Hopping in loops and returning to search,

For memories hidden in strands with burnt edges,

A murky night passes as new light awakes,

Every path seen is a way to my heart.

Fond experiences flow to my eyes,

As I search for life in this mangled inside,

Alone in the room with my unconscious side,

Learning with shadows what home is about.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Well, as always trying to write some raccoony quote is very difficult some times. But hope the ones that love to think likes them. 

So we repeat loops of patching, breaking and repatching. To temper ourselves. We read our writen work and try to correct the broken grammar, product of our cookie eating behaviour. But everything leads to the same place. We return to the place called home, to our origin, to our mothers or fathers. To the ones that loved us or friends. Everything we do is to feel secure and be at home. Memories of home always follow us, memories that tell us to persevere, to try and never surrender. We live because we struggle, but also because our experiences define a place were we can smile. A place called home. 

I liked a quote by this guy about trees knowing more about home. It can represent this part of the story. For those not religious you can skip the little faith part. Still I think you should read it since its very inspiring. I'll leave the link at the end in authors notes. 

Everything turned dark as he unraveled his deepest pool of memories or his most cherished one. In the current darkness, there wasn’t even a thought or sense. They disappeared slowly while he did a hard-drive scanning. It was a slow process of re-patching himself up and organizing those memories.

For a strange reason, the first thing he could pick up was a smell. It was the smell of sugar turning into caramel. This smell made him open his eyes once again. He was surprised to find himself inside of a structure made of branches and threads. Before he could even ask himself where he was, a strange ‘face’ and voice entered his senses.

“My child you have finally awoken! We were so worried!” A soft voice that resembled his mother came from the strange thing before his eyes.

“Oh! He woke up, that’s nice!” Another strange creature appeared looking at him.

“…” He couldn’t express anything nor even control his limbs. ‘

The situation seemed strange to him but as time passed he found himself inside a happy family. The only difference was his color and appearance.

“Sweet tooth are you going out to play?” A voice sounded outside the house.

“I am going, wait for me!” He shouted outside to answer his friend’s call.

“Little bunny remember to get good grades at school.” Sounded a soft voice from the kitchen.

“I will mom!” He descended the stairs but went directly towards the door, without going for a hug or saying goodbye.

After exiting the house, he looked at his friend at the door. It was a brown bunny with two long teeth. It looked glossy or a little transparent.

“Come on Sweet, you know we sugar-bunnies can’t stop being impatient.” The brown bunny smirked.

“More like you can’t stop your expectations of the heroes' selection.” Sweet looked at his smaller bunny friend with a countering smile after saying that.

“Bruh, it’s so cool! Imagine if any one of us becomes the hero and gets to save Caramel Falls and all the other lands!” The smaller brown bunny shouted while doing poses.

“I get it, Nick, sorry for making you wait.” He expressed with happiness.

“Hehe, then let’s go, bro! I feel so energized that I can’t stop hopping today. My mom had to tie myself on the bed to stop me from trashing the whole place.” Nick jumped while pulling him towards the street.

The two brown bunnies entered a big crowd of people inside the plaza. There was an old bunny shouting at the center of it.

“We will all die! There is no escape of the world's doom! We need a hero! Or our loved ones, our land as we know it, will disappear!” The old bunny’s hoarse voice resounded across the crowd as they heard all of that in silence.

“What’s happening?” He asked towards nick.

“Haven’t you heard Sweet? Weren’t you paying attention in class? It’s all about the current situation of our lands. It’s the very reason why they are searching for a hero.” Nick looked at him doubtfully.

“Eh? I know about the hero's selection, but is the situation like that? I can't remember well… Why is it?” He affirmed towards Nick that he didn’t know. He massaged his face with a pained expression. 

“Because we are experiencing dire times. Food has started to go bad and many devils have appeared. Whenever such a thing happens a hero needs to be selected.” Nick reported what he learned.

“Is it that thing that’s been passed in the news every morning?” He asked nick with curiosity.

“Exactly, it’s that!” Nick affirmed. “There are some places that have been lost. Everything is secondary to The Black Forest’s Volcano. See the white smoke over there? If we don’t send the volcano the sacred offering, the god inside the volcano will kill us all!”

“Eh? And what’s the offering?” He questioned nick about such an event.

“Well… Hmmm… Only the Village elder knows. He will choose the four heroes that will take on this valiant mission of saving the world!” Nick exclaimed while moving his brown paws.

“Then shouldn’t we get going and see where the village elder wants us to go?” He asked nick after he calmed down.

“Exactly, that’s why we are here,” Nick stated while signaling at a crowd of smaller bunnies like them. “See the monument where the sage is shouting from? That monument is the object which recognizes a hero.

“Oh? But then how is it that they recognize a hero with only a statue, is there a sword inside of it or something?” He asked nick.

“No there isn’t. Actually, it’s something like checking your teeth.” Nick expressed.

“Just a teeth check-up?” Sweet looked stupidly at Nick.

The check-up took around 3 hours as four bunnies were selected from the crowd. The young bunnies were given bags containing useful things for their quests. The Elder bunny announced the names of the heroes after a Speech.

“The four heroes will depart towards the outside of our lands and complete the most important quests! They will save us from the mighty damage that has befallen our world! Rise, oh great heroes!” The elder bunny looked then towards the selected heroes.

“Nick Mellow, Cinna-Buns, Sweet Tooth and Jasper Mocha. You four bunny heroes will receive the greatest weapon in our arsenal.” The elder bunny took out 4 golden spoons from a chest and gave them towards each bunny. Then he gave them a big list which Sweet grasped after being pushed by nick. Afterward, the elder bunny explained somethings and gave them a cape and a bag for each. He finished all by exclaiming, “Now depart and save us! May the candy fairies accompany you in this ordeal.”

Four bunnies could be seen walking outside of the village. They were following the only path outside the village, one that went near the falls. All of the bunnies jumped while advancing. They held a bag in their side and a cape that came in four different colors apart from their usual clothes. The four of them stopped in the middle of the woods making a little camping zone. They had their particular food and slept until the next morning when they decided where to start their quest.

“Morning guys! Does this dress make me look cute?" asked Cinna-Buns as she hop-twirled around, showing the sugary swirls on her dress.

"Good morning, I am hungry... Cinna you look delicious! People might bite you if you look like that." Jasper yawned and then stared at Cinna-Buns. He then spoke while sizing up the only female bunny in their group.

"Why does it sound strange when you say it?" Cinna-Buns pouted. 

"Because I was lying... I mean why would I bite you?" Jasper rebutted. 

The little discussion quickly developed into a kid fight. Astonishingly Cinna-Buns was the one bullying Jasper with her golden weapon. The poor bunny laid crouching while shouting bad words at her and pleading for mercy. 

Sweet and Nick followed the noises and went out of their own tents. They looked at the morning fighting scene between the two bunnies and stared at each other while shrugging. They intervened stopping the sugar-coated quarrel and divided th3 morning tasks. After eating some rations and organizing their stuff inside their bags, Sweet went towards the team making them sure to remember their current goals.

"Okay, guys… So do you remember the things we need?" Questioned Sweet towards everyone.

"Sweet things! We need sweets! Sweet things to appease the god!" Cinna-Buns exclaimed while hopping cutely.

"Um, I think I remember eggs or something?" Nick tried to remember while scratching his left ear.

"Do you guys even understand what this list is all about? It seems to make me think of something but I just can’t get it right, any ideas?" Sweet asked for suggestions as he scanned the list with a thoughtful look.

“Isn’t it just a list? We only need to get those things and drop them towards the angry volcano’s mouth. We should just shut that angry mountain until it stops rumbling!” Jasper exclaimed with a devilish smile.

“Hmm, here I’ll recite it again so that you can remember it. What we need is…” Sweet started to recite the list of items they needed one by one. “Four Sour fish eggs, two bottles of sour-fish tears, four great tree Fruits, four spider web cushions, the seeds inside a maraca of the piñata snake. the shed skin of the piñata snake, 5 white river's duck feathers, a bottle of White river's water, a sack of brown dried swamp earth, 10 leaves of wicked trees, a red stone from the Black forest's Volcano, a sack of mashed black forest tree’s bark.”

“So does this ring any bells?” Sweet added after finishing the list.

“I may have heard of something similar to that list, but my mind doesn’t seem to touch anything at the moment.” Nick rubbed his forehead as if he was having a headache.

"These things don't sound very sweet," commented Cinna-Buns as she wrinkled her whiskers. "Tears sound sad and bitter."

“Hmm, let’s look at the other items they gave us. We have some bottles and rations, things to write… There are actually a lot of things in my bag. Oh, wait there is a map with many marks in here.” Sweet took the things out of the bag and started doing a little inventory. Thanks to that, the bunnies found a patchy map of the world outside Caramel Falls.

“Can’t we just find a taxi to take us there?” Jasper questioned the team.

“No, taxis are expensive and can’t take us there.” Nick shrugged towards Jasper’s suggestion.

"Hmm... Strange, the map seems to show 5 places we need to go to search for the things on the list." Sweet murmured as he scrutinized the map with his paws.

“What? What does it say?” Nick arrived at Sweet’s shoulder and pressed his head trying to look at the map.

"We never went outside the village before, but only we heroes with the golden spoons can save the world. Don’t you find it funny? Now we even got a map. Why are the adults so lazy?" Jasper expressed with a sarcastic expression.

"The five places are... The great tree in the Green-pea Plains, The sour-fish yellow lake, The Earthen Spices Swamp, The Smelly Cheese Mountains, and The Piñata Desert." Sweet started to tell the others of the places they needed to visit.

“Eh! Did you just say cheese?!” Jasper who was sitting on a flat tree trunk hopped, he then shouted towards the team. “Ohhhh! Cheeeseee! I want Cheese!!!”

At the same time Cinna-buns stopped her dancing around the camping area, her eyes shined as she started to shout with Jasper. "Piñata dessert! Let's go there first! That place sounds sweet! Cheese sounds too salty!"

"They forgot to mention the place for the offering. It’s good the smoke can tell us how to arrive at the volcano.” Sweet added to Nick as they ignored the shouts of the other two.

“Wait, Sweet! There are six places now?” Nick made a stressed face. The adventure appeared to be a pain in the ass to him. ‘Aren’t the adults overworking us like slaves? Also isn’t it Piñata Desert?’ He thought.

“Well, we need to go to the Black Forest and climb the volcano for the offering… So there are truly six places we have to go…” Sweet shrugged

“Okay… But the volcano would be the last, right?” Nick asked Sweet but it sounded more like an affirmation.

“Right.” Answered Sweet.

Sweet then turned around to see what the other two shouting bunnies were playing at. Nick followed Sweet and adjusted his position and sight. Cinna-Buns was staring at Jasper with a mischievous bunny gaze. Jasper adjusted his vision as both of them locked their pupils in a short competition.

"Okay guys, stop playing. We were deemed to have the most sensitive teeth among all sugar-bunnies, so each of our opinions counts. Where do you guys think we should go first?" Sweet interrupted the blinking battlefield causing both of the obsessive bunnies to jump.

Cinna-Buns hopped up and down, waving her golden spoon in excitement at the prospect of sweets. She did so while shouting. "Piñata Dessert! Piñata Dessert!"

Jasper also jumped around while shouting. “Cheeeesee!!!” His drool touched the ground as he made a strange expression.

“So Piñata Desert or Cheese Mountains?” Sweet asked towards Nick.

“I think we should save the best for the last. How about going to the sour yellow lake. That sounds somehow smelly.” Nick suggested.

‘Hey! Shouldn’t you make this easier for me by saying one of the two choices they made? Damn now I have to decide…’ Sweet thought before murmuring. “So it’s my decision then…”

Cinna-Buns pleadingly stares at Sweet Tooth.

“Your choice, your choice.” Nick passes the ball to Sweet with a dismissing hand wave.

Jasper attempts to outstare Cinna-Buns.

"Let’s go to the sour lake then since it is second in the list..." Sweet pushes the solution towards the numbered list. Since the second option was the Sour Lake, he decided to vote for that one.

Nick stares absentmindedly towards Sweet. He appeared to be confused as if not expecting them to choose his suggestion. “I won?”

“Fine…” Cinna-buns pouted.

"Hmmph!" Jasper kicked a stone and looked away.

"Why are you confused Nick, didn't you want to go there?" Sweet looked at the confused Nick on the ground.

"Um, I thought that it made sense, but I wasn't sure if it was the correct choice." Nick murmured in a daze.

They walked towards the west following the directions towards a huge yellow lake. It took them a while to arrive but for some reason, the whole trip seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

"Incredible!" Sweet watched as the sun reflected on the yellow surface of the water. Surrounding the whole lake, you could see many strangely shaped trees. The orange-colored woods twisted in curved patterns and had big fruits with strange shapes, which were similar to numbers.

"So shiny. It's like almost like honey!" Exclaimed Cinna-Buns towards the lake.

"Wow, it's so big! But what's that smell? It’s like concentrated fish…” Nick pressed his nose as if trying to get over the smell.

Jasper sips the lake, "It's Lemon… Like lemonade without sugar… Also, it tastes strange…"

Cinna-Bun also takes a sip. Her mouth puckering up. "Sswwour!"

"Well, they do call it a sour lake for some reason... Hmm, it does taste like lemon, it’s very sour..." Sweet tried to taste a bit with his spoon. After the taste, he felt a hot sensation in his mouth as it descended towards his stomach. Afterward, he expressed. "Who in their right mind would drink something like this?"

"Sswwour!" Cinna-bun reiterates, trying to spit out the sour water.

"So let’s see... The list says we need to get fish eggs and fish tears... Where do we find a sour fish? They should be inside the lake, right?" Sweet touches the lake and finds his hand melting slowly... "This is bad we can't swim!"

Jasper touched the lake’s water with his finger. “Yeah, I think we would melt inside of this if we swim in it for a long time.”

As Cinna-Bun tries to spout out the sour water, her golden spoon reflects the sunlight onto the surface of the lake.

“Oh, are you trying to send light towards the fishes? Wouldn’t that scare them?” Nick comments at Cinna-Buns futile attempt.

"Hey FISH, get over here FISH!" Jasper starts to shout towards the lake. "Come here you FISHY FISH!"

“I think this isn’t working guys…” Sweet shrugged.

The four heroes tried but nothing made the strange fishes appear. Time passed and Jasper started getting impatient.

"Ah, what if I spoon the water out?" Jasper walked around the lake before shouting.

"Our spoons seem too small for that, it will take us years... When we finish scooping the water out, the volcano might already have erupted..." Sweet Shrugged at Jasper’s suggestion.

Cinna-Bun nods in agreement to Sweet Tooth, her spoon still reflecting light onto the lake. She seemed to think that the light might make the fish curious.

Seeing no one paying attention to him, Jasper gets angry and kicks a tree. The leaves of the tree rustle and make him stare upwards. The numbered fruits give him a strange sensation as he looks back at the other bunnies that were trying their ideas.

"Guys, how about throwing these numbered fruits at the lake?" Jasper suggested.

Jasper hops over to the fruit trees. "I wonder if I can reach them."

Seeing the far away fruits in the trees, Sweet asks jasper. “Want some help?”

"Use your spoon," Cinna-Buns suggests to Jasper.

“I have an idea. Here jasper, I will help you so that you can reach higher. Everyone hops into each other shoulders." Sweet tells everyone to do a bunny ladder so that they can reach the fruits.

“Wait let me be at the bottom!” Nick comes running and stands to do a supportive pose.

"I'll take second to the top!" Cinna-Buns exclaims.

Sweet hops and holds Cinna-Buns over nick's shoulders, waiting for Jasper.

"Come on Jasper" Shouts Nick towards the watchful bunny.

"Hop!" Jasper hops to the top, accidentally landing with one foot on Cinna-Bun's head. "Woah, WOAH! Watch out! Let me get it..."

“My head!” Exclaims Cinna-Buns as the back of her head is stepped by Jasper.

The bunny ladder trembled as all of them fell towards the ground. Screams sounded as they fell.

“Oowie!” Cinna-Buns massaged her forehead after the fall.

“Ow,” Jasper was holding his arm as he landed in an uncomfortable position.

Cinna-Buns hits Jasper with her spoon.

“Wait, what you are doing?! Ah!” Jasper shouts after being spooned again by a laughing Cinna-bun.

“Ouch” Sweet touched his back that was in pain. Then he recalled. “Nick are you alright?”

A muffled voice came from below the other bunnies. After realizing Nick was suffocating beneath themselves they all separated and looked at the squashed nick.

“I… Am… Fine…” Nick breathed some air before standing up and voicing slowly. “I don’t want to be at the bottom again.

"Maybe I should be on the bottom since I am the biggest? Ouchies!" Jasper suggests while trying to evade the evil spoon. Nevertheless, he was spoon once again.

"Oh, that’s better, then let us make Cinna-Buns reach the fruits." Sweet suggests.

Jasper stands underneath the fruit, "Up you go!"

"I'll be second to the top this time. Since I'm the second smallest.” Nick states as if trying to evade the pressuring moment.

Sweet hops over Jasper's shoulders and waits for Nick. Nick then hops onto Sweet’s and waits for Cinna-Buns. Cinna-Buns climbs onto the tops of the others and starts to swat the fruits off their stems with her spoon.

"One fruit! Two fruits! Three fruits! Many fruity fruits!" She sings as she hits the fruits.

"Hnngh!" Jasper starts to grit his teeth trying to maintain balance.

"Come on Cinna-bun, Jasper is trembling!" Sweet hurries Cinna-Buns to take the fruits faster.

"Yay, yay, let's go" Seeing Cinna-Buns taking faster action he starts to cheer.

"Cinna-Buns' Bun-Bun buns are too heavy!" Jasper starts shouting towards the sky.

One by one the fruits start tumbling down until one hits Jasper in the head, knocking everyone all off balance. With the following pain and spooning from Cinna-Buns towards Jasper, The team finally procured some fruits. They had one fruit for each bunny, which they were going to use in an attempt to draw the fish.

"So how are we going to use these fruits to take out that fish?" Asked Nick.

“Maybe we should cook them since they are in the lake it can be that guy’s food.” Sweet mentioned.

“Fishing?” Cinna-Buns touched her lips while thinking. “But we don’t have a rod or thread…”

“Then I have a better option,” Jasper smirked while grabbing one of the fruits and raising it. "We bombard the ugly fish with fruit!"

“Hurray!” Nick exclaimed at the idea. "Bombard the lake sound nice, these strange fruits give me headaches."

"Yeah, I got a headache too!" Jasper says while rubbing his head where the spoon then the fruit hit him. Jasper looked at Nick while holding his selected fruit.

"Well then let's throw them!" Sweet shouts while taking a medium-sized fruit.

Cinna-Buns sticks her tiny tongue out at Jasper before taking the smallest one. She then catapults the fruit into the lake with her spoon.

Sweet launches his fruit towards the lake, it goes across the sky doing a parabolic arc, before creating a splash sound.

Nick picks up a fruit and carries it before letting it roll slowly until it entered the lake. "Too heavy…”

"I can throw farther!" Shouts Jasper before grabbing a fruit and doing a hopping throw into the lake. Jasper looks at their attempts and gives a hearty throw, then he exclaims towards the lake after his magnificent throw. "Hahaha, I will get you FISH!"

(Rumbling sounds came from the lake)

"Wow, so strong! How did you do that Jas-“ Nick turned to look at the place where Jasper threw his fruit, but he was interrupted by another sound before finishing.

The calm water surface appeared to be disturbed by something approaching from its depths.

(Splash!)

"Wait, what's that?" Asked Nick after seeing the big shadow that escaped from the lake’s surface.

"Damn is that supposed to be a fish? It looks like a bus to me!" Sweet shouted trying to answer Nick when the silhouette was clear.

"It’s a… Big fish!" Expressed Cinna-Buns with shiny eyes.

“…” Nick gulped and started to run away. Everyone understood and followed suit until reaching a safe location.

 In the middle of the lake, the gigantic orange fish opened its mouth. The whole jaw made it have an expression uglier than an orc. It stared at the four bunnies before shouting with its jaws:

"I HAAATTTEEE MATTHHH!!!"

After the resounding shout, many fruits fell inside the sea. The fish started crying and releasing yellow sour liquid from its eyes. All the bunnies stared at the crying fish with a stupefied expression.

“But math is easy!” shouted Cinna-Buns. "3+3 is EIGHT and 7+7 is a TRIANGLE, I remember another... Eh, I forgot?" Cinna-Buns rubs her right ear with her golden spoon. 

"Why is the fish crying the same water as the lake? Don't tell me that the whole lake is actually made from fish tears?" Questioned Sweet towards the crowd.

“So he cries acid?” Nick murmured.

"Perhaps we should teach the fish math?" Jasper tried to come with a solution.

"Oh, that's a very good idea... The lake is surrounded by fruits... The fish cries because he hates the numbered fruits!" Sweet made pauses while trying to decipher a mysterious puzzle. "Imagine it, every time a fruit falls, the fish gets a headache!"

Crying sounds came closer as the fish stared at the bunnies and shouted. "Why are you throwing math inside my lake? Don't you know I hate all of that?"

“Eh, we are sorry! We thought you would like it because they are around your lake…” Nick scratched while trying to apologize. Following him, every bunny made an apology. Cinna-Buns then went towards the fish.

“Mr. Fish, why do you hate the math fruits?” She asked with puppy eyes towards the giant fish.

"I don’t like them because they are all around the lake, but I can't remove them!" Expressed the fish.

“Are you bad at math, do you want us to teach you?” Jasper shouted towards the big fish, who nodded embarrassingly.

Cinna-Bun hopped and went to play with the fruits. She lined them up in the mathematical equations and then said towards the fish. "Look! Math can be fun."

The other bunnies surrounded the fish and explained simple math to it, most of the fruits only had simple numbers. The fish didn't know them well since it only had two fins by the side to use as hands. It couldn't count more than two. With the help of the bunnies, the fish learned he could count the fruits or rocks in the lake, and stopped doing it with its 'hands'.

The fish gave them some orange eggs and helped them gather the lake's water, which had a strange fishy and acidic smell when concentrated.

-----------------------------------------------TWO + TWO = FISH <>

________________________________________

Nick-mellow 

"Yay. We got the eggs. And the tears. Now we can go to the next place and get away from this horrible smell."

________________________________________

Sweet Tooth

I thank my friends, they did an incredible job.

________________________________________

Cinna-Buns

Levels Up! [Cinna-Bun gains the skill, Sugar Kiss]

________________________________________

Jasper Mocha

Victory fanfare plays in the background.

_______________________________________

Spoiler: Spoiler

I'll just leave this question here... Why do humans count till 10? Is it because we have 10 fingers to count? Then it should be normal for a fish to count until two, since its 'hands' or whichever fin you like to say is the hand, can only count as 1... Well nice for children though. 

 Image of the lake: