"Fat heavens!" Van man took an involuntary step back and almost slipped on his own puddle.
Lilo smirked, elated to see the shocked expressions on his earlier doubters.
"Please, Mr. Lilo, don't do anything stupid. We're extremely lucky to have conveniently met up with them and really need their help to take us back to the spire." Soda pleaded.
"Hey there. Fancy running into you... It was such a pleasant night last night, was it not?" Lilo teased.
A dejected palm met Soda's face.
"Wonka... did this kid just jump out of the forbidden temple?" Passenger girl's face grew pale.
Lilo was really feeling himself now, fully relishing and basking in the attention of the two strangers.
"Oh... that building right there?" Lilo scratched his head nonchalantly, "Forbidden temple? Really? You sure it's not like a napping temple or something? I slept so good last night, honestly might be my new go to napping spot."
Passenger girl picked up her jaw off the floor and rolled her eyes. Van man was still frozen in shock, failing to regain composure.
"Okay hot shot, how about you come back to the spire with us and tell us all about your favorite nap spot on the way." Passenger girl motioned to the white van.
"I guess if you insist." Lilo shrugged and gave Soda a wink. Soda sighed dejectedly, but a smile still grew on his face. They made it through the night alive and miraculously ran into the only people who would be around to save them from this desolate waste land so... who wouldn't be happy?
"Nuh uh, not quite yet." Van man stopped Lilo before he opened the van door.
"Are you... a craver?" Van man raised a brow. Lilo turned to look at Soda who was aggressively shaking his head no, to deter Lilo from admitting that he was a craver.
'So being a craver is... a bad thing?' Lilo sent a mental message to Soda.
Soda nodded enthusiastically and put a finger over his lips, prompting Lilo to keep that part of him a secret.
"C'mon Wonka, that kid survived a night in the temple, he can't be a craver. We just saw him yesterday, he hasn't turned yet." Passenger girl surprisingly defended Lilo but van man... or Wonka, seemed to still be unconvinced. "Besides, we have our vetting process once we get to the spire. I'm tired, we haven't slept in days. Let's take this kid back and call it a successful haul."
'Haul? Am I their loot or something?'
Soda shook his head.
"That isn't what you should be worried about... I totally forgot about the vetting stages they do at the spire... They'll find out you're a craver for sure... unless..." Soda pondered his options carefully.
Meanwhile, Lilo was being escorted into the van. The back of the white candy van had other passengers within it.
A boyish face with a friendly demeanor greeted Lilo as he sat in one of the messy leather seats. The boyish face guy seemed to be in his late teens and was wearing checkered pattern overalls with bright yellow rain boots.
The collage of colors matched the outside world, but the most bizarre part of him was his hair. It was braided in corn rows and dyed silver with gold sprinkles dusted all over it. His bronze skin glowed bright even within the dim van and his smile was contagious.
"Hi fresh meat, I'm Jawbreaker, a certified shepherd; people call me Jawbi though, it's less... prickly sounding." He outstretched his muscular arm out for Lilo to shake it.
Lilo thought he heard a crunch in his hand as Jawbi squeezed it. If he did break a bone, he didn't feel it, so he just smiled back and aggressively returned his best squeeze; which in his small frame only amounted to a brief mildly tight grip.
Behind them, sitting in the trunk portion of the van, was a little girl around the same age as Soda. She was concentrated on solving a contraption that resembled a rubrics cube, expect the colors and shapes slightly differed from earths fidgeting gadget.
Lilo turned around to face the girl and tilted his head in an attempt to study the contraption. He felt that if he tried to solve it, he could. He wasn't a wizard at rubrics cubes back in his world, but he was still capable of solving one. He used to be interested in puzzles early in his life.
"What are you looking at?" The girl furrowed her brows and her emerald eyes burned into his. She wore an oversized yellow rain jacket and scuffed pink tennis shoes with striped knee high socks.
Her features were oddly familiar... ah yes. She was very similar looking to the passenger princess. They only differed slightly with the little girl having a smaller nose and brown hair instead of blond.
"Don't mind my sister. She can be a brat sometimes." Passenger princess said as Wonka started up the vehicle and began driving towards their destination.
'And you aren't?' Lilo kept that comment to himself, but Soda heard it, and that was enough to satisfy Lilo.
"Oh, I guess we should exchange names. Here let me introduce everyone." Passenger girl kicked up her boots on the dash and leaned her chair back, taking up Lilo's leg room; although Lilo's legs were too short to really need much space.
"I already introduced myself." Jawbi said with a smile.
"No, I'll do a proper one." Passenger girl pointed at herself, "My name is Peppermint, but most people just call me Pepper. I am also a shepherd."
She pointed back at the trunk.
"That there is my sister Lemon, a herder with just a few years left until she becomes a certified shepherd like the rest of us."
Lemon gave Pepper a side eye but Pepper ignored her and continued.
"This is our driver and pack leader, Wonka. He's the brains behind all our gadgets and gear; as well as this extremely innovative transportation vehicle."
"It's just a white van." Lilo said, not impressed.
Soda slowly turned towards Lilo with an annoyed expression.
'What did I say something wrong?'
"Just a... what?" Pepper asked with complete sincerity. "This here is our fire ride clapper ten thousand. An unrivaled method of transportation that no man has ever invented. It works by being fueled by oil that gets injected into the engine which then combusts..."
As Pepper began explaining the basic mechanics of how a motor vehicle works, Lilo gave Soda a puzzled expression.
'You guys haven't invented cars here?'
"No Lilo, what the hell is a car?" Soda asked with absolute honesty. He truly did seem amazed by the van contraption, as if it was a new experience for him to ride or witness one.
'Wow, well then I guess this Wonka guy really is a genius in this world. Inventing a car is no joke... but it really had to be this creepy looking white van? Offering candy to kids is bad enough... wait.'
"Hey guys... why did you offer me candy? Isn't that thing deadly?"
Everyone in the car stopped and looked at Lilo who shrunk away under their gaze.
'Did I say something wrong again?'
"Hey kid... where are you from where you don't know what candy does?" Wonka asked inquisitively.
Soda again palmed his face.
"Well... I know its deadly because of its smell... it's... euphoric." Lilo said matter of factly.
"Indeed it does, that is a good thing to be aware of... however that is not entirely true. Each candy that we possess is insurmountably valuable."
"All of these carefully wrapped and crafted deathly treats has an incredible boon hidden beneath all the tantalizing flavors that cover it."
Lilo raised a skeptical brow.
"You see, they all come from the sacred tree that is at the heart of our kingdom: The devil fruit tree. With its cursed fruits, we pressed out the poison to synthetically create these sweet treats... and when consumed, it creates within us a powerful trait, in exchange for our souls."
"I'm sorry... that sounds like a horrible trade. No matter how significant these powers are, trading one's soul for something is like offering your life over." Lilo said with certainty.
"That would be true if it was that simple. You'll learn more of its quirks later but we're more curious about you than wanting to explain the obvious simple facts of our world. How do you not know this common knowledge? Has your memory been altered from scavenging in the outer rim for so long?"
Soda nodded enthusiastically, nudging Lilo to go with that story.
"Yeah... I don't really know which terrifying gluttonous creature I was fighting but on one of my glorious battles I must have gotten wounded to my head or something because I do seem to have trouble with my memory sometimes. Ha ha."
Awkward silence.
'I don't think they believed me Soda... what do I do?'
Soda's forehead was getting awfully read with the amount of facepalms he has done in this chapter, and this next one was by far the hardest facepalm.