The Flying Krock lifted off immediately after Diddy and Dixie disembarked. They had no time to wave goodbye to Funky and Donkey as K. Rool might have alerted his men that the Flying Krock had been captured. The Kongs entered the Keep, sneaking as quietly as they could and looking around every corner before going around it. They emerged into the corridor between what had been K. Rool's throne room and the portal to the Lost World. They walked past the fallen, ropeless chandelier when Dixie suddenly stopped and turned around.
“What is it?” Diddy whispered.
“I think I heard something behind us.” she whispered back.
Both stood still listening, but they heard nothing. “We should check out that corner to be sure.” Dixie whispered.
They took a careful look around the corner, but saw nothing except a bit of corridor with an old carpet featuring a portrait of K. Rool. The Kongs returned to the portal room, but now both had the unpleasant feeling they were being followed. They entered the room, still guarded by the enormous Klubba.
“What d'ye want, ye scruffy apes? The Kap'n told me to not let anone through, especially anyone furry!” Klubba said.
“It's okay,” Diddy bluffed, “The Kaptain told us to go into the Lost World. We're to stand guard on the other side of this portal in ca- in kase those stinking Kongs get past you.”
Klubba squinted. “The Kap'n didn't tell me about any new guards, and ye be lookin' like stinkin' Kongs to me.”
“That's eksaktly the point of this disguise. If those skurvy Kongs enter the Lost World, we will trick them into thinking we are Kongs like them.”
“Ye be disguised as Kongs? Ye be lookin' like real ones to me. And how come no one told me ye'd need to get into the Lost World?”
Diddy snorted smugly. “Obviously you're not high enough in rank to know about it! These orders kome direktly from the Kaptain, so let us through or suffer his wrath!”
“If ye really be disguised, let's see ye take off the disguise. If ye really be Kremlings, show me.”
Diddy bit his lip nervously. “Uh... We c-kan't. You see, these disguises are made to be usable only once, to prevent people stealing them and using them against the Kaptain.” He shot a glance at Dixie, only to notice she'd left the room without either of them noticing.
Klubba squited his little eyes. "I think yer lying!"
"No, really, I'm a Kremling like you!" Diddy said as Klubba swung his club threateningly.
Dixie suddenly burst into the room, black smoke following her. “FIRE! FIRE! Someone set the toxic trap on fire! Klubba, you must go help extinguish the fire right now, or the toxin could-kould melt the whole Keep and everyone in it!”
Klubba looked startled. “ARR, I'd like to help, but the Kap'n ordered me to be guardin' this here portal!”
“We'll guard it for you while you go help with the fire!” Dixie said.
“Fine, but don't be lettin' anyone in an' don't tell anyone, especially not the Kap'n.”
“All right, we promise.” Dixie said.
"Watch out for the guy in red. I think he be a Kong." Klubba whispered to her as he left teh room.
“Quick, let's get to the portal before he sees I just set that carpet on fire.” Dixie said. They stepped into the portal and bright light engulfed them.
–
“The Kongs have fooled your guard and entered the Lost World, Kaptain.” a sly voice spoke from K. Rool's walkie-talkie.
“Eksellent, I knew they'd fall for my trap. Is Donkey Kong with them or is it just Kirby and Vixie?” K. Rool asked.
“Just the two small ones.”
“I'll get that lumbering fool Donkey Kong later, then.” he put the walkie-talkie away. “Krusha!”
The huge Kremling showed up immediately and saluted. “Yes, Kaptain?”
“Dopey and Buzzy Kong have followed us into the Lost World. Take twenty men with you and hand me their heads, or I'll hand you yours.”
The huge Kremling saluted again. “Sir, yes, sir!”
–
After the flash of light dissipated, a wave of tropical heat hit the Kongs. The gloomy interior of the castle was gone, and now they saw an amazing view. They were standing on a forested hill in a jungle that seemed to cover everything in sight, except a mountain shaped like a crocodile head in the distance. A huge beam of energy shot right up into the sky from the crocodile head. It looked like the mountain was about a day's traveling away.
“If I were K. Rool,” Diddy said pointing at the crocodile head, “That's where I would go.”
Dixie nodded. “Let's go there. It will be a nice change to be in a jungle again.”
A huge rumbling noise echoed through the entire Lost World and tremors shaked the earth itself. Diddy had to pinch himself to check he was not dreaming: in front of their disbelieving eyes, in the middle of the jungle, five mountains grew from the ground like mushrooms. Trees that stood on the ground that was now part of the mountains fell over and rolled down the growing slopes, though some managed to keep standing on their new footing. Rivers started flowing from the emerging mountain range into the jungle. Three minutes later, the tremors and rumbling stopped and a new mountain range was born. The Kongs didn't say a word or moved a muscle for at least ten minutes, just staring at the miracle.
“Incredible.” Diddy finally said.
“I wonder how often that happens.” Dixie said, “It could be very dangerous if it happens a lot. I wouldn't like to be among all those trees that rolled off the mountains.”
Diddy hadn't considered that yet. “I guess we'll just find out when we traverse this place. It could be an incredibly rare one-time occurrence that we just happened to witness, or it could be normal for this place and happen every fifteen minutes.”
They descended the hill and entered the jungle. The sounds of birds and other small animals were everywhere, giving the place a lively atmosphere. The Kongs were on their guard for large animals, Kremlings, and most importantly the land itself. It wasn't long before a massive rumbling sound echoeing through the jungle and massive tremors announced the land coming to life again. The tremors were so strong this time they knocked both Kongs off their feet and uprooted several trees. Diddy sank down, while Dixie rose up into the air. He stood up and jumped, and just managed to grab Dixies hand and climb onto the rising ground she was standing on before the ground he had stood upon a moment ago sank away into the depths. They ran away from the edge as well as they could with the huge tremors shaking the earth. After a minute, the landscape had changed completely.
They were no longer in the middle of a wide jungle, they were at the edge of a forested cliff overlooking a deep canyon. A newly formed river from the newly formed mountains flowed deep through the canyon.
“Wow.” Diddy said.
“What a bizarre place,” Dixie said, “The geography is as ephemeral as the weather here. You know, it almost feels as if the land is alive.”
“Can you imagine living here?” Diddy asked.
Dixie thought for a moment. “No, I can't. But that does raise another problem: how are we going to sleep here? I was kind of hoping we might sleep once a day now, but I guess we'll eventually get used to 48 hour days.”
“Whenever the land changes it always makes a lot of noise, noise that would wake us up and warn us if we were sleeping. I'd say we could risk it. It would probably be safer than to walk around this place in the dark.”
They continued on towards the crocodile mountain along the cliff. So close to the canyon was not the safest place to be, but nowhere really seemed safe in the Lost World, and the cliff headed straight in the direction of the crocodile head. As they followed the cliff, they heard the loud rumbling noise twice more, but nothing near them seemed to change.
As midday turned to evening and the Sun sank lower in the sky, the rumble sounded very loudly, and when the tremors came the cliffs rapidly sank into the canyon. The Kongs ran away from the canyon into the jungle on the cliff, but even there the ground was sinking down rapidly. The ground behind them sank faster than the ground in front of them, making the land slowly turn diagonal. Running against the continually steeper slope was harder and harder, as the tremors now uprooted trees and loosened rocks that came rolling down. Dixie had to jump aside out of a rock's way, and they had to crawl under fallen trees.
After a while, the tremors stopped and a massive crash of thunder sounded. A huge, anvil-shaped cumulonimbus cloud, so full of rain that it was almost purple, had appeared overhead and unleashed a torrential rain. Every single droplet was almost the size of a golfball, and within seconds Diddy and Dixie were completely soaked. Streams flowed down the diagonal slope all around them, eroding the ground and making it even harder to climb out of the newly formed valley. Diddy looked behind him, and saw the valley filling up with water. Whole uprooted trees floated and the waterlevel was rising rapidly. Dodging a falling tree, they reached horizontal ground at last. The Kongs looked back at the newly formed lake as the torrential rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. Near the edges treetops of trees still standing underwater breached the surface, and a lot of uprooted trees floated in the middle of the lake. The huge cloud dissolved as rapidly as it had appeared and the setting Sun shone its red light over the lake.
“Whew.” Diddy said.
“You know,” Dixie said, “we really should try to get as far away from that lake as possible. If it turns into a mountain-”
“-And it's almost guaranteed it will-” Diddy added.
“-that's a lot of water that needs to go somewhere. And we'd better be far away from that somewhere.”
They walked away from the lake through the jungle. It was slowly getting darker, until night fell completely. The Kongs climbed in a large tree and each sat on a large branch next to each other, leaning on the tree.
Dixie took off her baret and ran her hand through her hair. “Yuck, I think I need to brush my hair. There's still little bits of spider web in it.”
“Well, give me your brush and I'll help you.” Diddy offered. Dixie gave her brush, which looked pretty damaged, several bristles broken or completely gone. “What happened to it?”
Dixie answered as he starting brushing her hair with the damaged brush. “Remember when we were fighting Krow and I jumped into a fold in the sail? I didn't have much grip on the wet sail, so I used the brush to stab through the sail and have some grip on it.”
Diddy laughed. “That's quite some brush. No wonder it got damaged.”
“Can you believe it?” Dixie said after a while, “We're actually going to be sleeping two nights in a row.”
Diddy grinned. “Don't get your hopes up too much, though. Before you know it, we'll be awakened by a rumbling sound as this jungle turns into a mountain or something.”
Diddy brushed Dixie's hair in silence for a while until she broke the silence. “You know, I've got to admit that this world is a really pretty place. The formation of those cliffs and the lake was rather troubled, but the end result looked very nice.”
“'End result'?” Diddy asked, “Those cliffs have already disappeared, and I'll bet the lake will be gone by the morning too. That makes me think: we were the first, and probably the last people who ever saw them. I'd say that makes us explorers, and means we get to name them.”
Dixie smiled. “Did you have any names in mind?”
Diddy thought for a moment, then knew one good name. “Lake Dixie. It is very pretty, but destroyed a whole forest when it got angry.”
Dixie laughed and blushed. “Not a bad name.”
Dixie's hair was done brushing, so they decided to go to sleep.
“Good night, Diddy, and let's hope my namesake doesn't come washing over this forest.”
“Good night, Dix.”
–
Diddy woke up feeling incredibly cold. So it was all just a dream, he thought disappointedly, we still have to attack K. Rool's Keep. We didn't save DK, and we never went into any 'Lost World'. I guess I should've realised it was a dream when those mountains just popped up from the ground. Still, Lake Dixie was a pretty good name.
Diddy opened his eyes. He was buried almost to his head in snow. How did this get in here? He looked up, and didn't see the inside of the ice cave, but grey clouds. He also saw the top of a leafless tree. So it wasn't a dream! It had just started snowing while they were asleep. It had snowed so much, apparently, that the snow came to the high branches of the tree. Diddy looked at Dixie, and saw she was almost completely buried in the snow too.
“Wake up, Dix. It looks like the Lost World decided to play a little prank on us.”
“Whazrong?” She asked drowsily, then she noticed she was buried in snow. “Huh? Snow?”
“Yeah, snow.” Diddy said. “Let's go, before we're too cold to walk. The snow may melt soon if we're lucky.”
They set out across the barren landscape. Though the snow was metres deep, they didn't sink into it very deeply. The landscape was littered with half-buried trees that had lost all their leaves overnight. No sign of Lake Dixie remained: it had probably frozen over and got covered in snow.
They were still heading for the crocodile shaped mountain in the distance through the snow-covered land when a massive rumbling sounded, and tremors so big they could be felt through the snow shocked the landscape. The snow began to rise up rapidly, as the ground underneath rose. Dixie shouted something Diddy couldn't make out over the noise. The snow started sliding down the forming mountain, but before the avalanche took Diddy with it he grabbed a rock that poked through the snow with both arms. Dixie dived for the rock too, but barely missed it. Diddy grabbed her hand, and just in time as the snow she stood upon slid down the slope forming an avalanche, and she was now hanging in midair from his hand as the rock rapidly rose up and became part of a forming precipice. It was a good thing Dixie wasn't very heavy. The enormous tremors continued, but Diddy didn't let go of either the rock or Dixie. Far below snow and trees rolled down the growing slopes of the mountain in a gigantic avalanche. The tremors had broken up the ice on Lake Dixie in the distance.
After a few minutes, the trembling stopped. The Kongs now hung from a high precipice on the side of the mountain. Diddy looked down and saw Dixie dangling above the depths.
“Are you alright, Dix?” he asked.
She looked down and back up again. “I... I'm fine. Thanks for grabbing my hand, it wouldn't have been pretty if I had been a part of that avalanche.”
“I don't like this mountain much.”
“We'll call it Mt. Rool, then. Can you climb up?”
“Not without a free hand, and both of them are rather busy at the moment. Are there any other rocks you can grab down there?”
“It's just one big piece of rock down here with no place to grab. Maybe I could hold your feet instead of your hand?”
“I'll need both feet too, from the looks of these rocks. Try climbing over me.”
Dixie climbed up by grabbing Diddy's waist and shoulders, and then onto the rocks. Now that she didn't hang on to him anymore, climbing was difficult but possible. Both Kongs safely made it to a plateau littered with large rocks. The dark opening of a cave gaped to their right.
“There they are, men! Get them!”
Lots of Kremlings appeared from behind the rocks. A few of them were very big, and Diddy remembered from his first adventure that those were bad news, as he wasn't strong or heavy enough to defeat them, and Dixie probably wasn't either. No Kremlings blocked the way into the caves, though.
“Quick, Dix! Into the cave!”
The Kongs ran into the cave, and immediately lost all grip on the ground. What they'd thought was black stone was actually pitch-black ice. The cave sloped downwards, causing the Kongs to rapidly slide deeper into the cave, Kremlings still after them. In the dark cave it was hard to see, so it came as a surprise when the cave split in five smaller tunnels. Diddy immediately reached for Dixie's hand and pulled her close to him, so they went into the same tunnel. A few Kremlings got into the same tunnel as them, most of them slid into wrong tunnels.
The tunnel was very small, feeling rather like sliding through a water slide. It went deep down into the mountain, and eventually launched the Kongs into a large cave of black ice. Three Kremlings popped into the cave moments later. They didn't look very threathening.
“Three of you against two of us, that's not fair.” Dixie said, “Get five of your buddies so it'll be even.”
“HA!” One of the Kremlings responded, “we're not scared of two little monkeys, one of whom is a girl!”
A couple of cartwheels later they were unconcious. The Kongs looked around in the black ice cave. It was very dark as the ice reflected hardly any light, but on the other side of the cave another small tunnel seemed to continue downwards.
“We should get out of here as soon as we can.” Diddy said.
“Yeah, I don't even want to think about what will happen if we're still in here when the mountain sinks back in the ground.” Dixie said.
–
The Kongs ran through the black ice caves, looking for the exit. Each cave consisted of a large open cave area with two smaller tunnels, one up and one down, each on opposite sides of the cave, connected to it. Cave after cave they slid down deeper into Mt. Rool. They knew they had to go up, not down, but they didn't have any choice on the smooth ice. They just hoped the caves had an exit in the lower parts of the mountain. After running through a couple of empty caves like this, they entered one with seven rather big Kremlings.
“There you are!” the biggest one said, “Your heads have an appointment with the Kap'n, and we don't want you to miss it!”
The Kremlings approached. Several of them were wielding knives, and they were blocking the only way down.
“I'm sure we can talk this out in some way!” Diddy said while trying to think of a way out of the situation. “Look behind you!”
The Kremlings laughed. “Just how stupid do you think we are, you stinking ape? We've heard that one bef-ack!!!” the biggest Kremling said as a Zinger stabbed its main stinger right through his back. Panic broke out among the other Kremlings as more Zingers flew down from the roof trying to catch their prey. Diddy and Dixie didn't waste a second and ran through the battle between Kremlings and Zingers into another small tunnel.
“Zingers!” Diddy said while sliding down, “What are they doing in here?”
“No idea,” Dixie said, “but for once I'm glad they're around.” They emerged into a new cave, with nine Zingers buzzing around this time. “Well, that feeling didn't last very long.”
The Kongs ran for the other side of the cave, where another small tunnel led down again. The Zingers descended upon them after a moment, and behind them they could hear the Kremlings and more Zingers bursting into the cave too. Diddy rolled to dodge a Zinger that nearly grabbed him from above, and jumped aside out of another's path. They reached the other tunnel, and slid down, immediately followed by two big Kremlings wielding big knives.
“Let's kall a truce for now, mateys!” one of them shouted ahead as the four of them slid down the tunnel.
“Fine!” Diddy shouted back.
“Me name be Krusha, and this be Kasplat!”
“Our names are Diddy and Dixie!”
They emerged onto the next floor, which was Zingerless for the moment. A second after the Kongs and Kremlings entered the cave buzzing announced the Zingers' arrival on the same floor. It was rather surprising how much speed Krusha and Kasplat managed to make despite their huge size, as they passed the Kongs in this cave. After the Kongs followed them into the tunnel to the next cave, they saw five more Zingers waiting for them there. Krusha and Kasplat swung their knives at the Zingers that attacked them as they hurried for the next tunnel. Kasplat missed one of the Zingers that attacked him and paid for his error as the Zinger stabbed its main stinger right through his throat. Diddy picked up his knife as Dixie and himself passed the scene, where the five Zingers had massed around the dying Kasplat.
The other Zingers still followed the Kongs as they slid into another tunnel. When they appeared into the next cave, the first thing Diddy noticed was the light: the exit was at the end of the cave. The next thing he noticed was that Krusha was trying desperately to hold off four Zingers ganging up on him. For a moment Diddy considered just running on and leaving the Kremling to his fate, but his conscience protested, and he just couldn't help helping.
“Hey, here we are, come and get us!” he shouted at the Zingers. Two of them left Krusha and came for the Kongs now.
“What are you doing?” Dixie asked angry, “Just leave him!”
Diddy thought that was rather callous of her, but didn't have time to argue as the two Zingers attacked. He stabbed one with the knife while running on. The Kongs emerged from the black ice caves with Krusha running only a bit behind them. The remaining Zingers followed them, and the three would defend themselves with the two knives while running away. About every three seconds, the knifeless person would call “Knife!” and one of the others would throw theirs at them. They fled in this fashion for a few minutes until all Zingers had either given up or died. The three of them stood still to catch their breath, panting heavily.
“That was a klose kall, mateys.” Krusha said, “I hope my other men are okay.”
“We ran into three of them and beat them before we met you.” Diddy said.
“That's a shame.” Krusha said as he picked up the second knife. “But it reminds me: time to get back to work. ARR, prepare to die, Kongs!”
Dixie gave Diddy a look that seemed to say “I told you so.” and they ducked to avoid the knives. Diddy cartwheeled into Krusha, but the Kremling was too though to be knocked down by it.
“We just saved your life!” Diddy said.
“Yeah, thanks for that, mateys, but your lifesaving won't have been of much use if I show up to the Kaptain without your heads.”
“Look behind you, a Zinger!” Dixie screamed. Krusha shrieked in fear and turned around, but once he saw there was nothing there and turned around, the Kongs had ran away. He tried to catch up with them, but now that they were no longer on ice, his large mass only slowed him down so he quickly lost them.
–
Most of the snow had melted in the bright light of the Sun. Here and there, patches of wet snow still lay, and shallow puddles of water occasionally dotted the flat landscape. Many dead trees, both fallen and still standing littered the landscape. Not a living thing was in sight. Wherever the Kongs looked, the land was a muddy grey.
“How depressing.” Dixie said in a sad voice after a while.
Diddy had to agree. “It looks almost post-apocalyptic.”
“It's not surprising, I guess, with all the rapid and violent changes this world goes through, but it does make me wonder how the jungle that first covered the entire place ever grew.”
Diddy could hardly believe his eyes. “Look, Dix: green!”
A tiny plant had popped up next to a shallow puddle. It was only a tiny piece of grass, but it gave them some hope in the dreary landscape when they looked down at it. When they looked up from the grass, the sorry grey landscape had been replaced by a sea of green. Tiny little plants grew everywhere, so fast that the eye could see them grow. They soon reached knee-height, and some of them grew thicker woodier stems. They grew larger and larger, soon overshadowing the Kongs, and in a few minutes a lush jungle had grown all around them.
“I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the plants here have adapted to this place.” Dixie said, clearly very surprised.
Diddy knocked on the trunk of the nearest tree to reassure himself that it was a real forest. It seemed so bizarre: five minutes ago, the landscape had been a desolate wasteland. He'd never seen a tree grow with his own eyes, much less seen its entire lifecycle in just a few minutes.
“I've thought of a name for this jungle.” Dixie said, “'Squawks Forest'. It appeared unexpectedly and gave us new hope, just like Squawks always does.”
“Good name.” Diddy said.
As they walked on through the jungle, animal sounds returned. Whether the animals of the Lost World had life cycles as short as the plants or they'd simply come from some other place, neither Diddy nor Dixie knew.
The Lost World seemed rather calm that afternoon. For several hours no more rumbling or tremors appeared, and the jungle remained rather uniform. The Sun was shining very brightly, though, making the heat under the leaves exhausting. After a while, completely dried out leaves started falling from the trees while the green roof of leaves was slowly turning into a dry brown. The ground was completely dehydrated and cracks were starting to appear in it. As happy as the Kongs had been to see the forest grow, so sad were they now that it was already dying.
A weird smell hang between the trees. It smelt a bit like someone was having a barbecue. At the exact same moment, both Kongs realised what it was and looked startled at each other. “Fire!”
They ran from the fire behind them, but they soon saw a lot of smoke coming from other directions too.
“There must be multiple sources of ignition!” Diddy shouted, “Maybe the heat caused leaves to combust spontaneously”
“Even in this heat, that's one hell of a coincidence! I think the Kremlings started the fires to burn us alive.”
Diddy had to admit that made more sense, but it turned out they were both wrong: As they ran past it, a large crack in the Earth widened, and terrible heat washed over them as they saw magma barely a metre below the surface. All trees near the chasm caught fire immediately, and the Kongs screamed in pain from the heat and ran away as fast as they could from the magma and the fire. The fire spread rapidly, and the smoke made breathing very hard. Diddy felt panic's icy grasp clutch its hand around his heart.
Don't panic, please don't panic, just try to think straight.
Smoke came from all directions, including forward now as the fires had fully surrounded them. They stopped and looked around desperately for some way out, and Diddy saw a large burrow, probably a fox or badger's.
“Quick, Dix, get in there!” He shouted and they both crawled into the burrow. It was very small and they couldn't even sit in it, but they both fitted in. When they were both inside, Diddy made sure to collapse the entrance so the fire and smoke could not get in. The roaring sound of the fire outside was outvoiced by the rapid, ragged breaths of both Kongs.
The burrow was very small and claustrophobic, and this added to Diddy's rising panic about the fire. He had to fight the urge to dig his way out of the burrow.
“We have to get out of here!” Dixie said in a panicked voice.
Diddy tried to keep his own thoughts, which were about to enter blind panic too, together and calm Dixie. “We can't Dix, we're safe here. Don't panic, try to breathe normally.”
Dixie began clawing at the walls of the burrow. “We have to get out! We'll suffocate in here! We have to get out!”
Diddy tried not to succumb to the urge to start digging too and grabbed her hands. “Dix, we can't go out, there's fire there! You're only making things worse by digging!”
Dixie tried to struggle free. “Let! Me! Go! What if the magma comes? Let me go!”
Her panic was very infectious, and Diddy struggled to keep somewhat calm. He pulled her into an embrace to try and calm her. “Just take a deep breath, Dix, and think of DK Isle. Remember how lush and green it is? And think of the blue of the ocean. This will all pass, and then we'll just look back on it as a memory and we'll swim in the sea again.” Dixie's breaths were becoming slightly less jagged, and Diddy felt his own panic lessen. Dixie was no longer trying to struggle free from him. “And remember the bramble forest? Remember how we swam in the cold water, and then I brushed your hair and kissed you? Think of how beautiful the view in that place was, and how cool the water. And think of the peak, how cold it was and how we fought a snowball fight there. And then you pinned me down on the ground and kissed me. Think of the cold snow, and the beautiful stars, and the warmth of that kiss.”
Diddy and Dixie had both calmed down now by the happy memories. Their breaths were a lot slower, despite the heat and claustrophobic nature of their hiding place. Dixie had closed her eyes and was breathing normally. It was a while before either of them spoke again.
“Thank you Diddy,” Dixie whispered, “I'm sorry I panicked like that. I just couldn't help it.”
“It's okay, Dix,” Diddy said petting her back, “I was very close to panic myself.”
They lay in the small burrow in silence. “How long do you think we should wait before going back outside?” Dixie asked.
Diddy hadn't thought about it yet. “As long as possible, I guess, so we're sure the fire has stopped. I think we should stay here until we begin noticing a lack of oxygen.”
They lay in the burrow for a while longer until breathing became harder. Then they dug their way out, and saw an unearthly, yet familiar view. The few trees that hadn't burned down completely were just charred dead trunks. Glowing red lakes of lava dotted the landscape amid hills of dirt and ash. The sky was completely blocked out by thick black smoke. It was infernally hot, at least 80 degrees, and the air was very dirty and difficult to breathe. An ambient red light from the lava was the only source of illumination, except a brighter spot in the black smoke on the horizon where the beam of energy from the crocodile head lighted up the smoke.
“Déjà vu.” Dixie said. “It's like the Crocodile Cauldron all over again, innit?”
Diddy coughed. “With one big difference: This time we can just stay right here and wait for the landscape to change into something more habitable.”
“I don't think we should risk that. We were only in the Crocodile Cauldron for about 12 hours, but remember how tired and thirsty we were? And the Lost World may stay like this for much longer than that: we know that jungle that was around when we arrived here existed for at least a whole day. We could reach that crocodile head in a lot less than that. I'd also prefer to have something to do to take my mind off the heat and awful air.”
“I suppose you're right.” Diddy said.
–
The new Lost World soon reminded the Kongs of all those little sensations about the Crocodile Cauldron they'd forgotten. Like the feeling of climbing up a crumbling ash hill with tiny bits of glass mixed in with the ash, or the feeling your throat gets after breathing and coughing awfully warm and polluted air for a few hours, or the overheating sensation when you're sweating in temperatures so high that it offers no cooling whatsoever, or the pain when a fiery hot wind directly from the lava blows into your face, or how sore your eyes get when there's ash in them. It wasn't long before their coughing got so bad that small droplets of blood made their way out with each cough.
Suddenly, Diddy felt a small peck of something he hadn't felt in a while on his shoulder: cold. He looked at his shoulder in surprise, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then he felt another peck of cold on his other shoulder, and one on his tail a moment later.
Dixie was holding her hand in front of her like a beggar. “Diddy... It's raining!”
Rain came pouring from the sky. The thirsty ground soaked up the water that landed on it immediately, and the lava lakes produced massive hissing sounds. Diddy and Dixie were soon soaked by the rain, and the air was getting a lot easier to breathe as the rain washed the heat and smoke from the air. It wasn't long before the light grey of the clouds could be seen through the dark grey of the smoke. Before the lava lakes had even fully solidified, plants had started growing in the ash. The lava lakes finally became covered in a layer of stone, and the plants grew larger and larger, and soon it was as if the fire had never happened. A new jungle had grown. Diddy and Dixie took a dive into the first pool of water they walked by and drank heartily from it. Rumbling sounded, and tremors rocked the ground as a huge mountain rose from the ground between them and the Krockodile Kore.
“Diddy, there you are!” a low voice called. Diddy looked up from the water and saw a rhinoceros running through the forest.
“Rambi, good to see you made it out of that hive!” Diddy said with glee, recognising the rhinoceros.
“And good to see you managed to rescue your damsel in distress!” Rambi said, causing Dixie to blush embarrassedly.
Diddy introduced Rambi and Dixie. “Dixie, this is Rambi, who helped me save you from the Zingers. Rambi, this is Dixie, my girlfriend. So what are you doing here?”
“Well, I met this parrot, you see, who said he was your friend too and asked for my help to help you get through a 'Lost World'. He managed to find three other buddies of yours, and we decided we'd each help you get past the patrols in the last bit here.”
“But why? And how did you get here?”
“K. Rool has most of his Kremlings guard the Krockodile Kore – that's the crocodile-shaped mountain. We figured you would need our help to get past them. As for how we got here, I'm afraid that's a long and very interesting story that I don't have time to tell you right now. I'll tell you later, when I have the time to do it justice. Now get on my back.”
The Kongs got out of the water onto Rambi's back, Diddy in front and Dixie behind him, and the rhinoceros ran through the jungle. The rain soon stopped falling.
“Look, Kongs! Get them!”
Several Kremlings attacked them, but Rambi didn't even slow down and just bashed them away. A group tried to block the way, but when Rambi collided with them they flew like they were launched by a cannon.
“You make it seem easy, Rambi!” Dixie said.
“It is pretty easy.” Rambi said, “You just have to know how to hit them.”
“And weigh a ton and a half and have a deadly weapon on your nose.” Diddy mumbled so that only Dixie, who giggled at it, heard him.
Loud buzzing sounded and a couple of Zingers descended, trying to catch some prey. Rambi just bashed them aside.
They had reached the mountain, but Rambi wasn't planning to climb it apparently, as he entered an icy cave.
“Rambi, isn't this rather dangerous? If the mountain transforms again...” Diddy said.
“Nah, Enguarde will help you through it. Wonder where he is.”
The swordfish popped up from some water. “I'm right 'ere! Bonjour!”
The Kongs got off Rambi's back. “Hey there, Enguarde. I see you're planning to take us swimming in icy water again.”
“Eet's not so cold, actually.” Enguarde said. “But zere are lots of Lockzhaws around, so we may run into a beet of trouble.”
The Kongs thanked Rambi and got onto Enguarde's back. He was right: while the water was rather cold, it wasn't remotely as frigid as the water they'd last ridden him in had been.
“Ready?” Enguarde asked. “Eet may be a while before I can get you to air, so take a deep breath.”
Enguarde dived underwater. Despite the two monkeys hanging on to him he was still a very fast swimmer, and shot through the crystal clear water like an arrow from a bow. He was so fast that they had already passed several Lockjaws before they realised he was carrying easy prey for them and attacked him. The Lockjaws behind them didn't stand a chance of catching up to the swift swordfish, but the others swam at him and snapped their huge jaws at him. Enguarde made several swift motions to dodge the Lockjaws' attacks or to defend with his sword-like nose.
About two minutes after they'd dived underwater, Diddy was really starting to feel the urge to breathe. His lungs were burning and his head ached. He looked at Dixie and saw she was having trouble too. They couldn't communicate this to Enguarde, though, and just had to hope he would remember his passengers didn't have gills.
After another minute, when Diddy thought he was going to black out soon, they burst through the water's surface and landed in an icy tunnel. The Kongs gasped for breath and Enguarde flopped around out of the water.
“We'll 'ave to go over ze land for a beet.” Enguarde said, “Could you two push me?”
The Kongs pushed Enguarde through the icy tunnel to water on the other side. “Eet ees so weird to be on ze land. I feel so 'eavy and I can't sweem.”
The Kongs pushed him through the tunnel and back into the water. He disappeared below the water for a moment to catch his breath and then came back up to take the Kongs on his back. They dived back into the water and didn't run into any more trouble before they reached air again.
“Zees ees as far as I can take you. Sqeetter should be waiteeng for you outside. Good luck”
The Kongs thanked Enguarde, got off his back and stepped on the land. They walked out the cave. The transition from icy cave to warm jungle was very sudden and surprising.
“There you are. Get on my back.” Squitter's hoarse voice sounded from above, startling both Kongs. The spider hang on a wire from a tree and lowered himself to the ground.
“Squitter, I thought you didn't like leaving the Gloomy Gulch?” Diddy asked as he sat on the spider's back.
Squitter shot a spider wire at a nearby tree and climbed over the wire. “I do, but this parrot convinced me it was necessary to help you two. You see, he-”
“Giant spider! Help!”
“Shut up, moron! We'll have a lot more to fear than a giant spider if we return to the Kaptain without those monkey's heads! Attack!”
Kremlings attacked them, and the Kongs drew their peanut popguns and started shooting Kremlings, while Squitter spit wire at them that they got entangled in.
“Mmm, they look tasty. It's a shame we don't have time for dinner.” Squitter said to the Kongs' disgust.
“Uh... Yeah, real shame.” Diddy said diplomatically.
They left the bound and/or unconcious Kremlings behind as they continued through the jungle. They didn't run into anymore trouble for a while, until, all of a sudden, the plants around them started growing rapidly. Soon the forest was getting too thick for them to continue through. A couple of thick thorny plants grew faster than the other plants, spiralling around each other into the air. They formed a thorny tunnel through the air which looked much easier to traverse than the unbelievably thick jungle.
“Squitter, try climbing into that tunnel.” Dixie said.
The spider shot a wire at the bramble plants and they climbed into the tunnel.
“Squawk!” Squawks the parrot said as he came flying towards them, “I thought you might try to continue through this tunnel, Squitter! I'll take them from here, it'll be easier for me to cross.”
“Thanks, and good luck.” Squitter said as the Kongs switched to Squawk.
The thorns were no problem for Squawk, who could easily fly between them. Dark clouds amassed in the sky, and all three of them wondered what kind of change the Lost World would go through this time. They soon got their answer as a fierce wind nearly blew them into a large, sharp thorn. Squawk struggled to keep away from the thorns. Suddenly the wind changed and they flew so close to the thorns on the other side, that one was only a centimetre away from piercing Diddy's left eyeball.
“Squawks!” Diddy shouted against the roaring storm, “this is way to dangerous, turn back and let Squitter do this! With his sticky wires the wind won't trouble him much!”
“It's too late!” Squawks shouted back struggling not to hit the thorns, “The way back would be longer than the way forward!”
Lightning flared up the area, and revealed five all too familiar silhouettes. Oh please, not now. Diddy thought desperately as the Zingers approached.
“Zingers! Squawks, concentrate on flying, Dixie and I will try to keep them away!”
The Zingers didn't seem very troubled by the storm. Diddy aimed his popgun and fired a shot at one, but aiming was very hard in the wind as the peanut was blown away after a few metres. The Kongs waited until the Zingers were at point-blank range before shooting. Two of the Zingers fell down, hit in the wings, but the others came closer. Two segmented legs grabbed a hold of Diddy's leg, and he kicked their owner as hard as he could, but with little effect. He tried to shoot the Zinger, who was manoeuvring to stab him with its stinger, but its hard body was in the way to its wings and the peanuts bounced of without effect. The Zinger's spike was at his heart now, and it was about to stab when it fell down into the thorns. Dixie had shot its wings from her more advantageous position.
“Thanks, Dix.” He felt more like kissing her to thank her, but since there were still two more Zingers and the storm to deal with, that sort of thing would have to wait.
The tunnel of thorns bent down, and Squawk entered a steep dive that got them out of the way of the Zingers for now and at the end of the thorny tunnel. They were in the jungle once again.
“Sssquawksss!” A hissing voice called, “Hide, thisss ssstorm isss too dangerousss for you. I'll take the Kongsss for the lassst bit!”
The Kongs didn't have time to thank Squawks as he had to hide immediately from the Zingers and the storm and dropped them on Rattly's coiled back.
“Ready? Hold on tight!” Rattly hissed as he made a huge jump that launched them above the trees and the confused Zingers. The massive stormwind blew them way off course, and they landed far away from their launching point. The Zingers attacked and Rattly jumped way over them and the trees again.
“Catccch usss if you can!” Rattly taunted them.
After a few more jumps like this, the Zingers seemed to have caught on. As Rattly jumped again, they positioned themselves so that he would land on their spiked backs. They hadn't counted on the Kongs, however, who clipped their wings with their peanut popguns when they were just above them.
The storm was calming down a bit now. “You're nearly at the Krockodile Kore.” Rattly said to the Kongs, “I will leave you now, asss we'd draw to muccch attentttion with my high jumpsss. Good luck in there.”
The Kongs thanked Rattly and went on. The Krockodile Kore filled most of the view now that they were so close to it. The only entrance seemed to be its jaws. They walked very carefully between the trees of the jungle, popguns drawn, as they didn't want to be seen. Strangely, though, they soon found out there were no Kremlings near the Krockodile Kore.
“Very suspicious, don't you think?” Diddy said.
“It's probably a trap, isn't it?” Dixie said.
“ARR, lass, that it be!” a huge Kremling who popped up behind them said. The Kongs jumped out of the bush immediately, and dozens of Kremlings came out of hiding, forming a semicircle around them.
“Into the Kore!” Diddy said, as it seemed the only way out.
They ran into the Krockodile Kore's jaws and the Kremlings followed them. It was very dark inside. As they ran into the crocodile head's throat, they came to a dead end. The Kremlings enclosed them. Some of them carried torches, lighting the dark tunnel up.
“Welkome, Derby Kong. I've been waiting for ye.” Kaptain K. Rool said with an evil grin.
The Kremlings blocked every way out now. “We be needin' your blood, lad.” K. Rool said.
Diddy didn't expect that. “My what?”
“Yer blood. Read the tekst on the wall behind you.”
Behind these doors a power lays,
a power that can be used in many ways.
Many lands kan be conquered with it,
anything it's controller sees fit.
But to open the doors, a hero has to bleed,
a hero who helps anyone in their time of need,
a hero, free from any greed.
Of all monkeys the most clever,
One smarter was born never.
For each drop of his blood that is spilled in this room,
One millimeter will open of these doors that guard the chamber of doom.
“What an awful poem.” Dixie remarked.
“That's what I told the Kap'n too!” a Kremling spoke up.
K. Rool shoved the barrel of his huge gun into the Kremling's face. “Krittik, I've told you before, and I'm not going to tell you again: Shut. Yer. Trap.” Krittik's green skin turned white with fear.
Despite circumstances, Diddy gave a little laugh. “You think I'm this hero of yours?”
“Not at first, I didn't, lad. When I read that prophecy, the first person to pop into me mind was that big oaf Donkey Kong. After all, he managed to save his banana hoard from me, so I thought it had to be him. And the thought of him losing a lot of blood was hardly unpleasant either, so we kidnapped him and brought him here. I started by chopping a bit off his finger, but it turned out it wasn't his blood we needed. So me nekst thought was that it kould be his skruffy little sidekick, so I decided to kapture ye too.”
“Why didn't DK tell us this when we saved him?” Diddy asked.
“Well, I was kwite angry that it wasn't his blood I needed, so I gave him a kouple of good punches. I imagine his miniskule brain was bouncing around in his skull, so his memories from the okkasion are probably not too klear.
Anyway, I decided to kapture ye, but then my ch- I kame up with a much better plan: I'd test ye to see if you were really this hero of the prophecy. I figured if you were, you'd kome after me to save your stupid friend and sukseed. And boy, was my face red when the kannons of my Keep shot your plane down and you disappeared into the Krockodile Kauldron. So I tried to think about who this hero kould be, and was very pleasantly surprised when ye was spotted by me men in the tunnels below me Keep, trying to break in. When ye avoided kapture and managed to survive two traps my technician assured me are infallible (Though I suppose he says that about everything he builds), I was almost certain of it. Then ye managed to kill Kerozene and reskue yer stupid friend from me. Don't worry, though, he won't eskape K. Rool's wrath. I'll make him wish he'd never hatched once we're done here.
So, like the kunning manipulator that I am, I dropped a subtle hint that I was having plans with the Lost World, and ye followed me here. You managed to survive the dangers of this place and got all the way to the Krockodile Kore.”
Now that K. Rool had finally finished talking, Diddy put the balls he had been juggling away, and Dixie spit out the bubblegum she was chewing.
“You thought of that whole plan yourself?” Diddy asked.
“Of kourse I did!”
“Huh. I guess you aren't as stupid as you look.” Dixie said.
“ARR, you'll regret those words, lass.”
“Anyway, what is this power behind these doors? And couldn't you just break the door open or dig around it?”
“ARR, that be a good question, lad. The power behind these doors is none other than the force that konstantly alters this world. A power that kan make mountains appear or disappear in minutes. Imagine the things I kould do with that power... Like, say, sinking a certain island full of meddlesome monkeys into the depths of the ocean! And of kourse we tried breaking or drilling through the door, but this whole mountain is made of some kind of stone that's harder than even diamond. The only other entrance is the hole in the top of the mountain where that energy beam komes through, but I diskovered anyone trying to get in that way is incinerated by the beam. The only way in is spilling yer blood, so I think it's about time we sliced ye open.”
The bloodthirsty reptillian pirates approached. “Wait!” Diddy said, “I can't be the hero you're looking for. I'm not free of greed: I stole some bananas from DK a few times. And jealousy is a form of greed, and I was very jealous of DK when he took all the credit for retrieving the banana hoard. I also doubt I'm the smartest monkey ever born, and I nearly left Dixie to die when she was in need.” He felt very embarrassed at that last memory.
“I don't think ye're the smartest monkey ever born either, lad. (Though that position kan't be up against much kompetition) I figure whoever wrote this got rather karried away on the whole hero-thing and embellished it.”
“How do you know it will actually work?” Diddy asked, “How do you know it's not just some meaningless text someone wrote on a wall with no actual truth?”
K. Rool thought for a moment. “I guess I don't know that. But we'll soon find out when ye're sliced open!”
The Kremlings approached, weapons drawn. “Stop!” Dixie shrieked, “I'm the one you're looking for!”
K. Rool seemed to notice her for the first time. “What? You?”
Diddy didn't like where this was going. “Dixie, don't, please.”
“Sorry Diddy, but I have to tell the truth. I am the hero you're looking for. I did most on this quest. I helped everyone in need I came by, including Diddy when he got captured, and I have never felt greedy in my life. I'm also really smart. So don't kill Diddy. (Look, there's me helping someone in need again)”
“Hmm... Ye're probably lying, but just to be sure, we'll slice both of ye open.”
“That was one brilliant plan." Diddy said sarcastically.
"Shut up, it just backfired a bit." Dixie replied.
The Kremlings approached with their weapons drawn. At the very last moment, Diddy and Dixie jumped as high up as they could, onto the heads of Kremlings. They jumped rapidly between Kremlings, trying to get out in the ensuing chaos. But dozens more Kremlings were packed into the tunnel, making their escape that way very unlikely. A seething pain shot through Diddy's left arm as a Kremling's sword gave him a deep cut, and at the same time a rumbling sound sounded as the wall split open and a bright light illuminated the cave. The Kongs turned around on Kremling heads and jumped through the narrow crack in the wall, which was just wide enough for them but not wide enough for the Kremlings.
“ARR, you morons! Ye let them get in!” K. Rool shouted furiously.
Diddy and Dixie had entered a large room that was illuminated by the bright beam of energy that shot from the ground into a hole in the roof in the middle of the room. Leading up to it were stairs covered in a blue carpet with weird markings on it. The room was filled with crocodile statues and weird banners. Dixie grabbed Diddy's arm and pinched it hard.
“We have to stop the bleeding before the Kremlings can get through that door.” she said. Diddy ripped a bit off a nearby banner and they used that as a bandage.
“Dimbly and Mixer Kong!” K. Rool shouted through the crack in the wall, “You have no food in there and we guard the only exit. Surrender and we'll let the girl live. Possibly.”
Diddy shouted back, making sure not to come in actual sight of the crack, as the Kremlings might throw a knife through it. “Kaptain K. Rool! We have an immense sort of energy in here and as soon as we figure out how to use it you're in deep trouble. So let us out of here and we'll let you live. Possibly.”
There was a lot of nervous whispering on the other side. K. Rool said something, and a voice that sounded distorted answered.
“Right,” K. Rool said, “men, I've had a great idea: Now that there's an opening between these doors, we may be able to widen it with a krowbar.”
“Uh oh. We'd better figure out this energy thing quickly.” They walked to the centre of the room. “What do you think we should do?”
Dixie seemed as puzzled as he was. “Maybe we should talk to it or something?” She scraped her throat. “Oh, great energy thingie! Will you please kill the band of bloodthirsty pirates at your doors?”
The energy beam just kept flowing up apathically. “Maybe it should be a command?” Diddy said, “Oh great landscaper changer thing! I command you to obey us!”
The energy beam did nothing. Time for a bluff. Diddy thought. “HAHAHA, I can feel the power coarse through me! Kremlings, if you're still there when I turn around, you'll regret it!”
He turned around. The Kremlings were still there, and were apparently making progress at widening the door.
“Yer bluffing, lad.” K. Rool said, “I know the eksakt wording you need to use for that thing to listen, and you didn't use it. Now surrender and die!” They widened the crack a bit more, and it was now close to wide enough for the Kremlings. “When this krack is wide enough,” K. Rool commanded his men, “none of you skurvy dogs are to enter. I'm the only one who's going to get his hands on that power, and if any of ye try to step through that door I'll have ye boiled alive.”
“We can't let that energy fall into his hands.” Diddy said. “The consequences could be disastrous.”
Dixie gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “For good luck.” she said.
The Kremlings pushed K. Rool through the gap, which now was just wide enough for him to fit through. He pointed the gun at the two Kongs.
“Now I've got ye!” he said with an insane grin, “You've put up a decent fight, but now it's time for me to give the two of you yer permanent and painful farewell from this world!”
He pointed the huge gun, pushed a few buttons, and a rain of large cannonballs erupted from the gun. The Kongs could barely dodge the barrage, but the cannonballs hit the statue behind them. The force of the impact caused the statue to shatter and sent stone shards and debris flying through the room. The Kongs were showered in spliters of stone, and a large stone hit Diddy hard in the back, knocking him down and causing terrible pain to his back and ribs. Dixie was in a similar predicament and had fallen down in the middle of a field of rubble too. The door slowly opened a bit more.
K. Rool aimed his gun straight at them. “Time to die, Kongs.” Diddy and Dixie struggled to get up, but the debris had hit them too hard, and they just couldn't manage it. “Or maybe I'll just let you watch me klaim this immense power I will use to rule the world first, so you kan get a good taste of defeat before I kill you. Soon the seas will run red with the blood of my enemies!” He stepped up to the beam of energy. “Kolossal power of the Lost World! Kaptain Kermit Rool kommands you to-” he stopped as he noticed Kremling and Kong alike were giggling. “What?”
“Kermit?” Diddy laughed, despite the pain it caused to his hurt ribs while he slowly managed to stand up. “Your name is 'Kermit'?”
K. Rool turned to him, looking furious now. “Yes, it is. And stop with the laughing!”
Dixie, who had also managed to get up, was giggling uncontrollably. “You look upset. I guess it really is not that easy, being green.”
Both Kongs and all the Kremlings erupted into loud laughter at that. K. Rool looked incredibly angry. “Shut up! Shut up!! SHUT UP!!!” He screamed at the Kremlings, who stopped laughing. “You two think you kan make a fool out of the mighty Kaptain K. Rool?!?! I'm the master chef around here, and you are two grilled geese who have dared to laugh at the master chef! And do you know what happens to laughing geese?”
Diddy was puzzled. “I don't think you quite have the hang of metaphors yet. Kermit.” he and Dixie laughed again at the name, and a few Kremlings cautiously joined in too.
“THEY DIE!!!!” He started firing his gun again in a blind rage. Cannonballs struck the room, and many more crocodile statues exploded, though Diddy and Dixie kept away from the explosions this time. A large piece of stone, round like and a bit bigger than a cannonball landed just before Dixie's feet. She used her hair to pick it up, and Diddy realised what she was planning. He drew his peanut popgun and fired several shots at K. Rool, but in his rage he seemed not to even feel them.
Diddy tried to draw K. Rool's attention. “Don't be upset, Kermit! You're green, and it'll do fine. It's beautiful.”
K. Rool furiously tried to hit Diddy, who made sure not to come near Dixie who was now running at the enraged K. Rool. It seemed, though, that his rage was not quite as blind as they'd thought, as he suddenly turned when she was very close around and fired a bullet straight at her. She managed to almost dodge it, but her side was hit, and she dropped the stone and was launched spinning into the air. She didn't get up when she landed.
“Dixie!” Oh no, please be okay! Diddy didn't have any more time to worry. He ran to the stone, dodging cannonballs, picked it up, and threw it into the gun's mouth just as K. Rool fired another shot. The cannonball and rock collided in the gun. Pressure mounted as the superheated gases in the gun had nowhere to go, and the metal barrel of the gun ruptured, causing the whole gun to explode, knocking K. Rool backwards into the bright beam of energy.
K. Rool was immediately launched up through the hole in the roof by the beam, but the moment he was in it was enough to refract part of the energy. It hit the ceiling of the cave, and blew a hole through the incredibly hard stone as if it were cheese. Part of the ceiling broke off and collapsed into the beam itself. Diddy picked Dixie up, noting with relief that she was still breathing. He ran at the door as the energy behind him couldn't go anywhere and built up. “RUN!” He shouted at the stunned Kremlings, who obeyed his command and ran out of the Kore. The locked up energy shaked the Kore, and massive rocks fell from the ceiling.
The Kore was collapsing all around Diddy while Dixie opened her eyes.
“Did I miss something?” she asked as she saw a large boulder fly over Diddy's head and crush three Kremlings.
“Just a bit, I'll help you catch up later.” Diddy said. They left the jaws of the Kore, and ran into the jungle. Finally they looked back. The Kore had completely collapsed into a huge pile of rubble. The energy of the beam locked inside melted the rubble, and finally managed to fight its way through and radiated out into the sky as it had always done. Slowly the molten stone cooled and solidified into a smooth mountain from a single piece of diamond-hard rock.
“Good job, Diddy!” Dixie said hugging him, “You killed K. Rool and made sure no-one will ever be able to get their hands on that energy again.”
Diddy blushed. “It was your idea. And I'm not sure if K. Rool is dead. He's proved to be surprisingly sturdy in the past.”
–
A few days later
“And another thing: team up? I've never heard such rubbish in my life! In my days, I was on my own! I had no fancy backup!” Cranky said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Diddy said bored. Cranky had started talking to him quite early in the victory party, and hadn't stopped pointing out how easy he'd had it and how much better Cranky could've done it yet.
“And you're looking a bit fat, kiddo! Look at me, I'm in my physical peak! There's a lot you could learn from me.”
“Yeah, you're a true atlethe.”
“Diddy, I thought you were useless on your last adventure, but Dixie is even worse! It should've just been me on my own, that it should!”
“Maybe you could've bored K. Rool to death?”
“And Dixie should've been a token female princess waiting to be rescued instead of a main character!”
Diddy had had enough. “Look, just because when you fancied a girl you kidnapped her and threw barrels at her boyfriend doesn't mean a girl can't be a hero too. Dixie is a much better adventurer than you ever were, and I wouldn't have made it without her.”
Cranky made a few weird noises as he struggled to find something to say. Then he just turned around looking for someone else to bother, though Diddy still heard him mutter under his breath:
“And what sort of name is Dixie anyway? In my days, you were lucky to have a name at all!”
Finally freed of Cranky, Diddy looked around for Dixie. He found her talking to her sister Tiny and her cousin Chunky Kong, apparently recounting the battle with Kerozene. He beckoned Dixie to follow him, and she excused herself and followed him. They left the party at the beach and went to the mountain's precipice, which was not far away.
“Where are we going?” Dixie asked.
“You'll see.” Diddy said. They reached the rockwall, and Diddy began climbing. It was a pretty easy climb, though it was very hard to find. In fact, he was pretty sure he was the only person on the island to know the spot they were going to. “Come on, it's a bit up.”
They climbed, and eventually reached a very small plateau with a bit of grass on it. It was just large enough for the two of them to sit and had an absolutely stunning view of the western horizon, where the Sun was setting in the sea. Dixie gasped as she saw the beautiful sight. The last bit of the Sun was still above the horizon, and Venus' brilliant point of light was already visible higher in the sky. Close to it were two weaker points of light, one white and one red, of Mars and Jupiter. The last sunlight of the day was mirrorred in the waves on the sea.
“Wow.” Dixie said in awe.
They just sat there hand in hand watching the Sun set and the first stars appear in the sky.
“DK invited me to go on vacation with him to the Northern Kremisphere. I haven't said yes yet, because I wanted to ask you if you don't mind it first.”
“I don't mind.” Dixie said, “You need to spend time with your other friends too, after all. I hear the Cotton-top Cove is incredibly pretty this time of year.”
Diddy smiled. “Thanks. Funky is setting up a boat-renting place there, so we're traveling there in his plane.”
They silently watched the stars appear for a while.
Dixie said, “Thanks for telling everyone honestly about my part in the adventure. They all seem very eager to think that only one person went on the adventure, don't they?”
“Weird, isn't it? Everyone seems to think I did everything, and seem surprised when I tell them about the things you did, and how I'd never have made it without you. Cranky gave me a bit of a hard time about needing a girl's help.”
Dixie smiled. Their heads came closer together, their lips found each other, and they kissed. Diddy looked into Dixie's emerald eyes reflecting the stars and her radiant smile and realised this was the perfect moment to tell her.
“Dixie, I like you.” he whispered.
A single tear appeared in the corner of Dixie's eye, and her smile grew a bit at the same time. She brought her head forwards and kissed him again. “I like you too, Diddy.”
by Kiddy14
»
May 29th, 2008, 12:13 pm » Short link
Anyway, this part was actually done in a rush, I'm supposedly making about 30 chapters, tell me what you think =) PS: It's not supposed to be scary, but might have some dramatic or comedy parts.
