Baking up a New Adventure! (A Cookie Run: Kingdom Story)

Part 9: The Mysterious Figure

Kingdom: Sparkling Cookie's Juice Bar: 9:15 AM

"Oh, hello, you two," Sparkling Cookie waved as we approached. "What brings you here? Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Not right now, no," I told him.

"Oh," He sighed. "Well then, what can I do for you?"

"We just wanted to know if that hooded figure who came in yesterday left anything behind," I explained.

"Nope, not a single thing," He answered. "They didn't even pay after I gave them their hot sauce, which is something not even Chili Pepper does."

"So... they basically stole the hot sauce from you?" I pressed.

"Yes," Sparkling nodded. "But... that's strange, because even Chili Pepper pays me. Well, she didn't at first, but after a while, she developed a fondness for my hot sauce and started paying me with bits of these treasures. I'm not exactly sure what to do with them, but I suppose it's better than nothing at all."

"I see..." I nodded. "That is weird..."

"And you're certain they didn't leave anything else behind?" Gingerbrave pressed.

"I didn't see anything, but you can feel free to look around," He assured us.

"Okay, thanks!" I thanked him.

We followed the trail of spicy footprints left by the culprit through Sparkling Cookie's bar, but didn't find much of anything. That was, until we reached the end of the trees.

"Looks like the footprints here are smudged!" Gingerbrave gasped.

"That doesn't prove much of anything," I commented. "That could just be caused by the figure's robes being dragged through them."

"But wait... there's something next to these footprints!" Gingerbrave exclaimed, pointing.

"You're right!" I cried as I saw it, too.

It nearly blended in with the chocowood tile, but upon closer inspection, it's silver buckle clearly gave away it's postion.

"A piece of a belt?" I pressed. "Oh no. Doesn't Chili Pepper have belts all around her jumpsuit?"

"Yes...Ack! Y-You don't think-!" Gingerbrave gasped.

"Probably another fake piece of evidence planted by the true culprit," I decided. "Hey... wait a sec... there's something caught in the buckle here... a piece of fabric?"

"It's yellow and blue, just like what we found earlier in that clearing," Gingerbrave noted.

"You're right," I agreed. "But how did that get here...?"

"I don't know..." Gingerbave admitted. "It's pretty strange..."

"Well, I think we've found everything we can here for now," I decided. "Let's head out. But first... I think I'm going to take Sparkling Cookie up on that offer."

We headed back over to the juice bar, but two other cookies were already there when we arrived.

"I'll have a glass of your watermelon juice, please!" Princess Cookie was saying as we approached.

"Oh, hi, Princess Cookie!" I waved to her. "Fancy meeting you here again."

"Oh, hello," Princess Cookie waved back. "I heard you two were defending Chili Pepper Cookie tomorrow."

"Yes, we are," I nodded.

"Knight Cookie saw the whole thing firsthand," She explained. "So he's going to testify tomorrow and tell you guys everything that happened."