As the three entered the cave, the door suddenly lifted itself back up, and closed behind them, trapping the in semi-darkness. Flora kept motioning the two forward, a light green glow surrounding her body. They came up to a tiny blue sphere of light, looking almost as if it was held in a pedestal in the middle of a shallow body of water. Flora looked around at the area that was still lit, and had a slight nervous tinge in her voice as she talked.

"Tak, I've seen Lok train here before." She whispered, as not to trigger an echo. "This is a dangerous place. You NEED to be careful!" she pointed to the light sphere. "Those lights that are scattered few and far between throughout these caverns are your only way to see, and you have to follow them through the caverns. Don't get too far behind the light or the Nerbils will get us!"

"Nerbils?!" Tak exclaimed. He suddenly covered his mouth as the his echo rattled throughout the cave. There was a slight movement along the cave walls, accompanied by chittering and other nervous noises. Tak quickly lowered his voice to a whisper. "But I thought Nerbils couldn't see in the dark!" He whispered back urgently.

"These ones can. They're a dark green in shade and have glowing red eyes. If you see them begin to open their eyes, it's advised you run as quickly as you can." Flora whispered. "Now, I'll be helping out by getting the Yorbels for you. Kat, will you stay with Tak and help him be able to follow the light?"

"Can do." Kat said under her breath, as not to trigger an echo. "I've quite the stamina, and once my eyes adjust, I can see really well in the dark. Cause something tells me this place has quite the amount of pitfalls."

"P-Pitfalls?" Tak stammered.

"Listen," Kat reassured him. "It's my duty to protect you, alright? I'm not gonna let you fall, ok? You can hold my hand if you want. I'll guide you through this."

"Uh, ok. Thanks, too. That's really nice of you." Tak said quietly as he hesitantly held her hand.

"Alright, we set?" Flora said, getting ready to fly off.

Tak looked up at her and nodded, then looked at Kat. She nodded back.

"Ready as I'll ever be." She whispered back to him.

Tak then touched the light, and it began to fly off. Both Flora and Katrianne followed it quickly. Flora was fine with her own bioluminescence, but Kat and Tak had to follow the light. Poor Tak lost his footing as soon as Kat took off, so she was halfway dragging him along. Once he regained his footing, despite the sharp turns Kat took, he realized how slippery the floor was. He ran along with her, now that she relaxed and began to go at a comfortable pace for him to run along beside her. He caught glimpses of Flora flying around them, collecting the purple spheres.

"Hey, Kat," Tak panted. "C-Can we stop at the next lightholder?" Tak panted. "I need to catch…my…breath." He looked up at Kat, and she nodded. But all of a sudden, they heard a scream, coming from their left.

A winged nerbil had flown straight into Flora, throwing her off course. She flew straight into Tak, knocking his hand out of Kat's grasp, and sending him plummeting to the water below. Kat quickly noticed this, and flew straight after him. She grabbed his hand just as his toes hit the river, and even though she was able to yank him back up, the light was already long gone.

Kat looked around, holding Tak close, as red eyes began to appear on the walls. The space around them seemed to shrink as hordes of nerbils drew in closer and closer. Tak buried his face in Kat's arms, horrified of what might happen next. Kat was only sitting there with her anger building. A heat began to radiate from her hands, along with a golden glow. The wall of nerbils stopped short when they saw the yellow light.

Kat stood, letting go of Tak, and took on a fierce pose, the glow spreading to the rest of her body. Fire began materializing in her bare hands. As anger took control of her instincts, she began shooting at wherever the eyes were. The nerbils in each space she shot spread out, creating circles in the wall, but some of them were not fast enough, so they burnt to a crisp.

As Flora flew back up, Tak was walking back up to Kat, whose glow had shrunk back to her hands, but had created enough bioluminescence to last until the next lightholder. Kat turned back to Flora, who jumped back a little at her serious face.

"Now," The firey guardian started. "We keep going, and we don't stop 'till the end."

"Oh, right!" Flora said. "I remember the last lightholder does something pretty cool! The light enters the traveler's body, and is able to guide them back to the entrance!"

"Rather convenient." Kat said, smiling a little. "Ready Tak?" She asked her friend. He nodded back, and they set off again, for the end of the tunnel.

Once they reached the end, the light stopped. It floated in front of Tak, and even though it didn't have a face, Tak almost thought it was scrutinizing him. The light descended, and went straight through his chest, his body suddenly gaining warmth and emitting the light itself.

"Wow, Tak!" Flora said. "You became the light! Now, we just gotta get back to the entrance. I've already got the Yorbels, so we can just get out of here once we reach the end!" Tak smiled and nodded, glad that they were going to get out of the caves and Dryrock Canyon so soon. Without hesitation, the three made it back to the entrance.

However, once Tak returned the ball of light to its original lightholder, Flora made a frustrated noise, along with a rather hard facepalm.

"What's wrong?" Tak asked, concerned.

"Oh I'm such an idiot! I forgot…" Flora groaned. "There are three cavern branches, each one holding a bunch of Yorbels! I knew the count was off by a lot, but I forgot that THIS was why!"

"Wait…so…?" Tak began to ask, the look on his face becoming one of pure despair.

"Yeah, Tak. Sorry, you two, but we're going to be staying here for a bit longer than we planned for." Flora said, apologizing to the two.

The boy and his guardian only whined in response, but decided that they had to carry on.

Once they got back to the entrance from the last cavern, the three sat in the center of the cave, finally able to catch their breath.

"Alright, so, I caught 2 more yorbels on the last run…" Tak said, holding the marbles out for Flora.

"Great! Now, counting them all together, that's…twenty…three? How are we missing one? I checked all of the caverns and-" But the green juju was cut off by Kat getting up to examine something on the cave ceiling.

She floated upwards, and beckoned Flora to come look as well.

"This sure has a similar pattern to the Yorbels we've been searching for…doesn't it?" Flora asked, looking at it from the opposite side that Kat was.

"Yeah…" Kat said, knocking on the side of it. "Sounds hollow, too. I wonder how it would open?"

"Hey, guys! Look at the bottom!" They heard Tak shout from the floor of the cavern. Flora floated downwards, and decided to take a look at it.

"Huh…there's three hollow holes…why are they in here? And more importantly…what are they missing?"

Kat's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, Flora, don't judge me…but I just got a crazy idea!" She flew downwards and took one of the light balls from its spot, surprising both Flora and Tak.

"Kat?! What do you think you're doing?" Flora exclaimed as her friend flew back up with the light ball.

"Don't worry! It fits! I have a feeling this is gonna work!" Kat said as she flew down to get another light ball.

Flora facepalmed as Kat continued with her light-gathering, while Tak watched in curiosity. When Kat got the last one, the sphere began to rumble. Flora became alert as the noise startled her. Both her and Kat backed away, as they were scared of what might happen.

A rather flashy display took place, as the Yorbel patterned sphere began to crack like an egg. When the rock completely split in half, the pieces seemed to dissolve. They couldn't yet see what was in the center, but soon enough, a blast of air came from the center of the cavern, and suddenly, light filled the center of the cavern. The dark Nerbils that were closer to the walls hissed and backed away, much farther into the cave. And as they looked down, what was in the giant rock slowly descended towards Tak. It was the last Yorbel that finally made 24.

"YESSSSSS!" Flora screamed with her fist in the air. "Finally, all 24 yorbels, making all 39 in this place! Well, where should we be heading next?"

"I say chicken island. I think it'd be a good change from dry, rocky cliffs and super bright sun." Tak suggested, getting up from the water in the center of the cavern.

"I second that notion." Kat said. "I mean, it's got shady spots, lots of lakes, and the geysers and waterfalls can provide cooling if the sun seems to be beating down a bit too much."

"Well…" Flora said, stroking her chin. "Seems the vote is unanimous! To Chicken Island we go!"

The three of them pushed down the stone door and left the cave. Making their way to the lift, and back to the village.

On the entire tram ride, Flora was still trying to figure out why that sun symbol bothered her so much.

A/N: YAY! Tak made it out of there in one piece! Yes, I know the juju powerup is supposed to be in that big stone thing, but I thought this would be a bit more creative, and Juju Powerups would take up too much time and it seems a bit pointless to get through all of them. Keep a lookout for the next chapter! We're going to my FAVORITE PART OF THE GAME! :D