You shake yourself back to reality, of sorts. The important thing is to find your date and get the hell out of Candyland. You increase your speed along the path, but the icing is slippery, and more than one slide leaves your clothes coated in the buttered goo. You’re doing pretty well until you come to the tree itself, but the combination of underground roots and slick icing causes you to slip, and the fact that you’re at the top of a pretty steep hill is really all fate needs to send you careening right into the gaping mouth of a cave. The chocolate mountainside absorbs some of the impact, but it’s truly quite an entrance, as you find yourself smack in the middle of the largest den of Gummy Bears you’d ever seen. There are five that you can see, and there may well be more, but, as they’re the size of traditional bears, you don’t waste time with a head count before you start backing out of the cave. “WHO ARE YOU?!?!” Growled the largest, a transparent-orange nightmare with gummy claws and teeth. “Are you a spy sent from King Kandy?” “I assure you, I am no imperial spy,” you say, truthfully. ‘Cause fuck the monarchy, even in Candyland, we don’t pay homage to that spit. “I’m just incredibly lost, and I seem to have misplaced my date. Have you seen anyone else come through here by chance?” "Oh, a date!" crooned the purple one. "We haven't seen anyone come through here, lover!" "Thank you," you say, "can you direct me to the Rainbow Path? I'm completely turned around. Lovely place you have here," you say, licking a bit of the chocolate from your arm. It's the richest, creamiest, most flavorful chocolate, and for a moment, you're tempted to pull up a lovely mound of gummy and snuggle up for the winter against the deeply delicious wall. "Rainbow Shortcut is that way," gestures the Orange. "But, we're planning an assault on the castle, and we could use someone like you to divert the guards, our gummy translucency gives us away. How about a trade? We'll find your date and restore your night if you take half-an-hour to incite a coup with us against the tyrannical overlord, King Kandy! How 'bout it?!" "Well..." you think...