Chapter Text
The bluebirds are trilling outside her window when she wakes up. Yawning, she stretches her arms to the sky before climbing out of bed. A quick morning ritual after, she is combing her iridescent haircing into a braids that she tightens into a bun that resembles a rose on the back of her head. And though most despise it, she uses her favorite freshly blooming milkcrown flowers that grows in abundance outside her windowsill to decorate her haircing. Once her hair is done, she moves on to change her clothes.
Putting on a blue blouse and a flowy blue pants that flutters around her legs, almost resembling a skirt, she puts on a fitted white dress on top of that. The milk white dress have a high collar and wide hanging sleeves that have slits from the crook of her elbow past her hands and to her knees, allowing her arms better movement with the long sleeves out of the way. The laces on the side allows her to tighten the bodice to better fit her. The long, pleated skirt have slits up the side to allow her bigger movements. The collars barely hides the soft blue frills of her blouse, though she hides that with a blue scarf that ties into a cute tie with a gold pin that have a small blue gem that reminds her of an ice-cream in the center holding it in place. She finishes her assemble with a blue conical hat on her head.
She wears simple white flats with no heels on her feet and steps out of her small cabin with a basket of her lunch. Skipping into the village proper, she tries to not dwell on her lack of memories while she let her cyan eyecing wander the forest. Honestly, it is hard to not feel curious, especially when she wakes up in the middle of forest surrounded with nothing but milkcrown flowers. Fortunately, the one who found her was a kind old Cookie who have decided to adopt her. She taught her a lot of things and helped her settle in with the villagers before crumbling away.
Though she lacked any memories of her past, she does know her name-
“Lottie! Lottie Moon Cookie!”
Lottie turns to see the grumpy Shortbread Cookie calling for her from his bakery. She skips to him with a smile, “Good morning, Mr Shortbread! How can I help you?”
Shortbread huffs at her before placing a wrapped sandwich on the windowsill, “Don’t forget to pick your lunch. Honestly, you’re so carefree all the time. Just yesterday, you danced all the way to the library without care. I worry – never you mind! Just take this, for Witch’s sake!”
Lottie decided to say nothing about his slip up. Old Man Shortbread is one of the rare villager who cares about her well being after Granny’s crumble. So she isn’t about to antagonize him for showing her some care. Still, nothing is free.
She says, “I’ll help you look at the post office for your son’s letter when I have my break. If there’s any, I’ll bring it to you in the evening. If there is none, I will inform you,”
Shortbread know better than to deter her and could only shake his head, “Whatever, you brat. Just go before that mean boss of yours decided to get on your case again,”
She smiles, “He’s not that mean,”
Shortbread rolls his eyes, “He is. Don’t cover for him. I don’t like the way he look at you,” He waves her off, “Now go!”
Lottie tilts her head at his grumbling words. Sure, Mr Snickerdoodle Cookie can be on the tougher side but he have been nothing but fair to her. She sees no reason why Shortbread should be all up in arms around him. But not wanting to argue, she simply tells him to take care of his health before continue to make her way through town. All around her, Cookies are waking up and starting their day. Shops related to food and produce are already up and preparing. Random shops are slower but she can see the staff inside moving around, starting their day with a quick clean up.
Upon reaching the library where she work and punching in, Lottie puts away her basket of lunch inside her locker before taking out the library’s brown apron with her name tag pinned to it. Tying it around her waist, she fixes her bun and her hat before picking up her basket of cleaning items. Spraying the cleaning solution, she diligently wipes down dusty spots while also fixing the books in the shelves. A few books have been misplaced and she took them out to put them back at their proper shelf.
She grumbles a little about messy Cookies.
Pushing her cart of misplaced books, she slowly makes her round and replacing the misplaced books at their proper place. By the time Snickerdoodle comes in, she is almost done with one end of the library. She notice the rolls of posters in his arms and asks, “Are we promoting something?”
Snickerdoodle, a somewhat handsome Cookie with golden haircing that he styled carefully at the start of his day and bright brown eyecing underneath dark brown framed glasses, beams at her, “Oh! It is just that the Sage of Truth have decided to lecture us about the recent discovery on the uses of waffles!”
Lottie blinks, recognizing the name, “Sage of Truth? But…we don’t have scholars?”
Snickerdoodle rolls his eyes, “You’re so slow, Lottie! Maybe that’s why your ingredient is so strange too,” Lottie tries to ignore the sting of having her ingredient being mocked. It isn’t the first time someone questioned her ingredient; what is a Lottie? She doesn’t have the answer. Snickerdoodle continues, “Of course not here! He will give his lecture in the larger city over! I am just putting up the poster to spread the news! That said, you should do this first before anything else,” He shoves her the rolls of posters, “Hurry up, now!”
Lottie huffs and rushes off to put up the poster. Unrolling the paper, she found herself looking at the silhouette of a male Cookie with starry haircing with milky white highlights and powder blue skin. A golden monocle rests over where his left eyecing should be. He wears a slightly softconical wizard hat with a wide base, one half of the base dark blue and the other half just blue. The brim is folded up and the hem embroidered gold with the notch in the center embroidered with a peculiar shape. The dark blue half color is adorned with open blue eyes. The tip of the hat has one white blueberry pom-pom. He is looking to the side, showing off his silhouette profile from the left and his pose is as if he is offering a sun to the Cookie looking at him. In his other hand is a staff, clearly expensive and with the shape of an eye, the pupil a mysterious jewel cut perfectly for the staff.
Under the poster is the subject of the poster and the time as well as address for the event.
Lottie takes her time posting the poster up. She is no scholar and she certainly have no knowledge about waffle technology. Not to mention, the war just ended. She heard rumors that the Beasts are still out an about. But King Vanilla, an Ancient Hero revived, have sealed them away in Beast-Yeast Continent. Away from good and innocent Cookies like her. Even so, it is still so recent so surely traveling is ill advised?
Not that anyone would care for her opinion.
She is, after all, a nobody. Who cares what she thinks? If Cookies want to travel just to listen to some lecture by a reclusive scholar, who is she stop them? Still, Sage Cookie is really popular among avid readers and scholars. Even someone as stupid as her have heard of him. Despite his reputation for being a complete recluse that will show up in the circle of geniuses every other decade.
How old is he again?
He is the genius of their era. Scholars all around Earthbread praises him and celebrates his research papers endless. He pioneers new discoveries all the time. But from the little things that she read about him through interviews with other intellects, he is not an easy Cookie to get along with. He is to…honest, is the polite term to describe him. He takes his title, Sage of Truth, extremely seriously. It doesn’t matter if it hurts the other party, he will tell them nothing but the truth. When asked why, he will say; he have longer forgotten how to lie.
Oh well, she thought, no one can be perfect.
“Lottie! Stop dawdling and return to your duty!”
Lottie sighs as she smooths the stubborn curled end of one poster, “Yes, sir,”
Well, she is working with such difficult Cookie herself. At the first glance, Snickerdoodle seems like a friendly and easy going Cookie, if not a bit too bookish. But as she have started working under him for the community’s library, he have proven to be a difficult Cookie to understand. He gets mad at her almost all around the clock. Though he is nice enough to give her PTO for Granny’s funeral when she crumbled. But other than that, she seems to set him off no matter what she does.
She continues to wipe down shelves, replace books, help visitors find books, and checks the list of books being checked out to see if anyone had forgotten to return them on time. So far, she have marked a few names and sets it aside along with the calculated amount of coins that they owes the library.
By the time lunch break arrives, she is ready to leave the library. But just as she hangs up her apron to head out to the post office and have her sandwich by the river where the coconut ducks swims around, Snickerdoodle calls on her. She turns to her superior and asks, “Yes?”
He seems uncomfortable about something before saying, “I…have something to tell you,” It doesn’t seem like a good thing, if his frowning brows are anything to go by, Still, she stands there, waiting for whatever judgment he have decided for her. But after minutes of waiting and glancing at the clocks in the staff room several times, he sighs and shakes his head, “I will tell you another time. Just go eat your lunch,”
Lottie thanks him and quickly power walks out of the building. The moment she steps onto the dirt road of the village, she runs towards the post office. She looks for the letter by her friend, Biscotti Cookie, the son of Shortbread Cookie who also work as a teacher in the city, and found it just waiting for pick up. Picking it up, she stuffs the letter into her basket and skips her way to the river.
She is happily eating her sandwich and watching the winter melon ducks swimming around when she notice something floating along the river current. Taking a closer look at the black rope stuck along the cattails growing along the edges of the river, she gasps just as one winter melon duck swims close to investigate. Rubbing clean her hands of crumbs and quickly runs towards the long, black shadow just as the curious duck pecks at it.
The rope hisses weakly.
Lottie graceless approach causes her to stumble from her toe catching an uneven knot of root on the slope and fall into the river below. She lets out a pathetic squeak of “nya!” as she crashes into the river of sparkling water that tasted of apples. The ducks quacks angrily around her before flying off. Pulling herself out, she looks at the half dead snake tangling with the weeds and the cattails. She takes a gamble at poking the snake and it coughs.
Flinching back, she stares at it warily before picking it up, “Don’t bite me…”
How does one help a half drowned snake?
In the end, she holds it in a way that makes the head dangle upside down where a trickle of water slips out of its half opened mouth. At least, it isn’t aggressive…yet. The fatigue from fighting for its life from drowning have kept it docile with her. After a moment, Lottie puts it inside her basket and uses her napkin to dry it. But it is clearly unwell. Then again, even she is shivering and she can generate her own body heat. Snakes, from her understanding from the books she read, cannot.
So, looking around and ensuring that there are no Cookies passing by or looking her away, she opens her top a little and does something extremely stupid it is a miracle she still exist; putting a possible venomous snake between her breast. The snake, half awake, seems to find her utterly stupid if the lazy look it’s giving her is of any indication.
But Lottie ignores it and arranges for the snake to be comfortable under her shirt. It is quite big and thick as well as smooth. Fortunately, it isn’t slimy, just cold and slippery. Pulling out a blue shawl, she puts it own to cover the uneven shape of her torso. She is not a small girl despite her barely average height, but the sight of extra lumps where her chest is would be suspicious to just about any Cookie with eyes.
Satisfied, she nods and promises the snake, “I’ll get you back on your…well, not feet but…you will definitely be safe from predators with me while you recover. Now…what do snakes eat anyway?”
Unlike before lunch break, she doesn’t skip back to the library. Noticing the Snickerdoodle have yet to return, she puts away her basket and continues her work. As she sighs at the sight of more misplaced books, she starts rearranging them again. During such a moment, she notice a book on snake care. Looking around, she opens the book and starts reading.
She doesn’t plan to keep the snake but she will help it.
It is clearly in dire need for help.
Well, so far she doesn’t have to worry about food. She can feed it eggs or raspberry mice. Lottie grimaces at the idea of feeding it mice. It will have to be satisfied with eggs until it can hunt on its own. But here it says that not all snakes can eat eggs and some could be poisoned by it. In the end, she decided to go buy raspberry mice at the farmer’s store. They should have them for their animals, right?
She sighs, “Where do I get mice from?”
Do they even have a pet store?
Pets in a village like this one usually comes from the farm. Little melon chicks. Choco milk calf. Kittens or puppies. Random birds raised from infancy. Never a snake.
“Lottie,”
Lottie flinches and turns to see a scowling Snickerdoodle, “Oh. S-sir…”
Snickerdoodle scowls at the book in her hands, “How many times do I have to remind you that reading on the job is strictly forbidden?”
Lottie puts the book away, “Many times…sir,”
Snickerdoodle stares at her and Lottie fidgets under his glare. After a moment, he frowns, “Why are you wet?”
Lottie answers, “I fell,”
“You fell…”
“Into the river…”
Snickerdoodle studies her for a moment before sighing, “You can go home early today,”
Lottie smiles, “Thank you for informing me, sir,”
Snickerdoodle frowns, “You look mighty happy for getting to leave early,”
Lottie quickly wipes her smile away, “N-no, sir. I just…I have something to do after this s-so…”
Snickerdoodle raises a brow, “An errand? You live alone, who would even send you on an errand?” He shakes his head, “Never mind. Anyway, about that thing I was going to tell you. I…” He falls quiet…again.
Just what is it?
Lottie stands there awkwardly, trying to not fidget.
Snickerdoodle opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, only to close it…again. Lottie, seeing this, can’t help but wonder if it is really that bad. Is the library closing? But it isn’t like they have close to no visitors. Children still come to complete their homework. Sometimes, newly married Cookies will come to do research on how to do certain things or to look up certain recipes. Sometimes, visiting Cookies will come to pass the time in the library by indulging on some light reading. The library is never without its visitor.
In the end, he asks her, with a slight honey colored blush across his face, “I would like to ask you out,”
Lottie almost missed it from the way his words tumble out from his lips like each one is trying to race the other. But after a moment, she stammers, “W-what? E-excuse me, but I think that I’m mishearing y-you, sir. D-did you just a-asked me-,”
Snickerdoodle cuts her off, “I am asking you out on a date! Witches! You are so slow!”
Lottie recoils, blinking back the hurt from his words, “S-sorry…”
Snickerdoodle sighs, rubbing his face and almost knocking his glasses off, “Your answer?”
Lottie thought about it before saying, “D-do you…do you mind if I think about it first?”
Before he could answer, she flees from him. Lottie quickly punches her time out and all but throw her apron into her locker. She is in such a hurry to escape that she almost forgot her basket. Once she is out of the library, she runs down the street until she can no longer see the building. Entering an empty alley, she leans against the wall of the house behind her before gasping air for relief. Her chest feels tight and she feels breathless.
Where did that request came from?
She never imagined that he would ever see her in such a light.
Lottie isn’t vain but she is aware that she is decorated pretty enough. She is not going to fish for compliment, though, just a simple statement of her appearance. Her haircing, for example, have an iridescent luster like a pearl and her skin is baked white like pure sugar. Her eyecing are bright cyan with white four pointed stars for pupils. Her dough is also shaped nicely enough. She’s not the slimmest or the curviest but she have curves and she is petite. But she have never been in a relationship, casual or serious.
In another word, she can understand why Snickerdoodle would want to ask her out but she doesn’t feel like accepting his invitation to date…
She sighs, “I don’t like him like that,” She pats the snake between her chest absentmindedly, “I mean…I suppose that he is handsome enough but…I just…”
She doesn’t like how he speak to her.
She sighs again, “Am I so lonely that I would just accept any man’s offer for company? Even when he doesn’t treat me like I can think for myself? I’m not smart, I know that. I think I’m pretty stupid. But…I don’t like being told that I am stupid. I don’t think any Cookie like being told that they are stupid…”
Snickerdoodle is fine as a superior at work. But they are just that, co-worker. He is always grumpy towards her and she doesn’t feel like he wants to be her friend. So his request to date her really shocked her. All these makes her feel awkward. His meanness might be acceptable as a strict superior with a sharp tongue. But as a partner or a lover? That is too much.
She looks at her basket and remembers something, “Oh…Shortbread’s letter…I should hand it to him,” She crouches down and pats her cheeks hard before putting on a smile, “Nothing is free!”
She climbs back to her feet and hops her way to the bakery. She cheerfully greets Shortbread who is restocking some breads on his shelves, the heat from his oven sweltering inside his shop despite all the windows being open to let out the excess heat.
The older Cookie nods at her, “Well?”
Lottie digs out the letter from her basket, “A letter from Biscotti~!”
Shortbread snatches the letter from her hand, causing her to pout a little. But Lottie let it go in favor of looking around his bakery for dinner. She salivates over the selection before buying a freshly baked bread. She greets his staff, Sourdough Cookie, who is always happy to see her. After paying for her purchase, she skips her way out of the bakery and hums to herself.
When she finally reaches her small cabin that she inherited from Granny, Lottie puts away her empty basket and opens her dress’s front to pull out the still weak snake to put it on a large square pillow. Touching the long body, it feels less cold and her warmth seems to linger on its scale. Hoping that she didn’t overheat it, Lottie pets the smooth scales and notice slight bumps and lacerations across the length.
It is so dark that she can’t tell if it is injured.
She looks through the numerous home remedies that she have. Many of them are poultice made from crushed herbs and flowers. Nothing dangerous…for a Cookie. Still, she can’t just use them on a snake. What if it is poisonous for the snake? In the end, she could only hope that the injuries aren’t that bad.
She sighs as she sits beside the table where she had placed the snake, “I’m sorry. I’m so dumb. I should have checked out that book on snakes…” She looks at the oddly colored snake. She have seen many different pictures of snakes for but she have never seen one so dark with blue scales. It even have horns. Tapping at the horns, she notice the snake opening its eyes to glare at her. She blinks at the heterochromia of cyan and deep blue staring at her and smiles, “What a handsome snake. You’re really beautiful. I’m so glad that the ducks didn’t get you or that you didn’t drown. It will be a loss to the world to miss out on such a beauty,”
She then leaves the silent snake for the kitchen, asking it to stay put. After a while, she comes back with an egg. She isn’t sure if the snake can eat it. She have never seen its type before and isn’t sure if bird egg is part of its natural diet. But she have yet to find any rodent for it to eat. Maybe small birds? Where can she get them?
Fortunately, the snake is hungry enough to accept her eggs. Lottie smiles, happy that the snake is eating well. She then goes about her evening, undressing to wash the day’s grime off of her. It is only when she is dressed in her night gown and warm that she feels a little bit better about herself. After dinner and a short moment of reading her favorite chapter in history, Lottie blows out the candle and closes her eyes for bed.
She whispers to the snake as she falls asleep, “Good night…and please don’t eat me,”
“What a stupid girl. Truly, so foolish. Taking in a possible venomous snake and treating him. Despite knowing that nothing is free, you are still being altruistic. Heh, this is going to be interesting~,”