When they had cleared the tunnel from the beach, Conker perked up with a brilliant idea. (At least he thought so). "Hey guys," he said, "why don't we ask Taj? Maybe he knows something about Drumstick's whereabouts." Link could only nod as he followed the animals to the center of the main lobby where a huge tile mosaic of the elephant genie was set in the grass.
They were in the center of the mosaic when the light around them started to shimmer. A voice with a heavy Indian accent spoke. "Hello friend. I am the genie of the island. How can I help you?" Timber and the others inhaled sharply as a blue elephant wearing a red vest and turban appeared in front of them. Link was the first one to recover.
"Uh, we umh," he started, unsure of how to address a genie, having never met one before. "We were wondering if you could tell us what happened to Drumstick?" The animals nodded. Taj closed his eyes and seemed to be deep in thought. Banjo was about to tap the strange Hindu guy when Taj suddenly opened his eyes. Banjo jumped back, thoroughly startled.
"I cannot tell you exactly what happened, for I do not know." The animals looked disappointed. "But," he continued, "I can give you a hint." They nodded their heads in anticipation. "Frogs."
"Frogs?" Timber said confusedly. The genie nodded.
"Yes, frogs. Can I help you further?"
"No, I suppose not," the tiger said, downheartedly.
"Bye bye for now." Taj disappeared in a puff of smoke. Timber looked to the others.
"Well, that wasn't very helpful, was it?" Link was thoughtful for a moment. "Do you have an idea?" he asked hopefully.
"Maybe," Link mumbled. They started walking towards the lake.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, the racers were making their way towards Dragon Forest. They walked through the tunnel and Yoshi became giddy with excitement and anticipation. Luigi tried to calm the happy dino. "Whoa, Yoshi, calm down little buddy!" Yoshi chirruped enthusiastically. Luigi laughed.
"What did he say?" Pipsy squeaked. The small mouse had become quite on edge because of Yoshi's hopping and twirling and dancing.
"He said that he's very ready for this race and he knows he's going to win," Luigi translated. The animals cheered, all except Krunch. He knew he was only with the racers because of Diddy. The Kong still didn't trust him; but why should he? Wasn't he still a Kremling? Diddy had every right to believe that Krunch was still working for K. Rool. He felt even worse when Diddy suddenly turned towards him.
"I don't want you messing things up, so stay quiet and away from everybody else when Yoshi is racing," he said angrily. Krunch cast his eyes down as he moped to the far end of the bleachers. They had entered the Haunted Woods and Yoshi was getting situated in the bright red car he had chosen. 'Number eleven,' Krunch thought. 'Lucky number. Yoshi sure to win with eleven.' He sat down and clasped his hands on his knees.
"Now remember Yoshi," Tip Tup reminded him, "you have to get all the silver coins in three laps and win!" Yoshi said nothing as he revved the motor. Seven of Wizpig's minions drove up to the start. Yoshi looked at them with disgust. He squeaked faintly. Luigi translated.
"He said 'No problem. This will be a piece of cake.'" Tip Tup and Pipsy danced around and chanted Yoshi's name. Diddy was doing cartwheels around the spinning pair. Luigi just smiled and wished Yoshi luck.
"Ready…Go!" Yoshi was off in a flash and was ahead in no time.
"The silver coins!" Tip Tup shouted. Yoshi gave a nod and zipped around the fountain and barreled down the first tunnel. He was soon out of sight of the stands. The animals didn't stop cheering. When he came around for the first lap, the scoreboard had all eight coins lit up. The animals cheered even louder, but Luigi fell off the bench he was laughing so hard. Yoshi, crossing the line, was being chased by a ghost from the final tunnel. The poor dino looked like he wanted to jump out of the car and run into the stands. The animals gasped as Yoshi went even faster. "He'll be done in no time!" Tip Tup gurgled out over fits of laughter. The end of the third lap came around and Yoshi was still being pursued by the wrathful ghost. He was so surprised that the ghost had suddenly disappeared that he looked to Luigi and didn't watch where he was going. "Watch out!" The shiny red number eleven splashed into the spouting fountain.
Tip Tup, Pipsy, Diddy, and Luigi were exhausted from laughing so hard; they couldn't even get up to see if Yoshi was ok. Krunch, however, sprung from his seat and ran to the edge of the fountain. Something reached up and pulled him in. The others could do nothing but watch in amazement as Yoshi and Krunch dipped and dived to retrieve the eight coins that had sunk to the bottom of the fountain. The animals, having recovered their sanity, made their way to the fountain. Diddy watched in horror as Krunch and Yoshi splashed and cavorted in the water as if they were friends all along.
"Yoshi!" Diddy yelled. "Get out of there! Krunch is bad, there's no telling what he'll do!" Yoshi jumped out, but stood directly in front of Diddy and did some yelling of his own. Luigi translated.
"He says that Krunch isn't bad and that he was helping him get all the coins. Then they were just playing. Yoshi loves to swim and so does Krunch." Diddy looked at Yoshi in amazement. Through all of this, Tip Tup watched Krunch slink away to where he was originally sitting in the bleachers. Yoshi continued and Luigi translated, "he says that just because all the kremlings you know are bad doesn't mean that Krunch is." Yoshi stomped away towards where Krunch was sitting forlornly. Luigi looked at Diddy. "I don't know much about you or the 'kremlings', but I think Yoshi is right." Diddy sat down on the nearby bleachers and stared at the ground.
"I know, but a lifetime of fighting evil kremlings…I guess I'm a little biased." Luigi nodded and patted Diddy reassuringly on the shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, Diddy. There are still a lot of races to get through." Diddy looked up and smiled.
"Yeah, and I'm gonna win the next one!"