Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3     Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6

“YOU TWO.”

Aki and Ani froze.

A man stood at the city’s glittering entrance with his arms crossed, looking at them. The man’s coat was littered with leaves and glitter, and his expression was the exact mixture of exasperation and fondness that Ani often wore when Aki touched things he shouldn’t.

Ani gasped. “Uh… Hi?”
Aki waved. “Hi! How did you get here? Did you also take a peeky look through the door at the greenhouse?”

The man pinched the bridge of his nose. “I own the greenhouse. You went through the door?”
Ani winced. “We… did.”
“The door with the sign.”
Aki nodded. “Yes.”
“The sign that said ‘NO ADMITTANCE.’ The sign that ALSO said ‘SERIOUSLY.’”
“Aki nodded again. “Yep, we did see all that.”

The man sighed deeply. “Of course you did.” He paced in a small circle, muttering to himself. “Every year. Every year someone ignores the sign. Why do I even bother with signs? I should use a moat. Or a dragon. Or a moat full of dragons.”

Aki said, “In our defense, the front door was unlocked. Cool idea, but before you invest in a dragon, maybe use the deadbolt.”

Ani stepped forward. “We’re really sorry. We didn’t mean to cause trouble. Really. But… this world is extraordinary.”
 
Aki added, “Extraordinary is one way to put it. I thought I accidentally drank expired lab coffee and was hallucinating.”

The man stopped pacing and looked at Aki and Ani. Really looked. And then he laughed a big, warm, hearty laugh that echoed off the shifting buildings. “Oh, I’m not mad,” he said. “Annoyed? Perhaps. Mildly exasperated? Maybe. But mad? Never.”

Aki blinked. “Really?”

The man clapped him on the shoulder. “You two remind me of me when I first arrived here. Curious. Reckless. Bad at reading signs. But curiosity is how all the best adventures start. And all the worst ones, I suppose.” He winked. “But I like your spirit. You two are like chaos with legs. My name is Lyman Dodgson.”

“Of course – “Lyman’s Nursery’ was the sign on the door of the greenhouse,” Aki said as he made the connection.

Above them, the floating islands shifted position and instantly, the city reacted. A staircase folded out of a wall, three towers rotated, and a nearby café gently slid twenty feet to the left. The small creatures sitting outside didn’t even look up. One frog-squirrel calmly continued sipping coffee while her table ascended to an entirely different level of the building.
Aki and Ani both stared.
A small dragonfly mouse carrying newspapers floated past them wearing tiny spectacles.
Then an entire building sneezed, making Ani jump.
A nearby pedestrian casually muttered, “Seasonal pollen,” and kept walking. 
Ani pointed. “I don’t even know which thing to panic about first anymore.”
Aki asked, while not taking his eyes off the dragonfly-mouse, “How do you get here?”
 
From his coat pocket, Mr. Dodgson produced a strange handheld device made from spinning jewel-like crystal shards arranged in lines of lavender, gold, mint green, and pink. The crystals glowed softly as they turned.
“This,” Mr. Dodgson announced proudly, “is a Dimensional Transfer Resonance Calibrator. I call it DeReC.”
Aki leaned closer. “You built that?”
“Yup.” Mr. Dodgson tapped one of the crystal shards. “These crystals interact with the moss portals which you have no doubt encountered. DeReC uses the crystals to convince the occasionally temperamental moss to open up.”
As if offended, a nearby patch of glowing moss puffed out a tiny cloud of blue spores directly at him.
Mr. Dodgson coughed. “See? Temperamental.”

Mr. Dodgson lowered his voice slightly. “Though honestly, the world itself does most of the work.”
Aki frowned. “The world?”
Mr. Dodgson gestured toward the shifting skyline.
“This place is alive. Not alive like us exactly.” He paused thoughtfully. “Sentient, maybe. Aware, definitely. It watches everybody. And if the world likes you…” He smiled. “It shares things.”

As if on cue, a nearby wall quietly slid sideways to reveal a hidden tray holding three cold cups of sweet tea.
Mr. Dodgson smiled knowingly. “See? It likes you. That’s practically a marriage proposal around here.”
Ani blinked, dumfounded.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” Mr. Dodgson said casually. “One time it moved an entire mountain because I complimented a mushroom.”
“The trick,” he continued, “is respect. This world hates greedy people. But curious people? Kind people? Oh, it adores those.”

Suddenly the city streets lurched sharply and a deep howl echoed through the city.
Mr. Dodgson froze mid-sip. “Uh oh.”
Aki looked up. “What do you mean ‘Uh-oh?’ That sounded unfriendly.”
Another howl answered, closer this time, and something enormous slammed into a distant building. Crystal shattered.
Mr. Dodgson paled slightly. “Well. That would be a crystal mauler.”
Ani folded her arms. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“It’s a very enthusiastic predator.” Mr. Dodgson said carefully, “Imagine a wolf and a spider crossed with broken mirrors and a terrible bedside manner.”
The wall behind them exploded. A creature burst through in a shower of crystal dust - a towering beast with mirrored fur, eight legs, and antlers made of jagged glass. Its enormous eyes reflected everything around it ten times over.

Aki barely had time to register way too many knees and claws made of translucent crystal before Mr. Dodgson shouted:
 “RUN!”
They bolted into the shifting streets. Behind them, the crystal mauler bounded after them with terrifying speed, its mirrored body reflecting fractured images of the city in every direction.

The city immediately reacted. Buildings folded inward and alleys closed. New pathways opened ahead of them. Aki stumbled as an entire staircase slid beneath his feet like a conveyor belt.
“The city’s moving us somewhere!” Ani yelled.
They sprinted across a caramel‑crystal walkway as the creature skittered after them, knees clicking like a dozen metronomes arguing about tempo.

Above them, the floating islands rearranged themselves into a wide spiral formation and the streets answered instantly. Crystal walls rose behind Aki and Ani while bridges unfolded ahead, funneling them through the city like pieces on a game board. Mr. Dodgson disappeared somewhere behind them as the walls shifted.
 “It’s herding us!” Aki shouted. “Hopefully somewhere useful!” he muttered.

The crystal mauler lunged after them but slammed sideways into a building that had abruptly rotated ninety degrees.
“Thank you!” Aki yelled at the architecture. A nearby balcony dipped politely in acknowledgment. The streets soon opened into a circular plaza covered entirely in glowing moss.

The moss brightened beneath their feet as the crystal mauler burst into the plaza with a howl. Above, the floating islands pulsed with soft silver light. The city shifted one final time and every street behind Aki and Ani folded shut at once, blocking the creature only moments before it reached them. The glowing moss flared brilliantly as Aki and Ani felt something ancient and enormous watching them kindly. Not words exactly, but feelings. Curiosity. Approval. Amusement. Farewell. Then the world dissolved into silver-green light.

Ani crashed hard against a stack of peat moss while Aki landed face-first in a pile of compost.  They looked up and saw sunlight streaming through greenhouse windows and then saw normal walls and normal non-sentient architecture. But then, a small potted lemon-thyme tree started whispering to a nearby tomato plant which gave off the faint scent of oregano and they realized they were back in Mr. Dodgson’s greenhouse.

Mr. Dodgson stumbled through the fading portal moments later carrying an armful of glowing flowers and an annoyed-looking vine wrapped around his arm.

“Excellent timing,” he announced breathlessly, “The marmalade orchids bite after sunset.” After appraising them briefly, he noted, “Nobody appears critically injured.”
The vine smacked him in the forehead.
“Emotional injury doesn’t count,” he said to the vine.

Outside, evening light settled across the greenhouse windows. Aki and Ani stood, brushed themselves off, said goodbye to Mr. Dodgson, and hurried back to the chocolate lab. Unnoticed, something faintly blue-green clung to Ani’s sleeve - a small piece of glowing moss. The moss flickered softly once… then dimmed, as though sleeping.

The kitchen filled with the rhythmic sounds of creation—chopping,melting, whisking, tempering. They worked through the next two nights, crafting a Mother’s Day bonbon collection using the flavors inspired by their journey:
    ~ Rosemary Caramel
    ~ Mexican Plum-Thai Basil
    ~ Peppermint Ganache
    ~ Blackberry–Ginger–Vanilla
They shaped them like the crystalline shards present all over the world they had just left and colored them like jewels. But the ingredients behaved differently than anything from their world.

The rosemary caramel blossoms melted into a syrup that glowed gold, swirling in patterns that looked almost like writing.
The Mexican plum‑Thai basil fruit released a fragrance that made the air shimmer, as though the grove they’d found them in was trying to peek through.
The peppermint cacao beans cracked open with a soft chime, like tiny bells.

And the blackberry-ginger-vanilla berries pulsed gently, as if responding to the city’s distant heartbeat.

“It’s like the flavors remember where they came from,” said Aki as he tempered the dark chocolate.
Ani nodded. “Or like the world remembers us.”

When the bonbons were finished - each one a tiny jewel of impossible flavor - Aki began assembling the boxes. They had designed the bonbons to remind them of Mr. Dodgson’s DeReC device which held triangular crystal shards, but this box held jewel-like triangular chocolates instead of shards.

When Mother’s Day arrived, their moms opened the boxes, tasted the chocolates, and cried. In the best way.

Unnoticed, the moss had found a quiet corner outside the lab and glowed appreciatively.

The End, for now.

Thank you for your support!

Yours in chocolate,

CTO
(Chief Tasting Officer)