Fantamasia

Candy Land

 The noise of my stomach rumbling suddenly woke me up making me stare stupidly at what my eyes registered in front of me for a few seconds. It was SO spectacular that I wasn’t sure if I was in heaven or not. Maybe a tree’s branch fell on me making me unconscious. But my limbs and senses were working fine so I couldn’t have died and I was sure that I wasn’t dreaming. Right in front of me were mountains. But not just any mountains...They were Brownie Fudge mountains with sugar sprinkled on top for snow!! A chocolate stream zigzagged its way flowing out of the mountain as free as a bird and then ending in a huge chocolate pool. Besides the chocolate pool were small dewdrops as well as gum drops and candy canes for poles , bubble gum flowers, caramel filled rocks and pebbles, lollipops for trees, toffee cars, liquorice shops, donut rings and  the mud was made out of dark chocolate and the houses were ginger bread houses while the hills were made out of ice cream. Each and every hill was a different flavour! But the best part was that instead of people there were Gingerbread men! (Which Feathers would later think about eating   but before he could make a move I stopped him). All of a sudden I looked up at the sky and I was lost for words. It was as though the sky was painted a light hazy blue, with cotton candy clouds as puffy as soft feathered pillows and the sun was made out of  transparent jelly wobbling from time to time but barely visible because of the huge poufy cotton candy clouds. The most amazing thing was that when the light shone on the clouds, instead of the clouds changing from crème white to light orange or baby pink, the jelly sun would change its colour. Unable to utter even a single word I tried to wake Feathers up by poking him gently with a candy cane. His beak dropped open, his mind frozen up because of the mesmerising scene in front of him.

 Within a minute I knew where we had landed. Mum and dad used to tell me a story about a place which was completely filled with joy, happiness and beauty; the best part of it was that the food would never run out. Tears of mixed emotions, joy and sadness filled my eyes. I was very happy to have fulfilled my parents wish to at least somehow see Candy Land but the thing that broke my heart was that my mother wasn’t present to see the marvellous view, to taste the spectacular food or to even be by my side right now.

I couldn’t stand thinking about her when there was a whole universe of food waiting for a hungry girl and a bird. We stuffed our faces with everything that our hands could get hold of and lazed around the whole day, soon we were dozing off underneath the shade of a lollipop tree.The rustling of the mint leaves woke me up just at the right time: Sunrise. The jelly- sun slowly rose up but could be barely seen because of the cotton candy clouds revolving around it. As I watched the life come back to Candy Land and the small pudding bulbs light up in each ginger bread house, I wondered if I would accomplish the task at hand. What if I wouldn’t be able to find the map- maker? What if something terrible happened to Feathers? What if he got injured? Then I wouldn’t have anyone for company; Never. I could hear Feathers finally waking up and stretching his legs, a sleepy but satisfied look on his face. ‘Good morning sleepy head!’ I said to him while he smiled back, his feathers pricked in excitement and annoyance. ‘Good Morning. Which place is next?’ I checked my WNC phone for where to go next by checking the last message dad had sent me. ‘A village, it’s not far from here but you’d better make sure that you don’t fall asleep’. Feathers just mimicked me which I didn’t mind because he was doing a pretty good job at it. Once the friendly gingerbread-man Buttons had given us a proper tour of all of Candy Land, utterly exhausted I sat on the mint grass plucking some of the grass and stuffing it in my mouth while I stuffed my bag with mouth-watering treats for the rest of the journey. As I made my way to Feathers who was licking brownie bits from his claws and I suppose the ground too, I told him that we would leave in fifteen minutes flat and left him to scrape the rest of the brownie chunks off while I went back  to Buttons to bid him good bye.

Just when I was about to call Feathers to leave, I heard someone call my name. I spun around to see a tall man with broad shoulders and a huge boulder of a sack on his back. ‘Who-who are you? And how do you know my name?’ I asked, my heart beat rising as though wanting to jump out of my chest and running into the sunset. He took a few steps towards me but then came to a halt. ‘Don’t worry I’m the one you’re looking for. I’m also a friend of your father’s’.

I didn’t dare move; if he was who he said he was then the journey had just been made three steps easier. ‘How do I know that you’re the map maker?’   Feathers swooped in landing on his sharp claws right beside me at that exexact moment. ‘Hey Lily whose this?’ ‘Let me introduce myself properly’ said the man. ‘I came here because of the exquisite candies that the Candy Land folk make but my toffee car got eaten by vicious toffee eating bugs which are quite ferocious and huge in size. Anyways to get to the point I need a ride to get back to my home land which is facing starvation and needs food.’ Feathers then squawked ‘Just one question....what is your name?’ ‘I’mProfessor Mufti’ he said.

Once the introductions were over we were in the air, Candy Land becoming smaller and smaller, the higher we got. For the last time I smelled the scent of the glorious food happy that I had packed most of the chunks of various things into my backpack for the journey. ‘So how far is the next place Professor?’  The Professor started to rummage through his huge sack, only to reveal a crumpled map. ‘Hmm we will certainly reach there by the morning latest’ he declared. I responded with a nod, my eyes glued to the sky. Praying that tomorrow wouldn’t be as exhausting as today I closed my eyes ready for sleep to come to me.