Emma Grob • Liam Trzebunia • Diana Tavadian • Anise Kim • Isabel Rogers • Cara Pisani • Laura Cervantez • Isabel Yang • Emma Martin • Joshua Wideman • Nicholas Radford • Elizabeth Palacios • Hope Berry • Nathanael Choi • Gabrielle Barnett • Sophia Holmgren • Elise Kersten • Kate Martin • Joie Koo • Adam Quantz • Megan Good • Iris Woodall • Elva Lu • Misa Stanton • Hadleigh Gleeson • Amaya Leiby
“Oi Timothy, aren’t you grateful it’s just the wind howling outside our tent and not wolves?” Robert shouted in his thick Irish accent (J. HOLMGREN).
As the words left his chapped lips, the howling abruptly stopped — and morphed into an unmistakable growling.
“On second thought, there are.” (C. PISANI).
Was it just a growl, or was there a deep and throaty whisper behind it? Robert wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard words…he opened the tent flap just enough to make a tentative glance outside (E. MARTIN).
Timothy shrugged, saying, “I dunno, man, I’m just an ol’ Texas kid. You tell me if it’s wolves or not.” Suddenly, Robert screeched and fell back into the tent (A. QUANTZ).
Slowly, the tent flap was pushed open by a dark gray muzzle, teeth bared, with eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness of the tent. Timothy’s eyes widened with terror. (I. WOODALL)
Robert began pinching himself wildly when he thought he heard one of them say, “they’ll do” (I. ROGERS).
“Alright, boys, get ‘em on your backs,” rasped an elderly wolf with matted fur, fixing Robert with a blind, scarred eye as he entered the tent last. Two other mutts scurried to comply. (L. TRZEBUNIA) The boys were too shocked to think of resisting as the wolves deftly and swiftly moved the boys to a sitting position on the backs of the largest animals in the pack. Timothy wondered if he was dreaming (K. MARTIN).
Their bodies were rough and mangy to the touch. Suddenly, the wolves dashed forward and carried them into the looming darkness (N. RADFORD)
Most of Timothy’s attention was occupied by the uncomfortable boney-ness of the wolf’s back, but he happened to notice that the trees were gradually thinning, revealing more and more twinkling stars in the frosty sky, making him more and more vulnerable to the cold night air (H. GLEESON).
“I think they want to invite us to a cup of tea! Or maybe brunch? No! Christmas dinner!” Timothy went on naming different meals and holidays. Maybe it was the shock talking, or the lack of brains he had. (D. TAVADIAN)
Robert groaned and buried his face into the wolf’s back, as though it might drown Timothy out. The wolf looked at him as if to say, is he always like this? (G. BARNETT)
With a shake of his head, Robert fell asleep and started to drool on the wolf’s coarse back, earning an appalled screech from the animals. “Arghhh! This is outrageous! Can I drop him?” the younger wolf carrying Robert implored (H. BERRY). “No!” growled the elderly wolf. “We still need them for our secret purposes.” (J. KOO).
Timothy was about to press for more details about these “secret purposes” when, suddenly, the pack broke out of the trees into a wide clearing on the shore of a lake (H. GLEESON).
Above the calm, glistening blue waters, a bright pink canoe emerged from the distant mist and glided towards the wolves (E. LU).
A subtle, yet nevertheless tangible, shudder permeated throughout the pack. Timothy and Robert, now fully back to his senses, repositioned themselves ever so slightly to get a better view (N. CHOI)
“It’s a pink cake! I bet it’s the Cotton Candy Fairy Princess!” Exclaimed Timothy, grabbing Roberts arm and shaking it furiously. “Oi, don’t be an idiot, ya got a fever or something?” Robert lowered his head in disappointment, ready to smack some sense into his friend. (D.TAVADIAN)
As the pink canoe approached the shore, a quiet, but unmistakable humming began to rise out of the depths of the lake. “Hey Robbie,” Timothy whispered, straining his ears to hear the soft music, “are my ears kidding me, or do I hear the theme song to Sofia the First??!!” (I. YANG)
The wolves sighed and looked towards them with faces of utter embarrassment. The soft music grew louder and louder, until finally the lyrics were indisputably evident. “I’d hate to admit it, but I think yer ears are right, Timothy!” Robert muttered. (N. RADFORD)
The gentle waves brought the canoe to a stop in front of the strange group. A small head popped up, silhouetted against the shrouded moon, and the annoying song was replaced by the voice of a girl, pouting. “I told you to bring me Pampers, not campers!” (E. MARTIN) But this didn’t register in the boys’ minds, because they were too busy looking at the zillions of pink, sparkly, half-broken toys lying scattered across the beach. Not to mention all the unicorns (K. MARTIN).
A realization dawned on Timothy as he slid his feet down onto the legions of martyred Barbies: this was no sweet, kind Cotton Candy Fairy Princess. This was the notorious Cotton Candy Fairy Queen, known and feared by all of her subjects. (C. PISANI) “Oh well, I won’t turn all of you into cotton candy this time,” she said with an evil smile. “Load these campers into my boat, and I’ll use them as my servants!” (J. KOO)
Before Timothy and Robert grasped what she had said, the wolves jumped forward, running toward the boat, roughly dumped them in, and disappeared in the blink of an eye (M. STANTON).
Robert squeezed his clothes, wet from the water in the canoe. “You can turn people into cotton candy, eh? That’s some wild stuff!” he remarked, pushing Timothy and his watering mouth away. The queen just scoffed and smiled evilly again, her bright eyes widening (H. BERRY).
The palace of the Cotton Candy Fairy Queen was made of gummy bricks. As they were led underneath a sugary chandelier, Timothy’s eyes slid to the licorice spear held by a prim guard, while Robert kept his own gaze fixed on the queen’s fluffy mane of green and pink hair. (L. TRZEBUNIA) In horrible trepidation, the boys followed the queen to her throne, which was made out of twirled licorice and pink fluff. She settled into her throne and declared to them, “Makeover time!” (G. BARNETT)
A group of forest animals, with long-suffering resignation, approached the boys with outstretched claws, and their normally flat hair began twisting up into masses of hideously colorful fluff. With a shriek, Timothy struggled to escape from the queen’s spell, but found his hands bound by strings of licorice and his feet stuck to the floor like melted marshmallows. (E. MARTIN)
Suddenly, Timothy noticed everything becoming blurry: black licorice soon melted into a backdrop of the dark, night sky, and the pink fluff princess morphed into Robert roughly shaking his arm, trying to wake him from his frightfully ridiculous nightmare. (N. CHOI)
As Timothy’s vision cleared, he realized he wasn’t where he thought he was. Feeling a hard ache in his neck and the rough feel of a large sequoia tree rubbing against his skin, he quickly grabbed onto a branch above him so he wouldn’t fall off. Beside him, Robert gasped, hugging the thick branch below him and staring in fear at the white ground beneath the boys (H. BERRY).
“Wha… what happened?” Timothy asked, looking around confusedly. Robert, still gazing fearfully at the ground as if waiting for something, vaguely pointed upward and said, “ask him!” Timothy glanced upward and saw what appeared to be a large black rabbit clad in an orange prison jumpsuit sitting in the branches above him. Seeing nothing else that Robert could be pointing to, he called to the rabbit, “How did we get here?” (J. WIDEMAN).
“Sugar power,” said the giant bunny above them. “I’ve just helped you escape from the sugary clutches of The Cotton Candy Fairy Queen!” (J. KOO).
Timothy blinked. Upon deciding the black rabbit was not another hallucination, he said quaveringly, “Er… thanks,” and prodded Robert’s arm, whispering, “Oi, what’s that—sugar power to escape sugary clutches? How do we know Black Rabbit here isn’t one of the Queen’s minions?” (L. TRZEBUNIA). “True,” Robert nodded. “His shiny black coat looks like heavenly dark chocolate, but he may really be licorice, the most evil of all things called by the name of candy.” (K. MARTIN).
The black rabbit hopped onto their branch with a resounding thump–nearly causing Timothy to fall off–and said adamantly, “I’m certainly not a licorice rabbit. My father and his father before him…and well, so on…have been dark chocolate rabbits since the dawn of all confectionery anthropomorphic animals.” (A. KIM).
“Awesome!” Timothy said.
“Still doesn’t explain the sugar power” Robert muttered.
“Hush, human, I’m getting to that part” (J. WIDEMAN). After considering where he should start, the rabbit began, “the art of sugar power has been passed through my family for generations. Ever since the dawn of all confectionery anthropomorphic animals, in fact, my family has taken pride in our ability to wield sugar power” (I. ROGERS). “Sugar power is different from the Queen’s cotton candy power, but that doesn’t mean it is less impactful. You see, because my family members are dark chocolate rabbits, The Cotton Candy Fairy Queen tends to underestimate just how much sugar power we have, which works to our advantage.” (E. GROB).
“Well what about the other animals in the Queen’s clutches?!” Timothy shouted indignantly. “Why did you only save us? Did you mistake us for Pampers, too?” (E. KERSTEN).
“You didn’t think you’d just be a servant, did you?” asked the rabbit. “She was going to use you to bait and destroy her only enemies who have successfully evaded her attacks!” (M. STANTON).
Timothy was about to respond, when he was interrupted by a shrill voice coming from below the tree. “Ha! You thought sugar power could save you and your human friends? Your power is nothing compared to mine! Now join me, the Cotton Candy Fairy Queen, as we revolt against my loathsome foes, the orthodontists! They want to stop me from eating licorice and gumdrops!” (E. KERSTEN)
“You mean dentists, not orthodontists.” Robert said with a sigh. “I really think you’re getting a little out of hand, miss Cotton Candy Fairy Queen your majesty. So, if you don’t try to remedy this situation by not being such a tyrant over sweets of all kinds, you’ll find that the two of us make tough opponents in a candy war.” (A. QUANTZ)
Unfortunately, Robert’s speech did not have quite the intended effect, as the Queen had placed her hands over her ears and was singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” with all the power in her toddler lungs. After the last rousing notes of her song, she cautiously peeled her hands from her ears and laughed. (C. PISANI)
“What foolishness! You weak-minded humans and your juvenile rabbit don’t understand the immense power I possess!” exclaimed the Queen, as she clasped a Pixy Stick wand from her cotton-candy hair and whirled it saying: “Dark chocolate stands no chance against me!” (N. RADFORD)
With a roar of laughter, Timothy yelled down to her: “Maybe on their own, they wouldn’t! But Robert here happens to hold the ‘sugary candy bucket XXL’ speed-eating Guinness World Record, and I…” He said, shooting his right hand into his backpack, “I have a flamethrower.” He pulled out the nozzle with flourish. (A. QUANTZ)
Before the queen could retaliate, a deep voice growled from the back of the forest,“And we bring our legions of wolves all armed with dark chocolate bombs. We will no longer tolerate your saccharine torture and corruption of the toddler species!!” (M. GOOD)
With an enraged shriek of “Traitors!” the Queen thrust her wand toward the wolves, emitting a spray of sparkling Pixy sugar mingled with strands of cotton candy. But when it was just about to reach the despairing pack, Timothy wielded his flamethrower and transformed the torrent of sugar into a harmless heap of brown crystallized flakes on the forest floor (H. GLEESON).
The dumbfounded Queen looked in amazement at where the flakes lay with her mouth wide open. She then burst into tears and threw herself on the ground, kicking and screaming, “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” (I. ROGERS).
“What’s not fair is the fact that your diet is about 87.8875% sugar and that you brush your teeth approximately once every super moon,” an unnervingly serene voice called over the sequoia forest. The Queen’s bawling turned into a panic-stricken scream as she looked up and saw several hundred electric toothbrush drones buzzing towards her (E. KERSTEN).
Dangling precariously from a drone was a dentist who held a massive megaphone; she grinned, showing off her super duper white teeth. “My Queen, let me introduce myself: I’m Dr. Dentalspark, but you may call me Dr. D, and dental hygiene is incredibly important. In fact, dental hygiene is the key to success!” Now the Queen, being a greedy toddler, was immediately captivated by Dr. D and her promise of success. A troop of Dr D’s hygienists parachuted down from the drones and handed her a lifetime supply of toothbrushes. The wolves, along with Robert and Timothy, stared at the Queen in bewilderment…Mere seconds ago the Queen had been having the most frightening temper tantrum, yet now she sat on a sequoia stump happily brushing her teeth. “Well, now that the Queen seems to be satisfied” the lead wolf announced, “we’ll escort you, Robert and Timothy, back to your tent.” And, with that, Robert and Timothy’s fantastical adventure had come to an end. Or so they thought, but… that is a different story.
Image Credit:
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