Blackberry Bun's Journal: Final Chapter 4

[Blackberry Bun]

Part 4: Future World


"Finally..." I said. "It's finished!"

"Yes, son. Your ship is now fixed and ready to fly again," Henry said.

"And at just the right time! Let's tell everyone about this good news," I said, going off to the main castle.

A few minutes later, I came back to the workshop followed by everyone else. A lot of time had passed, and everyone besides me looked different than how they had been when we had come to Oz six years before. It was then a normal sight for me, but I had been quite surprised at the day when Glinda gave everyone new clothes five years before. All of my friends ended up having the same clothing like the other Strawberryland kids, and every girl had the idea of letting their hair to grow long so by the next few years everyone ended up having exactly the same looks as the other Strawberryland kids. As for me, I had refused Glinda's offer because I had been so fond of my black and white shirt. So, Glinda had only put a spell on my clothing so it would grow as my body did. Quite a helpful gift if I might say.

"Is it really finished?" Angel asked.

"So, now we can finally go back to Strawberryland?" Orange asked.

"Yes, Albatross is finally fixed," I said. "But now that it's different, maybe I should rename it..."

"Heh, renaming as always," Peppermint said.

"But he's right! You see, that ship is totally completely different than the one we used to get here, am I right?" Ginger said.

"Apple Dumplin' is happy to see this," Apple said, strangely still using third person to mention herself, just like the Apple from Alternate Strawberryland.

"That's berry great, Blackberry!" Strawberry said. "So what's the new name?"

"Well, his first ship was Falcon, then Blackbird, and then Albatross..." Huck said. "I guess it will be another bird for the new name. Eagle maybe?"

"I changed my mind. No rename," I said. "This is our new Albatross."

"You're sorta a wishy washy kid huh?" Peppermint said. "Anyway, when will we go?"

"Anytime you wish," I replied.

"We should tell everyone else first," Angel said. "It's rude to go without saying goodbye first."

"You're berry right, Angel Cake," Strawberry said.

"Let's tell Glinda first," Orange said, walking away to see Glinda. Everyone else followed, leaving me and Henry in the workshop.

"Six years..." I said, staring at Albatross. "I wonder if our Strawberryland friends miss us."

"I believe they do, son," Henry said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Unlike me. I had nobody else in my world, so there aren't any people who miss me."

"Yeah, I remember you telling me that some time ago," I said.

"That's why I don't need to go home. In this world I have Glinda and many others with me," Henry said.

"It has been nice working with you, and soon we have to part ways," I said. "Time flies..."

"Yes, time flies, son. You're now as tall as me. I remember the first time we met, you only reached my shoulder," Henry said.

"Thank you for helping me in fixing my ship," I said. "And thank you... for being my father all this time."

"I have to thank you too," Henry said. "For being my son. Love you, son."

"Love you too, Dad," I said, and we had a hug.

I then followed everyone else to see Glinda. While on the way I looked around, trying to carve the scenery deep into my memories. I knew that soon I probably would not be able to see all those anymore, so I tried to enjoy it for the last time. A few minutes later, I arrived at the Emerald Castle's main hall, where everyone else had already been there along with Glinda.

"Hi, Blackberry," Glinda greeted as I approached. "I heard that your ship has been fixed."

"Yes," I replied.

"Congratulations. I'm happy for you," Glinda said, but she didn't sound so cheerful. I also noticed that her smile wasn't like her usual smile, it seemed forced.

"When we're gonna go home?" Angel asked. "I hope not right now. I still want to at least say goodbye to my friends here."

"Me too, actually," Orange said.

"And me three! I bet everyone else are the same, am I right?" Ginger said, and everyone else nodded.

"Then, I think you should go to your friends and give them proper farewell," Glinda said. "I would hate it if suddenly my good friends left without letting me know."

"Yeah, I agree with that," I said. "Even though Albatross is fixed, I still have to make sure it's fully prepared. We all can take our time."

So, everyone agreed that we would leave two days later, and then all except me left the Emerald Castle. During our stay in the Land of Oz, so many things had happened that it would take too long to tell them all. All I could say was that each of us, except me, had ended up as the leader of a region, although none had to actually lead. The people could take care of themselves, so each of the Strawberryland kids had preferred to be considered as a friend instead, and the people agreed to consider them as "Biggest Friend", which was quite true because compared to us, all residents of Oz were rather small with only a few exception.

After everyone else were far enough, I approached Glinda.

"Glinda..." I said. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing," Glinda replied, shaking her head.

"Really?" I asked, and she let out a sigh.

"Like always, I can't hide anything from you," she said. "You know, a lot of things have happened during your stay. Do you remember the first time we met?"

"Yes..." I said. "The night when we were locked in a dungeon by your sister."

"At that time, I considered you all merely as a bunch of victims I wanted to help, but after having all those experiences over these years, it started to grow on me," she said.

"I see..." I said.

"Now, all of you are my closest friends, and..." she said, pausing and starting to leak some tears. "...And now that you will go..."

"Don't say anything more," I interrupted. "It's not good for your throat. I can understand how you feel."

"Will you all come again sometime?" she asked.

"Don't worry, we will," I replied. "Once I get back home I will make a new dimension door device to travel here along with the others."

"Thank you, Blackberry," she said.

"Now if you pardon me, I'm going to walk around for the last time," I said.

So, the rest of the day and also the whole next day were spent walking around Emerald City. There was no camera or such so the only thing I could do was to carve everything into memory. A bit of guilt haunted me because even though I had said to Glinda about coming again, I was not sure if it was possible. Land of Oz was different than any other different worlds I had visited. I actually had once tried to fix my Time Remote II with Henry's help, and the repair had been a success. However, like what had happened before, the remote blew up after determining the destination. It seemed that somehow multiverse travels was made impossible on this world, so the only way to go back home to Strawberryland was to repair and modify Albatross so it would be strong enough to fly through the Black Hole again. The modification had been the cause of the long time it had taken. If merely repairing Albatross had been enough, it would had only taken one year. In any case, Henry and I were sure that the new Albatross would be strong and durable enough to endure the trip through Black Hole.

The other Strawberryland kids returned to Emerald Castle at dinner time before the departure day. They said that all their people were unwilling to let them go, but in the end they had understood. Not much was said, and later all of us went to sleep.

At the next day, I was still asleep when Huck woke me up.

"Hey, Blackberry! Wake up!" he said.

"Huh? What is it...?" I said, slowly waking up but still half asleep.

"Look outside!" he replied, pointing at the window in my bedroom. I remembered that through the window I could see the courtyard of Emerald Castle. I then stood up from my bed, put my glasses on, walked to the window, and looked outside. To my surprise, the courtyard was crowded with numerous creatures I recognized as the inhabitants from various regions of Oz.

"What's with the crowd?" I asked.

"I don't know, I have no idea," Huck replied. "Glinda is already down there asking them about it."

"I hope this is not a bad thing," I said. Suddenly, Glinda appeared near us.

"Don't worry. There's nothing bad at all," she said.

"Then, what's happening outside?" Angel immediately asked as she came into my bedroom.

"Is it really nothing bad?" Orange asked, also as she came into the bedroom. The rest of Strawberryland kids followed her.

"Let's just go there and see for ourselves," Glinda said with a smile, and then she used her Mass Teleport spell to transport us to a large balcony overlooking the courtyard. As we appeared, the crowd below cheered loudly.

The view was a big surprise for us. The crowd below cheered for us, and we could see boards and banners carried among the crowd with writings like "We will miss you!", "We love you!", "Come back again someday!", and such. All of us waved our hand towards the crowd, and they cheered even louder than before.

"All people love you," Glinda said behind us. "I hope you will come back again someday."

"Don't worry, we will!" Strawberry said.

"Yeah, of course we will!" Angel said, and then we had a big hug with Glinda.

"Hey, look over there!" Huck suddenly said, pointing to the sky. All of us, including the crowd below, looked at the direction he had pointed. To everyone's surprise, it was Gladys coming to us riding her winged monkey. Soon, she landed a few meters from us. Still with her sour face like usual, she walked towards us. There was nothing but silence as that happened, and then she stopped right in front of me, who was the closest to her.

"So the news was true!" Gladys said. "That you are going!"

"That's right," I said.

"Heh, good news for me! No more meddling kids!" she said, followed by her wicked laugh.

"You came all the way here just to say that?!" Peppermint said, quite upset.

"Yes of course! What else?! This is the happiest moment in my whole life!" Gladys replied, followed by her laugh again.

"Hmph!" Peppermint muttered.

"Anyway, take this with you," Gladys said, materializing a small bottle filled with orange fluid on her right hand.

"What is that? Poison?" Angel said.

"I wish, but it's not," Gladys replied, giving the small bottle to me. "It's the last Potion of Circe I have."

"What? The one you made years ago from Strawberry's hair?" Huck asked.

"What else?" Gladys replied. "Consider this a parting gift from me."

"...Thanks," I said.

"Don't get me wrong! After you go I will start spreading terror again over this land, and none of you will be there to stop me!" Gladys said as she jumped on her winged monkey and flew away with her wicked laugh.

"Is this land going to be okay?" Orange wondered, staring at the sky.

"Don't worry," Glinda said. "She said all those out of self-esteem, but I can assume that she will probably be the one who miss you the most. She has changed for the better, and it was thanks to all of you."

"Well, I guess it's time for us to go..." Strawberry said. "Goodbye, Glinda."

"Goodbye all, have a safe trip," Glinda said, and then I called Albatross using a remote, just like how I usually did with Falcon. Immediately, Albatross came to us and floated right in front of the balcony's railing, waiting for us to come in. With proper farewell, all of us rode into Albatross and soon I piloted it to fly away. However, I piloted it towards the workshop behind the Emerald Castle first. As expected, Henry was at the workshop's rooftop looking at us and waving his hand. We did the same to him even though he probably didn't see it.

"Alright, let's fly back to our home," I said. "Are you ready?"

"Ready!" everyone answered, and with full speed ahead I piloted Albatross towards the space, and then towards the White Hole where we had come out from. Soon, the White Hole was in sight.

"Here comes the rough ride. Everyone ready? Seatbelts fastened?" I asked.

"Do you really have to ask us again? We're completely ready now, right everyone?" Peppermint said, and everyone else replied with yes.

"Okay, here we go!" I said, starting to pilot Albatross into the White Hole. We entered the White Hole safely and soon we were once again flying through the unknown space. The engine was still running perfectly so I could safely say that Albatross resisted the disable successfully. Finding the way out from the unknown space was easier than I had thought, thanks to Henry's advice. All I needed to do was to find any force pushing Albatross towards a certain direction, and then go against it. The new Albatross was so strong that the force felt like nothing significant, and soon without our knowing we were already back to space with Black Hole behind us and our planet in sight.

"We did it. That's our planet," I said, and everyone else cheered.

I then piloted Albatross towards Strawberryland. As we came closer to the atmosphere, the limit in the sky pushed Albatross down. But like Black Hole, it was nothing significant. Without any trouble, a few minutes later Albatross landed safely on the outfield of Strawberryland.

"Welcome home everyone," I said, opening Albatross' hatch. Everyone immediately jumped out with excitement.

"Whoa, look at that! The trees, the mountains, the stones and rocks, it's really our Strawberryland for real, right everyone?!" Ginger said.

"We're home again," Angel said.

"I can't wait to meet everyone else! It has been berry long!" Strawberry said.

"I wonder how my fort will look like after all these years... Huh?" Huck said, seemed to notice something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Umm... nothing. For a second, you looked a bit transparent. Maybe it was just my imagination," he replied. I then looked around my body and found nothing wrong.

"Yeah, maybe," I said, then I noticed someone coming from afar. "Hey, someone's coming."

All of us looked towards the person. Soon, the person noticed us and approached us riding a skateboard. It turned out that the person was a girl around our age none of us had ever seen before. She had pink hair with its style similar to the younger Peppermint, although slightly longer. She wore what seemed like purple sweater along with unbuttoned orange shirt on top of the sweater. Unlike any other Strawberryland kids I knew, the girl wore orange shorts so we also could see that she wore orange and purple socks, and purple and white shoes. Because she wore skateboarding safety equipment including the helmet, we didn't know if she usually wore a hat or not.

"Hi!" The girl greeted us, stopping her skateboard easily with style. "I have never seen any of you! Are you new? I like meeting new friends!"

"Yeah... sorta..." I said.

"Nice to meet you!" the girl said with excitement. "My name is Purple Peach Streusel Pie, but you can call me Peach Streusel!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm..." Strawberry said, but there was an interruption.

"PEACH!" we heard a girl yelling and looked towards the source. We saw another girl, slightly older than Apple, we had never seen before. The girl had blonde short hair decorated with a mango-shaped hair ornament as the center of a pink and white bow, yellow T-shirt with a green horizontal line on the stomach, maroon trousers, and orange shoes. She also wore a bracelet with mango-shaped ornament on it. Also, she had a mole under her eye which reminded us about Sour Grapes. As she came close to us, she stopped and panted.

"What happened, Mango?" Peach asked the girl, and from there we noticed that the other girl's name was Mango.

"Jack..." Mango replied, still panting. "He fainted, and now he has a high fever!"

"What?! Where is he now?" Peach asked, seemed surprised.

"Near the river. Persimmons is with him now, but we have no idea what to do!" Mango replied in panic.

"Calm down! I'm going to call Mom and Dad! Watch him in the meantime!" Peach said, rushing away. We were quite surprised hearing her mentioning "Mom" and "Dad".

"Hey," I said to Mango, who was still there. "Take us to him. We might be able to help."

Immediately, all of us walked along with Mango. We didn't run because Mango was already too exhausted to run. There was a conversation on the way.

"By the way, who are Jack and Persimmons," I asked. "We're sorta... new."

"Jack is my brother and Persimmons is my twin sister," Mango replied. "Peach is also my sister."

"As sisters, you and Peach don't look similar," I commented.

"Peach and Jack are adopted by our parents. Only I and Persimmons were born from our mother," Mango replied. I then intended to ask about the existence of parents for them, but something inside told me not to, so I cancelled it. Soon, we arrived at the river I remembered as the place where Huck had given me the idea about jumping over obstacles. Under a nearby tree, we saw a fainted boy lying down and a girl kneeling next to him. The boy, who was around the twin sisters' age, wore green shoes, green trousers, green jacket, green scarf, and green hat over his black hair. The girl wore purple shoes, beige trousers, purple shirt with similar patterns like Mango's, but the line on the stomach was orange and the shirt had long sleeves. There was also a persimmons-shaped badge placed on her left chest. She had long purple hair and she wore an orange hat with persimmons ornament on it as the center of a bow.

"Sis, where are Mom and Dad?!" the girl asked.

"Peach is going for them," Mango replied. "How is Jack?"

"Not good. His fever isn't going any better..." the girl replied. "Who are they by the way?"

"Peach was with them when I met her," Mango said.

"This is not a right time for introduction, but I'm Persimmons, Mango's twin sister, and this is Jackfruit Jam, our brother," Persimmons said.

"Yeah, this is not the right time," I said, kneeling next to Jack. "Can you hear me, Jack?"

There was a weak nod, which meant that he was no longer fainted but still too weak to get up. I touched his forehead with my hand, and indeed he had a very high fever.

"What should I do? I have no idea..." Persimmons said, leaking tears.

"He will make it, sis!" Mango said. "We must believe in him!"

"But... I don't know..." Persimmons said, still in tears.

"Give him this. It will help," I said, taking Potion of Circe from my shirt pocket.

"Oh, the legendary potion!" Orange said.

"What is that?" Mango asked.

"This is a parting gift I got from my... friend," I said. "This potion is said to be capable of curing any illness."

"Really? Please give it to him right away!" Persimmons said.

"Wait, Persimmons!" Mango said. "That potion sounds... too good to be true."

"Then what should we do? Just waiting, doing nothing?!" Persimmons said.

"No, but..." Mango said, starting to look confused and then she looked at me. "Can I trust you?"

"What will I gain for lying?" I asked back.

"Please, this is much worse than any others ever happened to him. He might not make it this time!" Persimmons said. There was a brief silence until Mango gave a weak nod.

"Alright," I said, looking at Jack again. "Listen to me, Jack. I'm going to give you a potion. Open your mouth, and then swallow it after I put it into your mouth. Do you understand?"

Jack replied with a weak nod, and then he opened his mouth. I then poured the whole bottle of potion into his mouth, which I soon closed with my hand. Then, I lifted his neck with my other hand while Persimmons kept his head straight up.

"Swallow it now," I said, and he did as I had told him. Then, I put him down into lying position again. Soon, his body radiated orange aura which faded a few seconds later. As soon as the aura disappeared, he opened his eyes wide and got up into sitting position.

"Are you alright now?" I asked.

"Yeah, it feels like the fever was just a dream," Jack replied.

"Oh, Jack! I'm so glad! I was so worried about you!" Persimmons said, hugging Jack. Mango also followed.

"There goes my parting gift," I said, looking at the empty small bottle.

"You have no idea how grateful we are!" Persimmons said to me. "Friends and families are everything for us, and we don't know what to do without each other."

"No problem," I said.

"By the way, we still don't know your names," Mango said.

"I'm Blackberry Bun," I said.

"I'm Strawberry Shortcake!" Strawberry said.

"Apple Dumplin' is Strawberry's sister," Apple said.

"Angel Cake," Angel said.

"My name is Orange Blossom," Orange said.

"Peppermint Fizz is me," Peppermint said.

"Huckleberry Pie," Huck said.

"Ginger Snap! Like in snap!" Ginger said, snapping her finger. However, as we mentioned our names, the face expression of the trio changed from happiness into confusion.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"The Berry Princess...?" Mango said, which confused us.

"Ah, Mom and Dad are here!" Jack said, looking towards a direction. We looked towards the direction and saw Peach, no longer in her skateboarding equipment, running to us. We were very surprised looking at one of the two adults who ran alongside Peach. Their mother was Sour Grapes. Their father was a rather fat man wearing blue shoes, blue trousers, blue shirt with pictures of clouds and stars on it, and what looked like a sleeping hat. The trio started running to their sister and parents as their response, while we stood still.

"My dear, are you alright?" Sour Grapes said, hugging Jack.

"I'm fine now, Mom. They helped me," Jack said.

"Who?" Sour Grapes asked.

"They are there," Jack replied, looking at us. Sour Grapes then looked at us and she immediately looked surprised.

"That can't be...!" she said, approaching us. When she got close to us, she looked at us one by one. "Why are you all little again?"

"Little again...?" Angel asked.

"We have been away for years. We have no idea about what you said," Orange said.

"Hmm..." Sour Grapes said, thinking. "Come to our house, dears. I sense long storytelling coming."

We then followed the family walking through the outfield of Strawberryland. On the way, we came across Huck's fort which seemed abandoned looking at the huckleberry vines all over them. Not much was said about it, and we kept walking. I then noticed that we were walking into the wood between my house and Huck's fort. I remembered the wood being creepy and scary with all the dead trees there, but as I looked around I noticed that the wood had become much more alive than I remembered. Soon, we arrived at a large log cabin built in the middle of the wood.

"Now go inside, dears. I will stay outside with our guests," Sour Grapes said to her kids.

"Okay, Mom," Peach said, and all of them went inside followed by their father.

There was a wooden bench put in front of the cabin. Sour Grapes sat in the middle of it while two of us, Strawberry and Apple to be exact, sat next to her. The rest of us had to sit on the ground in half-circle in front of the bench.

"So, could you tell us anything, Sour Grapes?" I asked.

"I have left that name, dear. Now my name is Stella Grapes," she answered.

"Oh, then could you tell us more about yourself?" Orange asked.

"I'm now married, dear. And I gave birth to Mango Jubilee and Persimmons six years ago," Stella Grapes said. "I also adopted two kids, Peach Streusel and Jackfruit Jam."

"You said about us being little again. What did you mean?" Strawberry asked.

"I have no idea about what happened to you, but all of you are supposed to be already mature by now," Stella Grapes said.

"Us? Mature?" Angel asked.

"I want to tell you further, but just now something inside tells me not to," Stella Grapes said. "I'm sorry."

"Hmm... do you have a calendar I can see please?" I asked.

"Honey, could you bring a calendar here?!" Stella Grapes shouted to the cabin, and soon her husband came out bringing a table calendar. "Thank you, honey."

"Anytime, honey," her husband said, and he went inside. I looked at the calendar and got quite surprised.

"Just as I thought. We ended up seven years ahead of our supposed timeline," I said.

"Seven years?" the other kids said, surprised.

"We are indeed supposed to be already mature by now, except Apple. I think she's close to Peach's age," I said.

"That is correct, Apple Dumplin' is one of Peach's best friends," Stella Grapes said. "She's two years older than Peach, though."

"Thank you for the information. I guess we have to go now, to our correct timeline," I said, standing up and calling Albatross, which soon landed nearby.

"Have a safe trip, dears," Stella Grapes said as we rode into Albatross.

"So, how are we going to go seven years back, huh Blackberry?" Ginger asked as I closed the hatch.

"Yeah, Blackberry. How?" Orange asked.

"Don't worry about that. Albatross can't do multiverse travels, but it can do time travels. It will be a rough ride, though, so buckle up," I said.

Soon, I piloted Albatross to the sky and activated its time travel function. With a flash of light, Albatross immediately disappeared without a trace.

--To be continued--