Still more hours on the beach with nothing to do. Doorwell's getting bored here without her lyre, and she also gets tired without her sweets. I feel so weakened now, and I'm out of candies to compensate for that feeling. I became so weak and helpless that I couldn't smile like before. Meanwhile, there are humans who do.
"Ugh...mhm..."
I lay on my stomach again, trying to keep my already hurtful wings from being hurt more. My stomach began to rumble with a hunger that I knew only one day would come. Without sweets to eat, I became hungrier as a dog.
"I need sweets..."
I looked at my parents again, seeing them still enjoying the lyre they were taking away from me. My cookie skin was too weak to approach them, but I'm not looking for entertainment today. My body only hoped for anything sweet enough as the L.O.V.E candies.
"Dorriel? What's the matter, dear?" My father stopped to see her daughter crawling at him.
"Can I...have...sweets?" I plead, body limping and eyes tired.
"Aww, I'm sorry. We couldn't have that, unfortunately. Remember what the doctors said?"
They refused me. Doorwell was only hoping for a taste of sweetness to alleviate her pain, but they didn't understand it. I can't believe that I couldn't even eat one! What could've possibly gone wrong with me eating these candies, anyway? I've gotten much stronger and happier since I took my first wrap.
"Huu...hm?"
My eyes were glaring at a pile of cotton candy littered on the sand. Such a waste of sweets! That pink sugar was now covered in definitely salty and yucky sand. But these littered candies carried so much memory with just a sight.
"Ooh..."
My eyes were opened, and I saw my fingers reaching for that sand-covered cotton candy. My mouth was munching on it, savouring every sugar and sand on it. I feel terrible, as if I am eating the worst case of candy. But my human parents stopped me.
The candy was gone, thrown away from my grip and returned to the sand. My mouth was littered with both, and my body felt even weaker. My brother? I don't know...I had never seen him since he was around with his bloomed one. I need to eat something sweet.
"Doorwell, get that off your mouth! That isn't edible, dear." My mother slapped the cotton candy off of my sand.
"Aww...I'm just hungry, mother..."
"Well, why don't we eat something salty instead? Maybe something like this cream-salted sausage? Who knows if this is good or not..."
My mom tried to give me something terrible to eat. My nose immediately caught this terrible scent and was repulsed. Its salty taste was too strong, and my stomach wiggled in displease. I quickly cover my mouth with my hands, rudely informing my mother that these are not for me. She didn't take it lightly, and so I wasn't too happy.
"Eugh! Eww, no!"
"Alright, Dorriel. I guess you just wasted the best treat in your life." She ate that before me! Such endurance.
"I guess Dorriel can have air for breakfast."
I return to my boring silence again, watching the tide going back and forth to the coast without a stop. The humans are having fun again, and bloomers are still as miserable as before. But now, my hunger has claimed me once more, turning me even worse than weakened.
"Huhuhu...I'm so hungry..."
"Huhuhu...I'm so tired..."
"Huhuhu...I'm the side Joyling again..."
My head is fleeting when it shouldn't, my eyes are tiring, and my limbs have finally gone numb—but death is far from my reach. It was only another sleep again, and when Doorwell was sleepy, she could sleep for long.
Soon enough, my eyes were closed, and I slept on this mattress again. At last, for a moment of peace, it is the least suffering I could have for today without a sweet. Still a suffering for me, and still a terrible day to start a human life now.
"Zzz..."
—————————————————————————————————
Oh, this weird feeling. It was never far from me when I was a newly baked cookie and a Joyling. The sweets that the humans made had always been made for me, and who's to say I can deny that? Factories were filled with honey and sugar to the roof back then.
Little Doorwell was a new cookie from the oven, and she was as fragile as a cup of glass. Her cookie legs could not sustain the pressure of her body, and her cookie arms were frozen in place. She was limping, mostly because her dough was undercooked from the inside. Sebastian wasn't a good baker.
"Aww...huhuhu..."
"Pearl was rude to me...why? Huhuhu...my cookie...skin..."
And Little Doorwell wasn't an important character, either. She was a punching bag for everyone, especially the old, mean Pearl and her pompous face—A sparkling spar, to be exact. Whenever I was done—or she was done—I was left with a messy and troubled look because my cookie dough easily crumbled.
"My dough...is wet..."
"I'm almost...crumbling..."
"I need...I need to eat...sweet..."
If I remember correctly, I was on an episode for "Love in the Sea", where I had to help Pearl with two Joylings we were supposed to match at the edge of the beach. But I was too weak and uncooperative with my fragile dough, and I made Pearl unhappy.
"Mr Sebastian, w-what's happening here? Why are these humans throwing these precious sugars on the...moving table...?"
I was there, witnessing the humans making these candies along with him on the upper floor. So many eyes and so many hands are busy that day, except Sebastian and mine. He looked at me and smiled when he heard my question. With one smile, he approaches me as if he has been waiting for his favorite cookie to come.
"Ah, there is my favourite cookie! Who's to say you weren't here under my control?"
"You...were asking me to be here...? What about my show?"
"Your show can wait, my precious cookie. But there's something I wanted you to see first before we can go."
Sebastian brought me closer to the production line, even offering me to see every moment when these ingredients were mixed into a funny flat candy. They have a strong, sweet smell that had me tempted so much to eat them, and to my surprise, Sebastian was giving me one!
"Do you like this? I gave you one, remember?"
"I know! But...why? I already ate one..."
"Well, who's to say you couldn't eat more? Today, I'm giving you a trip to the making of your greatness. These candies are made just with the right hands of Sweet Sustenance Association to make a Joyling like you to be happy!"
"*Gasp* Is that so...? Then I should eat it!"
I eat my second wrap, and the sweet taste of the candy immediately puts me in a trance. There was this weird feeling of wobbly in my head when I walked with my heads up. It felt like I was running in a circle with a wheely foot. It makes me think that they should design a shoe with a wheel underneath.
But I feel stronger! I feel amazing like I could run and fly anywhere I wanted to with this candy. It's a magical candy but without a spark of one. My wings immediately stretched out mighty, and my eyes widened with passion. My cookie skin immediately recovered as if nothing happened.
I could fly for an entire day without a rest, and nobody could stop me. I felt a stretch in my dough skin that immediately strengthened my passion for love even more. If my lyre was here, I would've given all of these humans some happiness and love in a song!
"Woah! Haha!"
"Wee! Woo! Look at me, I'm flying like a butterfly!"
"Woo!"
I made everyone in the facility scared, maybe because Doorwell was too excited about her sugar. But she has so much power and passion within her that she can't hold. Some had even left me because they couldn't endure my tenderness for sweets.
"Good girl. Very good girl..."
Sebastian was only watching me with a smile while I snagged more of these candies from the line. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't disappointed in me, but he didn't stop me when I flew over an entire pile of L.O.V.E candies on the end of the line like a hungry bee. I picked my nectar wisely and promisingly.
"Keep eating those candies, and you'll be the sweetest, softest cookie in this studio in no time. Not just for a side-show, but also for the main show!"
"Are you willing to do so, Doorwell sweetie? Are you ready to become the matchmaker you were destined with?"
Since then, my life has changed from a simple side character in Pearl and Dawn's show to my personal episode for the humans. I was given more than just a cookie skin and a lyre—I was a star for Love Bloom Lullaby for as long as I remained sweet and consumed.
"Introducing...Doorwell Lovemore, the sweetest, softest and..."
"The loveliest cookie in the world!"
My heart beats faster, and when I receive my first room, it beats even faster. The excitement flowed a river of joy, and a few Joylings started to praise me. If it wasn't for candy, I would have never made it past the side, dull character I was once.
—————————————————————————————————
"I wanted to eat more," I said to myself. The smell of that candy was so memorable that I could still repeat that day over and over again in my head. It smells so amazing, but was out of my reach. Even I still smell it now.
*Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff*
"Huh?"
No, that candy was real. My eyes were opened by this dream, and my nose immediately caught the scent of that euphoric honey from a distance. Not long enough, I find the source coming out of a fallen purple candy on the sand.
"Wait...is that...?"
My eyes weren't deceiving me. Those are the original L.O.V.E candies that Mr. Sebastian gave to me many years ago. It was lying there, untouched and unsanded. Surprisingly, it just flew by my foot and lay here as if the human world was answering my prayer.
"W-what? How can it be...?"
I tried grabbing the candy with my bare hand, slowly trying to make a silent feast without my parents knowing. But the candy just decided to play with me and back off—Yes, it walked off by itself. It somehow looks at me as if I'm the one who did it.
"Hey..."
I grabbed it again, but it only moved away from my fingers. The wind might have been hurling it by accident, and the candy didn't want to be distant from me. I forgive this little candy because he was being too sweet, but I realize that he's not going close to me.
"Wh-what? Come on!"
Now I'm certain the candy was toying with me. It may fool me twice, but expecting thrice from Doorwell is not a wise decision. Such rudeness only made this day even more tiring for me. But without candy in my present, I could not let it leave me.
"Urgh! Come back here!"
Me and the candy didn't get along well, and I had to settle for a run! Ugh, Doorwell didn't like exercising without her candy, and now she's crawling with pale dough and shaky feet. Candy will be mine, even if my parents would find me munching on another!
"D-Dorriel! What are you doing?"
"Daughter, not again!"
My body was beyond my control to focus, but the candy was never far from my sight. Mother and father were behind me, but I was persistent in catching that candy before I could return home.
"Come back here!"
I couldn't think of anything else but the candy. It just fled from my presence, and I was looking at its wrapper being a bit wobbly and stretched by something—also hooked onto something.
"Ouch!" I've been crashing into things whenever I get too close to the candy. Some include chairs, umbrellas, mats, some awkward bloomers, and I just crashed into one of those kids' crab cages again. Safe to say they didn't like it.
"Watch it, kiddo!"
"Terrible!"
"You again? Don't even think about it!"
The candy was playing with me. If it didn't, it wouldn't have teased me with its wrapper and wiggled around in the sand just to have my attention. I've never run this far in two months, and my parents are still tailing on me.
"Dorriel, stop! It's just a candy!" My mother yelled from behind.
"Ugh, this lyre is slowing me down. We need to take it down..."
"That's Dorriel's lyre! Don't throw it unless you're ready to tell her you're a bad father!"
"I'm not a bad father!"
—————————————————————————————————
"AHA!"
"Think you get away again? The only place you were going to be is in my mouth!"
Alas, I caught this mischievous candy way at the edge of this coast. My hat is off, my visor is gone, and I think I had a few wood pieces in my cookie skin when I crashed into those human umbrellas. But at least I was alone with my candy.
Somewhere, it was rocky with an arch above my head, and I couldn't tell if I had passed a garden. I was too far away, and I didn't even realize my human parents were following me! In the end, I could only enjoy feasting on this candy to satiate myself.
*Nom* *Nom* *Nom*
It feels so good to eat candy again. The old taste of that honeydew mixed with a berry was not too much different than yesterday. It was even fresher! Fresh from the factory. I recognize this kind of warmth only the studio had ever made. How nostalgic and inspiring for me to finally earn my sweetness back after months of starving.
"Hahahaha! Woo!"
"Hehehe! Yeah!"
And the happiness return! Doorwell is back and stronger, ready to fly and swim through the air like she does. Oh, if only the feeling could last even out of the candy. But now, Doorwell felt like she could run miles. If only she has a place to run over.
"Wow, this is really the candy!"
"It's amazing how I still have it. Haha!"
"But...how did it get here?"
That moment of happiness suddenly turns sour when I finally get a hold of my wrapper tightly. The candy I was eating her was clearly the original love I'd been eating in the studio. But that shouldn't be possible when the studio has been destroyed. Moreover, a candy didn't move on its own!
"This is...weird. I don't like this! What happened here?"
"H-hey, candy? Where did you...get to move...like that...hehe?"
Out of nowhere, a needle flies towards my cheek. It was a sharp needle, and it was hitting right with my pale, uncooked dough. But when I tried removing it, my arms wiggled like noodles, and I fell even worse than without the candy.
My eyes began to see things, and I couldn't expect to move any further from my position. But somewhere, I can hear something coming at me through the bushes. Is Frowling hiding before me? Only a Frowling knew I favour these. But Doorwell wouldn't be able to meet them in the human world!
"Huh...no? What happened...to me...?"
"Mom...dad...Darren...help...ugh—ouch..."
I felt so weak, but in a way where I was numbed without my will. My human parents were nowhere to be found, but I started to see someone coming at me. It was a human! Yes, they could come to help me out of this terrible sickness before I crumble.
"Well, well, well. Looks like the sweet tooth got the best of you, isn't it?"