"...and after mum and I settled down here in Peppermint Hills, she beated the guardian candy beast of this land and turned its fur into this cozy coat that I'm wearing right now. It's pretty cool, right?" Antabitha waved sleeves of her coat, showing it off.
However, her huge revelation of the past had Marsh and Choco in total shock. "So that explains why they call Princess Crystal Sugar Cube the worst royal to ever exist without a reason." Marsh uttered.
"And they never taught about the details how the Sweet Kingdom won against the ant-tribe war!" Choco said, shaking his head in disappointment. "Ugh, nobles tamper with history as they please."
"Aren't you a noble yourself?" Antabitha questioned.
"Nuh-uh! Not anymore," He denied, "That was a nice story and all, but that doesn't explain why you have that skelegums under your bed."
"Oh! Right, right. I forgot to mention, those skelegums belonged to my mum. She died in that bed you were sleeping in, I never really know what to do with her body when she died, so I let her be until she turned into those skelegums." She explained, "I actually just cleared out the bed when I brought the of you home."
"You're kidding."
Antabitha remained smiling, not denying a word she said.
"Y-You mean... I've been sleeping o-on someone's death bed this whole time!?" Choco got on his knees, not knowing how to process all that information.
"Yup!"
"Arghhh!!" Choco had goosebumps all over, he don't know what he exactly feels at the moment; is he grossed, disturbed, or angry? He'll never know.
While Choco sat down hugging his knees, Marsh felt that he was fortunate that he wasn't chosen to sleep on that bed. That aside, Marsh was baffled to learn how Antabitha's mother died. "Did you mention that she died of... crumbling?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah..." Antabitha sighed, her eyes shifts to the ground with her lips pursed, "...it was horrible." She uttered.
Marsh was very eager to learn about the crumbling, but it appears Antabitha was uncomfortable talking about it with all the unpleasant memories she had with her mother dying of this sickness, "I see... I'm sorry about your loss." He said.
"...I'm glad you guys stayed and listen, but I understand if you want to leave." She approached both Marsh and Choco, placing her hands on their shoulders. "I'd still like to thank you guys for keeping me company, even for a short while. And Marsh, I want you to have this..."
Antabitha used her second right arm to fetch something in the pockets of her coat, and the two were amused to see this. "It also has pockets!?" Choco exclaimed.
"Here you go." She gave Marsh the book he was interested in.
Marsh's jaw dropped, "N-No way, are you for real!?"
"Yuh-huh. I think you'll need it more than I do, kiddo. I'm sure this will help you guys in your travels."
"Choco!" Marsh turned to Choco, showing off his ownership of the book.
Choco rolled his eyes, "Ugh, a true bookworm you are."
"Thank you, Tabby. I'll treasure this book forever." Marsh said, hugging the book. Choco finally got up and said a few words to Antabitha as well, "Hng, I can't believe I'm about to say this but I guess I owe you an apology for treating you badly... and thanks for taking care of me too. You're not so bad... for an ant." Then a corner of his lips curved up.
Antabitha chuckled and ruffled his hair, "You're not so bad yourself, for a noble." She was pleased to see him have a change of heart.
"Well then," Choco pulled Marsh by the collar of his jacket, he was already deeply immersed reading the book on his hand, "I'll be taking this nerd with me now. Adieu, Tabitha, we'll never forget your kindness and that horrifying appearance of yours."
"It's actually Anta—" Choco turns his back and dragged Marsh along, "—oh, okay, you two must be in a hurry. Bye guys, safe travels!" Antabitha waved all her four arms goodbye.
And so, the duo continues to march forward on their journey. While Choco was deep in thought about Antabitha's words, he decided to ask Marsh for his opinion. "Dude, do you think she was telling us the truth?"
Without looking up from his reading, Marsh replied, "I'm not so sure about her story's legitimacy, and historians vaguely documented the aftermath of the ant-tribe war."
"So, you don't believe her?"
"Let's just say I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt." Marsh stated, flipping to the next page of his book.
"You've really taken a liking to that ant, didn't you?" Choco frowned, crossing his arm. "Considering you chose her over me." He murmured.
"For goodness sake, get over it." Marsh groaned. "If I chose you, I'd never get the chance to keep this book."
"You and your love for books." Choco remarked. "I won't be surprised if I ever see you making out with that book one day."
Marsh rolled his eyes, then as he found an interesting paragraph in the book, he think he can impress Choco with that information. "Alright, hear this! There's a certain place in the Veggie Empire that can grant a person anything they wish for. I bet you wouldn't know that if we didn't have this book."
"Learning about those places doesn't mean that much if you don't even know how to get there." Choco shrugged.
But Marsh had something up his sleeves, "I know you might say that, but I have something..." he grinned and confidently slid his hand into his pockets, but he suddenly got all rigid as he kept searching. "No, no, no! I must've left it at Tabby's house!!"
"What are you talking about? Did you lose something?" Choco tilts his head in wonder.
"The thing! The purple shiny thing!—the very thing that can lead us to our desired destinations!! We have to go back, Choco. We need that thing!"
Realizing the object Marsh was referring to, Choco smirked and pulled out the purple orb out of his pocket, "You mean this thing?"
Marsh eyes widened, "The orb! How did you get this!?" He quickly took it off from Choco's hands.
"I saw it on the couch... and took it. I have an eye for pretty shiny things." Choco confessed.
Marsh puts the orb back into his pockets, "It must have slipped out my pocket when I was laying down on that couch. Whew, thank goodness you found it."
"Is that thing really important? Its just some shiny ball."
"Dude, it's the orb Princess Crystal gave to Tuff Jawbreaker in Tabby's story! The very thing that grants the owner its deepest desire, it's not just some ball." Marsh pressed, squinting his eyes at Choco.
"Right, are we gonna ignore the fact that the warrior threw it away at the giant spider beast in the Rainbow Taffy Grounds? It's basically useless!"
"Don't you underestimate its power! Tuff desired to escape from her pursuers, and since she had this orb all along, she got to escape and live."
Choco rolled his eyes, he finds it annoying how Marsh believes in tales and legends, but he was curious how Marsh obtained the orb. "Fine, maybe it is a powerful item, but how did you got your hands on such thing!? And how come you never told me about it!?" He asked, leaning closer to Marsh.
Marsh flinched and stepped back from him, "I got it from the Arachnotoffee, okay!? I was going to tell you about it, but I almost forgot about it when you got sick and I had to take care of you."
"Hmm, sure..." Choco remained skeptical, suspecting that Marsh had ulterior motives for the orb, but the biting cold of Peppermint Hills soon caught his attention. He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering as his breath formed frosty clouds in the air.
When Marsh noticed Choco struggling with the cold, he slid his left arm out the sleeve of his jacket. "Come on dude, this jacket's pretty big." He offered, inviting Choco to occupy the left side of his jacket.
Without a second thought, Choco gladly filled the left sleeve of the jacket and they placed their unsleeved arms on each other's shoulders. This had them giggling, "Hah, this feels nice." Choco commented.
"Ohh, it actually feels warmer this way." Marsh grinned, and their journey continues as they will soon reach their next destination, Pop Rock Desert.