A Huckleberry Valentine

Chapter 5: What's Poppin'?*

After walking along for a few minutes, the gang soon reached the entrance to the garden, where giant swirled lollipops stood, welcoming them with a sign. Everywhere they looked, there were lollipops growing out of the ground. Some were giant colorful swirled kinds, some were small suckers of a solid color, some were even tall and twisty! Huck looked into one of the suckers, and saw his own reflection, as if it were a funhouse mirror. He smiled, winked, and then stretched out his cheeks and made a goofy face.

Cinnamon began to laugh when he saw Huck's silly face, and soon enough, Snag, and Hokey did the same. Huck found his goofy face funny, and started laughing as well, but Coco and Minty just smiled and shook their heads.

"Silly dog," Coco muttered.

As the gang wandered deeper into the garden, they could see even more lollipops of the regular variety, but also some types that they had never seen before. Some of them looked like flowers, some were chairs, and there were even some that looked like little tables. There was even a swirly candy slide sitting in the distance!

"Now this is strange outdoor decor if I've ever seen it!" Snag exclaimed, testing one of the chairs. "They look just like lollipops!"

"Everything here does," Hokey said. "It's like your tongue can change color around here!"

Just then, when he stuck out his tongue, it was all different colors! Everyone laughed at Hokey's funny looking tongue, until they heard some squeaky high pitched giggling.

Snag's ears perked and his fur fanned out. "Heavens to Murgatroyd! To whom does that laughter belong to?"

Just then, a pretty fairy wearing a rainbow colored dress flew around the gang. She had bright pink hair tied in pigtails and had little silver sparkles on her cheeks. On her feet were rainbow colored slippers with red bows on them.

"Hey, where did she come from?" Huck wondered.

Just then, another fairy flew around him as well. She had long purple hair with a white headband, and wore a red, light purple and white dress with little white shoes. Her giggles were just as bright as the other.

"Wow! Two fairies!" Hokey cried. "How about that?"

"Oh, it's the Lollipop Sprites!" Coco exclaimed. "They're the protectors of the Lollipop Garden, and they're known to be very playful!"

"Yeah, and they're also very silly!" Cinnamon added. "They love pranks, so watch out!"

Just then, the pink haired fairy sat on top of Huck's nose. "Don't you just love lollipops?" she asked in her tiny little voice. "They're one of the sweetest sweets in the world!"

"Yeah, I know!" Huck replied. "Do you enjoy making them?"

"We sure do! Only we don't really make them...we grow them!"

"Yes, it's true!" the other fairy added. "That's why we call this place the Lollipop Garden!"

"My name is Joy! And this is my sister, Poppy!" the pink haired fairy said.

"We're the Lollipop Sprites!" the fairy with purple hair added. "There's so many of us and we are only two!"

"It's very nice to meet you ladies!" Huck said with a tip of his hat. "My name's Huckleberry Hound! And these are my friends, Snagglepuss, and Hokey Wolf!"

"I see you've met Cinnamon, Coco, and Minty!" Poppy chirped. "They're some of our very good friends!"

"And we have so many other friends here that we would love you to meet too!" Joy squeaked happily.