Immediately after the group's encounter with the Allergic Cliffs, Xekrai remained positive that there was a town or city somewhere on the land mass. Four days later, he was not so sure.

"I'm starting to think Echae was right," Conneda muttered to him as they trudged listlessly along. "Maybe nobody lives here after all."

"No way, man! There is no way Echae was right and I was wrong! That just doesn't happen!"

Saetwo, who was flying by, couldn't help but join in on this conversation. "Oh yeah? What about in all those times in school? As I recall, Echae has had straight A-pluses since kindergarten!"

"Sae, you're embarrasing me," said Echae, who was indeed turning a profuse shade of red. "Some of us just happen to like math, that's all."

"That's right, Echae," sneered Xekrai. "They're called nerds."

Several Zoombinis snickered, much to Echae's chagrin.

"Well, Xekrai, let me tell you something. We're lost in the middle of nowhere, we're out of food, and nobody knows we're here. I don't need math to tell you that that adds up to a very bad leader."

The same Zoombinis laughed again, and this time Xekrai appeared distressed.

"You're asking for a fight, Echae!" he snarled, sensing his leadership was being threatened.

"Ah, too bad. I don't fight girls."

"THAT DOES IT!!"

Xekrai was about to throw himself at Echae, but stopped dead when Saetwo interposed herself between the two.

"Guys! As much as I would enjoy watching this display of manliness, there's something I think you'd better check out."

"What?!" Echae and Xekrai both snapped.

"Over there." She gestured behind them, and everyone looked.

About a hundred feet away was one of the strangest geographic features the group had ever seen: four small caves, two of them set on top of the other two, with a rocky path leading up to each one. Accompanying them were four large boulders; one on the top, one on the bottom, and one on either side.

"What's so great about those?" asked Touli.

"Oh come on, you really think those things occured naturally?" said Saetwo. "Caves don't just pop up in neat little rows like that, you know. It seems to me like somebody made them."

"You mean. . . .?" Echae began.

"That's right. Somebody does live here."

"We'll see about that," Xekrai said shortly. "I say we get a closer look."

As the group of travelers approached the four caves, they were dismayed to discover that the road they had been following for days came to a dead end. On the other hand, the four stone paths converged together on a ledge behind the caves and continued on – the only possible road that they could see.

"Well, whatever the case may be, it looks like we'll have to go inside," Echae sighed.

"That's right," said Xekrai. "So everybody follow me."

He marched up to the caves and was about to set his foot on one of the paths, when suddenly:

"We've got visitors!" came a voice from out of nowhere.

Xekrai jumped back several feet. "Who said that?!"

"Not me," said Echae, rather defensively.

"Uggh!" came a second voice. "Strange lookin' bunch!"

Xekrai blinked. "Okay, this isn't funny," he said sharply, whipping his head around in all directions. "Who's doing that?"

"The flood gates are opened, it seems," remarked a third, distinctively female voice.

"What did we do to deserve this?" groaned a fourth.

By now, all the Zoombinis, Xekrai included, were crowded together, visibly terrified.

"Sae," Echae stammered, "d-do you think this place is. . . haunted?"

"Oh, for Pete's sake! Are you people ugly and stupid?" snapped the second voice. "Look straight ahead!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice, and if any of them had had jaws, they would have dropped open. The four boulders, which had been completely normal a moment before, now each had a face.

"AAAAAAAHHH!!!" Echae shrieked. "GHOST ROCKS!!!"

"Would you lay off with the ghosts?! We are not ghosts!" said the boulder on the right, who was the last one to have spoken. Unlike the others, he had only one eye, a protruding rock covering up the place where his left one should have been.

"We prefer the term 'Cave Guards'," agreed the one on the bottom, who was the largest of the four and had a much more dignified voice than the others.

"Oh, great," Xekrai moaned. "More of this? Are all the rocks here alive?!"

"Heh heh. Nope. We're special," said the left boulder, who had an almost comically large nose. "Nice to meet ya, by the way. We don't see many people around here."

"I wonder why not," Echae muttered.

"I heard that," said the bottom boulder, who seemed to be the leader. "If you don't want to pass through the caves, that's all right with us."

"No! We do," Saetwo said apologetically, flying up to them with caution. "We're sorry. We're just not used to, uh, talking rocks, that's all."

Xekrai wasn't so understanding. "You're saying we need your permission to come through here?"

"Well, we are the Cave Guards, after all," said the top boulder, the only female of the group.

"Have you guys got names?" asked Touli.

"Well of couse we do," said the bottom boulder in his insufferably haughty tone. "I am Onyx."

"The name's Crystal," said the left one.

"I'm Ferrous," said the top one.

"And who are you?" Xekrai asked the right one.

"I'm Ignorameous," he replied.

All at once, nearly every Zoombini in the group burst out into not-very-well-controlled snickering.

"What?" demanded Igno. "Why does everybody always laugh when I say that?!"

"Well, I can already tell I don't want to hang around here any longer," said Xekrai. "So if you'll all excuse me. . . ."

He walked haughtily up to one of the paths on the right and began to march up it, but he hadn't gotten very far before Igno suddenly hurled himself into the air and slammed back down on the stone platform he had been sitting on. The ensuing vibrations caused a small rockslide that sent Xekrai tumbling head over heels down the path and back onto the ground.

"Pff – HA HA HA! Bye-bye!"

"Hey! What was that all about?!" asked a very annoyed Xekrai, marching back up to Igno and glaring right up at him. "You wanna piece of me, Rocky?"

"Xekrai. . ." said Echae, "for some reason, I don't think picking a fight with a rock is a very good idea."

"Although it would be fun to watch," Saetwo chimed in.

"Oh, shut up, both of you," Xekrai grumbled as he turned and walked up the path that led up to the lower-left cave. Onyx and Crystal both watched him unconcernedly as he went.

"Well, who's next?" asked Onyx.

Saetwo let out a long sigh. "Here goes nothing, I guess."

She flew over to the path that Xekrai had walked up and started flying up herself. She had almost made it when Onyx leapt into the air as Igno had done, crashing down on his perch and sending poor Saetwo crashing back down to the ground.

"Tsk tsk," he remarked.

"What is with you guys?" she snapped once she had regained her balance.

"Oh, hey, didn't we tell you?" Crystal asked innocently. "We got rules about who can go where."

"What?" Echae cried. "What the heck for?"

"Mostly our own amusement," said Igno.

"We must be selective about our clientele," Ferrous agreed.

"And I suppose we have to figure these rules out ourselves, is that right?" asked Saetwo.

"Oh great. It's the Allergic Cliffs all over again," Echae groaned, shaking his head. "Well, Sae, if you got us through this once, I'm sure you can do it again."

This seemed to get Xekrai's attention.

"Now wait just a sec!" he snapped from where he was standing inside his cave. "Who's the leader here? If she can figure this out, then so can I!"

"You?" Saetwo couldn't help but laugh. "Xekrai, not to be offensive or anything, but. . . you're not exactly the brainy type."

"Oh, and you are? Look, you had a lucky break. I can get us through this single-handedly."

"You mean no-handedly?" Echae corrected.

"SHUT UP!! I'm in charge, and that means we listen to me! So everybody just pipe down and let me think."

"You obviously need the practice," Igno muttered.

"That goes for you too!" Xekrai barked.

"Echae, we're not gonna let him go through with this, are we?" Saetwo asked, flying around in agitated little circles. "If these guys are anything like the last time, he can't figure this out on his own!"

"Aw, Sae, why don't we let him try? It's not like we fall off a cliff if he's wrong. We might as well humor him."

"He is the leader," agreed a purple-nosed Zoombini. "Saetwo, you should put more faith in him."

Saetwo sighed deeply, not attempting to stop her eyes from rolling. "Fine. Xekrai can do it."

-----

"I can't believe he actually did it."

Saetwo was inside the upper-left cave, between Crystal and Ferrous, with three other Zoombinis, and she was not in a good mood. All the Zoombinis were now safely occupying one cave or another, and each one of them had been put there by Xekrai. All of them, except for Saetwo and Echae, were cheering.

"I knew he could do it!" Touli squealed from next to Saetwo. "Xekrai's the best leader ever!"

"We're lucky to have him!" agreed one of the others.

Even the Cliff Guards seemed impressed. "That was very good work, blue one!" Ferrous called down to Xekrai in her melodic voice.

"I am forced to agree," said Onyx. "You are quite clever."

"We-he-hell, it wasn't that hard," Xekrai replied with the falsest modesty Saetwo had ever heard. "You, Onyx, won't take anbody with a ponytail or a spring, and Crystal over there won't take anybody with sunglasses or a green nose. Anybody could have figured it out."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Saetwo grumbled.

"You are a very good leader," Onyx informed Xekrai, "and you have passed our test. You and all your friends are free to go."

"And don't come back. Please. Looking at you make me wish I didn't even have one eye," said Igno.

"I'LL SHOW YOU!!" Xekrai screamed as he jumped out of his cave, leapt over Onyx, and proceeded to stomp repeatedly on top of Igno as hard as he possibly could.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh!" Igno cackled, obviously highly amused by this.

"Although you still have a bit of a temper. . . ." Onyx commented.

"Come on, you guys, let's get out of here," Saetwo said to Touli and the others. In very low spirits, she flew to the back of the cave and out onto the path. The Zoombinis from all the other caves quickly joined her, and finally Xekrai seemed to notice what was going on and abandoned his assault on Igno.

"This isn't over!" he promised the boulder before running after the others.

"Well, I didn't think he had it in him," said Echae as they left, "but Xekrai actually pulled it off. Maybe he's a better leader than we thought."

"I don't care how good he is. This is just going to give him an even bigger head, and that's just going to get us into trouble. Hey, the rocks are saying goodbye to us. Bye, everyone!"

"Good luck on your journey!" Ferrous called after them.

"Say hi to Arno!" Crystal piped up.

"Arno? Who's Arno?" Saetwo wondered.

"Who cares?" Xekrai griped as he marched on ahead of her. "Just as long as he's not another talking rock. I've had enough of those to last me a long time."