Pip the “Candyland twin”'s Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Pip was three steps past the peppermint post when the chocolate bat saw him. It hung upside down from a candy cane branch, wings folded, watching. Pip froze. He knew what the bats did. They flew to Licorice Castle and told Lord Licorice everything they saw, and Lord Licorice was the reason the throne sat empty and the king was gone. Pip had been walking to the sugar plum forest because his lollipop had started to glow there. The blue sucker in his hand pulsed faintly now, a slow heartbeat of light through the swirl. He was supposed to be guiding gingerbread men along the path, keeping them clear of the molasses swamp. He had left them waiting at the last marker. Finding King Kandy came first. He could not find anyone if a bat brought Lord Licorice down on him before he crossed the next bend. The bat unfolded one wing. Chocolate dripped from its edge onto the path. Pip counted the distance to the nearest bush and knew he could not reach it. The bat was faster. It would be airborne before he took two steps. He looked at the lollipop. It was heavy, harder than it looked, and the stick was clean and straight. He had used it once to lever a gingerbread man out of the swamp. The leg had stayed behind, but the lollipop had held. Pip planted his feet. He drew his arm back the way his sister Julie did when she skipped stones across the candy river. The bat launched. Pip threw. The blue sucker spun end over end and cracked the bat square across the head. It dropped onto the path in a wet slap, wings twitching once, then still. Pip stood breathing hard. He walked over and picked up his lollipop. A smear of chocolate clung to the swirl. He wiped it on his overalls. The glow was steady again, brighter now, pointing him on. He stepped over the bat and kept walking. Three paces on, a painted sign leaned in the sweetgrass at the edge of the path. It had not been there the last time he passed this way. Candy canes framed the words in cheerful pink script: YOU MADE IT BREAK LORD LICORICE'S SPELL! Pip stared at it. He had knocked one scout out of the sky. That did not feel like breaking a spell. It felt like the first small crack in something much bigger, and now Lord Licorice would know a bat had gone missing on this stretch of path. Pip tightened his grip on the lollipop and started to run toward the sugar plum forest, where the glow was leading him and where, he hoped, the king was still alive to be found.