"Shelby!"

There was no response, so Treetrunks tentatively touched him with her trunk again. "Mr. Shelby please wake up we're umm... in the in the dungeon again."

They really were. Dark yellow walls surrounded them, scribbled with ancient symbols and cracked by age. A little bug crawled out of one of the cracks and buzzed down to orbit Lemongrab's head. Or what looked like Lemongrab. He was standing in the shadows so only a black shape was visible, and she saw the whites of his eyes shift as his slitted pupils followed the fly. The fly continued to buzz around him till he expertly snapped his jaws open, catching it in his sharp teeth. Chewing.

"Yeesh..." said Shelby, now awake, "he gives me the creeps."

"Oh hush now Shelby!" Tree Trunks scolded, remembering that Lemongrab had been nice if slightly obnoxious, but still nice the last time she met him, "Be nice to mister lemoncrab! Maybe he has nothing else to give us..."

But still. So he was also here. Tree Trunks got an odd feeling about this and looked around expectantly. Sure enough, lying on the floor a few feet away was a pathetic blue heap of a wizard. He must have crashlanded into the floor because he was propped up on his head with his butt sticking out and his robe riding up, showing everyone his slime princess embroidered underwear. Neptr - also no surprise - was softly stroking his beard.

Tree Trunks harrumphed "The slice king again... what a nobbin in the bobbin! I am of course against the law en-enforcement but... even I would call the guards on that pile of fruit." She worriedly thought back to Sweet Pea, who she needed to collect from school as Mr Pig was visiting his long lost warthog cousins in the forest for a few days.

She checked her watch. She had 2 hours before sweet pea finished school, and if she wasn't there to pick him up, he might start crying and be traumatised. And he might turn into the lich.

She decided to get the ball rolling.

"Hey excuse me mister slice king stop snoozing your kaboozie off on the floor and and explain why you've kidnapped us and brought us to this awful place."

"Hnnggghhh no... No more lemons it's... Unacceptable... The ice king muttered in his sleep, "No! No put down the rock. Ah!" Treetrunks kicked him and he sat up, awake, "oh hey treetrunks how's it going, you divorced your man to marry me yet?"

"I am loyal to Mr. Pig."

"Too bad." The ice king pushed NEPTR away with his foot and looked around him "hey where even are we?"

"Really now!" Tree trunks scowled, "how rude! You've kidnapped us again and brought us to this... nasty, nasty place and you don't even remember?"

The ice king curiously touched his forehead. "I did?"

"Well duh who else would have?" Shelby said in a frustrated falsetto.

"I guess there isn't anyone else who kidnaps people..." The ice king admitted, "dang... Well, when you have an old fried wizard brain like me I guess sometimes you just forget things haha... Soz guys..."

Lemongrab breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't suspect him. He nervously cleared his throat and stepped into the light.

He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt printed with pineapples, with a note saying "normal person" pinned to it. His jeans were a size too big and you could see two yellow crocs poking out from under their drooping trouser ends. He completed the look by reaching into his mouth, into his stomach which still couldn't digest things and therefore doubled as a storage place, and pulling out some sunglasses.

"Wow he looks a mess." The ice king stated.

"Be nice!" Chastised Tree Trunks, "and anyway, says who? Mr unwashed slime princess underwear?"

That shut him up.

Lemongrab tried to put the sunglasses on but his lack of ears meant they fell to the floor and shattered.

"Nnngg... difficult..." he muttered, and turned his attention back to the others, "Greetings... My little... Hmmmm..." Lemongrab looked at the writing on his hand, "dudes... Dude... People... Yes..."

"Hello, Mister Lemoncrab." TreeTrunks said.

"My name is Lemongrab the third... Duuuudeeeeeee..."

"Excuse me I am a woman and will be addressed as such, Mister Lemongrad." She pointed at him with her trunk for emphasis.

He nodded. "I seeee..." He coughed up a pen and amended his hand notes. Dude- general term of affection. Noun. Strictly male. "Sorry... Woman dude..."

Tree trunks turned to face the others.

"Now Neptr, Shelby, Lemongrab and..." she gestured vaguely and disapprovingly at the Ice King with her trunk, "You... We need to get out of this dungeon faster than a burning pie needs to get out of the oven... Does anyone remember the way out?

Everyone looked at Lemongrab expectantly.

"Whomst... me?" He asked innocently.

"Yeah... you have that... savant memory thing, get us out!" Shelby demanded.

Lemongrab stepped forwards tentatively, trying to smile nicely, barring his glinting fangs.

"Now now, Shelby, buddy, mine dude, what is the rush..." he checked his hand notes again, "...yo... we have not seen each other in many years...why do we not...catch up? How have...all my dudes been doing?"

"Well my girlfriend broke up with me after I got her the wrong kind of pony." said Shelby, "Thanks for making me think about it again!"

"Oh I am..." Lemongrab frowned in concern, "so sorry to hear that."

He tried to think of something comforting to say (friends comfort one another do they not?) But was interrupted.

"I started rapping!" Neptr announced, driving round in circles, "I'm not very good yet but it's really fun!"

"Ah yes... rapping... you mean like the Raven from the Poe poem?" Lemongrab asked, squatting down with his hands on his knees to be nearer the robot, "rapping on chamber doors? Is that what you do now? Rap on chamber doors?"

"No not really..." Neptr pulled up in front of him, "I make rap music."

"Rap... music..." He said it carefully, like a foreign word, "so you... rap on doors and that is your instrument?

"No it's more like... poetry with like an... upbeat tempo... it's a lot of fun..."

Lemongrab smiled down at him.

"I see well... I am glad you are enjoying yourself, little NEPTR."

Shelby rolled his eyes and noticed the changing walls flashing with lines and circles. Symbols vanishing to a red glow that melted into the stone. That couldn't be good.

"Hey uh guys-"

He tried to get their attention but NEPTR wasn't listening, just staring up at Lemongrab in surprise. "You remember my name..."

"Yes I remember you..." Lemongrab cocked his head, "You are theee little one that makes pies. You were always... scuttling around the tree house."

"Hey guys!"

"Oh yeah." Neptr drove back and forth absent-mindedly, "Back when I was candy cane NEPTR and you were that pink guy and-"

"We do not talk about that!" Lemongrab said hurriedly.

"GUYS!"

The walls started closing in on them with a hissing sound. They all stepped back into a huddle with Lemongrab at the centre

"It seems we don't have time for this chitchat-" TreeTrunks said, backing up further, "where's the exit!"

"Right here," Lemongrab opened one of the side doorson a rapidly approaching wall, "But ice king, you with your ice magic should go first."

"Okay. Why me though?"

"You... shall see..." Lemongrab shoved him and picked up the rest of them to jump in after.

The door snapped shut behind them as they narrowly escaped, with the single beam of light that had been shining from behind them vanishing.

They fell into the darkness. Unseen, something rose to meet them.

With a few flaps of his beard the ice king came up to Lemongrab's level. "So yeah why did I have to go first? Asking for a friend..."

He was cut off by a low growl emanating from underneath them, the air became hot as the dungeon keeper opened it's mouth, saliva dripping off it's huge teeth.

Lemongrab tucked Treetrunks under his other arm and pointed. "So you can fight that."

"What?" The ice king turned to see what he was pointing at, "Oh!"

The ice king screamed and flapped his beard to get away

"NO YOU SIMPLETON!" lemongrab tugged on his shirt collar so his horrific shirt transformed into a equally horrifying pineapple patterned parachute, "YOUR MAGIC! FREEEEEEZE IIIIIT!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" The Ice King made some finger guns and shot two large ice lightning bolts at its face. His bolts broke apart to coat the creature's head in ice, and the sudden weight made it crash to the wet floor of its containment. It writhed and was still.

Lemongrab neatly landed and placed his companions on the wet floor beside the creature's body. Shelby carefully crawled towards it for a closer look.

"Dude I think you straight up killed it." He said.

"It was going tooo kill us." Lemongrab said, "besides," he pointed at the white bones floating in the water covering the floor, "look at what a murderer it was."

His hawaiian parachute fluttered down into the water behind them.

"Oh pips..." Lemongrab muttered, picking up the soiled fabric and dropping it again, "it is ruined... my crocs hnnnnngh they fell off toooo... but mayhaps this is for the best, my normalcy facade was not workiiing...hmm..." He took the jeans off and stood in his regular grey uniform staring out at the darkness, looking thoughtful.

"Do you reckon he always wears that?" Shelby asked TreeTrunks.

"It's a free country he can... wear what he wants..." said TreeTrunks, deciding not to insult the person who'd just saved her life, regardless of how many layers he decided to wear, "Be polite."

"I'm just saying!" Shelby raised his voice, "Someone should you know... work on his fashion sense."

Lemongrab snapped out of his daze "Are yooouu talking... about meeee...?"

"Yes Shelby was saying he thinks your black uniform suited you much better, Mister Lemoncrab- I mean Lemongrab." TreeTrunks covered for him hurriedly, "But your grey um... uniform is quite fetching."

"I... wear only grey now." He said quietly, and lowered his eyes to stare at the water.

Meanwhile the Ice King was rooting among the bones just in case there was a princess hiding in them, ignoring the pleas of his robot son for him to pay attention to him. He scratched something and, when he heaved all the bones out of the way, uncovered a door.

"Hey guys I found the way out!"

"Great!t" Shelby said ecstatically, "Let's go!"

Everyone excitedly crowded around him, staring down at the trap door. Except for Lemongrab, who took a moment longer to gaze sadly at his reflection in the black glossy water before going to join them.

"Oh poppy..." NEPTR said to the Ice King, "You're so smart..."

"You really think that BMO?" the Ice King asked hopefully.

NEPTR stopped in his tracks and looked hurt.

"I'm- I'm neptr... I make pies... Don't you remember... I- you created me."

Created? At the sound of that Lemongrab's eyes widened and his pupils turned to slits.

"Oh really?" The Ice King frowned, "Yeah I don't remember that."

Lemongrab crouched to be on the same level as the robot and hissed to him:

"NEPTR do you mean to imply that thiiiiis... blue figure is your supreme creator and mother?"

"He's my daddy!" NEPTR said proudly.

The Wizard folded his arms and looked confused. "Yeah I don't remember that."

"But you made me!" NEPTR pleaded.

"You're... his glob." Lemongrab said in disbelief and straightened up to his full two metres of height.

Ice King stepped back, intimidated. "Yeah but like I don't even remember it or anything. How do I know you're not lying to get child support anyhoo?"Lemongrab narrowed his eyes and hissed quietly. The Ice King, not noticing that, put his hands on his hips and jabbed a finger at NEPTR, "And anyway, if I did make you I'd make a better robot."

Lemongrab couldn't take it anymore. He advanced towards the wizard with his hands twitching, hissing. Shelby saw that something was about to go down and quickly slithered under TreeTrunks for cover.

"How dare you..." Lemongrab stared down at the frightened wizard, "Yoouu made him... you're his glob! How dare you spurn your creation and son... Curses be upon your head that would reject its child..." He reached behind him to grab NEPTR and shove him in the Ice King's face, "You're supposed to love your creation! You're supposed TO LOVE HIM!"

"Yeah poppy..." NEPTR said crossly, "What gives..."

"Okay okay I'm... I'm just joking guys!" The Ice King said quickly, "I love my little robot son mwah mwah..." he planted a kiss on his son's can, "I'm setting him up a college go-fund-me for him as I speak."

"I seeee..." Lemongrab placed NEPTR back on the floor and stepped back, rubbing his hands over each other anxiously as he muttered, "Please dooo forgive my... unacceptable outburst... I am very... Sensitive about these things..."

"You got like Daddy issues or something?" asked the Ice King.

"...Something..." Lemongrab glanced back down at his reflection, wobbling in the water by the waves he'd created by moving. Changing and unsure of its shape. Of its self.

"So are you guys gonna open the freaking door or what?" Shelby asked from under TreeTrunks.

The Ice King made a crow bar out of ice and heaved open the trapdoor. He went first, followed by NEPTR, Shelby and TreeTrunks, who Lemongrab carefully lowered into the darkness. He jumped down after them, and the wooden door creaked shut.