Seymore looked at the map. "Well, according to this map, we should be heading... that way." He pointed left, the same direction the direction on the map told them to go.
"Are you sure?" Brianna asked. "Shouldn't we be going more west?"
"That is west, Brianna," Seymore said, rolling his eyes.
"No, that's west!" Brianna exclaimed, pointing in the opposite direction.
"I'm sure that's west!" Seymore argued. Thomas looked from Seymore to Brianna and back again.
"Um, guys?" Mollie asked. Nobody heard her.
"Guys?" Still nobody heard her.
"Fine! Go that way! We'll be lost before long!"Seymore shouted.
"Guys?" Mollie repeated.
"What?" Seymore barked angrily.
"Um, is that land supposed to be there?" she asked, pointing. Certainly enough, there was in front of them a spot of land that was not on the map.
"Let's land there," Seymore decided. "There may be people who are friendly!"
"There may also be nasty people who don't know us and want to eat us!" Brianna argued, but Seymore ignored her, steering the balloon in the direction of the land.
"Seymore, land the balloon by the big oak!" Brianna pointed to a tall oak tree, which Seymore proceeded to land the balloon in. CRASH!
"Like I said, in the big oak tree!"
They hopped out of the balloon, exploring the land. There seemed to be nothing but trees. Brianna picked up an old-looking indistinguishable something.
"It's a piece of paper!" Seymore exclaimed, snatching it. "It looks like an ancient writing! It says... Big monster... coming... tomorrow. That doesn't make a lot of sense!"
Brianna snatched it, turning it over. "No! It's an old candy wrapper!" She frowned. "How could an old candy wrapper get here? I can think of one explanation, but it seems so unlikely..." She shrugged, looking at the sun. "It's getting late. We'd better get some sleep." She rolled out the
sleeping bags, and each got into their own sleeping bag.
"What was that?" Molly asked, having heard something.
"That was a cricket, Molly." Seymore rolled his eyes. "Good night, everyone."
"Good night."
" 'Night."
" 'Night."
The next day, Seymore yawned. " 'Morning, everyone," he murmured.
He got no answer.
He looked around to find Brianna still asleep in her sleeping bag, and Molly and Thomas's sleeping bags were empty.
'They probably went on without us,' Seymore thought grumpily. He walked over to Brianna's sleeping bag to wake her up.
"Hey! Brianna! Wake up!" he whispered, waking her.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Oh, Molly and Thomas went on without us and we have to catch up," he explained, assuming his thought was accurate.
"Are you sure?" Brianna asked.
"Well, their sleeping bags are empty," he mentioned.
"That doesn't mean anything!" Brianna exclaimed. "In our parents adventure, Uncle Theodore went missing from his sleeping bag, and it turned out that he was kidnapped." She walked over to the missing chipmunks' sleeping bags. "I thought so," she murmured. "You see these tracks leading away from the sleping bags?" she asked.
"Yeah? So?" Seymore didn't see the relevancy.
"And the torn plants around this area?" Brianna asked again.
"So? Some animal was probably eating them." He still didn't get the idea.
"These plants weren't like that yesterday," she noted. "And no animal could get here without waking up one or both of them, and if an animal had awakened them, they would have awakened us because they were startled." She paused. "Unless there were hands over their mouths." She paused again. "They didn't walk off! They were kidnapped!"
They followed the tracks, and they led straight to an old-looking village. They ran through the town, calling the missing chipmunks' names as loudly as they dared without waking up the natives.
"Molly!"
"Thomas!"
"Molly!"
"Thomas!"
They then heard someone coming, and ducked behind a building, peeking out to see what was going on.
A native said something in gibberish, and the rest bowed down in reverence.
Four more passed, bearing on their shoulders a throne. Sitting in the throne was a very pleased-looking Molly, eating to her content. Another one passed, carrying Thomas, who didn't look quite as pleased with the array of food.
"Thomas!" Seymore blurted out as soon as he saw the chipmunk. As soon as he exclaimed this, several spears were pointed in his direction. He looked rather surprised, noticing for the first time that all of the natives were wearing old, worn-out red shirts with faded yellow 'A's on them. This reminded him of how Alvin had bargained his way out of his problem. Of course, he had been interrupted before he told Seymore the outcome of this. It had to have ended well, though, because the Chipmunks were, in fact, still there. And if these were the same natives, then maybe they would react the same way to a bargain.
"Pretty shirts?" he asked, holding one of his extra orange shirts with the white 'S' on it. "Nice music?" He held up an iPod, showing them how to use the headphones. "Nice shoesies?" he asked, quoting Alvin, holding up a pair of shoes. "All this, in exchange for little Chipmunks you stole from us last night."
"Well, that went well," Brianna muttered, shifting position to get a little more comfortable on the string her arms were tied to. They were both wearing one of Alvin's old, tattered shirts from when he was a kid.
"How was I to know that they had enough shirts?" Seymore asked, sighing as he saw yet another native walk by wearing one of his shirts over an old, tattered Alvin shirt listening to his only iPod. "And enough music and shoes..." Another native walked by, clad similarly, stopped, frowned, and thumped the old radio he was carrying on his shoulder. It didn't react, having spent the last of it's battery. It must have been quite a faithful radio to play for so long...
A band of natives, including the chief, stopped in front of where they were tied. They bowed low, and the two thrones carrying the Chipmunks were laid down there, too.
"Seymore!" Molly cried happily. Thomas purposely didn't react.
The natives conversed about this, and one of them stood up and talked their gibberish to the Chipmunks as their bonds were cut.
"A blue dress means they are King and Queen of Nothing?" Seymore asked.
"No," Brianna corrected. "The Prince of Plenty always has green eyes, apparently. The fact that they both have green eyes means that they are the son of their Prince of Plenty, now King of Plenty, making them Prince and Princess of Plenty."
Seymore then remembered something. "With the natives that our parents met, wasn't the Prince of Plenty supposed to be-" The two Chipmunks' eyes widened.
"They're going to be sacrificed!" they realized at the same time.
The native talked more gibberish. "If we don't enjoy ourselves, he's going to stuff us with cake?" Seymore again mistranslated.
"No! The only way for us to not be sacrificed is for us to be their slaves," Brianna correctly translated.
"I'm not going to be a slave!" Seymore exclaimed, getting up to storm away. Several spears were pointed in his direction.
"I mean, I'm not going to be a bad slave," he corrected himself sheepishly, hurrying back.