When Luke felt the hand grab, his arm yelled, and all the other kids turned their heads to see what had happened.

And who did they see? He was one of the townspeople of Candyland. He was a funny little man with a round belly and knobby arms and short little legs, with a face

that looked kind and trustworthy.

Oh, I wouldn't go that way if I were you, your highnesses.

Prince Popsicle and his scouts hide in that part of the forest, if you're trying to get back

to your world. Then follow me. I'll part of the forest. If you're trying to get back to your world, then follow me.

I'll show you the way.

So what else were the kids going to do?

They didn't know where else to go, so they followed the funny little man in the other direction

as he took them down a path that led them along Root Beer River until it led them all

the way to the sea of whipped cream.

But of course, since Prince Popsicle had turned everything cold,

Root Beer River was just solid brown ice.

And the whipped cream sea had completely turned to giant glaciers of ice cream.

And the kids were starting to shiver as they got colder, and Elijah asked,

hey, Mr. Uh, uh, uh, what's your name again? The name's Marshmallow Max. My family used to run

the marshmallow factory in town until Prince Popsicle took it from us and started making

freeze pops. You know the kind that take forever to melt and are impossible to open

without scissors? Those ones. Oh, that is not right, said Elijah. And then Evelyn spoke up and said,

How do we overthrow Prince Popsicle and help cannily get back to normal, Max? The only way to

defeat the evil prince is to destroy him with his own kind of evil magic,

but nobody around here has access to that kind of a wicked sorcery.

...