Understanding.
Gingerbrave knew it was fear.
For someone with the brave name, he was someone with fears.
Like any other child, Gingerbrave had fears.
But the thing is...
Other kids were afraid of the dark or monsters.
He was afraid of witches.
Cats.
Zombie cookies looking for parts of other cookies to complete themselves.
Pumpkins.
But he has reason to fear them.
Pumpkins are scary when they have a face and have a sickle.
Zombie cookies are scary when they are looking at you.
Cats are scary when they're giant and hunting cookies.
And witches....
Witches are scary just for the sake of being scary.
But of course, it's different here.
Everyone glorifies witches, everyone speaks well of them.
Everyone sees them as benevolent goddesses who gave them life.
Many times he had to put up with wanting to scream in terror when they screamed witches, many times he had to grab Wizard's shoulder to keep him from saying bad things about witches, and many times he had to hold Strawberry's hand to keep her from crying.
All three were afraid of them... But there was no one who could know.
In the kingdom, there was no talk about them either.
Since they escaped, everyone started the unspoken rule not to talk about them.
That got worse when many cookies started to visit the kingdom, because they could no longer talk freely about the past.
They didn't want to either.
They didn't want to remember what happened, what they went through, what they lost.
It was a memory of the past.
But the funny thing about the past is that you can't always forget it.
Gingerbrave started running excitedly back and forth.
They had sent a Blueberry bird to each kingdom to tell them about the new council meeting, so things were moving.
"Get more dishes in here!"
"Light the windows! They must be shining!"
"Somebody get some more jelly beans!"
The fairy cookies were setting up the whole feast for the guests.
They were very careful about putting out edible things for the foreign cookies.
Gingerbrave was helping where she could.
Although this time Wizard and Strawberry were helping too.
Gingerbrave was carrying some jelly beans, until he saw White Lily on the silver bridge.
He didn't want to be nosy, but curiosity and a feeling that something was up made him approach.
"White Lily Cookie?"
"Ah! Gingerbrave.... Is that you, do you need anything?...."
"No, nothing but... Are you alright? You look worried."
Gingerbrave said worried.
White Lily just looked surprised and looked away.
"No... It's nothing... Just..."
A silence settled between them, White Lily was looking at the river, with a worried expression, almost bordering on fear.
"I just had a nightmare..."
She said it as if the memory of that nightmare was a weight on top of her.
"Oh... I have nightmares from time to time too!"
"Yeah... But I don't think it was like mine.... It's best I don't talk about it..."
White Lily said walking away, but something told him he should talk....
Something in him told him that she would be the one who would understand.....
"It was from a witch?"
White Lily froze, her body trembling and slowly turned to look at Gingerbrave.
The silence was tense, charged with fear.
"What?..."
Gingerbrave hesitated to speak again, but steeled himself again.
"It was a nightmare about a witch?"
Another silence between them.
Gingerbrave was about to back out until....
He watched as White Lily began to shed tears.
"Huh?!.... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that! I really don't know much about it! I'm sorry if-"
A sudden hug from White Lily silenced him.
White Lily's tears moistened his back and the squeeze was in a consoling way.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry Gingerbrave!"
Gingerbrave was more surprised.
"I'm sorry Gingerbrave.... It must have been difficult.... You... You didn't deserve to be baked in that house!"
At that instant, reality hit him.
White Lily understood......
White Lily heard him...
WHITE LILY GOT HIM.
He wasn't alone anymore... She knew... She knew what happened...
"I'm sorry Gingerbrave, I'm so sorry!"
Every word, every apology soothed him more.... Finally someone knows and understands!
No more lying about where he came from.
"I'm sorry."
No more being alone when they scream witches.
"I'm so sorry"
NO MORE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO FINALLY ASK HIM IF HE'S OKAY.
Gingerbrave felt tears on his face, he was crying....
He couldn't remember when was the last time he cried....
Wait...
Yes, he does remember.
It was when Dozer and Gingerbright died.
It was when the castle collapsed and the less fortunate were crushed.
It was when they lost most of their friends to the witches.
"I'm sorry..."
White Lily was apologizing even through no fault of her own....
How weird it felt.
To have someone know what happened other than his friends.
Was that what it was like to have an adult hugging you?
He didn't feel that way with Pure Vanilla or Hollyberry.... But it was normal, neither of them knew the truth.
But White Lily...
She knew.... And that's what she needed most.
"Gingerbrave... Tell me everything that happened to you,tell me everything you suffered, everything you saw, everything you lost..."
White Lily's words were firm but kind.
"Tell me everything, I'm here to listen to you, to understand you..... You are no longer alone, I am here."
He... He could no longer...
He began to cry openly as he hugged White Lily.
He felt he could scream out his fears, scream out his tiredness, scream out that he is afraid that he will lose everything and that he cannot talk because he is a hero.
"You are not a hero... You're a child, a child who had to survive since he drew breath, a child who got caught up in trouble that wasn't his..."
Gingerbrave could feel a caress on his head.
"I'm sorry for getting you into this war, I'm sorry for what you saw, I'm sorry for what you lived through, I'm sorry that no one was there to hold you and tell you that you were a child!"
Gingerbrave cried harder, he had wanted so badly for someone to tell him that.
"You are a child... A good child..."
Gingerbrave could only cry a little more, before they both wiped the tears away and went to White Lily's room together, he needed to vent and White Lily was going to be there for him.
But Gingerbrave felt what he hadn't felt in a long time...security.