Candy Crush

Everyone in Aurora and Sam's class was seen riding on a bus today. Earlier today, Miss Skullnick told them she arranged for a field trip to Echo Creek's Opossum Nature Reserve. The bus soon came to a tunnel that was on the path to their destination as Aurora tried to cheer up a bored Sam with some info in her booklet explaining opossums.

"It's said that opossums are the only native marsupial in North America." she told him. "And that their habit of playing dead to avoid predators was the inspiration for the phrase, 'playing opossum'." she said with a slight chuckle, managing to make even Sam and the rest of the class give a little chuckle at that.

All chuckling was soon ended when the bus reached the end of the tunnel, only for the class to find themselves falling into a gorge on the other side, screaming in fright. Aurora however, quickly pulled out her wand and cast a spell to save everyone.

"SUPER SUNFLOWER PARACHUTES!"

Sunflower-shaped parachutes instantly formed on top of the bus and made it gently descend to the bottom of the gorge. Despite Aurora's quick spellcasting, the bus still hit the ground with a hard crash, leaving everyone slightly bruised and dizzy. Everyone wobbly stumbled out of the wrecked vehicle and regained their senses to gasp in awe at where they were. They had crashed into a valley with trees shaped like lollipops and could see a river of soda. In the sky they could see clouds that were pink instead of white, most likely made of cotton candy.

"I could be wrong, but I think we're in the Candy Dimension." Aurora said shocked, before getting down to scoop some of the dirt with her finger and lick it; It tasted like chocolate powder. "Yep, definitely the Candy Dimension."

"But how did we even get here?" Sam asked confused. The two then scoped the area until they spotted something sparkling at the top of the valley's cliff. Aurora used the Telescope Spell to get a better look at it.

"There's a dimensional portal." she told everyone. "It must've been at the end of the tunnel we were driving through. But from what I see, it looks unstable, which means it could close any moment."

"Which means we need to get back through it before that happens." Sam said. "Think you can Levitato us all up there?" he asked the princess.

Aurora only responded by rubbing her arm and looking at the ground with nervousness. "I'm afraid I can't, Sam. I don't even know if I have that much magic in me." she said in doubt before a thought came to her. "But we can use my dimensional scissors to make our own portal out of here." She reached into her pocket to pull out the scissors, only to realize they weren't there. She frantically dug around her pockets to try and find them. "Where are they, where are they?!" she cried before stopping when she remembered here they were. "Oh, that's right. I left them at home today."

"Well that's just great." Miss. Skullnick said irritated. "That means we're stuck in a world of sugar and spice with no way back."

"Let's not get ourselves down, Skullsy." Aurora tried to reassure. "All we need to do is reach that portal before it closes and we'll be home free."

"That seems to be our only option." Sam complied. "Though with the bus all jacked up, we may need to walk." he then said, much to the other students' annoyance.

The journey was gonna be long, and also very hard. While going through the lollipop forest was a walk in the park, going through a marsh of peanut butter and a field of geysers that shoot hot milk could be considered a bit challenging. Eventually the whole group reached what resembled a jungle with trees made of licorice and chose this as the perfect spot to take a rest after feeling their feet ache.

Sam soon heard a soft rumbling sound and soon realized it came from his stomach, telling him he's hungry. Not really having any other options, he decided to take a nearby licorice vine to eat. He was just about to bite into it when it was suddenly yanked away. He looked to see a giant gummy bear grabbing at the other end of the vine, and the two didn't hesitate in playing tug-o-war to try and claim the vine for themselves while Aurora and the rest of the class just stood and watched. Finally, Sam was able to pull the vine out of the gummy bear's hands and retaliated by using it as a whip to drive the screaming bear away.

"That's it, run away, Boo-Boo-Bear!" he mocked as the bear ran into the bushes while he took a triumphant bite of the licorice vine with a smirk.

Aurora soon came over with a worried feeling. "I don't think that's a good idea, Sam."

"Why not?"

Suddenly, the bushes all start shaking, and the class soon spots gummy bears popping out of them from all sides, wielding sugar candy spears in a threatening manner and ready to attack.

"Yeah, this is what I was afraid of." Aurora muttered under her breath.

Sam and Miss. Skullnick soon got into fighting positions, ready to take on these savage bears. "If you wanna get to my students, you'll have to go through me!"

"And me!"

The two parties were about to engage when Aurora suddenly jumped between them. "Wait, guys. Let me try reasoning with them first." she begged, Sam and Skullnick hesitating but allowing it in the end. The princess then turned to try and talk with the gummy bears, but barely stepped forward before they jumped back startled, much to her surprise.

"Well, that's unexpected." It got more unexpected when the gummy bears suddenly dropped their weapons and started saluting the princess, as well as bowing at her feet. "It's like they think I'm a goddess or something." she told her teacher and classmates, who were just as astonished as she was.

"Welcome, Cheek Goddess." a green gummy bear said to Aurora.

"Cheek Goddess?" Aurora looked at her cheekmarks, fully confirming that they did view her as some sort of deity. "Have we met before?"

Sam took this time to intervene and put a hand on Aurora's shoulder to get her attention. "Aurora, I know this may sound like a bad idea, but maybe these guys can help us reach the portal." he whispered. "Maybe you can use your 'divine influence' to convince them to help us get to it."

Aurora didn't feel like taking advantage of people, but after looking at her classmates still feeling a little tired from all the walking, and remembering the portals instability could make it close at any moment, gave in and agreed.

"Alright." she sighed and turned to the gummy bear tribe. "Excuse me. Me and my friends are actually kinda stuck here, and we're trying to reach a portal to get back home. Do you think you can help us get there?" she asked nicely.

"Of course, your goddessness. I know what it is you're talking about." the group leader replied. "But first we must take you to our refugee village, as we have a problem of our own." He then got up and gestured for Aurora and her friends to follow him and his party.

Upon arriving at the refugee village, Aurora and the others saw it looked no different from a small village. There were huts made of all different kinds of candy and it was protected by a wall made of caramel. But Aurora soon gasped when she saw in the center something that helped her understand why these people call her Cheek Goddess. It was a statue made of sugar candy that resembled someone that looked just like her, except she had crowns instead of suns, which helped her recognize who it was.

"Now I get it; These guys think I'm my ancestor, Cosmica the Explorer."

A red gummy bear then stood at the base of the statue, presumably the leader, and told Aurora their situation. "I am Raspberry Richard, chief of the Gummy Bears." he addressed himself. "And I will tell you of our problem. Long ago, when we gummy bears lived in our true home village, the tribe of gingerbread men came and drove us out, taking the land for themselves. Their reign lasted until a goddess with marks on her cheeks came out from a portal of light and helped us defeat the gingerbread men and reclaim our home. If memory serves me on the story, she had a little one with her, but with blue stars on her cheeks and blue hair. She wanted to take the past chief with her, but fortunately that was prevented."

"So why are you back here?" Aurora then asked.

"Well, just recently the gingerbread men managed to get through our defenses and took the village from us again." a red gummy bear explained. "That's why we need your help to get it back."

"Those lousy gingerbreads always think they're superior than us because they're made of ginger." the chief bear growled. "But everyone knows that it's candy made of gum that's the superior one."

"Well, before I decide, I think I should first see a map of the region. Could you please let me look at one?" Aurora asked nicely. Richard then ran into his hut made of gumdrops and came out with a map made of candy for Aurora to look at. After triangulating the locations of both the captured village and the portal, the princess put the map down and gave her answer. "Okay, We'll help you."

Everyone in the gummy bear tribe was quick to cheer with joy when she said that. Sam on the other hand, didn't feel like this was a good time to be helping people while their only way home was on the verge of closing forever. He came over and put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention and talk to her.

"Uh, Aurora? I know you want to help people, but I don't think we have the time for this." he quietly whispered.

"I know, Sam. But we also don't have much of a choice." Aurora told him and showed him and Mr's Skullnick the map. "From what I saw on the map, our path to the portal takes us through the village the gingerbread men captured. And I don't think they're gonna let us just walk through when they see me and most likely mistake me for Cosmica."

Sam took a while to process what Aurora just told him before giving in when he felt her reasoning made sense. "Fine, we'll help." he said, much to the gummy bears' excitement.

The class was soon walking through the lollipop forests alongside the gummy bear tribe, making their way to the village to fight the gingerbread men. Everyone was equipped with candy-based armor and weaponry in case it would come down to a fight. The gummy bears were armed with sugar candy spears and shields made of peppermint. They even rode on the backs of giant gummy worms to ride into battle. Miss. Skullnick had a battle ax made from a lollipop, while the kids were given swords made from candy canes.

It wasn't long when they reached the outskirts of the village the gummy bears were driven out of. Everyone was also able to spot the dimensional portal they came through and needed to get back home, which was indeed getting smaller as Aurora suspected and could still close at any time.

Sam decided to talk to Aurora about what they're gonna do. "So what exactly is your plan for freeing the village?" he asked.

Aurora however, didn't even feel the slightest bit nervous and just let out a calming sigh. "I have a plan, but you need to trust me, Sam." she said putting a pleading hand on his shoulder, making Sam reluctantly give in and nod to say yes. Aurora then turned her attention to the gummy bear tribe, all snarling and waiting for the order to charge.

"I need you to listen. Before we enter the village, I require all of you to drop your weapons."

"What?!" the gummy bears cried in shock, Even Aurora's classmates felt awed by what she said.

"The Cheek Goddess known as Cosmica may have helped you in her way, but I intend to settle this matter once and for all in my own way." Aurora said with her voice very clear. The gummy bears felt reluctant to do as she told, but eventually did so and let go of their spears and shields, the class deciding to follow along, Miss. Skullnick feeling just as reluctant as the gummy bears. Aurora then gestured for everyone to follow her into the village.

When everyone entered the place, they all couldn't help but notice how quiet it was. Some of them started to feel worried that the gingerbread men would jump out and attack them.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Sam whispered to Aurora, who calmly whispered back. "Don't worry, Sam. I do."

Just then, noise could be heard coming from all directions, and everyone was soon startled by gingerbread men jumping out from every nook and cranny in the village. Everyone was completely surrounded and held at sugar candy spearpoint.

"Wait!" Aurora cried putting her arms out to call them off. "We came in peace. I wish to speak to the chief of your clan."

Hearing Aurora's request, the gingerbread men pulled back their spears. The ones in front of her then side-stepped out of the way to make a path to a large gingerbread house. The front doors opened to reveal the leader of the gingerbread tribe. His appearance was unique compared to his followers. His frame was made to include a crown with pieces of candy for jewels and he had an icing mustache. He held a red lollipop for a staff and wore a cape that looked like it was made of cotton candy. Taking a closer look, Aurora could see small nicks on the edges of his frame and a peppermint in place of his left eye, signs of his time on the battlefield.

"Are you the chief of the gingerbread men?" Aurora asked in a calm manner, the chief nodding to say yes.

"I am King Gingersnap II." the lead gingerbread man introduced himself in a formal manner. "You must be the Cheek Goddess these gummy bears worship. Though you look different compared to your statue."

Aurora rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. "That's a long story. Anyway, I came here to negotiate between your clan and the gummy bears."

Hearing that, the gingerbread leader calmly snapped his fingers. One of the gingerbread men put a gumdrop table between all three of them ad others put gumdrop chairs for them to sit on.

"Now, what is it you want?" King Gingersnap asked calmly.

"We want you to end your occupation of our village and never return." Richard demanded. "This village was built by the gummy bears long ago. That means it's ours by right."

"That may be, Richard, but I'm afraid we cannot do that." the gingerbread king refused. "The land that this village stands on possesses many resources that can easily provide for my people. If we surrendered it and returned to the Gingerbread Mountains, we would not survive."

"But isn't that where your old home was?" Aurora asked confused.

"Yes, the other side of the Gingerbread Mountains was where the Cookie Kingdom was built, which the gingerbread men were a part of." Richard recalled. "But sadly, like our Gummy Kingdom and many others, it was destroyed in the Great Candy War."

"And when that happened, the surviving candy tribes saw the territorial borders between kingdoms as no more, making all the land up for grabs for everyone." King Gingersnap finished. "And when we saw this ecosystem rich with candy resources that we could use to help rebuild our civilization, we had to have it."

"The gummy bears were here first, King Gingersnap!" the gummy bear chief growled. "You should try somewhere else!"

"We can't do that!" King Gingersnap said. "Our old homeland can't support us recently, and the other tribes have already laid claim to nearly all of the best lands. If we don't settle somewhere, we won't make it!"

"Well you can't settle here!" Richard roared snatching a candy spear from a nearby gingerbread soldier. "Because like I said, we gummies were here first!"

Gingersnap was quick to react and held his lollipop scepter in a defensive position, ready to fight. "I should've known this would happen. You gummies will never change your ways and learn to share!"

"And you gingerbreads will never learn to stay out of our territory!" Richard shot back. At this, both tribes quickly picked up any candy weapon they could get their hands on and rushed to the side of their respective leader, ready to fight each other. Sam looked with worry, while Mr's. Skullnick held firmly to her lollipop ax, which she smuggled in without anyone noticing, ready to protect her students in case the two warring tribes accidentally turned their fighting on them.

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone turned to Aurora when she screamed like that, and the princess sat back down to continue discussing with the two leaders. "I get it, you both wanna help your people. But violence just can't be the answer. Maybe both your tribes could get through your hard times by working together."

"Are you joking?!" Richard said in outrage. "What good could come from gummy bears working together with gingerbread men?"

"I think great things could come from working together." Aurora said softly. "Because when two very different people come together, something wonderful is born." she told them, the memories of the stories her parents told her about their adventures since the day they met coming to her head to serve as an example. "Maybe if you two share the resources here, you both might be able to rebuild your kingdoms and maybe even establish a new one as well."

The two chiefs let her words sink in and sat down to think about it. For as long as they could remember, the two tribes have been fighting each other and all the other candy tribes since the Great Candy War. And while they fought, they left their workers in charge of rebuilding the kingdom while they secure areas with the right materials... The kingdoms, that's right! Every time they went to check on the progress of the reconstruction, they find it had barely begun because of the small amount of building materials they received. This made the two leaders realize that they've been too busy trying to keep the other from taking this land they fought over that they barely gave anything for their builders to work with, and it's been going on for generations. The two then took a look at the surrounding areas and saw the large lollipop forests and chocolate swamps that they've been quarreling over and finally came to a decision.

"I guess this valley has more than enough resources for both our groups to share." Richard sighed.

"And I guess we were overdoing it with the hostilities." King Gingersnap agreed. "And maybe our friend is correct. Maybe we can work together to not only rebuild our kingdoms, but also make a new one to represent peace between our clans."

Raspberry Richard got up from his chair and held out his hand in friendship. "What do you say? Truce?"

The gingerbread king looked at the gummy bear's hand for a moment, before putting his own on it with a smile. "Truce." he said as they shook on it. This led to both the gummy bears and gingerbread men cheering with joy at the newfound peace.

"And you know, since we've been fighting over this village for so long, these houses are looking like a mix of both gum and gingerbread." Richard pointed out.

"Any thoughts?" King Gingersnap asked curious.

"Well, I think we should leave them as they are and make this village the spot to build the new kingdom." Richard told him.

"You know, that actually sound like a good idea." King Gingerbread liked it. "And we should call it the Candy Kingdom to symbolize the union it's suppose to bring between all the candy people."

"Fine by me." Richard said shaking hands with the gingerbread king again as the two tribes happily danced together, happy to no longer be fighting after so many centuries.

Aurora felt nothing but joy from seeing the diplomatic peace she created. "It's so nice to see these two getting along." she said to herself. "Maybe soon the other candy tribes will join in, and eventually the Popsicle Kingdom too." Her happiness was suddenly interrupted when she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw it was Sam.

"Uh, Aurora, I know it's cool that you made peace, but the portal back home looks like it's starting to close!" he told her pointing at the collapsing portal. Aurora was horrified. She had been so focused on the negotiations that she forgot about the portal leading back home.

"Okay, everyone, make a break for it!" she calls to her classmates. As fast as lightning, Miss. Skullnick and all the students were running towards the portal, all of them making it with much time to spare. After everyone else had made it through, Sam decided to go next. Before Aurora could follow, she heard the voices of Raspberry Richard and King Gingersnap II.

"Thank you, Cheek Goddess Aurora."

"We are forever in your debt."

Aurora smiled and waved goodbye before noticing the portal just seconds away from fully closing and quickly leaped through it before that happened.

Aurora had made it out of the portal seconds before it closed completely. Getting up, she and Sam saw they were on the side of the road just outside of the tunnel they were driving through.

"Okay, is everyone here?" she asked Miss. Skullnick, who counted all the students just to e sure before answering. "Yep, everyone's here."

"All right. Then we should probably head home." Aurora suggested. "Though we might need to make the journey on foot for a while. But maybe we can hitch a ride along the way."

Not really having much of a choice, the class started making their way through the tunnel back home. As they walked, one of the students, a girl with brown hair tied in a ponytail, felt like talking to Aurora about more of the Candy Dimension.

"Hey, Aurora?"

"Hmm?" the princess turned to see her classmate. "Oh, Sarah. Did you wanna ask something?"

"Well, color me curious, but I kinda wanna know more about all the kingdoms that were said to exist in that place." Sarah told her. The rest of the class felt uncomfortable with her request due to having just got out of there.

"Well, for starters, they were around long before my ancestor first set foot in that dimension." Aurora began. "Alongside the Gummy and Cookie Kingdoms, there was the Cake Kingdom, the Mint Kingdom, the Popsicle Kingdom, and probably many more. But sadly, none of those kingdoms got along. They were always arguing about which type of candy was better than the others, and it was only a matter of time before all that hatred led to the Great Candy War, which resulted in most of the kingdoms getting destroyed."

"Most?" that last bit got Sarah's attention. "Does that mean there's some that survived?"

"Well, one anyway." Aurora told her. "The Popsicle Kingdom, found deep in the Ice Cream Tundra. It's widely believed the secret of their survival was thanks to the large walls they built around their land."

By the time they reached the end of the tunnel, everyone heard the sound of an engine running from within it and saw a van coming out of it, just stopping right in front of them. On the side, the students saw it had the logo of the Echo Creek Opossum Nature reserve. The door opened to show on of the rangers in charge.

"Excuse me. Are you the class we were expecting to be at the reserve today?" he asked.

"Yes, but there was an incident that took us on a different field trip." Miss Skullnick said exhausted. "And I think it's made us have enough adventure for one day."

"Now we just feel like going home." Sarah said stretching her arms.

"I don't suppose you could give us a lift?" Aurora asked nicely.

"Sure thing. Hop on in." the ranger welcomed. And pretty soon the whole class was seated in the van and on their way back to school everyone resting comfortably in their seats, happy to not have to walk all the way there.

"Man, talk about an unexpected field trip." Sam said with his feet resting on the arm of his seat. "I didn't even know dimensional portal could open up on their own." he said to Aurora. Unfortunately, that comment made Aurora realize something ominous about their recent adventure. You see, there's an important detail about portals opening up by themselves.

"They can't."