Both Candlewick and Pinocchio relaxed as they continued their game of billiards in the Pleasure Island pool hall.
"Ha..." Candlewick sneered as he leaned against the pool table. "Hear that beetle talk, you'd think that something was going to happen to us."
Candlewick grabbed his mug and took a swig of his beer. As he gulped down his drink, unknownst to him his ears grew both furry and long and into that of a donkey's.
Pinocchio who sat in a curious wooden chair that had the face of a donkey carved into it, could hardly believe his eyes at the sight of Candlewick and looked down at his mug of beer with questions as to whether it was really happening or if it was the booze making him hallucinate.
"Conscience. Ah, phooey!" Candlewick said as he turned his attention back to his game, still unaware of his brand new donkey ears. As Candlewick leaned himself against the pool table and took his next shot, he was completely unaware of the brown donkey tail that sprouted out of his butt, which tore a hole through his pants.
Pinocchio once more looked on in shock, this time staring at the smoking cigar in his hand as a possible culprit behind what he was seeing.
"Where does he get that stuff?" Candlewick asked rhetorically as he strode over to the other side of the pool table and took his next shot. "How do ya ever expect to be a real boy?" Candlewick said, mocking Jiminy Cricket's words. "What's he think I look like..."
"A jackass," Candlewick exclaimed as he turned to face Pinocchio, completely unaware that his head and face were now that of a donkey's, complete with a tan muzzle and a mane of spiky black hair atop his head.
Whether he was hallucinating or not, Pinocchio couldn't contain himself any longer.
"You sure do!" he exclaimed in amusement as he sprung up from his seat laughing at Candlewick's new appearance. But Pinocchio's laughter was quickly cut short as it turned into the sound of a donkey braying.
Candlewick, now amused himself, strode over to Pinocchio with a big grin on his donkey face. "Hey. you laugh like a donkey! Ah ha, ha, ha -- HAW HEE!"
Candlewick froze in his tracks at the sound of himself now braying like a donkey too. He quickly covered his mouth and turned to Pinocchio with a look of worry in his usually cocky and confident eyes.
"Did... did that... come outta me?" he asked, hoping Pinocchio would say no. Pinocchio nodded his head up and down, confirming to his friend that he did in fact bray too. With this revelation, Candlewick raised his hand and felt his mouth, quickly discovering that he now had a muzzle instead of a normal human mouth.
"Oh," he let out softly as his eyes widened in alarm. He then felt the sides of his face with both of his hands and discovered that his face was now all furry like a animal. "Huh?" he exclaimed in response.
Finally Candlewick reached up and felt his ears, which were now long like a donkey's.
"What's going on?" Candlewick asked as he ran towards the mirror that sat next to the bar, desperate to see what was happening to him. When Candlewick stepped in front of the mirror, he became deeply frightened by the donkey's head and face that was now his own staring back at him. And with that very image of himself -- Candlewick screamed in terror at what was happening to him!
"I've been double-crossed!" Candlewick yelled as he franticly ran around the room. "Help! Help! Somebody help! I've been framed!"
Pinocchio could only watch on in fear, completely powerless to help his friend undergo a frightening transformation. Candlewick ran straight out the doors of the Pool Hall and out into the streets of the island amusement park.
"Help! Somebody please HELP!" he shouted.
Candlewick suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and saw that the park seemed to be completely abandoned.
The lights of the Park were all out. The Rides were completely motionless. Trash littered the streets. And most shocking of all -- there was NO ONE in sight.
"Impossible!" Candlewick exclaimed. "There had to be over a hundred or more other kids here! Where'd they all go?"
Candlewick then turned and ran back to the Pool Hall, which was the only source of light outside of the moon. Candlewick hoped that maybe Pinocchio could help him.
Candlewick rushed into the Pool Hall and fell on his knees in front of Pinocchio.
"Pinocchio, please, you've gotta help me!" he begged. "Be a pal! Call that beetle! Call anybody!"
As Candlewick moved to touch his Friend, he suddenly let out a cry of pain as he felt his hands forcefully clench into fists and quickly transform into the hooves of a donkey.
Candlewick rose to his feet as he felt his body transforming, growing furrier by the second.
"Mama!" Candlewick cried. "MAMA!"
Candlewick was then forced to the floor on all fours! He screamed as he fully transformed into a donkey and his screams soon became the frantic and panicked brays of a very scared donkey.
"HAW HEE HAW HEE HAW!!" he brayed in terror.
Candlewick ran back to the pool hall mirror and saw the little brown donkey he had fully become. His mind now completely unhinged in terror, Candlewick kicked the mirror with his hooves, shattering it into pieces that scattered around the room.
Candlewick then ran around the room in a panic, kicking chairs and toppling tables, causing beer mugs -- playing cards -- and poker chips to fall to the floor in a mess.
As he kicked and kicked, Candlewick's bowler hat and clothes came off of him and soon he was just a bare donkey that no longer had a need for clothes.
With one last glance at his friend Pinocchio, who was starting to transform into a donkey as well, Candlewick once more fled the pool hall. He ran out into the streets as fast as his hooves could carry him, braying wildly in the night air.
He ran to the park entrance, where the large wooden gate doors that led to the Pleasure Island ferry was. When he got there he was in disbelief.
The doors to the ferry were completely shut and barred to prevent any escape!
Frightened but undeterred, Candlewick ran up to the gate and got up on his rear legs. He then pawed and pounded on the doors with his hooves, desperately trying to get someone's attention.
Tears streamed down Candlewick’s face as he pawed, pounded and franticly brayed: "HAW HEE HAW!! HEE HAW!!"
After several minutes of this and still no response, Candlewick fell back on all fours, now all tired out. Suddenly there was a sound behind him and Candlewick, expecting that it was Pinocchio, whirled around to face him.
Instead what he saw was not his friend but the looming shadow of a dark ape like figure that was reaching out to grab him.
Candlewick screamed!
Pinocchio cowered from behind a chair in the corner of the Pool Hall, transfixed in terror by his friend Candlewick's shocking transformation into a donkey, who had run off in terror.
Would he be next, Pinocchio asked himself?
As if to answer him, his ears quickly grew long and furry until they were that of a donkey's. Pinocchio instantly felt them and grabbed them with his hands.
"Oh! What’s happened?" he exclaimed worriedly. "What'll I do?"
Next the black tasseled tail of a donkey sprouted out of Pinocchio's butt and ripped out of the back of his trousers.
"Oh no! I'm turning into a donkey just like Candlewick!" Pinocchio thought. Then came a voice that Pinocchio recognized:
"PINOCCHIO!"
It was Jiminy Cricket, who had just come rushing into the door. He looked quite worried.
"Jiminy! Oh Jiminy help!" Pinocchio spoke frantically.
"Pinoke, the kids, all boys and girls, they’re all donkeys!" Jiminy tried to explain to the frightened puppet.
Then Jiminy saw that Pinocchio too was slowly coming under the Island's Curse and transforming into a donkey.
"Oh, you too!" Jiminy remarked at the sight of Pinocchio's donkey ears and tail. "Well, I'm not just gonna sit here and let you turn into one those unfortunate creatures like those other poor little kids, Pinoke. Not on my watch! Come on, quick! Before you get any worse."
And with that Pinocchio took off out of the Pool Hall in a hurry with Jiminy leading the way. They ran out into the empty streets of the island sized amusement park and bolted into the opposite direction of the island's large wooden gates.
"Why are we running this way, Jiminy?" Pinocchio asked in a huff. "The entrance and the ferry that took us here are back there!"
"You don't want to go back there, Pinoke" Jiminy replied as he continued to lead the way. "The gates are barred and behind them are where the other kids are! They're being processed and loaded up into crates that have been presold to salt mines, farms and circuses."
"Then we have to help them, Jiminy" Pinocchio exclaimed. "We can't just leave them behind!" Jiminy shook his head sadly.
"Pinoke, there's nothing we can do for them right now" he said. "Believe me, I don't want to leave them to the horrible fate that they are bound for, but if you get caught we won't be able to get help for them."
Pinocchio bowed his head for a moment before gently nodding it in agreement. Jiminy was right, they couldn't do anything right now. But maybe when they were safely off Pleasure Island, they could get help.
So they ran and ran through the seemingly endless park. They ran past "Tobacco Row". They ran past the large series of circus tents that were "Windup Way". And they eventually ran out the back gate of the park and into the candy forest.
After they had ran past the row of edible but habitable gingerbread houses, Pinocchio and Jiminy stopped to take a quick break and catch their breath. But there break was short lived.
"What's that?" Jiminy said in a hushed whisper. "Sounds like footsteps. A lot of them!"
"Do you think it's Candlewick or some of the other children -- err, donkeys?" Pinocchio asked.
"No. Candlewick rushed off towards the gate last I saw of him," Jiminy replied. "It sounds like something other than the hooves of a donkey that seems to be following us." Jiminy looked behind him and saw off into the distance shadowy apelike figures moving slowly towards them.
It looked like the Coachman's minions!
"Come on, Pinoke!" Jiminy shouted. "They must be on to us. Let's go!"
And with that, they both took off once more. They ran and followed the flowing chocolate stream until they had come to a large section of rocky cliffs that seemed to wall off the rest of the Island. The cliffs looked very precarious to climb, but they had no choice but to scale them and risk being captured.
Jiminy hopped onto Pinocchio and Pinocchio began to climb the cliffs as Jiminy cheered and urged him on to hopefully freedom.
Eventually the pair had reached the top of the cliffs and now were overlooking a long drop into the watery coast of the island. As Pinocchio hesitated at the long dive that was ahead of him, Jiminy turned back towards the base of the cliffs and saw several of the Coachman's Minions coming closer towards them, albeit unaware of where they were exactly.
"Hurry up… before they see us! You gotta jump!" Jiminy said, trying to empower his friend with a blast of courage.
Pinocchio took Jiminy and cradled him in his hands gently, but firmly so that he would be safe in his grasp. He then took a deep breath and walked off the cliff's edge, diving into the water below for what he and Jiminy both hoped was freedom from Pleasure Island and the evil of the Coachman.