It was a calm morning on the prairie. Bite-Size and Mina sang Home on the Prairie together, as they arrived for lunch.
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
With so many creatures with interesting features
We can go adventuring all day
"We're home!" Mina called.
"Hey, kids. Lunch is almost ready," Jimmy said.
"Okay. Let me just turn back to normal, and then I'll start…" Bite-Size gasped, as he felt around his neck. He looked down and saw that his necklace disappeared. "Oh, no!"
"What's up, Bites?" Koki asked.
"My necklace! It's gone!"
"WHAT?" The crew asked.
"Uh… if your necklace's gone, how come you're still a human?" Martin asked.
"It's a modification Aphrodite made on it, remember? I can become human or bat by asking mentally. But only as long as I'm using my necklace."
"Are you saying you're… stuck in your human form?" Chris asked.
"Yup."
"Don't worry, Bites. We'll help you find it," Mina said.
"I know! Let's do as we did in the time we met Little Howler. Review all your day since the start, and maybe you'll know where to search for your necklace," Aviva suggested.
"Okay. Well, Bites and I went to see some of the cute prairie creatures after we had breakfast before anyone else…" Mina started.
"I remember we left early just like my brothers. As Chris always says, "The early bird gets the worm."
"Oh, home on the prairie
Where the deer and antelope play..." Bite-Size sang.
"Wow, you woke up singing great," Mina said.
"Thanks. I'm just really excited," the bat-turn-human said cheerfully. "I've never seen a prairie before."
"It's beautiful… plus, it's where my family lived some really cool adventures."
"Well, you two sure rushed out in a rush," MATI commented through their Creaturepods. The A.I. let out a bit of a yawn.
"I guess this time, we're the early birds," Mina chuckled. "Are my brothers still sleeping?"
"What can I say? They're early birds when they want to." The kids chuckled at that.
"True..."
"So who exactly are you checking out? I mean, for a small habitat, there's a lot of variable creatures out there."
"We're gonna check on ALL the creatures the crew saw in the prairie adventures," Bite-Size said.
"So I guess we'll be out all morning," Mina said.
"Well, then you better get back for lunch. You know how your bros get worried when you're not nearby."
"I left a note for them. Don't worry," Mina guaranteed. The two heard something like a "bawk" or something nearby. "Speaking of creatures, I think one is nearby. We'll see ya later, MATI."
"Good luck. Zap out." The program's image disappeared.
"Where did it come from?" Mina looked around, with her ears alert. Bites made his bat ears appear, so he could hear better.
"Over there in the tall grass." The two approached slowly and pulled the grass apart so they could see.
"A prairie chicken!" they both quietly said in amazement.
"Awww… he's cute!" Mina said. "And he sure can dance," she observed.
"I feel like dancing too. Come on, toots!" Bite-Size invited Mina.
Soon they were chuckling and dancing with the prairie chicken.
"Look, female prairie chickens, I guess," Bites pointed out.
"Yup. They're females. The males are more colorful than them. It's so amazing how each bird has a special dance to attract mates. Just like the birds of paradise from the Birds of a Feather adventure." Mina had picked up the Wild Kratts Diary, and opened rightfully on the chapter.
"Viva does look good as a parotia lawesii," Bites complimented.
"Uh-oh. Incoming!" Mina pointed out. "DUCK!" The two kids immediatly hid in the grass with the chickens. There, trying to get some food, was a prairie falcon.
"That's no duck! It's a prairie falcon!" Bite-Size exclaimed.
"Hey… Maybe it fell when we ducked to escape the falcon," Mina suggested.
"Worth to take a look," Bite-Size said. Immediately, the team followed the kids.
They searched around the tale grass for a while, but nothing was found there, besides prairie chickens and flowers.
"Nothing..." Bite-Size sighed.
"Okay… what did you guys next?" Koki asked.
"Hmm… well..."
"We decided to follow that prairie falcon, and see where he could possibly take us."
"Wait up, Thor!" Bite-Size called.
"Thor? Like in the Norwegian mythology thunder god?" Mina asked.
"Yeah, why not? Sounds fitting enough for someone with such a fast and powerful attack."
"Agreed."
The two followed the falcon for a long time, until it flew away. They stopped for a moment to take some breath. Mina suddenly started giggling. Bite-Size stared at her in confusion. They looked down and saw a small, black-footed ferret sniffing her leg.
"Hey… I know you! You're Bandito, aren't you?"
"Yeah, how did you know my name?" the ferret asked.
"Let's just say my big brother once crashed by your home. I'm Mina, and this is Bite-Size."
"Hey."
"Howdy, partners. Tell me, is the falcon gone?"
"You mean Thor? Yeah, pretty gone if you ask me," the bat-turn-human said.
"Uh-oh..." Mina looked up to see… a stampede of bison! Comnig to them!
Mina and Bite-Size shrieked in panic. "Uh oh! Great meeting you two! But I gotta get start diggin'!" Bandito dove back to the ground.
"Yikes!" Bite-Size gasped, calling for his bat wings, to get Mina away from that part of the prairie.
"Phew. That was close," he said.
"You said it," Mina said. "Now I know how my brothers felt in the Where The Bison Roam adventure." As they landed, she observed the bison stampede with her binoculars.
"And it sure doesn't seem easy to lead with these guys," Mina said. "They're really strong and fast."
"Not as fast as that guy!" Bite-Size pointed out. There was Pacer, the pronghorn.
"Wow…"
The crew reached the exact place from where Bite-Size saw Bandito, then flew away. But there were no necklaces there as well.
"Are you sure you haven't seen anything like this?" Bite-Size asked, showing Bandito a drawing of his necklace.
"No, sorry, guys," Bandito said.
"Aw, bummer..." the bat-turn-into-human sighed.
"Next, we decided to see where Pacer could possibly take us. We had no idea of how far we were going," Mina remembered a little more.
"Pacer surely was fast, and we were both getting exhausted from playing tag with him."
"Okay… time-out… time-out..." Bite-Size fell on the floor, panting.
"Wow, this pronghorn can run. No wonder he won the competition in The Amazing Creature Race adventure."
"And no wonder Nolan was so excited about pronghorns."
"Well, according to my brothers, they are the best running creatures in the world," Mina pointed out in the Diary. "Wow… not even a cheetah can win against this guy."
"Man, the creature world has lots of info," Bites said.
Suddenly, they heard a howl.
"Coyote!" Mina pointed out. "AKA prairie wolf!" A tan furred coyote came up to them and gave Mina a sniff. "And not just any coyote. It's Tracker! Right?"
"Indeed, toots," the coyote confirmed. "You smell familiar. How do you know..."
"My brother Martin gave you that name," Mina explained.
"You mean the human and his friends that followed me everywhere in the prairie? Not to be mean, but a coyote needs his space."
"Yup, it's them all right. They got lost in the prairie, trying to find each other and the Tortuga after a twister."
"Yeah, twisters are surely a problem 'round these parts."
"What's a twister?" Bite-Size asked. "Is it worse than a thunderstorm?
"Oh, WAY worse, boy. Not that we get a lot of thunderstorms on the prairie. But once we have one… run for your life." Bites gulped at that.
"A twister, in the technical way, is a violently rotating column of air," Mina read in the diary. "For me, it's a thing from the Anemoi, the wind gods. There is one god for each cardeal direction: Boreas, the north wind god, Zephyrus, the west wind god, Eurus, the east wind god and the south wind god Notus."
"Oh... ever saw one of them?"
"No, unfortunately," Mina sighed. "Looks like they're invisible... most of the time."
"Well... I gotta go. I'm starving," the coyote said.
"Okay. It was nice meeting you, Tracker," Bite-Size said.
'Same here, folks. Toodaloo!" Tracker left to search for food.
"He's cool," Bite-Size said.
"Totally."
"... Nothing here too," Bite-Size sighed. He squeaked in sadness.
"Don't worry Bites, we'll find it," Koki assured him.
Suddenly, they heard a yip sound. "What was that?" MATI asked.
"Hey! That's where we went next! The prairie dog town!" Bite-Size remembered.
"We arrived there, and saw many of them sniffing around, minding their own business."
"Aww..." Mina said. "How adorable!"
"I heard Koki got a little cuckoo after spending some time with them."
"Hey, you can't blame me! How could I have known when they wouldn't stop hollering?" Koki complained, interrupting Bite-Size.
"Geez, Koki. Bites is right. All they did was yip around, and you got all cuckoo," Martin joked. Koki grunted.
"I didn't know where to go that time. Probably you did the same I did, kids."
"Actually..."
The prairie dogs yipped. The two kids giggled.
""Yip" to you too!" Mina said, starting to yip and hop around, joining them.
"Hey, wait for me!" Bite-Size thought it would be fun to imitate the prairie dogs. The two yipped and hopped around, laughing at some points, until they bumped into each other. They laughed once they fell, and started observing the sky.
"Wow... how calm and beautiful this place is..."
"Surely is. Wait, what time is it?" Bite-Size asked.
"It must be already lunch time. I think we should head back to the Tortuga."
"Okay." The two immediatly stood up, and started returning to the Tortuga, seeing they've only been running around it, despite the distance.
"Not so far from there," Bite-Size said. "Hey, one more time. One... two... three..."
"After that, we were singing our way back home."
"And the rest is what we've been through," Bite-Size finished.
"At least you knew how to take the yips as fun," Koki admitted. "Maybe it wasn't fun for me that day, 'cause I was worried."
"We understand, Koki," Bite-Size said. "I only hope it's here. It's the last place we've been."
"But this town stretches for miles," MATI pointed out. "How are we going to find it in there?"
"Well, there was a prairie dog pup that was following us while we were yipping around, wasn't there?" Mina asked Bites.
Mina and Bites yipped around with the prairie dogs. The nymph turned around to see a prairie dog pup following them.
"Oh, hello," Mina greeted while still hopping.
"Yeah... Skip followed us until we bumped into each other," Bite-Size chuckled.
"You think it probably fell in a prairie dog tunnel?" Aviva asked. "Or maybe the pup took it with him down the holes?"
"But do prairie dogs pick up things like that?" Bite-Size asked.
"Well, like all baby mammals, prairie dog pups are curious," Martin explained. "They have to be taught what to eat, what to avoid and how to survive."
"Waaa!" they heard a cry from somewhere.
"Hey, are you guys hearing that?" Bite-Size asked.
Then, they heard a bird call. "Look! It's Thor!" Mina pointed out. He was flying around whoever was making that sound.
"Let's go!"
They arrived to see… a little boy in tan, Native American like clothes crying.
"Aww... pobrecito," Aviva said. "What's a little boy doing out here all alone?"
"Wait... he has my necklace!" Bite-Size saw the half-heart necklace on the boy's neck.
"I recognize that particular spot. It's... Skip! That pup that followed us!" Mina recognized her little prairie friend. "Wow! I didn't know your necklace worked on other creatures too."
"Me neither. Also didn't know it could work involuntarily. But I'm glad we found it," Bite-Size said, as Skip calmed down. "Sorry, buddy, but I guess this is mine."
As Bite-Size put his necklace on, turning Skip back into a prairie dog, he mentally asked to become a bat again, and in a flash, there he was in his brown bat form again.
"Ah... that's more like it."
"I think Skip was crying because as a human, he looked strange to the other prairie dogs. I believe not even his mother recognized him," Mina deduced.
Skip's mother reappeared on a hole, and Skip chirped happily, as he rushed to her side.
"Mission accomplished!" Bite-Size cheered.
MATI brought the team's food, so they could have a picnic.
"Man, what a day," Bite-Size commented, as he finished getting all the bugs he could.
"Tell me about it," Mina said, eating one of her strawberries. "It was fun meeting all of your prairie buddies, and also making new friends."
"The world's full of creatures, and this bat here's ready to learn more about them. Later. But for now..." Bite-Size turned back to a human. "Guess I'll just yip around."
He started jumping and yipping, and the team started doing this as well. Koki sighed in defeat, but with a smile.
"If you can't win... join them." She joined the team in the yipping around, and also started laughing as the team bumped into each other.