EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the eighth chapter in a 12-chapter fictional tale that will run through Christmas Day. Parents are encouraged to read aloud to their children.

As they approached Lollipop Landing, Molly couldn’t keep visions of her gingerbread house out of her head. Her sketchbook was so full of ideas that she’d run out of room. But something was still missing. Something…well, lollipoppy.

Lollipop Landing looked beautiful from a distance. Swirls of bright color swept across the land, blending together like a watercolor painting. Everything was made of hard candy, from the flowers to the trees to the insects, something she discovered when she swatted away a tiny butterscotch fly.

They walked along, stepping cautiously across the slopes of overlapping sheets of hardened candy under their feet. Gusts of wind swept past, making lollipop flowers spin like pinwheels.

They stopped when they reached a small pond, one not filled with water but thick, sparkly syrup that bubbled up from the ground in tiny geysers. Each geyser shot a spike of crystallized sugar into the air, where it hardened instantly into swirly candy formations.

“How cool,” Molly whispered, eyes wide. She picked up a spiral fragment, twirling it around and watching it sparkle before putting it in her bag. Before she could secure it inside, a strange clicking noise startled her and almost made her drop it.

She whipped around, then quickly stepped back.

A huge beetle stared at them, one the size of a cat and made of shiny blue candy. It flicked its antennae at them.

“Aw, it’s kind of cute,” Molly whispered, and Jax scoffed.

“Cute? Look at the size of its pinchers!” Jax whispered back. “Go ahead, try to snuggle the cute giant pinchy beetle, I dare you.”

Molly elbowed him, and fortunately, the beetle only flicked its antennae again before scuttling past into a field of lollipop stalks.

Molly and Jax moved on until the land shifted into a meadow of lollipop shards sticking out of the ground like enormous, colorful crystals. Each shard was patterned differently with swirls, stripes, dots and zigzags. At the far end of the meadow, a family of brown sugar deer that had been munching on the shards bounded away at the sight of them.

“Ooh, look at these!” Molly exclaimed, touching the striped sugar. “They’re so pretty!”

She stared at them thoughtfully. “Some of this would be perfect.” She pointed to a thin piece on the edge, curling up at the side. “Like that.”

Jax examined the curled edge then tapped it carefully. With a tiny crack, it broke off into a perfect ribbon of striped candy. He did it a few more times until he held a small pile of rainbow colored stripes.

Molly grinned as she added the striped ribbons to her collection, then they continued along, making sure to steer clear of the marked pathways that led to Lollipop Village. She collected a few more small candy accents: a set of beautiful swirl lollipops, thin pieces of delicate sugar that looked like frosted lace, and a handful of plain, colorful hard candy that she imagined melting into stained glass windows.

Jax smiled as she examined her candy stash. “You’ve got pieces from everywhere now.”

“Almost everywhere,” she corrected. “Just Peppermint Valley left.”

Jax grimaced. “Right. Home.”

“Jax, I’m not forcing you to come if you aren’t ready to be back there. I have to admit, though, it would be really nice having your help navigating.”

He smiled. “Oh, I’ll help you, don’t worry. Someone has to stop you from adopting the first peppermint hopper that bounces at you.”

“Hey, just because I found one beetle cute –”

“It was not cute,” he interrupted. “But hoppers are, unfortunately.”

“Why is that unfortunate?”

“Let’s just say their whole personality is ‘cute until provoked.’ And everything provokes them.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, that kind of describes most of Peppermint Valley.”

“Hmm…so should I be adding you to that list?”

Jax smirked. “I mean, I am pretty adorable. And easily provoked. But in all seriousness…don’t underestimate anything in Peppermint Valley. No matter how cute and fluffy they might be.” He shuddered. “Trust me, you don’t want to startle a mintsnap or try to pet a twizzle.”

Molly decided not to tell him that his warnings were just making her more excited to see Peppermint Valley, and simply nodded. “Noted.”

Although she was tired from her days of travel, Molly had a new bounce in her step as they headed toward the last leg of their adventure. She was so close to having everything she needed, and she couldn’t wait to show her ideas to the world.

Read chapter 9 in the weekend newspaper.