Outcast [𝕮𝖔𝖔𝖐𝖎𝖊 𝕽𝖚𝖓 𝕶𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖉𝖔𝖒]

Chapter 8

Another three days had passed by since everything in GingerBrave's friend group came crashing down. Was the separation worth it? Pineapple Juice couldn't put her finger on it as she and MagicShell left Hero's Gate and entered some forest. It was like a portal connecting every area the girls went to. November had begun, and as they walked through the forest, the air was crisp. "Ooh... It's kinda cold out here," MagicShell said, shivering.

"Well, you should be used to it. You're ice cream," Pineapple Juice scoffed.

She was correct. Back on the Ice Cream Isle, it was always cold. They never knew what summer was. There was no spring, nor was there fall. Only the winter season. It constantly snowed, and kids created snow angels, snowmen, and snowball fights. MagicShell exhaled, remembering all of those times when she was little. She and her mother Granita would walk through the Ice Cream Isle and play with children in the snow. "Yeah, yeah. You can zip your mouth," MagicShell argued.

"But I don't wanna!" Pineapple Juice shouted.

"Jesus Christ- Now I see why Milk Tea keeps her distance."

But as the two girls walked through the forest, something hit Pineapple Juice's foot. "What the–"

"A mushroom spore! Quick!"

Both leaped back before the creature could explode into a puddle of poisonous liquid. They stood, eyes wide, when they reapproached the puddle. Steam radiated from the purple ooze as the two moved on, encountering more spores. MagicShell shot at them the best she could, all while taking damage. Pineapple Juice, from behind, threw vials of liquids at the shrooms, causing them to explode before coming in contact with the ice cream-haired girl. "So you make bombs?" she asked.

"Not really. Milk Tea has the magic on her side. And the kick. I have the fists and the science," Pineapple Juice responded.

"Ah. I see now."

Pineapple Juice then took out a torn piece of paper and looked at it, her right cheek puffing out in concentration. "According to this paper from a notebook my dad left behind before he died, the forest we're in originally belonged to the Pomegranate people. An entire village. And the tree should be up ahead," she explained.

"But we have to go through those areas first?"

Something flashed in Pineapple Juice's mind. Something that had to do with someone from the Pomegranate people.

~~~

Milk Tea was 7 years old. Pineapple Juice was 6 years old. Both girls were playing on the Boba Atolls shore, building sand castles and making small rivers around them with sticks. Milk Tea wore a light pink and blue bathing suit with shorts over her bottoms, her hair in two ponytails, and little brown sandals. Pineapple Juice wore a purple bathing top and black shorts, her hair in two buns with her tapioca pearls. She wore little sandals as well, plus sunscreen messily lathered on her skin. "Haha! My castle is gonna stand against the dragon!" Pineapple Juice laughed.

"So you may think. What if a giant WAVE attacked our castles?" Milk Tea asked, making sound effects and motions.

Pineapple Juice blew a raspberry at her sister and crossed her arms. "In your dreams, sis! Mine's better!" she boasted.

As the girls continued to playfully or meaningfully argue, guards that stayed by the dock hollered something. "Princesses! Go inside!"

"Someone's coming!"

"Call in reinforcements!"

Pineapple Juice and Milk Tea looked beyond the coral boundaries to see a wooden boat floating towards the beach. In it was a girl with red hair in two little buns on the sides of her head, as well as two leaf green decals. "It's Pomegranate!"