'My name is Sir Saccharine of the Reese’s Round Table.'

A lone gingerbread man clad in Jawbreaker armor made his way through a field of licorice grass, chopping a path through it with a sharpened candy-cane sword.

'For as long as anyone can remember, all of Candy People kind have been terrorized by a horrible beast.'

He came to a small clearing- at the other end was a steep incline. Sacchire looked up to see this was the base of a rock candy mountain.

'I have travelled for weeks to find the creature’s lair so that I may end its reign of terror.'

He pulls out a pair of gumdrops, tearing them in half and sticking them on his hands and feet. He then used the sticky gumdrops to climb the rock face.

'Now I have only to scale the mountain the creature lives it and sneak into its cave while it sleeps.'

Hours passed, Sacchire occasionally taking breaks whenever he found a ledge. During this time he would replace his gumdrop climbers with newer, stickier ones.

'My mission is almost completed…'

Sacchire climbed onto another ledge, this one much larger than the previous ones. His candy mouth opened in awe- in front of him was a massive cave entrance.

'Finally.'

Flipping his visor over his face, he cautiously made his way into the cave’s gaping maw.

Because the rock candy that the mountain was comprised of was transparent, the cave was slightly lit even some distance into it. However, the rock candy of that particular part of the mountain was grape flavored, meaning the light was a dark purple and thus did not allow as much visibility as it could have.

As the gingerbread knight walked along the cave’s walls, he noticed how jagged some of the surfaces of the cave were. The thought occurred to him that the creature might have eaten out this cave itself.

It certainly would have the appetite for that.

He suddenly became aware of the sound of breathing. Slowing his pace, he rounded a bend.

There it was.

Lying against the far wall was a massive bubblegum pink dragon. It wasn’t just it’s height that was so incredible, thought- in fact, its width and bulk were far more notable. Simply stated, this dragon was extremely fat. Its legs looked stubby due to their width, especially of its hips. Even more impressive, though, was the beast's belly. Clad in alternating red and white scales, it made up a significant portion of the dragon’s width, as well as its overall bulk. Above it was a stained shirt made of a martial Sacchire didn’t recognize- possibly some sort of non-candy material, though such a thing was said to exist only on legends.

Finally Sacchire saw his target- the beast’s long, thick neck. He knew he could never puncture the beast's heart- not with its thick scales and odd protective chest growths contained within its shirt. But if he could puncture its neck in the right spot, perhaps he could end the creature in one fell swoop.

Slowly, carefully, he crossed the distance between himself and the beast. When he got to it, he pulled out a new set of gumdrops and made one final set of sticky climbers. Gently he stuck one of them to the creature’s midsection and began climbing. He could feel its gargantuan gut move slightly with every breath it took, rising and falling gently. He made a note of the timing of the creature’s breaths, only moving when it inhaled or exhaled to cover what little sound his armor made as he shifted.

He didn’t come this far to fail because he was too loud.

Finally he rounded the top of its gut, the slope evening out so that he could stand. Walking on the tips of his rounded legs, he made his way to its chest. Carefully he climbed its ‘protective chest growths’, noting the beast's candy necklace wedged between them. It was a Blood-Rock Candy- a trinket that directed the beast to candy villages, allowing it to raid them. After he slayed the monster he would take it back with him as a trophy to prove his success.

He stood in the space between the monster’s chest orbs and its neck. Looming above him was its hideous snout, nostrils flaring as it exhaled. Some of its horrible razor teeth were visible even when its mouth was closed.

'By my hand, your teeth will never bite into another candy person again!'

He reached to his backpack and drew his candy cane sword, taking it in both hands. Raising it over his head, he thrust forward with all his might, aiming between two of its bands of scales..

BOING

CLATTER

Sir Sacchire stood completely still, trying to figure out what had just happened. His sword was not lodged in the beast’s neck, nor was it in his hands. He watched he monster’s neck fat jiggle back and forth in bewilderment.

Suddenly it struck him- his sword had literally bounced off of the thing’s flabby neck and flown backwards, clattering onto the floor below. Just as she was about to turn around and try to catch sight of it, a rush of warm air blew past him.

Slowly he looked up, only to see a pair of magenta eyes glaring down at him.

“Oh.”

The creature’s mouth suddenly opened, its pink tongue snapping out and wrapping around him. He tried to reach for another weapon, but before he could draw one the tongue pulled him into its gaping maw, which snapped shut around him.

GULP

Cindy leaned her head back against the rock candy wall. She was impressed that a candy person had made it this far out, but it should have known better than to try to penetrate her thick scales… or body fat.

She stretched her thick limbs, then place her clawed hands on her belly and began to rub. It hadn’t fully digested her previous meal yet, but she could feel it was still fairly empty.

The dragon smiled. “Just empty enough for a nice village raid.”

----

New character time! Cindy is a dragon who found a mysterious amulet that warped her to some kind of candy continent. She wasted no time going to wok eating the place and terrorizing the local candy people.

Her design and backstory are heavily inspired by the public television show Dragon Tales, which I greatly enjoyed as a child.