The four Yetis ran through the streets of the village. Sirens wailed in the distance. When the Yetis were sure the humans were no longer behind them, they ducked into a dark alley and stopped, panting.
“Look, I know you’re mad at me, but I needed to protect you,” Migo explained to Meechee in a loud whisper.
Both Gwangi and Kolka had had enough of their friends’ bickering. “SHUSH!”
They continued to move through the alleys, out of sight, but the sound of the sirens was getting closer.
“You lied, and you sold us out,” Meechee said to Migo.
“To protect you from this!” Migo insisted loudly.
“If we’re gonna make it out of here, we need to remain quiet and inconspicuous,” Kolka said.
Meechee frowned, but she nodded in agreement. Migo did the same. The four Yetis began to move again, but—
“Tiny Smallfoot creatures!”
They stopped and turned around. Fleem stood on top of a building, yelling at the humans below.
“Fear me! I am your god!” Fleem cried.
Panicked, the humans fled, clearing the street. Migo, Meechee, Gwangi, and Kolka ran up to him.
“Fleem, what are you doing?” Gwangi asked.
“Oh hey, guys! I jumped!” Fleem replied proudly. “Shows real growth, right?”
“I am Fleem the brave and selfless!” he cheered.
Police cars zoomed around the corner, and the five Yetis broke into a run. They turned a corner—and hit a dead end.
They turned around as the headlights of a police car shone right on them. Defeated, they held up their arms.
The police car backed up and drove away! Migo turned to see that they were standing in front of a huge billboard for the Yeti Museum. They had blended right in!
Crunch! Gwangi backed up too far and punched a hole in the billboard, then fell backward into the building behind it. Curious, the other Yetis climbed through.
It was dark inside the museum as the five Yetis slowly walked through it, studying the displays. Horrifying statues of Yetis with snarling faces stared back at them.
Fleem bumped into a statue and cried out in fear. “Ahhhhh!”
He turned and faced a mural that showed a monstrous Yeti breathing fire.
He jumped back, frightened. “Ahhhhh! Scary!”
Fleem bumped into another statue. “Ahhh! Hideous!”
Gwangi stepped out of a shadow. “It’s not a statue. It’s me, Fleem.”
“I know,” Fleem replied. “Aaaaaahhhh!”
Meechee stared at a painting on the wall showing humans with weapons conquering the Yetis. Migo came up beside her.
“This is what your dad showed me,” he explained. “This is why I lied.”
“I . . . I don’t understand,” she said. “Why would humans want to conquer Yetis?”
She moved to a display of a 3-D model of a human village. She pressed a button, and mechanical Yetis popped up. Gnashing their teeth, they chased the humans.
“Horrible. They think we’re monsters,” Meechee realized. “But we would never do anything like this.”
Then she and Migo gazed at the huge hole that Gwangi had punched in the wall. Outside stretched a path of broken cars, smashed satellite dishes, and pieces of buildings, all destroyed in their race to escape the police and the angry mob.
“Oh,” they both said.
Lights flashed through the museum windows.
“They’re gonna find us!” Kolka said.
Meechee still hated the idea of running from them. “Are they really all bad?”
Migo looked down at his toe, which still had the bandage Percy had placed there. “I don’t know,” he replied. “But we’ve got to get out of here.”
“But how? They’re everywhere,” she reminded him.
Gwangi gazed up toward the roof, where the moon shone through a skylight.
• • •
The police weren’t the only ones looking for the Yetis. Percy and Brenda zipped through the streets on her snowmobile, following the police vehicles and the crowd.
Brenda came to a stop, and they jumped off. “I swear they came this way,” she said. “Where could they have gone.”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Their eyes followed the sound. Five Yetis jumped right over their heads, from rooftop to rooftop!
“That’s where!” Percy cried.
Four police cars whizzed past. They saw the Yetis too.
“Oh no. They’re going to get caught!” Brenda said.
Percy jumped back onto the snowmobile. “Not if I get there first.”
“No, Percy, don’t!” Brenda cried.
“They’re not gonna get them before I do!” he called behind him as he zipped away.
The Yetis swiftly reached the outskirts of the village and ran across a field of snow. The police cars couldn’t follow. Relieved, the Yetis forged ahead into a forest of trees.
Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!
A strange sound filled the air, and then lights shone on them from overhead.
“What are those things?” Gwangi asked, squinting in the bright light. They looked like giant, metal birds, with a spinning blade on top.
Three helicopters surrounded the Yetis, cutting them off from the mountain.
“We’re trapped!” Kolka wailed.
Then . . . Ting! Pling! Ting!
The Stonekeeper stood on the mountainside, hurling the stones from his robe at the helicopters!
Meechee was stunned. “Dad?”
“I told you the stones were here to protect us!” he said.
The stones bent the propeller blades, and one by one the helicopters dropped down. Their pilots emerged, unhurt, and ran away.
“Dude, yes!” Gwangi cheered, slapping the Stonekeeper’s hand.
More lights approached them. Down the slope, six snowmobiles sped toward them. There were five SWAT team members, all following Percy.
Without warning, the SWAT team fired tranquilizer darts at the Yetis.
“Ow!” Gwangi cried as one hit him in the leg, knocking him down.
Kolka gasped. “Gwangi!”
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” he said, getting to his feet. But his one leg had gone limp. “Not okay!”
His friends supported him as they continued up the mountain. Gwangi had to painstakingly push his leg forward with each step.
Zip! Zip! Zip! Another wave of darts flew toward them, and Meechee ducked.
“Migo, are you all right?” she asked.
“Just go!” Migo yelled. He followed close behind.
Down below them, one snowmobile suddenly stopped. A Smallfoot got out and looked around. It was Percy. He smiled.
“They want a Yeti, and that’s what I’m going to give them,” Percy said. He dove into a huge snowbank.
The SWAT team—followed by the press—rushed to the fallen Yeti.
“Over here!” one of the reporters yelled. There was a burst of flashbulbs as one of the SWAT team members went to gently lift the Yeti’s head up.
The head came off in his hands.
“This head is fake!” a reporter yelled.
Beneath the fake Yeti head, Percy’s face popped up with a grin.
“Oh darn, you got me,” Percy said.
“Is this some kind of joke?” a policeman yelled.
“That depends,” Percy answered. “Did you think it was funny?”
Meanwhile, the Stonekeeper, Migo, Gwangi, Fleem, Kolka, and Meechee were watching this exchange from behind a tree.
“He saved us!” Meechee whispered. “He put on a fake Yeti costume so they would capture him and not us. He let us get away!”
They watched as Percy, now in the headless Yeti suit, was taken away by the SWAT team, surrounded by reporters and police. Suddenly Brenda was by his side.
Percy looked at her and shrugged. “Well, there goes my fame,” he said.
“Yeah, but you have something better. Integrity,” Brenda replied.
Percy gave a little nod and looked toward the hills, wondering about his friends. He hoped they were safe, and that they realized, somehow, that he had helped them.
• • •
Migo watched as Percy was led away. His heart was filled with gratitude. “Good-bye, friend,” he whispered. He wondered what was going to happen when the Yetis returned home. The stones were gone, but the village was safe. And the future . . . well, the future, for the first time, was wide open.
In the old days every day had been exactly like the one before. Now every day was new, exciting, and different.
And Migo wouldn’t want it any other way.