"Hey, Flora," Tak asked. "Do you remember how many Yorbels are in Dryrock? I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to…"
"Well, hm, lemme see…" She began mentally counting, drumming her green fingers on the side of the lift. "There's about fifteen in Dryrock alone, however, there's twenty four in a cavern, hidden somewhere in the lower part of the place, so, that's thirty nine in all, adding onto the ones we got before, that would make…fourty four!
Tak groaned in exasperation. "This is gonna take longer than I thought…" he said, looking away from Flora, only to come face to face with Kat. More specifically, the middle of her yellow, chartreuse and green dress, but she squatted down to be at eye level with him.
"Hey, I'm gonna help collect some of 'em…and so will Flora. Right Flora?" The brunette asked the nymph-like juju standing on the other side of the lift. This took Flora by surprise, causing her to do a slight jump.
"Huh? Oh, uh, sure, I guess…" She said with uncertainty laced in her voice. Kat nodded and turned back to Tak.
"So don't you worry your pretty little head about this Yorbel deal, kid!" She said, ruffling Tak's hair. "We'll be always helping you out along the way. 100 may seem like a quite a lot, but you know, in time, we'll be collecting them like nobody's business!"
The rail carrying them came to a stop, and they hopped out. They looked around the area they were dropped off in, seeing if there were any Yorbels around.
"Well, looks like this will be quite the scavenger hunt…" Flora said, pressing a finger to her cheek.
"Scavenger hunt…HEY!" Kat said, suddenly coming up with an idea. "Why don't we make this fun? It could be like a game…a race!"
Flora looked at Kat, now liking the idea of helping her and Tak out with Yorbel collecting herself. "A race? How so?" She asked, intrigued.
"We each get five of them. Whoever gets back to a set point first is the winner!"
"Ok, but one thing…" Tak interjected. "No cheating by flying or teleporting. You've gotta be fair for me!"
"Alright." Flora agreed. "Well, we meet back at the tram." She said, marking the spot with an X via her foot. "Ok, with that decided…"
"LET'S GO!" All three shouted, enthusiastically.
They set off for their separate paths. Tak took the lower levels, Flora took the edges, and Kat searched around the center.
Poor Tak, being restricted to the bottom, was being chased after by hordes after hordes of Nerbils. Thankfully, after exploring quite a bit, he was able to find a rhino that was able to knock down layers of wooden gates, along with more waves of Nerbils that came his way. After collecting his designated five yorbels, he rushed back on the rhino to the meeting place.
Kat leapt around the center high-rocks with ease. She would've gotten done quicker, if not for the coconut-tossing nerbils that were scattered around. When she had collected her last yorbel, she was about to head back to the tram, but not before she turned and saw a strange artifact with a bright green glow near her. She had to get it before she went back.
As Flora scaled the edges, she kept an eye out for any type of Nerbil that would get in her way. But soon enough, she found something strange that grabbed her attention as well. There was a large door at the opposite end of the canyon from where they left. Engraved upon it was a strange symbol of something that looked similar to the sun. She was sure she recognized it from somewhere, she just forgot where. But then she realized her thoughts were distracting her, and she quickly flew back.
Kat got back first, quickly followed by Tak. When she heard his footsteps, she looked over to him and smiled.
"What?!" Tak exclaimed as he saw Kat back first. "Aw. Man! I almost beat you! I was THIS close!"
"Well, ya did good, Tak. Got your five?" Kat asked, taking out her five marble-sized yorbels from one of the folds of her dress.
"Mmhm!" He opened the satchel he carried, showing the five he got here and the ones he got before making ten. The brunette then dumped her five yorbels into the satchel. The two sat and waited patiently for Flora.
After about two minutes, Flora flew back as quickly as an arrow. She then opened her eyes and saw the two of them already there. "Oh MAN!" She groaned, realizing she had lost the race. "Okay," the nymph said with exasperation. "Who got here first?"
"Kat did." Tak said, pointing to her. "But if she were only a few seconds late, I would've beaten her!" He said with a proud voice.
"Yeah," Kat agreed. "It was a really close match! Oh, and uhm, one more thing…" The brunette explained as Flora was handing her five yorbels to Tak. "I found this on an outcropping. Can you tell me what it is?" And Kat reached into another dress fold, and pulled out a glowing, green tiki.
Flora and Tak stood there with mouths agape, looking at the artifact Kat held. "I've only heard about those…" the young boy whispered, pointing at the tiki, amazed.
"Kat, you found a juju tiki!" Flora said, moving closer and examining it. "I know where the shrine is, guys! C'mon!" And with that, they followed the glowing green ball to an unshaded part of the canyon.
"Oww…" Tak whined, with a stinging heat pricking at the soles of his feet. "Why does rock have to be this hot from being in the sun all day?" Tak said, shielding his eyes from the intense sunlight.
"Whoa," Kat said, looking at where the sun rose from. "Is it already noon, or is the sun just brighter than it was yesterday?"
"No, I think noon is in about…two hours. The sun does seem brighter, though. Why do you s'pose that is?"
"Here we are, guys!" Flora exclaimed, pointing at the shrine There were five stone faces surrounding it, with a risen rock center with a hole to put something in.
Kat quickly turned to Tak and handed him the tiki. "I think you should do the honors, Tak. It's your quest, after all!" She said with a wink.
Tak then walked up to the shrine, knelt down, and carefully placed the tiki into the center. Light surrounded him, swirling about, and he moved away. But suddenly, the light shot away from the shrine, and through a door they were next to. As Flora's eyes watched the light move, she couldn't help but notice that the door the lights shot through had the same pattern of the door she found before. Tak, however, didn't hesitate at all, and ran to the door as quickly as he could.
He knocked the door, which surprisingly made a loud, metallic noise, and a nervous, high pitched voice suddenly chimed.
"Ooh! Uh…s-somebody's at the door!" It wavered. Another voice joined in. This one, much deeper and a bit more steady in its' speech.
"What strange traveler comes to this lonely cursed gateway?" The deeper voice asked, ominously.
"My name is Tak!" Tak shouted, hoping the jujus behind the door could hear him. "Uh…I-I'm here on a important mission! You must open this door…uh…immediately…please."
"Oh, just a minute!" The high pitched voice said. "Um, before we can open this portal, we must check the sacred list!"
"Sacred list? What list?" Tak asked, confused. The deep voice responded.
"You have to be on the sacred list to get in. Now let's see…"
Flora and Kat watched from behind Tak. Flora pressed a finger to her chin and asked herself, "Where have I heard those voices before…?" Until her eyes widened, and she suddenly facepalmed. Kat put a hand on the agitated Flora's shoulder. In response, the nymph growled, "I forgot mom put that idiot on guard duty here, when he's supposed to be at Chicken Island! Ugh…two heads…no brain."
From Tak's view, the two voices began reading off the 'list', with the higher one starting.
"Um, there's 'Tabore Plus One'…"
"And Tadourt the Elder, party of three…"
"Taffie, party of t-"
"Oh, remember 'Taffy Dates The Most Incredible Looking Jujesses?' Remember Gazellda the Gargantua? Oh baby!" The high voice swooned.
"Oh yeah, ladies love Taffy, even if he is so…" The deep voice trailed off as he continued down the list.
"Okay, um…Ta-Galog?"
"Ugh, forget the list!" Tak shouted, horribly annoyed. "WILL YOU JUST OPEN THIS DOOR?!"
"Oh, well, um, what did you say your name was, again?" The high pitched voice asked.
Tak sighed and said, "Tak. T-A-K!"
"Ah here it is!" The lower voice said. "Tak, party of one! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'RE ON THE LIST, MAN!"
"Well, then, we'll open the door for you!"
Tak was happy at first, but as he saw the top of the door begin to come loose, he quickly ran out and took cover behind a rock to the side of the door. Flora and Kat did the same, since they didn't want to get crushed either. But as the door come down, a green-skinned, two headed Juju, wearing overalls and a white shirt with a red 'J' on it looked around for who they were talking to.
"Mister Tak, party of one?" The right head asked.
"Hey…he just took off!" The left head said, disappointed. "I dunno. Same thing that ever happens every time we open this door."
"Yeah…hey, shouldn't we be getting back to our post at Chicken Island?" The right head asked the left one.
"Yeah! Good idea, bro!" The left head replied, and they disappeared.
The three looked up carefully from behind the rock, and looked at the entrance that was left by the two headed juju.
"Should we go in?" Kat asked Flora with uncertainty.
"Hey…I think these are the dryrock caverns! Come on, you two!" Flora said as she motioned the two to follow her once again.
A/N: Oh, up next comes one of my least favorite parts of this game. But don't worry. Tak won't get bombarded by nerbils in the caverns. Hopefully he'll get out of there just fine!