Blackberry Bun's Journal: Chapter 7c

[Blackberry Bun]

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


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

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

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

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

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

"Raspberry Torte," The girl in purple answered.

"Lemon Meringue," The girl in yellow continued.

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

"Really?" I asked.

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

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

"Well, make it four," she said.

"Huh?" I wondered.

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

"We do?" Lemon asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"That would be great," Raspberry said

"Yes, of course," Lemon added.

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

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

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

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

"Thank you, Lemon," I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You know that too?" Lemon asked.

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

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

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

"We did?" Lemon asked.

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

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

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

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

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

"Indeed..." Raspberry added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Me too," I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"This is Land of Dreams," She said

"Uh-huh..." Raspberry muttered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-To be continued-

[Stella Grapes]

That was dramatic. Did I mention I am very bad at reviewing fiction, most of the time? I am very bad at reviewing fiction, most of the time. All's I know to say is that was adventurous and dramatic. I think I recall wondering why you wrote it like this in 2009, too, for the same reasons Kiwi wondered, and now I'm wondering again.