Appointed as the Guardian Candy Beast of the Soda Wetlands by the Royal Family, Pierre the Cherrymaid have devoted his entire life to keep the land in peace and prevent any unwanted trespassers coming into the Kingdom.
Pierre has lived in his territory for hundreds of years, making sure to fulfill his duty as the guardian. Though one day, a female traveller from another kingdom made it to the Soda Wetlands, encountering the guardian.
Although it was his duty to eliminate any trespassers, this certain traveller have caught his eyes. They fell in love with each other and spent several decades together, until his wife wanted to take a stroll one day and disappeared without a trace.
"...and it's already been like a few years since I saw her. I wonder why she still haven't come back to me." Pierre finished his story, leaving Marsh and Choco conflicted.
"Uhh, can you give us a moment, Pierre?" Marsh requested, grinning with unease.
When Pierre nodded, the two stepped away from the Cherrymaid to discuss a few concerning matters about his story. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Choco asked in a whispering tone.
"Yeah, I think his wife never came back because she's already dead. There's possibly no other explanation for that, unless she's immortal like him." Marsh concluded.
"What!?—Well, I think that makes more sense. But I was actually more surprised to find out that the Cherrymaid's a dude—I mean, look at him! He's more beautiful than the noble ladies in the kingdom."
"...and how does he know about the purple orb?" Marsh added, his suspicions of the Cherrymaid grows bigger. "Anyway, we need to get that purple orb back."
"How? If we do it by force, I think he'll kill us in a heartbeat." Choco glanced at Pierre who was chilling behind them.
"I doubt we'll ever find his wife, and even if we do, maybe he'd just get upset to find her remains and kill us anyway."
"Should we just tell him about his wife?"
"No!" Marsh pressed, "Absolutely not." He even made an X sign with his arms.
"Then what do you propose we do?"
"..." Marsh looks over to Pierre and sighed, he ends his discussion with Choco and made a few conditions with the Cherrymaid. "Fine, we'll help you search for your wife."
"Marsh!?" Choco was caught surprise by his sudden move, he doesn't have any idea what's going on in Marsh's mind.
"But in exchange, we need you to promise that you'll return the orb and that you won't hurt us after this..." Marsh conditioned, staring directly at Pierre's eyes. "No matter what we end up finding."
For a moment, Choco was impressed by Marsh's bravery for coming up with that brilliant idea. And with little hesitance, Pierre ended up agreeing to his conditions. "Sure, you have my word."
"Cool!" Choco uttered, giving Marsh a pat on the back. "So how do we go on about finding Pierre's wife?"
The question had the two staring at the grinning Cherrymaid. They ended up dragging the huge beast with them, heading to a directionless path towards Pierre's missing wife.
"How are you sure we're going the right way?... ugh! You're so heavy man!" Choco complained as they carry Pierre on their backs.
"Hmm, I don't know but I can feel that this might be the right direction." Pierre shrugged, "I'm sure this orb here is helping me realize the way that leads to her."
"Does it really works that way?" Marsh asked curiously.
"Yeah, don't you know this orb is a gift from the Deity of this Kingdom? It's something passed down to every royalty that sits on the throne so that it can guide them to have the kingdom prosper." Pierre explained, further making Marsh curious. "...you sure know a lot, huh."
"Well, I've already existed before the creation of the Sweet Kingdom. It's only natural I know about these little things." Pierre said, mesmerized by the orb on his fingers. "But my knowledge of this kingdom's history was only up to the first king until they bound me to guard Soda Wetlands." He heavily sighs.
"The rest of my days in this damn place was nothing interesting. I can honestly die of boredom now. There were barely any people I can talk to, though I had the duty to kill anyone that's a threat to the kingdom."
"What about the ant-tribe war?" Marsh wondered.
"Ants!?—oh, those guys. I couldn't stop them even if I want to. There's way too many of them, and they don't even taste good." Pierre mentions, "So I spent a few years into hiding until they were annihilated by the army of the kingdom."
"Psh, coward." Choco muttered under his breath and Pierre still managed to hear it, "Hey! I know I'm somewhat immortal, but I can still die and cease to exist, you know?"
"Isn't that kind of sad though? Living forever... I can't imagine to exist for such a long time." Marsh remarked.
"Yeah, it sucks especially when you're stuck doing a boring job, but living forever isn't so bad. If I never chose to live this way, then I'd never meet the love of my life." Then Pierre smiled as he recalls the image of his wife in the back of his mind. "Ahh, I can't wait to reunite with her." He said lovingly.
Choco and Marsh glanced at each other with a frown, knowing that Pierre might soon get disappointed or upset with their search.
Later on, they all decided to take a quick rest after travelling and dragging such a heavy beast for hours. The sun was already settling down, painting the sky with the warm orange hue along with the stars preparing to twinkle for the night.
"What a day!" Choco exclaimed, dropping to the ground feeling exhausted. Marsh lays down near him and groaned, "My body feels sore. I don't think I can still make it to tomorrow."
After Pierre dived into the nearest pond, he tried convincing the boys, "Don't give up just yet! We're not stopping until we find my wife."
"Easy for you to say... carrying you is like trying to lift five huge logs of candy cane trees." Choco remarked, making Pierre a little annoyed by his insults, "Hmph. Maybe you're just not strong enough."
"Then you should've grew legs instead of a fin tail!" Choco retaliated.
"Why you!—" Pierre looks at Choco from top to bottom and smirked, "—at least I don't look like misshapen puff ball."
This made Marsh laugh, offending Choco. "No way, you're taking his side again! Traitor!" Choco said, hitting Marsh by the arm.
"Pffft, I'm not taking sides dude. You're hair does make you look like a misshapen puff ball."
"Hah! Even your buddy gets it." Pierre and Marsh laughs together.
Even though Choco was being laughed at, seeing Marsh laugh heartily made him smile. "Oh whatever..." he laughs along.
That night, the three settled on that very spot and slept like logs. While Pierre was resting his head and arms on land while the rest of his body was floating on the pond, something wrapped his head and covered his mouth, kidnapping him along with his friends.
"Mmmp! Mmm!?"
"MMMPP!"
Neither of them got to fight back when they were captured in their sleep by some people. With their vision and mouth covered, it was impossible to talk to each other and grasp the situation.