A Trio of Anomalies - The Quest for Paradise

CHAPTER 7 - LEMON-FLAVOURED CRIMINALS

"Oh yes it certainly is a world of my imagination!" exclaimed Boils when Nicholas began singing. He jumped, not realising others would hear him. He popped a peppermint humbug in his mouth, hoping that others wouldn't notice his mildly reddish face too much to ask.

Besides the slate walls of the border there were seven mountains each of a different dessert, yet the one which caught his eye was the ice-like mountain made entirely of peppermint slushy. It stood out from the warm browns and pinks of the other mountains, and right then and there he wanted nothing more than to melt a tiny piece of the green rock and enjoy it under the hot noon sun. Boil's eyes swivelled wildly as he admired the scenery around him, from the gigantic lumps of ice cream, to the huge blinding white mound of nothing but whipped cream. Steve carefully lifted him off his head, paranoid that the wide-eyed chameleon would start drooling all over his hair.

The Dragon circled Chocolate Castle, flying past a mountain of vanilla ice cream with chocolate fragments buried here and there. He followed the rushing yellow trail past Lemonade Lake, and the HF-Club could see the sparkling liquid bubbling and fizzing enticingly. Beside the lake were a huge grove of vineyards, bearing raisins of different sizes and colours.

They saw various black roads branching from a faraway valley into Marzipan Village and Glutton City quite a distance away. The Dragon followed the rushing lemonade river into a densely populated Candy Coated City, landing carefully on the outskirts. The two boys followed the others slowly towards the wonderful town, struggling to believe that every building, strip of road, sign and vehicle were all made entirely of candy. They marvelled at the intricate architecture of everything, the careful choices of sweets, cake and bread so that each building was a physics bending work of art. It was like an amusement park, yet everything was more than just a prop, from the functioning traffic lights made of gingerbread, to the rushing cars not made of metal, but of boiled sugar which shone in the sun.

"I have so many questions," Steve marvelled, "For example, how can a vineyard grow from an acidic river? Why are the mountains not melting in the sun? Is the ground made of fruitcake? Who- Did anyone just make this world as an art project?"

"Science project you mean," he thought to himself, "This is witchcraft! Everything is made of candy, but nothing's falling apart!"

"Well," he followed the others along the citrine river, "I shall give props to whoever made this- this land. At least the river's not a chocolate one. I don't like chocolate to start with, and melted chocolate makes me gag!"

They needed to look at the citizens to remind themselves that they're indeed, in a fairyland, and not a Christmas themed park. For the gingerbread people looked identical to one another, carbon copies of the people they interacted with, making the place seem, rather uncanny. Boils didn't really care, and while Steve tried keeping track of the camouflaged reptile, he soon lost him in a bright coloured sweet shop.

"Boils?" he called, which aroused the gingerbread people around him. They stared at him suspiciously as he tried to retrieve a crystal key stuck on the peppermint awning above a bakery window. He felt the whispers and nudges from the people around him, and he strained his ears to catch them whispering about a rotten chameleon spy. Paranoid, he reached anxiously for the key high above, planning to later find Boils and get the hell out.

He saw a pale hand pulling the key from the sticky awning, and after thanking Nicholas he pocketed it. The two began the search for the chameleon, growing steadily uneasy at the cold stares of the gingerbread people.