The heat of flames is carried by the wind, burning the already crispy doughs. Houses and inns have collapsed, cracked, and crumbled to the ground. The crumbs of cookies have been buried by debris big and small, stains of jam leaking to the floor.

The screams of agony can be heard in the field, cookies are running in different directions in a haste, mostly towards the forest. Clover can only back away, hands trembling, and stare at the chaos in horror. Everyone is too busy running away to notice Clover, or maybe they didn't even notice him at all.

Maybe when they are all running for their lives, Clover is staring at a lifeless cookie pierced with an arrow through the core, or maybe a silhouette of an arrow is lunging towards him at high speed, red eyes glowing just behind it. Clover tries to run away from the arrow, but his heel is stopped by a sugar cube pebble, tripping him. The arrow lands on the ground just above his head, missing him.

"Clover?"

He saw a glow of purple in front of him emanating from a silhouette of a cookie with wings, readying an arrow. Clover can only slide back, shielding his face with his arms to brace for the impact of the arrow. Just as he hears a swoosh that could only mean a firing arrow, he feels a firm grip on his shoulders that's shaking his whole body.

"CLOVER!"

♧CLOVER'S POV♧

Clover lunged up, letting out heavy breaths, trying to calm himself down from whatever he just experienced in that nightmare. Soon after, he feels an embrace, and he can tell that they're trying to calm him down when he felt a hand rubbing his back.

What was that nightmare? Clover can only wonder from the shock. He starts to calm down and pat the cookie's shoulder who was hugging him earlier.

"I'm fine now, you can let go, Herb," he says reassuringly before he felt the hug loosen. Now Clover can see that Herb is worryingly staring at him.

"Are you sure? You were sweating like crazy!" Herb's hands are swinging around the place, to which Clover let out a chuckle at how dramatic he's making it seem. Clover shifts his legs to the edge of the bed, swinging it.

"Yes, I'm sure. You know it happens before, you shouldn't worry too much." he motions his left hand toward Herb to assure him further. Herb took a big sigh of relief before standing up and grabbing his beloved potted succulent from the bedside table.

Also looking over at the bedside table, Clover reaches and grabs his grass lute to tune it. Herb opens the balcony doors and feels the fresh air flowing into the room, taking it all in. Clover enjoys it too, hearing faint happy chatters and laughter.

"Good morning, Mr. Sunshine! Good morning, little sprouts!" Herb exclaims, grabbing a watering can from the corner, and waving at the sun and the potted sprouts decorating the handrailing.

Clover decides to stand up from bed, put on his hat, and step out to the balcony. He is immediately greeted by Herb watering every potted plant on the balcony. And by every potted plant, Clover counted 20 hanging over the handrailing, 5 on top of the railing, and 2 big ones in the corners.

Clover adores that his friend is a plant freak. He saw how packed his greenhouse and garden were the last time he visited. To help him out a little bit, Clover offers space on his balcony for a few of many of his plants. And now here they are. Now he wonders if Herb got himself new plants to fill the already overcrowded greenhouse, he can't wait to visit it again someday.

"You're going to the forest again, right?" Herb says as he puts the watering can back to where it was. "I will. But before that, I promised the kids to play for them. They seem very excited when they asked me yesterday." Clover giggles at himself before stepping back into his room, Herb following shortly after while closing the balcony doors.

Clover slips on the cape he always wears and secures it with a few adjustments before hanging the lute on his back. "What's for breakfast?" Clover asks as he opens the door and descends the stairs to the dining room, Herb still following close behind.

"The usual, jellies and herb tea." Herb chuckles at himself and Clover did too, arriving at the small dining table for his plate of breakfast. "You never miss out on herb tea, do you?" Clover teases as he sips a little bit of the tea. "Herb tea is very relaxing in the mornings. I'll never get bored of it!" Herb chuckles as he took a sip of his cup of herb tea.

Both nature boys soon finish their plate of breakfast before leaving their house, Herb locking the door. Clover looks over at the view, once again hearing faint chatter from down the tiny hill thanks to the wind around him.

"I'll be in the greenhouse if you need me!" Herb says. Both are waving each other goodbye before Herb walks off down the road.

Clover stood still, pondering about the rough start of a morning. The nightmare concerns him, it was probably the worst form he had. He shivers at the thought of it, it may be too serious to not just ignore it like that.

But after a blueberry bird lands on his hat, chirping in glee, Clover giggles to himself and offers his hand for the blueberry bird to rest on. The bird walks over to his hand and Clover brought his hand closer, looking closely at the bird chirping on his hand.

It wasn't the best start to the morning, but I can tell that today is going to be a great day. Clover says in his mind, reassuring himself. He eventually lets the bird fly away and waves goodbye at it before letting out a sigh in relief and heading in his direction, and that is to a field near a well where the kids will be waiting for him.

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TIMESKIP (AN HOUR LATER)...

┕━━━━━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Clover looks back at the kingdom gates, waving to the last cookie he encountered before heading off into the forest.

He ponders about how much fun the children were having, listening to his stories, and singing along to the tunes he played. Heck, he was even proclaimed to be the best bard by the little king himself. He giggles at the thought of the praise and how he made the little ones happy.

Along the very long walk, Clover starts to play some more harmonies. Not only can he hear his lute-playing more upbeat than usual, but he can also hear the critters of the forest singing along too, even the birds.

He skips and hums in glee, excited to meet his friend from the forest. Well actually, he doesn't know if he's from the forest because of his dark attire, but he's excited nonetheless.

And speaking of the devil, he can see his friend sitting on a roll cake trunk, writing in his diary. He can't really tell if he's stressed or excited since his hood is in the way, but he's writing it in a hurry.

Before Clover can say anything, his hooded friend looks over at him. Immediately after that, he slams the book shut and throws it to the side before suddenly standing up and grabbing his scythe to point it at Clover in shock.

Clover won't lie, he is genuinely scared that his head will be gone at that moment. But after a month of knowing him, he's surprised that he's still paranoid about his surroundings.

"O-Oh! It's just you," he exclaims, nervously gripping his scythe tight. Clover can only giggle at him, and that's enough for him to hear the other annoyed.

"Stop it, Clover! I'm just being cautious of... c-cake hounds!" he says, coming up with the only thing he could think of.

"There aren't that many cake hounds near the kingdom for a month, Licorice. You should be fine," Clover informs his friend as he slightly pushes away the scythe threatening to chop his head.

Licorice took the hint and places the scythe on the ground before walking to get his diary, Clover sitting on the trunk waiting for Licorice.

"Besides, even if there are some, they aren't causing too much harm. In the end, they're still animals in their habitat." By the time Clover finishes, Licorice got his diary back and walks toward him.

"Well, yeah, I know. But you never know when they can attack!" Licorice insists before sitting down next to Clover.

"Then why don't you just summon your cute little men?" Clover asked curiously. He admits that he misses the mini licorices as he likes to call them. You can't help but pet them like you would any cute animal.

"They are NOT cute! My licorice servants are intimidating and evil! They get the job done like how I ask them to do it! Also, I'm too lazy to summon them if that were to happen." Licorice pridefully rambles while Clover giggles at him. "Alright, whatever you say then," Clover says before looking at the forest ahead.

As the wind blows faster and louder, both cookies stay silent, taking in the peaceful sounds of the forest. Clover hears the critters chatting as well as faint cookie chatters.

But the one he can clearly hear to the left of him is scribbling. He assumes that Licorice is trying to finish what he wrote in that diary. Clover wonders why Licorice scribbles aggressively sometimes. He doesn't dare to peak to respect his privacy, but maybe Licorice has a bad day.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Clover can see that Licorice slightly tenses up after hearing the sudden question. "What? No! Nothing's wrong! Why are you asking me that?!" Licorice exclaims with slight aggression.

Licorice loosens up as soon as he said that. It seems like he didn't mean to come out that strong. It took Clover a moment before speaking up again.

"Sorry, well, it's just that... you sound like you're a little.. umm.. tense.." he points out nervously. It gets Licorice to look away and ponder, which made Clover think that he made him uncomfortable.

"You don't have to tell me. If you're uncomfortable, then I won't budge in further," he says before turning to his lute to play a few chords so that he can do something with his hands to reduce his growing anxiety.

The two didn't say a word during Clover's song, listening peacefully. Accompanied by the critters listening in and gathering around the both of them, singing along with the music, it feels like looking over at a field of flowers with the wind blowing on their faces.

When the music fades and the critters start running back to the forest, Clover looks over to see Licorice sigh and grip his hood.

"Do you feel better?" Clover asked. Licorice lets go of his grip on his hood and rest his arms on his thighs. "Yeah, thanks a lot, Clover." Licorice sighs before looking at him.

"You're right... I was having a bad mood this morning. My uhh... co-worker is being super annoying today. She keeps babbling orders on and on, and it's irritating! She's not even the boss!" Licorice exclaims before letting out a heavy sigh of annoyance, Clover still listening intently.

"It's bad enough to take care of a child who just sneaks around and give everyone.. shroomies, I have to follow her orders anyway." he continues, scoffing at the end and rolling his eyes.

"But shroomies sounds delicious, don't you think?" Clover curiously asks. This let out an offended gasp and a glare from the other. "Never.. and I mean NEVER.. accept a shroomie from them! I don't need to explain why, but just don't!" Licorice exclaims to Clover, giving out big gestures while he's at it.

Clover giggles at him, reminded of his roommate with his big gestures just that morning. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind," he responds.

Both cookies continue to hang out until sundown. They caught up with some events happening to them over the past week, Clover told old stories, played the lute some more, and took walks through the forest with Licorice.

When the time has come to leave to their respective homes, they waved each other goodbye and walk off in opposite directions; Licorice going further into the forest and Clover going back to the kingdom.

Clover ponders to himself more. He enjoys hanging out with Licorice again. He can feel that they're even closer than when they first met a month ago.

Thinking back, it was hilarious that Licorice was trying to be a threat and failed miserably. But even so, Clover is thankful because that point was the start of their friendship.

As soon as he finished that thought, he was back at the kingdom gates again. Who knew that time passes much faster when you space out.

Looking up at the sky, he knows it's getting late. He walks over to Herb's greenhouse as he always does every day after going back from his forest travels. He greets some cookies along the way and eventually made it there.

Through the glass, he can see that Herb is still watering his plants and talking to a cookie. From the long red hair and black cape that almost touches the floor, he couldn't easily mistake that cookie when he sees that glistening wine glass he carries every time.

"Heya, Clover!"

Clover jumps back in shock, the heat of a campfire and a glowing face suddenly in front of him prevents him from observing longer.

Clover's reaction prompted the legendary cookie in front of him to laugh. He loosens up and lets out a sigh when it's just a certain cookie he's heard of from stories. It's a very rare occasion for a cookie that resembles literal fire to come up to the kingdom.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just happy that I can see you here," he says before the previously floating cookie lands back on the ground, trying not to set anything on fire.

"It's nice to see you again... Fire Spirit?" Clover says, confused about what to call him. The family tree is a bit complicated from his perspective, and he thinks that Fire Spirit knows as well, so Fire Spirit giggles it off.

"Just call me Fire. I swear, Windy makes things complicated when he considered you as a brother. But he beats my ass anyway, so no point in complaining I guess." he says, shrugging his shoulders, seemingly indifferent before putting his right arm on Clover's shoulders and pulling him into a side hug.

Clover knows what he means. His brother, Wind Archer, rambled about how annoying Fire Spirit was when he was younger. But as the years grow by, he tolerates Fire Spirit better and the rambling eventually stopped.

Clover's glad his brother got it all figured out, but he does feel bad that he has to deal with lots of teasing and jokes every time Fire Spirit's around.

"Ooh! Speaking of Windy, I heard that he's coming here. Luckily, I had 2 weeks off duty. I can't wait to see that stone-cold green cabbage again. He's very fun to hang out with." Fire snickers at himself and Clover awkwardly giggle along.

The small laughter between them stops when they hear the red-haired cookie being dragged and whines. Clover looks over and it looks like his sister came to pick him up. He then looks over at Herb who just came out of the greenhouse with his potted succulent.

"Oh! Hello, Fire Spirit, sir!" he greeted. Fire Spirit lets go of Clover and proceed to float over and give another side hug to Herb.

"Hey, little plant guy. How've you been?" he says, pulling Herb closer, basically almost squeezing him. Herb laughs it off before slightly nudging Fire Spirit to let go of him. "I'm doing good, thank you."

Fire Spirit reminds Clover of one of those enthusiastic distant uncles. He and Herb have been hesitant to actually call him uncle, it just doesn't sound right.

Besides, he likes to be called 'Fire' since he loves to boast about his flames. It's a fitting name, he won't lie.

"So, is Windy home yet?" Fire asks the two nature boys, floating beside Herb. "No, not yet. I heard that he's around here somewhere, but I can't pinpoint where he is exactly." Clover answers, and in response, Fire Spirit lets out a sigh of disappointment.

"Well, if I were to guess, he's probably patrolling. This man needs a break or he'll just be stale." Fire Spirit scoffs and the nature boys look at each other.

Fire Spirit's right. Wind Archer is very much overworked, especially when it comes to Millenial Tree. Good protectors never rest, but he's one cookie who takes it very seriously.

He does come once a month to visit both of them, but even then he patrols the kingdom as well, even when it's unnecessary.

"Anywho, I'm sure you both are tired after doing things all day. I'mma go find Windy and you two can run along and get a beauty rest. See you two tomorrow." Fire Spirit smirks and finger guns the nature boys before flying off outside the kingdom.

Clover watches as the light Fire Spirit emitted slowly gets smaller and dimmer the further away he is. "Shall we go home?" Clover looks over at Herb.

Herb nods as a response and off they go. Both cookies walk up the hill and back to their house, Herb unlocking the door and Clover turning on the lights.

After cleaning up and eating dinner, both nature boys go to their respective rooms. As soon as Clover closes his door, he puts his robe, hat, and lute away before laying down, letting out a heavy sigh of relief.

It was an exhausting day, but it was most definitely fun. He relived the time when he had fun serenading the kids and hanging out with Licorice.

But that nightmare is still in his mind. He almost forgot about it, but then again, he thinks to himself that it was probably nothing and it was just a simple nightmare he has now and then.

He just hopes that it doesn't bother him a second time before dozing off into sleep.

...

◇A COOKIE'S POV◇

After running off to the base and the dark hallway, the robed cookie stops in their tracks and pants before looking up to see what looks like an imitation of a dark throne.

Two cookies are in their vision, one sitting on the throne and one is beside them. The one sitting on the throne holds a scepter, the ram skull's eyes on it has an ominous red glow.

"Tell me the progress." the one on the throne speaks, her stern voice echoes throughout the room. The robed cookie gulps before managing to pick up the courage to speak.

"Well, it should take effect tomorrow, obviously if Pomegranate predicts it correctly." they roll their eyes and they can hear the other gasp, seemingly offended.

"Of course it is correct! Unlike you, I do not intend to fail this mission like you did so many times!" the one beside the throne exclaims, Pomegranate is her name.

It goes silent for a moment, finger tapping from the cookie sitting on the throne is the only one making noise. Until a small cookie with a big hat shaped like a mushroom cap waddles over to the robed cookie.

"You're baaack!" the little purple mushroom exclaims before hugging the robed cookie's legs. They're about to push the kid away, but after a few taps from the cookie sitting on the throne, they stop attempting what they wanted to do.

"Keep an eye on him again. Once it takes effect, immediately report back to me." the cookie says before opening her red eyes.

"Yes Dark Enchantress, ma'am! I won't fail you like Dark Choco Cookie did!" the robed cookie says, exposing his yellow eyes to their view.

Dark Enchantress giggles sinisterly