The emperor had no doubt in his mind that he could find his way home, he was the emperor after all. The fact that he'd rarely been out of the palace on his own didn't even cross his mind, and he became hopelessly lost.

After being scared by a squirrel, who offered him an acorn, Kuzco threw the acorn back at the squirrel yelling, "Hit the road, Bucky" before walking off. Only to fall down a hole.

"Ow!" exclaimed the emperor after he landed with a thud on the ground. "Huh? Huh? Huh? Uh-oh." Looking around the poor llama shocked to find himself in the middle of a group of sleeping jaguars. Bucky scampered down the trees to where the llama was.

The squirrel was not happy about his gift being thrown back in his face, so he made a balloon llama, then grabbed one of the spikes off the tree root, threatening to pop the balloon and wake the jaguars.

"No, no. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, don't." The emperor pleaded, not really feeling like being mauled by jaguars, but the squirrel popped the balloon anyway. Surprisingly, the burst didn't wake the sleeping cats. "Ha!" Kuzco mocked loudly, waking the cats.

He took off running through the underbrush, the angry cats on his tail. It no longer mattered if he was going in the right direction, he just needed to survive.

"No!" Kuzco looked back at the cats as he ran, only to get his long neck caught on a tree branch. He spun around before landing on the back of one of the cats that was chasing him. The jaguar was not happy with his hitchhiker and dug his paws into the dirt to stop, throwing the emperor off his back and threw several bushes. Kuzco rolled to a stop on the outcropping of a cliff. The jaguars closed in on him before he could get away.

"You killer jaguars..." Kuzco backed up as far as he could, but there wasn't much room and his back hoof hit the edge of the cliff. "Whoa!" The emperor closed his eyes, not believing that he was about to die, when a cry came from above him. He looked up to see the peasant swinging down on a vine. It took the emperor a moment to recognize the man, but when he did he turned back to the llamas with a smug look on his face. Until the peasant swung right past him.

But the peasant swung back, this time managing to grab the llama. The emperor screamed when he was suddenly snatched off the cliff. He didn't even notice that there was a young girl clinging to the back of his savior.

"Don't worry, Your Highness." Pacha assured, "We got ya. You're safe now." Which would have been better if the trio didn't immediately smack into a dead tree trunk that was sticking out. The vine snapped and wrapped around the trunk, securing the three to the trunk.

"Maybe I'm just new to this whole rescuing thing, but this, to me... might be considered kind of a step backward, wouldn't you say?" was Kuzco's condescending reply to his rescue.

"No, no, no. It's-It's okay." Pacha tried to make it seem better. "This-This is all right. We can figure this out."

"Yeah," Atoc chimed in, "or would you rather be down there with the jaguars who wanted you for a midnight snack?" Any retort that Kuzco had was cut off by the cracking of the wood as the branch bent under the weight.

"I hate you." Deadpanned Kuzco before the rotten tree gave way.

"No!" Pacha screamed. Atoc would have screamed but she was too shocked to see the river below rushing up to meet them.

The tree hit a couple of cliffs, before rolling into the river. Atoc knew they were going to be bruised later.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Each hit the log took on the way down was punctuated by the emperor's exclamations of pain.

The log rolled into the river, submerging completely for a moment scaring the passengers, before it popped back out, allowing them to catch their breath. The log continued down the rapidly moving water, smashing into rocks as it went. Eventually, it ended up in calmer water, with the heads of its unwilling passengers above the water.

"I don't know about you two," Kuzco deadpanned, "but I'm getting all funned out."

Pacha was unamused by the emperor's attitude, but then he spotted a terrifying sight. "Uh-oh." The older man muttered.

"Please no…" Atoc whispered to herself. Kuzco heard them both.

"Don't tell me." The emperor was straight-faced, his brain going to the worst-case scenario. "We're about to go over a huge waterfall."

"Yep," Pacha affirmed.

"Sharp rocks at the bottom?"

"Most likely," Atoc gulped.

"Bring it on."

The log went over the falls, a shot of "BOYAH!" could be heard, along with the screams from Atoc. The log broke apart, leaving debris floating in the water and the passengers struggling to get to air.

Pacha was the first to surface, the impact making him slightly disoriented. He looked around, trying to find his daughter and the emperor. The llama floated to the surface beside him before sinking back down. The older man dove down to save Kuzco and drag him to shore. He then looked out over the water for his daughter and saw her holding on to the largest section of the broken log, floating steadily towards shore. The village chief turned his attention back to the unconscious llama in front of him. Pacha pressed his ear to the llama's chest to make sure that his heart was still beating, and upon hearing it he began to try to wake the llama.

"Your Highness. Your Highness, can you hear me?" Pacha lifted the emperor's ear, trying to wake him, but it didn't work. "Oh, boy. Come on, breathe. Breathe!" Pacha tried slapping the llama, but he still didn't wake. There was only one option left. "Oh. Why me?" Pacha turned the emperor's head and opened his mouth. The llama's tongue stuck straight up for a moment, making Pacha flinch back, but the man put aside his dignity. "All right." He leaned toward the unconscious llama, prepared to blow air back into the water-filled lungs.

Only to have said llama wake up as he was leaning down.

Both men screamed and scrambled away from each other. Atoc, who had been slowly paddling her way to shore, watched with her mouth agape.

"Dad…" she gasped, "did you just almost kiss a llama?" This comment made the two men look at each other. Then they both made a noise indicating their disgust and flinch away.

Kuzco gargled water, trying to clean his mouth from the almost kiss he shared with the village chief. He did not want to kiss a man.

"For the last time, it was not a kiss." Pacha insisted, yet again. The man and his daughter were sitting near a small pile of wood, and Pacha was trying to get a fire started. Atoc was soaked to the bone and shivering in the cooler evening air.

"I don't know dad," Atoc teased through her shivers and chattering teeth, "it kinda looked like a kiss from where I was floating." Pacha shot her a look that said he was not amused with her antics.

Kuzco finished gargling and spit out the water before chiming in. "Well, whatever you call it," he spit again, this time putting out the fire that had started, earning a glare from Atoc, "it was disgusting. And if you would've done what I ordered you to do in the first place..." Kuzco marched around the impromptu campsite, "we all could've been spared your little kiss of life." He shook the water out of his hair, putting the fire out again, making Pacha groan. Kuzco found a spot a little way off to lay down, where he began to stack rocks. "But now that you're here, you will take me back to the palace. I'll have Yzma change me back, and then I'll start construction on Kuzcotopia." He stuck a leaf flag in the small pile of rocks with a "Yeah."

Pacha laughed a little before composing himself. "Oh, yeah. Okay, now look... I think we got off on the wrong foot here." Pacha went back to trying to start a fire. Kuzco hummed and picked up Pacha's poncho using it to dry his head off. "I just think if you really thought about it... you'd decide to build your home on a different hilltop." Kuzco threw the poncho behind him, and it landed on the fire, putting it out for the third time. Atoc growled to herself, her patience reaching its limit.

"And why would I do that?" Kuzco clearly didn't believe the chief, if he wanted something he got it, that's how it worked.

"Because..." Pacha reined in his temper and took a breath, "deep down, I think you'll realize that you're forcing an entire village" Atoc took the poncho out of her father's hands and hung it on the branch next to her rusty orange poncho, "out of their homes just for you."

"And that's…" Kuzco dragged out the 's' sound, as if he was trying to figure out the rest of his sentence, "bad?"

"Of course it is." Atoc spat out, still struggling to control her temper. "We'll have to find a whole new place to live and uproot our lives. Most of the people have lived there for their whole lives." Kuzco was shocked by how bluntly this girl had responded, people never talked to him like that.

"Uh, what she means is nobody's that heartless." Pacha tried to cover his daughter's harsh words, this was still the emperor after all.

Kuzco hummed and nodded his head as if he was thinking it over. "Now take me back," was the harsh demand that followed. Atoc threw her hands in the air, mumbling to herself that he was hopeless, before working on getting the fire started.

"What? Wait, wait. How can you be this way?" Pacha had never met anyone so selfish in all his life. "All you care about is building your summer home and filling it with stuff for you." Pacha's temper was starting to show.

"Uh, yeah. Doy. Me. Everyone else in the kingdom gets it." Kuzco seemed to believe that this was a reasonable explanation.

"I don't get it either" Atoc chimed in, sitting over by a fire, that the emperor hadn't managed to put out.

"You two are the only one that doesn't seem to be with the program."

"You know what?" Pacha was done, he was tired of arguing with the selfish teenager. "Someday, you're gonna wind up all alone and you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

"Thanks for that." Kuzco doubted that. He was never alone. There were hundreds of people that worked in the palace, and eventually, he'd end up picking a bride. "I'll log that away. Now, for the final time," Kuzco tapped the older man with his hoof "I order you to take me back to the palace."

"Looks to me like you're stuck out here" Pacha stood, done with the argument, "because unless you change your mind, we're not taking you back." Pacha walked over and sat next to his daughter, enjoying the warmth of the fire she's started.

"Because unless you change your mind, I'm not taking you back. Me, me, me. Huh?" Kuzco mocked Pacha, using a whiney voice to repeat the man. Then he spotted a small rock by his hoof, which he then threw at the man. Pacha turned to glare at the llama, surprising Kuzco who proceeded to deny throwing anything. "What? I didn't do anything. I didn't... Somebody's throwing stuff. What's going on?" Kuzco then walked away, to lay back down by his pile of stones.

"He's never gonna change his mind," Pacha mumbled to himself, but Atoc heard and placed her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze, before leaning onto his shoulder and closing her eyes, exhaustion hitting her hard.

Across the camp, Kuzco mumbled to himself. "How am I ever gonna get out of here?" Finally realizing the position that he was in.

As the night dragged on and it got colder and colder, Pacha and Atoc put their ponchos back on to keep warm, but Kuzco shivered as he slept, not used to the chilly night air. Atoc, feeling bad for snapping at the llama earlier, granted she'd been cold and wet and he was being a brat, took pity on the llama and draped her poncho over his back.

Kuzco's eye's snapped open at the warmth, the poncho was warm from the fire, and looked at the back of the retreating girl. She snuggled under her father's poncho and shared it with him for the rest of the night. Kuzco realized that she'd given him her source of warmth, that if her father hadn't been there she'd end up being cold for the rest of the night, and that made him feel guilty. She was being nice to him and all he'd been was rude and selfish.

"Dad, Atoc, look out!" Tipo screamed as he woke, his heart racing in fear from his nightmare.

"Tipo, what is it?" Chicha asked as she climbed the stairs, candle in hand, having head her son's shout.

"I had a dream that Dad and Atoc were tied to a log and was careening out of control" the boy explained has his mom sat on his bed, "down a raging river of death!"

"All right, all right, it's okay." Chicha needed to calm him down, after all, it was just a dream. "Shh."

"It was awful!" He was worried that something may have happened to his dad and oldest sister, he didn't want them to be hurt.

"It's okay, it's okay." Chicha didn't want Tipo to wake up Chaca, or worry. Pacha and Atoc were just going to go back to the capital, nothing bad was going to happen. "Tipo, calm down. It was just a dream. Your dad's fine. Atoc's fine. They just went back to see the emperor."

"Oh." That calmed the boy down. "Like you told him to, 'cause you're always right."

"That's right."

"Well, in my dream, Dad had to kiss a llama." Chaca chimed in, hanging down from the top bunk, all the noise had woken her up.

"Yeah, like that would ever happen," Tipo said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"It could." The girl argued back.

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

Chicha smiled at their banter. "Goodnight, you two."

"Yeah-huh. Night, Mom."

"Nuh-uh. Night, Mom."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

The next morning was misty and grey. Pacha and Atoc were by the water, splashing water on their faces to help them wake up when Kuzco approached them.

"Uh, hey." Kuzco walked over, Atoc's poncho in his mouth. "Thanks." He held it out to the girl, not looking her in the eye. Atoc looked at the poncho for a minute.

"Oh." She was a little surprised that he'd returned it, instead of just leaving it on the ground. "You're welcome." She took it off the outstretched hoof.

"Feels like wool." Atoc's mouth twitched upwards and she glanced at her father. Was the emperor making small talk with her?

"Yeah, it is."

"Alpaca?" Kuzco finally looked at the father and daughter.

"Yep." Atoc nodded, smiling as she remembered having to get the wool, that had been a trial.

"Oh, yeah, I thought so." Kuzco paused for a second before adding "It's nice."

"Thanks," Atoc beamed, "I made it. Actually, it's the first one I made completely by myself."

"Oh, you knit?"

"Crochets." Atoc corrected. "My mom taught me."

"Crochets? Nice." Kuzco nodded, impressed.

"Thanks."

There was an awkward moment where the silence was only broken by the croaking of a frog.

"So," Kuzco broke the almost silence, "So, I was thinking that when I got back to the city, we'd, uh... I mean, there's lots of hilltops, and maybe I might, you know, I-I might..." The sentences were faltering, obviously, the emperor wasn't used to apologizing or attempting to apologize, but the pair listening got the picture.

"Are… you saying… you've changed your mind?" Pacha almost couldn't believe it.

"Oh, well, I-I..." Kuzco didn't confirm it, but he also didn't deny it.

"Because you know that means you're doing something nice for someone else." Atoc pointed out, a small smile on her face. Kuzco rather like her smile, it made her eyes crinkle up and it was cute.

"No, I know that. I know." He responded, nonchalantly.

"And you're all right with that?" Pacha double-checked.

"Yes." Kuzco thought that would have been obvious, but both villagers made a face of disbelief. Pacha got close to the llama's face, trying to judge if he was lying or not. "What?

Then Pacha stuck out his hand. Kuzco went to shake it, but Pacha moved it saying, "Don't shake unless you mean it." He returned his hand to its original position, a hard look on his face. Kuzco shook the chief's hand after a moment of hesitation, causing both villagers to smile. "All right." Pacha and Atoc both slipped their poncho's on and stood, "Let's get you back to the palace." The pair turned to start walking, then Pacha turned slightly. "Oh, by the way, thanks."

"No," drawled the emperor, a tone like he'd won something in his voice, "thank you."