Fortunately, the Milk

The platform that Professor Steg and the father land on is a temple honoring Splod, the god “of people with short, funny names” (35). The people want to sacrifice the father and Professor Steg to their gods of harvest, but when the father holds up the milk the people fall to their knees, having recently heard the prophecy:

[W]hen a man and a spiny-backed monster descend from the skies on a round floaty thing […] if the man held up milk then we were not to sacrifice them, but we were meant to take them to the volcano, and give them, as a present, the green jewel that is the Eye of Splod (35).

On their way to the volcano, a man tells the father how lucky they are because the original prophecy says that removing the Eye of Splod will trigger devastating destruction of the land. At the volcano, Professor Steg is given the green stone and “nips” back up the ladder and to her time machine.

The boy interrupts his father here—questioning how a Stegosaurus could “nip” up anything. His sister chimes in, lamenting the absence of ponies in the story.