Chapter 5: The Pudding Palace

Hot Fudge Mountain

Throughout that time, Grace went on singing a few more carols such as Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and the song of Rudolph in which the red nosed reindeer had actually enjoyed listening to. He believed that no matter how well or bad someone sang it was how it made them feel deep inside. That was because he had often heard a few of the reindeer sing a little off key before and had gotten used to it. And from the looks of her face, she seemed quite happy already. Maggie on the other hand was still overcome with dizziness from the amount of lemonade she slurped up and was still walking unsteadily. In this state, she didn't seem to be annoyed with the happy heifers off key singing. With a dazed expression on her face, she would just encourage her to keep on caroling with words like "you go cowgirl" or "keep up that tune."

Rudolph led them through a few areas of Fudge Hills where lumps of chocolate fudge stood out like rocky plateaus. It was like traveling in a canyon of hidden chocolate all over the place. The Rainbow Bridge which glowed out from a pot of chocolate coins wrapped in gold paper, and Lollipop Forest where all types of colored lollipops of different shapes and sizes stuck out of the ground covered in white sugar. Right now, he was leading them through a place called Hot Fudge Mountain where there stood a mountain of vanilla ice cream with gobs of flowing chocolate syrup, whip cream, chopped up nuts and a cherry on top. It might have taken an entire civilization to try and gobble up the mountain. The sweet scent was unbearable to Maggie and Grace who now strongly desired a taste of it, but Mrs. Calloway would say "no" whenever one of them tried to have a bite out of any more candy. She for once did not want the chance of hearing a belly ache throughout this adventure and Rudolph couldn't blame her for that.

"We're almost there everyone," the reindeer spoke out as the group now passed through Hot Fudge Mountain.

"What, the North Pole?" asked Maggie.

"Not quite, we're still a long ways off, right now the Pudding Palace is straight ahead," The group stared at a beautiful golden glow before them. The building was similar to a giant birthday cake. From top to bottom, each layer went down from small to large. "Do any of you girls know what lies in there?"

"Sure we do, this one owl flew over the sleigh and asked if we had come from the Pudding Palace," Maggie spoke in a spaced-out tone while gazing off in the other direction. It almost looked as if she were talking to the air above. "I told him that we were not from here and we ain't ever heard of no Pudding Palace with rainbow sugar cows creating flavored pudding before. No sir, I'd rather be eating candy than serving it. Ho don't mind if I do," with her narrowed eyes locking onto a rainbow sprinkled bonbon bush, she plucked one off and took a big bite. One the outside, it was coated in a pink shell and the inside was filled with a soft gooey jelly that hung halfway out of her mouth after biting it.

"Maggie, did it ever occur to you that if you swallow candy like that, you'll become more round and slow than you can ever imagine? If I were you, I'd think twice before eating some more," Mrs. Calloway choked back a feeling of disgust whilst trying to convince her to slow down with the chewing. Finally, Maggie ceased gobbling and looked at Mrs. Calloway as if she had bugs crawling all over her face. The proper cow winced back from more disgust at the sight of jelly marks all over her snout.

"Care for a bonbon? It will make you feel merry on the inside!" Maggie offered her the half-eaten bonbon.

"That's it, I've had enough!" Mrs. Calloway gave her an incredulous look and slapped her on both cheeks repeatedly hoping that it would be enough to snap her out of dizziness state. Dropping the bonbon, Maggie seemed to regain her composure then and was no longer narrowing her eyes or glaring off into different directions.

"What just happened?" Maggie glared at Mrs. Calloway with a puzzled expression. It almost seemed that she couldn't remember how she got here.

"Well my dear," began Mrs. C with a fake smile, "apparently you and Grace had been drinking endlessly off the fountain of that pink lemonade and wouldn't stop, so I had to drag the both of you out of there forcefully." Then she walked slowly around Maggie while going on. "Then after that, you were trotting unsteadily from the effects of SUGAR INGESTION offering crude remarks and encouraging Grace to go on with her off key singing. Then after you tried to offer me a bonbon that was already half eaten I had no choice but to snap you out of it with a few slaps across both cheeks."

Still confused, Maggie placed her hooves on her cheeks firmly to feel for any slight pain. Only a small sting, but it wasn't too hurtful. In a few moments, it would wear off. "You sure got a pretty powerful slap there Mrs. C." She said softly. "Now would you like some candy?" What; after all that slapping she did and this girl still wanted to offer her candy?

"NO, FOR THE LAST TIME I DO NOT WANT CANDY!" Mrs. Calloway wailed in her face and stomped her right foot at the same time.

"Why are you two still standing there!" the two noticed that Rudolph and Grace were now a few feet away from them and the reindeer had been calling out from a distance. "We still have to get to the Pudding Palace, now come on!"

Maggie and Mrs. Calloway glared at each other shockingly and rushed over to rejoin them on the lemon drop bridge. Nobody, not even Maggie said a single word or offered anymore candy (what a relief.)

Gates of the Pudding Palace

As the group walked on, the golden glow became brighter every moment. Grace could feel her throat run dry from having to sing so much on the way and decided it would be best to let her vocal cords rest for a while. Mrs. Calloway had still been a little irritated from Maggie's drunken crude remarks, but was able to forgive her after listening to Rudolph's helpful friendship advice and when Maggie admitted that she never really meant any of those words or planned to get carried away with too much drinking. She just couldn't find it in her heart to not accept her apology. After all, Mrs. Calloway may have been stiff and proper most of the times, but she was not made of hard ice. Even Rudolph could already see through all that just as he knew that Grace meant well with her singing.

"There it is!" cried Grace happily. "The Pudding Palace; isn't it the most wondrous sight?" The palace still looked like an enormous birthday cake decorated in gold frosting, pink roses, red ribbons, and silver flags sticking out of the layers. "I can't wait to see how the other cows will look like."

"Whoa, that is the most gigantic cake I have ever laid my eyes upon!" Maggie hollered from bewilderment. "I just hope it's not another one of those places that serve nonfat or sugar free pudding if you know what I mean."

"No, everything in Candy Land is made with sugar in it," promised Rudolph with a smile. "But try not to get carried away with too much eating because of…you know what." Maggie could understand that he must have been mentioning the lemonade boozing incident. She drank it down faster than Grace did. This time, she was not going to let that happen again. "Just follow me and we'll be there in time." It was five minutes before the four came to a white marbled wall surrounding the Pudding Palace with a gate made of giant squared chocolate chip cookie doors standing before them.

The gates looked sweet and tempting enough to eat, but neither Maggie nor Grace bothered to try and take a big chunk from it knowing that there might be gate left if the whole thing was to be eaten. And despite being dazzled by the brilliancy of the palace, Maggie did not want to irritate Mrs. Calloway any further than she did by going overboard with the sweets again.

There was a bell beside the gate embedded in the wall in which Rudolph pushed leaving a twinkling echo like pixie dust. Then the cookie gates swung open slowly allowing the group to pass through and find themselves in a big stable like no other. Inside there appeared to be gorgeous milkmaids milking cows coated in bright colors of either pink, purple, green, orange, blue, yellow, aquamarine, red, silver, or gold with grey patches. Whenever the job was done, the milkmaids would walk out of the stables to take the buckets inside the golden building through one door and arrive back outside from the next door. One of the milkmaids spotted Rudolph with the girls just before she had a chance to go inside and dump off the milk.

"Why Rudolph, what a coincidence it is to see you drop by for a visit," she said surprisingly. The maid had blond curly hair long eyelashes, pale skin, rosy dimples, and a long blue dress with long sleeves, a white apron, and light brown boots with black laces. "But why aren't these cows coated in bright colors?"

"That's kind of a long story," answered Rudolph. "Right now I'm taking them to go see Santa so that he can take them home."

"Well no wonder they seem so different. Enjoy yourselves here while you're at it; I still have to get this milk inside before it spoils," the milkmaid turned to walk inside the building.

The cows didn't mind with what she said about them being different, because they had known she meant no offense and were too busy exploring the stables to care about it. Most of the pudding cows were busy chewing on sweet piles of hay to pay the least amount of attention to the average dairy cows.

"So this is what Mr. Frazzle meant when he asked if we were pudding cows," Grace murmured with astonishment as she watched a brunette milkmaid in a yellow dress milk a pink cow with brown blotches. The milk looked to be the creamiest foaming substance anyone might have tasted. Another unusual thing was that the milk was pink instead of white. If that was so, then all the other cows that gave milk were of different colors like their coats. If she or Maggie were allowed to do so, she could hardly wait to see how the pudding tastes.

"Oops, excuse me dear," said a milkmaid when she had nearly bumped into Grace to get through. Grace moved closer to the other side of the stable so that she would allow other maids to pass through without accidentally bumping into her. The pink cow had black eyelashes, sapphire eyes, rosy dimples, and shining polished yellow horns. Whilst still chewing, she paused a moment after taking a glare at Grace who was nothing compared to any of the other pudding cows.

"Oh hello there, are you a pudding cow?" the pink cow asked in a sweet kindly voice. Grace reluctantly shook her head in response to the question.

"No I'm just an average dairy cow from the other side of this hidden realm."

"My, what a surprise, we heard many stories about the world of mortals. But never have we thought of meeting one someday."

"But I'm not the only one who has entered, there are two more of my friends over there," Grace pointed her direction to Maggie and Mrs. Calloway who were chatting with a friendly purple pudding cow. So far, it seemed to be going well without anybody being sarcastic as before. The two of them had been trying to explain how they got in this realm by Santa's sleigh being ridden by Ester the gnome and how he had refused to tell them about Crystal, the Ice Empress of Stone Cold Mountain. Maggie couldn't really blame him for not wanting to talk about her as she understood why some things were better left unsaid when Ester refused to talk about Crystal to anyone.

"So you three arrived here by taking a ride in Santa's sleigh?" asked the pink cow curiously. Grace nodded with a smile. "I just hope the head elf doesn't find out about the little guy taking his sleigh without permission. We have rules in this world that should not be broken. And I suggest that all of you avoid encounter with Crystal at all costs. She's one cold hearted woman with an icy attitude."

"Hey Grace, come one we're going inside to tour the palace!" Rudolph had just called out to her as the other two followed him.

"I've got to go. It was nice talking to you and thanks for your advice," Grace replied as she rushed over to her friends.

Inside the Pudding Palace

Rudolph led the cows into a room with several enormous silver tin bowls where every milkmaid walked up on a stair ladder to dump the colored milk. After the milk was dumped off, the maids that worked inside the building would stir some ingredients such as sugar, eggs, and all other things that create good pudding. The next step was to pour the milk onto a half opened pipe below each bowl which would lead into a secret room with a machine not meant to be seen by wandering eyes.

Even though none of them were able to see how it was being made on the other side, the sounds of the mixing and blowing could still be heard. When one of them asked how it was being done, Rudolph mentioned that a good cook never reveals their secrets, not even to him or Santa Clause.

By the end of the tour, a red haired milkmaid in a red dress stood by a silver machine with a handle. Pulling it all the way down, three small silver bowls slid down from a hole in the wall under the machine to allow pudding to flow down until the bowls were full. The milkmaid offered each of the cows a taste of the pudding; even Mrs. Calloway decided just this once to have a taste of it. She took the purple, Maggie took the red, and Grace took the pink. It was indeed creamier and sweeter than any other pudding back at home. And a lot better than regular milk.