Chocolate Delight

Once upon a time there were three siblings who lived happily together in a little chocolate house. It was no coincidence that there house was made of chocolate, no, in fact the three of them had made it themselves with the very use of their talents. You see, the three of them were world renowned chocolatiers.
Fondant, the eldest at 20, was a dark-skinned lad with black hair that absorbed any light that shone upon it, brown eyes the colour of raisins and a very bright smile. The second sibling, an 18 year old girl, was called Lait, she had skin as white as ivory, eyes a pale amber that was rumoured to shine in the dark and hair so blonde it came close to gold. The youngest then, the baby brother of the lot at 14, was called Crème, he had a creamy, golden skin, with brown hair the colour of praliné and eyes that displayed swirls of white, yellow and beige.
The three of them had left the house of their parents shortly after Fondant had become an adult and now had lived together harmoniously for 2 years. Well harmoniously...

"Fondant!" Lait shrieked, "You made the chocolate too dark again!"
"If it's like this then it's your fault for not giving me the right measurements of milk to add. I don't know what you're thinking, you know." Fondant replied back impatiently.
"How am I supposed to make the accessories stand out if they're not lighter than the background?" Lait muttered angrily.
Crème in the meanwhile hid silently in the cupboard he'd been sleeping in. Lately, it always was like this. Fondant and Lait yelled and argued, and he himself too, found that it was hard not to yell and scream when things went wrong. Things hadn't always been like this. The three of them had built the chocolate house together and it was perfect by all standards. Maybe it was because the three of them had gotten along so well back then that their powers complemented each other. Fondant, who could make chocolate appear out of nowhere would be nothing without Crèmes ability to shape even the biggest block of chocolate to the wanted shape and size and his skill too would be insufficient to live off without Lait's special knack of making the tiniest, cutest, most lifelike details that made their creations so unique.
Crème snuggled deeper into the cupboard and sighed when the scent of chocolate, a scent that had always been around him, enveloped him with a feeling of home and comfort. If only he could do something to make his siblings see that they needed each other, that they couldn't fight like this. If only he could make something... wait, maybe he could!
"You better make some new lighter chocolate." Lait told Fondant and then left her brother to figure out just what colour the chocolate should be.
Fondant sighed when he was alone and as he dropped the previous chocolate in a bowl to later dispose of it, he started thinking that maybe taking a break wouldn't be too unreasonable for him to take after he'd been scolded by his younger sister, who had caused the trouble herself in the first place. There'd been a time when Lait had told Fondant to the smallest flickering, the smallest subcolour of colours just what she wanted to have happen. It were these instructions that had always made it easy for him to make her what she wanted. Lately though, Lait hadn't given those anymore. Fondant assumed it all had something to do with why his younger sister was always staying out late and giggling about.
"I should just tell her to quit..." he sighed and then went out the door.
Meanwhile, under the counter, Crème was frozen in fright, had his brother really said that their sister should quit the business? But without Lait to finish of their work, it wouldn't be special anymore. Were things really that bad between the two of them? And if they decided to quit, then who would Crème go with? Who would he follow?
The thought was just impossible to even imagine. No, Crème leapt up from his hiding place, took the bowl of chocolate and chased off to the back door. He would make something for Fondant and Lait to realise that they needed each other.

Lait stormed out feeling like she wanted to scream her lungs out in frustration. She finally gave her brother some more responsibility now that it seemed as if he'd at least have an inkling of knowledge about what she wanted and he screwed it up, blaming her no less. That was so unfair. Lait bristled and took the all familiar road that leaded north.
It didn't take her long before she reached the clearing at the side of the road where her little garden was. She knew Fondant misunderstood why she was always coming home late, but she let him, after all one day she would be late because of that. But for now, the little garden and the animals were all she needed. They had been left to her by the old man she had met by accident and taken care of in the last months of his life.
Keeping them in addition to her work as a chocolatier was pretty time-consuming and maybe she hadn't really been working as she had before, but Lait also didn't want to leave all this behind. It was something that was hers only. Something special...

"Lait!" Fondant called again and again, his uneasiness and worry growing with every shout.
He needed to find Lait fast, she had always been the mature one, even if two years younger than him. With the news he'd just received, they needed to act fast and he just didn't know how to. Fondant had always been a slow-thinking, careful person. He didn't know how to deal with the situation.
Finally he saw Lait walking down the road that led into the hills. What could she have been doing there? As far as Fondant could remember, there was nothing there worth the trouble of going. That didn't matter now though...
"Lait!" he called out, "You've got to come..."
Lait looked at her brother wondering what had gotten into him. Sure she'd run away in anger, but nothing she'd said had been big enough for him to act like this...
"It's Crème!" Fondant added, "They've kidnapped him!"
"What?!" Lait shrieked.
"I don't know how or when... I was on a break, walking outside when I heard a few people saying they'd seen Crème being dragged away by a few boys slightly older. I didn't think anything of it, but when i returned there was a note on the door. They've really kidnapped him, Lait, they want money or they won't let him go!"
Lait felt the shock creep into her heart when she heard something bad might have happened to her little brother. Her face must have mirrored Fondant's because he looked even more panicked when he noticed something had phased her this bad.
"You need to help." Fondant stammered, "You're the strong one."
"I'm the strong one?" Lait asked, "As if, you won't even let me go out on my own without spying on me. If I was strong I would have told you to stop sneaking around spying on me."
"You're the one who's of with some guy while Crème got kidnapped."
"Don't blame this on me!" Lait shouted, "You were out on a break... And I was just feeding animals. Not running around with some guy like you'd presume I was. But you know, what if I had been? Would that have been wrong?"
Fondant sighed, the mental bashing returning him to a somewhat more normal state of sanity, "No, I guess it wouldn't." he sighed.
"So what do we do now?" Lait asked.
"We prepare the money for the ransom?"
"Like hell we will, we worked hard for that money. We'll go look for Crème and bust him out. After all, they were only a couple of guys his age that took him. We can take them easily."
"But we don't know who they were or where they took him. We can't turn the whole village upside down."
"Who says we can't? Besides, they'll be hiding somewhere a bit more sheltered than a living house. Let's go..."

Crème sat on the ground in the dark, stuffy room he'd been brought to. Just when he'd finished his project and he'd been so happy about it, someone had called his name. And when he'd turned around to react, he'd been hit on the head with something hard and heavy.
When he'd come to, he'd been here and his project had been damaged. Seeing as he was alone, Crème had all the time in the world to work on it again, but it was hard to repair the cracks in the dark chocolate after it had hardened.
Crème sighed. Just thinking of home, his brother and sister, he wondered just what he had gotten himself into. He'd been so determined to get them to talk to each other again, and now he'd just added to their stress. They were probably fighting already, blaming each other and forgetting that he wasn't there...

"Are you sure it's here?" Fondant asked Lait.
Lait turned around with a frustrated look on her face, "If we can trust that old lady who says she saw the son of the linen sellers dragging Crème off, than he should be here. I used to be friends with his older sister and she told me her brother didn't venture out of his hidden camp. Boys don't change that easy."
"Boys change over the course of three years." Fondant interjected.
"Not the stupid ones that think they can take money by kidnapping someone."
Fondant shrugged.
"Here we go."
Lait opened the wooden shutters that led down into the underground storage room where the linen family used to keep their provisions before modern technology had invented the deep freeze and the refrigerator.
"Crème?" Lait called.
It took a time for the dust to settle, but once it did, Fondant and Lait could see their younger brother sitting on the dirt floor, something dark in his hands, looking up at them with surprised eyes.
"You came?" he asked.
"What did you expect?" Lait chided him, "That we'd leave you here?"
"If Fondant thought you should quit, then why would he come look for me?"
"I never told Lait to quit." Fondant said as he worked his body through the narrow opening and down the ladder, "In fact, I want her to work more in stead of wasting her time elsewhere."
"I'm not wasting my time, I'm taking care of animals. I told you."
"You're fighting again." Crème said softly, "I don't like it when we fight."
He held out the bunny he'd been making, "It kind of got broken, but I wanted to give you something. It's not finished without sis' work though."
"Oh." Fondant said, holding the delicately formed chocolate bunny to the light, "It's very nicely done."
"Let me see!" Lait said, grabbing the bunny from Fondant's hands, "Ah yes, the best thing you ever made little bro. Too bad it got broken... but if I add a bit of milk chocolate here... and maybe a white chocolate bow here and some..."
"I couldn't make her leave if I wanted to." Fondant said, "See how she's obsessed?"
Loud noises from the outside started flowing into the little hideout. Voices of young men, sounding angry.
"We've been found out." Fondant said, shaking Lait's shoulder to get her to return to reality, "And even if you said I could take them on, trust me, five adversaries are going to win from little old me."
"Hide?" Crème suggested.
"But where?" Lait asked, "It's not exactly big inside here.
"There's some boxes at the back. I used them as a table to put the chocolate on."
"It's worth a shot." Fondant shrugged, running ahead to the back of the storage room.
There were boxes indeed, but all of them turned out to be either full or too small to fit a human inside. There was just one box left, the biggest one that reached the ceiling and would be large enough for even Fondant to stand in, but it would also be the most evident hiding place.
"It's all we got." Lait said, prying it open and looking inside, "It's rather dark in here..."
A sudden shift in the balance of the world made them lose their balance and before they knew it, they were pulled into the void.
There was blackness for a short time, and then water, sand and sun.
"Where are we?" Crème asked when he opened his eyes.
"I have no clue." Lait said, "The beach?"
"I bet he knows..." Fondant said as a tall, blond-haired man walked towards them.
"Hello there!" the man called, "Are you guys ok?"
"I guess." Lait said, "Who are you?"
"I'm Lucas." the man said, "And you probably don't realise it yet, but you're not on your own world anymore. This place is called Lantessama and seeing as you've dropped in out of the Elsewhere I assume you'll be interested in a dragon from one of our clutches. it always works this way..."
"A dragon?" Lait asked surprised, but unable to mask the glitter of interest in her eyes.
"See?" Lucas replied dryly, "Follow me, Lady, Gentlemen."

HATCHING
As usual a bunch of unique weird-looking creatures had gathered for the Easter Egg Hunt at Lantessama, bunnies, chickens, humans -always a minority around this time of year, and guardians. Cyan got a headache when she tried to imagine just how hard to write their names would be and yelled to get the attention of the noisy crowd.
"Listen up! The Egg Hunt is now open, so go find the eggs!"
Cheering erupted and the candidates moved out in small groups, each taking the direction they were sure destiny was in. Cyan closed her eyes and relaxed. Silence was so nice and comfortable after a near sleepless night.
The last candidates, Lait, Crème and Fondant didn't even bother to go out to look for eggs. Only half an hour after the other candidates had left the area surrounding the famous chocolatier siblings smelled of delicious molten chocolate and the three were busy crafting the masterpiece that would be tonight's desert. A large egg it was, cracked on both sides with either a chick or a bunny head protruding.
It didn't take long for the nearby hatchlings to gather around the scent. Two bunnies and a chicken had been eagerly watching the three of them while they were making food, and more than that they had been watching the little chunks of leftover chocolate that were thrown in a large bowl.
"You want some?" Fondant called toward them.
A brown to black-coloured male bunny took a few steps forward and eagerly pushed his head in the bowl, reappearing with a snout smeared in liquid chocolate. His eyes closed in bliss and he nearly passed out in Fondant's arms as his full stomach demanded sleep to process the chocolate.
"Hey hey, you can't sleep here. Wake up!"
"Hazel is tired..." the bunny yawned, "Sleep where?"
Fondant sighed and placed the bunny below one of the tables, tucked away in a leftover tablecloth that would keep it warm.
Meanwhile Lait was having a hard time keeping a white-beige chicken female from stealing her chocolate ornaments before she could place them on the master piece.
"Keep away Butter! There's leftover chocolate in the bowl which is just as good as this one."
"But it isn't pretty!" the bunny sulked, "I want pretty chocolate."
"You stop giggling!" Lait called toward Crème, followed by a "Make her something will you!"
"Make me something too!" a yellow-beige bunny begged when Crème passed her and she squealed happily when Crème motioned for her to follow.
"So what's your name?" he asked.
"I'm Praline." the female announced happily, "And I want to eat like this every day."

Crème and Yellow/Beige Praline (f)
Fondant and Brown/Dark Brown/Black Hazel (m)
Lait and White-Yellow/Beige Butter (f)

ADULTHOOD
Hazel rolled around in the grass, his two front paws locked on a dark chocolate chicken figurine. It was bliss. All day every day was like a dream for the brown chocolate bunny. He helped a bit in the chocolatier shop, which mostly meant being petted by children and getting offered broken chocolate.
Then at lunch he got 'paid' with another figurine and then he was free to run around on the meadows and roads around his home. People knew him and he was often called. Often times he got all kind of yummy treats from these people. People were nice really.
And at night he was able to crawl up either on the porch or in front of a cosy fire where he and his siblings were read from fairy books, or engaged in small talk and was petted by Fondant. Life truly was bliss.

Brown/Dark Brown/Black Hazel (m)

Praline took over Hazel's shift at the store, enjoying the children more than ever. She had already been a guest at the local preschool this morning. She was a guest there often, about once a week she went there to play with the kids. She would have done it for fun, but the nice teachers there insisted she take at least some payment in the form of healthy biscuits and fruit. Praline never did mention that she didn't really like fruit.
A lot of children often came to the store in the afternoon. Even if they weren't going to buy anything. Praline occupied herself with them until their mothers returned. She truly loved to hear their stories and opinions. The children made her happy.
But not as happy as her rider could still make her. Crème, her rider, walked out of the melting room for a second and beckoned for her to come. Praline knew what that meant. He would give her one of his creations. Though they weren't as pretty without Lait's finishing touch, the pieces he made for her always tasted the best. Life truly was bliss.

Yellow/Beige Praline (f)

Butter squawked when one of Lait's animals came too close to the road. The little lamb looked up frightened and hastily returned to it's mother. The older animals were well trained, never straying further than 10 metres from the chick dragon. It was the younger ones that posed the problem.
Butter eased her vigil for a bit and dreamed of the wonderfully perfect sugar candy she'd receive when the chocolatier shop closed and Lait would come here. Normally she'd have to stay and work, but with her secret of caring for the animals out, the three of them had worked out a schedule for her to manage combining the two. Butter watched them from morning till night. Lait dropped her off, visited her during noon and stayed with them all in the early evening. Then the animals were brought to the stables and they returned home.
So far the schedule seemed to be working. And though Butter still missed the close contact with her bond, in her mind they were constantly together. And she'd just seen the prettiest ornamental candy decoration she'd ever dreamed off. And if she read her bond right, it was hers. Life truly was bliss.

White-Yellow/Beige Butter (f)

Lantessama Isle