It's almost 1:30 am as I'm writing this, I should really be asleep!

"You sold WHAT to Bazaar!?"

It was finally morning, and Dixie had fallen off the couch. There was a bruise over her eye, her hair was all over the place, and her shirt was covered in drool. On the TV, there were apples rolling along a green background.

"So you're telling me that you sold your great-grandfather's mirror JUST so you can keep playing Swanky's games!?" Wrinkly yelled as she stepped out of the kitchen. A few minutes later, she started pinching the bridge of her nose. "I swear, you're as dumb as you were when we first met!"

Dixie was about to say something, but was interrupted as Wrinkly went back into the kitchen. "All right, well you'd better be feeding Squitter while you're over there...A spider can't do anything on an empty stomach, you know!"

...Well, since she was awake, Dixie figured she would go ahead and get herself ready to explore Cotton-Top Cove. She switched out her pink clothes for some purple clothes and brushed through her hair. When she was done getting herself ready, she made her way into the kitchen and sat down by the table. Thankfully, by this point, Wrinkly was done speaking with Cranky. She was standing over the stove while making omelettes.

"So, are you ready to keep exploring?"

"You bet I am," Dixie replied as the Banana Birds around her started singing.

"I see," Wrinkly said, smiling. "Well, from the sounds of it, those birds look really excited to see some more company around here."

"I'll bet they are," Dixie replied. "And I'll bet Kiddy's looking forward to it, too."

"Well I'm glad to hear it," Wrinkly said. "Believe it or not, our son Junior used to be around Kiddy's age when he rescued Cranky all those years ago."

"Wait...you mean Cranky's been kidnapped before?"

"Of course" Wrinkly replied. "He was taken by someone in a red hat...though I can't recall what his name was."

Dixie sat there with a surprised look on her face, she could never imagine Cranky being the type of person who'd get captured...then again, she never thought DK would get captured before, so who was she to judge?

"Anyway," Wrinkly said as she put the omlette on a plate before handing it over to Dixie, "I don't want you exploring on an empty stomach, all right?"

"Yes, ma'am," Dixie said as she started eating her food. She scratched near where her bruise would be. But suprisingly...the bruise was gone. Perhaps she imagined it?

...Either way, she needed to head over to Cotton-Top Cove soon.

After Dixie finished eating, she headed on over to Bazaar's Cabin. She wasn't sure if there were any enemies over there, so perhaps Bazaar would be able to tell her something? But as she entered the store, she could see Funky and Kiddy sitting in front of the counter. Bazaar was standing behind the counter with donuts in his claws.

"Heya, Dixie." Funky greeted. "Want a donut?"

"...Maybe just one," Dixie replied. Funky grabbed the box of donuts and handed one of them to Dixie.

"We exploring Dik-shi?" Kiddy asked as he received a donut from Funky. Strangely, Kiddy was wearing green pajamas rather than the blue ones he would normally wear.

"We will in a moment," Dixie replied. "I just wanted to ask Bazaar about Cotton-Top Cove."

"Oh really?" Bazaar asked as he started tapping his claws against the counter. "What did you want to ask?"

"Do you know if there are any bad guys out there?" Dixie asked. Bazaar had a look of uncertainty on his face, he brought his claws against his chin. "I don't know for sure...But I can tell you this, my brothers DID see DK and Diddy over there at some point.

In that moment, Dixie and Funky gave Bazaar a dumbfounded look, it was as if they got slapped in the face.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Funky asked sternly.

"Well? it's been days since we've seen 'em," Bazaar replied with a shrug. "Not to mention that my brothers are pretty busy over there."

"...I guess you have a point," Dixie replied. "They could be anywhere right now."

"Well it's a good thing I got done fixing that hovercraft," Funky replied. "You should be able to go beyond Lake Orangutanga at this point...though I don't think you'll be able to reach that castle."

"Oh, right!" Dixie yelled. "Does anyone know who lives in that castle?"

"Not that I know of," Bazaar said with a shrug. "That castle's been abandoned for YEARS."

"Plus, you wouldn't be able to make it to that castle even if you wanted to," Funky replied. "You'd need to find some skis if you wanna get past the waterfalls."

Dixie nodded in understanding. Though she was certain that castle was where Kaos came from, now wasn't the time to worry about it. For now, she just needed to get through Cotton-Top Cove and find the missing banana birds.

Once the Kongs were ready, Funky allowed Dixie to use the hovercraft he had been working on the night before. In addition to Kiddy joining her, Ellie decided to join her as well. And since Cotton-Top Cove was mostly made up of water, Dixie figured that bringing an elephant sounded like a good idea.

As the group kept moving, they drove by a small island full of factories. There was also a dam, which kept the Kongs out of the island. Eventually, the group made their way over to Cotton-Top Cove.

The lakes appeared to be a deep-blue color, with waterfalls feeding into it from another lake above it. To Dixie, it was surprising to see how empty it was. But it wasn't completely abandoned, as she was able to hear birthday music coming from a nearby beach house.

Dixie made her way over to the door and started knocking. Kiddy followed after her while Ellie laid down beside one of the nearby lakes. In a moment, the door started to open. Standing at the doorway was a bear in tan clothing, he resembled an explorer.

"Oh, you must be the Kongs Bazaar was talking about earlier" said the bear. "I'd love to talk, but uh...we have...something else going on."

"I see that, but-"

"Hey, Bramble! Who's at the door?" asked another bear from inside the house.

"Just a couple of Kongs," Bramble replied. "I don't know if it's all right to invite them in, though."

It went silent for a moment, though Dixie could hear whispering inside. After a few moments had gone by, the bear started to yell again. "Yeah, you can let 'em in!"

"All righty, then!" Bramble called back as he moved back, allowing the Kongs to step inside. "Sorry, it's our brother's birthday, so I wasn't sure if we were allowed to let you in."

All Dixie could do was nod. She could understand not wanting to invite strangers, but with someone taking over the Northern Kremisphere, this wasn't really the time to be so polite. Still, she was happy she could come in regardless.

There were two more bears inside the living room. One of them was a bear with blue fur and a party hat, the other one was a brown bear with a mustache.

"So you must be the ones who knocked at the door," said the blue bear, who sighed afterwards.

"Oh, don't be so down," said the other bear. "At least SOMEONE showed up."

"...Yeah," said the blue bear. He looked at Dixie and tilted his head. "So did you need anything?"

"Uh...I was going to ask if you knew about the Kongs who were here a while ago."

"...Now that you mention it, I think I know who you're talking about," the blue bear said. "The bigger one was talking to Bramble while the smaller one carried around this tiny box."

"What tiny box?"

The bear grabbed a nearby present and placed it onto the table. It was a small white box with a blue ribbon on top.

"That Kong was going on about how he wanted to bring something back to his girlfriend. Those two went off to take down the dam blocking out Mekanos. But about a day later, I found this box washed up on the lake. Since then, I haven't seen either of 'em."

Dixie frowned. There was no way anyone could get lost in Cotton-Top Cove. This was probably where Kaos ran into DK and Diddy. And for all she knew, they could still be in Mekanos somewhere, either in a cage or...goodness knows what else.

"I'm going to guess that YOU'RE the girlfriend, right?" asked the blue bear. "You can take the present if you want, I'm sure that Kong won't mind."

Dixie nodded as she took the present. Suddenly, the bear in the mustache started speaking. "You wanna explore Cotton-Top Cove too, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well...If you want an easier way to get behind the waterfalls, I suggest you look for n underwater tunnel. It'll make your lives a lot easier that way."

After saying her good-byes to the bears, she walked out of the house with Kiddy. When she opened the box, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

There was a pair of blue pearl earrings inside the box.