Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 20)

“We have to free him! He must be triggering the licorice!” said Rachel.

            “Free him? We can bring him to the queen’s dungeon,” said Charlotte. “Revenge!”

            “Or we could try and make peace with him,” suggested Kate. 

“I think we should free him and then find out what to do with him. It’s the only way to free all the candy and creatures here!” said Rachel.

            The girls circled around the ice block. They heard a soft hum. The ice block disappeared and Lord Licorice was free! 

In a flash, he was gone.

            “Let’s just forget about him for now,” said Rachel. “We have to warn the queen about Collie.”

            They made their way back to the palace. 

 

When they got to the palace, the queen was waiting. She gave them each a gift.

            Avery was given a little red fox as a pet! A sneaky little creature whose name was Skittles, like the candy!  

            Charlotte recognized the gift given to her. It was the small bunny she held in her hand so long ago. It was Snowball!

            Mystery came flying through the room and landed on Kate’s shoulder. “Hello, old friend!”

            Lea got a little red robin named Ruby.  

            Rachel looked forward and recognized the beautiful creature coming towards her. It was the Pegasus pony she had flown on, with the blue and pink mane and the collar with the letter “S”. “I still don’t know what the “S” stands for?” asked Rachel.

            “His name is Sky,” answered the queen. “I used to have him when I was a little girl as my royal steed. The Princess of Imagination brings him back every generation.”

            Rachel said, “Avery, you must have created him with your imagination!”

            “Yes, I did!” Avery smiled.  

            They had explained to the queen about Collie’s desire to control both worlds. The queen told the five girls, “This will be your greatest task of all. You will have to be spies, under cover.” 

 

To be continued...

Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 19)

Half of the giants were still approaching them. Lea had her full power so she was resistant to the giant’s chocolate touch. She ran up to one of the giants and climbed it. Then she put her sword into the top of its head and pushed it down. The giant was melting into tootsie rolls, with Lea on top of its head! When Rachel saw what she was doing, she ran up to the head of another giant. Using a candy cane branch, she did what Lea had done. Rachel slid down the giant, about to be smooshed by its foot. She pressed her locket into the giant’s foot and all the giants vanished into sparkly golden dust into the sky. Rachel discovered the true power of the locket: to fight darkness with light.

            The gold dust floated down from the sky and went into the fudge ground. Rachel floated up into the sky. She was very puzzled! Her rainbow dress and cape turned into a black shirt and pants. Rachel was wearing a ring. She touched the jewel on top of the ring. It could make holograms! She was also wearing sunglasses. Through the glasses, she could see her friends behind her, and the woods in front of her at the same time. On her feet were black boots. Her locket was safely around her neck. She floated down the ground and landed softly. 

            Charlotte exclaimed, “Pinch me! Really, really hard, Avery! Pinch me!” 

            Avery pinched Charlotte but nothing happened. She thought she was dreaming!

            Right after Avery pinched her sister, Avery began floating! “What in the world!” she yelled. Avery was now wearing a long sleeved black shirt covered in white sparkles and glitter. She was wearing a ruffled black skirt and also wore a hologram ring. She could send the holograms to any princess she wanted to! Avery’s bow was black and gold now, to blend in better with her outfit. She was wearing black boots with a gold and black rope on her shoulder. Avery landed on the ground next to Rachel. 

            Rachel admired Avery’s skirt when Charlotte floated into the sky! She wore black leggings and a short-sleeved black T-shirt with ruffled edges on the sleeves. Her sunglasses and hologram ring matched Rachel’s. Charlotte’s BB gun changed from pink to black and she wore black boots. Charlotte floated back to the ground next to her friends. Her eyes were closed the whole time, because she was so scared. When she opened her eyes, the smile went back on her face. 

            “I can’t wait for my turn!” said Lea, then she started floating. She was wearing a black gymnastics leotard with a pattern of silver stars, black tights, boots, and a jean jacket. Her sword handle was now black with silver swirls all over it, looking majestic! She wore a hologram ring, too! Lea was carrying a little black bag with a heart on the front. Inside was a finger-print kit. Lea landed.

            Kate closed her eyes, because she knew it was her turn next! Kate floated into the sky. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt with waves of ruffles down her sleeves and a long black skirt. She wore boots and her spear had a new look. It was black with gold stripes. Her hologram ring was on her finger and she wore sunglasses, too. 

            Kate floated to the ground. 

They knew they had to stop this licorice and knew the source was coming from behind where the giant’s had been guarding. Looking over they saw an ice block. It had a creepy old man inside of it. Rachel recognized this man. 

            “It’s Lord Licorice!” she yelled. 

Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 18)

“I guess he smashed it to smithereens,” said Avery, who didn’t see where the giant had taken the scepter. “Don’t worry. I have some more ideas.” 

Avery imagined a bow-and-arrow. It was purple with golden swirls on it. She was also the pilot of the plane and she began steering it and it landed right in front of the chocolate giants. Rachel yelled, “Attack!” and they all ran out with their weapons. 

Rachel ran into the woods and hid behind some bushes waiting for the right moment to attack. Charlotte, on the other hand, drank the invisibility potion. All Rachel could see was a floating pink BB gun running into the woods! She went on the other side of Rachel, beside a giant. Charlotte shot the giant with the BB gun on the foot and he melted into fudge. Their weak spots were their stomachs and their feet. 

Lea climbed a candy cane just like it was a diving board into a foam pit. Then she did a triple flip and landed on the giant’s head. She used her sword to chop the chocolate giant into kit-kats, and then she had a quick snack. She needed to get her energy back up!

Kate was lifted by her bird friends into the sky. She used her spear to slice one of the chocolate giants into chocolate chips. 

“It’s raining chocolate chips!” said Lea, putting her mouth open wide to catch them.

Avery hid behind a candy-cane tree and used her imagination to do something she had never tried before. She would going to enchant her bow and arrows. The would be stronger and resistant. She used her imagination to enchant them and they began glowing with purple mist. Then she ran out of the trees and shot a giant. The purple mist around the arrow distracted him and Lea brought in her sword and finished him. 

            Then Charlotte and Rachel ran over to Lea, Avery and Kate. They were altogether in one area and the giants were stomping towards them. Lea ran in front of them and said “STOP!” putting her hands out to the sides. One of the giants touched her and she was frozen to solid chocolate. Half of the giant army then melted because of her sacrifice. Kate ran over, with tears all over running down from her eyes. A puddle was below her. She hugged her best friend, the Princess of Love. Then something happened. Color came back into Lea. She began to move a bit. Lea came back to life! A poof of red dust surrounded them. Kate looked up from the puddle of her tears and saw her best friend alive again. She embraced her.

Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 17)

Kate was too much weight for the birds to carry and they dropped her into the hot cocoa, right next to Rachel! A poof of green dust appeared as the birds flew away. The current was too strong for the marshmallow boat and Lea fell off! It was all up to Avery now to save all of her friends. Charlotte really hoped Avery’s plan worked. 

            She flew the helicopter down and threw down three rope ladders. The girls climbed up them. 

            “We have to stop the chocolate giants! They are on Collie’s side and Collie is a villain!” Avery exclaimed. 

            Rachel said, “How can Collie be a villain? She’s the one who brought me here in the first place.”

            “She must have had a plan for the chocolate giants to eat you,” said Lea. “It’s like you are candy and they are human!”

They landed the helicopter on the ground. Charlotte joined her friends and sister. Then Avery said, “If we’re going to beat these giants, I’m the Princess of Imagination and we’re gonna need some imagination!” With a wave of her hand, she started imagining. “First we need an airplane with a bunch of cannons in the back. A helicopter is nothing!”

An airplane appeared. It was purple and on the front of it, it said “The Avery Express” in big bold, golden and glittery letters. 

“Come on aboard!” she said. The five girls climbed aboard. Avery distributed weapons that she imagined for them. 

She gave Lea a red, diamond handled sword. 

She gave her sister, Charlotte, an invisible potion and a pink BB gun. 

Rachel had her locket, which she thought was very powerful. Rachel gave her Candy Cane spear, given to her by her Southpatch kid friend, to Kate. 

Kate could also summon her bird friends to help. 

Avery imagined a purple scepter with lots and lots of powers for herself, even though she didn’t need one because she can imagine anything!  

They started to fly high into the sky, above the clouds.  They saw approximately fifty giants below them. The giants saw the plane and were getting ready to attack. Avery said, “Guys, save your weapons. I’ll use my scepter.” She shot one giant and it melted the giant into fudge, soaking into the ground. She dropped the scepter by accident and it fell out the window! A giant caught it, almost smashing it into smithereens. Avery thought the scepter had been crushed and was lost forever, but the giant crept to the Cotton Candy Clouds where he gave it to Collie. It was now in the wrong hands! 

 

Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 16)

Charlotte saw a river of hot cocoa at her feet. There was a marshmallow floating on it and a little blonde-haired spec on the marshmallow. Charlotte wanted to get a closer look at this blonde-haired object so she shrank back down to her normal size. As she shrank, pink dust poofed around her. The grass around her began to grow really long all around her! She put her friends down on the ground. 

Rachel looked up from her marshmallow boat. The ground had been shaking and making waves in the hot cocoa. She fell off her marshmallow into the hot cocoa river. It was burning her legs! Her friends ran over to where they saw Rachel in the river.

“Rachel!” yelled Charlotte. She had a plan. 

“Lea, try to fetch the marshmallow with this piece of licorice.”

“Alright,” Lea said. 

She tied a lasso and tossed it to Avery. Lea saw a tasty looking clump of chocolate at the same time as holding the licorice rope. Accidentally the rope broke and fell into the river. Lea saw a marshmallow boat docked at the edge of the hot cocoa river and licked her lips.

“Oh no, you don’t!” said Charlotte. “You can’t eat the marshmallow! We need it to save Rachel’s life!” 

Kate saw ahead of Rachel the hot cocoa dropped off into a waterfall. She formed her lips into a whistle and called to her bird friends. A swarm of birds came toward Kate and grabbed her sleeves, lifting her up into the air. She thought she’d fly overhead and grab Rachel from the hot cocoa.

Charlotte had a new plan in mind. She was going to send Lea and the marshmallow boat toward Rachel. Lea would grab Rachel by the hands and bring her onto the boat.  

Meanwhile, Avery had a plan, too. She was going to imagine a helicopter. She was going to jump on, throw down a rope ladder for Rachel, and she would climb to safety. 

            They started off smoothly. Lea set sail on the marshmallow under Charlotte’s command, who was on shore directing her toward Rachel, the birds were carrying Kate toward Rachel, and Avery was in her helicopter heading toward Rachel, too. 

            Rachel was astonished! Where did a helicopter come from and why is Avery flying it? And why is Kate flying out of nowhere with birds carrying her? 

            “I’m coming to save you!” they all screamed at once.

Candyland Returns: The Secret Locket (Chapter 15)

Chapter 15

Halfway through the woods, Charlotte was hyperventilating. She was exhausted! 

“If only there was a quicker way!” thought Charlotte. “If only I could be a giant! Then I could pick up all my friends and take giant steps to where we need to be.”

“Try this,” said her sister, Avery. “I think of what to do and then it happens. Maybe it will work for you, because we’re blood?” Avery said, scientifically.

“Alright, I’ll try,” replied Charlotte. She thought about being a giant. She thought about her friends being in the palm of her hand. She began growing bigger and bigger, until the candy-cane trees looked like miniature candy canes for dolls. Charlotte knelt down and it felt like an earthquake to her three friends. 

“Whoa!” cried Avery, grabbing onto a candy-cane tree for dear life. Charlotte picked up Avery by the arm carefully and placed her in the palm of her hand, cupping it so she would be safe. Avery was sitting on her sister’s palm and it felt weird! It was a little bouncy and soft! Then Charlotte picked up Kate, placing her beside Avery, and finally picked up Lea. 

“Woohoo!” cried Lea, as she bounced on Charlotte’s palm doing flips and cartwheels.

 “Hold on!” Charlotte bellowed in a voice that sounded like a tornado to the three friends. Her voice almost blew them off! 

“Sorry!” said Charlotte. 

“Don’t speak!” yelled Avery, but to Charlotte, it sounded like a whisper. 

“What did you say?” roared Charlotte.

She held her palm up to her hand. 

“Don’t talk!” yelled Avery into her sister’s giant ear. She felt like she could climb right into that ear! She wondered what it would feel like to be inside Charlotte’s ear, but then brushed that out of her mind because it was too terrible. She knew if she imagined it, she’d end up inside there!

“Ok,” said Charlotte. She started making giant steps through the forest, trying not to step on the candy-cane trees and saying sorry if she did. She took one big step over the sour-patch kids and another step over the Hershey kisses. Charlotte looked ahead and saw the chocolate mountains. They seemed to be wiggling and moving. How could that be? Then she saw a mountain rise. “They are alive!” Charlotte shouted.