The group just stood there, staring at the mountain. The Hippo began backing up, to get a better view of the top of it. In doing so, he nearly backed clear off the mountain ledge.

"Whoa!" he shouted, waving his arms, trying to steady himself. Luckily, Fluey grabbed him before he could fall.

"Hey, man, be careful!" he shouted, pulling the Hippo back onto the ledge. "It's a long way down!"

"So . . . . . what do we do now?" Mel asked.

"Figure out how to get in, I suppose," Fluey said, shrugging.

"Hold it, hold it, hold it," Henrietta said. "Aren't you forgetting something? The Wheelers said the Nome King doesn't like chickens."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Fluey said. "Hey, wait a minute, I got an idea. Mel, come here. We'll hide Henrietta inside your head."

"Why my head?" Mel asked.

"Because you're the only one here who's head is hollow," Fluey said.

"I've heard of feather brains, but this is ridiculous," Henrietta cackled, as Fluey picked her up, and hid her inside Mel's casaba mellon head.

"You want to end up roasting on a spit?" Fluey asked. "Just stay in there and keep quiet."

After they got Henrietta settled, the group began looking around, trying to figure out what to do. Nobody noticed they were being watched by a face in the rocks. The same face in the rocks that had spied on Fluey when he landed in Paws. Once it saw what it needed to see, it disappeared from the exterior of the mountain, and appeared again in the interior.

"Your majesty!" the creature shouted. "It's him! He escaped Mombi, crossed the desert, and now he's on our mountain with an army!"

"Hmmm . . . . ." the deep voice within the mountain said. "He is obviously more powerful than I assumed. What about the chicken?"

"There is no sign of a chicken," the rock creature said.

"I'd better look into this myself."

Back on the mountain ledge, our heroes continued looking around, until Fluey stopped, and stared at the mountain.

"Brother, I must be losing it," he said. "I could almost swear there's a face in the rocks."

"If you're losing it, then I'm losing it with you," the Squirrel said.

"Tell me who you are!" the face in the rock shouted. "And what you're doing here on my mountain!"

"Holy Mesopotamia!" Fluey shouted, nearly jumping out his skin. "It talks!"

"I think maybe it's the Nome King," the Hippo said.

"I'll say it again," the Nome King said. "Tell me who you are!"

"I'm Fluid Man, of the Impossibles, your majesty," Fluey said. "And these are my friends, the Clockwork Hippo, the Mellon-Headed Squid, and the Squirrel."

"Fluid Man . . . ." the Nome King repeated. "The Fluid Man from Jellystone Park?"

"Uhh, yeah, I guess . . . . ." Fluey said. "Considering that's where I was before I ended up in Paws the first time. Anyway, we're here to ask you to release the Scarecrow and to restore the Amethyst City."

"I see," the Nome King said. "You believe I have stolen something, and you want me to give it back, do you?"

"Yes sir," Fluey said.

"You think if someone steals something, then the right thing to do is to give it back, do you?"

"Yes sir."

"I see . . . . . and perhaps they don't want to give it back, hmm? What then, Fluid Man?"

"Well . . . . . then we'll conquer you, and force you to give it back if we have to! I have the Royal Army of Paws with me!"

"Army?"

The Hippo then came forward, and saluted. The Nome King then began snickering at this. Then the snickers built up to hysterical laughter. The mountain began shaking as he laughed, until the ground began cracking open. Everyone backed up, to avoid falling into the cracks. Unfortunately, Fluey couldn't back away fast enough, and he fell directly into one of the cracks.

"Rally heeeeeeyyyyyy!" he shouted.

Fluey fell through what appeared to be some kind of cavern, filled with what looked like crystals, though Fluey wasn't quite sure what they were.

"All the precious stones in the world are made here," he heard the Nome King say. "And they're all made for me, by my Nomes. So you can imagine how I feel when someone from above digs down here, and steals my treasures! All the amethysts in the Amethyst City belong to me! So you see, I was just taking back what rightfully belongs to me!"

"But you have so many!" Fluey shouted.

"That's not the point!" the Nome King shouted. "I am not the thief here!"

Fluey suddenly hit the floor, and slid down an incline, directly into the Scarecrow.

"Hey, hey, hee," the Scarecrow said. "Long time, no see, Fluey."

"Scarecrow, what . . . ." Fluey began. Before he could finish the sentence, a crash of thunder was heard, and in a flash, the Scarecrow had disappeared.

"Huh?" Fluey shouted, standing up. "What . . . . . where . . . ."

"It's your friend that's the thief," the Nome King said. Fluey looked around, and noticed a face in the wall, sort of smirking at him.

"What happened?" Fluey asked. "What did you do with the Scarecrow?"

"I transformed him," the Nome King said. "I turned him into an ornament for my palace. I had been planning to do it for quite some time now, and your coming here reminded me to do it. Thank you."

And with that, the Nome King disappeared. Fluey converted to liquid and shot toward the wall, ready to punch his lights out, but the Nome King vanished before he could get there, and he only succeeded in crashing into the wall.

SPLAT!

"Oooh!" he shouted, converting back to solid. "He didn't steal the amethysts! They were already there when he came! Somebody else stole them! The Scarecrow didn't steal anything! They were already there, do you hear me? They were already there!"

Fluey sat down on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He knew this wasn't going to get him anywhere, but he had no idea what else to do. So he just sat there and tried to get his bearings. He had a feeling he was going to get hysterical in a minute, and that definitely wouldn't help the situation. As he was sitting there, trying to get a hold of himself, he suddenly felt someone, or something, stroking his hair, much like Big D often did to calm him down whenever he did start getting hysterical. Fluey looked up, and saw the Nome King in the rocks, except he looked a little more humanesque than before. He actually looked a little familiar to Fluey, but the dark-haired Impossible couldn't quite place it.

"Calm down," the Nome King said. "Just calm down. There's no need for hysterics."

"He didn't steal the amethysts!" Fluey shouted. "They were already there! They were there when the Wizard of Paws left him and the Tin Hound Dog and the Cowardly Lion in charge!"

"I see," the Nome King said. "Well, you know all is not lost, Fluid Man. I think I may have a solution to this little problem."

Fluey looked at the Nome King oddly, and then heard a scream. Or rather three screams. He turned around, and saw the Hippo, Mel, and the Squirrel come sliding into the room from the incline. Then they crashed into the wall.

"Anybody got a Aspirin?" the Hippo asked, dazedly.

"Now, then, you and your friends can play a little game," the Nome King said. "And I bet you'll get the Scarecrow back, after all. You're a very resourceful young man. You'd risk something for that now, wouldn't you?"

Fluey thought that one over. This would take some time to consider.

"You and your friends can inspect my ornament collection, one at a time," the Nome King continued. "You all have three chances each to guess which one is the Scarecrow. If you touch the right object and say the word Paws at the same time, the Scarecrow will be restored, and you may all leave? Does that sound fair to you?"

"I guess . . . . ." Fluey said, hesitantly.

"I don't think there's much of anything else we can do, Fluey," the Squirrel said.

"Yeah, we're up a creek without a paddle," the Hippo said.

"Yeah, we don't have much of a choice here," Fluey said. Then he stood up. "Okay. We accept the challenge."

"Excellent," the Nome King said. Then, several hands appeared in another stone wall, and began moving about, as if they were clearing stones away from the entrance. Fluey made a face as he watched. This whole thing was creeping him out big time.

"Paws really was nothing like this the last time I was here," he said.

Finally, the hands cleared, and there was an entrance to the Nome King's ornament collection.

"Why doesn't the squirrel go first?" the Nome King suggested.

"Why do I have a feeling I'd be better off stuffed?" the Squirrel asked, as he went through the opening. Once he was inside, the hands closed up the opening in the wall. There was nothing the others could do then, but wait.

Meanwhile, the Wheelers were returning to Mombi. Mombi was waiting for them from her balcony.

"Well?" she asked. "Where are they?"

"They went over the desert!" the lead Wheeler shouted. "Heading toward the Nome King's mountain!"

"We have to warn him about the chicken!" Mombi shouted. "Take me to the Nome King, you morons!"

The Wheelers began rolling into a tunnel at the side of the castle. Mombi followed them, and hooked them up to a chariot of sorts. Then, she climbed in, took out a whip, and began striking the Wheelers to get them moving.

"Go!" she yelled. "Get going, you idiots!"

The Wheelers began shrieking like monkeys as they wheeled along the tunnel underneath the desert. This tunnel connected Mombi's castle to the Nome King's throne room.

During this, our heroes sat around the Nome King's throne room, waiting for the Squirrel. As they were waiting, they heard a brief rumble of thunder.

"I wish he'd hurry up in there," Mel said. "It's making me nervous!"

"You know, the Nome King said something about a risk," the Hippo said. "Just what is it we're risking?"

Suddenly there was a gigantic crash of thunder that knocked our heroes right off their feet. There was also a flash of lightning that practically blinded them, as well.

"Oh brother, what was that?" Fluey shouted.

"Next!" the Nome King shouted, almost smugly. The hands began opening the tunnel to the ornament room again. Fluey stood up, and looked around.

"Uhhh, where's the Squirrel?" he asked, turning toward the Nome King. He noticed he had become more humanesque once more.

"Oh, he's turned into an ornament," the Nome King said. "You see, he failed to guess correctly, so now he's part of my collection."

"Oh no!" Mel and the Hippo shouted in unison.

"I guess that's the risk," Mel said.

"But that's not fair!" Fluey shouted. "You didn't tell us about it!"

"I beg to differ," the Nome King said. "You didn't ask, and you said you were willing to take a risk, after all."

"Holy Mesopotamia . . . ." Fluey groaned. "Look, buster, you should have told us what risk we were taking!"

"Oh really?" the Nome King said. "Perhaps, then, you would rather take a visit to my fiery furnace!"

Suddenly, another door opened, and a giant fire ball shot out of it. It was too big for Fluey to take on, that was for sure. Mel screamed, and jumped backwards.

"Thank you, Mellon Head, for volunteering to be next," the Nome King said.

"Me?" Mel shouted, nervously.

"It's okay, Mel," Fluey said. "We'll get out of this yet. Just be careful in there, okay?"

"Well, I'll try."

And with that, Mel walked into the tunnel, and the rock hands closed it behind them.

"Man . . . . I don't know if I can take much more of this," Fluey groaned, holding his hand to his head.

"I don't think Mel's gonna do us any good in there," the Hippo said. "He's not much on thinking."

"Maybe he'll get lucky," Fluey said, shrugging. The minute he said that, a small rumble of thunder was heard.

"Then again, maybe not," Fluey sighed. Then he turned to the Hippo. "Do you need winding?"

"Yeah, my brain could use a little tightening," the Hippo said. Fluey nodded, and started winding the Hippo's brains.

"They should've made you so you could wind yourself up," he said as he turned the key. "Most of the trouble you get into is from winding down."

Another small rumble of thunder was heard. Fluey swallowed, nervously. There was only one more guess left for Mel, and he had a pretty good feeling it was going to be the wrong guess. Moments after the small rumble of thunder, a gigantic crash came, followed by a flash of lightning.

"Next!" the Nome King shouted. "The Army of Paws!"

"Well, here goes nothing," the Hippo said. "Whoooaaa boy . . . . . ."

And with that, the Hippo walked through the tunnel to the ornament room, leaving Fluey alone with the Nome King. Fluey looked over at him, and gasped. He looked even more human than before, and this time, Fluey was able to figure out why he looked so familiar to him. The Nome King looked eerily like Big D. This unnerved Fluey quite a bit.

"Why did you come here, anyway, Fluid Man?" the Nome King asked, lighting a stone pipe.

"I told you why," Fluey said, swallowing nervously. He hoped the Nome King wouldn't noticed he was freaked out, big time here.

"You came all this way just for a bear shaped scarecrow?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm. Are you sure you didn't come back for something else? Like these, perhaps?"

The Nome King then took something out from behind his throne. It was a pair of sparkling blue boots. Fluey recognized them immediately.

"My sapphire boots!" he shouted, running over to grab them.

"No, I'm afraid not," the Nome King said. "They're my boots now. They just . . . . fell out of the sky one day, right over my mountain. I must say, they're very powerful. As a matter of fact, they enabled me to conquer the Amethyst City. If it weren't for you being in such a hurry to get home, you'd never have let them fall off, now would you? Thanks to your . . . . carelessness, let's say, I was able to conquer the Amethyst City. Thank you so much."

Fluey bit his lower lip and looked down. He had no idea when he returned home from Paws, that the boots had fallen off. But it made sense how come he didn't have them when he woke up in Jellystone Park. He couldn't think of what had happened to them. All he remembered was closing his eyes, clicking his heels three times, and chanting "there's no place like home." The next thing he knew, he was back in Jellystone Park.

As Fluey was thinking this over, a Nome appeared in the wall, and whispered something to the Nome King.

"Hmmm . . . . ." he said. "It would appear that your army has stopped guessing and is standing perfectly still in the middle of the room."

"His action must've wound down again," Fluey said. "Guess I should've wound that up a little too along with his brains."

"I see," the Nome King said. "Why don't you go inside and wind him up? Then, once he finishes guessing, you could stay there and guess for yourself."

The rock hands began moving again, opening the tunnel. Fluey stood there for a few moments, thinking. Then, he began walking toward the tunnel, nervously.

"Fluid," the Nome King said. A chill ran down Fluey's spine for a moment. It made him incredibly nervous that the Nome King looked, and sounded exactly like Big D. Nonetheless, Fluey stopped, and turned toward him.

"You don't have to go down there," the Nome King said. "I've given the matter some thought. I could use the sapphire boots, and send you back home. And when you get there, you'll never think of Paws again."

"You're kidding," Fluey said.

"No," The Nome King replied. "I never kid."

"So what about my friends?"

"Forget about them. You can't help them, anyway. It's your choice, Fluid. My ornament collection, or going home. Remember, there's no place like home?"

Fluey stood there for a moment. Then he glared at the Nome King and went down the tunnel. His friends needed him.