Darkness.

I was floating.

I vaguely heard something. Voices...? Too hard to make out.

Then I woke up. The last thing I remember was a cookie covered in red beads and a living, purple mushroom surrounding me with poison. Then I collapsed.

The first things I saw when I woke up were the worried, heterochromatic eyes of my best friend, Pure Vanilla. 

I freaked out, sitting up and almost headbutting Vanilla. 

"Lily?" he asked, concernedly. "You, according to Lemon, almost died. Like almost died. To quote her, 'Guess who I found 7/8 dead in a field of wildflowers.'"

I blushed lightly and turned away so he wouldn't see. "Sorry for worrying you both."

He laughed lightly. God, how I'd missed that laugh. "No need to apologize, Lily. You were the one who almost died!"

He turned suddenly, heading to the kitchen to grab cups of tea for us. "You take bitterlily tea, right?"

I nodded, impressed at how he'd remembered it. He made himself busy for the next couple of minutes making tea while I moved to the couch. 

When he came to join me, he handed me a mug of steming bitterlily tea. I inhaled deeply, savoring the umami aroma. Vanilla smiled weakly. "Do you want me to fill you in on what happened while you were..." He waved a hand around as he trailed off and I nodded.

For the next couple of hours, I listened to him tell the tale of a young cookie named Gingerbrave who sounded familiar. After he had finished, a bird flew in the window carrying a scroll. It dropped its payload on Vanilla's lap.

He picked it up and began reading, his mouth curling as he did. Once he was done, he turned to me and said,  "Lemon's sent us an invitation to the weekly gathering of the rulers of Earthbread. Wanna come?"

I nodded, and he got up and set his mug down. He pulled me up, and I did the same. He pulled me through the door, and as we went down the stairs, he almost tripped over his own feet. 

We both burst into laughter and walked the rest of the way to the marketplace happily chattering away.