Hi, again! I had to change some of the dialogue so there would be no mention of the buttons on the controller, but I tried to change as little as possible. It was fun to develop the characters of Banjo, Kazooie and Bottles, and this chapter gave me a lot of opportunity to do so. I hope you like it.
The duo was just exiting the yard when a mole with glasses popped out of the molehill in front of them, clearly wanting to talk to them. Banjo stopped running, and Kazooie poked her head and wings out of the pack to see why.
"Listen up! I'm Bottles, the short-sighted mole," the mole introduced himself. Kazooie recognized his voice as the one Tooty had been talking with.
"I'm Banjo, and this here's my buddy Kazooie," Banjo said, polite even in these circumstances.
Bottles peered curiously at Kazooie though his thick glasses. "Sure is a strange looking buddy, Banjo. Can it talk?" he asked tactlessly.
Why that lousy little... "Better than you can, Goggle Boy!" Kazooie snapped, her feathers fluffing out in anger.
Choosing to ignore that in face of the situation, Banjo asked in concern, "What was all that noise about, where's my sister, Tooty?"
"The ugly witch, Gruntilda, swooped down out of the sky and grabbed her!" Remembering the problem, Bottles was instantly frantic, his blue eyes widening behind his glasses.
Banjo was horrified; his sister had been kidnapped by an evil witch! The stricken bear was momentarily unable to speak, picturing his sweet little sister in the clutches of that witch.
"Calm down, Geeky, we'll get her back!" Kazooie, who was still irritated by the mole's comment regarding her ability to talk, said. "Where did she go?"
"She flew up to her mountain lair!" Bottles said, looking up at said lair that was above and behind him. "It's really dangerous, so you'll probably need some training before you go up there." He looked back at the pair, examining them as if assessing them. "Do you want me to teach you some basic Moves? Or do you think you're already good enough?"
This mole, teach us Moves? Kazooie internally scoffed. Yeah, right. She opened her beak to speak, but Banjo got there first.
"We'd like some help, Bottles," he accepted gratefully. "What do we do?"
"Explore this area and look out for my molehills," the bespectacled mole responded. "Stand next to them and call me. See you soon!" Bottles burrowed quickly down into the ground, tossing dirt into the air.
Kazooie glared at her bear partner. "We don't need Goggle Boy's help!" she said in annoyance. "I could beat that witch right now!"
Banjo sighed, his worry for his sister obvious. "Maybe, Kazooie. But Bottles might be able to help us, and I don't want to do anything that risks our being able to save Tooty, like not knowing the Moves Bottles can teach us."
"Fine," Kazooie said reluctantly. "They just better be worth it." Then she thought of something. "Why doesn't he just teach us now? Why do we have to follow him all around the place knocking on his molehills?"
Bottles popped his head back out of the molehill in front of their house. "Because," he said, evidently having heard Kazooie's irritated question, "each of my molehill's are placed in an area where it would be easiest to practice the Moves I plan to teach you from that specific molehill. It would be best if you found me there." Then the mole dove back into the ground before they could answer.
"That makes sense." Banjo said, starting up the slope that led away from their small, blue-colored house.
Kazooie nodded. It did make sense, though that didn't make it any less annoying to have to search for that crusty clawed mole's dirt piles.
Traveling along the well-trodden road, the duo reached the top of the slope. Spiral Mountain, for which this entire area was named, stood directly in front of them. As its name suggested, Spiral Mountain had a path circling around it in a steadily rising spiral shape. At the top of the cylindrical mountain was the bridge that led into Grunty's Lair.
Circling the mountain was a moat of clear blue water, another wooden bridge spanning the gap it created, itself surrounded by the rest of the valley, of which Spiral Mountain was placed in the very center. The moat was fed by a steam that flowed from a waterfall that poured straight down a sheer cliff wall on one side of the valley.
Green grass covered the ground in all directions, occasionally giving way to higher grass stalks, which shone a bright golden hue. Several trees dotted the ground here and there, their leaves stirred occasionally by the light wind. The cliff walls that bordered the valley dipped inward in places, creating hollows somewhat sheltered from the rest of the area. Banjo's house was built in the deepest and lowest of these hollows, a secluded area set away from the rest of the valley.
Overall, the beautiful scenery and moderate climate made Spiral Mountain quite a lovely place to live, even taking into account the menacing witch's lair built above the valley.
From the top of the slope, facing Spiral Mountain, the bear and bird had two possible directions from which to choose. To the right stood a flat-topped hill that was nestled against one side of the bordering cliffs. It rose above the ground and had a path running from the bottom to the top. Off to the left, the path led toward the waterfall and branched off into one of the valley's hollows.
The two friends chose the path to the left. They then turned into the hollow, which had several tree stumps marking its floor, and was a little lower than the surrounding ground. There were other similar hollows. At the entrance to the hollow was a molehill. Banjo ran up to it.
"Errr... Anyone home?" Banjo asked, unsure of how to call out the mole.
Bottles' head appeared quickly, and, shaking dirt from his glasses, he pulled himself out of the ground. He looked at the two of them thoughtfully. "Can you show me a jump, Banjo?" he asked suddenly.
"Alright," Banjo agreed, a little confused. It seemed a strange thing to ask. Bottles said he would teach them Moves, and Banjo reasonably assumed he meant Moves that they had not yet learned. Obviously, Banjo already knew how to jump. The honey bear jumped in place anyway, thinking that Bottles must have a reason. Bottles frowned slightly.
"Hmmm... Your jump could do with some help," he said.
"Pah!" Kazooie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "What do moles know about jumping?"
"More than you!" Bottles retorted. "Your jump doesn't have enough power in it," he said to Banjo. "You need to bend your legs a little more, and push off a little harder. And it might help to bend your legs after you jump, so that if you're trying to get up to a higher platform, you'd be less likely to hit it. Give it a try."
"Okay," Banjo said. He jumped off the ground, trying his best to follow Bottles' instructions. His jump was slightly higher than was his previous one.
"That's a little better," Bottles said. "But it still needs some work." The mole pointed toward one of the stumps that littered the hollow; a relatively tall one that was near a wall. "Keep trying the jump until you can jump up onto that stump," he told Banjo.
"Alright, Bottles," Banjo agreed. He didn't think he could reach that one yet, and he wasn't very used to jumping, so he decided to try practicing with the highest jump he could do at the moment. He went over to the shortest stump in the hollow, which was right in the center.
Banjo jumped up onto this stump easily enough, then he jumped back down again, and then back up, trying to do as Bottles had told him.
As he worked, the mole called instructions over to him from where he stood on the molehill. "Bend your legs a little more than that," he said. "Don't hold yourself tense when you're in the air, it makes it more difficult to land without getting hurt."
Eventually, after a short while of jumping up and back down the smallest stump, Banjo noticed that there was a definite improvement in the height of his jump, thanks to Bottles' tutoring. He decided to try and get to the higher stump that Bottles had pointed out.
The honey bear walked over to the stump, which rose above his head. He stared at it doubtfully, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to jump that high, but Bottles had asked him to jump onto this stump, so the mole clearly believed it was possible to do so. And Banjo had been jumping much higher the last few times than he was when he started.
Banjo leapt upward and though his paws just barely cleared the stump, he landed on top. "I did it!" he said, feeling proud, and rightfully so; he had just jumped onto something that rose several feet above his head.
"Very good," Bottles said with a smile. "Now there is another kind of jump I want to teach you."
"What's that, Bottles?" Banjo asked, wondering how there could be more than one kind of jump.
"It's called the Feathery Flap." The mole looked at Kazooie. "C'mon, Feathers... you can give him a hand."
"Why?" Kazooie asked, irritated. "I'll look silly, I know it!"
Ignoring the bird's comment, Bottles began to explain how to do the Feathery Flap; "Banjo, you jump, then Kazooie can flap her wings in the air for a double jump!"
Banjo nodded thoughtfully. He'd always wondered how it felt to have wings and maybe fly, especially since befriending Kazooie, who, as a bird, had the potential ability to fly, though she hadn't yet learned how. Now he could have a bit of that experience. "Ready, Kazooie?" Banjo asked.
"Fine," the scarlet breegull sighed, raising her wings slightly.
Banjo jumped up high, and at the height of his jump Kazooie flapped her wings quickly, holding the duo aloft for a few extra seconds before they dropped back to the ground, landing lightly. He was thrilled. That was fun!
As Banjo stood grinning, Kazooie turned to Bottles, clearly impatient to get on with the witch hunt. "That's it, we're ready to move on!" she announced.
Bottles shook his head. "Not until you learn this one," he insisted. "First you must stand like this..."
"What, wearing ridiculous glasses and a silly grin?" Kazooie interrupted rudely.
"I'm not listening..." Bottles said, looking at Banjo rather than the smart-beaked breegull. "Crouch down, then backflip while the feather-duster helps get you more height with her wings for the mighty Flap Flip jump!"
Banjo stared at the mole in shock. "Back-flip?" he said incredulously.
"Just do it, Banjo. I want to get this over with so we can go after the witch!" Kazooie squawked, annoyed.
"Alright..." Banjo agreed uncertainly.
The honey bear crouched with his fore-paws placed on his head and the end of his muzzle nearly touching the grass, then threw himself into a jump, trying to flip backward as he did. Kazooie helped by stretching her wings out to either side and then throwing them back and down.
They got half-way through the Flap Flip, so that Kazooie's beak was pointing at the grass and Banjo was facing the sky, then they fell back toward the ground, continuing the flip so that Banjo ended up falling on his stomach, his breath whooshing out with a painful oumph as he landed. Kazooie fell safety on his back, having withdrawn fully into the backpack just before they hit the ground.
"Ow..." Banjo complained, picking himself up and standing, rubbing his nose where it struck the ground.
"You almost got it!" Bottles encouraged. "Try again!"
Resigned to the fact that he would likely not be getting a break anytime soon, Banjo crouched once more, and, as Bottles had told him, tried the Move again.
After a few more semi-successful attempts, and a few more collisions with the ground, the bear and bird managed to complete the Flap Flip, flipping completely over in mid-air to drift toward the ground slowly thanks to Kazooie's outstretched wings, and Banjo landed on his paws. Despite the multitude of small bumps and bruises he had acquired while learning the Flapflip, he had to admit that the Move was useful; it got him much higher than any of the other jumps did, and he guessed that it would come in handy inside Gruntilda's Lair.
"That's all the jumps," Bottles told them, sounding pleased. "Keep practicing!" He dove once more back into his molehill. Then he poked his head back out a moment later, before they could start to search for another molehill. "I put something that will help you at the top of the highest stump; you can only reach it with the Flap Flip." Then he disappeared once more.
Wondering what Bottles had left for him, Banjo wasted no time in walking over to the highest stump in the hollow; the one that was farthest back and to the right. With Kazooie's help, he backflipped up onto it, stumbling slightly as he landed on the soft, slightly crumbling wood.
What Bottles had put there was easy to see. A golden hollow hexagon that sparkled in the sun rested on one of its sides in the center of the stump. Curious, Banjo stepped over to it and picked it up.
The bear let out a yelp of shock and dropped it, jumping backward and nearly toppling off the stump, as the mysterious object started talking.
"I'm an Extra Honeycomb piece!" it said in a voice that had a strange buzzing sound to it, rather like the sound bees make, though it had no visible mouth with which to speak. "Collect six of us to increase your health and strength!" Then the Honeycomb fell silent.
Banjo stared at it for a long, silent moment. He glanced around, but there was no one in sight who might have been the speaker besides Kazooie, himself... and the Honeycomb. And the voice had sounded as though it was coming from that. He turned his gaze back on the shiny hexagon, eying it in disbelief.
An inanimate object just spoke to him. That was naturally somewhat worrying. He wondered whether he had imagined it.
He looked back at Kazooie to see if she was glaring at him in irritation, wondering why he had yelped and dropped a relatively unobtrusive thing as though it had bitten him, and was now standing here frozen in shock. But no, Kazooie was also staring at the thing that was apparently a talking Honeycomb. Her beak was open in shock. It was clear she was as startled as her partner.
So that ruled out the possibility that he was crazy and hearing things. Unless Kazooie was also insane and was having the same delusion about a talking empty Honeycomb, which Banjo thought was unlikely.
Just to make sure, Banjo said, "Kazooie, did you hear that Honeycomb, uh, talk just now?"
"Just grab it, Banjo, if it came from that mole it's bound to be weird." his friend replied, recovering from her shock.
"Bottles left it here, so he had to have known it could talk, and he said it would help us. So I'm sure it's safe," Banjo said, almost to himself, before stepping back toward the Honeycomb once more. Because it could talk, and was therefore likely to be sentient, Banjo was careful as he picked it up. "Hello, there, Mr. Honeycomb." Banjo hoped that Mr. was the right thing to call it. "Excuse me, but did you say that there are five more of you?"
The Honeycomb remained silent. Banjo frowned, studying it. Its surface was hard, and it didn't seem to be alive in any way. It certainly didn't seem to be breathing, and Banjo wondered for a moment if talking hollow Honeycombs would actually need to breathe.
"Well, I'll just put you in my backpack," Banjo said to it. "Okay, Kazooie?" he asked the breegull.
"You're not putting that thing in here with me!" Kazooie exclaimed.
"Please, Kazooie, I have a feeling this Honeycomb, and the others it said to collect will come in handy later, I don't think it's a good idea to leave it behind. And the backpack stretches, so it won't take up very much room, will it?" He looked hopefully at his friend. He didn't like the thought of trying to carry this Honeycomb, and others if they find them, around in his paws constantly during the journey, it would be very hard to do so, though he could hardly force the matter; the backpack was Kazooie's nest, after all, so he couldn't store anything in it without her agreement.
Kazooie narrowed her eyes for a moment, then rolled them with an exasperated sigh. She shifted to the side. "Fine, toss it in," she muttered.
"Thanks." He placed the Extra Honeycomb in the blue pack, then walked back out of the tree stump-filled hollow in search of the next molehill.
Once more heading left along the path, the bear and bird quickly found it next to the moat. Bottles had dug it far enough away from the water that the molehill was in no danger of crumbling into it.
"Hello, Bottles?" Banjo said, stopping in front of the mound of dirt.
Like before, Bottles appeared quickly, poking his head out and then pulling himself up to stand on top of the molehill.
"Bottles, Kazooie and I made that Flapflip onto that really high stump and collected the Honeycomb!" Banjo told him. "Thanks for teaching us how to do that!"
"Good, keep it, there will be many others you'll need to gather along your journey to free Tooty. There are five more Honeycombs hidden around Spiral Mountain. Now, how about your next Move? Fancy learning to swim underwater?" he asked them.
Banjo blinked. He knew how to swim on top of the water, had learned how as a much younger cub, but he'd never tried to swim under the water before, disliking the thought of his head going under. "Oooh... Sounds difficult, and I'll get my fur wet!" he complained.
"C'mon, Banjo, I want to swim!" Kazooie said. "Spill the beans, Specky!"
"You already know how to swim on the surface of the water, right?" Bottles asked, and, at Banjo's nod, continued, "Good, but it's likely that you'll need to collect some things that are hidden underwater at some point in your adventure. Just point your nose down and push the water back with your fore-paws while kicking your legs to dive. Go on, give it a try!" The mole gestured toward the moat.
"Alright, Bottles..." Banjo agreed reluctantly. He headed toward the nearby bank that led into the moat, and walked down into the water, paddling on the surface when he got to a deep enough area to do so.
"Just come up before you run out of air, and you'll be fine!" Bottles warned him, still standing on the molehill.
Banjo took a deep breath and dove under the water. As he did, Kazooie's head came out of the pack and she flapped her wings through the water, making the dive deeper than Banjo alone would have managed with one stroke.
Floating under water, Banjo opened his eyes and looked around, noting that the water was clear enough for him to easily see. The moat was fairly large, giving them plenty of room to swim around, and the ground below them was covered with smooth stones, both big and small.
He heard Bottles call to them from the bank. The mole's voice sounded strange as it reached them through the barrier of water. "While underwater, kick your legs to swim slowly, and the Winged Wonder can use her wings to move quickly."
Obviously, Banjo couldn't answer Bottles, being underwater, so he just decided to put the mole's advice to good use. He kicked his legs, propelling himself and Kazooie slowly but steadily through the water, traveling through the moat back in the direction from which they had just traveled while on land. He was glad to realize that swimming underwater wasn't much more difficult than swimming on the surface was. In fact, it was rather fun, especially when Kazooie started pushing her wings through the water, which moved them forward in short but quick bursts.
He swam back to the surface to take a breath, made sure to wait for Kazooie to do the same, and then dove back under for some more practice.
The friends swam around the moat, circling Spiral Mountain as they did. Once they had nearly completed the rotation and were almost back at the bank where Bottles' molehill stood, the duo passed under the bridge that led from land to the moat-encircled Spiral Mountain, its shadow darkening the water under it.
As he swam under, Banjo caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye; a glittering something. He paused, holding himself in place in the water, and looked to see what was glittering. Under the bridge was an alcove set into the base of Spiral Mountain, more than big enough for him to swim into- and inside the alcove was another golden-colored hollow hexagon; the second Extra Honeycomb. Banjo swam over to it, picked it up off the rocks it rested on, and exited the alcove, swimming up and surfacing under the bridge.
Treading water, Banjo held up the Honeycomb, waiting for it to speak like the first one did. The Honeycomb didn't make a sound.
"Hello?" Banjo said to it, and received no response. He looked back at Kazooie, whose bright red feathers were slicked flat against her head and darkened with wetness. "Do you think that something's wrong with it?" he asked.
"Wrong with it?" Kazooie squawked, giving him a strange look. "It's a Honeycomb! What could be wrong with it?"
"Well, it isn't talking like the other one did," Banjo pointed out. "So, maybe it's... broken?"
"Who cares? If you're so worried about it, ask Grub Gobbler."
"Good idea," Banjo said. If Bottles had put the first Honeycomb on that stump, then he probably knew a little about talking Honeycombs- certainly he would know more about them than Banjo did.
Holding the Honeycomb in one paw, Banjo swam out from under the bridge, past where the stream fell in a short waterfall into the moat, and walked back up onto the bank, from where he'd originally entered the moat. Ignoring his soaked, heavy-feeling fur, Banjo ran up the bank and to Bottles' molehill. The mole wasn't in sight, so he must have gone back underground.
"Bottles?" Banjo called.
He popped his head out of the molehill almost instantly. "Yes?" he asked, then he noticed the Honeycomb Banjo held. "So, you found the Extra Honeycomb in the moat."
"Yes, we did, but I think it might be broken or something... It's not talking like the last one did," Banjo said, holding out the Honeycomb.
"It's not broken," Bottles told him, smiling. "Only the first Extra Honeycomb you find will talk; the others won't."
"Oh, good," Banjo said, relieved.
"Now, why don't you look for my next molehill?" Bottles prompted, before diving back into the earth.
Banjo put the second Honeycomb in the pack, next to its fellow. Kazooie shook her head, annoyed, as more of her space was taken up, but didn't protest.
Banjo returned to the path, continuing along the way. It branched off in two directions a short distance from Bottles' molehill. The right fork led ahead toward the sturdy stone bridge across the river that poured into the moat. The left one would bring them alongside the cliff wall to a part where the land jutted out farther into the lake that was formed by the valley's waterfall. The lake, in turn, flowed into the river. The jutting stretch of land led to a trio of ledges, each separated by a few feet of empty air, that had formed from the cliff wall itself, and hung over the lake.
They could cross the bridge now to the other side of the river which was likely where they would find Bottles' next molehill and his next training lesson. But Banjo thought that since they were already on this side of the river, they might as well explore it thoroughly before continuing on to the other side.
Banjo took the left path, which faded away as the dirt that made up the path became grass covered just before it reached the jutting piece of land. He walked to the edge of the cliff-like piece of land, then looked out at the gap between where he stood and the first ledge. Like most of the valley, that ledge was also covered in grass, as were the other two ledges. The gap between him and the ledge was fairly wide but Banjo was pretty confident that he could make the jump, as it didn't look so wide as for it to be impossible to leap across. Besides, if he missed, the worst that could happen was that he'd fall into the lake. And since he was already soaked from his swim in the moat, and there was a natural ramp leading out of the lake back onto land, he wasn't worried about that.
Banjo backed up a few paces and easily leapt to the first ledge. He landed safely, and mentally thanked Bottles for the jumping lessons. The distance to the next ledge was about the same so he made that jump, too.
Once he landed, he looked across at the next ledge, and smiled when he saw that, sparkling brightly in the sun, another Extra Honeycomb sat in the center of the ledge.
However, the next thing he realized was that the gap between the second and third ledges was about twice as wide as those that came before. He didn't see how he could make this jump. In between the two ledges a miniature waterfall, much smaller than the main one, tumbled down the cliff wall. Luckily, though, the ledges were long enough that there wasn't much danger of being caught by the water mid-jump and dunked in the lake.
Banjo looked back and forth between the ledges, unsure how to reach the Honeycomb, since he simply couldn't jump that far.
"Look, Kazooie, there's another Honeycomb!" Banjo said. "But look where it is, I don't know how we're going to reach it." he told her, somewhat frustrated.
Kazooie's head came out of the pack, and she glanced around, spotting the Honeycomb and the gap they had to figure out a way to cross. "Well, I guess I can't let you do all the work," she said. "I think I can get us there."
"You're going to use the Feathery Flap?" Banjo asked, not having thought of that. "Alright, let's go!"
Banjo ran toward the edge and jumped. Halfway across the gap, as he began to fall, Kazooie flapped her wings hard, extending the jump and raising their altitude just enough that they landed on the ledge, the back of Banjo's feet nearly hanging over the edge.
Taking a step forward to be safe, Banjo said, "Great job, Kazooie."
He walked over to the Extra Honeycomb and picked it up, adding it to the backpack. Now they had found three of the Honeycombs, and had three more to go.
From this ledge they faced the valley's main waterfall, much larger than the one that had just jumped past, and as he turned to head back, he noticed a dip in the stone wall behind it. It was almost obscured by the plunging water but it was definitely there, another alcove much like the one under the moat's bridge.
"Look at that, Kazooie," Banjo said, stepping as close to the waterfall as he could without falling off the ledge. Just barely visible, contrasting with the darker rock wall around it, something sat in the middle of the alcove. He couldn't tell what it was, just that, even though it also appeared to be shiny gold, it was the wrong shape to be another Honeycomb. Besides, he doubted that he would find two Honeycombs so close to each other.
The alcove was in front of and a little below them, also too far for Banjo to jump without help.
"Kazooie, do you think we can jump to that alcove though the waterfall with the Feathery Flap?" Banjo asked his partner. He hoped the waterfall wouldn't buffet them into the lake, but though the waterfall was wide and fairly fast, their jump might be strong enough to send them through it.
"Not a problem," Kazooie answered confidently.
Banjo, hoping she was right, ran toward the edge of the ledge, leaping off and toward the falling water. Kazooie's wings pumped quickly even as they passed through the waterfall, the weight of the water slowing her flaps somewhat but not halting them.
Once they landed inside the alcove, once again completely soaked but otherwise fine, he looked at the object that had attracted his attention, which he could clearly see now that they had leapt through the curtain of water.
It was a small golden statue, a little under half Banjo's height, standing on a base that was also golden. To Banjo's surprise, he saw that the statue was in the shape of a bear. More than that, a bear that looked just like he did. On its back, the statue had a backpack, just like his, though instead of blue, it was gold like the rest of it. And it also wore a pair of shorts. It had even been carved with a tuft of fur hanging down over its forehead exactly like the one Banjo had. It had its arms, which ended in fists, raised up next to its head, as though it were flexing its muscles.
"Weird, that statue looks like me!" Banjo said, taking a step closer to it.
Kazooie peered down at it, tilting her head curiously to the side. "Huh, it does. Right down to my backpack."
"Well, let's check it out."
Banjo picked up the statue, which was hard and cold, and looked at it. Then he froze, surprised, as it spoke, its small metal muzzle opening and closing as it did.
"Look out for me, I'm an Extra Life!" it exclaimed proudly. "I restore your health when your life is draining!"
"You talk too?" was all Banjo could say. Of course, like the Honeycomb, it didn't respond to his questions.
Shrugging, Banjo looked back at Kazooie. "I guess we should have expected that," she commented.
"Probably," Banjo agreed. "It says it will restore our health when our life is draining. That could really be useful." He looked back at the statue he held. "Thank you Extra Life!"
"Yeah, that's a keeper!" Kazooie said, using her wing to scoop the Extra Life from Banjo's paw and into the backpack.
With that, they leapt back through the waterfall, landing with a splash in the lake below. Banjo swam on top of the water back past the ledges hanging overhead, and then out of the lake, onto the grassy ramp. He walked up the ramp to land, stepping onto even ground right beside the jutting piece of land near the ledges.
They returned to the path once more, this time taking the fork that would lead them to the bridge and across the river.
The path he walked on now bordered on either side by tall yellow grass. Banjo reached the bridge and crossed it, stepping over the close-packed stone that formed it, then went down a slope and past a tree as the path curved gently. A short distance from there he spotted another one of Bottles' molehills off to the side of the path near the valley wall. He ran up to it.
The mole must have been waiting for them because he dug his way to the surface before Banjo could call on him.
"Sorry for taking so long, Bottles," Banjo apologized. "We found another Honeycomb, though. And we found this, too," he pulled out the golden bear statue and showed it to Bottles. "It called itself an Extra Life."
"That's a very useful find," Bottles commented.
"Will the Extra Honeycombs and the Extra Life be okay in the backpack?" Banjo asked.
Bottles chuckled. "Of course. None of the objects that talk and normally wouldn't are really alive. They're just animated with a spell."
"Oh, okay," Banjo said, though he was wondering who might have magically animated objects to be helpful to him and Kazooie. Quite clearly, it hadn't been Gruntilda, though she was the only creature around that Banjo knew practiced magic. "That's good."
Bottles nodded and then, his voice changing into the tone Banjo was beginning to think of as Bottles' 'lesson tone', said, "Hey, Banjo, I hope you're not afraid of heights..."
"I'm not!" Kazooie cut him off excitedly. "Tell me about flying, Root Muncher!" Here was what Kazooie was so eager to learn, what she, like every winged creature who had ever lived, most looked forward to- learning to fly. She figured if a mole who lived underground could teach them to jump and swim, he could teach her how to fly.
"Not yet!" Bottles said, essentially confirming that he would, eventually, teach her to fly. He turned back to Banjo, ignoring the annoyed-looking bird. "Banjo, jump onto a tree trunk, then climb up or down!"
"Okay," Banjo agreed. Climbing a tree didn't sound so hard, especially compared to back-flipping with the Flap Flip. He looked around, then he went over to the nearest tree, the one they'd just passed on their way to the molehill.
Once at its base, he scanned the rough bark for a good paw-hold. Seeing one at head-height, Banjo jumped upward, successfully gripping the bark. As he began to scale the tree, Bottles yelled over to them, "You'll find plenty of other things to climb!" Glancing back over his shoulder, still holding onto the tree, Banjo watched as the mole dove back into the dirt.
He climbed to the top of the tree, which was not terribly far above the ground, and stood on its top-most branches. This tree, like all the other trees in Spiral Mountain, was similar to a weeping fig. The top of the tree lay flat and leafy beneath his paws, the branches holding firmly without giving way to Banjo's weight because they draped over one another and made a solid surface to stand on.
Though not very high above the ground, the top of the tree still offered a good vantage point for the duo, a fact proven when Kazooie suddenly gave Banjo's head a light peck to get his attention and said, "Hey, Banjo, there's another one of those Honeycombs." She pointed with her wing to a tree back on the other side of the river, virtually identical to the tree they stood on aside from one detail; perched on top of it was the Extra Honeycomb that Kazooie had seen.
"Good eye, Kazooie! Let's go get it," Banjo said, and he jumped to the ground, landing neatly in the grass.
Banjo walked back across the bridge and went left off the path into the tall grass, and to the tree with the Honeycomb on top. The tree stood about halfway between the path and the moat. He climbed up the tree, snatched the Honeycomb from its top, and added it to their collection. Dropping back to the ground, they returned across the bridge to the other side of the river toward the molehill from which Bottles had taught them to climb. They walked along the path past the molehill and beyond it.
Right in front of them, the path forked again, with one fork continuing ahead while the other led up the angled wooden bridge that was built over the moat to Spiral Mountain.
"There's the path to the hag's lair!" Kazooie pointed out eagerly. "We must be done, let's go!" Indeed, at the top of Spiral Mountain could be seen another bridge that stretched from the mountain to the entrance of the Gruntilda's Lair.
"I don't know, Kazooie. What about that area over there? We haven't explored there, yet." Banjo pointed toward a hollow that the path that ran ahead led into and past. The ground of the hollow ahead of them was made up of rocks and dirt with no grass to be found.
"There's nothing but dirt down there, and the path to the lair is right here!" Kazooie said impatiently. "We're ready now!"
"Oh, okay," Banjo said, thinking that Kazooie could be right. Bottles had already taught them so much. And the path to the lair was right beside them; perhaps they were supposed climb it now. "Good point, Kazooie, let's go!"
They ran up the bridge to Spiral Mountain, and onto the base of the mountain itself. As the mountain's path spiraled upward, it also spiraled inward, narrowing the mountain steadily as it rose.
Banjo headed along the path, running up the mountain in a circle. Near the top, the grass beneath his feet disappeared and the path became dark green, moss covered rocks; hard but also springy to walk on.
The duo arrived at the peak of the mountain, which was completely flat. Directly across from them, set into the cliff and surrounded by shadows, was the entrance to Gruntilda's Lair, which had been carved to look like the witch's face. The open, glowing red mouth was the doorway into the lair, and above it jutted a giant stone nose. If the proportions of the statue mimicked the proportions of Grunty's face exactly, one thing was certain; the witch had a very big nose. On either side and above it were two emeralds, larger than Banjo, that glowed strangely. They made up the eyes of the strange statue. Banjo had to tilt his head way back to see that sitting on tops of the statue's head was an enormous stone witch's hat.
In short, the overall effect wasn't very pleasant to look at.
Shivering slightly and determinedly looking anywhere but at those glowing emerald eyes, Banjo started toward the bridge that led to the Lair's entrance. Before he could get near it, however, he heard Bottles' voice call out; "Hey! Where are you guys going?"
Bottles stood on a molehill in the center of the mountaintop, its brown dirt contrasting sharply with the dark green stones around it. Because his attention had been on the lair, Banjo hadn't noticed it.
He walked up to Bottles. "We're off to whack the witch and rescue Tooty!" he told the mole, determined.
Bottles shook his head, frowning. "You haven't learned all the basics, yet, she'll kick your butt!"
Kazooie scoffed and said scathingly, "She can try, the old hag!"
"The bridge is broken and I'm not fixing it until you learn all the Moves," Bottles said firmly, clearly not going to sway from that plan.
Banjo looked over at the bridge and saw, then, that Bottles was right, the bridge was certainly broken. About halfway across, the wooden planks that made up the bridge hung toward the ground, the ropes that held them together having been snapped. The gap this created was much too far to jump, even with the Feathery Flap.
Banjo sighed, disappointed. He wanted to get going on the journey to save his sister as soon as possible, but if Bottles said they weren't ready, he would have to trust the mole's judgment. They had no way to even get into the lair without Bottles' help. "C'mon, Kazooie, let's go find the ones we missed," he sighed, turning back toward the path.
"Fine," Kazooie muttered, pulling back into the backpack. As they walked back down the mountain, Banjo could hear her complaining mutinously about moles as a species in general and Bottles in particular.
Once at the bottom of the mountain, and having crossed the bridge back to land, Banjo ran to the right and continued along the path. When the path split, he turned into the grass-less, dirt covered hollow that he had pointed out to Kazooie earlier, and walked down a short slope onto the lower ground.
The ground of this hollow was rocky dirt, dusty and hard. Straight ahead was a molehill. Along the back wall of the hollow were four large brown boulders, all of which, curiously, had blinking, angry-looking green eyes on their tops. The eyes were tiny compared to the rest of the boulder, but definitely there. And when he looked closer, he thought he saw a frowning mouth under the eyes.
"That's creepy..." Banjo said.
Kazooie looked out of the backpack to see what he was talking about, and glanced at the boulders with eyes. "It's not any freakier than a talking Honeycomb or statue," she said casually, apparently getting used to weird things.
The bear silently agreed, though that didn't change the fact that all three things, talking Honeycombs, statues, and boulders with eyes, were still very creepy- or, at the very least, odd.
Banjo walked up to the molehill that was in the middle of the hollow. "Bottles?" he called. When the mole climbed out of the ground, shaking dirt from his glasses as usual, Banjo indicated the boulders and asked, "What are those things?"
"Them? They're called Quarrie," Bottles answered. "They're boulders that were given life by the witch. They appeared just today, along with a few vegetables, animated as well, that are growing under the ground right now. Gruntilda created them just after she took Tooty. She must have thought they would slow you down."
"So, they're enemies?" Banjo checked, now looking at the boulders warily.
"Yes, though Quarrie can't move, they are enemies. And that's why they're going to be targets for your first attack Move."
"What kind of attack?" Banjo asked, interested.
"My Beak Barge attack needs the help of old Chicken Legs," Bottles said.
"At least I've got some legs, short stuff!" Kazooie returned.
"Crouch down, then skid forward, shoulder first, with Kazooie's big beak leading the way for a powerful beaky barge!" Bottles explained.
Walking away from the molehill, Banjo stood in front of the Quarrie farthest to the left. It stared at him, its frown and glare unchanging. He squared his shoulders. "Ready, Kazooie?" he asked.
"Obviously," she said.
Banjo crouched down low, then, tucking his head to the side, he charged at the boulder, shoving against the ground to send himself skidding straight toward the Quarrie. Kazooie folded her wings against her sides and stuck her beak out as he did. They slammed into Quarrie, Kazooie's sharp beak given more power from Banjo's charge. Then, with a loud crack, the boulder enemy was reduced to rubble, sending fragments of rock tumbling to the ground around them.
"See, Banjo, she is useful for something!" Bottles called over, clearly speaking about Kazooie.
"I'm trying this Move out on you next, Jam Jars!" Kazooie snapped back.
Bottles, seeming not to hear the threat, returned once again to his underground tunnels.
"Let's practice a little more, Kazooie," Banjo suggested, stepping over to the second boulder creature.
"Alright!" she agreed. Kazooie was all for it. After all, the Move was a strong one. And it was also, the way Kazooie saw it, pleasantly destructive.
They went over to the next Quarrie, which was in pieces as quickly as was the boulder before it. The third one soon followed, crumbling to the ground. But it was on the fourth and final Quarrie that Banjo and Kazooie got a surprise.
As the rubble and dust fell to the ground, something golden flashed in the sun as it flew into the air, going high before it fell back to earth. Landing among the debris of the boulder was an Extra Honeycomb.
Banjo leapt back in surprise, then walked back toward the Honeycomb, surprised to see it come from inside Quarrie.
"Wow! That was unexpected," Banjo exclaimed as he bent to pick it up. He handed it to Kazooie, who shrugged a wing and dropped it in the backpack.
"We already have five of those Honeycombs in here, now," she said. "Just one more to go, this is easy."
"Yup," Banjo agreed.
Leaving the barren hollow behind, Banjo walked up the slope and back onto the main path. By now, they had almost completely circled the valley, approaching the flat-topped hill pressed against the cliff wall that was to the right of the path that led from their house. And it was to here, the only part of the valley they hadn't visited today, that they headed.
The path they were on split into yet another fork; one continuing on, and the other, the one they took, leading up a large slope to the flat-topped hill. The slope was bordered on one side by the cliff, and, on the other, by the hill it led to. The hill's sides were mostly sheer stone, meaning there was no way to climb them. The only way to reach the top was the path that led up the slope.
With the exception of the side that was against the cliff, the edges of the hill had a wooden fence going all around it in order to make sure that no-one accidentally fell off.
The ground at the top of the hill was mostly plowed dirt, circled at the very edges by grass. The area of bare, ridged dirt was large, large enough to run around in, large enough for some serious training. Close to the top of the slope was a molehill, dug near the edge of the plowed earth. Banjo walked up to it and called on Bottles again.
Bottles appeared and immediately launched into the lesson. "Banjo, it's time for you to learn the Claw Swipe attack," he told him.
Excited at the thought of learning an attack Move of his own, like the Beak Barge was Kazooie's, Banjo said, "What is it... I must know!"
Smiling at his enthusiasm, Bottles said, "Your claws are good weapons, but let me teach you to use them effectively. Simply slash at the air, one paw after the other, while taking a few steps forward to gain more momentum."
"Sounds good," Banjo said. "What can I try it out on?"
"Well, how about Bird Brain?" Bottles suggested with a sly grin.
"Just try it, Bottle Boy!" Kazooie said warningly.
"Only kidding. Let me find something with a challenge," Bottles said. Kazooie glared at him, but before she could respond, a massive carrot, much bigger than Banjo, popped out of a hole near the center of the area of furrowed dirt. It had large red-brown eyes at the top of its bright orange body. Rising above the eyes were three leaf stems, coming out of the carrot's head, "Ahh... There's Topper." Bottles said, pointing at the carrot, which was now hopping in place, looking at the three of them. "Whack him, Banjo!"
As Banjo walked up toward the carrot, which seemed completely benign, just continuing to hop, not moving from its position, Bottles said, "Right now, Topper just looks like a friendly vegetable, but I happen to know that the spells Grunty put on him haven't yet fully taken effect. I expect if you run into one of these later in your adventure, you'll find them a formidable enemy."
"We'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Bottles," Banjo said.
He stopped in front of Topper, who didn't move other than to bounce. The fact that it wasn't attacking, nor did it even look mean, made it seem wrong to attack it. But reminding himself that it was made by the witch and would likely try to attack him eventually helped him get over that.
Banjo swiped with one paw after the other, taking three steps and swiping with every step. His small but sharp claws hit the carrot, knocking Topper backward and onto the ground, while slicing its leafy top clean off.
"Wow... Nice one!" Bottles complimented from where he stood on his molehill. "Try another!"
"Hey!" Kazooie broke in, irritated. "I want some Moves!"
Bottles didn't respond to her, and, as if Bottles' words were its cue, a second Topper leapt up out of the same hole the first had emerged from. This carrot enemy also hopped in place non-threateningly, and Banjo, using the Claw Swipe again, dispatched it quickly.
"Now try my fearsome Forward Roll," Bottles said, surprising Banjo, who had gotten used to learning one Move per molehill.
"I want to learn to fly now!" Kazooie complained insistently.
"Run. Bend down, tuck your head and push off with your feet to roll, I'll see if I can find Bawl for you to practice on..." As soon as Bottles finished speaking, Bawl appeared out of the hole in the ground. Bawl, to Banjo's not very great surprise, was an onion. It had a large round body, colored a very light pinkish-brown that faded to white near the top, where it tapered, becoming much thinner as it reached the eyes. The eyes, which were a bright gold, had thin green stalks sticking up above them. Bawl, like Topper, hopped up and down. Unlike its carrot comrade, however, Bawl moved around the field as it hopped, though it seemed to pay no attention to Banjo or Kazooie.
Banjo ran toward the jumping onion and fell forward, pulling his body into a tight ball and rolling straight into Bawl, which flipped end over end as it tumbled to the ground.
"Bulls-eye!" Bottles exclaimed. "One more..."
"Stop rolling, I feel sick!" Kazooie's voice came dizzily from inside the backpack.
"Sorry, Kazooie," Banjo said as a second Bawl appeared from the the hole. "Take some deep breaths, and you'll be fine."
Banjo waited a moment for Kazooie's nausea to pass, and then used the Forward Roll on the Bawl, which fell as well. Smiling in satisfaction, Banjo rolled to his feet and turned to face Bottles.
"It's time for the buzzard to learn a trick," the mole announced.
Fully recovered now, Kazooie said, "It had better be a good one, Squinty!"
"Try out the Rat-A-Tat Rap by jumping and pulling up your legs while ducking your head. While you do that, Banjo, Kazooie can peck at the target over your head," Bottles told them. "Now, where's Collywobble?"
This time, from out of the hole appeared what looked like a cauliflower, aside from the fact that it was using the four green leaves that surrounded it- one in the front, back, and either side- in order to float above the ground. It flapped them like wings. Nestled in the middle of its leaves was its main body; a large white ball with dark red eyes perched at the top. Like the other vegetable enemies, as well as Quarrie the boulder, Collywobble was much bigger than Banjo. It bobbed around in mid-air, circling to keep Banjo in its line of sight, but never coming nearer to him.
"Come on, Kazooie!" Banjo encouraged as he ran toward the floating cauliflower and jumped, then ducked his head while pulling his legs up a little, as Bottles had told him. He felt Kazooie's head swish past his head as she pecked over one shoulder then the other; pecking at Collywobble three times before Banjo's jump began to lose height. Banjo was rather impressed with the speed of Kazooie's attack. As his paws touched the ground, so did the many fragments of the destroyed cauliflower opponent.
"Mmmm... Not bad, Feather Face!" Bottles called from the molehill.
"Give me another, Bogeyes!" Kazooie demanded, enjoying the new Move.
On cue, another Collywobble appeared out of the same hole as those that came before it. Once more, Banjo and Kazooie attacked with the Rat-A-Tat Rap, knocking the Collywobble from the air, and into pieces. As the cauliflower burst, a golden hexagon flew from inside it into the air; and the sixth and final Extra Honeycomb fell to the ground.
"That's it, you've learned all the basic Moves!" Bottles told them. "Meet me at the top of the Spiral Mountain and I'll tell you what to do next." He dove back into the molehill, sending dirt flying.
"Finally!" Kazooie exclaimed.
"Yeah, now we can save Tooty!" Banjo agreed, walking over to the Honeycomb that had fallen from the Collywobble and picking it up. As soon as he did, he felt a shiver pass through him along with a rush of energy, revitalizing him. "Kazooie, did you feel that?" he asked, shocked.
"Yeah. What was that?" Kazooie exclaimed, flapping her wings as though to work off excess energy.
"I don't know, but... I feel stronger now. Healthier, I guess." Indeed, he felt better than he ever had before, like he had more endurance that he used to. And the feeling wasn't leaving.
"So do I," Kazooie said.
"But, how did that-" Banjo blinked. "Kazooie, do you think it's the Honeycomb?"
"That thing?" Kazooie said incredulously, gesturing toward the innocuous-looking Honeycomb held in Banjo's paw.
"I think it might have done it. Remember what the first one said? Something about making us healthier and stronger when we got all six. And it happened as soon as I picked this one up."
"Well, it sure did just that!" Kazooie squawked, taking the Extra Honeycomb from Banjo and dropping it into the backpack beside the other five.
"That's going to be a big help in saving Tooty," Banjo commented happily as he walked back down the flat-topped hill.
He stopped at the bottom, stunned, as he saw that all around their peaceful valley hopped and floated Toppers, Collywobbles, and Bawls.
An onion, Bawl, hopped toward him threateningly, and Banjo skipped out of its path, surprised by its hostility. The others of its kind had not been aggressive. Bottles' guess seemed to have been proven right; the vegetable enemies were now dangerous.
He looked into the dirt-filled hollow to their right, which now held four more Quarrie boulders. New ones must have formed after the others were destroyed.
Banjo retreated back up the slope toward the flat-topped hill, and paused near the top. The Bawl didn't follow him; it hopped in place at the bottom of the slope, perhaps unable to bounce its way up.
"Kazooie, look at this!" Banjo exclaimed in dismay, doing so himself.
Kazooie poked her head out of the backpack and looked around. Then she squawked, "What are these freaky plants doing hopping around our valley?" The breegull was annoyed.
"We'll have to avoid them, but they don't move very fast. I think we can get past them to the mountain," Banjo said, about to head back down the slope and try to edge around the Bawl.
"We can do that in a minute, first we gotta take these things out!" Kazooie said.
"What? But we don't have to fight them," Banjo pointed out.
"They're in our valley!" Kazooie snapped insistently. "And they're enemies, so they gotta go!"
"But what about Tooty? We have to go and save her!"
"We will, but you wouldn't want Tooty to come back here after we defeat the ugly witch, just to get attacked by evil veggies, would you?" Kazooie asked him, tilting her head to the side.
Though it was clear Kazooie was only bringing that up to get his agreement, it still made Banjo pause. These vegetable enemies seemed very dangerous now. The Bawl was still hopping at the bottom of the slope, waiting for them to come back down so it could attack them. He definitely didn't want Tooty to have to face them.
"Alright, Kazooie, but we have to do it quickly!"
They ran back down the slope, using a Forward Roll to take out the Bawl as they did. Banjo was surprised by a flash of golden as the Bawl dropped something. He turned around to see what it was. Laying on the ground was something that looked like an Extra Honeycomb; it was a golden hexagon just like the ones they had in the backpack. But this Honeycomb was smaller than the others, and it wasn't hollow. With Kazooie looking over his shoulder, Banjo picked it up.
"Mmmm... I'm sticky, tasty Honey Energy!" it said the second he grabbed it. This time, Banjo didn't even start, having halfway expected it to speak.
"Honey Energy?" he asked. Looking at it carefully, he realized that it was coated in honey, his favorite food. In fact, the whole Honeycomb seemed to be made of honey. The outer part was rimmed bright yellow, and the center darker, it seemed to be formed with solid honey but was coated with and seemed to contain gooey, liquid honey. Banjo suddenly realized that he hadn't eaten today, having run after Tooty the moment he awoke.
"Well, if it isn't really alive..." Banjo said, hesitating. Bottles had been right so far. So Banjo brought the Honey Energy up to his muzzle and took a huge bite. The gooey honey coating was warm and sticky, just the way he liked it. The solid part was like honey candy. But when he bit into it and the warm gooey honey gushed into his mouth, he couldn't help but grin. "It's delicious!" Banjo exclaimed before eating the rest of it.
"Yeah, great," Kazooie said impatiently, "now can we get a move on?"
"Alright," Banjo agreed as, swallowing the last of the honey and licking his paws clean, he ran toward the nearest enemy.
So they circled the valley, disposing of all the enemies they saw, Toppers, Bawls, Collywobbles, and Quarries, until there were none left. Spiral Mountain now seemed clear of all the witch-created evil vegetables and boulders.
"There," Banjo said, "they're all gone now, let's go save Tooty."
"And kick the witch's butt!" Kazooie added in anticipation.
They headed toward the bridge that led to Spiral Mountain.
Once more heading up the mountain, they reached the top. Banjo glanced over at the bridge that led into the lair; it was completely fixed now. Someday, he was going to have to figure out how Bottles did all he did.
Digging his way out of the molehill on the top of Spiral Mountain, Bottles said, "Well done, guys, you're ready to tackle the witch now!"
"We sure are!" Kazooie said proudly. "Show us the way, Bottle Boy!"
"I've fixed the bridge so you can cross it and enter Gruntilda's Lair," he told them.
"Thanks, Bottles," Banjo said, grateful for all of the mole's help in the mission to rescue his sister.
Bottles nodded. "Look out for me inside..." he said. "Good luck!" He dove back into the molehill, leaving them alone on the mountaintop.
Overhead, the sun still shone brightly, having moved little from the position in the sky that it had been in when Tooty was kidnapped. The training with Bottles had taken less time that it had seemed to.
In front of them, the massive carving of Grunty's face, the entrance to the lair, loomed, the doorway that was set into the carving's gaping mouth disappearing into darkness. The lair seemed to radiate an air of menace, and of evil, chilling Banjo and shaking his resolve.
Tooty, his little sister, was in there, held captive and terrified.
Taking a deep breath, Banjo said, "Let's go, Kazooie." Filled with resolve, Banjo ran across the wooden bridge that was suspended by newly mended ropes and stepped into the statue's stone mouth. Inside the mouth were carved yellow tinted stone teeth, one of them chipped and all of them jagged. The duo passed through the shadowed doorway into Gruntilda's Lair.