Chapter 27
Jojora slowly lowers herself to the ground to pet the Tanoomba. They both recognize each other as the snow witch expresses, "It's you again. I miss you so much. Hey, Prince Peasley is my boyfriend now. He's a good guy now."
The Tanoomba happily responds with a smile and wags its tail in response to Jojora's affections.
Prince Peasley begins to tell about Cackletta to Jojora and the Tanoomba, "That's Cackletta, the villainous Beanish witch who desired the Beanstar, a wish-granting artifact only to be awakened by..."
But the prince stopped to look at Jojora. The snow witch's fear is growing within her, wondering why the prince is staring at her. Her suspicions begin to grow. The Tanoomba walked between Jojora and Prince Peasley. Jojora floats in the air with a slightly angered look on her face.
Jojora yells at Prince Peasley with tears on her eyes, "You met me only to protect me! I don't need it! I should be protecting me from you!"
Prince Peasley's heart broke when his lover voiced out the revelation herself, but the snow witch could feel the warmness dying inside the prince. She felt guilty for it, so she verified to the prince, "But... you still changed and did it for me?"
The prince pleaded by answering, "It was my life to protect my own people with the Beanstar. But because of you and the Beanish, the Beanstar no longer matters to me. This is my life now, to cherish it with you. Please... please Jojora of Joke's End... forgive me."
Jojora blushes and sobs a little. She lifts the Tanoomba up and flies towards the prince. The snow witch smiles at him and happily replies, "I forgive you, sweetie."
Jojora kisses her lover on the forehead and proceeds to tell him, "The ice won't last very long since my encounter with whatever her name is. The remainder of my ice powers will meet me only at Joke's End."
Inside the ice block, the ugly green bats set their mouths aflame. The ice block begins to melt into water to be absorbed by the grass. The ice gets thin for the bats to break free with their combined strengths. Prince Peasley, Jojora and the Tanoomba face towards the ugly green bats.
Half of the swarm of bats spat out balls of fire while the other half released bolts of lightning from their mouths.
The Tanoomba jumped in and spun its tail to neutralize the fireballs. Jojora flies in front of the Tanoomba to take refreshment from the lightning bolt, which she notes to her friends, "These shockers will do heal and do no harm against a snow witch."
"Impressive," the prince complimented, making Jojora smile and blush at him.
Jojora orders her princely friend, "We're here to defend. We need a good fighter against these ugly bats!"
"Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my sword," then Prince Peasley confidently resolved, "but I've prepared to fight unarmed."
The prince charges towards the ugly green bats to proceed throwing punches at them, knocking each one out at a time. The allying Tanoomba spin around with its tail extended to sweep a swarm of ugly green bats away. One of the bats horrifyingly bit one of Prince Peasley's punches, poisoning him from his hand. The prince grunts in pain while the Tanoomba whacks the bat away from the prince.
The Tanoomba continues to fight while Jojora worriedly checks on her lover, "Are you okay? How can I help?"
Prince Peasley sits down on the ground weakly and tells Jojora, "You have to find a Refreshing Herb. They're clover-shaped and green. You can… acquire one from…"
Suddenly, they hear cries that brought the battlers' attention. A squadron of Beanish troops came charging against the ugly green bats and strike them with their pointed lances. The ugly green bats growled and reformed to transform into Cackletta.
Cackletta cackles menacingly and tells her enemies, "Ah, your reinforcements are here just in time to inform you something I would like to disappoint you."
One of the Beanish troops ran towards Prince Peasley, took out a small sack behind his shield and presented a Refreshing Herb. Prince Peasley takes it and ingests it, feeling refreshed as the poison caused by the bite is gone.
The prince stands up and questions the Beanish witch, "Why do you care?!"
The Beanish witch reveals to the prince, "Your mother, the queen, I manipulated her luck to infect her with a Bellech Worm!"
Prince Peasley gasps in horror, though Jojora seems clueless about what Cackletta is saying.
Cackletta explains about the Bellech Worm, "The queen of Bean-bean Kingdom has finally come true with power, her strength, but power corrupts and that will be in her mind. By now, Queen Bean must be rampaging in the town. Once the worm stays longer, the queen, out of exhaustion, will die. And no cure will cast the Bellech Worm away!"
The Beanish witch cackled as thunderstorms strike the ground of the kingdom at Cackletta's crazy will. Prince Peasley and Jojora begin to lose hope that lives will be lost.
Surprisingly, one of the Beanish troops informed those who have lost hope in them, "Listen, Queen Bean is still at the castle. Beanardo and the rest of the troops have ceased Queen Bean's rampage before it even began."
"It doesn't matter," Cackletta scoffed cockily, "you cannot prevent Queen Bean's inevitable death! Unless you have Chuckola Cola, the long-lost beverage Bubbles have stashed away!"
Cackletta cackles and raises both of her arms to summon a dark hole on the ground under her. She falls down as the dark hole closes.
Prince Peasley sighs in disappointment, crosses his arms and expresses hopelessly, "Now, there's no way to cure queen mother. And Cackletta will return for Jojora once she's regained strength. I can't do two things at once."
"Can't you see?" Jojora voices out her opinion, "Cackletta is manipulating our choices. You should protect me while you should find a way to cure the queen, but as long as I stay with you and away from Joke's End, Cackletta will return with greater powers to kidnap me for sure."
The snow witch places her hands on the prince's cheeks to tell him, "Listen, I'll return to Joke's End, so that twice of me will tackle twice of Cackletta. And I won't be alone in the fight."
The couple look at the Tanoomba, expressing its determination to fight by running, jumping and wagging its tail in place.
Prince Peasley remembers about the Tanoomba and suggests to Jojora, "Perhaps there is no need to fight. Tanoomba can transform into anybody, so let it transform into you. Cackletta will take the bait and trick her into concluding that you are not worthy of awakening the Beanstar."
But Jojora makes a condition, "All right, but in Joke's End, in case your plan fails."
"Come on," Prince Peasley blushes and jokingly requests to her, "just admit that my plan would go well."
Jojora giggles and presses her lips against the prince's. She pulls herself away a second later, staring into his eyes and tells him, "I'll see you later, Peasley."
Prince Peasley blushes and replies, "You, too, Jojora."
Jojora proceeds to fly in the air, smiling at her allies from above. She waves her hand to beckon the Tanoomba, "Come on, Tanoomba."
The Tanoomba grunts and wags its tail in response. It jumped and flapped its tail to fly as it and Jojora fly to the northeastern direction. Prince Peasley and the troops watch the two depart.
The prince turns to look at his troops to say to them, "Thank you for your assistance. I must hurry to the castle immediately to equip my armor and weaponry."
"Yes, sir!" the Beanish troops complied and circle around the prince to protect him as they stroll in the fields to return to Bean-bean Town. And also, Prince Peasley restores his winged board.
When they return to Bean-bean Town, the Beanish people are suddenly walking towards the west exit in an orderly manner while a Beanish troop is leading their evacuation. They witness the return of their prince.
One of the troops leading the townspeople informed the prince, "The town is being evacuated under Beanardo's orders. The queen has not caused a lot of damage yet, however."
"That will be fine," Prince Peasley agreed and ordered them, "To any present troop, lead the Beanish to Bean-bean Fields! I must return to the castle to search for answers to cure the queen."
The Beanish troops complied and proceeded to continue the evacuation. They led the Beanish people from their town and led them to a quiet and empty area of Bean-bean Fields.
Meanwhile, the prince ran towards the castle. Just by the front gates of the castle, a weary Lady Lima is seen crawling towards the entrance from the west side.
Prince Peasley sees the Goodwill Ambassador and runs towards to her aid.
But two Peas appeared by the entrance of Bean-bean Castle and warn the prince, "Prince, wait! This is not Lady Lima!"
Lady Lima looked at the Peas in shock and insisted to them, "No, I'm Lady Lima."
The Peas proceed to add warnings to the prince, "Cackletta has impersonated Lady Lima years ago!"
"I… I'm the real Lady Lima," Lady Lima said to the prince and the Peas.
Prince Peasley walks forward and tests the Goodwill Ambassador, "All right, if you really are Lady Lima, then tell us something only you would know."
The Peas watch in fear while Prince Peasley confidently waits for Lady Lima's answer.
Lady Lima struggles to get up on her legs and responds to Prince Peasley's test, "O-Only I would know… then, how would you know?"
Prince Peasley sighs in relief and confirms to the Peas, "This is the real Lady Lima. Please take her to medical treatment."
The Peas shiver in fear, but reluctantly followed their prince's orders. They lifted Lady Lima up and carried her inside the castle. As the Peas take Lady Lima for treatment, Prince Peasley runs towards the royal bedroom to open the wardrobe.
He takes and wears his white armor made by the Hammerheads. He also takes his green sword, also made by the Hammerheads. The prince rides his winged board and proceeds to fly to the throne room.
Inside the throne room, the Beanish troops struggle to hold the ropes tied around the rampaging Queen Bean. Prince Peasley enters, greeted by the troops unfocused for a moment before resuming their work to prevent their mutated queen's rampage.
Beanardo, one of the troops standing guard in a defensive stance in case the queen escapes, greets Prince Peasley, "Your majesty, I apologize if this be an obstacle from your quest."
But Prince Peasley shakes his head and forgives his trainer, "The protection of my people, especially queen mother, is my main concern now," and then, he says to Beanardo, "Beanardo, I'm thankful for you to be my trainer…"
Beanardo chuckles and replies, "I have heard of your change from the words of the townspeople. I expected you to thank me sometime, but I hope it would wait. We have to find the Chuckola Cola. To do that, we must find the fugitive Bubbles. Please tell me you have spotted him in your aerial routines."
"Well, don't tell me your troops haven't found him yet," Prince Peasley indirectly admitted the same answer.
Lady Lima suddenly comes in sitting on a wheelchair moved by a Pea. She is astonished to see Queen Bean's condition and tells the prince, "Queen Bean is infected by a Bellech Worm that turned her into this monstrosity! She may be able to spit it up if she drank the long-lost Chuckola Cola from Chucklehuck Woods. Just so it happens after Cackletta buried me in Chucklehuck Woods, I was kidnapped by Bubbles and taken into his hiding place, where I have placed my eyes on the Chuckola Cola! I shall tell you where to find it!"