, you're right!" Orange said.

"So, where does he live exactly?" I asked.

"See that small beach over there?" Raven said, pointing. Indeed there was a small beach at the inner side of the lagoon. I also could see a small pier and a cabin near it.

"That cabin, right?" I asked.

"That's right," Raven said. I then flew Albatross towards the pier. There was no ship anywhere on the lagoon, so I could assume that Licorice Whip was either not arrived yet or had already gone again. I then landed Albatross on the water next to the pier, and soon everyone jumped out from Albatross to the pier.

"Let's check the house out," I said. Everyone agreed and then we all walked towards the cabin. When we get close, suddenly the front door opened and a girl came out. The girl was a bit older than Apple Dumplin'. She wore brown beret hat with a muffin-shaped ornament on it. She had short straight brown hair, and I could see that her eyes are brown as well. Her clothing in general implied that she was themed around brown and light brown color, with a little bit of yellow mixed in.

"Who's there?" the girl asked. Before we could say anything, Raven approached her.

"It's me, Cinnamon. Don't you remember me?" Raven asked.

"Raven? Is that really you?" the girl said, then she jumped in excitement. "Raven! I'm so happy to see you again! Give me a hug!"

"You have grown so big since the last time I saw you," Raven said as the girl hugged her.

"And you haven't changed at all!" the girl said. "And I see that you didn't come here alone."

"Ah yes," Raven said as the girl let go of her hug. "Everyone, meet Cinnamon Muffin. Daughter of Licorice Whip."

"Hi, Cinnamon," Strawberry said.

"Oh, I have to tell you one thing," Raven said. "She was born blind."

"What? She doesn't look so," Peppermint said.

"This might sound strange for you all, but I gain sight everytime the moon and the sun are together in the sky," Cinnamon said, and all of us looked to the sky. Indeed the moon was there together with the sun.

"That means every night it's total darkness for you?" Angel asked.

"That's right," Cinnamon said, smiling. "But don't feel bad for me. I'm already used to it!"

"You're strong," Orange said.

"Yeah, I would feel much worse if I were you," Huck said.

"Speaking of bad, my father did it again," Cinnamon said, and her face turned from happy to upset. "He brought here a girl in a cage, put the cage in locked basement, and left just like that!"

"That's Coco!" Seaberry said.

"You know her?" Cinnamon asked.

"She's our friend! She's the reason we come here!" I said.

"Take us to her, please!" Strawberry said.

"Well, I'd like to, but the basement is locked and my father brought the key with him," Cinnamon said.

"Just take us there, will you?" Peppermint said.

"Alright," Cinnamon said. "Please come in."

We then entered the cabin together. The inside of the cabin was neat and well-furnished, but because our main focus was Coco we didn't pay much attention. Cinnamon brought us to a staircase leading to the basement. At the end of the staircase I could see a closed door. Because the staircase was narrow, only I, Cinnamon, and Seaberry went into the staircase.

"This is the basement," Cinnamon said.

"Coco! Are you there? Can you hear me?" Seaberry shouted, knocking the door hard.

"Seaberry? Is that you?" a familiar voice answered from inside.

"Yes, we came here for you!" Seaberry shouted.

"Alright, I'll open the door," I said, taking Key Master from my pocket. I then inserted the device into the door's keyhole, and with a clicking sound the door opened. We then entered the room and we saw Coco in a cage. The cage was quite small that even though Coco was not tied up she couldn't move around much. The cage was not even tall enough for her to stand up, so she had to sit down. Once again, with Key Master I opened the lock of the cage and Seaberry opened it. The two then had a big hug.

"I thought I have lost you," Seaberry said.

"Me too," Coco said.

Because Coco had been locked in a small cage for hours, she didn't feel well about her body. Cinnamon then lent her bedroom for Coco to rest, and Seaberry kept her company. The rest of us gathered in the living room where there were enough chairs and sofa for us to sit.

"She's resting now," Cinnamon said as she approached us. "Thank you for your help."

"It is us who must thank you," I said. "You showed us where she was held."

"If I haven't, you would have forced your way in anyway," Cinnamon said, sitting down next to me on a sofa.

"You know, if Raven hasn't said it I would have not believed that you're his daughter," Angel said. "I mean, you're so nice and kind to us."

"Yeah, you're so different than your father," Peppermint said.

"I don't want to talk bad about your father, but look at what he has just done," Huck said.

"I know," Cinnamon said. "I wanted to stop him, but I owe him my life."

"Owe him your life?" Strawberry asked.

"Maybe I should tell my tale," Cinnamon said. "When I was very little, I had no friend. Other kids didn't like me at all because I was too different,"

"Because of your eyes?" Apple asked.

"That was one reason, but the main reason was..." Cinnamon said, pausing for a moment. "Because I was nice and kind. Other kids saw that as disgusting."

"What?! What kind of kids would think like that?!" Peppermint said, seeming surprised and upset.

"That was the truth," Cinnamon said. "Ah, sorry. A minute," she continued, and then she put up her sunglasses. "The sun has set. I'm now blind again."

"It must have been so hard for you," Orange said.

"That's right. But one day, he came to me and asked if I liked circus," Cinnamon said. "I said yes, and then he told me that he owned a circus and he was looking for someone to help him running it."

"A circus of stolen animals," Peppermint said.

"I didn't know that at that time. He offered me the place, and I accepted it gladly. He then brought me to this place where I have been living until now," Cinnamon said.

"When did you know that he is not a good person?" I asked.

"Around five years ago," Cinnamon replied. "He brought stolen horses, and I was against it. But then I realized that I couldn't oppose him. He brought me here to this beautiful place and he has been taking good care of me. What a faithless daughter I am if I ever do that."

"And then what happened to the horses, huh?" Ginger asked.

"He left bringing them saying about getting more, and a week later he came back bringing none. He said that some meddling kids, including Raven, had taken them from him," Cinnamon said, and everyone else seemed to realize that the "meddling kids" were themselves. "Ah, I see that some of you are the kids."

"Huh? How did you know?" Angel asked.

"I heard some gasps, and then some of you had increased heartbeats," Cinnamon said.

"You could hear those?" Apple asked.

"Whenever I become blind, my hearing improves," Cinnamon replied. "Moving on, I was glad because the poor horses were free, but I was also sad that I have lost my only friend."

"You mean... me?" Raven asked, and Cinnamon nodded. "Sorry..."

"It's all right, Raven. You did the right thing," Cinnamon said. "There's no need to feel bad about it."

"What happened after that?" Strawberry asked. "I know he came again once and caused flood to the island, but after it was over I have never heard anything about him again."

"He came home angry, speaking about getting revenge someday," Cinnamon replied. "But I convinced him to calm down and rest for a while. We have been living peacefully for some years afterwards, until he saw them."

"Them?" Angel asked.

"The mermaids," Cinnamon replied. "We were fishing together on our ship when he saw mermaids on a distance. I had sight at that time and I saw the mermaids too."

"Let me guess, the thought about making a circus of mermaids suddenly came to him, am I right?" Ginger said.

"That was one," Cinnamon said. "But he also said that one mermaid looked just like one of the meddling kids, and that reminded him of his old anger."

"That would be Mermaid Strawberry," I said. "Anyway, we have to save the mermaids now. Do you know where he is headed?"

"He said about going to reopen his circus in his birthplace, which is also my birthplace," Cinnamon said.

"Where is that?" I asked.

"Porcupine Peak," Cinnamon said, which greatly surprised everyone else.

"What?! That place?" Peppermint said.

"Isn't that also the hometown of Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes?" Orange asked.

"It sure is," Huck said.

"Apple Dumplin' does not like the sound of that," Apple said.

"We should go right now!" Angel said.

"No, wait!" Cinnamon said. "It's late already. You all should rest first."

"Yeah, I think you're right," I said. "There's no use trying to save them if we are too tired."

After the conversation, everyone agreed to rest for the night. Because of the lack of enough beds, some of us had to sleep either on a sofa or on the floor with carpet. I could sense that the next day would be a long day.

--End of Chapter 2--

Quote:This, is the beginning of my second journal. A journal written from a twist of fate. A journal which is not supposed to exist because I was supposed to be already dead by the time the events written in this journal happen. However, a second chance at life has been given by Him so I could exist within them and write this second journal.

Before I begin for real, first I have to say that I will never figure out what actually had happened to Black Currant after the explosion hit me. My memory of that accident has been replaced with Black Currant sacrificing his life to save mine. After that accident I buried him at the backyard and I mourned for nearly a week. Another point is that the event where I had healed my past self from the fatal wound has never happened. After leaving the alternate Strawberryland the chapter skipped straight to the end. Also, this might sound weird, but the time spent in the Land of Oz was not six years. It was actually only four years. Other than those, along with a few moments of recalling Black Currant, the rest of the first journal still remains correct.

Now where should I start again...? Okay, I think I will start from the beginning of the first journal's epilogue.


Chapter 1: False Epilogue


Like how it had disappeared, Albatross reappeared with a flash of light. Below, I could see that we were flying above the wood between my house and Huck's fort, and the wood had become creepy and scary like how I remembered, which meant that we had arrived in the past, or maybe I should say the present. I then piloted Albatross to land on the outfield of Strawberryland. Coincidentally, two friends we knew were walking there when we arrived. They were Blueberry and Rainbow, and they remained unchanged although noticeably taller.

"Alright, welcome to the present," I said. Opening the hatch. "We have been missing for four years, so prepare for a reunion."

All of us then jumped out from Albatross, and as expected, the two girls looked at us in disbelief.

"Strawberry Shortcake...?" Blueberry asked.

"Is that really you...?" Rainbow asked.

"Why yes, it's me!" Strawberry said. "Have I been missing for so long?"

"Long? Four years is absoloo-tely long!" Blueberry said, jumping to Strawberry to hug her.

"You sure have changed, mateys," Rainbow said, looking at Strawberry and the others.

"Yep, a lot of things have happened and I bet we all can't wait to tell everyone about it, am I right?" Ginger said. "Let's call everyone to the clubhouse for a huge big reunion party, shall we, huh everyone?"

"That's a nice idea!" Angel said.

"Yeah, I agree with that," Orange said.

"Well, why not?" Peppermint said.

"Apple Dumplin' likes to tell stories!" Apple said.

"I'll park Albatross at my home first then," I said. "I'll meet you later."

"Okay, see you later," Huck said as I rode into Albatross and flew away.

"Well, maybe you can start telling us some stories while walking?" Rainbow asked as the group started to walk towards the clubhouse.

"Well, it all started when Blackberry made another new flying car," Angel said.

"Is that the one he just brought away?" Blueberry asked.

"Well, not exactly," Huck said. "It has the same name, though."

"Save that for later, matey. For now I want to know where you have been missing," Rainbow said.

"Well, we have been staying in a place called The Land of Oz," Strawberry said as the group kept walking.


Meanwhile, I arrived at my home to park Albatross near the spots where I believed Falcon and Blackbird were parked. I landed it successfully and jumped out from it. However, before walking towards the clubhouse, I walked towards a patch of land a few steps away from the back of my house. On the ground there, there was a small mound covered in green grass and on top of the mound there was a small gravestone with the words "Black Currant" carved on it. I kneeled with one knee in front of the gravestone and mused for a few seconds.

"Hi, Black Currant." I said. "It has been a very long time since my last visit," I continued, changing my stance from kneeling into sitting cross-legged. "Sorry that I have been missing for so long," I paused for a few seconds. "I have been staying in a place called The Land of Oz. There were so many things happened during my stay there, and I met a lot of new friends!" I paused again. "But I still didn't forget you..."

There was another pause for some seconds. "I'm still very grateful for what you did at that time. Without your sacrifice, I wouldn't be here now, and I wouldn't have met my friends."

I mused again, and then I stood up. I looked at my watch and realized that I had spent too much time visiting Black Currant's grave. My friends were surely waiting for me to come, and I must not waste any more time. So, I immediately went into my house and picked a familiar wing-shaped badge from my shelves. I then put the badge on my shirt and jumped out from the window. The badge still worked well in making my body lighter, and with ease I jumped high and fast towards the clubhouse.

I arrived at the front of the clubhouse in the next minute. I then took the badge off from my shirt and put it into my pocket. After that I opened the door of the clubhouse and saw that the rest of Strawberryland kids were already there. The ones who had not been gone has not changed much, they had become noticeably taller but none of them changed their outfit. I could notice that the ones who had been gone has reunited with their pets and were overjoyed.

"You're late, Blackberry. What took you so long?" Peppermint asked. "We've spent a lot of time with our pets. We're so happy that we can meet them again."

"Peppermint!" Strawberry said, gently hitting Peppermint's arm with her elbow.

"What's the matter?" Peppermint asked. She then looked at me and her face expression suddenly changed. She seemed to realize something.

"Oh..." she said. "I'm sorry... I really forgot about Black Currant..."

"That's fine, never mind. So, now what are we going to do?" I asked.

"How about telling us all about The Land of Oz?!" Raspberry asked.

"Well, I guess it's Blackberry's turn to tell the tale then," Huck said.

"Huh? Why me?" I asked.

"Well, you see, each and everyone of us didn't get to know much about the whole land because we are so busy leading our people, am I right? Okay, I have been in some amazing places, Huckleberry has seen other amazing places, Strawberry and Apple has seen some other amazing places, Angel Cake has seen yet some other amazing places, Orange Blossom has also seen other amazing places, and Peppermint has seen other amazing places, am I right again?" Ginger said.

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

"But you're the only one who has been everywhere!" Angel said.

"I have seen the Rainbowberry Lake, but I have never seen The Sun Temple," Orange said.

"I have been in Tropical Island, but I have never been in The Raining Woods," Strawberry said.

"Okay, I get the point," I said. "Indeed I have been everywhere, but I went everywhere mostly because I was looking for special materials to make Albatross what it is now. The sceneries were nice indeed, but those were not my main focus so I don't remember much."

"But you do know a thing or two about those places right?" Peppermint said.

"That's true," I said.

"That's why you are the best to start telling tales. You know about Oz as a whole!" Huck said.

"Don't worry, Blackberry. Just tell the basics and the rest of us will cover the details," Apple said.

"Okay, I will try," I said. I then sat on a nearby sofa and took a deep breath. "It all started when I made Albatross, a new flying car or airship or whatever we usually call it. I made it to travel to outer space."

"Is Albatross the one I and Blueberry saw just now?" Rainbow asked.

"No. Albatross was destroyed in The Land of Oz. The one you saw was the new one I made," I replied.

"Destroyed? How come?" Lemon asked.

"We got sucked into a Black Hole," I answered and everyone gasped, except those who had experienced it.

"Did you just say Black Hole? The mysterious hole in space which sucks anything nearby, and those who enter will never get out?" Blueberry asked.

"Yes," I answered and everyone gasped again. "With some luck we managed to get out from it. However, the engine exploded because of overworking."

"What happened then?" Plum asked.

"No choice other than crash landing to the nearest planet," I answered.

"I suppose you landed in The Land of Oz, right?" Apricot asked.

"That's right. Remaking Albatross took four years, but we got to meet many of the inhabitants there, and everyone except me ended up becoming a leader of a region," I said.

"What took you so long?" Raspberry asked.

"I didn't bring my handy tools, and the technology in Oz is too limited," I said.

"Okay, I see that. So, what kind of inhabitants live there?" Raspberry asked again.

"Well, besides the few humans there are berrykins," I replied. "Strawberry and Apple lead them."

"Berrykins?" Rainbow asked. "How do they look like?"

"Well, think of our berry ball with two small arms, two small legs, and a head," Strawberry said.

"The berrykins are so cute Apple Dumplin' loves them berry much," Apple said.

"Then, Angel Cake lead the berry fairies," I said.

"Berry fairies? Like the ones living near Strawberryland?" Raspberry asked.

"Not precisely the same but... pretty much like those," Angel said.

"Ginger Snap got to lead the berry sprites," I said.

"There's almost no difference between the berry fairies and berry sprites! Yep, almost none at all! The only way to know the difference is that the berry sprites have pointy ears while the berry fairies have round ears just like us, am I right?" Ginger said.

"That's right. Then, Orange had the berry elves under her command," I said.

"The berry elves are larger than berrykins, berry fairies, and berry sprites, but still smaller than us. They are playful and lively, but many of them are ignorant and love to play pranks," Orange said.

"But thanks to you they no longer do those mean pranks anymore, Orange Blossom," Strawberry said.

"Moving on, Huckleberry took care of the berry dwarves," I said.

"Man, those dwarves sure are tough, even though they are only half our size!" Huck said. "Not to mention that they are so short tempered!"

"And it was thanks to you that they learned to control their temper," I said.

"Hey, I didn't do much. They learned it themselves!" Huck said.

"I don't think so. Anyway, last but not least, Peppermint became the leader of berry spiders," I said.

"Spiders?" Plum asked.

"Yes. Spiders," Peppermint said. "They are just like the spiders we see here in Strawberryland, but they are as big as the berry ball and they are as colorful as berries."

"That sounds... strange," Apricot said. "I don't really like how it sounds."

"Why strange? They are friendly and helpful!" Peppermint said. "Not to mention that the place where they live is very fun!"

"She's afraid of spiders. We can't blame her," Plum said.

"Hmph, alright then. Fine," Peppermint said, and I could see that she was a bit upset.

The storytelling continued for a very long time because there were so many things to tell about. Without our knowing, it was nightfall already.

"Well, now that we have told you everything, it's your turn to tell tales," I said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Plum asked.

"Anything special happened while we were away?" I asked back.

"Well, nothing happened actually," Blueberry said. "Without Strawberry, Strawberryland doesn't feel like... Strawberryland."

"Yeah, there hasn't been anything special," Lemon said.

"If this counts, sometimes the friends from outside Strawberryland came to visit," Raspberry said.

"But there was nothing much to do," Apricot said. "Strawberryland has been so uncool without you, Strawberry. And everyone else as well!"

"Alright, everyone. We're sorry for being away for so long. It was all my fault," I said.

"No, it was not your fault!" Peppermint said.

"Yes it was!" I replied. "I brought you into all those."

"Stop blaming yourself, Blackberry. The most important thing is that we are here now, safe and sound. Nobody is going to blame you, right everyone?" Strawberry said, and everyone replied with a sure nod. I was speechless for a moment.

"Thanks everyone..." I said.

"Oh yes, I want to ask about this too," Huck said. "Have Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes ever come here again while we were away?"

"No, we have not seen them since the last time they were here. Wasn't that the time when he held me in my own boat?" Rainbow said.

"Heh, I would rather not remember that," Peppermint said.

"Me too, that was so uncool," Apricot said.

"That's a relief," I said. "But that's also a bit strange. I mean, he wants the berries here so badly so it sounds strange if he never came here for four years."

"I get what you mean, but we shouldn't worry about that no good Pie Man," Peppermint said.

"Okay, maybe you're right," I said.

"Look at the time! It's almost bedtime already!" Plum said, looking at the clock within the clubhouse.

"You're absoloootely right. I think it's time to go home," Blueberry said.

"I think so too," Lemon said.

"I believe we all have told our tales anyway," Raspberry said.


Soon, with proper farewell everybody in the clubhouse left the place. I walked together with Strawberry, Apple, Angel, Orange, Ginger, Huck, and Peppermint.

"By the way, Strawberry. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?" I asked.

"Well, not yet. Why is that, Blackberry?" Strawberry asked back.

"I'm thinking of visiting some other friends we have not met yet tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?" I said.

"That's a berry great idea! Of course I will come with you!" Strawberry said in excitement.

"Others can come with me as well," I said, looking at the others.

"Sure! I will go too!" Angel said.

"Hey hey hey! Count me in, will ya?" Ginger said.

"Why not?" Orange said.

"You won't need to ask me twice," Huck said.

"Apple Dumplin' wants to go too!" Apple said.

"That sorta sounds interesting," Peppermint said.

"That's settled then," I said. "Meet me tomorrow morning at my house. See you tomorrow."

After I said those, I put the wing badge on my shirt and jumped away from the group. I arrived at my house within the next minute and soon I went to sleep. Before falling asleep, I wondered for a while. My house had been deserted for four years, but there was no sign of such thing such as dust or spider webs. It seemed that someone had been taking care of my house while I had been away.

At the next day, I woke up in the morning. After having breakfast I went to the backyard where all my vehicles were parked. Using the remotes I brought along, I put all my vehicles out from their invisibility, except Albatross which didn't have invisibility to begin with. As expected, Falcon and Blackbird were covered in dust, but Arrowhead, which also had no invisibility, was clean. That meant someone indeed had been taking care of my house while I had been away.

"Whoever did this, I must say thanks," I said to myself.

"Good morning, Blackberry!" a familiar voice greeted from behind.

"Good morning, Strawberry, and everyone as well," I greeted back, seeing that she came together with the others.

"Have you been waiting for us?" Orange asked.

"No, I was just looking at all my vehicles," I replied.

"Oh yeah! I remember that you had two other flying cars other than the new one you made in Oz, am I right? What was the name of the other two? Falcon and Blackbird, am I right again?" Ginger said.

"So, which one we're gonna use?" Angel asked.

"Albatross is the only one having enough seats for all of us, so Albatross it is," I answered, and all of us went onboard Albatross.

"Where are we going first?" Huck asked as I started the engine.

"Well, I'm thinking of visiting the closest one first," I said. "That means Coco Calypso."

"That's a berry nice idea!" Strawberry said.

"I second that," Peppermint said.

"Apple Dumplin' likes to visit Coco!" Apple said.

"Others agree?" I asked, and everyone else replied with agreement. "Okay, let's go."

I then flew Albatross towards the Seaberry Shore where Coco Calypso lived. The flight only lasted for a few minutes, and soon I landed Albatross on the beach near Coco's house. After I turned the engine off, I opened the hatch and jumped out, followed by everyone else.

"Coco Calypso!" Strawberry shouted, calling in excitement. However, there was no answer.

"I think we should just walk there and knock the door," Peppermint said.

"Yeah sorry, I was berry berry excited," Strawberry said. So, we all walked to Coco's house and knocked the door. Once again, there was no answer.

"Maybe she's visiting Seaberry?" Orange said.

"I don't think so," I said. "We all know that it is impossible for anyone other than Seaberry herself to go there, except if we use my Falcon."

"Coco, are you there?" Strawberry said, knocking the door again. She then tried opening the door, and it turned out that the door was not locked.

"Shall we go in?" I asked.

"Let's try it," Huck said. Strawberry then opened the door wide, and we were shocked by what we saw next. The room inside the house was a complete mess. The sofa was flipped over, the table was not much better, fruits on the table had been thrown all over the place. It seemed that there had been a fight or such in there.

"What happened here?" Angel asked.

"Whoa, the house is a very very very big mess! Yep it sure is!" Ginger commented.

"Hello, anybody home?" Strawberry shouted.

"The fruits thrown around are still fresh. Whatever happened here, it happened not long ago," I said.

"Hey, I found someone!" Orange shouted from behind a flipped sofa.

"Coco?" Strawberry asked.

"No," Orange replied. "It's Papaya Parrot."

All of us immediately went to Orange and found Papaya Parrot lying on the floor, fainted. We then put a sofa back into good position and put papaya there. A few minutes later, the parrot woke up.

"AARGH! HELP!" Papaya Parrot jumped and shouted in panic.

"Calm down, Papaya Parrot! It's me! Strawberry Shortcake!" Strawberry said.

"Strawberry Shortcake? The others too! Am I glad to see you all again!" Papaya said.

"What have happened here?" Peppermint asked.

"It was so scary! Me and Coco were having our breakfast, and suddenly it came! We thought we were in danger, and we were! See what I mean?!" Papaya said.

"Uhh, not exactly, not precisely..." Strawberry said.

"Not at all," Peppermint said.

"She's been kidnapped!" Papaya shouted, which shocked all of us.

"Kidnapped? Who kidnapped her?" Angel asked.

"It was a man!" Papaya said.

"Purple Pie Man?" Angel asked.

"Tell us how that man looked like," I said.

"Ohh that man was scary! I remember his tall hat and long black coat, and I was so scared! Coco struggled against him and I also tried to stop him, but with just one hit from his hand I got thrown to the wall and I don't remember anything more!" Papaya said.

"Tall hat and black coat? That doesn't sound like Pie Man," Peppermint said.

"That's because he is not Pie Man," I said. "He is worse than Pie Man."

"What? Who?" she asked.

"Don't tell me that Coco has been kidnapped by..." Strawberry said.

"I'm afraid it's true, Strawberry," Orange said.

"Licorice Whip!" I shouted. "You will not get away with this!"

--End of Chapter 1--