I updated this sometime around Valentine's Day over on Ao3, but I hadn't gotten a chance to put it up here until now.
It was late at night, and most of the castle had gone quiet...save for a few Thicket guards walking the castle halls.
One of the guards walked through the dungeon, he examined every Kong and Kremling in each cell. When he examined K. Rool's cell, he could see the Kremling sitting against the wall with his arms behind his head. DK was sitting on the opposite side of the wall while Dixie dug through his fur.
Content with his job, the guard left the dungeon. When the coast was clear, DK looked at Dixie with a determined look on his face.
"You know what you're doin', right?"
Dixie nodded."Find the key, then come back."
"Good," K. Rool said quietly as he lifted the blanket. "And whatever you do, don't get caught!"
Quickly, Dixie made her way over to the hole in the wall. When she looked down, she could see that the area below was covered in a dense fog. Heights never bothered her, but she felt like she wouldn't survive if she jumped down from here.
The ape clinged onto the wall as she jumped out of the hole, she started making her way to a window that was large enough for a plane to go through. She had to assume that it lead to another room. And sure enough, she could see that she was right.
She climbed through the window. From what she could tell, she was in some-sort of garage. There were planes sitting in the back of the room, but in the center of the room looked like a machine of some-sort, though she couldn't tell what it was.
She quietly made her way into the hallway, she would make sure to hide from the lights given off by the torches the guards had on them. Her heart skipped a beat when one guard nearly caught her, though she was quick enough to slip away when she wasn't looking.
Eventually, she found her way into a large bedroom at the top of the castle. She had to assume this was Avery's room, which meant that the key should be in here, somewhere.
Dixie started digging through Avery's drawer. She found a few suits, some socks, and some jewelry… But no key. The young ape was about to look somewhere else when her eyes spotted a photo of some sort. When Dixie looked at the photo, she could see two monkey kids. One of which looked an awful lot like Diddy, actually.
Dixie could hear someone opening the door, she quickly closed the drawers and scrambled under the bed. She hid the photo under her beret, it wasn't like Avery needed it right now. And besides, maybe DK could tell her who these kids were?
Avery had walked in, he was talking to someone, though Dixie couldn't see any other feet from where she was. Perhaps he had a parrot? Or some other pet bird?
"I just don't get it," Avery said bitterly. "Breezy's such a good pilot, she should've been here by now!"
"Well, maybe she ran into some problems?" Said another voice. It sounded raspy, Dixie had to assume that it came from a Necky.
"What? Do you think her plane broke down or something? Because she can just fix it, herself!"
"True...but what if she landed in the middle of the ocean? Or she got taken down by a sea monster?"
"Then she can figure out how to survive on her own," Avery said in annoyance. "Look, why don't you just sit on your perch while I get something to eat? We'll talk about this later!"
Once Avery left, the Necky fluttered until he hit the ground. He walked closer to the bed, which made Dixie back away. Although, getting caught was inevitable at this point. The Necky brought his neck into the bed.
"I knew there was someone else here," said the bird. "Though I guess I should be happy that it's not that Kremling girl."
Dixie furrowed her eyebrows, "You mean Kass?"
"Yep, I helped her escape not that long ago," the Necky said as he offered to pull Dixie out of the bed with his wing. "I asked her to go look for help on Donkey Kong Island."
"Well, that didn't exactly work out like you planned...did it?" Dixie said as she crawled out of the bed. The Necky was roughly the same size as her. But unlike the ones back home, this Necky had white feathers and a black beak. From a distance, one could mistake him for an ugly seagull.
"So let me guess, you want to find that key too, huh? The Necky asked. Dixie replied with a nod.
"Well, the bad news is that Avery has it. So if you wanna get out, you'll have to find some other way."
The door began to open again. But before Dixie could do anything, the Necky grabbed her ponytail with his beak. He spoke in a quick yet hushed voice, "Play along!"
"Can you believe this, Snowy?" Avery asked in disbelief. "Apparently, one of the Kongs managed to get out!"
"I'm way ahead of ya, sir!" Snowy replied. "Should we just take her back?"
Avery looked down at Dixie. He thought about it for a moment before nodding. "She'll go back for now. But if she does this again, she'll be bird food!"
"Yes, sir!"
With that said, Avery grabbed her arm and dragged her across the floor. Dixie looked up at Snowy with an annoyed expression, though the Necky understood her frustration. She was thrown back to her cell like a bowling ball, hitting K. Rool in the stomach.
"You'd better keep an eye on that brat of yours, DK! Because next time I won't go easy on her!"
With that said, Avery left the dungeon. Dixie reoriented herself and looked at Snowy. "So now what?"
"Well...I'd say wait for Kass to show up, but I'm not sure if she actually DID find help."
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Diddy at all when we got here," DK said. "You don't suppose he's still out there, do you?"
K. Rool was about to yell at DK about how ridiculous that was, but he closed his jaws as he tried to think. "Actually, you're right. If Diddy were here, he would've been thrown in here by now."
Suddenly, an idea popped into Dixie's head. She faced Snowy and desperately grabbed the bars. "Listen, could you do me a favor and see if Diddy's on this island? He's a brown monkey with a red hat!"
"Of course, " Snowy replied. "I'll let you know if I see anything! "
"Good, just let him know that we're in the dungeon!"
"And let him know that we're fine for now," DK added. K. Rool glared at him, "Did you forget that we're locked in a CAGE!?"
"Yeah...but you'll get used to it after a while," DK said in a snarky tone. K. Rool rolled his eyes.
With that said, Snowy flew out of the dungeon as quickly as his wings would carry him. What the group failed to realize was that Avery was standing just outside of the dungeon.
"So it looks like we've missed a couple people…"
He wondered if Breezy had anything to do with this. But perhaps this might not be a bad thing? If this "Diddy" could make it to the island somehow, then the least that Avery could do was introduce himself.
He quietly slipped away and spoke to a guard who wandered the castle halls.
"Make sure those Kongs and Kremlings keep working on that robot while I'm gone. And make sure you keep an eye out for that little Kong girl with the pink shirt. If she breaks out again, make sure you work both her AND those kings to the bone!"
"Yes, sir!" Said the Thicket as he continued to march through the castle. With that said, Avery headed over to his bedroom to prepare himself for the journey ahead. Somehow, he could tell that he was going to enjoy this.