Chapter 4: Secrets in the Stratonimbus
The ballroom of Jewelry Castle is a breathtaking sight to behold. The walls, floor, and ceiling are adorned with colorful gems and accented by gold and silver. A massive gem is suspended from the ceiling and casts a rainbow effect on the dance floor as it slowly turns.
Auler waltzed with Altezza to an upbeat but delicate tune played by a string quartette. They were one of many couples dressed in their best wears and décor dancing across the expansive, floor. He and the blond-haired princess of the Jewelry Kingdom glided over the teal marble as they have anytime they danced. They forewent conversation and instead enjoyed the music and dancing.
Auler set his down and heard a distinctive splash. He stopped immediately and looked down at a centimeter of water that had collected on the floor. The other couples stopped as well as the quartette. Hushed conversation rose from the crowd as more noticed the water.
Everyone's attention turned the main doors. The water was flowing in from underneath them. Before anyone could do anything else, the doors burst open to let a torrent of water to crash into the ballroom. The guests tried to escape, but were swallowed by the violent torrent. The water engulfed Auler and Altezza and threw them apart.
"Altezza," Auler called out before water began to lap down his throat.
"Auler," Altezza screamed before she was dragged under.
"Altezza," Auler called out again before he too was dragged under.
* * *
Auler awoke with a start. He felt a cold sweat spread over his brow as he got his wits about him. He sat up and saw he was in the Hurricane and ten centimeters tall. He heaved a sigh of relief as he realized he had fallen asleep and it was only a nightmare. The droning of the propellers told him he was in his element, high above the surface.
He looked next to him and saw Sophie was sleeping peacefully. Judging by the expression on her face, he figured she was in a much friendlier dream than he had been. It was early morning back in the Windmill Kingdom and this was the first time they had slept since the night before. He smiled warmly and spread his sleeveless, rope-like coat over his sister like blanket.
The engineers were seeing to their duties. Ophelia was examining various displays of the data they had collected, Franklin and Emily were monitoring the systems on a laptop, and Tammy was sitting near the tube as she watched her monitors.
"Good morning, Prince Auler," Ophelia said when she realized he was awake. She then frowned slightly. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Auler replied. "It was just a nightmare." He stretched. "How long was I asleep?"
Spigot took out his chronometer. "About three and half hours," he reported.
In the cockpit, Bret and Lee were navigating the skies over the Moon Kingdom. The aurora filled the white night sky over the sandy dunes below us. There was not so much as a cloud in the sky and, outside of an isolated oasis in the yellow expanse, water was decidedly absent.
"Figures," Bret said dully. "We left a wasteland of ice for a wasteland of sand."
"Such is life I suppose," Lee replied.
"So, what are you going to do?" Bret asked.
"What am I going to do?" Lee repeated Bret's question.
"Our year on Snow Mountain will be over in less than two months," Bret said. "Do you have any plans?"
"Ophelia and I have a position at the castle lined up," Lee answered.
"I don't mean that," Bret said. "You've been stuck in the most inaccessible place in the Wonder Planet for a year. I'm talking about your social life."
"I don't have one," Lee said flatly.
"Consider this the perfect place to start," Bret said. "Get out, meet some cute girls, and maybe even go steady with one." He cracked a coy smile and jabbed the Aquarian in the side with his elbow.
Lee heaved a sigh. "Girls aren't interested in a guy like me," he said despairingly.
"Why not?" Bret asked. "You're tall, blue, and hansom. I'd think all the girls in the Northwest Territories would want a piece of you."
"I'm considered a nerd back home," Lee explained. "While others were interested in the sea, Ophelia and I had our eyes on the sky. We've always been fascinated by the weather and wanted to learn everything we could about it. We spent our time reading about fluid dynamics and atmospheric phenomena while others were game hunting and racing. We were made fun of and shunned by our peers and it only got worse when we got our degrees while others our age were just entering High School. We joined the engineering corps and took the position on Snow Mountain to get away from that."
"I didn't know," Bret said sheepishly. He then smirked. "The capital is a very different place than the frontier, though. They appreciate people like you more. I'm sure you'll a good-looking girl just as nerdy as you."
The two grinned and exhaled a laugh.
I was watching the same scene from one of the few portholes in the main cabin. We had passed over the lush, green swamps of the southern Drop Kingdom, through the gray clouds blanketing the Tane-Tane Kingdom and were now over the arid Moon Kingdom. The waterlogged Kingdom to our north stood in stark contrast to the seemingly endless desert below.
Auler walked up to the porthole and looked out. "You've already flown through the Tane-Tane Kingdom?" he asked.
"Yeah," Ophelia replied dully. "I'm currently analyzing the data we collected. Though, it's doing the job of three people by myself." She yelled the last two words to no one in particular.
"We have to go with what we have," Spigot said in response.
"What have you found," I asked.
"I'm not sure yet," Ophelia answered. "The problem is it's been raining for a week. The atmosphere is completely contaminated and it's hard to separate the cause from the symptoms."
She toggled through the maps, charts, and graphs. "The surface layer is unusually cool, but that's due to the lack of sunlight and latent cooling from evaporating water. The pressure is unusually high due to this cooling and is retarding the thermal wind." She stopped and eyed her monitor closely. "Hold the phone," she said, rubbing her chin and furrowing her brow.
"What is it?" Spigot asked eagerly as he practically leapt to her station.
"Hey, Lee," Ophelia called to the cockpit, "use the monitor in there to look at the aerosol counts."
Lee swiveled the monitor to face him and punched up the graph.
"Do you see it?" Ophelia asked.
"I see it," Lee replied. "These aerosol counts are way up. If they're hygroscopic in nature, they might be our smoking gun."
"Wait," Auler interjected. "What are you talking about?"
"The atmosphere over the Tane-Tane Kingdom has unusually high levels of particulates," Ophelia explained. "The atmosphere is filled with dust, smoke particles, even microbes. Water droplets are attracted to their surface and form raindrops around them. Precipitation can't occur without them. If the levels are high enough like now, these particulates can attract water vapor to make clouds, even when the air isn't saturated."
"This is also something that would definitely not be caused by the rain," Lee added.
"Excellent." Spigot smacked his hand on the table. "We have something to take to the Tane-Tane Kingdom."
"What do we do now?" Tammy asked.
"We go back to the Tane-Tane Kingdom and give the news to King King and the Mother Tree," Spigot answered. "With any luck, it'll be enough to convince her to restore Princess Milro and the others."
"I'll start running calculations on a timetable," Ophelia reported.
Spigot poked his head into the cockpit. "Set course for the Mother Tree, boys," he ordered.
"You got it," Bret said enthusiastically and began turning us back to the north.
* * *
Unknown to us, Khan was watching us from the Sunny Kingdom. He had watched our trip on the main monitor of one of the castle's many hidden stations. He grimaced as the Hurricane looped back above the yellow expanse.
"Damn those meddlesome rodents," he sneered. "Why can't they leave well enough alone?"
He tapped his fingers on the keyboard. His Excellency won't be pleased to hear this, he thought.
* * *
Sophie blinked her eyes open and slowly sat up to stretch. "Good morning," she said. "What's happened?"
"We might have found what's causing the rain," Tammy answered.
"Cool," Sophie replied happily. "By the way, I've always had a question that you guys might be able to answer."
"Shoot," Ophelia said.
"Why do our countries make the weather?" Sophie asked.
Ophelia exhaled a laugh. "You could right a doctoral thesis on the answer. However, I can tell you the basics.
"Weather is basically the atmosphere trying to correct an energy imbalance. On terrestrial worlds, that imbalance is caused by the fact its equatorial regions receive more energy from the sun than its polar regions. However, the Wonder Planet is hollow with the sun in the center. So, the energy is equal everywhere. So, the Mera-Mera Kingdom not only produces heat to make the temperature livable, but creates a temperature gradient so air flows in a cell towards it at the surface and away from it aloft."
"If that makes the wind," Sophie asked, "why does my country make wind."
"That's only the thermal wind," Ophelia continued. "Your country produces the planetary wind. The two combine to create gyres of wind. One flows over the continent and I think there are two over the ocean."
"Typically, the planetary wind creates a boundary between the warm, equatorial air and the cold, polar air," Lee added from the cockpit. "It's at those boundaries where most of the storms happen. However, because the Wonder Planet doesn't have polar and equatorial regions in a sense of temperature, but instead a hot pole and cold pole offset from the rotation axis, that doesn't happen. Instead, the wind acts more like a current in the ocean."
"So, we make the wind to create these gyres," Sophie summarized. "Why does your country make clouds then?"
"That goes back to sunlight," Lee said. "The Blessing of the Sun is actually not as intense as a real star, so the energy the surface receives is not as great. Without the Mera-Mera Kingdom, the Wonder Planet would be as cold as the summit of Snow Mountain."
Auler shivered at the very thought of such a world.
"Clouds need rising air to form," Lee continued. "As air rises, it cools. As air cools, it can't hold as much water vapor and the water vapor condenses into water droplets and clouds form.
"However, for air to rise, it needs to remain warmer than the surrounding air. Because the surface does not receive as much energy, it doesn't heat the air above it as much and we rarely see an air profile where a rising air parcel will remain warmer than the surrounding environment. The Drop Kingdom's machinery takes water from the ocean and does the process artificially. Once the cloud is formed, nature can do the rest.
"This is a really simplified explanation, but it gets the general idea across."
"I never stopped to think of what exactly we're doing," Auler mused aloud. "There's certainly more to it than 'The Drop Kingdom makes the clouds' and "The Windmill Kingdom makes the wind'."
"I also have a question," I said. "Why are you on the top of Snow Mountain?"
"We're studying one of the most fascinating meteorological phenomena," Ophelia answered. "Although air has a hard time rising adiabatically as Lee said, we've discovered it can be forced up by terrain. The wind comes off the Gulf of Adamant between us on the Jewelry Kingdom and picks up moisture evaporating off the water. It then hits the Snow Mountain Range and has nowhere to go but up. That's why it's snowing almost constantly on the summit and there's a desert at its eastern base."
"We theorize a similar process takes place at the foot of the Meridian Mountains which leads to the higher precipitation amounts in the eastern Windmill Kingdom," Lee added. "It could also explain why the gyres change shape over the year as differences in air pressure could have a similar affect."
"Speaking of higher precipitation amounts," Bret announced, "we're approaching the Tane-Tane Kingdom."
Everyone watched out the portholes as the auroras faded and the sky became a normal blue. The sky was also becoming more crowded with clouds. Unlike the wall on the northern edge, the southern edge was wispy with the clouds looking like fibers of cotton. The fibers became thicker and more numerous until they covered the entire sky. Raindrops began collecting on the portholes and everything became dim.
Once again, I could see the landscape of the stricken country. The colors seemed just as washed out as before under the dreary, gray sky. The rivers were terribly swollen and brown from mud.
"What a mess," Franklin commented.
"Even after the rain stops," Emily added, "it'll take months for the Tane-Tane Kingdom to fully recover."
After a little time, the Mother Tree came into view. Bret eyed the landscape ahead and drummed his fingers on his control yoke. "Uh…chief," he called back into the cabin.
"What?" Spigot asked as he walked into the cockpit.
"I don't know if we can land," Bret said. "It's not like they've provided us with a landing strip."
Spigot looked out the windshield. He pointed to an open field. "There," he said, "between that village and the Mother Tree."
"Uh-huh," Bret said as Spigot walked back into the cabin. "I've just got to land sixty tons of plane on a landing strip that doesn't exist in IFR conditions. Now sweat."
"You're always expounding on how you're 'the best damn pilot in the Drop Kingdom'," Lee said, proclaiming the quote. "Here's your chance to prove it."
"I guess I'd have to pay for my boasting one of these days," Bret complained.
He began lowering us for landing. The landing gears extended as the Hurricane came closer and closer to the ground. The rear gears touched the ground gently before the forward one came down.
Bret heaved a sigh of relief. "That's was actually easy."
The Hurricane hit a dip in the ground followed by others. The whole craft shook and rattled as it traveled over the ground.
Spigot threw himself back into the cockpit. "What are you doing!?" he shouted.
"We're trying to land," Bret shot back.
We hit a rock that caused the front to lift up. Spigot lost his footing and rolled down the length of the cabin to land upside down on the door in the rear wall.
"Maybe I should have gone with the Sunny Kingdom Princesses after all," he groaned.
The Hurricane came back down hard. Bret and Lee were hanging onto their controls to keep them from ripping from their hands.
"Spigot might as well have asked us to land on a giant washboard," Bret complained. "I can't get her under control."
"At least we won't hit anything," Lee said. He looked forward and saw that the Mother Tree was dead ahead and growing bigger in the windshield. "…except the Mother Tree."
"What?" Bret exclaimed and then looked forward. "Holy Crap! Lee, quick, the break, apply the emergency break!"
Lee pulled out a control and the light stating "Emergency Break Engaged," lit up red. The land gears came to an abrupt stop and the Hurricane began to slow.
The two heaved sighs in relief before they noticed the airship was turning. Franklin screamed as we slid across the wet grass sideways towards the Mother Tree. The Hurricane finally came to a stop before impact but leaned towards the Mother Tree before coming back to sit on all landing gears.
"I like you a lot too, Frank," Emily choked as Franklin had wrapped himself tightly around her torso. "However, I can't breathe."
Bret and Lee fell out of their chairs onto the floor between their seats.
"Bret, Lee," I called out as I ran to them, "are you two all right?"
"That was a great landing, you two," Sophie said before they could answer. "Spigot's comparing it to that of an albatross."
Bret and Lee groaned in response.
"Bret!" Tammy snarled, "you suck! We almost died thanks to your piloting."
"We're still alive thanks to my piloting," Bret shot back as we stepped back into the cabin. "I'd like to see you do better."
Tammy raised her arm and balled her fingerless gloved hand into a tight fist over Bret to get him to flinch.
"Enough of this," Spigot growled. "We…"
We heard a distinct tap over the gentle patter of the rain hitting the metal hull. It was followed by another a couple seconds later.
"What was that?" Tammy asked.
"Hail, probably," Emily answered.
"Can't be," Ophelia said. "Hail forms in convective clouds, not stratiform."
"Well, something solid is hitting the outside," Bret said.
He peered out one of the portholes. Outside, King and a large number of soldiers had taken up position in front of the Mother Tree. The troops were firing their air guns at the Hurricane and the tapping became almost continuous as their corks struck the hull.
"Keep firing-dane!" King shouted. "We can't let this monster attack the Mother Tree."
"It seems impervious to our weapons," one of the soldiers reported.
"Damn-dane," King sneered. "We have no choice but to use Big Bertha."
"This close to the Mother Tree?" a soldier exclaimed.
"Yes," King snapped. "Now, prepare Big Bertha."
"Stop that, you trigger-happy leprechauns," Bret snarled. "This is a custom paintjob."
"Relax, Bret," Lee said dismissively. "Those air guns can't harm this ship."
"What about a smoothbore?" Bret asked.
"A smoothbore on the other hand could do substantial…" Lee stopped in mid sentence when what Bret said sank in. "SMOOTHBORE!?"
The two looked out the porthole. Dozens of soldiers were pulling a full-sized cannon out of the Mother Tree. They loaded the bowling ball-sized shell into the back of the barrel and closed the breech as they pointed the muzzle towards us.
"They're going to kill us!" they yelped simultaneously and plastered themselves against the opposite wall.
"Prepare to fire-dane!" King commanded.
The rear hatch of the Hurricane suddenly dropped and Spigot came flying out. "Cease fire," he called out as he landed in the mud. "Cease fire."
"Hold your fire-dane," King said.
Spigot swept the mud off his uniform as he jogged to King and his men.
"Spigot, what are you doing here-dane?" King asked. "And why did you come out of that monster's…"
"It's not a monster," Spigot explained. "It's an airship."
"I've never seen an airship like this-dane," King said.
"Anyway, I've been investigating the weather patterns with a crack team of our meteorologists," Spigot said. "We believe we've found cause for the rain over your country."
At the same time, the engineers, Sophie, Auler, and I came out of the Hurricane.
"Crack team-dane!?" King exclaimed when he saw the youths. "They're a bunch of teenagers-dane!"
"Excuse me," Emily shot back, "I haven't been a teenager for more than three years."
"Is this some kind of sick joke, Spiggy," Axe snarled. "We're in serious jeopardy here and you're leaving it in the hands of children."
"But we've found the cause," Lee said. "There are elevated quantities of hygroscopic aerosols in the cloud bearing layer of the atmosphere that's causing the clouds to precipitate prematurely."
"What-dane!?" King exclaimed.
"There's some kind of gunk in the air that's making it rain," Ophelia clarified.
"I believe that's what I said," Lee said in response.
"And this helps us how-dane?" King growled.
"Since we know the cause," Spigot explained, "we will be able to determine when the weather patterns will shift."
"Good for you," Axe said.
After a pause, King turned to his troops and ordered, "Stand down-dane."
His troops began to push Big Bertha back into the Mother Tree. Spigot followed them in before the door shut.
Meanwhile, we were being watched from a distance. A blue and chrome Helidoll was sitting in a tree. The camera behind his goggle-like face had focused on Emily and me.
His LED "eyes" changed to an orange expression of curiosity as he rubbed his chin. "His Excellency will be interested in this news."
He leapt from the tree and called out, "Copterbot: Flight Mode."
The blades folded over the motor on the humanoid robot's back extended and lifted on a stalk before starting to spin. He flew off into the gloom without us knowing he was ever there.
"Well, you know what they say about best laid plans," Franklin said despairingly.
"Where do they get off calling us kids?" Tammy complained. "We know more about what's going on than they ever will."
"That's exactly why," Emily said. "They're adults and don't want to believe we know more than they do. They don't trust anyone under thirty. Of course, when they were our age, they didn't trust anyone over thirty."
Ophelia took a raindrop-shaped device she was wearing around her neck out of her shawl and held in the air. After it made a bleep, she brought it down to read its small screen. "Temperature: Twelve Degrees Celsius, Dewpoint: Eleven Degrees Celsius, Barometric Pressure: One Thousand Twenty-Two Milibars, Winds North-Northeast at three kilometers per hour," she reported.
"What's that mean?" Franklin asked.
"It's cold, damp, and calm," Bret said.
A scream suddenly rose over the sound of constant rain. We all looked around to see where it came from, but saw nothing. We then realized it came from above the ceiling of clouds.
"Slow down! Slow it down!" a male voice screamed.
"I'm trying," a female voice replied, "but the throttle's stuck."
"That might be because your foot is still on the accelerator," the male voice snapped.
"Oopse," the female voice said sheepishly.
"I'm gonna die!" the male voice screamed.
A purple streak suddenly shot out of the clouds and flew into the branches of the Mother Tree before we could make out what it was.
"Ha," Bret exhaled and pointed at the rest of us. "And you thought my landing sucked."
"Enough about that," Tammy shot back. "Are they all right?"
"How should I know?" Bret said.
He looked back at the hole in the foliage the object had created. Without warning, something dashed from the hole and latched to Bret's head. He screamed out of shock. It screamed in reaction to Bret's scream.
The two exchanged screams a couple times before Tammy roared, "Knock it off!"
What had flown out of the Mother Tree was a Doggel. The sky blue-furred, canine resident of the Windmill Kingdom looked around him. He then looked down at the ground. "Terra Firma!" he exclaimed as he leapt off Bret and onto the ground. "I love you," he said as he kissed the ground. He then spat out a wad of mud. "You taste like dirt, but I still love you."
We all watched the spaniel-like man. He was a Windmill Kingdom worker judging by his uniform which is identical to ours except purple with a different pattern. We had momentarily forgotten there was another voice when we heard a scream from the hole.
We all swung around and looked to the hole. A Windmill Kingdom airship was snagged in the branches with the envelope punctured. Hanging onto the edge hull was a female half-Doggel with long, blond hair held in a ponytail by a large, purple bow. Like the Doggel, she was wearing a worker's uniform.
"Help!" she cried out. "Someone, help me! I'm going to fall!"
"Lady Nicole!" the Doggel shouted.
The young woman, apparently named Nicole, lost her grip and plummeted towards the ground screaming. However, she fell into someone's cradling arms before hitting the ground. Her eyes had been screwed shut during the fall and she opened them slowly to see Lee was holding her.
He looked down into her baby blue eyes and stopped. His face reddened slightly and he gulped dryly.
"What's with Lee?" Bret asked. "He looks like he's in pain."
"He's not in any pain," Ophelia snapped at him. "I think he's fallen in love at first sight."
"What?" Bret exclaimed.
"Are you all right?" Lee asked in a gentle voice.
"Yes," she said as he set down. "Thank you."
"Thank you, God," the Doggel sighed in relief. "Her mother would have killed me if something happened to her."
"Where are my manners?" Nicole asked herself out loud. "I should probably introduce myself." She gave a dainty curtsy. "My name is Nicole Marquette and my companion is Alex Ljungqvist."
"Pleased to meet you guys," Alex said. "Most everyone calls me Al."
"Hey, Al," the Drop engineers replied.
"I'm Lee Glauca," Lee introduced himself. "This is my twin sister, Ophelia…"
"Pleased to meet you," Ophelia said.
"…Bret Greene…"
"Yo," Bret said.
"…Tammy Frost…"
"Hey," Tammy said.
"…I'm Emily Pearce and this is Franklin Smith," Emily finished the introductions for Lee.
"How's it going," Franklin said.
"Al called you Lady Nicole," Bret said. "Are you a noble?"
"Lady Marquette is the heir to the Pastureland Duchy and one of Princess Sophie's ladies in waiting," Alex proclaimed.
Nicole blushed. "You don't have to proclaim it like that," she said dismissively. "You're embarrassing me."
"What are you, Al?" Tammy asked.
"I'm just a simple navigator," Alex replied. "We came to the Tane-Tane Kingdom in search of Prince Auler and Princesses Sophie."
The Drop engineers gulped dryly. "Uh…why?" Bret asked, trying to hide his discomfort from his voice.
"They've not returned from their errand to the Drop Kingdom," Nicole explained. "The king and queen are very worried and sent us to search for them. I figured they'd either be here or in your country. You haven't seen them, have you?"
"Uh…did you bring your sense of humor?" Franklin asked.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Alex asked.
"Look down," Bret said, pointing to the ground.
The two followed his finger to us.
"Oh my God!" Alex yelped.
"Hi, Nicole," Sophie said, blissfully waving. "How's the weather up there?"
"Hi…Sophie…" Nicole said uncomfortably.
"Prince Auler, Princess Sophie," Alex exclaimed, "what's happened to you?"
"That," Bret said, pointing to the Mother Tree. "The Mother Tree threw a conniption when they said they couldn't stop the rain and shrank them."
"Uh-huh," Alex exhaled. "See ya." He spread is long ears out like wings and leapt into the air to fly away.
"Where are you going, Alex?" Nicole asked.
"Back to the Windmill Kingdom," Alex answered. "I've got to break the news King Randa."
"DON'T!" Lee, Ophelia, and Bret blurted. They all grabbed his long tail and pulled him to the ground.
"Let go of me," Alex snarled.
"You don't understand," Bret said in a panicked tone as he pulled the small Doggel up to his eye level. "If you tell King Randa, he'll inform Queen Yamul."
"Your point being?" Alex asked with apparent disinterest.
"If Queen Yamul finds out a plant if an attitude problem shrank her daughter, it'd make her angry," Bret said. He then brought Alex's face uncomfortably close to his. "You wouldn't like her when she's angry."
"We're working on returning them to normal," Lee said. "We can explain inside our airship."
We walked into the Hurricane and the shelter from the rain and cold it provided. Nicole inhaled an impressed gasp and her face lit up when she stepped in and looked around the cabin. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "You must have a fully functional weather lab in here."
"That's the idea," Tammy said.
Nicole sat down at one of the computers and began to skim through the readouts. "You have everything: Radar, barometer, wind speed and direction isolated into the three dimensional vectors, aerosol concentration, remote thermal imaging and water vapor measurements, dropsondes, radiosondes," she said giddily like a child gushing over a friend's new toy. "I bet this airship can detect things even the Sunny Kingdom's totem cones can't."
"You seem to know a lot about the weather," Ophelia said. "Do you study meteorology?"
"It's more of a hobby," Nicole replied.
Lee noticed she had the radar display up. The monitor was filled with a blob of greens and blues with specks of yellow covering the Tane-Tane Kingdom. "Did you know you can look at the profile of the rain with the radar?" he said.
"You can!?" Nicole almost squealed. She then regained her lady-like composure. "I mean, you can? Show me."
Lee touched the screen at two points and a line connected them. He then touched the confirm area and the display tilted to show the line was a rectangle rising into the air with the radar display painted on it.
"Incredible," Nicole gasped.
"You said you were working on returning the prince and princesses to normal," Alex interjected.
"We've collected data on the conditions surrounding the Tane-Tane Kingdom," Ophelia said. "We've already found the cause for the persistent rain."
"What did you find?" Nicole asked.
"The aerosol count over the Tane-Tane Kingdom is unusually high," Lee answered.
"So, you believe they're hygroscopic in nature and causing accelerated raindrop formation," Nicole said.
"Yes," Lee said eagerly. "That's exactly what we're thinking."
"Have you found the source?" Nicole asked.
"Not yet," Ophelia said. "However, I'm thinking…"
"Hey, guys," Bret said, cutting off the conversation, "Spigot's coming out."
Everyone gathered around a portal and watched. Spigot was still following King, apparently pleading with him.
"Have they been returned to normal size-dane?" King shouted.
"No," Spigot replied helplessly.
"Then, we're not satisfied-dane," King said flatly and headed back into the Mother Tree.
Spigot stood there and looked on until King disappeared and the door closed behind him. He growled something under his breath as he stomped back up the ramp. He threw open the door into the cabin and slammed it shut behind him.
"How did it go?" Ophelia asked.
"Like explaining the light bulb to cavemen," Spigot growled. "We're heading back."
"We still have almost fourteen hours before dawn," Ophelia said.
"I don't care," Spigot snarled. "I'd rather face Yamul's wrath and probable unemployment than deal with these people any more."
"What happens at dawn?" Nicole asked.
"The curse on Princess Milro and the others becomes permanent," Spigot said flatly.
"Permanent!" Nicole and Alex exclaimed.
Franklin happened to look out a porthole and see a Molmo worker running towards the Mother Tree. "Why is he in such a hurry?"
"I don't care," Spigot said to no one in particular. "I've had it with the Tane-Tane Kingdom."
As the Molmo ran past the rear hatch, Emily poked her head out the door and asked, "What's your hurry?"
"It's terrible," the mole-like worker panted. "The earthen dam holding back the northern reservoir has sprung a leak. If it's not fixed, the whole thing could collapse and flood the entire valley below."
Emily turned back to the others. "It sounds like they have real a crisis on their hands."
"We've got to do something about it," I asserted.
The engineers all gave a nod in response.
Emily turned back to the Molmo. "What direction is the reservoir?" she asked.
"That way," the Molmo said and pointed in the general direction he came from.
"That's all we needed to know," Emily said. "Come on, guys."
They dashed out into the rain in the direction the Molmo pointed. Alex placed Auler, Sophie, and me on the brim of his hat and flew after them. Although reluctant, Spigot ran after the others after a couple seconds of hesitation.
King came out with Axe and several others. "What's going on-dane?" he asked.
"There's a breach in the northern reservoir's dam," The Molmo said.
"Quick, gather a repair crew, quick-dane," King ordered Axe.
"I'll get right on it." Axe saluted.
"I think you may already have one," the Molmo said as we disappeared into the woods.
