Tahlea Grande bit her lip in concentration, working the flesh gently between her teeth as she carefully poured the amethyst-colored liquid gently into the long-necked bottle that lay on top of the platform over the Bunsen burner. As it flowed slowly downward and into the mix, it bubbled and burbled, thin tendrils of purple rising and falling amid the bursting bubbles that lined the churning surface, climbing up the sides of the bottle.

Tahlea smiled in satisfaction, releasing the pent up breath that she had been holding with a loud whooshing sound, stepping back from the table. She wasn't certain that she would have been able to do it but, here in front of her, was the proof that she had succeeded in recreating the purple lozenges that Dr. Chartruese had made for her when she was sick with a cold a few months ago.

Ever since then, she had been craving the thick, honey-sweet discs and wished that Dr. Chartreuse had the time to make her some more; she had an incredibly prolific sweet tooth and, when the mood for sweets overtook her, she was known to prowl in the kitchen and rifling through the ice-box for cake or some other kind of sweet pastry.

She grinned sheepishly as she thought of it. Her occasional nocturnal visits to the kitchen in the early hours of the morning sometimes got on the wrong side of the head cook, a large woman dressed in a white tunic with black slacks, with piercing emerald-green eyes and steel-grey hair bound up in a serviceable bun at the nape of her neck. She'd been there for over twenty years, ruling the kitchen with an iron fist and she made no secret of the fact that she considered Tahlea's prowling to be an unwelcome intrusion on what she considered her exclusive territory. As far as she was concerned, once the kitchen closed for the night it was closed for the night, and there were no exceptions to that rule, regardless of the circumstances and especially not for a late-night sweet run.

Dr. Chartreuse, knowing that she sometimes had a craving for sweets that bordered on the incredible, sympathized with her in the matter and later had a chat with the head cook. The woman, though grudgingly, had agreed to allow her to prowl on those evenings when she had her sweet cravings but she wasn't at all happy about it. Although she stood on Chartreuse's right, standing slightly behind him when he met and talked with the cook, the woman's piercing eyes flickered over to her. Tahlea hadn't missed the pointed look that the woman had given her and she sighed, knowing that she had crossed a line somewhere as far as the cook was concerned although she suspected it was a line that the woman herself had drawn and not an actual rule.

At any rate, the head cook had never passed up an opportunity since to give her a dagger-like look whenever she saw her in the kitchen; she made no other comment and flounced off in the opposite direction after making sure that Tahlea wasn't up to any mischief in her kitchen.

Although it had hurt at first since she did like her and the amazing meals and desserts that she made with quality and skill, Tahlea quickly learned to pay no mind to her, concentrating on what she was craving at any given moment. She was surprised, although mildly confused, when she and the head cook seemed to get along much better that way; Tahlea she chalked it up to the oddness and perversity of the mortal human make-up.

She dragged her wandering thoughts back to what she was doing, watching the mixture bubble with intense concentration, waiting for the right moment to add the orange-yellow concoction that lay on the table next to her elbow. The scent of lavender honey filled the room, making Tahlea's mouth water at the memory of just how good those lozenges had tasted melting in her mouth, the sweetness exploding with an intense, heavenly flavor. She remembered that the lozenges had also soothed her congested chest and sore throat quite nicely and was very grateful to her Creator for being so kind as to make them for her.

Once she had recovered from her cold a few of weeks later, she thought about asking the good doctor to make her some more but he had been very busy lately with other matters that were much more important than making her some candy.

She thought about asking one of Chartreuse's lab assistants else to help her out but, seeing that he had the only copy of the recipe on his desk in office in the lab, she couldn't very well ask someone else to go rifling through his papers. Not only would it border on rude and Chartreuse himself would be understandably angry but one of the doc's odder creatures that sometimes had the run of the lab might have an encounter with an unfortunate assistant which would probably end badly for the said assistant.

Unable to think of a viable option, she'd taken herself off to the garden in order to concentrate on the problem at hand; she liked coming here when she was in need of some time alone or when she had a think. She thought about it for awhile, her hand boxed underneath her chin, going over the pros and cons in her mind for a time before deciding to make it herself.

After all, she reasoned as she shrugged into a white lab coat before she raced to the doctor's office to pick up the recipe and next to the kitchen to gather the necessary ingredients, it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate it! She'd had some experience with mixing chemicals so it shouldn't be too hard to do while conveniently ignoring the fact that those experiments usually tended to explode.

She pushed that into the far recesses of her mind as she reached the lab, opening the door quickly and racing inside, the door shutting behind her with a loud click. She whistled as she ran, thoughts of those lovely purple lozenges dancing through her head.

And, now, she stood on the precipice as she watched the mixture bubble and boil within the bottle after she'd added a few drops of the orange-yellow concoction to the bubbling purple mix cooking over the Bunsen burner. She squealed with excitement; she had done it!

True, there had been a moment when she feared the mixture would bubble over once she'd added the orange-yellow but, as soon as she picked up the bottle by the neck and gently swirled it around, it settled down. A few minutes of heart-pounding suspense later, she was thrilled to see the bubbling mixture take on that lovely amethyst color that she was so familiar with and couldn't wait to taste the end result!

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the slight, smoky tinge in the air and once she did, she was surprised to see the formerly amethyst-colored mix was now a burbling, expanding black.

What on earth- was all she had time to think before it bubbled up the narrow neck and exploded, blackened gooey shards flying in all directions...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hibi coughed as she flew into the lab, her wings fluttering hard. The fairy who was Tahlea's best friend and nagging caretaker at times, had heard the explosion down the hall and knew immediately what that meant: something that Tahlea was working on in the lab had exploded again and she hoped fervently that she was all right and hadn't been hurt.

From the destruction that met her widened eyes as she as she turned the corner, it had been a very large explosion, black, gooey bits of... something … splattered all over the walls and ceiling, small shards of glittering glass stuck in intermittent patterns in said wall.

She couldn't see much in the thick, greyish-black smoke, her eyes watering as she flew through it-she also noted that someone had managed to put the fire out before it spread which was certainly a good thing-but it was beginning to sear her lungs so Hibi decided to take matters into her own hands.

First things first, she thought. Rubbing her eyes to clear them, she blinked a few times and flew over to the nearest window and, with some tugging and pushing, managed to get it open, smoke pouring out the window in thick, billowing clouds.

Hibi waited a few minutes until she was satisfied that the smoke had mostly cleared; she looked carefully around the ruined lab, groaning at what she saw. It had been worse than she had suspected at first and she really hoped that Tahlea was okay which, as she saw to her relief when she flew over to the wall nearest the door, she could see her crouching, her arms covering her head in a protective gesture, she was.

Hibi wasn't sure how but she'd managed to duck down before the explosion but she was grateful that she had; she didn't want to think of what might have happened to her if she hadn't. Now that she was certain that Tahlea was all right and no worse the wear for her experience, her pent up anger at her carelessness bubbled to the surface, finding free expression.

"Tahlea?" she said, a slight edge to her voice that made Tahlea wince once she'd uncovered her head and got shakily to her feet, meeting the fairy's glare head on. "What on earth were you doing?"

Tahlea grimaced as her eyes glanced downward, flushing guiltily.

"I was trying to make some of those wonderfully sweet purple lozenges that Dr. Chartreuse made for me when I was sick," she explained, pulling out globs of black sticky stuff from her hair, making a sour face as she did so. Hibi crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes sparking angrily as she hovered over the ruined table. "Everything was going well until I turned away for a moment and-"

"And, what?" Hibi prompted, her gaze turning blacker by the moment.

"And-" she gave Hibi an uncertain look; it was obvious that she was very angry with her but she wasn't exactly sure why -"it turned black for some reason and then it bubbled over and exploded." She closed her eyes for a minute, taking a deep breath. "I'm okay, Hibi, really."

"That wasn't what I was worried about," the fairy returned tersely, one hand going to the hat perched on her head. "I could see that the moment I looked at you: although you're covered in disgusting black goop, I can see that you weren't hit by any shards of glass."

Tahlea stood up, leaning back for a moment and stretching before looking at the destruction that was present on the table: broken beakers and test tubes littered the top amid sticky puddles of black goop and the neck of the bottle that she had been cooking the mix in was broken, lying in two pieces beside it.

"Then," she asked as she coughed slightly, black wisps of smoke puffing out from her pursed lips, "why are you so angry with me?"

"Other than the obvious, has it occurred to you that, thanks to your carelessness, you've ruined a perfectly good record trying to make some stupid candy?!"

Tahlea's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Record?" she repeated stupidly, her mind whirling. She had no idea what Hibi was talking about and it showed on her soot and goop-stained face. "What record?"

Her wings buzzing with the force of her rage behind it, Hibi jabbed a finger in the air and Tahlea's eyes followed to where it pointed. On the far wall, splattered with goop and soot, she noticed a creamy white piece of parchment that had been tacked up to the wall, some words written on it in flowing script: Number Of Days Gone Without An Accident: 999.

"Oh..." Realization dawned on her as she turned slightly to see Hibi hovering over the table. Now she understood what she meant by "ruining a perfect record": the lab's safety record up to this point. In one fell explosion, she'd managed to wipe out a four-year long record without any kind of accident at all and now they had to begin all over again. No wonder Hibi was angry!

Well, I really managed to mess things up... she thought ruefully, smoothing her mussed hair that stuck out in three different directions. No wonder Hibi's upset!

As if Tahlea had called her, the vengeful-minded fairy asked angrily, her wings buzzing like a bumblebee's, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?!"

"Heh..." Tahlea muttered to herself, a foolish smile spreading over her face and, in the presence of a very angry fairy, wisely decided not to say anything more and clamped her lips tightly shut.

The moral of the story: Making candy is dangerous in the hands of an amateur.