Hello guys! I have finally completed the mega-chapter (Or the next chapter here)! To all you guys that were waiting so long for this next chapter, I'm so sorry for the slow update. I had to make sure that everything flowed smoothly. I'll try to make sure to update more quickly, or at least more often. I hope you guys enjoy this one, the racing is finally here!
The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts
Chapter 10: The Race Is On!
"Ralph, do I have to do this?" Lucy moaned as she sat in the driver's seat of her kart.
"Only if you want to race." Ralph chuckled.
It had taken a while, but Ralph had finally convinced Lucy to have him help her learn how to drive outside the bakery walls. As they stood over the newly created kart, Ralph could not help but think that this was exactly what he went through when teaching the kid how to drive.
"Okay, first you need to start the kart up." he instructed in a gentle voice.
Lucy gave a confused expression as she searched around the interior of her kart. While she was looking, Ralph took a closer look at his own contribution to the kart.
It was messy, but still retained the shape and form of one. It was a bit bigger than the ones the other kids had, just perfect for Lucy's small figure. The colors were phenomenal, too many to count, but the one color that did stand out was a dark, deep green. On one side of the kart, there where two names carved into the kart with gold and red icing. Ralph's name was imprinted with red, while Lucy's was imprinted with gold. There was a slight touch she put next to her name, but for some reason Ralph could not guess what that thing was, or what it even meant for that matter.
A loud vroom from the kart turned Ralph's attention back to Lucy, who was smiling proudly for finding the ignition.
"I did it! I found it!" she exclaimed proudly.
"Okay, good." he replied back, "Now there's pedals on the floor there."
He pointed down by Lucy's feet as she looked down to see the few pedals that took up some of the floor space.
"Pedals?" she spoke uncertainly.
"The things that make the kart move and stop." Ralph explained.
"Oh...cool." she said awed.
"Now let's see..." Ralph picked Lucy up setting her on top of the kart, "The one on the far right is what you push to make it move; the middle one makes it stop..."
She nodded her head silently, smiling at Ralph as he explained what he vaguely knew about kart mechanics.
"...and then this pedal-wait...oh no!"
"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.
"Aww man! I completely forgot what this pedal does!" Ralph groaned heavily.
He suddenly felt his frustration bubbling up to the surface.
"Well...what does this stick do?"
"Stick?" Ralph looked to where she was pointing. He then remembered what he had forgotten when he looked at it.
"That's the joystick, it helps the kart go faster. And you use this last pedal to help you as well."
"But Ralph," Lucy whined, "I don't know if I'll be able to drive this-"
"It's okay, I'll be there to teach you. Besides..." he knelt down to get a look at her face, "...I've taught my best friend how to drive before, I think I can handle teaching you as well."
She looked at Ralph unsurely, looking down at her bare feet for only a moment. When she did look back at him, she was smiling happily. Ralph felt his cheeks go a light red.
I've never noticed how pretty she is when she's happy...
She slumped back down into the driver's seat, checking all of important pedals with her feet. She first tried the brake pedal, which only squeaked since the kart was stopped already. She then tried the gas pedal and the far left pedal at the same time. Unawares she also in the process pushed the joystick forward.
The kart that was softly purring before now roared with the power to move forward. It jerked so suddenly that Ralph lost his balance and fell face flat on the floor. He heard Lucy shriek in surprise as the kart jerked forward a little more, then stopped suddenly a foot away from where he fell. Carefully Ralph picked himself up and walked toward the kart.
"Well, at least you managed to move the kart." he laughed softly as he carefully climbed back on the kart.
Lucy giggled lightly, clutching the coated chocolate steering wheel in her hands. "Yeah that's a start, isn't it?"
"Yep." Ralph sighed heartily, "So...let's try this again, only make sure to not make me fall flat on my face."
"Okay." Lucy replied as her expression faded into concentration.
With the joystick in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, she slowly pushed her left foot down on the far left pedal and catiously pushed the joystick forward. She then pushed her right foot down on the gas pedal with little force. The kart suddenly rolled into action, moving forward inch by inch across the road.
"Look Ralph, I'm driving the kart!" she gleefully exclaimed, bouncing a little in the seat.
He smiled back as her kart kept rolling forward. Without any trouble Lucy put on the brakes, stopping the kart in its tracks. She sat up and turned to face him with an excited smile.
"I can drive a kart!" she grinned happily. But Ralph saw her smile fade away fast, replaced with uncertainty.
"But...am I really ready?" she said softly.
"Yeah, of course!" Ralph exclaimed encouragingly, "They are all gonna like you, I just know it!"
"You really think so Ralph?" she said curiously.
He nodded and smiled down at her as he looked into her hopeful golden eyes. With one hand he gently patted on the top of her head. She jumped only a little as he kept his huge hand on her head. Lucy's golden eyes peaked out from behind his fingers, as the warm smile came back. Her smile always seemed to warm him up on the inside.
"Alright, let's go meet up with the others." he said gently removing his hand from her head.
Lucy nodded as she turned and started the kart up again. This time, with a little more force, she pressed down on the gas pedal and shifted the joystick forward. With a sudden jolt the kart rocketed forward. Ralph was caught by surprise as he held on as tightly as he could to the sides of the kart.
"Next stop...the racetrack!" Lucy's voice exclaimed happily as the two of them raced down towards the starting line.
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"So...what's your story?"
"Huh?!" Archer turned to the candy haired girl.
"Your story...you know, how do you know Lucy?" she stated obviously.
He turned to his friend Garren, who was giving him the same look that he was giving.
"Might as well." Garren urged on.
"Alright wait! First..." Archer turned back to the little girl, "I would like to know your name. And...how you knew my name."
"Vanellope von Schweetz." she replied impatiently, "Obviously I knew your name just yesterday, doy! Now you better explain yourself."
He took a deep breath, putting his bow on the ground that he had been holding in his hands delicately.
"Fine, I'll talk." Archer bellowed lowly, but sadly as he looked at Garren and Vanellope.
The two kids leaned in closer to Archer.
"Here it goes...it was only about a few years ago. Lucy was only a bit younger than me looking like she would be almost 20, which was pretty unusual considering that we don't age. I was just plugged into my game, and the first time I came out to explore...she was there.
She was just...sitting alone. There was no one who came by to talk to her, no one even took a looking glance at her. And being naive as I was just being plugged in, I decided to go talk to her. Though she did not know it, she was very beautiful and all under the cloak she wore. Her golden eyes were just stunning."
Archer sighed lost in thought. Suddenly he heard a snapping of the little girl's fingers.
"Hey! Wake up Mr. Hotshot! Keep going with the story." she sternly glared at him with eyes of curiousness, but annoyed at his actions.
"Okay, okay!" Archer replied, "Anyway, I went over to try and talk to her. At first she was surprised to see someone looking at her, backing away from me when I approached. I tried to say hello to her, but she ran away before I got the chance.
Everyday since then I would always visit Game Central Station at least once, and all the times I came, she was always there."
"So...what happened to you then?" Vanellope asked concerned, "It seems like you really liked Lucy, but...why would you go after her and try to hurt her?"
"It's...because I was someone else."
Both the kids were silent as he blurted out what he think had happened.
"W-what do you mean someone else?" Garren voice stuttered uncomfortably.
Archer eyed his companion with concern. With one hand he placed it on Garren's head and rubbed his hand back and forth across the boy's head.
"Someone, or something, took control over my body is what I'm saying." he answered calmly, "But, when Lucy...you know... 'took it out of me', I felt so much better than I had been before."
Just as he was about to finish his story, a strange sound came out of nowhere from behind him. The two children noticed it too and turned their heads to the strange sound.
Archer flinched as a hovercraft came from out of nowhere just right above him. He ducked, grabbing Garren as he moved out of the way just in time before it landed onto the ground.
Archer then noticed the two people that were on the hovercraft, a man and a woman. The man was very small for his size, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact he looked quite positive. The lady on the other hand seemed more serious and firm, with her short blonde haired bangs hanging down on her face, and her heavy-like black armor.
"Felix, Calhoun!" Vanellope exclaimed, "What are you guys doing here?"
"We had heard what was going on." said the lady Calhoun, "We wanted to see if you and Wreck-It were okay."
"We turned out okay, no need to worry." Vanellope answered.
"Speaking of which, where is he anyway?" the man Felix asked curiously.
The girl fidgeted nervously a little as a toothy smile came across her face.
"Let's just say...he's on his little date right now." she smiled smugly.
"Really?" Felix gaped.
"Still, I wonder who the girl is?" Calhoun crossed her arms.
Archer wanted to say something about this, but another loud sound interrupted him. This time the sound was on the ground, and coming directly towards the group.
"Here's your chance to find out." the little girl gestured towards the closing in vehicle in the distance.
Looking closer, Archer realized that it was the biggest race kart he had ever seen.
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"Candlehead!"
She flinched and looked at her friend Taffyta, who was staring at her more annoyed than usual.
"Come on and get your kart to the starting line already!" she shouted at her.
"Tell me why we are out here again?" Rancis's voice asked unsurely.
"Vanellope told us that we're going to race against a newcomer." Taffyta remarked, "So...because our friend Vanellope is president, we have to follow her requests.
"Who's the newcomer you think?" Candlehead wondered aloud, "Is he or she a new character in our game?"
"I wouldn't know since I haven't see him or her." Rancis responded.
Candlehead sighed as she finally drove her race kart slowly to her spot at the starting line. She looked out beyond the racetrack to the snow caps of the mountains in the distance.
"Maybe the newcomer will be a kind person. I suppose that would be nice for a change."
A growing roar of an engine snapped Candlehead out of her thoughts.
"SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN!" yelled a familar voice.
"Is that...?"
Candlehead turned and looked behind her. She gasped to see the biggest kart she had ever seen racing straight towards the starting line.
"Hey! That's...Wreck-It Ralph!" Taffyta exclaimed, "What's he doing riding on the back of that big kart?"
Candlehead did not answer. She was trained on who was driving the kart, someone she did not expect to see.
"It's...a young girl."
She rubbed her eyes thinking she was dreaming. When she opened them up though, the girl was still there, the kart coming as fast as it could towards the racetrack.
Some gut feeling suddenly came over her like nothing she had felt before. Without thinking or hesitation she ran from her own kart towards the oncoming one.
"Candlehead!" she heard both Taffyta and Rancis shout.
Despite their calls for her to come back, Candlehead continued running forward.
She had to know who she was.
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The sudden rush of wind in her face made Lucy feel something she had never had. It was the feeling of adrenaline rushing through the very core of her code. All at once it was as if she had begun a new life, just by pushing the pedal to the max.
"SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN!"
Lucy's new feeling quickly faded away as she realized that they were very close to crashing into the starting line. Without hesitation she pushed down the brakes, sending the kart screeching to a sudden halt.
For a moment the kart stood in total silence as Lucy remained motionless.
THUNK!
Lucy turned back to see that Ralph had clumsily fell off of the kart. His expression was of pure shock, but also relief that they did not crash. She gave him a small smile and quietly giggled.
"Are you okay?" she asked his fallen down figure.
Ralph nodded without a word, his shocked stare still written on his face.
A tap on her shoulder caused her to flinch and turn the other way. Standing right beside the kart was another little girl. She was about Vanellope's size, but had green hair tied in pigtails and wore pink instead of a mint green. But what intrigued Lucy about this girl was the hat she wore: a chocolate hat with frosting as well as a candle right on top.
"E-excuse me." the girl stammered shyly, "But...I-I could not help but notice your kart."
Lucy blinked in awe at the girl's shy manner of speaking. Wow this girl is... adorable!
Without thinking she picked up the little girl and held her closely in a hug. The girl reacted by squeaking highly in surprise, but did not try to pull away. Instead she gave Lucy a rather confused but shy look.
"Oh! Sorry I didn't mean to surprise you." Lucy said apolgetically and put the girl back down.
The girl's eyes looked away shyly as Lucy carefully got out of her kart. She sat on her knees next to the girl, her big eyes full of curiosity and questions. Instead Lucy only just smiled at her.
"My name's Lucy by the way." She extended her hand out to the girl, "What's yours?"
The girl's eyes slightly looked up to Lucy's, then to her hand. With a slow motion, the girl hesitantly took Lucy's hand within her little one.
"Candlehead." she replied softly.
Lucy blinked, "Candlehead? So that why you have a candle on your hat!"
"Yeah." Candlehead agreed shaking Lucy's hand slightly, "So you're the newcomer-I mean the one that going to race for the first time?"
Lucy nodded her head.
"Well...you can't go racing dressed like that." she said looking Lucy up and down.
Lucy looked down at her short, golden dress, "I-I don't have anything else to-"
"Come with me then." Candlehead cut her short. Tugging hard on Lucy's hand, she managed to get her on her feet and a little ways toward the starting line. Hesitantly Lucy followed Candlehead, still not sure what she was really up to.
They stopped short just before they hit the checkered line.
"Go ahead, step on it." Candlehead gestured in front of Lucy to the line.
Lucy stared intently at the line, looming down like a trap set for her.
"I don't know what Candlehead is making me do, but..."
With one bare foot Lucy cautiously stepped onto one of the small, white squares.
Instantly it started to glow with a warm light. Lucy's golden eyes widened in wonder as the light enveloped her. The warm light touched her skin, causing her to gasp in surprise and delight. The light then suddenly began to circle around her, transforming her outfit completely.
When the lights did finally disappear, she found herself in an outfit totally different than her own. Instead of the dress being golden, it was the color pink with little peach flower designs scattered all over it. Right in the middle was what looked like a yellow sunlight or a star. With the dress Lucy also noticed that she was wearing a short, orange jacket over it, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. A pair of racing goggles hung around her neck, which was also the color orange. Her hair which was a mess before, was now tied up in little pigtails on both sides of her head. The only thing that did not change was the fact that she still was barefoot. Lucy smiled wiggling her toes up and down the white square she stood on.
"This is amazing." Lucy exclaimed in awe.
She gave a little twirl, giggling happily with satisfaction. It was then she noticed there was two other kids that were staring at her in awe. She recognized one of them being the girl named Taffyta. The other was a small boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore an orange shirt under his brown racing jacket.
She could not stop staring at the three little racers who were looking at her in wonder.
"Woah! Now that...was cool." Taffyta smiled impressed.
"How in the world did you do that?!" the boy exclaimed questioningly as the three racers joined Lucy.
"Rancis!" Candlehead whined annoyed.
"U-um...well, I really don't know." Lucy looked up and down herself once more in a confusing yet happy manner.
"Boy! Wait until Vanellope sees this!" Candlehead smiled wide, "I think she'll be really surprised."
"You think so?" Lucy asked unsuringly.
"Well..." Taffyta gestured towards a small group that had formed by Lucy's kart, "...there's only one way to find out."
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"Okay, what in the name of User are you doing Stinkbrain?"
"Recovering." Ralph replied as he finally managed to sit up.
He looked around to find Lucy, the first-time driver of a racing kart, but wherever he looked she was nowhere to be found.
"Where in the world did she go?" Ralph shook his head in disbelief, "Why is it that I can never find her when I need her."
"Well, you sure must have been through a doozy to get here." said Felix.
"Felix! Sarge! What are you two doing here?" Ralph' voice said in embarrassment, though he tried to hide it through his surprised happy manner.
"We came to see if you two were alright." Calhoun answered sincerely, " I mean, we heard the rumors about Archer planning on doing something unexpected. So...we came to see if we could knock some sense into him."
"Hey! I'm not that way now at all!" Archer shouted sternly as he approached the crowd.
"Really now?! We'll see about that!" Calhoun snapped back at him.
"Guys, let's not start any fights." Felix said trying to calm them down.
Ralph looked upon his group of friends who expressed very different emotions. The little boy Garren and Felix were intent on trying to stop any more fights from happening. Calhoun on the other hand wanted to teach Archer a lesson; but Archer was intent on not fighting at all anymore than he already had. On the contrary, he actually had a heart to refuse fighting. Maybe I had judged him too harshly.
Looking at Vanellope she only just watched in annoyance as the scene unfolded. It was only the sound of three voices in unison did the kid look away from the group.
"HEY GUYS!"
Ralph turned his head around to find the three racers Taffyta, Candlehead, and Rancis walking up towards the group.
"Taffyta! Rancis! Candlehead!" Vanellope ran up to meet the three tiny racers, "Is everything set for the race?"
"Yep!" Candlehead replied with a wide smile.
The four tiny racers continued to converse while behind him Felix, Calhoun, Archer and Garren continued to keep a fight down or start one up.
Then Ralph noticed someone slowly walking up to the group. Ralph immediately stood up as soon as he set eyes on who it was.
"H-hi." Lucy stammered bashfully.
She wore a completely different outfit, a racing outfit as far as he could tell. Her hair was tied up with red bands into two small pigtails. She wore a pink dress this time under an orange racer jacket that looked a little too small on her. The only thing that had not changed was the fact that she did not wear any racing shoes and was still barefoot.
At the moment everyone turned to look at Lucy as soon as she had said something. Lucy had stopped in her venture towards the group. Her expression looked to be shy, yet somewhat afraid.
Taking a shallow breath in, Ralph slowly made his way towards Lucy. His friends watched his every move as he stepped closer to the shuddering little girl standing before them.
His cheeks could not help but turn red a little as he knelt down to look at her.
"Hi." he said calmly.
Lucy finally looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face though her face still flushed with shyness.
The two of them stared at each other in silence. Ralph knew that his friends were all but watching the scene unfold before them. After a long pause, everyone gathered around them, with different looks of curiousness, confusion, and joy mixed in together.
Ralph turned to face the lot as a smile spread across his face.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet my friend Lucy."
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For as long as she could remember, she always felt afraid when standing with a large crowd of people. Yet as Lucy looked at each person in the group, somehow this particular group felt very different from the rest she had encountered before. Suddenly she felt her shyness slowly fade away, replaced with a small smile.
"It's, nice to meet you." she gave a small, polite curtsy like she always did when meeting someone.
The first person that spoke to her was a rather small man who looked like he was the hero of his game. He politely took his hat off and gave her a warm smile.
"I'm Fix-It Felix Jr., ma'm. From the game Fix-It-Felix Jr." he said in a humbled tone.
Lucy blinked and returned a warm smile to Felix. The next person was a tall woman who wore a lot of black armor. Her demeanor was rough looking, though she had a softness to her eyes that she hid almost well enough for others to not notice.
"I am Sergeant Tamora J. Calhoun." she extended a hand out to her.
She looked at the hand, unsure of what she meant to do.
"Well, go on! You're supposed to shake it." the Sarge said firmly but softly.
Hesitantly Lucy extended her own hand to the lady's, who took it and shook it up and down a few times. She smiled in amazement as the lady let go of her hand, looking down at her own hand that had gone on this new experience.
"And I'm Garren!" came the sound of a boy's voice.
Lucy looked down to see the little boy, small but with a very determined look on his face. She smiled down at him, and shook his hand as well.
"Alright, alright enough with the conversations! Let's get racing!" Vanellope's voice shouted over the crowd as she and the rest of the racers hurried down to their own karts.
For once in her life Lucy felt so excited to finally be able to race in her own kart for the first time. Without hesitation she raced to her own kart and climbed in without any trouble. Everything came to her like she had learned it a thousand times as she started up her kart and went racing down to the starting line.
When she did get there, Lucy was surprised to see that more racers and their karts had taken their place at the start, their engines reved up for taking off at any second. Suddenly she began to feel nervous: There's so many racers. What if I don't make it through? Ralph would be worried if-
Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the weight of the kart suddenly go heavy. She did not have to turn around to know that Ralph was sitting right behind her. All of the nervous feelings she had now faded away, knowing that she would be safe as long as her friend was with her.
"You don't think that I'm going to let you race out there on your own, do you?" Ralph's voice said warmly, but with a hint of determination.
"Nope." Lucy replied with a smile coming across her lips.
Ready. . . .
The sound of the engines around her got louder.
Set. . . .
Lucy braced herself knowing the last word to come, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She felt the same feeling of adrenaline she had never felt before go right through her once more.
. . . . GO!
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As soon as the one word was said, Lucy's kart rocketed forward ahead of the others, almost throwing Ralph right off the back of the kart. His big hands grasped the sides of the kart tightly, barely keeping his balance intact as well as himself. He took a look down the driver's seat, seeing that Lucy's expression now was of sheer determination and spirit.
"Just like Vanellope." Ralph thought as the other karts came up to catch them.
Many of the karts now passed by theirs, including Vanellope's which raced out of both of their sights.
"The other karts are passing us!" Lucy yelled back at him over the roars of the karts.
"Well, let's catch up to them!" he replied with a smile of determination.
Lucy did not have to ask twice as she increased the speed. They passed much of the first stretch now coming up to the first section Gumball Gorge. Looking ahead Ralph noticed some of the characters made it through fine, but others were hit with the humongous gumballs that came crashing down.
With a leap, the kart shot forward right into the gorge. Lucy held onto the steering wheel tightly as she looked in wonder at the huge gumballs coming down.
"Lucy! Watch out!"
She surprisingly gasped as one of them had gotten in their path. With quick determination she turned the kart to the left, barely avoiding the gumball that rolled away out of sight. Though just as they both thought they were in the clear, more gumballs came down the gorge.
Ralph held on for dear life as Lucy barely maneuvered past a few of them. This is much more dangerous than I thought. And I thought that falling a few stories off a building was scary.
Suddenly a huge gumball came falling right down on top of them. When Lucy saw the big boulder of a gumball coming down she let out a yelp in fright.
As if right on instinct Ralph found himself raising his fist high in the air right above them.
CRACK!
The gumball exploded into little pieces with the sheer force of his hit. The both of them lost their balance a little as the remains of it were spewn behind them.
"Woah! That was amazing!" Lucy shouted in amazement directly at him.
He returned with a small nervous chuckle, feeling his face get hot. The speed power boost they had just hit caused Ralph to jolt back, remembering that they were still in the race.
Alright, no time to mess around. We got to finish this race!
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Having made it out alive and well from the gumball boulders, Lucy sped up to the next section of the track. Towering above her was a mountain that was in the form of a giant, chocolate cake. On the edge there were little cherries sitting on top of what looked like some sort of cream.
Right at the start, Lucy had to keep the wheel turning left, otherwise the both of them would go falling off into the candy-filled land below. She became very nervous as they made it halfway up the huge cake mountain.
Suddenly Lucy found herself coming right on the tail of a few of the racers. She recognized the candle on top of one of them, realizing that Candlehead was one of the three racers in front of them. She tried to get their attention, but nothing came out of her. She then recalled that right now she had to concentrate on not falling off the mountain.
"Focus Lucy...focus!"
Increasing the speed of the kart, she managed to catch up to the three racers without her or Ralph falling off both the kart and the track.
"Hey, it's Taffyta, Candlehead, and Rancis!" she heard Ralph shout behind her.
All at once the three racers turned quickly to look back at the both of them. The looks in all of their eyes were competitive, and Lucy knew then that they were not going to let her and Ralph pass by easily.
On queue the trio increased their speed putting some distance between them. Determined Lucy tried to speed up and catch them, but the kart would not go any faster.
WHOOSH!
A sudden push knocked the breath out of her as she felt the kart lurch forward, faster than before. Ralph's strong arms pushed back and forth, propelling the kart forward and deeper into the cake mountain. At last the two of them passed the three surprised racers as they lost their karts lost grip on the road, being surprised of the sudden comeback of Lucy's big kart.
"Woooh!" Lucy shouted with glee as they jumped clear across the gap between the mountain and the road ahead.
They landed roughly on the road, the wheels smashing into the candy-coated track. Lucy gasped as she felt herself fly out of the kart. She would have fallen out if Ralph had not grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back in.
For some reason she found her face get hot as he grabbed her. There goes this feeling again! What is it that I'm feeling?
Before she could try and figure out this new feeling, she found herself back inside the driver's seat with the full force of Ralph's arms moving them along the track to the final section of the race.
Lucy suddenly felt cold as the temperature dropped dramatically. Before she knew it Lucy found herself looking at the icy caps of mountains made out of ice cream, towering more above her than the cake mountain they left behind.
And finding herself getting a really bad feeling.
That someone or something dangerous was coming.
And I leave you with a cliffhanger (once again!)! *laughs manically*
Okay, if you guys made it through all of the chapter in one piece, I sincerely congratulate you! Hope to see you guys sooner than later. Reviews make me happy, and excited! Until next time.