Not So Sweet Candyland

XIX: Chocolate Swampland

As soon as the sun was fully up in the sky and the sky was bright as could be, Berry and Chase arrived in Chocolate Swamps.

"Is this swampland?" Chase was very careful of his steps.

"What else would it be?"

"I was just asking a question, you can chill out."

Berry got a little bit mad.

"Don't tell me to chill out."

"Whatever. Whatever."

For every step that Chase took, his foot seemed to sink into the wet and soggy ground.

"What is this place?" Chase asked.

"Chocolate Swamps."

"Hold up, chocolate swamps? You mean, the ground is chocolate?"

"We're in Candyland, what do you expect? Dirt?"

"No, I'm just saying that...."

"Shut up."

Berry put her hand over Chase's mouth and that's when she took the lead over Chase.

"What are we even doing here anyways? Nobody lives here, and is there even any danger that happens here?" Chase asked.

"Not even spies come to Chocolate Swamps. They are just too scared to get their garments all ruined and then get sucked into the dirt. The spies, in reality are just pussies, they might hide in cities or in the wilderness, but where there are no people and where the conditions are good, that's where they'll stick out, going on the lookout to kill innocent travelers."

Berry went knees down on the ground and that's when she started digging.

"What are you looking for?" Chase looked over her shoulder.

"I remember a few years ago that somebody said that there was a bottle with a note buried somewhere around here. I am not 100% sure where it is, but I will find it, you can trust me on that."

She took a piece of ground and decided to taste it.

"This tastes a little bit like milk chocolate. Something is very off."

"What do you mean?"

Berry sighed.

"Normally, chocolate ground on the surface is dark chocolate, then milk chocolate, and the core of the world is made of white chocolate. That means that this area is possibly hiding something, this might be where the bottle is.

Berry started to dig extremely quickly and chocolate was flying everywhere and anywhere. Chase got hit a few times.

"Hey! Do you forget that I'm here?"

"Of course not, you dummy. Now shut up, I'm trying to focus on my digging. Sometimes, they could trick you with these kinds of things, so I got to find out as soon as possible."

"What if we don't find that bottle?"

"Are you kidding me?"

Berry put her head down and screamed into the ground.

"Do you even know why we are on this adventure in the first place? Clues are scattered all around Candyland, and they can come in the form of anything. I know for a fact that there is a message bottle hidden around here, and it's in the ground. Bottles will stay in their spots in the ground and that's based on the total mass and density of this ground, which in fact is an unidentified kind of chocolate, or as you American humans would call it: the dessert that you call dirt."

"I want dirt." Chase started to get hungry.

"Eats as much as you like. I don't care, as long as your stomach does not hurt, you're ok."

"Yay!"

Berry and Chase started to dig when Chase went into a pile and felt something hard.

"Ow!"

Berry stopped her head around.

"What happened?"

"I hit my teeth on something hard."

"Let me see." Berry went closer to him and checked his ground.

"That's it. I see the cap, that has to be it."

The bear cap read "Sugar Sweet Bear Beer" and the bottom of the cap has an address printed in very small letters.

Berry picked up the bottle from the dirt and examined it.

"This is it. This is our clue! Finally, we have a clue!"

Berry took what looked like a shell out of her pocket.

"Where did you get that?"

"While my father's ship passed by, I was looking through the shells and found this shell. What makes it special is that it's not just a sugar shell, it's a shell from the real world. It even makes the sounds of the sea."

"So, it's a conch?"

"It might be but it doesn't look like one. It seems more hallow and empty, desolate and blank. Even I don't know what this shell is even called. Do you know? Of course not."

"So, everywhere we go, we find a clue?"

"I think so, it seems to be that way."

"What's in the bottle?" Chase looked at the bottle.

"It seems like a note."

Berry unscrewed the cap with her shirt. As she opened the bottle, she let the note fall out and she unfolded it piece by piece.

She started to read the note.

"To my lone traveler or lost travelers,
What you find on your adventure is the key that will get you out of Candyland as a whole. Something old, something borrowed, something new, that's what it could be. It could be anything that you could think of. To the human that is lost in our world or the candy child that wants to breakout, an object that is not made of sweet things is your solution. Or maybe, sometimes it could be the person that you least expect to have all of the clues."

Chase and Berry sighed.

"Well, they did not help at all."

"It gave us some clues."

"Not enough, that's the thing."

"I thought you were a genius, Berry. I thought that you could get us out of these things."

"I fab there is no information, how can I use it? You never do your part in anything at all and make me do all of the dirty work! Literally!"

"Is it because you were raised poorly? And your mother left? And you're broken because of it? Tell me, Berry. You can't just hide yourself in your trauma forever!"

Berry sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry, I know that things are tough for me and you, Chase. But, I'm trying. You just don't know this place as well as you think that you do and the last thing that I want you to do is get hurt. I'm sorry, Chase."

"It's ok."