Dorgle thought it would be best to let Migo have some space, so he watched as his son wandered away from the palace. But Migo didn’t turn up for supper, and he didn’t come home when the Great Sky Snail left the sky and everything became dark. Dorgle fell asleep, hoping Migo was all right.
A noise woke him while it was still dark. He looked out onto the launchpad and saw Migo, wearing his helmet in the Gong Ringer’s chair, and staring blankly forward.
“Migo, what’s wrong?” Dorgle asked. “What are you doing?”
“I was thinking about Stone Fifteen,” Migo replied.
“Stone Fifteen? ‘Ignorance is bliss’?” Dorgle asked.
Migo nodded. “That one is true. Ignorance is bliss. Or at least, it was. It was bliss not to know about the Smallfoot, and what great friends the S.E.S. would be, and how amazing Meechee is. It would be bliss not to know that they hate me and that the Smallfoot is locked in the Stonekeeper’s palace and will probably never get home.”
He looked at his dad. “And remember when we had a Sky Snail to wake up? And you had the most important job in the village? Before I blew it?” He sighed. “I miss being ignorant.”
He tightened the strap on his helmet. “So, let’s go back to the way it was. But I’ll be Gong Ringer from now on. Hopefully, banging my head into that thing will make all these feelings go away.”
“Oh yeah, you’ll pretty much go numb,” Dorgle agreed. “You won’t feel a thing.”
“Good. ’Cause I feel like such an idiot,” Migo said.
Dorgle looked at the gong, and then at the palace. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
He started to crank the launch wheel. “Now, you remember the advice I gave you, right? First you gotta check the wind. Pretty easy to be blown off course.”
“Wind. Check,” Migo said in a lifeless voice.
“And you’ve gotta true your aim,” Dorgle reminded him. “You’ll mess up big-time if your aim isn’t true.”
“Aim. Check.”
“And don’t forget, even though you know it’s gonna hurt, you gotta hit it head-on,” Dorgle finished.
He turned the crank, and Migo’s chair moved so that he faced the palace, not the gong. He looked back at his dad.
“You already woke the village, Son,” Dorgle said. “Now make sure they stay awake.” He put his hand on the release lever, and Migo smiled.
When Migo had thought that by lying about the Smallfoot he’d been doing what was best for everyone, he’d made that decision out of fear. There had to be another way—a way that didn’t mean everyone had to push down their questions. A way that didn’t mean the Smallfoot would have to die.
It wasn’t too late.
“I love you, Dad,” Migo said.
“I love you too,” Dorgle replied.
Thwang! He fired Migo off the launchpad.
Migo soared across the village, past the gong, and right through Meechee’s window! He slammed his head against the wall, fell back, and then jumped up. He touched his head gently.
“Yep, it does hurt,” he said. “Meechee, I’m so sorry.”
Blossom the mammoth stared blankly at him. Meechee was not there.
“Oh no, no, no,” Migo said. Then he spotted something on the wall—something that made his cold blood turn to ice. At that moment the Stonekeeper rushed in.
“Meechee?” he asked, and then he saw Migo. “What are you doing here? Where’s my daughter?”
He followed Migo’s gaze to the wall of Percy’s drawings of the human world. But one had been drawn by Meechee’s hand. It showed a Yeti holding a human, and it had an arrow pointing down below the clouds.
“Meechee!” the Stonekeeper cried.
“Where’s the Smallfoot?” Migo asked.
They rushed out of the room and into the great hall, where Thorp sat next to the block of ice that had held the Smallfoot.
“Yeah, so Meechee took the Smallfoot and convinced me I have a lot of anger issues because of something called a ‘father complex,’ ” Thorp explained. “I don’t know. I’m doing some serious processing right now, Dad.”
• • •
Migo knew exactly where Meechee was headed. He raced out of the palace to the edge of the ice cliffs, where he found Gwangi, Kolka, and Fleem gazing over the edge.
“Guys! Guys! You have to help me!” Migo pleaded. “Meechee’s taken the Smallfoot below the clouds!”
They ignored him.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Migo said. “I didn’t mean what I said. I can explain everything—after we find Meechee. She’s in danger. You have to believe me!”
“Why should we believe you?” Kolka asked. “You lied. Friends don’t do that.”
“Or stab you in the back and call you crazy in front of the whole village,” Gwangi added.
“You acted like me,” Fleem told Migo. “I expected more from you.”
“You’re right. I lied,” Migo admitted. “You know, you’ve always searched for the truth, no matter what anybody said. They laughed at you. They called you names.”
“Wait, what names?” Fleem asked.
“But you never let fear get in the way,” Migo said. “That’s what I should have done.”
He sighed as he looked out over the clouds. “And it’s what I’m going to do now.”
With a look of determination on his face, he ran toward the edge of the cliff and jumped off.
“Migo!” Gwangi and Kolka yelled.
“Wait! What names?” Fleem yelled after Migo.
Migo fell . . . and fell . . . and fell . . . and landed in the same spot where he’d landed the first time, right next to the goat. The creature leaped out of the way just in time as Migo hit the ground, kicking up an explosion of snow.
“Meechee, where are you?” he asked as he crawled out of the snowdrift.
Then he heard a cry from up above.
“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”
Whomp! Kolka landed on top of him.
“Kolka!” Migo cried, shaking off more snow.
“Hi,” Kolka said.
“Hi!” Migo replied, happy to see her. Then he realized something. “Wait, if you’re here, then that means . . .”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
WHAM! Gwangi landed on top of both of them, creating a huge crater in the snowscape.
“Man, that was a long way down,” Gwangi remarked.
They all stood up.
“Guys! You came!” Migo said.
“Of course we came,” Kolka said, “for Meechee.”
“Ah, yeah, I knew that,” Migo said sheepishly.
“And a little bit for you,” Kolka added. “But mostly Meechee.”
“Thank you,” Migo said. “Even you, Fleem. Wait, where’s Fleem?”
• • •
The short Yeti was still on top of the cliff’s edge, peering down.
“Okay, pros and cons,” he coached himself. “Pros—Migo needs you. Cons—you’re useless to him if you’re dead. Cons, one. Pros, zero. Okay . . .”
• • •
“Yeah, he has serious character issues,” Gwangi explained, nodding his head.
“We can’t wait,” Migo said. “We have to find Meechee right now before someone else does.”
They crawled up and out of the crater. Kolka and Gwangi marveled at the world below the clouds.
“Wow, it’s so big,” Kolka said, her eyes wide.
“How do we even know she landed here?” Gwangi asked.
His question was answered by a Meechee-shaped hole in the snow right in front of them.
“Let’s follow her trail,” Migo said, and the three Yetis set off to find their friend.