Setting: a port. The Wraith's docked at it, but the first scene we see is of the port itself, with Ren and Niddler in the distance, wandering between food stalls. Well, Ren's wandering, and Niddler's lingering until Ren pulls him along. At one particular one, Niddler stops Ren and squeals, "Look at all this food!" and points at each individual item as he names it: "Draja fruit--biperian eggs--and...oh...pooka-looka pies!"
Ren walks off at that. "Don't forget how little money we have," he reminds Niddler, a bit annoyed. Niddler stares longingly at the food but finally follows Ren off, disappointment written all over his face and his drooping shoulders.
The scene switches to Ren standing at the gangplank to a small boat, where two men are aboard, setting up crates of food for sale. "Morning to you, merchants!" he greets them, and gestures to their food. "I see you're well stocked with supplies."
One of the two men, a dusky one with dark hair, grins. "Then come aboard, pup," he invites Ren. "They're all for sale."
Ren makes his way up the gangplank, Niddler behind him, and holds out his very thin bag of gold, shaking it around to show them the amount it holds. "As you can see, I have very little gold," he begins.
"Then look somewhere else, pup," the dusky man cuts him off shortly, becoming annoyed.
His partner, a nonhuman, pipes up. "We're here to make money, not bargains!"
Ren tries his usual tactic. "But I am on a mission of the gravest nature and I can use all the supplies I can get," he protests.
The two merchants are rather amused by this, and one of them (forgot which one, sorry) steps forward and pokes Ren's chest a couple of times. "And what might this 'all-important mission' be?" he asks, smiling rather unsympathetically.
Ren smacks his hand away. "I'm the son of King Primus on a quest to save Mer," he replies shortly, lifting his chin.
The humanoid's eyes suddenly go wide. "Well--well!" he proclaims. "Surely there must be something we can offer!"
"Something suitable for royalty, eh?" his partner chimes in, and pushes what looks like a whole celery in Ren's arms. "How about a scepter?"
The humanoid drapes a necklace of seashells around the rather dumbstruck Ren's neck. "And royal jewels!"
"Don't forget the kingly crown..."
Niddler, cowering behind Ren, flinches as water from the large sponge they've placed on Ren's head splashes him. Ren, on the other hand, isn't amused. (He also looks kind of stupid holding a celery-type vegetable, wearing shells and a sponge, but that's beside the point.)
The merchants sketch an exaggerated bow. "Long live the prince!" they chime, and at the same time, shove Ren rudely off the ship, and he topples into the water with a yell. They double over, cracking up, as Ren surfaces, looking a lot less princely and pretty dejected.
Niddler tries telling them off. "Oh yeah?" he retorts angrily. "Just wait till my friend becomes king someday! Then you'll be laughing--all the way to the stockyards!" They just laugh harder.
"You know, Niddler," Ren comments with a sigh as Niddler helps pull him onto the dock and they walk off quickly, "sometimes saving the world isn't all it's cracked up to be."
Meanwhile, on the Wraith, Ioz's getting impatient. "Where are Ren and the monkey-bird?" he gripes from the utility nets, keeping an eye on the port as well as the sky--there's a good wind blowing. "I want to set sail!"
"I wouldn't be in a hurry, Ioz," Tula cautions. She's down on the deck, her arms clasped around herself. "There's something in the air--" At that, she wanders off to the mast, resting her hand on the wood and staring off into space. "And I'm not sure if it's a storm," she trails off, deep in thought.
An image of a monstrous face roaring at her appears at her touch, but it takes her a moment to notice. When she does, she yanks her hand back, recoiling in horror as the face goes on roaring at her. "By the heavens, what is that?" she gasps.
Commercial break.
Tula's still staring at the image of the thing with a mix of horror and curiosity. "What are you?" she demands, but the vision fades without answering her question.
Ioz walks over to her, seeing her reaction but not seeing what she was reacting to. "What's wrong, Tula?" he inquires.
She shakes her head. "Unless my mind is playing tricks, I thought I saw something," she replies, worry in her voice.
Ioz looks up, a frown growing on his face. "I must be seeing things, too," he comments sourly as Ren and Niddler climb from the gangplank to the ship. "You were supposed to bring back enough supplies for a month!"
Ren's frown deepens and he drops the very small bag of goods onto the deck. "It was the best I could do!" he explains defensively.
Niddler grins happily. "The merchant did throw in an extra minga-melon," he added, smacking his lip/beak (I can't say "smacking his lips" since he just has one ;o) ). "It was delicious..."
Ioz lets out a dissatisfied "ehh." "A true pirate wouldn't bargain for goods--he'd steal them!"
Ren glared back. "I wouldn't have to bargain if people believed in me!" he shot back, and kicked a bucket across the deck in frustration.
Out of nowhere, that familiar hum we all know and love (ahem...anyway, sorry) sounded, and Ren gasped. "Noy Jitat! The Compass!"
It practically wrenched itself off his neck, and he took it into his hand. It shot out a beam at Niddler, who dove overboard to dodge it, and another one barely missing Ioz and Tula that brought the sail down on them, before yanking Ren all the way around the ship to the bow, where it started blasting its beam like crazy at the water, which started to churn, and then a pillar of water shot into the air, forming itself into King Primus (who looks a lot like King Triton from The Little Mermaid, or an animated version of Neptune/Poseidon, god of the sea :o) ).
"Ren, my son!" the figure booms.
Ren's stupefied. "Father?" he breathes. "But--how?"
The figure of Primus holds up a hand. "Please," he interrupts. "I have little time. There is a higher power than the Thirteen Treasures." Cue a relapse of what I've dubbed as Ren's 'jaw-drop syndrome.' "It is called the Bell of the First Sound. Find the bell, ring it, then all the Dark Water will be destroyed. You will find the bell on the island of Banjamar. But beware, my son," he finished, as he started to turn into water and fall back into the bay again. "Many dangers await you...many dangers..."
"Father! No!" Ren cries, reaching towards where the pillar of water descended into the now-calm water, but the image doesn't reappear.
Niddler scrambles back onto the ship, running behind Ioz and Tula to avoid a serpent that lifts its head out of the water to screech at the monkey-bird. "Is it safe?" he gasps.
Tula steps forward. "What happened, Ren?" she asks, with the same tone of voice she had after seeing the image fade.
Ren turns, an incredulous look on his face. "My father spoke to me through the see!" he says. "He told me to sail for Banjamar!"
Ioz blinks. "Your father?" he repeated.
Ren goes over to him and places a hand on his shoulder excitedly. "He said we don't have to find any of the Treasures! If we ring the Bell of the First Sound, Mer will be rid of the Dark Water forever!"
Tula snorts and crosses her arms. "Yes," she retorts. "And Bloth serves lemonade."
Ren ignores her. "We have a chance to stop the Dark Water with one blow, and we're taking it," he presses on, walking away from them towards the helm, despite the incredulous looks they're giving him. "On to Banjamar!"
Some time later, the Wraith's struggling to make it through churning seas in the middle of a bad storm. "Starboard to Banjamar, Ioz!" Ren calls out.
(I think this is from this episode...I'll go back and check to make sure.) "Starboard, he says," Ioz mutters, then calls out, "These seas are wilder than a night in Janda-town!"
Tula makes her way over to Ren. "I can't explain it, Ren, but...I sense an evil presence," she informs him solemnly.
"Banjamar on the starboard bow!" Ioz calls, pointing.
Off in the distance is an island--but it's surrounded by a tall ring of boulders rotating closely around the island in a circle.
"By the rings of Regus--it's like a stone shield!" Tula breathes. "This trip gets stranger and stranger..."
Ren, who's now up in the crow's nest, spots an opening, slides down a rope to the helm, shoves Ioz out of the way, and despite his warning to be careful, tries (with an insane look on his face) to get the ship through, but it hits against the rocks and is thrown back, and everybody's thrown against the far side (Ren across Ioz's lap and Niddler overboard).
"Well," Ioz grunts, "there's always the Thirteen Treasures!"
Ren picks himself up and stands. "Forget the Treasures!" he insists, striking a valiant pose. "Our quest ends on Banjamar!"
"So may our lives, if you're not more careful," Tula scolds quietly.
Just then, Niddler flies back on board, squirming because a lot of slimy creatures have attached themselves to his wings and back. When he lands, he starts peeling them off, and then Ren really notices what he's doing.
"Say, Niddler, I think you've just found our entrance," he muses, pulling one off from Niddler's back. "These amphecytes are full of air--we can use them to breathe underwater!" And with that, he sticks the thing over his nose and mouth and dives off the ship.
Ioz and Tula exchange a mildly worried look before following suit, and Niddler, squirming some more as he places one over his beak, jumps in after them. The scene cuts to them all swimming, with Ren in the lead, diving even deeper to avoid the rocks, which even rotate through the water, and then surfacing on the beach. Ren drags himself onto a rock (reminiscent of Ariel in The Little Mermaid--wow, references to it all over the place! As well as Tula's voice actor, Jodi Benson, being the person who did Ariel's voice...okay, I'll shut up now :oP) as the others kind of stagger onto the beach, all pulling off their "breathing masks."
"Now to find that bell!" Ren declares, still trying to catch his breath.
"Slow down, lad," Ioz cautions a bit gruffly. "I don't think it's going anywhere--if it's even here."
Suddenly, Ren looks around. "Who's there?" he demands.
Out of nowhere, two humanoids, with flaps of skin falling to their shoulders from where their ears would be, appear, brandishing staves that resemble tuning forks. "Intruders!" one shouts, and the other smacks the tuning fork end of his staff against the ground and points it at Ren. A wave of what appears to be purplish, transparent sound circles him and suspends him in midair.
Ioz steps forward, sword in hand. "Release him, or that's the last tune you'll ever make," he threatens.
The other humanoid sneers. "I think not," he replies snidely, doing the same to the other three. Tula lets out a gasp and Niddler claps his hands over his ears, squawking painfully.
Some time later, the four of them are in the middle of a city surrounded by all sorts of different buildings. The leader, one of the humanoids by the name of Kangent, is talking to them. "Impossible!" he retorts. "King Primus has no son!"
"But I am his son, I swear," Ren protests. "And his spirit sent me here--to ring the Bell of the First Sound!"
Gasps go up at that, and people start glancing at a tall temple in the distance a bit worriedly. "The Bell--he knows. But how?" one murmurs to another.
"See how they look at that building?" Ren mutters to Ioz, glancing at the temple. "I'll betcha the bell's in there!"
"Silence!" Kangent booms, cutting them off. "I'm afraid you've made a grave mistake, boy. There is no Bell of the First Sound. But there is a penalty for trespassing." He then orders somebody to take them to something called the Still Room, and a guard surrounds them with a ring of purple sound and herds them off.
"But he's telling the truth! He is the prince!" Niddler protests, falling back to try and convince Kangent, but the sound pushes him back towards his friends. "Monkey-bird's honor..."
Ren sighs, discouraged. "Someday, someone will believe us," he murmurs to Tula, who's walking next to him, a similarly discouraged look on her face.
Later, the crew's standing under what looks like a huge bell with a stopper with a lot of holes in it, and the bell's suspended above the floor of the room by metal poles, and on the floor under the bell are holes that correspond to the ones in the stopper. "Why do they call this the Still Room?" Tula muses outloud.
"Because we'll still be here when we're old and grey," Niddler whimpers.
Ren starts backing away from under the bell-thing. "Well, we're not staying around to find out," he states, but freezes as beams of solid light (probably sound again, though) shoot up between the bell and the floor, blocking them all in.
Tula figures it out. "The sound of movement sets off those bars," she explains. "Be still and they'll vanish."
Ioz is regarding the bell very speculatively. "Hmm," he mutters, and in one fluid movement goes for his sword and swings it at where the bars normally would be--but they spring up, blocking his sword from completing its swing. "Noy Jitat, that's quick!" he gasps.
"Can you use your ecomancer powers to free us, Tula?" Ren asks hurriedly.
She hesitates, then lowers her face and closes her eyes. "I...I can try," she replies softly, her hands going to her temples, and she starts concentrating. And immediately lets out one of her 'so much power...' types of moans. *rolls eyes* Anyway, the other three sprint out of the area that her powers have left open while the bars all around her otherwise have shot up. After clearing the bars, Ren turns and extends his hand to Tula--who's now floating through the air to him, still concentrating with her eyes squeezed shut. And she lets out yet another cry *rolls eyes again--sorry* and collapses into Ren's arms weakly, her eyes fluttering open. He brushes his thumb against her cheek comfortingly *groans and buries her face in her hands at the excess mushiness because she really hates this scene--okay, ANYway!* and says something to the effect of, "Great work, Tula," until Niddler interrupts the two lovebirds and tells them that they need to get out of there before the guards come back.
Some time later, Ren pokes his head out from behind a bush, leading his friends across the city as they sneak towards the temple. "I'm sure the bell is in that temple," he hisses.
Tula's right behind him (of course). "Why would Kangent lie about it?" she wonders.
"Why would my father lie?" Ren counters as Ioz follows Tula.
Niddler pokes his head up. "Good questions, very good questions," he agrees. "Why don't we discuss them back at the boat?"
Ren shushes him. He's at the last stand of bushes before the steps leading to the temple door, and Tula sneaks up to join him. *suppressing making any comments...in case you can't tell, I'm having SO much fun writing this! Hehe...* There's a guard keeping a vigil at the door, and as a bush at the foot of the stairs starts shaking rather suspiciously, he goes down to investigate and pokes it a couple of times--and Ioz grabs him and yanks him in as Ren and Tula jump out and start running for the door.
However, there are a couple of more guards between them and the entrance. "Away from the temple! Now!" one bellows.
"Keep going!" Ioz calls, the staff of the one he incapacitated in his hands. "I'll give these fellows an earful!" With that, he smacks it against the ground and suspends the guards in the air as Ren and Tula run past.
It's a long temple, but they can see the bell ahead, with some kind of strange gargoyle decoration on the front. Ren skids to a halt and picks up the staff resting against the side of the bell. "Now," he declares. "To rid this planet of Dark Water forever!"
Tula sees the gargoyle and gasps. "Wait--that face!" It's the same as the one she saw in her vision, but just as she screams, "No!" Ren swings the staff against the bell. It lets out a huge, loud ringing sound, making Ren drop the staff as they clap their hands over their ears--and to their horror, the gargoyle on the bell comes to life, slowly stretching himself and finally peeling free of the bell completely, and with that, he starts to cackle.
"It worked! The little fool did it!" he marvels, and grabs Ren around the waist. "Thank you, my boy."
"Reeeennnn!" Tula screams, reaching out a hand to him. *lets out another groan before she can stop herself*
"What have I done?" Ren gasps (okay, not exactly, but I can't think of any other word to describe it) as he struggles against the creature.
Commercial break.
The huge creature is stretching. "It's been nearly seventeen years since I've spread my wings!" he explains. "You can't imagine how I feel after being trapped all that time."
Niddler's cowering behind Tula. "Hungry, I bet," he replies.
Ren struggles some more. "Who are you?" he demands. "What do you want?"
"The name is Kerroptus!" the giant gargoyle responds. "And I'm after the same thing you are, boy--the Thirteen Treasures of Rule! Except while your job is to collect the Treasures, my job is to get rid of them."
"I don't understand," Ren grunts, still trying to yank himself free of the pincer-grip around his waist. "My father said that-"
Kerroptus's voice immediately becomes mocking. "Oh, yes, what did Daddy say?" he replies, smirking. "Let me try to remember..." And with that, his head transforms into that of King Primus's, and his voice partially changes, too. "Beware, my son," he intones, "Many dangers await you..."
"That was you!" Ren gasps accusingly, his eyes wide. "You tricked me!"
Kerroptus's face changes again to mimic Ren's, but his voice is his own. "It was you! You tricked me!" And then he starts chuckling, and his head turns into a donkey's and he brays and hee-haws a couple of times before transforming back to himself and cackling even more.
Kangent runs in, and skids to a halt, his eyes going wide. "Oh, no," he whispers. "Kerroptus!"
"We've fooled around long enough, pitiful prince!" Kerroptus snarls suddenly, and reaches for Ren's neck. "Give me your Compass!"
Ren yanks it off his neck and holds it out at arm's reach so Kerroptus can't get to it. "Not on your life, lizard!" he snarls.
"It's not my life you should be worried about," Kerroptus admonishes.
Just then, Ioz and the guards he'd tried to incapacitate run in. "Noy Jitat!" Ioz shouts before he can stop himself, and Kerroptus whirls around and greets them as insects. While he's saying something else full of bravado, Tula grabs the staff from Kangent and runs over to Kerroptus, winds up, and swings, whacking his hindquarters hard (I swear, it's the one remotely smart thing she does during the entire episode--the rest of the time, she plays follower and whines about Ren, and you wonder why I dislike this episode so much...). He lets out an ear-piercing yell and drops Ren and turns on Tula, but Kangent yells for them to get under the bell, because Kerroptus can't touch it without the danger of him being trapped in it again. Ren swings his sword a couple of times to make sure the gargoyle stays away. Finally, Kerroptus gives up and shouts something clichéd and flies up and up, breaking through the stained-glass ceiling of the temple and darting out of sight.
Later, in one of the larger domed buildings (I think it's more of a palace; inside is very lavish), the crew is speaking with Kangent, who says he'll believe that Ren's the son of Primus, but he had no idea that he was so impetuous.
"None of this would've happened if you hadn't lied about the bell," Ioz counters.
"I was told never to reveal the bell to any outsiders," Kangent admits.
Niddler's munching on an apple-like fruit. "What genius told you to do that?" he demands.
"King Primus," Kangent replies gravely.
Niddler chokes. "Smart move," he agrees. "Very smart."
Kangent admits that there's another power, an evil one, seeking the Treasures. "What are you talking about, Kangent?" Ren asks, all ears.
Kangent becomes grave. "I speak of..." Insert dramatic pause here. "The Dark Dweller." The scene melts into a scene of a gigantic cavern of dark walls and black, bubbling liquid churning and frothing in a gigantic lake-type area. "The Dark Water comes from the center of Mer, where the deathly liquid is produced. What few know is that this horrid place is ruled by a specter of evil known as the Dark Dweller." The scene cuts to a creature that looks like a thick spiderweb of Dark Water, with red eyes and a reddish gap for a mouth. It's looming over the lake. The scene changes again to the ocean bed, with pillars of rock with glowing pinnacles, and Kangent goes on about how this place was ruled by the Thirteen Treasures for eons, and they served as a protective seal, but eventually the Dark Dweller caused a rift in the ocean bed and began the scourge of Dark Water. "The Dark Dweller sent Kerroptus to locate the Thirteen Treasures and scatter them across Mer so that the Dark Water could not be stopped." Scene switch to a ship with Primus aboard, holding up the glowing Compass. "However, Kerroptus was unaware of your father's Compass, which could locate the Treasures." Primus is picking up a violet-colored jewel, and he and his men look up, startled, at hearing Kerroptus. Primus's men then try holding him off with spears. "Kerroptus tried to stop him at every turn." Scene change to Primus and his men bowing to Kangent and his men. "Finally, your father came to us for help, knowing only the Bell of the First Sound has enough power to stop the evil of Kerroptus." Scene of Kerroptus approaching the Compass, sitting under the bell. "We used the Compass for bait." Kerroptus places one clawed hand on the edge of the bell so he can lean in to try and reach the Treasures. "As soon as Kerroptus touched the bell..." Kangent uses a staff to ring the bell. "We had him." Kerroptus gets sucked into the bell, struggling but to no avail, and becomes fixed to the front in what must be an incredibly uncomfortable position--his head's forward, so his neck's craned, and his legs are basically pulled apart at a 180-degree angle, with his wings spread. That's the position we see him in when we initially see the bell, by the way. Kangent finishes up by saying that the only way to get Kerroptus back into the bell is for him to touch it again.
"Then somehow we have to lure him back to the bell," Ren mused.
"What if he's left the island?" Niddler suggests.
Kangent goes to the window. "I think not, monkey-bird," he countered. "The sound stones create updrafts that reach to the heavens. Even Kerroptus would have difficulty flying over them."
"Anyway, Kerroptus would never leave without the Compass," Ren added.
"Which is why we must make sure it is kept safely," Kangent added, and tapped his staff lightly and floated the Compass out of Ren's hand and into his own.
"With all due respect, Kangent," Ren protests, a bit miffed, "we must figure out a way of tricking Kerroptus into touching the bell."
"Kerroptus is nobody's fool, boy," Kangent admonishes.
"Please, Kangent," Ren pleads (bad word choice :oP), and walks closer, and the others follow. "If you give me a chance, I swear I will make Kerroptus pay for his deceit." Kangent rubs his chin in thought at that.
Some time later, Kangent and one of his guards are in the temple where the bell's held, and Kangent's giving the guard instructions. "I only hope and pray the bell alone keeps Kerroptus at bay," he prays.
Little do they know that Kerroptus is watching from the hole in the ceiling he created. "I think your bell's missing it's clacker (?), Kangent," he sneered, and took off. Some distance away, there's a fisherman in a small boat using one of the sound-staves to pull a fish into his net, and Kerroptus swoops in. The man gasps in fear as Kerroptus tangles him deftly in his net and swoops up. As the man peeks up, Kerroptus comes down for another pass, and the man screams and pulls the net over his eyes. But all the gargoyle does is take the anchor from the ship and fly off. "Time to do some fishing of my own!" he chortles as he flies back towards the temple; when he gets there, he lowers the anchor through the hole in the ceiling, and the guards notice as they hear it clang against the side of the temple. He gets it into the loops at the top and starts yanking it up.
Kangent's at the door. "Kerroptus!" he gasps, and runs inside, grabbing the Compass carefully.
Meanwhile, Kerroptus has yanked the bell clear of the tower. "Be gone, bell!" he bellows (excuse the pun) and lets it fly. It crashes in the middle of the city and people stumble out of the way as a huge, reverberating ringing cuts through the air. He then crashes through the wall of the temple, knocking Kangent and the guards back, and Kangent drops the Compass, which Kerroptus wastes no time in picking up. But just as he's about to take off, a fishing net very much like the one he tangled the fisherman in comes down on his head, weighted down on the edges.
Ren and his friends appear on the scene. "We'll take that, reptile!" he declares.
Kerroptus chuckles. "So you have a little surprise in store for old Kerroptus," he comments mirthfully, and a few seconds later, he snaps the net cleanly, and its remains fall at his feet.
Ioz is floored. "Chongo longo!" he exclaims, awe in his voice.
"Surprise surprise!" Kerroptus declares, chuckling, and takes off, still in possession of the Compass.
"Now he'll use the Compass to find our Treasures!" Tula cries--rather, whines. :oP
"Which means we've gotta get back to the Wraith!" Ren declares tensely.
Later, the crew and Kangent are on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and facing the sound stones. "Our boat is in that direction, Kangent. There's not much time!" Ren explains. Kangent clears the way with his staff, and the rocks separate as Ren grabs Niddler and the two go flying towards the Wraith. But soon after, they hear that familiar humming and see a bright, blue-white beam of light, and Kerroptus swoops overhead, thanking them for the opening as he flies in pursuit of Ren.
On the Wraith, Niddler drops Ren and lands. "I'll get the Treasures," Ren says, and dashes below deck.
"You'd better hurry," Niddler adds.
Below deck, Ren pulls aside the plank where his pouch of Treasures is and pulls it out. Above deck, however, Niddler's unwillingly confronting Kerroptus. "N-nice Kerroptus," he begins. "Can't we sit down and talk this out?" Insert whimpery squawk. "Monkey-bird to monster?"
"Out of my way, beaked freak!" Kerroptus retorts, and sends a powerful torrent of water at Niddler, who scurries out of the way, getting splashed.
Ren comes above deck, and ducks right as Kerroptus swoops at his head. Niddler sits up, staring at the scene in terror, as Ren cuts the sail down and it falls onto Kerroptus. "Sorry I can't stay!" he calls, and grabs the sail glider and rides it back through the gaps between the stones, which are coming back together. However, Kerroptus gets free of the sail and makes it through just before the stones come back together.
Back in the city, Ren lands in front of one of the domes and throws the glider aside--but Kerroptus lands in front of him, and Ren does the only thing he can--turn and run. He finally runs around several domes and ducks into one. "I wonder if he saw me?" he pants, but then the Compass's beam answers that, and before long, Kerroptus has entered the doorway and stretched to his full height inside the dome.
"Give me the Treasures, boy," the gargoyle trumpets, "and your end will be swift and merciful!"
Surprisingly enough, Ren just tosses the pouch with his Treasures to the floor between them. "Get 'em yourself," he retorts rudely.
Kerroptus is startled too, but he doesn't hesitate. "You will pay for your impertinence!" he roars.
"And you will pay for your deceit!" Ren shoots back. He grabs a staff sitting against the wall and hits it against the wall--and the wall starts gonging. The paint crumbles, and Kerroptus realizes with horror that they're standing inside the Bell of the First Sound.
"No--not the bell!" he gasps. It starts humming and vibrating slightly, and his wing starts to get sucked into it as he drops the Treasures. "You let me have the Compass--it was a trick all the time!" he accuses hoarsely.
Ren steps forward and snatches the Compass back from Kerroptus's neck. "Surprise, surprise!" he retorts.
"I'm not going alone!" Kerroptus croaks, and he yanks out a wing (his hands are on the tops of his wings, at the joints) and grabs Ren and yanks him forward. Ren immediately tries fighting back, punching Kerroptus several times--but then his arm starts getting sucked in, and he pulls as hard as he can, to no avail.
His friends arrive, though. "Hold on, Ren!" Tula calls, and they run forward and grab him around the waist and start tugging and tugging--and finally, then yank him back right as Kerroptus is sucked in completely, screaming. Then silence falls, and everyone's staring in awe at the bell (okay, instead of Tula, who's watching Ren--I'm not lying, either!).
"Phew!" Niddler breathes, rubbing his brow. "Talk about your sticky situations!"
Happy music plays (for our benefit--not a parade for them or anything) as several guards, using the sound power of their staves, levitate the bell back towards the temple, with Kangent and the crew following. "Well, Kangent, we pulled it off, thanks to the help of you and your people," Ren declares solemnly.
"But it was your idea, my boy," Kangent counters with a smile. "Such planning and patience are kingly virtues. I've no doubt you're Primus's son. I assume you'll want to be on your way?"
"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me more about my father," Ren admits. "Not to mention, the Dark Dweller."
Kangent pats his shoulder. "Gladly, my son. In fact, I'd like to throw a feast in your honor."
Niddler, who was flying behind Ioz and Tula, ducks ahead of them. "A feast?" he repeats eagerly.
Kangent smiles. "With draja-fruit, minga-muffins, and..." Chuckle. "Pooka-looka pies?"
Niddler's ecstatic. "Pooka-looka pies...yes--YES!" He turns to Tula. "You know, I could learn to like saving the world after all. Mmm, mmm, mmm..." Tula laughs as Niddler grins childishly.