Meanwhile, Mushpuff was walking down the tunnel on the far left and thinking about how boring his life was before this whole escapade and how he would never be able to return to that ever again. After all this was over, he thought he would follow in the footsteps of Klumpkrump and explore the universe in search of nothing in particular. It seemed fun. Perhaps Klumpkrump could even join him.

Due to his distracted nature, Mushpuff failed to notice that he had walked face-first into a portcullis. Well, he noticed that he walked into it, but he failed to notice it was there, which is the reason why he walked into it in the first place. I apologize for the confusion.

Beyond the portcullis there was a magic glowing bracelet on a pedestal. Mushpuff was almost certain that this was the artifact that they had come to Smack-Smork to find. One problem. The artifact? In there. Mushpuff? Out here! How would he get inside??

Fortunately for him, there was a fish nearby. This fish was standing upright on its back fin, not unlike the fish from the planet of the cheese fish. This fish, however, was not made of cheese, and it was also very large. It had a small shop set up which was selling straws and fish.

“Hello,” said the fish after Mushpuff smacked into the portcullis.

“Oh, hi!” said Mushpuff. “Are you using those straws?”

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“Well, I’m selling them. As well as these fish. We take turns selling the straws, you see. And the fish.”

“How much would a straw cost?” asked Mushpuff.

“All I require in exchange for a straw is 1 Cat Credit.”

Mushpuff fished out his wallet (no pun intended) and looked around. There was NOTHING.

“Dang!” said He, the cat. “I’m all out of money.”

“Well, there is one other thing you could do for me,” said the fish. “There’s this group of 22 bears that have been hunting me down for quite a while. They love to eat fish. If you could take them down, I would be forever grateful. Please bring me their eyes as proof.”

“Do they have any distinguishing features?” asked Mushpuff.

“Well, they--” began the fish. “Wait, what the heck sort of question is that?? Are you afraid you’re going to encounter the wrong group of 22 bears? Go get ‘em!”

And with that, Mushpuff set off back down the tunnel to go get Hoofa. She was the only one who had a powerful artifact and who was readily available (because everyone else had gone down their own separate tunnels).