Licorice Castle and the Great Peach Ring

A FAIRY TALE by Tatum Dunham, US

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Kandy, there lived a hero… named Hero. Every morning before her daily adventures, she would take a great sigh and step out of her cottage to breathe in the morning air. She would always pick a bit of cotton candy out of the clouds with the tips of her fingers but refused to eat the blueberry ones, for they had a bitter aftertaste that tasted like a factory. This morning was no different, but she made herself her favorite blend of honeyed milk and jasmine tea before opening her door to breathe in the sweet-smelling morning dew.

A small package sat there looking up at her with puppy-like excitement. On the cover sat a massive label made of aluminum gum wrapper that read “WARNING: MAGICAL MATERIAL MUST BE OPENED AT ONCE”.

“That’s strange," Hero thought as a slow squint formed on her brow, soon joined by a frown of distrust. She slowly sat down her morning mug of tea on the countertop beside her and bent down to pick up the parcel.

Inside, a voice cried in rapid succession, “Hello? Where are we going? Why am I moving? Is anybody there?” Shocked, Hero flung the package onto her counter with a gasp, and she heard a thump as it landed on its side. Because she was not expecting the box to suddenly begin to speak, Hero failed to comprehend that something inside the box was alive, and alive things definitely do not belong in boxes. She only realized this fact once she had thrown the poor thing, so she rushed over, grabbed a knife, and carefully cut open the box.

As she inserted the knife into the wrapping, the thing inside screamed, “PLEASE GOD, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!”. Immediately, Hero paused, realizing that the thing inside must be terrified and trembling at the sight of the blade slicing through the folds.

“I am terribly sorry, I never meant to scare you(Hero lowers her hand, but does not let go of her grasp on the knife). I just need to open the box to let you out,” stated Hero as she started to open the box once more with just the point of the blade, so as to not terrify the creature inside.

As soon as her blade reached the end of the box’s edge, the flaps burst open with a surprisingly hefty force, “BOOF”. A fluffy orange foot had kicked open the box, and without missing a beat, the rest of the shockingly bright creature scrambled out.

Since everything had occurred so quickly, Hero had little time to comprehend anything but a flash of neon orange fur. Before she knew it, the impish thing was holding up a yellow telegram annoyingly close to her face, so all that she could decode from the blurs of text was “licorice infecting”.

“Excuse me, ma’am, you need to read this letter! It’s of dire importance!” exclaimed the creature at an uncomfortable volume.

“Okay, I will! I need to be able to see the thing first.” Hero stepped back and snatched the letter out of its adorable little hands . Aromas of lemon and sugar syrup dripped off of the page when Hero opened up the flaps of the brightly tinted yellow paper, making her stomach start to churn. Steadying her stomach, Hero opened the letter and read:

“Dearest Hero, Kandy Kastle has selected you for a mission of dire importance. Your home, the Mound, a sugary, simple Shire, is under attack from a dragon of the darkest licorice, for he has begun his invasion of your dear home. Every living creature, plant, and animal will be turned to black licorice if he is not defeated and the infecting licorice vines are not rid of. The only way to exact your victory is through the Great Peach Ring, which possesses immeasurable power. However, do not wear it around your neck; for you will be unable to remove it once doing so. Only wear it around your left-hand ring finger. Multiple other identical rings keep it hidden in plain sight within the leaves of the Gingerbread Tree outside of Gumdrop Pass; however, these rings are powerless and are of no use to you besides their delectable sweetness! Be careful to choose the right one, Hero. Use your wits and your sword!

P.S. We have included a small creature named Maximilian in the package to assist you on your travels. Do not be frightened of his hyper manner and bright coat.”.

Once she had finished reading the Castle’s message, Hero looked up and saw that Maximilian had disappeared! Frantically, her eyes scanned the kitchen past the peppermint toaster, jumped to the KitKat refrigerator, and landed on the gummy bear blender when she heard a cacophony of metallic crashing sounds coming from her bedroom. A few moments after, Maximilian slowly came around the wall connecting the kitchen to her bedroom hallway, but only once he fully came around the bend did Hero realize what Maximilian was doing. He was hauling her precious lollipop sword into the kitchen! “Wait! No-”, squeaked Hero before Max’s tiny orange hands let go of the handle.

The sword clanged as it met the solid kitchen floor, and Maximilian stated, “You’re going to be needing this ma’am! And don’t forget food for the road!”. At that, Hero and Max began to prepare for their arduous journey ahead of them.

Rising at daybreak with all preparations made, the two opened the door to leave, but Hero paused once her foot touched the stone outside the door. Filling her lungs with the scent of lemon drops and honeydew, Hero shut her eyes, took in a deep breath, then reached up to pluck her favorite cotton candy from a low-hanging cloud. Hero opened her eyes and looked down at the strange creature to her right, smiled, and they both began their trek out of the Mound.

At first, Hero and Maximilian seemed to walk from day to uneventful day until the graham-cracker-crumb trail seemed to stretch for infinity, and the buzzing of the honeybees feeding on nearby flowers faded into the background of the pair’s thoughts.

“I think we should stop and take a break”, called Max to Hero, who was about five paces ahead and had begun to climb up the base of the steep hill ahead. Once Max saw Hero begin to stop and set up the picnic on the side of the trail, he jogged towards her in order to catch up. Excitedly, Max leaped forward and plopped himself onto what appeared to be a pillow that Hero had laid out. To his surprise, he was sprung forward with a bounce!

“How rude! Pillows shouldn’t reject their sitters like that, it’s frowned upon you know!”, Max said harshly as he lectured the pillow about its manners. The pillow did not respond. Hero, who was not a part of the madness that was taking place, took a glance at the thing that Max was now lecturing.

Hero waited then said, “Max, wait! I never laid down a pillow for either of us, just look”. And so he did and then thought himself a fool. He did not land on a pillow but on a gumdrop! The heroic pair exchanged a look as the realization of where they were dawned on both of them.

“Come on!” Hero yelled just before she began her sprint to the crest of the hill that they were resting at the bottom of. Once her legs carried Hero to the top, a gargantuan oak with gingerbread for bark, gumdrops for leaves, and juicy peach rings for fruits met her gaze. It was only a few minutes before both Max and Hero reached the base of the Gingerbread Tree.

“Halt!” A screeching, invisible voice bellowed from somewhere inside the tree. “I will not allow you to take the Great Peach Ring, for you must earn it! The ring will never be yours if you cannot decipher which ring it is among the rest. When the sun sets, I will eat the Great Peach Ring unless one of you can tell me which ring it is on the tree.” The voice had given its test, and the race to the ring had begun.

Hero and Max attempted to climb the tree to gain a better viewpoint of each ring, but they could only reach so far up before the branches tapered down and became too thin to climb. Conveniently, Maximilian volunteered to journey further upwards into the tree because of his much smaller, lighter size. Each ring looked exactly the same, a fade of yellow to orange on each side with a coating of sugar on its surface. No doubt the rings tempted Max and Hero with their deliciousness, but the heroes were set on a mission and could not be distracted by the sweet treats that surrounded them. Up, up, up Max climbed until he reached the tip top of the Gingerbread Tree, and it was there that he noticed a large puddle on the ground next to the trunk with many little rings of sugar reflected in it. However, one of the rings glowed with flickering, golden light in the reflection of the water as it swayed back and forth in the evening breeze.

“I found it!” yelled Maximilian as he hurriedly scampered back down the oak tree, bringing Hero along with him. “Well, where is it?” questioned Hero with a raise of her eyebrow as she shot Max an inquisitive glance. As a response, Max pointed upward towards the ring that had been glowing, yet he found the same yellow-orange coloring greeted him, not the golden gleam that he had discovered before.

Confused, Max turned to face Hero, but she had kneeled down next to the puddle and was looking upwards towards the seemingly normal ring with her face very close to the ground.

“I doubt this little trick of flexibility is going to do anything to find the Great Ring”, thought Max skeptically as he watched his companion move from side to side, trying to inspect both the ring in the tree as well as the reflection in the puddle. “Ah, hah!”, exclaimed Hero, and with a quiet splash, she reached out and carefully grasped the gleaming reflection in the puddle with her pointer finger and thumb. When she lifted her hand away, a beautiful golden peach ring appeared between her fingers! “The Great Peach Ring was never on the tree”, explained Hero, “but in the reflection of it”. A cocky smile spread across Hero’s face as she stood to face the Gingerbread Tree with the Great Peach Ring in hand. Crawling in the branches, a giant, sinuous elf creature wearing a strawberry hat glared back at Hero, and spoke in the same voice that had challenged them before, “Curse you, foul heroes! That ring will become mine once again, just wait. I will be seeing you again very soon…”. After it finished its quite uncreative speech, it turned and crawled back into the Gingerbread Tree until only the tip of the strawberry hat was visible, poking out from behind the trunk.

Upon their victory at the Gingerbread Tree, both heroes began to quicken their pace to Licorice Castle. In half the time of a normal journey, Hero and Max reached Licorice Castle, seemingly the result of the Great Peach Ring’s effects. Each twisted spire of the dark, brooding castle pulsed with elastic life as the heroes journeyed closer. Ivy vines of black licorice encasing the castle and the surrounding land slowly began to crawl towards Hero and Max, attempting to grapple their ankles as they walked past; the vines let out a hiss as they failed each time. Trees around the castle grounds were entirely suffocated by thick vines of the same black licorice. Some were completely taken over, and in others, the licorice plague had only just begun. A pair of unseen, menacing eyes had been watching the pair from the moment they stepped past the first licorice vine; both Max and Hero’s hair pricked up to attention on the backs of their necks, but neither was able to detect the being that had been watching them.

Quietly, the dragon breathed in and out from his hiding spot…watching…seething. Billows of purple smoke began to rise from his flared nostrils, quickly spreading throughout the castle grounds, adding to the already unsettling atmosphere. His hidden eyes smoothly tracked Hero and Max and they approached the main door to his castle and knocked.

“Hello? Hero, I don’t think there’s anyone--BOOM”, a behemoth of a dragon burst forward, destroying the stone walls of the castle and sending a spray of sharp stone pieces toward Hero and Max.

“Max run!”, screamed Hero, as she quickly took a side-step to her left and darted around the dragon’s flank. Seeing this, Max did the opposite and sprinted to the right. The battle then raged on and on, with the dragon receiving nothing except for one small scratch. “Tis but a scratch!” the dragon roared defiantly as he sprayed fire in a wide arc, missing Max because of his height. Instead of scorching Hero, the fire danced and dodged around her as the ring gleamed brighter and brighter. Slowly, the ring’s power grew as it absorbed the dragon’s fire from all around Hero, the wearer of the ring. She then yelled, “Max, get behind me!”, for she knew the ring had almost reached its tipping point. A massive beam of golden light shot forth from the Great Peach Ring at once, sending Hero and Max, who had just barely scampered out of the beam’s range, backward multiple feet from the sheer force of the blast. With incredible power, the beam impacted the dragon’s chest, slamming him up against a castle wall and killing him. The only sounds that could be heard for what seemed like hours were Hero and Max’s heavy breathing and the hissing of the dragon’s seared body. Crumbling, a portion of Licorice Castle caved inwards, crushing the parasitic branches of twisted candy in its wake.

Strangely, one singular intact door stood perfectly on its own, despite the rubble that surrounded it. Instead of a traditional keyhole, a small, circular port was located below the doorknob. Max cautiously stepped up to the door and turned the knob, but it would not open.

“Wait, Max. Let me do this.”, Hero stated with a wince as she haphazardly rose from the ground of the now ruined castle. She then walked towards the lone door, removed the Great Peach Ring from her finger, and placed it in the small port. Once again, Max tried the doorknob, and this time, it swung open revealing a massive throne room with caramel floors, peppermint walls, and a throne littered with ring pop jewels.

The sight seemed alien in comparison to the ruins that surrounded the pair, almost shockingly so. Without a moment's notice, Max ran into the throne room, leaving Hero to tentatively shuffle behind.

On the throne sat a short and stocky man with a fluffy, white beard encompassing the entire bottom half of his face. Strings of rock candy decorated his belt and shoulders, acting as tassels, necklaces, and jewelry.

His eyes fell upon Max and they softened as he spoke, “Welcome back, Max. I see your journey has gone successfully. Bring forth the Great Ring”. With this, Max removed the ring from the door lock, took Hero’s hand in his own, brought the both of them before the King of Kandy Land, and placed the Great Peach Ring in his hands. “For your duties, Hero, I will grant you ownership of this very ring.”, the king stated and held up the Great Peach Ring in between his pointer finger and thumb. With an expression of shock riddling her face, the ring was slipped onto her left-hand ring finger by King Kandy; it fit perfectly, as if the ring itself was made just for Hero. Gradually, a soft aura of golden light surrounded her and branches of divine energy wrapped themselves around Hero’s body and hands. Faint buzzing and twinkling could be heard from all around as the Great Peach Ring bonded with Hero, its new owner. Rising from his glorious throne, the King lifted his hand to Hero and thundered, “Everyone, look now upon our Hero, for she is now named the new keeper of the Great Peach Ring. Let the festivities begin!”