Chocolate

Backstory
Thank you Shadow Secret Santa! :D
The Beginning of Chocolate's Story

Chocolate’s parents were arguing over what to make for dinner. None of the options they were discussing included chocolate or mint, his favorite foods, so he really didn’t care what they decided. He flitted off to play. He spoke to every tree, imagining that they asked him questions. Unsurprisingly, each of them wanted to know what he wanted to be when he grew up. The first asked him about what genes he liked, and he imagined himself as an adult, with Bright and Mop to intensify his resemblance to a fancy chocolaty dessert.



The next tree asked if he really wanted to have to comb a whole mop worth of hair every day, and suggested that he might enjoy being some other kind of dragon someday.

Chocolate thought being a lovely, magical fae might be fun.



Why not be something more powerful? For instance, a wildclaw?

Chocolate considered it seriously before deciding he loved flying too much to want to be a dragon that looked more at home on the ground than in the sky. But maybe a spiral would be fun?




Or a coatl?



He started to imagine he’d been born triplets, one veilspun, one spiral, and one coatl: Sweet Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Mint Chocolate, and they had a telepathic link between the three of them, and they went on adventures together. They flitted about the forest together, rescuing kittens and performing Great Deeds. The rest of the world called them the Glorious Chocolates, but they each called the others by the first part of their names, because calling each other Chocolate would be silly and confusing.

Sweet wasn’t sure what all of the Great Deeds ought to be, but he and his imaginary siblings had a lot of fun rescuing equally imaginary kittens, weaving long-stemmed flowers into superhero capes for the three of them, and having long conversations with the trees, boulders, flowers, and bushes. And brambles. And big glowy blue mushrooms—those were new! He looked around, suddenly realizing he was hungry. And he couldn’t hear his parents any more, and couldn’t even smell whatever they’d decided to cook.

“I’m hungry!” said Dark. “Me too.” Said Mint. Sweet looked around, but had absolutely no idea how to get back to his parents’ camp.

“We’ve got to go back!” said Mint. “But how? I can’t hear our parents anywhere!” said Dark. Sweet sighed. They had no tracking skills at all. He added, “It’s not as if we left footprints behind us.”

They flitted about, trying to recognize which of the mushrooms and brambles they had talked to, but none of them looked more familiar than any of the others. Sweet started to think that the Great Deed they should have been concentrating on was to Not Get Lost, but it was clearly far too late for that.

Eventually, they settled down into a pile of soft moss. Dark nibbled on one of the mushrooms while Sweet tasted the sparse leaves on the brambles. “Yuck!” said Sweet. Mint sniffed the plants sadly, and wished there was a stream full of fish nearby. They finally shared one of the smaller blue mushrooms, with a few tiny white and purple ones.

Then they argued. Should they try to find their way home? Or should they sit still and hope their parents would find them? After discussion, Dark, who could fly the highest, flew straight up to look around, but there was nothing familiar to be seen from that vantage. Only more twisted dark trees and glowing blue mushrooms. And by now, even the sky was getting dark. They agreed to sleep right there in the soft moss, as the bramble-filled trees did not look the least bit comfortable.

Chocolate woke in the middle of the night, looking around bewildered at the glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and small iridescent insects crawling and flitting around under them. It was very much like being high in the sky late at night, with stars glowing all around him. It was beautiful and strange, and Chocolate was afraid to be alone in it all, before he remembered he was the superhero Sweet, with siblings Dark and Mint to keep him company. Yes, that was better. With his companions, he could be brave.

Then he heard bells, and a strange being with a jester’s cap and a swirl of golden cloths and sparkly embers floated toward him through the mushrooms.



A voice, thin and high-pitched, emerged from the blankness where a dragon’s face should rightfully be. “Oh, look! What have I found?” Then, amid the soft ringing of bells, the being said, “I bet you are hungry. Do you like pancakes with berries and syrup?”

Art


Incredible art by Skrywer