The Union of Peanut Butter and Jelly

A Plague and A Map

Weeks after the lovers had gotten into their confrontation with Pelmazo and exposed his lies: a mysterious plague suddenly struck both their kingdoms. Caddaric and Aimee were informed by their informants of the illness and its severity and symptoms, including fever, sweating, fatigue, breathing problems. Their informants also gave the young couple the news that many people in the Peanut Butter kingdom and the Jelly kingdom had died. Although many people were quarantined in their homes, people were still falling ill with the disease, and none of the young royals informants knew where or how it started. Caddaric and Aimee spent the next few months looking for answers to where and how the plague began.

After many weeks of going through all of their documents on the plague's progress and status and the victims' lists, they finally found out that the epidemic began at a small well not far from the first victim's home in the Peanut Butter kingdom. They immediately sent some of their informants to investigate it. When their informants returned, they had news for the royal couple because they had found an empty vial that someone had discarded right next to the well with Pelmazo's signet ring on top of it. "What was he thinking putting our peoples' lives at stake so that he can get what he wants?" Aimee angrily questioned while she and Caddaric were alone as they went over the information their informants had sent them. "I don't know, darling, but we have to do something to end this," Caddaric calmly said as he read over the reports. "If this keeps up, then the graveyards will be overflowing with the dead, and the hospitals will become overcrowded with people who are sick and dying."

"I know, Caddy," Aimee said as she calmed down and sat down next to him. "I just don't understand why that horrible man would do something so reckless and stupid."

"I only have one reason for doing this," said a familiar voice. Immediately, both Caddaric and Aimee stood up and turned their attention towards the source. Looking at the magic mirror in the room with them and seeing the face within the mirror, Aimee's face changed from a look of shock to a glimpse of fury at the sight of her former suitor. "I want something that should be rightfully mine," Pelmazo told the young couple rather sternly. "What are you talking about?" Aimee angrily asked the vile prince that she had turned out. 

"I have a suggestion for you, Aimee. I will provide you both with the antidote that is in my possession under one little condition," Pelmazo said, clearly lying about having an antidote. "You end your relationship with each other, and Aimee marries me and makes me her kingdom's ruling king."

When they heard Pelmazo's suggestion, Caddaric took Aimee into his arms in a loving and protective embrace. "I will not," Aimee told him firmly. "I would rather die than spend the rest of my life with someone like you." Pelmazo chuckled at Aimee's response as Caddaric glared at him angrily. "Alright, I'll be generous," Pelmazo responded as Aimee rolled her eyes because she knew that he was never, if ever, generous. "I will give you until next spring to change your mind, and if you still refuse, then both of your kingdoms will fall."

Pelmazo then ended the conversation, and after his image had vanished from the mirror's surface, Aimee clung onto Caddaric as if he would be ripped away from her any minute. "You don't believe he has an antidote to this plague on his person, don't you?" Caddaric asked sarcastically, knowing that Aimee was not a fool. "No, I do not," Aimee replied. "There is no way Pelmazo would have one on his person because he has neither the knowledge nor the ability to create one."

Caddaric thought for a minute, and then he remembered the anonymous letter that Aimee had received just a few months ago. "He may not, but we know someone who might," Caddaric said as he took Aimee to the desk drawer where they kept the letter. "Are you talking about the author of the letter I received?" Aimee playfully asked as Caddaric opened the drawer and pulled out the letter. "Exactly, if we find the author, then we can ask them for help against Pelmazo and his allies and if they can create an antidote," Caddaric explained with a brilliant smile on his face as he read the instructions. "Take this letter up to a blazing and roaring fire to see an unseen map and use the map and use the map and its instructions to find both myself and my home."

Caddaric and Aimee immediately took the letter to the fireplace, where a blazing and roaring fire kept the room warm. They placed the letter on top of a wire rack within the fireplace over the fire. After a few short minutes, a map written in invisible ink appeared on the back of the letter, which had been previously blank. Once the map was evident, the couple removed the letter from the rack and began to read it. When they read it, they saw a map of the Ice Cream kingdom with a small mark indicating that it was where their mysterious ally lived.