Hibernal Equinox
Can't Catch Me!
Dorothy's dream tonight was located in a green meadow that looked suspiciously familiar. A few properties dotted the landscape here and there, and the sky was laden with pink and orange tones, painting a picturesque travel card. The orange of the pumpkins of the past season had slowly given way to the snowy white patches that reflected in a beautiful blue color when looked from the right angle, and glinted under the sunset. Dorothy walked through her surroundings, making her way in the direction she thought Chrysanthos was located.
Dorothy did arrive at the place the grand city was supposed to be, by the time the sun had set and the moon was peeking above the horizon.
Instead of finding it, though, she came across giant walls made of vertically assembled wafers that stood menacingly in front of several gingerbread buildings. A little wary, Dorothy walked through the gate, and inspected the city. It looked just like Chrysanthos, except it was made of pastries. The floor crunched slightly as she stepped on the biscuit pavement, embellished with what looked like swirls of sweet meringue lined up at the margins of the streets.
The houses and the stalls looked very tasty, but other than Dorothea herself, the city appeared to be empty. ‘Appeared’ was the right word on this occasion, though, because when the pouflon was about to turn a corner she was almost run over by a giant, frantic gingerbread cookie, which didn’t even stop as she yelped and took a hurried step back to allow it to continue on its way. When she inspected it better, after gathering her bearings, Dorothy realized the running figure, which was already diminishing as it scurried away even faster with a maniacal giggle, was a Gingerbrat. It didn’t look like it was doing anything very purposeful other than running aimlessly down the street, even if it did look very determined in achieving that in the most rambunctious way possible. ‘It certainly fits the rest of the landscape’, she thought, hesitantly continuing on her way towards the higher parts of the city.
As Dorothy continued to inspect the streets of Chrysanthos, she saw even more Gingerbrats running around or doing random tasks, such as carrying small baskets full of candy or sweeping up the porches with size-appropriate brooms. Others appeared to be less likely to behave, climbing the houses up to the empty balconies, swinging around the rod of lampposts and, overall, just being the little menaces they were famous for.
The more she approached the castle, the more urgent she felt like it was to actually get there. Several more Gingerbrats swung around places they weren’t supposed to be, and less and less of them seemed inclined for ordeal and house duty, opting for destroying or eating (!) parts of the city’s architecture. Some of them decided to inspect Dorothy a bit too close for comfort, running across the swirly waves of smoke that accompanied her, pulling at her tail or batting at her horns. She groaned lowly in irritation.
“Would you stop doing that?” The pouflon urged one of the pippets to let go of her fur by fending it off with her tail, but soon another Gingerbrat had taken its place, trying to mount her like she was a horse. “Stop it!” She cried and, with a puff of runic magic, her wings came out, and she lifted flight. One of the mischievous creatures stuck to her back leg, but she wiggled it enough for it to fall down safely on the ground.
“Finally.” The hybrid huffed, looking down at the spot she’d just been to see a group of pippets looking up helplessly, making motions to grab at her. Fortunately, Dorothy was soaring too high for any of them to actually reach her. After she figured out flying was an easy enough way to avoid all the gingerbread gremlins under her, it was pretty easy to make her way to the castle. The structure was riddled with hard candy, meringue and a few wafers that acted as pillars. It looked very pretty (and yummy)!
As the pouflon approached the castle, she realized there was something different sitting at the top of the staircase that led to it. Curious, Dorothy descended from the skies and flew around the object, she realised it was a rather gigantic glass bottle of milk. The pouflon had absolutely no idea what it was doing in the middle of the castle’s entrance, but seeing this giant, uncapped beverage made her look over at the rest of the city, which stood proud and delicious under the moonlight, and then she had a (possibly) horrific idea.
A way to finally rid the city of the curse that assailed it.
It took a great deal of effort, because that bottle was as heavy as it looked, but when she finally heard the clink of the container tipping over, Dorothy knew she did what she had to. An endless stream of milk flowed down the staircase and washed down the streets of Chrysanthos, soaking everything in its path. The pouflon watched from the heights as the Gingerbrat were all rounded up in a whirlwind of milk before being cast out through the city for their crimes. After it was all over, the streets slowly regained their stone aspect, and the houses gradually turned into actual buildings instead. The pavement beneath her feet shone bright again, and the moonlight looked even brighter, like it was the only witness to the savior of Chrysanthos and her actions.
After that, Dorothea woke up, gasping, and let out a terrified shriek as she spotted a Gingerbrat sitting menacingly at the foot of her bed.