The harpies looked back, but there was nothing in the labyrinth of falling trees. They stepped closer to Vanilla. Their yellow, human eyes glared with a thirst of blood.
"Wait!" Vanilla yelled.
The harpies stopped to begin what was going to be a delicacy of soft meat and warm blood. "What?" Their guttural voices rumbled in unison.
"...If you kill me you'll never know where... where..."
The hybrids looked at each other, frustrated and impatient.
"...Where is The Elixir of Beauty...!"
"The Elixir of Beauty? They widened their eyes and leaned their heads.
"...Yeah! You can brew it. But you'll need different ingredients."
They looked at each other, responding after a second. "Tell us! Tell us now!" The one at the center said.
Vanilla felt glad they stopped using their annoying rhymes. Her imagination bounced harder than the moon spinning around Earth, trying to think about something to save her life.
"You'll need... A frog! Yes. A blue frog."
"A blue frog?" They leaned their heads at each other. "Take notes, Griselda!"
"And you'll need," Vanilla continued. "hmm... A bar of soap. But it needs to be filled with body hair!"
"Bar of soap, a bar of soap..." They looked at each other and nodded in agreement. "What else, human weakling?!"
"Well, you'll need..."
•••
"Cookie, look!" Rowie said. The blonde girl and he had reached a section in the woodlands separated by a hill of shown roots platforms.
Three feathered beings were on the widest platform that ended in a semi-cave. Their wings made them look like the gargoyles at the entrance of the Land residence.
"It's Vanilla's voice..." Rowie whispered.
"What? let's go and see..." Cookie said. Both crawled and hid behind a thick tree of growing white fungi.
•••
"And you'll also need, a rotten egg," Vanilla continued, revealing the recipe of the magistral elixir of beauty. What a bunch of dumb creatures. "But it has to be rotten for six hours exactly. No more and no less or it won't work."
The trio of harpies was now sitting in their crossed, feathered legs, totally focused on the human girl and her brewing wisdom.
"Pig spit. Remember that a pig has to spit on it! but if the pig has black spots it won't work."
•••
"What do you think, Cookie? What should we do?"
"Worry not! I've got this..." The blonde whispered. She put out Bumbly, her bee plush, and took a deep breath.
•••
"What do you think we should do, ladies?" The harpy at the left said. "She knows too much! maybe she can be useful later."
"Minerva is right. We can take her to the lair. Who knows what other useful potions she can help us brew!"
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!" A high-pitched, deflating scream rumbled. Crows and nightingales flew away in panic from their trees.
It was the same tone of voice of that annoying girl, daughter of the King's that Vanilla just met back.
"What was that?" The harpies turned back and analyzed the systematic rows of trees. "Gwraaaaaaargh!" Feathers of different sizes flew everywhere.
The harpies got struck by what looked like a giant bumblebee surrounded by a shiny, blue aura. How familiar...
"Don't worry blackhead! Here we are!" Cookie levitated holding Rowie to Vanilla's position.
What Vanilla saw on the girl's back were small, insectoid wings that looked ridiculous on her. A blue, shiny animal and those wings on her back. She remembered her bee plush. That could only mean one thing...
"Take it. This is yours!" Cookie handled Vanilla her purse and Avrevm Bacvlvm.
"You are a plush user?!"
"Concentration, Vanilla!"
The harpies flew up and circled, making angry caws and screeches. They expanded their clawed hands and shot fireballs at their platform.
"Jump out!" Vanilla aimed Avrevm Bacvlvm. But as she was about to shoot the garnet, Cookie hugged her and pushed her below the platform. Her finger slipped and she pressed The Diamond instead.
A crystal clear, shiny bubble enveloped Vanilla, Cookie, and Rowie. The fireballs exploded and charred the air, but the bubble just made crystal-shattering sounds and got destroyed, with its former insiders unharmed.
The giant bumblebee returned, buzzing at full speed. It headbutted the harpies once again and chased them away. They yelled and cursed as they escaped. It came back when the monsters were gone for good.
"Yeah! Run cowards! Another point for the marvelous Cookie and her incredible gang!" She launched her fist to the air.
Rowie ran to Vanilla. She raised him. "I was very worried about you!" He licked her face.
"I had it under control, you see..."
"Heh!" Cookie took a step closer. Vanilla put Rowie on the ground. "Admit it, one-eye! You would be dead if it weren't by Cookie!"
"Well... thanks I guess."
"C'mon. Thank me some more!"
"Seems like she is the type who loves adoration," Rowie crossed looks with Vanilla.
"I fought uncountable monsters hiding in this forest and overcame many obstacles just to save someone like you! Be thankful to me!"
"Look, a spider!" Rowie said.
"Kyaaah!" Cookie jumped back as her body shook. "D-don't do that ever again!" She took a deep breath and regained herself. Her blush didn't dissipate. "You even forced me to use Bumbly. Come here, Sweetheart!"
The shiny bumblebee was bigger than her torso. She hugged her tight and rubbed her expressionless face. "You know what it feels like to use her plush? Imagine if someone grabbed your buttcheeks, spread them, squeezed them, and pinched them with one thousand needles! It's not fun!"
How uncomfortably descriptive. Still, it was now clear that Cookie was a plush user as well. And from all people one of the most... intense she had to be. Vanilla wondered how many plushes did she have or how she did she learn to use them. That bee was quite the interesting one.
"Custos Apes. That must be her name..." She remarked.
"Hey, how did you know?" Cookie felt surprised. The bumblebee rotated its head towards Vanilla.
"Even if we are nothing alike there's something we have in common, Cookie." She took out The Sky Empress from her purse.
"....I suspected it," A smile formed on her lips, and her enormous eyes glowed. "Another one who can use plushes... Amazing! Amazing, Amazing, Amazing!"
Vanilla smiled too. Why did such sentiment of understanding rose with such an obnoxious person? "Let's talk on the way back," She said. "I think I'm gonna need something for my back."
The lacerations on Vanilla's back didn't throw any more blood. But it was clear that she was going to need some stitches and sewing.
"Wha- Oh my god, they hurt you!" Cookie exclaimed.
"And my dress is ruined. Carol is going to be really happy." She sighed and raised Avrevm Bacvlvm.
The Aquamarine. Wasn't that mythological stone related to sailors, eternal youth, and health? Her imagination answered. She pressed it and a beam of the same aqua color emanated from its tip.
"What's that thing about?" Cookie inquired.
"I'll tell you on the way back. First, I need to try something," Vanilla raised her arm and put Avrevm Bacvlvm on her back. The fresh, numbing, and relaxing sensation made Vanilla's pain fade away and her lips subtly smile.
"Amazing!" Cookie's and Rowie's eyes glowed. Her wounds were now pink scars on her white as snow skin.
So, the diamond produced some kind of magical barrier, and the aquamarine had healing properties. What a good yet unexpected situation it was to experiment with.
"I'm dying to make you so many questions!" Cookie said. The bumblebee hung on her back.
"...let us return first. There's not much sunlight left and our parents must be expecting us. I just hope Carol doesn't make a scene."
The night was about to be born, and Vanilla had just seen many things that rivaled past Halloweens. That girl, Cookie. Surely she was something else. Or maybe just some regular idiot who found the magical plushes by accident.
Those harpies would not give up.
The way back to the King's Manor was contrastingly calm, except for Cookie inquiring all kinds of questions to Vanilla about her plushes, What did you fight with them? How did you get them? Vanilla felt annoyed but flattered. Receiving that much attention was something she was accustomed to. She also grew curious about Cookie; despite her looks, she also had her own fair share of encounters with the unnatural.
They weren't as much as Vanilla's, but what she shared was even weirder. How in the bloody hell did she decide to fight a poltergeist by luring them into an improvised body trap made of pumpkins and corn? She would have never thought about that. She also counted with three plushies, half of Vanilla's collection, counting her new spider.
The girl also asked her about her eye patch. Vanilla limited herself to say that it was an accident in recovery. Cookie would have probably believed her about her death and resurrection, but the truth was the blonde was still a stranger. Being a plush user, and being the slave of a wicked demon were two different things. Better to keep those secrets intimate.
She also couldn't stop laughing about Vanilla's 'brewing skills' every time the subject was brought. Vanilla chuckled too. She never thought that was going to work. Such stupid beings were those harpies...
"Oh, look, we're almost there," Cookie signaled the King's Manor, becoming visible from the shadows of the decaying, gloomy trees surrounding them.The sky was navy blue, and the night was about to fall. The forest ended, and the girls walked the hill down all the way to the porch of the house.
"Vanilla!?" Carol opened the door. "Where in the—" She stopped herself from saying a curse word. "—where you!?"
"I-I," Vanilla stuttered, looking awkwardly at Cookie.
"A bear attacked her! Look at what it did to poor Vanilla!" She shook Vanilla forth and back, showing up her mauled and muddy dress. Her hat that they recovered on the way back was the only thing of her attire relatively intact.
"Oh god, is that true?" Carol frowned, staring at Vanilla with her ophidian blue eyes.
"Y-yes!" Vanilla responded, looking at Cookie and then back at her stepmother. An awkward smile formed on her lips.
Carol made a short pause, giving Vanilla a sweep with her gaze before finally speaking. "That's what you get for being alone in places you don't know. You could have died, kid." Her last sentence lacked her previous and typical dramatic tone. She turned around and got inside the manor. "Now get inside. It's cold here. Eat something."
Vanilla sighed in relief. Cookie winked at her and whispered. "You're welcome!" before entering her home. Vanilla followed back.
They left Rowie on the porch of the manor, for much of his dislike. The dining and living rooms were already filled by those pompous people of condescending stares, drinking and smoking those imported products that made them feel different from the common mortals.
They walked through the rustic insides, evading the adult visitors, and reached the kitchen. Roasted turkey, lobster, mashed potatoes, and other side dishes stood at the center of the round table at the first corner. They sat, and Cookie served herself a plate that looked for someone double her size. Vanilla's stomach growled, and she served herself a generous portion too.
"Vanilla," Cookie spoke, munching a bread portion. "It's Halloween. Aren't you going out tonight?"
"Yes. But not for fun. Those harpies..." She bit her turkey leg.
"Harpies? Those things that almost killed you? Tell me. Are they up to something?" She cut a lobster claw and splashed white meat away.
Vanilla hesitated, but that girl already knew about the plushes. Likely, she was also the only person in Merry Oaths and its outsides that would not believe she was insane. And despite how much Vanilla hated to admit it, she was going to need help. If it weren't for Cookie she would already be dead once again.
"They are going to kidnap the children. They'll eat them and will become stronger." She finally responded.
"Oh my god," Cookie's simper disappeared. "They were going to eat you too!"
"I look like a kid but I'm not one. But yes, they would have eaten me." Vanilla drank from her apple cider.
"And what are you going to do?" Cookie frowned in concern.
"I don't know... now I feel like not doing anything." She served herself more baked potatoes and apple cider. She meditated it. Was she about to risk her own life for the people she despised?
"What? Are you scared?" Cookie smirked. Her stare was similar to the contractor's provoking look.
"Scared?" Vanilla raised one eyebrow. "It's just that they don't deserve my help." She continued eating.
"I'll company you. Let's do it for the adventure!"
Did Cookie think it was a game? But well, who was she to judge. Vanilla had her bizarre explorations for nothing other than amusement before that strange being resurrected her and she became their slave. It was as if she was taking things too seriously ever since she resurrected.
"I don't know..." Vanilla doubted, deviating her eyes away.
"I saved you from the harpies and then from Mrs. Carol. You must let me go with you!" Cookie argued, raising from her seat,
Vanilla sighed. The girl could be obnoxious, but she had already demonstrated her power. If she was honest, more than a burden, Cookie would be a useful asset "Okay. But be prudent, alright?" Vanilla announced her decision.
"Hehe. Says the one who got captured!" Cookie mocked. "How do we leave?" She had already finished her plate and was serving herself even more food. "Maybe dad or Mrs. Carol can take us to the town."
"Meh, they must be already too drunk to walk on their own feet. Besides, Carol would never do something like that for me. But I have an idea. Tell your parents that we will have a sleepover together," Vanilla's black eye glittered. She grinned. The Sky Empress was going to be in the spotlight of the night. "Does your room have an ample window?"