Chapter Text
Wizard Cookie wouldn’t understand.. he couldn’t really. After all they’ve been through trying to defeat the Beast of Deceit and after barely managing to get out of that falling spire and its turmoils, it has been a while ago sure, but in his opinion it was still far too fresh an experience. So he would’ve never guessed what Pure Vanilla had in store for them when he invited him and his siblings to visit his castle for some ‘exciting’ news.
Apparently, the grand news was the truce between the cookies of truth and deceit. Apparently, said truce allowed Shadow Milk Cookie to wander the Vanilla Kingdom freely as long as he kept his chaos to a minimum, Pure Vanilla explained while the Beast floeated smugly above him. He felt like he was missing something.. no, that’s not quite right, more like Pure Vanilla was the one missing something, probably the fact that that was a Beast right above his head, cackling and smirking with those pointy fangs of his.
He looked at his siblings with an incredulous look, were they hearing this?? Was this really happening?? Strawberry seemed to be thinking something among those lines if her terribly confused eyes were anything to go by, she had barely just lowered her lollipop now upon lack of the strike they had all expected the moment their eyes caught on to the enemy…
Ex-enemy…apparently. He still doubted it very much, no matter how many times Pure Vanilla pointedly referred to Shadow Milk Cookie as ‘friend’ Wizard Cookie refused to relax the grip on his staff. He wanted to argue and point out the obvious, after all what good could possibly come from making a deal with the very Cookie that embodied lies and deceit?
But right then as if reading his thoughts with his eyes closed the Ancient sighed softly and looked up to his ‘companion’ with hopeful eyes that, after a stare contest with the beast, seemed to relay their message. Whatever it was, Deceit resigned with the most dramatic of eye rolls before crossing his arms and plummeting into the ground with a harsh thud despite not even being that far from the ground in the first place.
And despite his and his siblings stiff alertness the sudden movement and loud noise was all it took for them to flinch away, Strawberry going as far as a full step back before Gingerbrave stepped ahead to stay in front of her defensively.
The Ancient gave a little disappointed look “Did you really need to do that?” To which Shadow Milk replied with an indignant “What?” Before smiling and putting a hand to his heart “Can’t have a show without some flair! They must get used to that at the very least” he pointed at the kids in front of him with a dramatic pose.
Wizard grumbled, same old Shadow Milk Cookie to him. But as Pure Vanilla led them all to the dinning room for a more comfortable conversation over some cake he did notice how the ancient smiled and stifled chuckles under his hand at the beast’s energetic loops in the air above..
How.. striking a scene it was, they seemed comfortable and happy chatting away like old pals and even when Shadow Milk let out a cackle Pure Vanilla didn’t flinch, unlike him, when Shadow Milk’s step got a bit farther from the ground the King didn’t bat an eye while it made Wizard tense.
He looked over to his siblings to see, as expected, that they did seem uneasy like him but he couldn’t deny Ginger Brave seemed more a mix of confusion, intrigue and tension while Strawberry seemed more scared, trembling as she was.
He got closer to her, bumped their shoulders and whispered “Hey, it’s gonna be okay, we’re all at the ready and we have Pure Vanilla with us, he won’t let anything bad happen” and just as she gave him a little shy smile Ginger Brave joined in with his own big confident smile, getting ahead of them and walking backwards to look at them.
“Yeah! I’m sure we can handle-!”
Wizard clapped his brother’s mouth in an instant, but it was an instant too late and they almost flinched at the loudness of his voice. Sure, it wasn’t a yell but his own dough whitens as he imagines Shadow Milk hearing them, what would he do? Hearing them talk about ‘handling’ him would certainly not bode well with the prideful beast…
The better question would be what he wouldn’t do…
Wizard and Strawberry only gained the courage to check once they noted the sounds of steps from the adults ahead hadn’t faltered, two sets of them, as Shadow Milk seemed to have taken to walking again.
But when Wizard finally looked at the blue cookie’s face he found it turned sideways towards them, eye squinted by a sly smile as his hand hovered in front of those sharp teeth. The perfect image of someone stifling a laughter with a hand, only there was no laughter, only that posture letting them know that he heard them while also omitting their little ordeal from the king naturally chatting away beside the sly cookie.
And Wizard couldn’t decide if his jam froze or boiled with that
Either way they rightened themselves and kept walking, kids now silent as the soul jam wielders lead them, the light of Truth obliviously smiling and the shadow of Deceit innocently cackling.
The beasts eyes weren’t on him, none of them were, but Wizard wouldn’t take his own two eyes off him, he’d keep his staff at the ready and concentrate on the feel of tiny electric currents on his hands to keep his calm through this storm.
Whatever that monster trew at them, they’d be ready. This time around everything would be different, they weren’t at the Spire of Deceit anymore, this was the very home of the light of Truth.
He’s going to expect the unexpected and when time came, he swears
He will not falter