DISCLAIMER: This licence isn't mine. The opinions express by the characters are not mine. I do not support nor encourage the illegal acts or words present here. I can make a distinction between fiction and reality and I trust in my readership's ability to do the same.

Chapter five: The royal birth (part 2)

Apple Dumplin' knew this day was extremely important. She put her prettiest dress, put on make-up and even pinched a pair of stilettos from Strawberry Shortcake. Then, she went to the bus stop in order to great her best friend and her guest, Mulberry Murmur.

-You look wonderful, she said went she finally arrived.

-Thank you, Apple Dumplin' said, a little bit discomforted. "You too".

Mulberry Murmur was wearing a low-necked purple dress with flounces, decorated with black lace, and fingerless gloves. She has making herself up, too.

-Well, you show me around your village?

-Sure!

It was the first time Mulberry visited Strawberryland. Indeed, it was the first time Apple Dumplin' invited someone; she wanted everything to be perfect. To start the visit, she leaded Mulberry to the place where all the other inhabitants were waiting for the birth, and they joined Strawberry's discussion group. Plum Pudding was showing them pictures of her practicing for shows, the simple leotard she used to wear for the rehearsals and the rich tutus, with feathers and embroideries, she wore on stage. They were other dancers in her troupe; but Strawberryland's inhabitants found that Plum Pudding was the beautifulest of them.

-I heard, once, an urban legend, Angel Cake said (she didn't want to stay in the background). "Do you want to hear it?"

-I didn't know there were urban legends here, Mulberry noticed.

-Tell us! Strawberry Shortcake cried, ignoring at Mulberry's remark.

"A berry long time ago, in a neighbor kingdom, a Berrykin Princess was waiting for her heir, just like ours. When the long-awaited baby finally arrived, the princess learnt with great horror it was… a boy! You have to know that, in the Berrykin's law, boys can't throne. In a word, this heir was perfectly useless, and we all know why she couldn't have a second heir. So, she asked a guard to take the baby away and to hide him in the castle, in such a way that no one would know about his existence. Then, she asked a second guard to go to the village and to find her a baby Berrykin girl. After some research, the guard brought her the baby girl, and the princess introduced her to her people as her legitimate heir. Except the two guards and herself, no one was aware of the swap; and all the villagers spent the rest of the day celebrating this birth. At nightfall, the guard took the baby and carried him to the village, and left him on a flower pot, in front of a florist's shop; and then he went back to the castle. He has been so discreet that no one saw what he did. A few minutes later, a Berrykin who was walking along the shop to reach his own house after the party had his attention drawn by the baby's cries, and found him on the pot. He has been first quite intrigued, because they used to find the babies Berrykins at the bottom of strawberries patches (remember how they came into the world), not in the middle of the village! This baby was still too young to crawl or walk, so it meant someone had intentionally abandoned him here, but whom? And why? It was a real mystery. On the other side, Berrykins aren't indifferent to suffering, and this one knew the poor little thing would die if he was left without care; moreover, as he was only a few hours old, he was born the same day than the little dauphin, and that was a favorable auspices for him. So, the Berrykin took the baby with him and take care of him." And I kept the best till last. Do you want to know how he called the baby?

-Yes!

-"As I said, the Berrykin understood the baby he took in was special, and he wanted to give him special name, a name that would represents the way he found him. He decided to call him Bloom. Berrykin Bloom."

All the girls gasped, including Apple Dumplin'. Mulberry Murmur didn't react.

-You mean… Plum Pudding said slowly, "… that Berrykin Bloom is the hidden son of a princess?"

-Exactly. In your opinion, why is he cleverest and has more authority than the other Berrykins? It's because he's blue-blooded.

The girls heard someone sniggered. When they turned back, they saw that Berrykin Bloom has witnessed the whole conversation.

-Congratulation Miss Cake, he said joyfully, "You are a great story teller. But I am sorry to inform you that your story is totally wrong. Berrykin Princes can't throne, for the simple and good reason that they don't exist. The babies born by the Berrykins Plant are always female, and there's no exception. However, I'm sure your friends have been entertained a lot by your tale."

-He means that you told us a story without checking its veracity or your sources, and because of that you spread wrong information about him, Blueberry Muffin cried angrily. "Angel Cake, you would be a terrible journalist; always tell the truth, this is our aim. Moreover, you were only considering on side of the story: did you forget a sovereign has to answer for her people's wellbeing? What if they had categorically refused to have a prince instead of a princess? What if the pressure forced the Princess to abandon her baby, against her will? You said she hated her son because he wasn't a daughter, but did you notice she asked the guard to hide him, and not to kill him? Do you think she would have done that if she really wanted him to disappear?"

Apple Dumplin' felt very embarrassed, not so more for Angel Cake, more to see her big sister and her workmates act like angry little girls. Luckily, Mulberry Murmur didn't seem to pay a lot of importance to this scene.

-What else should I see here? She asked.

Relied, Apple Dumplin' leaded her to the big water fountains that supplied the town with hydraulic electricity, and explained her how they worked.

-So, if I'm not misunderstood, the berry juice runs the water mill linked to a turbine, which turns the energy into electricity, Mulberry Murmur repeated at the end of Apple's explanation.

-You're not.

-In a word, if you were running out of berries, you would be totally deprived of electricity.

-Exactly, but Berrykin Bloom keeps his weather eye open for us.

-The old one?

-Himself.

-So, you are dependent on Berrykin Crumbly.

-In a way, but you shouldn't call him like that.

-Why?

-It's not berry nice. This is quite… disrespectful.

-Hey! This is not disrespect, this is humor, Apple! I'm not insulting him, I'm joking over his age! Is humor forbidden in Strawberryland?

Apple smiled.

-Sometimes, I wonder. My sister wants me to be always perfectly kind and nice with everybody, without teasing anyone.

-Well, let's talk about your sister. Does she act in a "kind and nice" way with you?

-Yes, except when she asks me to help her at the Café, on weekends or during the holidays.

-If I were you, I would be careful. One day, she may force you to take over for her, and you would spend the rest of your life serving coffees and sandwiches. Would you like to be a waitress, Apple?

-Of course, no! But I don't think Strawberry would do such a thing.

However, Apple Dumplin' was uncertain about it. Strawberry Shortcake often told her "I know what's good for you", and what if she decides it was "good" for Apple Dumplin' to take up the reins of the Café? Her life of adventurer would be definitively over. Apple was still lost in her thought when her phone rang.

-Apple Dumplin'? Strawberry cried in the phone. "Come here immediately! The flower is opening!"

Strawberry was right. On the top of the rosebud, the petals had started to peel off.

-The color of the little princess will be random, Ginger Snap explained while putting a camera in place in order to film the event. "She could be yellow or blue…"

-I hope she won't! Plum pudding cried. "I bet with my brother she will be red, like her mother."

Then, one of them shriveled, followed by the others.

-It reminds me your own birth, Your Majesty, Berrykin Bloom muttered to the Berrykin Princess. "I was here, too…"

With a crack, the petals started to split, and to go down. But, when they all went enough down to let the spectators see the little princess, their excitation turned into surprise, then into perplexity.

To be continued…