A Chocolate Meltdown

     As the Month of Eating neared its end in Neopia, the cool spring time breeze began to give way to the warm summer air. Before the heat got too unbearable, Ruth the Yellow Chia thought she could seize her chance for a last spring picnic. She woke up early that morning with the sun shining comfortably through the windows. “Yup, today’s the perfect day for a picnic!” She jumped out of bed and stretched out the tension in her body. “Rise and shine, Mars! We’re going to the park today! For a picnic, and a walk!”

     Mars, her Chocolate Noil, stirred from his Petpet bed in the corner of the room. At the sound of the word ‘walk’, Mars’ ears perked up. That was always his favourite word. He blinked up at Ruth, and stretched his front paws out with a big yawn. His mane of icing shook vigorously as Mars shook away the sleepiness. As he shook his body to get energized for the day, the thick mane of icing bobbed with the movement.

     “Mars! You’re gonna get sprinkles everywhere again!” Ruth bent down to pick up some rainbow sprinkles that came loose from Mars’ icing mane and stuck them back on. Who knew that a Chocolate Petpet could be so messy! Actually, she should have known. She had an uncle who got zapped to a Chocolate Chia for a while and he used to drip chocolate syrup all over Grandma’s furniture. The family did NOT want to sit next to him during their dinner. No one wanted chocolate in their salad.

     Ruth scooped Mars into her hands and headed to the kitchen. No picnic is complete without food! As Mars happily chomped away on her breakfast, Ruth got things ready for the picnic. She filled the basket with Apple and Cheese Sandwiches, packs of dried fruit, and her favorite Chia treats. Some treats for Mars, a blanket, a book, and she was ready!

     __________

          Ruth sat on the picnic blanket as she watched Mars happily chase a butterfly a short distance away. She could hear his tiny roars. He pounced, jumped, hopped, twirled, and he never looked happier being out and about in the sun. The little flecks of sprinkles coming off of his mane twinkled in the sunlight. Ruth herself had beads of sweat forming on her head. Though she had picked a spot with some cloud cover - not too sunny and not too shady, the clouds seemed to have parted and the sun shone relentlessly down on her. She dug out a bottle of sunscreen from her basket and applied it all over her arms and however far back her short arms would reach behind. Maybe it was time to move to a shadier spot.

     “Mars!” She called out to her Petpet. Where did he run off to? “Mars!” She called again, scanning the surroundings. A bush rustled and she caught a glimpse of Mar’s wagging tail. Oh dear, was he stuck? Ruth went over to save Mars from the bush. As soon as she grabbed his behind, something felt wrong. Her fingers didn’t sink into the sticky icing she was used to when she hugged Mars. Holding on tight to Mar’s now smooth skin, she pulled back hard. And then Mars popped out of the bush. Or she thought?

     The Petpet she was holding in her arms didn’t look like Mars at all. His coat of icing was almost entirely gone, exposing his brown chocolatey body beneath. Rainbow sprinkles still peppered his skin, but without the sticky icing, most of them had fallen off. He looked like a teddy bear! Mars twitched his candy corn nose and roared cheerfully. She had to do something! Her Mars!

     Picnic time is over! Ruth hastily stuffed the food and blanket back into the picnic basket and with Mars in one arm, and her basket in the other, she ran. Towards the first place she thought of: The Chocolate Factory. If there was anyone in Neopia Central that could help her right now, it was the Chocolate Master.

     __________

     She banged on the big cookie doors of the Chocolate Factory.

          “Mr. Chocolate Master! I need your help! Please!” Ruth shouted, her voice cracking with panic. The little bit of icing left on Mars’ tail had slowly dripped away during their rush over, leaving a trail behind them. Mars was completely smooth-skinned and chocolatey brown now.

     The doors creaked open, just enough for the famous Kiko to peek through the gap. “I’m in the middle of restocking now, come back in about 8 minutes!” He snapped, then slammed the door shut.

     Ruth wasn’t going anywhere. She resumed banging on the cookie doors. “HELP! IT’S AN EMERGENCY!”

     The cookie doors flew open with a blast. “Alright, what do you want?” The Cookie Master stood at the doorway, hand on his hip. He looked particularly annoyed. Ruth held up Mars. She didn’t know where to start. “Mars, my Noils… he.. Icing?!”

     The Kiko’s eyes widened at the sight of Mars. “Oh dear, come on in. I’ll have to close the Chocolate Factory for a while.” He ushered them in, and flipped a sign hanging beside the door from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’. “My apologies for brushing you away earlier. With the Negg Festival around, people have been ruthless when grabbing Easter Neggs when I restock! They basically stalk me all day long!”

     The Chocolate Master led them through the shop front, past the shelves and candy stacked in rows and packed in jars. If Ruth wasn’t so worried about Mars, she would have been tempted by the smells and sights of the Chocolate Factory. Mars, however, unaware of what was going on, purred excitedly in Ruth’s arms. Without the icing covering his body, Ruth could feel Mars’ warm body vibrate as he purred.

     They went behind the chocolate marble shop counter, and through a door covered by Fruit Taffy curtains. Ruth could not believe her eyes. The factory was as big as a castle ballroom inside. It did not look this big on the outside, and the shop front definitely didn’t give anything away. Candy Cane pillars stood tall along the perimeter of the ballroom. Gummy streamers hung between the pillars in alternating colours of red, blue, and yellow. In the middle of it all, a giant sculpture of the Chocolate Master stood. Two white chocolate Angelpusses rotated around the sculpture, and a chocolate milk fountain danced behind.

     “Oi, close your mouth. The floors are made of fizzy gravel so don’t let even a drop of spit fall!” The Chocolate Master warned. Ruth didn’t even realize her mouth had fallen wide open at the sight. He headed towards a corridor on the left. She quickly followed behind the Kiko, keeping up with his pace as he zipped through a series of chocolate doors - mint chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and finally, orange chocolate.

     “Here we are! My Piping Lab!” He twirled around to welcome them, hands raised in the air.

     Ruth bent over to catch her breath. She let Mars drop to the floor and he ran around the open laboratory. Mountains of icing swirls skirted the room, and the floor sparkled with rainbow and chocolate sprinkles. A giant cake stand took up most of the space in the middle of the lab. Above it hung two giant piping bags filled with pink and cream coloured icing. Their star nozzles pointed down towards the centre of the stand. It reminded Ruth of the Secret Lab Ray, but a sweeter, cakier version.

     Mars roared and ruffed at the piles of icing around. “Mars! Don’t eat that!” Ruth chased after Mars, but only grabbed his brown body after he chomped a mouthful of icing.

     “Don’t worry about it, there’s tons more where that came from!” The Chocolate Master called out from the side. Ruth turned towards the voice and saw his top hat peeking over a big whirring machine. Lights from the machine twinkled and blinked. As the Chocolate Master pressed several buttons and pulled different levers, chimes and toots sounded.

     “Now, just have Mars stand on that big cake stand! I’m almost done configuring the Chocolate Noils setting and soon he’ll be all sweet and sticky again!”

     Ruth did as the Kiko instructed, placing Mars on top of the giant cake stand. “Now stay there, you hear? It’ll be over in a flash!” Mars’ little body trembled slightly as Ruth stepped away from the stand.

     The two giant piping bags lowered down and pointed right at Mars. The Chocolate Master tapped happily on the machine’s buttons like a piano and started singing a song. The piping bags began to pulse, the cream within them churned in preparation.

     [i] Cream and icing, ready for piping,

     Noil on the plate, ready for a bake,

     Cream and icing, ready for piping! [/i]

     The flash of light shot out from the piping bags and icing squirted out in a big splash. Mars let out a yelp of surprise but the sound was immediately buried by the dollops of icing.

     “Mars!” Ruth called out to her precious Petpet. The amount of icing that now laid on the cake stand was probably the size of twenty Noils. Her poor Mars was trapped under there! She rushed forward and climbed onto the cake stand. Digging her hands into the sweet, creamy icing, she felt around for Mars. Where is he? She grappled around blindly within, until her hand pushed against something warm and soft. Mars! Both hands gripped tight around the Noil, she yanked hard. She tumbled backwards, and fell off the stand, knocking the Chocolate Master. When she opened her eyes, what she had in her hands was NOT Mars.

     “Oh! Hmm, must have pulled the wrong lever!” The Chocolate Master hummed casually and went back behind the machine where the bleeps and chimes started up once more.

     Ruth stared in disbelief at the Noil in her hands. Sure, it was a Noil, but he was a ball of cotton candy! Bright orange cotton candy! Tears fell from her eyes and as they touched the cotton candy, it dissolved with a dark orange.

     “No!” She cried out, careful not to let anymore tears spill onto the Cotton Candy Mars .

     “Don’t worry, little one! This happens all the time, and no one’s been hurt! Kind of… Anyway, place him back on the stand - don’t worry about all the icing. I think I got the right settings now!” The Chocolate Master reassured Ruth.

     Once again, she did as she was told, setting the Mars Cotton Candy on top of the pile of icing and stepped away. The Chocolate Master sang his song again and FLASH! A burst of icing spurt out from the piping bags. The mountain of icing only grew bigger, and it started to drip off the sides of the stand, like a creamy dripping mess of Terror Mountain.

     “Mars?” Ruth wiped the tears from her eyes, and called out again, her voice quivered with worry.

     The mountain of icing moved. A pair of brown ears popped out from the mess of cream. Ruth called out to Mars again and climbed onto the stand. She scooped aside the icing to uncover Mars. A muffled gruff sounded from beneath. There he is! The Chocolate Master floated up helped dig through the icing alongside Ruth. A pair of cherry eyes and a candy corn button nose against a chocolate face emerged.

     “Mars!” Ruth and the Chocolate Master cheered in unison. Hearing their voices, Mars roared happily too. She grabbed Mars by the neck and pulled up from the mess. She didn’t care that she was all covered in icing now too, and that the walk home was going to be a sticky one. The excess icing slid off Mars’ body, revealing the mane of rainbow sprinkled cream icing that once covered his chocolate body.

     “It worked! I can’t believe it!” The Chocolate Master bounced up and down. “It’s never worked before! Huzzah!”

     “What?!” Ruth turned her face away from a tearful reunion with Mars. “What do you mean it’s never worked before?!”

     “Pah, don’t sweat the small details! Mars is back to being Mars, isn’t he! And look at you, you look like a Mars yourself too!”

     Ruth looked down at herself and reached up to touch her hair. The Chocolate Master was right. She was covered in icing too, from her hair to her feet.

     “Mars! Look, we match now!” Ruth laughed. Icing flung in all directions as Mars’ tail wagged in excitement. He reached up and licked some icing off her cheek.

     The Chocolate Master led them out of the Piping Lab, through the confusing maze of chocolate doors and back out to the storefront.

     “Off you go now, and what happened in the factory today - let’s keep that our little secret, shall we?” The Chocolate Master winked at Ruth and Mars. “Oh, and before I forget, this is for you, for making my Piping Lab a success!” He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out two Luxury Chocolate Easter Neggs. He waved them good bye and the doors of the Chocolate Factory were closed once more.

     __________

     Ruth left the Chocolate Factory with Mars in her arms.

     “Glad you’re back to normal, Mars! Let’s stay away from the sun for a while, alright?” Mars hid his face and nodded sadly in agreement.

     “Aw, Mars, don’t get so down. Look, we got special Neggs! You can have both of them, alright?” Mars purred with satisfaction. For the rest of the week, he slept with the ombre Negg in his Petpet bed, as if it were his new favourite toy.

     The End.