"Gone?!", Tasha exclaimed. "How can he be gone!" Pablo shrugged his blue penguiny shoulders. "I dont know! He just is!" Tasha's head fell to her hands in frustration. "Where do you think he went?", Austin asked, looking around. Tasha glared. "Really?", she asked. "And your suppossed to be the smart one?" She gestured towards the big noticable hole in the ground. Uniqua snickered. "Oh, I knew that.", Austin saved, and the nervous kindergardners approached the hole. Tyrone's cry still seemed to echo out of the gaping hole.

"So...", Pablo said, breaking the silence. "Who goes into the creepy hole first?" There was no response until Austin said, "Not me!"

"Certainly not me!", Uniqua said, stepping back, afraid of falling in. "Oh for goodness sakes!", Tasha cried. "Somebody's gotta go get Tyrone. I guess I'll do it."

"Tasha wait-", Pablo called out, but it was too late. The brave hippo, Tasha, had walked straight into the hole, and her piercing scream filled the damp cave room. "Good luck!", Austin shouted into the hole.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Oomph." Tasha hit the hard dirt ground moments later. That fall had been really fast! She stood up and wiped off her seat. "My new dress!", she whined. "Don't be worried about your dress!", came a voice from the dark corner, making Tasha jump. "You're the reason we're all in here anyway!"Tasha sighed in relief when Tyrone stepped out from the dark corner. He had been the voice. "You're right!", Tasha sighed. "Well, I've found you. Let's get out of here! Why are all these bad things happening to me!" She said bad things like you would say dirty (insert word of choice here). "That's a top notch idea!", Tyrone agreed. "Getting out of here, I mean. But there's only one problem."

"Yes, of course there's a problem!", she shouted exasperated. "There's no way out!" Tyrone shook his head and pointed to something lying in the cavern's shadows. "Actually,", he said. "There's a rope over there. I was just gonna say that I couldn't get it to hit the top." There was a silence. "Oh.", Tasha said flatly. "Well, you're lookin' at the best lasso-er in the backyard-er...i mean...cavern." Tasha swung that rope above her head and threw it as far as she could up to the light above them.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The rope wrapped around Austin like a snake. "Why me!?", he cried out. "Why have I been chosen to go below to the Goblin's cove?!!!" Pablo began to run around in frantic circles. "Oh no, oh no!", he said all panicky like.

"Oh no, what're we gonna do? Austin is caught!"

"Pablo..", Uniqua said.

"Austin is caught! Now Tyrone, Tasha, and Austin are gone!"

"Pablo...", Austin said.

"AHHH WHAT'RE WE GONNA-"

"PABLO!", Tyrone said.

"Gosh, sorry Tyrone."

Pablo froze, noticing that Tyrone was back! "Tyrone!", he exclaimed, running to hug the two of his best friends that had survived the hole. "Welcome back! But don't think that the adventure or pherhaps-danger-is over yet." Everyone shuddered, but had to believe him. Who knew what lie ahead behind the door? "I'd nearly forgotton about the door.", Tyrone said thoughtfully. "Being stuck in the ground and all.."

"Well, let's get a move on!", Uniqua advised, stepping around the hole and to the door with the picture of the backpack and lunch box on it."Well, here goes nothin'.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I-I-I dont know what to say!", Austin said when they stepped through the door. "I do.", Tasha said dryly. "It looks exactly the same as everywhere else, only the wall has jewels in it. Plastic." As she said plastic, she picked one off and dropped it to the floor. "See? No clanking sound or anything." Uniqua pulled a few off and stuck them on her forehead. Pablo did the same. "Look!", he said jokingly. "Were plastic buddies!" The two fell to the floor laughing. "Oh for goodness sakes!", Tasha said, trying to contain her laughter. But who could? She stuck a few on her dress. "It was all dirty anyway.", she commented. As the five got deeper into who-knows-where, they noticed that the wall got narrower and narrower... Tyrone could barely get through. "If this passage way gets any smaller, ill be on slimfast like my mom.", he said. "What is- oh never mind.", was all Uniqua could say. Her mom, Individua, had probably never heard of it either!

But then, everyone was quiet as they gazed at the beautiful mountain before them. It was shimmering with keychains from earlier years and with juice boxes galore. "Holy moly...", Tyrone said in a daze. "This is by far the prettiest thing ever." He ran up to the bottom of the hill and held up a red jansport backpack that looked very boyish. "This was Treverrs!", he shouted back to his friends. Treverr was Tyrone's older brother who loved football and was in the 7th grade. "He lost this, like 7 years ago!" Pablo was the next to run up to the mountain of backpacks and lunchboxes. He pulled out a lunch box that was fully stocked with fresh food! He pulled out an apple. "Wow!", he exclaimed. "Still fresh!"

"Ew!", Uniqua said, rushing up to "investigate" the lunch box by "testing" the foods. Austin saw a cool keychain of a rocket and ran to see it and where it was from. But Tasha, alone in the narrow entrance way to the cavern was scanning the whole mountain, which was quite alot to scan....and there it was! Her lunch box! At the top of the mountain! "That's just my luck.", she said, strutting towards where she could climb up. As Tasha was beggining to make good progress up the mountain, a voice came from below. "What are you doing?", the voice asked. Tasha looked down, even though she was afraid of heights. She saw a green figure before she turned around, dizzy. "A grabbing goblin!", she whispered to herself. "What are we gonna do now?" Then, hesitantly, she looked down again. Her friends were nowhere in sight. "What am I gonna do?"

There was no use in climbing down. That would be bad. She just had to get her lunch box. She could hear the goblin call out something that she couldnt make out. I hope he's not summoning other goblins!, she thought to herself. She thought too soon. The pitter-patter of many small, green feet were heard below. "Oh for goodness sakes!", she said. "Where are my friends when I need them?" Then, she heard a Tarzan cry from above. She looked up. There, swinging from an unnessassary vine was Austin, and he grabbed her lunch box. Then came Uniqua, who grabbed her. "You saved me!", she said, hugging Uniqua. She glanced at Austin. "And my lunch box!" Tasha looked around. "By the way, where are Pablo and Tyrone?" Uniqua laughed. "Oh you''ll see!"

The next thing she knew,Tasha was in the cavern with the hole, and she had her lunch box. She hugged it tight. "Thank you again!", she exclaimed."But how? How did you get these vine things?" Tasha sang:

Tasha: Vines, vines oh beautiful vines

wher e did they come from?

Austin: we found these vines, vines

oh beautiful vines

Uniqua: They were hidden up above!

These vines, yes they were!

Tyrone said that they were to

carry back her,

oh these vine,vines

Tasha: Vine, they carried me,

vines, to say-ayf-ty.

Pablo and Tyrone swang into the room on two more vines. "Sorry.", Pablo apologized. "We just wanted to block the entrance so those goblins can never ever steal anyone's stuff again!" Tasha hugged her friends. "Thanks guys!", she said. "You're all the best!" Then, a rumbling sound made them all jump back. "Was that another goblin?!", Uniqua asked worridly. "No.", Tasha laughed. "It was just my stomach. All that lunch box hunting made me hungry."

"Hey, why dont we go over to my house for some abc soup?", Pablo suggested. All the friends rubbed their bellies. "Come on lets go!", Austin exclaimed. "That was a top notch adventure.", Tyrone said. "Dont you think?" The five nodded and said, "uh-huh."

We've got the whole wide world in our yard to explore...

Now it's time for us to have a snack

meet you next time when we're back

with your friends the backyardigans!

They ran one by one into Pablo's house, shutting the door behind them. Tyrone opened it once more to say, "Boy , I cant wait until kindergarden!"