“Ahh!” Max screamed. “Ahhhhh!”

Then he stopped. “Wait. What?”

There weren’t a hundred beasts. There weren’t even two beasts. There was only one. It had two cute heads, was small and furry, drooled a lot, and they had seen it before.

“It’s Kem!” said Eric, lowering his sword. “It’s Sparr’s little puppy!”

“Come here, boy!” called Neal. He bent down, and the dog ran right into his arms.

“Are you lost, Kem? Huh?” said Neal. “Are you looking for your master?”

Kem had been a wild, vicious, adult dog before he, too, had been transformed along with Sparr and had become a puppy.

“Sorry, boy,” said Julie. “But Sparr’s not here.”

At the mention of his master’s name, Kem howled — “Roooo!” — leaped out of Neal’s arms, and scampered away. He returned in a flash, rolling a fruit the size of a coconut across the volcano floor.

Keeah blinked. “Is that what I think it is?”

“It’s a tangfruit,” said her mother.

Everyone backed away from the dog. They all knew what a tangfruit was. If you removed its hard shell, it smelled like a combination of garbage and an old moldy cellar. Tangfruit smelled rotten. It smelled worse than rotten.

But tangfruit wasn’t all bad. As foul as its smell was, its flavor was actually sweet. And anyone who ate it could understand the speech of animals.

“Rrrrr,” Kem snuffled, pushing the tangfruit around with his paws.

“Wait,” said Eric suddenly. “What if he’s not looking for Sparr? What if … Kem, do you have a message from Sparr?”

“Roooo!” Kem howled expectantly.

“I think he wants one of us to eat it,” said Zello, taking a further step back.

“Of course, I can’t,” said Khan, joining the king. “Not with my sensitive nose.”

“I vote for Neal,” said Julie. “He loves to eat.”

“Yes,” said Relna. “Neal, you eat it.”

Neal gave his friends a look. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Why me?”

“Kem likes you, don’t you, boy?” said Max.

The puppy appeared to nod. “Roo-ooo!”

“Uh-huh, and I like Kem,” said Neal. “But I haven’t had lunch yet. And if I spoil my appetite, my mom gets really mad. Besides, although it doesn’t always seem like it, I eat food. Tangfruit is not food. It’s … it’s …”

Kem leaped back into Neal’s arms and licked him with both tongues. “Rooo?”

“Oh, man! Are you serious?” said Neal. “Unbelievable. What I do for Droon! Okay, someone crack it open while I hold my nose —”

Heaving his club, Zello smashed the fruit’s shell, and a terrible smell filled the cave.

“Oh, not a good moment for me!” Khan sniffed, swallowing a big breath and holding it.

Picking up a piece of the fruit, Neal pushed it into his mouth. “Uck, uck … oh … whoa!” He smiled suddenly and licked his lips and fingers. “This is good. This is really good!”

As Neal gobbled it up, and the smell finally faded, Kem snuffled and grunted softly. After about five minutes, the dog finally went quiet.

“Wow, that’s some story!” said Neal.

“Tell us,” said Queen Relna.

“Okay,” said Neal. “Sparr was able to stop in Kano for only a couple of minutes before Gethwing flew him away. But he told Kem three things while he was here. First, Emperor Ko is planning something really big in the Serpent Sea, involving a lot of sea beasts —”

“Oh, this is not good,” said King Zello, pacing back and forth and slapping his giant club into his palm. “No, not good at all.”

“What’s the second thing?” asked Julie.

“Sparr’s not quite sure,” said Neal, “but he thinks that Agrah-Voor is in trouble, and it has something to do with Ko’s big plans.”

The kids remembered their brief time in Agrah-Voor. That haven of Droon’s slain heroes was known as “the land of the lost.” Those who had died fighting against evil in Droon waited in Agrah-Voor for the day when they could return to a world at peace.

“And the third thing?” asked Queen Relna.

Neal bent to the dog. “Did you say what I think you said?” Kem’s heads murmured in unison. Neal sighed. “You did say that.”

“What is it?” asked Keeah. “What did Kem say? Something about Galen?”

Neal nodded. “Kem said that there is a secret hidden in Sparr’s old castle at Plud. Finding the secret will help us rescue Galen from the far side of the moon.”

“Plud?” said Eric. “The Forbidden City of Plud? The evilest of evil fortresses?”

“That’s the place,” said Neal.

The children looked at one another.

Max grunted softly. “So be it. We must go there if we hope to free my master.”

“So be it, indeed,” said King Zello. “But we must go different ways, my friends. We to Agrah-Voor and you to Plud. If what Kem says is true, I fear we must go as soon as we can —”

“Except the wingsnakes are still out there,” said Khan, his nose twitching. “I can smell them.”

Kem grumbled suddenly, and Neal laughed. “They won’t be there for long. Kem has a trick.”

The dog crept carefully to the entrance, braced himself, then roared loudly — “Grooo-oooo!” The sound echoed throughout the cave as if it had come from a hundred beasts a hundred times Kem’s size.

Eeeee! The wingsnakes shrieked in terror. Next came a wild flap of wings. The flapping and shrieking grew softer and softer until, in a few seconds, everything was quiet outside.

Zello poked his head out of the volcano entrance, then pulled it back in, laughing. “Nice work, Kem. Those snakes are long gone!”

The band of friends hurried out of hiding and stood together on the black land.

“I’ll go with you, my king and queen,” said Khan. “If there is trouble, I must protect my family and the rest of the Lumpies.”

“A good king and a good man,” said Zello, patting Khan on his tasseled shoulder.

“Keeah, take the Moon Medallion,” said Relna, removing the magical object from around her neck. “I’m sure you’ll need this to find Galen. But remember, the darker the Dark Lands, the weaker our power.”

“I’ll remember,” said Keeah, hugging both parents tightly. “You be safe, too!”

“Wait a second,” said Neal. “Can anyone tell me how long the tangfruit’s magic lasts?”

“Until you eat again,” said Relna. “You must be careful not to eat as long as you wish to understand Kem.”

Neal blinked. “Me? Not eat? Oh, this is going to be a long adventure!”

Finally, when there was no more to say, Zello, Relna, and Khan raced away across the Dark Lands toward the city of Agrah-Voor.

“We must get started, too!” said Max impatiently. “To the east. To the city of Plud!”

Kem yipped happily, then scampered over a rise in the land and down the other side, howling all the while. “Ree-ooo-eeew!”

“Well, you heard the dog,” said Neal.

Julie grumbled. “We heard him, Neal, but we didn’t exactly understand him.”

Neal laughed. “Sorry. He’s telling us we need to go now. It won’t be long before those wingsnakes come back. With reinforcements. Follow that dog!”

And they did.

But as the kids raced into the east after Kem, the earth grew ever blacker, and the smoky air surrounded them like a cloud.