The Lore of ZooKazoo -- Day 7

LOL. You guys! About 30 of you tried to take credit for the paragraph about the berries. All I can do is say thanks to the actual anonymous author and ask you to please keep sending me such great ideas. Today's chapter contains yet another anonymous paragraph, so thanks to that person too!

OK, let's catch up. Princess Kazooba had an argument with her dad, King Mo. She left home to show everyone that she was really grown-up and could do great things on her own. She found a bottle with a map inside and some scary warnings about things she should and should not do.

She ran into a tiny tiger kitten, but when she reached down to pet it, there was a flash. The kitten bacame a huge tiger who startled her when he said, "Kazooba, I've been waiting for you for a long time. My name is Growler, and you have an important destiny to fulfill." Wow! Who was Growler and how had he known Kazooba's name?

Meanwhile, a really wicked elf, Silvercrest, watched their progress in a magic pool of water. He wondered if Kazooba was the young woman he was warned to watch out for. He began to plan ways to keep her from finding him. Silvercrest is a pretty scary guy with red eyes, green scales, and very pointy ears.

Princess Kazooba's mom and dad, the Queen and King, were worried sick. Where was their daughter? King Mo felt guilty because he knew that an argument with his daughter was probably the reason she left the tree palace and entered the jungle. King Mo called for his best spies (a Corps of Apple Cores) and his best soldiers (the Monkey Troop) to spread out through the kingdom and find and bring his daughter home.

And now, Day 7. . . 

Twenty-four hours had passed since King Mo sent out his Corps and Troop. They were his very best, but none had found hide, nor hair, nor single word about his daughter. As he slumped in his throne, his frown just deepened, and his fear for Kazooba's safety increased. The Queen sat across from him, reading his dark mood. She knew that no news was not good news. She'd put her index finger to the side of her head and was now trying to remove it without anyone noticing. "These suction cups," she thought, "can be so embarrassing."

Seeds, a rather lucky member of the Apple Corps, had taken up a position in a corner of Zookajuice, a favorite meeting and eating establishment in Jungaloo. No one noticed him as he watched everyone chatter, straining to hear any mention of the Princess. No one cared about an old apple core. He had not had time to eat and his stomach rumbled a protest, but he was determined to complete his ever-so-hard mission. "Where would the Princess be and why had she disappeared?" he thought.

Just then, one of the royal monkeys from the famed Monkey Troop dragged herself into Zookajuice and collapsed over a table near Seeds. She looked around and spotted Seeds and winked. Seeds rolled over to her and said, "Any luck?"

Precilla looked back at him and said, "Do I look like I had any luck?" She was soaked with sweat, dirty, even scratched up from sharp branches that had scraped her as she'd raced for miles through jungle trees. Waving to a waitress to get her attention, she ordered a bug-burger, yam fries, and a tall, cool greatfruit drink. Greatfruit, as everyone knows, is sooooo sour that it could stand your hair on end. That's what she needed to wake herself up and get fully alert again.

"Seeds, I'm not getting anywhere. No one else is either. I covered miles and miles today, crisscrossing the jungle south of the lake. The only thing I saw that showed any signs of life was a huge Tikiberry tree that had been stripped of all of its fruit by a bunch of squirrels or birds or something."

"Tikiberry tree?" asked Seeds as he sat up with growing interest. "The princess loves Tikiberries."

Pricella reached down to lift Seeds off the floor and said, "It's time to team up. I'll give you a ride you won't forget." Over her shoulder, she carefully placed Seeds in her pack. She stuffed a hand full of fries in her vest pocket, took one enormous bite of bug-burger, and gulped the greatfruit drink. Her eyes popped open and her hair frizzed like a storm was coming.

"Wow, I needed that!" Dropping a fist full of kazoobits on the table, she was out of the door and headed back to the jungle in great loping strides. She reached the edge of the jungle and without slowing one bit, flung herself up into the largest near tree, then another and another, gaining speed and height as she went.

Seeds sucked in a deep gulp of air and wondered if there were a barf-bag anywhere. "I can do this, I can do this," he repeated as he turned a pale shade of green apple.