"I can hardly believe my eyes!"
"Me neither. Do you think it's dangerous?"
"How should I know? I've never seen anything like this in my entire life."
"It's coming this way. Maybe we should go back inside before it reaches us."
"Ellen, I hope you're joking. We are NOT going back inside until we find out what happens next!"
"But I don't want to know what happens next. I'm out of here!"
"Are you a chicken or what? Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk!"
"Yeah, I guess I am. I'm out of here!"
Ellen turned around and ran back inside. Left standing outside in Vårväderstorget were the four friends Minerva, Daniella, Anthony, and Hannes, staring at the unusually thick fog that had begun rolling in over Vårväderstorget and the entire Biskopsgården area. It was a lavender-colored fog that shimmered and sparkled like a lavender diamond, and it smelled like a mix of cotton candy and candied apples. The entire fog looked like one giant piece of candy, a huge cloud of cotton candy slowly devouring all the buildings surrounding Vårväderstorget. It was truly a very, very, very strange sight.
When the pastel-colored fog had settled, the four friends could no longer see each other. All they could see of one another were their shadowy silhouettes, slowly moving back and forth. At the same moment the fog settled over the neighborhood, the ground began to shake. The earth trembled and roared as if a massive earthquake had just hit Vårväderstorget.
"W-w-w-what is happening?" Minerva stammered.
"I don't know, but I really hope it's not…" Anthony began, but he was interrupted by a sight that made him and his three best friends drop their jaws in shock.
Up from the ground, a bunch of trees started to rise. Tall trees, but not with pinecones, apples, cherries, or elderflowers. These trees were filled with candy—yes, candies like peppermint sticks, jelly hearts, chocolate wafers, licorice ropes, and gummy bears! More and more trees emerged from the asphalt. Some were as tall as palm trees, while others were no bigger than flower bouquets. As the four friends Minerva, Daniella, Anthony, and Hannes caught sight of all the candy trees, their mouths instantly began to water.
"I…I…I can hardly believe my eyes," Anthony stammered again.
"Look at all the candy trees!" Daniella said excitedly. "COME ON, LET'S EAT!"
Daniella was just about to run over to one of the candy trees when Minerva grabbed her long, curly hair to stop her.
"Chill, Gunilla! How can we be sure that all this candy growing from the trees isn't poisonous? I think we should…"
Minerva never got to finish her sentence because, in the next second, her three best friends rushed toward the candy trees and started feasting on the sweets. Hannes devoured seven licorice ropes in one bite, Anthony stuffed five packs of chocolate wafers into his mouth, and Daniella, the greediest of them all, swallowed ten peppermint sticks in one go before gulping down eleven jelly hearts at once. The kids ate, and ate, and ate. The only one who didn't eat was Minerva.
"It's insanely unnatural for a mysterious fog to suddenly make candy trees grow from the ground," she thought to herself. "I'm not eating any of that candy. This seems way too good to be true—candy trees just popping up in the middle of Biskopsgården. Something tells me that eating that candy is a VERY bad idea."
Minerva's suspicion turned out to be right. All of a sudden, her three best friends began quacking like geese, and within seconds, she saw white goose feathers and long goose feet sprouting from Anthony's, Hannes's, and Daniella's lower bodies. Five seconds later, Anthony, Hannes, and Daniella had fully transformed into three white geese. Three white geese still dressed in human children's clothes. Minerva was so stunned that she could only stand there, gaping, while her three former human friends ran around Vårväderstorget, quacking like geese.
Minerva had no idea what to do or say. She just stood there, staring in shock for a long while. Finally, she sighed and shook her head.
"I tried to warn them, but no one ever listens to me," she thought as she watched the three geese take off and fly into the sky. "I really wish there were people who would listen to me, but it feels like that will never happen…ever."