Chapter 5: In Which Ralph and Vanellope Encounter a Giant Spider

It was a dark and stormy night. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed across the sky. Leafless oak trees reached their twisted branches to claw at the dense black clouds overhead. The conditions on the ground weren't much better. Thick gray mist permeated the forest, obscuring most of the already dismal environment from view. Only the bravest, most foolish of souls would dare to tread through such an obviously haunted forest crawling with unseen horrors.

Brave, foolish souls like Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz.

The little racer had grown tired of walking long ago and was riding on the huge wrecker's shoulder. When they first came into Blood and Thunder she was fascinated by the ominous environment so different from the sunny and colorful world of Sugar Rush, but after trudging around in the woods without meeting a single ghost, ghoul or goblin, she got bored.

"Are we there yet?" she whined.

Ralph tramped on through the cloud of fog swirling around his knees, snapping twigs and crunching dry leaves as he went. He was already regretting bringing Vanellope along with him, and they still hadn't found Sorceress.

"Does it look like we're there yet?" he replied irritably.

Vanellope looked around at the gnarled old trees and foggy path ahead of them. "This place is a total snooze fest! Where are all the monsters? Felix said this place was full of them!" And what kind of cheap, lazy scenery is this?" She swept a hand at the misty woods. "All these trees look the same. Like, exactly the same. They just keep repeating over and over."

She wasn't exaggerating. Every tree in the forest was just a replica of the same five trees, all arranged along the path in supposedly random patterns. Occasionally an owl or crow could be seen roosting in the branches, watching the travelers and making appropriately spooky bird noises. They were also clones of each other, which made them even creepier than they already were.

"The arcade's closed," Ralph explained, not the least bit concerned by the repetitive background or spooky bird noises. "Maybe the monsters are on break. As for the repeating graphics, they're pretty typical for 80s games."

She slumped against the side of his head and pouted. "Thanks for the history lesson, professor."

He rolled his eyes. "You'd better not be this whiny when we find Sorceress."

"Relax, chumbo, I'll be on my best behavior." She stuck the licorice around her finger into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. It looked like they still had a long way to go and complaining wasn't much fun. Time for a new conversation topic. "Hey, Ralph? Your game was plugged in back in '82, right? So, if Sorceress' game's been here since '87, why'd it take so long for you to ask her out?"

Ralph kept on trudging, leaves crunching under his feet. He'd been wondering the same thing a lot lately, though he already knew the answer. There were so many things in his life he wished he could go back and do differently, but the past was the past.

"I didn't know her well enough," he replied. "We saw each other in passing once in a while over the years, but we never really talked until Felix and Calhoun's wedding. Before then I thought she was just a creepy snob in a tacky costume."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "You mean she isn't?"

"Not really, no. I mean, she can act kinda stuck-up sometimes, and her dress is…uh…" He trailed off, searching for the right word to describe Sorceress' standard attire to a nine-year-old.

"Sleazy?" Vanellope suggested.

Ralph nodded, heat rising to his cheeks. "Sure, we'll go with that. But Sorceress is not sleazy, not by a long shot. She's one of the most polite, respectable people I've ever met." He paused briefly. "You know, I think she's the only person who's ever called me 'Mr. Wreck-It'."

Vanellope smiled dryly. "Oh? You don't like it when people call you Booger Brain?"

He smirked back at her. "You're the only person who's allowed to call me that, Fart Face."

"Darn right," she said, crossing one leg over the other. "So, she's polite and respectable, and she calls you Mr. Wreck-It. What else?"

He took another moment to think. It wasn't all that hard to come up with reasons to like Sorceress. The hard part was picking out the most important ones. "Let's see… She's easy to talk to, and she's a good listener. She's smart, funny, powerful, a great singer. And her smile…"

He trailed off again, remembering the look on Sorceress' face when he gave her the 8bit daisies, how careful she was to keep them safe in a mug at Tapper's and how pretty she looked wearing them in her hair. Before he knew it, he had a lopsided, gap-toothed grin on his face.

This did not go unnoticed by Vanellope. She saw Ralph smile a lot, but never quite like this. Felix would smile this way whenever he was talking about how wonderful Sergeant Calhoun was. That could only mean one thing. Grinning like the Cheshire cat, she put her chin in one hand and poked Ralph's cheek with the other.

"Uh oh," she teased in a sing-song tone. "Somebody's in looove!"

Ralph blinked himself out of his daydream and stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Vanellope lost her balance and had to cling to the strap of his overalls to keep from falling off his shoulder completely.

His head snapped toward her, face bright red and twisted in an expression of utter shock. "Love?! What the… Who the… Who said anything about love?!"

Vanellope couldn't hold back some sniggering at the look on his face. "Don't try to deny it," she said, settling into a very comfortable, self-satisfied pose. "You should have seen the look on your face while you were talking about her. You practically had hearts floating around your head!"

Ralph folded his huge arms and pouted, face heating up and eyes fixed on the misty forest floor. "That only happens to Felix," he grumbled.

"Exactly." She poked his cheek with her finger. "Fess up, buster. You've got a crush on Sorceress. That's the reason you asked her out on a date, and now you wanna see her again because you like her. Right? Riiight?"

With a heavy sigh, Ralph plunked himself down on a nearby tree stump, causing his tiny passenger to bounce a few inches. At first he just sat there in silence with his arms folded, blushing furiously and scowling at nothing. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Vanellope's face just inches away from his, grinning from ear to ear and her huge eyes sparkling with barely contained excitement.

Ralph rolled his eyes to the twisted branches hanging overhead. It was no use. He couldn't keep anything hidden from her, no matter how hard he tried. "Oh, alright. Maybe I've got a tiny bit of a crush on her."

That was all Vanellope needed to hear. With a triumphant 'Yes!' she hopped down from his shoulder to the ground, happily skipping around him in a circle. "Ralph's got a girlfriend!" she sang. "Ralph's got a girlfriend! Ralph's got a girlfriend!"

Suddenly nervous, Ralph raised both of his huge hands to shush her. "Hey, hey, not so loud! Somebody might hear you!"

Vanellope halted her skipping and turned to face him, batting her eyes mockingly. "Somebody like Sorceress?"

Groaning, he rubbed his forehead with two giant fingers. This was getting more embarrassing by the second. He needed to get out of this conversation, and fast.

Right on cue, there was a flash of lightning so bright that it lit up the entire forest, followed by a booming clap of thunder over their heads. With a yelp, Vanellope leapt back onto his shoulder, clinging to his hair with both hands and shivering all over.

"M-M-Maybe we shouldn't discuss this in the m-middle of a haunted f-forest during a thunderstorm…" she murmured shakily.

Ralph couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for her. Vanellope was always so feisty and independent that it took moments like these to remind him of how young and vulnerable she really was. "Don't worry, kid," he said, patting her gently on the back with one big finger. "Sorceress' castle can't be much farther from here. We should be safe once we get there."

He reached into one of the pockets of his overalls and pulled out a paper napkin with a map drawn on it. Felix had made it for him from memory the night before. It wasn't much, but it was all they had to go on. He peered at it as well as he could through the darkness and mist.

"According to this, the castle's on the other side of these woods." Ralph pointed at a drawing indicating the forest with a road going through it. There was a picture of a black, spiky castle at the end. "The road we're on is the only one there is, and it goes straight through."

By now Vanellope's shivering had decreased somewhat. "You sure there's no secret shortcuts or anything?"

He squinted harder at the map, searching for anything that looked like a shortcut. "If there are, Felix didn't know about them."

Another flash of lightning in the sky caught Vanellope's attention. She gazed up past the treetops at the angry, growling clouds. Then she had an idea. "There's no fog up there. Maybe if I climb one of these trees I can see how much farther we have to go."

Ralph shrugged and folded the map shut. "Sounds like as a good a plan as any."

With that, Vanellope sprang from his shoulder and caught a low hanging branch, pulling herself up into the nearest tree like a little monkey. After some hopping, climbing, and scampering, she made it to the top. Clinging to one creaky branch and balancing on her toes to gain more height, she peered out across the overcast, sinister landscape. There was no sign of any towns or cities for miles, just treetops and storm clouds as far as the eye could see. The only sign of civilization was a crumbling, stony building jutting up in the distance. All the storm clouds seemed to be converging around it, rumbling with thunder and flashing with lightning every so often.

"I see it!" Vanellope called down from the tree. "I see the castle!"

"Good!" Ralph called back from the ground. "Are we close?"

"No, we've still got a long way to…"

She trailed off as something new caught her attention. A flock of crows had suddenly taken flight a short distance away, cawing in what sounded very much like fear. Then she noticed the trees in that direction were trembling, as if something on the ground was moving through the woods. She narrowed her eyes and leaned out from her perch, squinting at the strange spot.

"What the heck?" she muttered.

Down on the forest floor, all Ralph could see as he looked up through the branches was the bright greens of her sweatshirt and candy-striped stockings. He could still hear her just fine, though, and the change in her tone worried him. "What's wrong?"

Before Vanellope could answer, she saw more treetops shaking. No, she hadn't imagined it. It just happened again, and this time it was closer than before. A cold knot twisted in her stomach.

"Uh, Ralph? I think something's out there. And it's coming this way."

Ralph's bushy brown eyebrows drew together in a frown. Suddenly he heard the sounds of leaves rustling and twigs snapping in the underbrush. They were coming from his right, the same direction Vanellope was looking. Then it stopped, and all he could hear was his own heavy breathing. He swallowed hard, trying to keep the butterflies from flying out of his stomach as he inched closer to Vanellope's tree.

"Uh… k-kid?" he called up to her, not taking his eyes off the spot the noises were coming from. "Did you hear that?"

She peered down through the branches, unable to see much of him besides the bright red of his flannel shirt in the shadowy mist. "Hear what?"

Before he could answer, there was loud crack like a dry branch snapping under something big and heavy.

Ralph swallowed again. "That."

Vanellope froze in her tree. It looked like she was about to get her wish to see a monster after all. Only now she wasn't so sure she wanted it to come true. "What do we do now?" she asked, trying to whisper just loudly enough for him to hear.

Ralph's mind raced. The thing that was coming their way was practically on top of them, and he had no idea what it was. Suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea to walk into this spooky game without learning more about its inhabitants first. All he had to go on were Felix's tales of giant spiders. The idea that a spider as big as himself could be lurking around in these woods, watching and waiting in the foggy shadows, made Ralph intensely uncomfortable. The idea of said spider going after Vanellope was even worse.

"Stay put," he whispered back to her. "I'll handle this."

Clenching both mighty fists, he kept his eyes fixed on the trees and underbrush where the noise had come from, watching and listening for the mysterious noises in the dark. It was still eerily quiet. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a pair of bright, round eyes staring at him from the shadows. Was it an owl? No, owls only had two eyes. This thing had four—no, six—eight. Eight huge, bulging eyes. They were arranged in two rows, four on top and four below. And they were all firmly focused on him.

Just as Ralph was thinking about joining Vanellope in her tree, a bright flash of lightning briefly illuminated the woods. For a split second he saw the eight-eyed beast lurking in the shadows. His worries were confirmed. It was indeed an enormous spider covered with coarse gray hair. And it was easily as huge as Ralph, if not huger. Then the woods went dark, and a clap of thunder shook the ground.

Before he could react, the spider lunged forward and tackled Ralph, pinning him to the ground with its giant hairy forelegs. Its face hovered less than a foot away from his, and he saw eight terrified faces reflected back at him in its glassy, lidless black eyes. Screaming, he yanked his arms free and pounded both fists hard against the monster's head with a resounding whack. The spider made a piercing screech and scuttled backward a few feet, allowing its captive to scramble free.

Vanellope swung down from her tree just then, landing on a branch right above the wrecker's head. "Ralph! Are you okay?!" she cried frantically. Then she noticed the enormous spider on the path and gasped in horror. "Sweet mother of monkey milk! It's ginormous!"

"I know!" Ralph shouted back, more out of fear than anything else. Clambering to his feet, he snatched the girl from the branch and clutched her to his chest protectively. "Come on, we gotta get outta here!"

He whirled to run back the way they came, but the path was completely clouded over with dark, swirling fog. They'd be easy pickings if they went stumbling around in there. The giant spider was blocking the path in front of them, too. They were trapped. Holding Vanellope tightly with both hands, Ralph regretted letting her come with him into this game more than ever. He should have known better, should have checked it out first, should have talked to Sorceress. Now all he could do was hold on to Vanellope and pray he could keep her safe from this monster.

"Don't worry, kid," he said in a hushed voice. "I'm not gonna let it hurt you."

But the spider did nothing. It just stayed in its spot, hunkered down on the ground with its eight huge legs scrunched up, making high-pitched squeaky noises and quivering all over. Ralph arched an eyebrow in confusion. Was it his imagination, or was that thing actually whimpering?

Just then, a new voice called down through the treetops. "Hello! Is someone down there?"

Ralph's head perked up, a mixture of surprise and relief on his face. "Sorceress!" He looked up through the branches and waved one giant arm over his head. "Hey!" he called out. "Sorceress! Over here!"

Seconds later, the familiar silhouette of the blue-haired, elfin woman descended through the shadowy mist. She came down between Ralph and the giant spider, hovering a foot above the dirt path, and raised a hand above her head. A smallish ball of light appeared in her palm, bright enough to illuminate the space and everyone there. Now that he could see her clearly, Ralph had to squint and blink a few times to make sure it was really her.

Sorceress looked unusual today. Her long, thick, blue hair was pulled away from her face and tied back in a ponytail, and she was wearing different clothes. Instead of her slinky red dress, stiletto boots and gold jewelry, she wore a bright purple tracksuit and gray sneakers. A cylindrical cloth bag was slung across her back, and she carried a water bottle in her free hand.

"Ralph?" she asked, looking just as confused as he was. Then she noticed the tiny form of Vanellope in his arms staring at her with wide eyes and became even more confused. "And President Von Schweetz? What are you two doing here?"

Ralph shuffled his bare feet and shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Oh, uh, nothin'. I just… Uh, I mean… We just wanted come visit your game." He smiled sheepishly. "Is this a bad time?"

"And what's with the frumpy sweat suit?" Vanellope chimed in, blunt as ever.

If Ralph wasn't still using both hands to hold her he would have buried his face in them. Instead, all he could do was stand there and look horribly embarrassed.

Sorceress blinked at the girl, stunned by her bluntness. "Er, I just came home from a yoga class," she replied, adjusting the strap on the bag that was holding her rolled up yoga mat. Then she looked away with some embarrassment. "If I knew I had guests coming over tonight, I would have worn something nicer."

Ralph was about to say she didn't look frumpy at all when the giant spider behind her uttered a piercing screech. Ralph flinched back and Vanellope clung to his shirt, both fearing the monster was about to attack. Sorceress, however, spun around to face the hideous creature without any trace of fear whatsoever.

"There you are, Charlotte!" she said, smiling brightly.

She used the kind of voice most people would use when talking to a large, friendly cat, and from the way the monster was purring that wasn't too hard to imagine. She left the ball of light floating behind her above the path, hovered toward the giant spider, and proceeded to tenderly stroke its huge, hairy head. Its shivering subsided and its purring grew louder. Ralph and Vanellope looked on in total bewilderment, neither one knowing what to say.

At last, it was the wrecker who broke the silence. "Uh, I'm guessing this is one of those pet spiders you were talking about last night, huh?"

"That's right," Sorceress replied. She straightened up and tucked a loose piece of hair behind one pointed ear, looking more dignified than should have been possible for a woman in a bright purple tracksuit and carrying a yoga mat. "Mr. Wreck-It, President Von Schweetz, this is Charlotte. I hope she didn't frighten you. She always gets excited when visitors come to call."

Ralph chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. So that was what the pouncing was about. The spider wasn't trying to eat him, she just wanted to play. "Ehh, she might have scared us a little bit."

Vanellope returned to her perch on the wrecker's shoulder. "More than a little bit."

Charlotte was now attempting to hide behind her mistress' back. This was impossible, of course, since the woman was less than half her size.

"There, there, darling," Sorceress said soothingly. "Don't be scared. These people are friends, they won't hurt you."

In reply, the spider made a series of chirps and squeaks.

Sorceress listened intently, as if she could understand. Then her eyes widened in surprise. "He punched you? In the face?"

Ralph pressed two fingers to his forehead and groaned. Of course Sorceress would be able to communicate with her pet monster, and of course it would rat him out. This visit wasn't going at all how he'd hoped. "Uh, yeah… She kinda caught me by surprise…"

Sorceress turned to look at him. "Did she jump on you?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Frowning, she turned back to the giant spider and put her hands on her hips. "Bad girl, Charlotte! You know it's against the rules to jump on people when the arcade is closed!"

The spider cringed guiltily, shrinking closer to the ground. It made some more chirps and squeaks.

"I don't care what you thought he smelled like," Sorceress replied, wagging a scolding finger at her enormous pet. "That's no excuse. You could have hurt him! Shame on you!"

Ralph and Vanellope watched all this with a mixture of confusion and amusement. It was pretty funny to watch a small woman like Sorceress lecturing this hideous hulking monster as if it were a spoiled child. Even funnier was that said monster was practically hugging the ground now and looking very pathetic indeed.

With a long-suffering sigh, Sorceress turned back to face her guests. "I am so, so sorry for Charlotte's unseemly behavior," she said contritely. "She meant no harm, she was just overexcited. I promise it won't happen again."

Vanellope eyed the giant spider warily. "She doesn't eat kids, does she?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Sorceress said.

The girl's eyes brightened hopefully. "So it's safe it I pet her?"

Sorceress looked from the tiny girl to the giant spider cowering on the path. Charlotte had never been around a child before, since she never left the game and children never came to visit. Still, she had trained her monstrous pet well over the years and was confident that she would behave herself.

Then she looked at Ralph. "As long as Mr. Wreck-It approves, I don't see why not."

Vanellope turned to Ralph and clasped her hands, gazing at him with huge puppy dog eyes. "Please, Ralph? Pleeease can I pet the giant spider?"

Ralph looked from Vanellope to the spider. He still wasn't sure it was completely safe to get close to the thing that had pounced on him earlier, but after seeing how friendly it was with Sorceress and how timid it was acting now, maybe it was okay. And if it tried anything, he knew a good, hard punch would be enough to scare it off.

He smiled back at Vanellope, rolling his eyes jokingly. "Sure, sure, just quit looking at me like that."

"Yes!" Vanellope cheered, pumping her fists in the air. Then she hopped down from his shoulder and scampered up to the monstrously huge spider. She paused a few feet away to take in the sheer size of her. Felix wasn't kidding. She really was as big as Ralph.

Charlotte stared blankly at this strange little human standing in front of her. She didn't look like a threat, so she let her come closer and regarded her curiously with her eight shiny eyes. Vanellope stared back with equal curiosity. The giant spider was still a huge, hideous monster, but after seeing the way Sorceress handled her, she wasn't scared anymore.

With a smile, she extended one little hand in greeting. "Hi! I'm Vanellope. Nice to meet ya, Charlotte!"

Charlotte stared at the girl quietly for a moment. Then she extended one of her hairy pedipalps from around her mouthparts, the only appendages she could use to touch such a little creature without crushing it. It was the closest she could get to giving her a handshake. Vanellope giggled as the spider's bristles tickled her fingers.

Ralph watched them closely, clenching and unclenching his giant fists, ready to clobber the huge spider if it decided to take a bite out of his tiny friend. Then he felt the familiar touch of Sorceress' hand on his arm and his tension all but melted away.

"It's alright, Ralph," she assured him. "I promise you, Charlotte won't do anything to hurt her."

He allowed himself to relax. If there was anybody in this strange game he could trust, it was Sorceress. "Okay, if you say so."

With a smile, Sorceress took a sip from her water bottle and turned to watch Vanellope and Charlotte. The girl had moved on from greeting the giant spider to dragging her fingers through the hair on its huge head. "She's very brave for someone so young, isn't she?" Sorceress remarked.

Ralph nodded, resting his hands on his hips. "Yeah, she is. She might even give Cybugs a chance, if they weren't such a mindless, deadly virus." He shifted his weight awkwardly. "By the way, uh, I'm sorry about what she said to you earlier. She just doesn't think before she talks sometimes."

Sorceress looked down at her bright purple tracksuit and gray sneakers. They didn't look that frumpy, did they? "That's alright," she said, fidgeting with the cap of her water bottle. "These clothes are for exercise. They're meant to be comfortable, not attractive." Despite her words, she obviously felt self-conscious.

"Actually, you look pretty good in sweats." As soon as Ralph said those words he wanted to kick himself. Seriously? You look pretty good in sweats? That had to be the lamest compliment of all time.

Sorceress, however, didn't think the compliment was lame at all. It was slightly clumsy, maybe, but it was still sweet of him to say. She brushed a long piece of loose hair behind one long, pointy ear. "You really think so?" she asked, smiling shyly.

Ralph felt his face heating up again. With all her hair pulled back in a ponytail, there was nothing to obscure her face from view. She was wearing less makeup and no jewelry, and yet she still looked pretty. It had to be because of that smile. "Uh... Yeah…" he replied, smiling back rather awkwardly. "N-Not that there's anything wrong with your other clothes!" he added hastily. "You look good in those, too!"

She chuckled behind one hand, and he thought he saw her cheeks turning pink. The tips of her long ears were also slightly pink. Did they always do that when she blushed? Why hadn't he noticed before? It was really cute. But of course he couldn't tell her that. That would be stupid.

Suddenly, Vanellope let out a dry, nasal laugh. Both Ralph and Sorceress turned to see that she had climbed up on Charlotte's back, and now she sat there perfectly happy and content, tapping the toes of her licorice boots together.

"Aww, you're just a big ol' scary sweetie!" she said to the giant spider. It didn't seem the least bit bothered about being treated like a living jungle gym by a small child.

It didn't surprise Ralph at all that Vanellope was so quick to lose her fear of the monster. He was living proof that she was fine with considering anyone who was big, strong or scary as a potential friend. Sorceress, however, was thoroughly impressed. She knew basically nothing about young children, and in her limited experience they tended to be afraid of monsters, especially giant, hairy monsters with multiple eyes and limbs. Yet here was one who happily climbed on the back of just such a monster as if it were a harmless pony with eight legs. Clearly Vanellope Von Schweetz was no ordinary child.

That was when the light spell floating above the path started to flicker like a candle. Sorceress took this as a sign that it was time to be moving on. Again she straightened up, looking as dignified as possible in her bright purple tracksuit. "Where are my manners? Here we are just standing out here in the cold when I have a big, empty castle you could be resting in. You two must be tired after walking so far."

"I'm not tired!" Vanellope announced proudly.

"You weren't the one doing all the walking," Ralph pointed out.

Sorceress chuckled lightly. "It's still a long way from here, so I'll come with you."

Vanellope shifted to her hands and knees, eyes bright and eager. "Can Charlotte come, too?"

Sorceress turned to Ralph for approval. "I don't mind if you don't."

Ralph glanced from her to Vanellope, who was beaming at him hopefully from atop Charlotte's huge, hairy back. He gave the giant spider a stern look and wagged one thick finger at her face. "Don't try anything funny. I got my eye on you, fuzz ball."

Charlotte made an affirmative chirping noise.

With that, Sorceress took the floating ball of light in hand, recast the spell to restore its brightness, and motioned for the others to follow her through the misty woods. Charlotte rose from the ground with a grinning Vanellope still clinging to her back. The girl was clearly having the time of her life riding on the monster's back. The only thing that could make this more fun was if Charlotte was running.

"Giddy up!" she ordered, kicking her little heels against the giant spider's sides.

Charlotte didn't seem to notice her passenger's behavior at all, as she continued to shuffle along at the same speed.

"I think that only works with horses," Ralph said, falling into step just behind Sorceress. He couldn't really walk next to Charlotte since her eight long legs took up most of the path. He cleared his throat, trying to think of something gentlemanly to say to Sorceress. "I, uh, I can carry your bag for you, if you want," he offered.

"It's only a yoga mat," Sorceress replied, glancing over her shoulder at him. Then she saw that he seemed to deflate a little when she said this, and she realized he was only trying to be polite. It wouldn't hurt to humor him on this. "Actually," she went on, lifting the strap of the bag over her head. "Now that you mention it, it's getting rather heavy."

Ralph brightened up instantly as he took the bag for her. "At your service, milady," he said, tucking it under his arm. Okay, maybe he was laying it on a little thick, but it was worth it if it made her smile. And it did.

Vanellope saw all of this, of course, and decided to help things along. Holding onto Charlotte's bristles with one hand, she leaned down and cupped a hand around her mouth. "Psst!" she whispered behind Ralph. "Tell Sorceress you think she's pretty!"

He turned and frowned at her. "Right now?" he replied in a hushed voice. "Are you nuts, kid?"

"Girls like to hear that they're pretty!" she insisted. "You gotta suck up if you wanna get another kiss from her!"

"I'm done talking about this," he hissed back, cheeks reddening in the dark. "And quit whispering so loud!"

"I'm not loud!" Vanellope retorted. "Whispering isn't loud!" Then she blew a noisy raspberry at him that totally negated her point.

Floating at the front of the line with her back to them, Sorceress pretended not to hear what they were bickering about. She quietly took a sip from her water bottle and smiled to herself as the pointy tips of her ears turned pink.

Author's Note: I was worried I wouldn't get this chapter done by Halloween, but it looks like I've met my self-imposed deadline after all! Yay! There will be more about Blood and Thunder in the next chapter, and I'm planning to introduce Sorceress' Good Guy, too. And yes, I named Charlotte after the eponymous spider of "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White. I love that book so darn much.