"Let's play a game!"
The other animated objects just stared blankly at Snakey. All except for Candy Calculator who was randomly excited. "I love games!"
Gingerbread's head jerked upwards, staring wide eyed at the group around him. Everyone was looking expectantly at him, waiting for his response. He blinked rapidly several times, trying to clear away the cobwebs that had begun to appear from their recent absence. "I… uh... w..what game?"
Snakey explained, "As powerful as my magic is, I cannot change ALL of you back or take on Grandma Ruby all by myself. I can grant only one of you back your original form, as well as transfer my powers to you so that you can finally stop Ruby's cruel witchcraft once and for all. So... I must test you to see which of you is strongest and most worthy."
Gingerbread felt like a little kid getting asked to explain their dream. This whole situation felt like something out of one of those cartoons. There was so much more happening than a cartoon could even hope to comprehend. His heart began to race, and he started feeling really dizzy. Everything suddenly seemed to be getting darker, but Gingerbread was grateful for anything that kept him from passing out right on the spot. He asked, "Test how?"
Snakey stared down the group of objects, and Gingerbread's world once again grew fuzzy and dark.
When Gingerbread awoke, he and the others were deeper in the snowy woods. He found himself wearing a purple sash around his shoulder, and his new friends had sashes as well, some purple, and some in sky blue. Snakey faced the group, not wearing a sash, standing by a table with various bows and arrows on it. Hopefully he had an explanation for this. Before long, he cleared his throat and announced: "You may notice you have been separated into blue and purple. This is to encourage competition. Purple, your team is the "Goofy Grapes" and blue, you are..... "A Really Good Team Name". Your first challenge, is to shoot an arrow through a coconut up in the tree."
That's it?! Gingerbread was expecting trial by combat, or at least something else suitably climactic to crown a worthy champion. And what did he mean by "first" challenge? How many would there be? He quickly counted the purple sashes. His team mates turned out to be Periwinkle, Snail Hockey Game, Mr. Peacock, Grass Monster, Goofy Glove, Gray Bag and Pongee. A motley crew if ever there was one.
Both teams grabbed their bows and arrows, if they could that is, and attempted to aim them at the hanging coconut. Gingerbread realized that his Grapes weren't having much luck figuring out archery on such short notice, and with his lack of fingers, he wasn't going to have much luck either. Snail Hockey Game, despite her best efforts, was four-legged and her table legs couldn't manipulate the drawstrings. Eventually Goofy Glove and Thorny got the hang of it and started to rain arrows down on the poor coconut. A loud CHUNK rang out and the coconut fell to earth, the contestants all ran in a hurry to find out whose arrow it was and... the feather was blue. Thorny was precise on her target.
Gingerbread dreaded what would happen to the losing team. He braced himself to be turned back into an unmoving cookie but... Snakey wasn't looking at him. He stared off into space, as if addressing an audience that only he could see. He monologued, "Spirits, which member of Goofy Grapes do you think deserves to be eliminated the most? Speak to me! Cast your vote! Cast your judgement upon the weakest link!"