Octonauts - A New Generation
During dinner, Squirt mostly just spoke to his uncle Inkling. Every now and then, Shellington and Periwinkle would join in on their conversation, but otherwise they kept to themselves.
After dinner, the junior Octo-agents join the Octonauts with their nightly-before-bed-hangout. Squirt enjoys listening to the adults’ stories. Soon enough, it’s the kids’ turn. Ursa and Orson take turns telling the crew about the first time they had swam in the open waters and how everything went terribly wrong. Koshi reads out the mystery book she recently wrote about the previous adventure she and her sister were on. Pinto excitedly tells the crew about how Peso saved the chin strapped penguins during the ring of fire incident. After some motivation from his uncle, Periwinkle shows everyone what he learned at cub scouts. Tweak and the captain try to get Stella to say something, but she insists on Squirt going first. Squirt hesitates. Noticing this, Inkling walks over to Squirt using his tentacles and whispers something into the young octopus’ ear.
“Tell them about that school project that you usually always bring up”, Inkling suggests.
“Good idea”, Squirt answers.
Inkling goes to find a seat while Squirt clears his throat.
“Everyone knows about school projects. Sometimes you do them alone and sometimes you do them as a group. This particular school project was a group project”, Squirt starts his story with a brief introduction.
“Well in that case, we all have a slight idea of how this story can end”, Koshi informs. Giggles fill the room.
“Indeed. For the sake of their privacy, I won’t mention their real names. Instead, I will call them Sodium and Zinc. Sodium was that one kid who always acts salty towards everyone for no reason whatsoever. Zinc on the other hand…well…he had quite the interesting…personalities. One day he was the class clown, the next he was the school bully, and then out of nowhere he was the teachers pet or the quiet kid”, the excitement slowly started to rise inside of Squirt as he continues on with his story, “From the second the teacher put the three of us in a group, I knew that it would be a long couple of weeks. The first week goes by, I had already done my research and even did the research for the others. During the second week I start preparing the presentation. The third week comes, I had already printed out the script and was handing it out to Sodium and Zinc, when Sodium decides to start a roasting battle. With Sodium as our classmate, a roasting battle being announced out of nowhere was uncommon. In fact, for those who watch, it’s the highlight of the day. Sodium goes on and on about how I think that I’m so much more smarter than him and how I think that he is incapable of doing anything! I try to explain to him that I just want us to get a good grade, but then Zinc goes from being the quiet kid to playing the victim, further encouraging Sodium. This goes on for a good ten minutes before a teacher finally steps in.”
“Oof, that must have been an awful experience”, Ursa says.
“Oh, I’m not done yet”, Squirt replies, “Somehow, Sodium manages to convince the teacher that I’m not letting him or Zinc do any work, so I was left with no other choice but to basically throw away all of my hard work and start again with these two…interesting boys with only one and a half weeks left until it’s due. That half week sure was fun. Whenever I tried to set up a meeting with the others, Sodium would come up with an excuse. Zinc would always say that the two of us can meet up without Sodium, but then never showed up. The weekend comes and the work still hasn’t been done yet. We had two tests that fourth week, and I for one was determined to pass them. Instead, Sodium and Zinc look at our week with the two important tests and decide that that would be a great time to somehow start and finish the whole project! I almost fainted when I heard them say that. I told them to do their part and that I would just take whatever part is left and use what I had made at first, you know, before they complained about my hard work and efforts. The school week ends and I enjoy my much needed break during the weekend. Sunday comes, it’s the day before the project is due. Sodium sends me a message asking me what he has to do.”
“Yow! These teammates of yours sure don’t know how to be a team player”, Kwazii remarks.
“Indeed they don’t. I almost had a heart attack when I read that message. I asked Zinc what topic he chose, picked the easiest of the two that were left over and then send the script about that topic to Sodium. Monday comes and it’s our team’s turn to present. Zinc presents first, but… I don’t know where he got his information from, but it was the most random words thrown together that I had ever heard. I was absolutely petrified. After two minutes, he stops and looks at me, signaling that it’s my turn. I pull myself together and try to add more detailed explanations to my topic, to make up for the missing time for Zinc. After all, there was a certain length that the presentation had to be. Next came Sodium. As I had thought, he forgot his, or should I say my, notes at home. He immediately put the blame on me, but fortunately for me, I had brough a spare. The original notes that I had sent to him were written in full sentences, so that he would know exactly what to say and could go over it properly, so that he doesn’t read off of the paper the whole time. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that he hadn’t read them at all! He stumbled over every term and couldn’t explain them any further. Our project was a mess, a disaster.”
“Did you get a bad grade because of them?”, Stella asks.
“Yeah”, Squirt says in defeat.
“You’re joking, right?”, Orson asks, refusing to believe what he just heard.
A smirk creeps onto Squirts face.
“The principal knew better. He came and saved the day. I showed him the project that I had originally made on my own, and I got an A+”, Squirt announces.
The room fills up with applause and cheers.
“You kept us all on the edge with that story of yours matey!”, Kwazii says flabbergasted.
“Well, that was the intention”, Squirt admits.
“Alright, your turn Stella”, Tweak says.
“What? But it’s getting really late! Other than that, how could I possibly top Squirt’s amazing story telling?”, Stella tries to find any and every excuse that she can.
“Don’t get your ears in a twist. I’m sure that you’ll do great!”, Tweak continues motivating Stella.
“I don’t have any cool or exciting stories to tell”, Stella continues her attempt to avoid her fate.
“I’m sure that you do”, Tweak answers.
“But… Well, maybe you’re right. Perhaps I’m just to tired to think of a good story right now”, Stella slowly adds.
“Alright. Why don’t you kids head off to bed? Stella can tell us her story tomorrow evening. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow, so go get some rest”, the captain announces.
“Aye, aye captain”, Pinto salutes before walking out of the room, followed by all of the other kids.
[Squirt’s school story is heavily inspired by JaidenAnimations’ video about her school project.]
“It’s such a shame that we didn’t get to hear Stella’s story”, Squirt whispers. The kids had gotten themselves ready for bed and then separated to go into their rooms.
“Yeah. I bet she has some amazing stories!”, Pinto starts with a whisper, but gets louder the more excited he gets.
“We’ll have the chance to hear her story tomorrow, so please shut up and let me sleep”, Orson hisses.
“Alright, calm down, jeez”, Pinto whispers annoyed.
Silence fills the room as the boys slowly drift off to sleep.
“Today’s lesson is going to be awsome!”, Pinto yells while running around the room.
“Keep it down. It’s too early to be yelling loudly”, Squirt says.
“What’s so exciting about today’s lesson?”, Orson asks as he sits up in his bed.
“Kwazii will be our teacher today!” Pinto yells as he jumps on his bed.
“I though that Peso would be your favorite teacher”, Periwinkle states.
“Well… I don’t pick favorites. Peso and Kwazii are equally awsome!”, Pinto answers.
“If Kwazzi is our teacher today, does that mean that we’ll be going outside of the Octopod?”, Squirt asks curiously.
“Most definitely!”, Pinto seems to be getting more and more excited.
Exciting chatter fills the room. Captain Barnacles enters to tell the boys to get ready. Squirt puts on his bandanna and his glasses, Periwinkle quickly gets dressed, and Pinto and Orson put on their cold suits. The boys run together to the dining room for breakfast, where they find the girls waiting for them.
“Good morning girls”, Pinto greets the others as he walks in.
“Good morning”, the girls answer in unison.
“Hey Stella, have you thought about what you’ll be talking about tonight?”, Pinto excitedly asks.
“Uhm…not yet”, Stella tries to avoid eye contact.
“Alright. You still have plenty of time to think about a good story”, Pinto says.
“If you can’t think of an exciting moment to tell us about, then maybe…you could read one of your stories to us?”, Koshi suggests.
“Uhh… I’ll think about it”, Stella nervously answers.
The Octonauts enter the room.
“Good morning junior Octo-agents. Did you sleep well?”, the captain asks.
“Good morning captain!”, Pinto replies.
“We slept well”, Koshi says on behalf of the girls.
“So did we”, Orson says on behalf of the boys.
“Are ya ready for a day filled with adventure!?”, Kwazii yells.
“Aye, aye, Kwazzi!”, Pinto yells back.
“But first, you need to have some breakfast”, Tunip chirps as he enters the room, followed by some other Vegimals, whose names Squirt can’t remember.
The Octonauts and junior Octo-agents exchange some small talk while enjoying the breakfast that the Vegimals have made. After they’re done, the junior Octo-agents go freshen up and get ready for the day.
“Behold the wonder that is the amazon rainforest!”, Kwazii announces. The junior Octo-agents look out the windows of the Octo-ray and watch the rainforest beneath them.
“There is no better place to go than here for your first mission”, Kwazii says while turning to face the kids, “Well, at least there is no better place that the captain will allow me to take you.”
Dashi laughs. “Both Ranger Marsh and Pearl are in the area, so they’ll be able to lend you a paw if anything gets out of hand”, Dashi explains.
“I don’t know what you lot are so worried about. I’ve totally got this under control”, Kwazii says, offended by the lack of trust that his teammates have in him.
“And if we were to let you do this mission in the open waters, you will most likely start acting like a pirate and treating the junior Octo-agents like your crew”, Dashi adds.
“That’s not true!”, Kwazii yells in offense.
“Isn’t that what you and your Granddad did with the Vegimals?”, Dashi questions.
“W-Well… That was different!”, Kwazii tries to defend himself, despite now realizing his teammates’ point.
“If you say so”, Dashi says sarcastically, “There’s no place for the Octo-ray to land, so I’ll drop you guys off by Ranger Marsh’s station. Sounds good?”
“Aye, aye, matey!”, Kwazii yells with a new rush of energy.
“This is going to be amazing!”, Pinto yells with the same level of enthusiasm.
“We’re going to jump out of this aircraft?”, Stella asks with a flat tone.
“Not exactly. If we do have to jump while being higher up in the sky, we’ll use parachutes of course”, Periwinkle explains.
“I can hover above the river in front of Ranger Marsh’s station to drop you off, so prepare yourself to take a dive”, Dashi announces.
“Icantwait, Icantwait, Icantwait,Icantwait!”, Pinto runs around the cockpit more hyperactive than ever.
“Calm down little fella. Save all of that energy for later”, Kwazii calmly remarks with a laugh.
“Aye, aye, Kwazii”, Pinto responds with a salute.
“This is your first time being part of one of these missions, right? Must be exciting”, Squirt says in an attempt to make some small talk with Stella.
“This is indeed my first time. All I’ve ever known were those icy glaciers and the cold snow”, Stella answers while looking out of the window.
“Then this must be a completely new scenery for you”, Squirt carries on.
“Indeed it is. It’s the complete opposite of what I am used to seeing”, Stella continues to stare out of the window, facinated by the view.
“The captain already gave you your cold suit, right?”, Pinto asks.
“Yeah, I’m wearing it right now”, Stella replies.
“What’s a cold suit?”, Squirt asks, “I’ve never heard of that before.”
“It’s a suit that we wear to keep us from having a heatstroke”, Stella explains.
“You can wear it like normal clothes- ”, Ursa elaborates.
“Like uncle Barnacles and Stella!”, Orson quickly interrupts.
“Or you can get one that looks like your fur or- “, Ursa continues, before getting interrupted once again.
“Like the two of us, Pinto and Peso!”, Orson says.
“Correct, although I would appreciate it if you could stop interrupting me”, Ursa calmly says while staring her brother down.
“Right, sorry sis”, Orson quickly apologizes.
“I always wondered how you and the others survive going to warm places”, Koshi says, “Although I really wanted to solve that mystery on my own without any help.”
“My bad”, Ursa says without a hint of actually meaning the words she’s saying.
“We have arrived at our destination. I hope that you weren’t too busy chatting and grabbed an oxygen tank”, Dashi announces, with a slight hint of annoyance.
“Sorry sis”, Koshi apologizes before quickly grabbing an oxygen tank before racing towards where her and her crew will be jumping out from. The others hastily join her, arriving by her side moments before the giant door opens.
“Ready to jump?”, Kwazii asks, wagging his tail with excitement.
“Aye, aye, Kwazii!”, the crew answers in sinc.
“Are you sure that this is safe?”, Stella asks while keeping a strong grip on a rope that’s keeping some crates nearby in place.
“Of course, little matey”, Kwazii calmly says in a comforting tone, “Ya just gotta make sure that you land properly, otherwise ya might hurt ya self.”
“Shouldn’t we have had a lesson on how to do that? There isn’t much water where I come from, you know? I can swim, but I can’t dive”, Stella tries to remain calm, but is clearly starting to panic.
“Sure you can. You dived into the water before entering the Octopod, remember?”, Pinto softly adds.
“That was different. ...My uncle was there to help me”, Stella’s voice breaks as she becomes distressed.
“Your uncle might not be here right now, but you’ve got us”, Periwinkle shyly says.
“Don’t worry matey, we’ll be here for you every step of the way”, Kwazii says as he walks towards the scared fox.
“You can hold me paw if that makes ya feel better”, Kwazii adds as he offers her his paw.
After some hesitation, Stella reaches her shaking paw towards his, steadily approaching the open door as she does so. Everyone puts on their air tank and waits for the next orders from Kwazii.
“Alright, on the count of three”, Kwazii announces, “One…two…THREE! YOWWW!!!”
The crew all scream in either utter terror or pure excitement as they all fall down, bracing themselves for the dive. All of the birds in the area fly away in horror as the crew inches closer and closer to the watery surface of the river.
“Enter plunging positions!”, Kwazii yells over the loud roar of the wind, “Just copy us Stella!”
Seconds later, a loud splash fills the air as the crew dives into the water. Squirt, who is the only one without an air tank, is the first to resurface, followed by everyone else.
"How are ya feeling matey?", Kwazii asks.
"Slightly terrified…", Stella slowly answers.
"That was amazing! I've always wanted to jump off of a high place!", Pinto yells while waving his flippers wildly.
"What? Why would you want to do that?", Orson asks.
"What else is on your bucketlist?", Ursa wonders.
"What's a bucketlist?", Periwinkle asks.
"Argh, we don't have time for this! Let's just swim to the river bank and meet up with Ranger Marsh", Kwazii quickly loses his patience. The junior Octo-agents respect Kwazii's wish and make their way to the riverbank.
"Come on lil’ maties, let's go check if he's home", Kwazii marches over to a cabin lying right in front of the river, not to far away from where they had dived. The crew follow the lieutenant in a straight line to the cabin. Just as they arrive on the front port and Kwazii gets ready to knock, Ranger Marsh swings by on a vine and lands on the rail of the front port.
"Good morning everyone", Ranger Marsh says. He laughs to himself as he says: "I knew that I heard some foren sounds."
"Sorry if our screaming alarmed anyone", Kwazii apologizes.
"Nah, don't worry 'bout it. The critters 'round here have gotten used to it”, Ranger Marsh reassures.
The junior Octo-agents share their confusion about this statement. Kwazii chuckles nervously before quickly changing the topic.
“Why don’t we go inside first?”, Ranger Marsh suggests, giving Kwazii a reassuring look. Kwazii dramatically exhales and nods. The crew follow Ranger Marsh into his cabin.
The inside of the cabin is bigger than it looks from the outside. The whole place is neat, even though the open windows should have allowed leaves from the nearby trees to glide inside. They enter into a small room with some sketches of animals and to-do lists hanging on the wall, before entering the hall way. On the wall to their left hang many pictures. They’re in order from presumably Tweak as a baby, to Tweak as an adult in the gup-K. Ranger Marsh leads the crew to the second door to the right. As they enter the kitchen, Ranger Marsh offers them some hot cocoa while he talks to Kwazii.
Filled with excitement, Pinto finds it awfully hard to stay still, let alone drink his hot cocoa. Squirt smiles at his level of excitement and enthusiasm. After taking another sip of his drink, Squirt takes a moment to take in his surroundings. The kitchen is quite small, as expected since Ranger Marsh lives on his own. Judging by the amount of doors, and therefore rooms, that Squirt saw before, it’s safe to say that it used to be just Tweak and Ranger Marsh, and perhaps Tweak’s mother. The amount of cups with the octopus symbol on them, show that the Octonauts have been visiting the lime green rabbit from time to time. Other than that, everything in the room looks kind of old fashioned, other than a few gadgets, such as an Octo-tablet, the hot cocoa machine presumably made by Tweak and an Octo-mobile camera. This shows that Ranger Marsh is kind of stuck in the old days and has only recently been introduced to technology through Tweak. If that were the case, then how long has Tweak been away from home for Ranger Marsh to only presumably recently have been introduced to technology?
Squirt quickly and briefly shakes his head in order to stop himself from overthinking and over analyzing.
“Are you okay?”, Periwinkle asks.
“Ah, uhm, yeah”, Squirt stumbles over his words, “I was just overthinking something.”
“Oh, okay”, Periwinkle answers.
The kids start exchanging small talk once more. Squirt tries to join in, but can’t help himself from getting distracted by his thoughts that seemed to be getting louder and louder. Where is her mother? Why has she been away from home for so long? Why are they lime green?
Before Squirt could sink any further into the flood of questions that he had come up with himself, someone calls his name. Squirt looks up, only now realizing that he had been staring into his cup during that whole time. He casually takes a sip of his hot cocoa in an effort to make the whole him-staring-into-his-cup thing seem somewhat more normal.
“Are you sure that you’re okay?”, this time Koshi’s the one asking. The kids, now joined by Kwazii and Ranger Marsh, give him a concerned look. All of them, except for Stella. Her facial expression remains neutral, but in her eye shines a bright and deep understanding.
“Lost in your thoughts again?”, she says after realizing that he had been staring at her. She gives a small smile.
“Yeah, a little”, Squirt replies, to which Stella chocks on her drink from laughter. All eyes now turn to Stella.
“S-Sorry about th-that”, Stella stutters. She takes a few breaths before continuing: “Why don’t you just share your thoughts with us to calm them down. It usually always works for me.” She shrugs.
“Oh, uhhh…”, Squirt can feel his cheeks heat up with embarrassment.
“Alright, then we’ll think of something else. One thing's for sure, you can’t go on a mission with loud thoughts”, Stella covers her mouth as she starts giggling. The others, who had all been trying to hold it in, burst into laughter. Squirt’s cheeks start burning more as he gets overwhelmed with embarrassment, but eventually, he joins the group in laughter. Squirt finds himself breathing easily again, the realization that he had struggled to breath because of his thoughts slowly sinking in.
“Thank you”, Squirt quietly says, understanding what she’s planning.
“Anytime. We’re a crew, aren’t we?”, Stella answers while a sly smile.
Squirt returns a smile of his own.
“Ready to get going maties?”, Kwazii asks.
“Aye, aye, Kwazii”, the kids reply.
The crew had been going around the tropical rainforest for about an hour and a half now. Each of the kids were trying to find their roles as they explored the forest, rescuing and protecting any creature in need. Koshi had already claimed the role of the detective on day one. Her sharp eyes spotted most of the creatures in need of help. After realizing Stella’s sharp ears and incredible knowledge that the pup had tried to hide, Koshi claimed her as her assistant. Periwinkle naturally took the role of the marine biologist, trying his best to do as he thinks his uncle and mother would do. Pinto had already made up his mind about being the teams pirate and medic, as well as their captain. Ursa strongly disagreed with him, saying that she would be a way better captain. After some arguing, Squirt suggested that the team should decide together who the captain should be after watching everyone in action. The penguin and polar bear thankfully agreed to his idea, both now determined to convince the team that they’re the better captain. Neither Orson nor Squirt knew what roles they should have. Stella reminded them they they’ll be in need of pilots and mechanics when they get older. Orson’s face lit up at this reminder. He is now determined to learn as much as he can from Tweak. As Ursa supported her brother, Squirt noticed Stella’s sight shift to the side as she bit her lip. He grinned, knowing full well what she was thinking.
Now the crew are taking a break somewhere in an opening of the forest. They all drink some of their water as they start chatting about how exciting it is to finally be on their first mission. Well, at least it’s some of their first mission. Pinto excitingly tells the group about the other missions that he’s been on. Koshi chooses to wait until the evening to tell the others about her other missions, grinning as she watched the groups faces contort with suspense and slight frustration. Squirt smiles as he listens to the small talk, before noticing Stella silently gazing at her shoes. Pinto had tried talking to her, he always tries talking to her. Unfortunately, more often than not, she doesn’t want to have a conversation. Squirt takes a deep breath as he makes his way towards her. At this point, the only way to get her to talk may be to confront her about whatever’s on her mind head on. Squirt can only hope that his assumption is correct.
“Not ready to share Tweak, are you?”, Squirt tries to play it off cool. Stella's head shoots up as she stares him straight into his eyes. Her one eye scans the octopus, perhaps for a sign of whether she can trust him or not.
“It’s okay, I understand. I don’t like sharing the people I love the most either”, Squirt tries to push further.
“I don’t think you understand”, Stella finally answers, still eyeing the octopus.
“Then explain”, Squirt prompts. Stella falls silent once again, trying to think of how to answer while returning her gaze to her shoes.
“I just…”, she tries. She plays with the laces of her shoes, before taking a deep breath and continuing, “I’m not used to any of this. You all have a relative to make you feel more at home. I don’t have anyone. I don’t… I’m not the master of communication. I’m only now starting to warm up to Tweak. She’s the only one that I can talk to. Dividing her time would mean that I can’t always talk to her when…well, when I need to.” Stella had pulled her legs close to her chest, resting her head on her knees as she spoke. Squirt listens attentively to what she has to say, nodding every now and then, even though she’s not looking at him.
“I might not quite understand what you’re going through, but maybe you should try to warm up to others. If not us, then maybe another one of the adults”, Squirt tries to comfort her. He puts a tentacle around her shoulder. Stella slowly lifts her head from her knees and looks at Squirt. Her sorrowful expression physically hurt him.
“I try my best, but I just can’t. It’s hard to talk to people”, she quickly places her head on her knees once again as tears start to form in her eye.
“You’re talking to me right now, aren’t you?”, Squirt asks.
“Well, yeah, but that’s because…”, Stella pauses for a moment, not willing to say the next part.
“Because what?”, Squirt tries to push her to finish her sentence.
She sighs, “Because I’m desperate.”
“If that’s so, then why did you push Pinto away?”, Squirt asks, slightly confused but also honored.
“That’s just what I’m good at doing. All I ever do is push people away”, Stella raises her voice a bit, but not enough to draw attention to herself from the others.
“You didn’t push me away”, Squirt hesitates to answer, sensing the anger radiating from the pup.
“…He tries too hard. His…his positivity and enthusiasm…”, Stella lifts her head and stares at the ground in front of her. She shakes her head violently before finally making eye contact with Squirt.
“Forget I ever said anything. I’ll try my best to take your advice and talk to others”, Stella smiles. Her smile looks forced. There’s something she isn’t telling him, that much is obvious. But Squirt has already pushed his luck a lot of times today. He’s happy with the result he got. He smiles back at Stella.
All of the kids fall to the floor with exhaustion. The crew had been attacked by a green anaconda. Kwazii ordered the kids to run away and find shelter while he distracts the anaconda. He ordered Pinto to call for help as soon as they were far enough from danger.
Remembering the order given to him, Pinto sounds the Octo-alert on his Octo-watch, while still being out of breath.
“Junior Octo-agent Pinto, report please”, the captain’s voice hums from the watch.
“Captain”, Pinto starts while trying to steady his breath, “We were attacked by…a green anaconda…Kwazii distracted it…in the middle of nowhere…”
Gasps are heard from the watch.
“Dashi”, captain Barnacle’s voice boomed.
“Already on it captain. Tracking down all Octo-watch signals near their area”, Dashi’s voice replies.
After a while: “Pearl is near the kids location and Paani is near Kwazii’s. Contacting them now.”
The screen split into four.
“Hello captain”, Pearl and Paani answer in unison.
“What’s wrong?”, Pearl asks, worry taking over her voice as she notices the captain’s serious expression.
Captain Barnacles briefly gives the two Octo-agents an explanation about the current situation. Both quickly give a nod after receiving their orders, before springing into action.
The kids wait were they are. Not having anything better to do, Pinto starts getting impatient.
“When will she be here?”, he whines.
“Be patient”, Periwinkle replies, a bit of venom in his voice. Pinto shoots him an annoyed glance. Stella takes off her shoes and stands up with a sigh.
“I can climb up that tree and see if I can find her nearby if that helps cool you down”, she offers.
“You can climb?”, Koshi asks curiously.
“If you have claws, you can climb”, Stella answers matter-of-factly while flexing her claws, “Besides, climbing up a tree can’t be any harder then climbing up an icy mountain.” And with that, Stella leaps into the tree, quickly making her way up.
“See anything?”, Ursa yells.
“You probably shouldn’t be yelling”, Orson whispers while nervously looking around them. With a thud, Stella lands on all fours right next to the polar bear cub, causing him to scream.
“Sorry for startling you”, Stella says while quickly putting her hair into place, covering her left eye once again. “She’s close”, she lets go of the breath that she had been holding while she was fidgeting around with her hair.
“Aproximentaly how much longer will it take her to arrive?”, Periwinkle asks.
Stella thinks for a while. “Judging by the speed at which she’s heading here on one of the Terra gups…aproximentaly 48 more seconds.”
Pinto’s eyes widen as he looks around him in every direction.
“From that direction”, Stella points somewhere in the forest before going back to putting on her shoes.
Squirt keeps his gaze in that direction as he counts down the seconds in his head, remembering to add the seconds that went by ever since Stella told them her prediction. Pearl arrives 35 seconds later, making Stella’s approximation wrong by only 4 seconds. Squirt shivers at how accurate her prediction is.
“MOM!”, Periwinkle runs towards the older sea otter as she takes her helmet off.
“Periwinkle!”, the two of them fall into a warm embrace. Squirt smiles at the sight.
“Are you all alright?”, Pearl asks, the concern of a worried mother filling her voice.
“We’re fine”, Ursa replies.
“Just a little shocked”, Orson adds.
“Will Kwazii be okay?”, Pinto asks.
“I’m sure Paani will find him soon”, Pearl answers. “Come on, let’s get you back to Ranger Marsh’s cabin. We can wait for Kwazii there.”
It took an hour after their arrival for Kwazii and Paani to show up. The kids excitedly greet the ginger cat as he limps into the cabin. Ranger Marsh quickly takes out his first aid kit after seeing the state of the cat. The macaque is also in a bad state, but not nearly as bad as Kwazii.
“What happened out there?”, Pearl asks from behind them. After the first twentie minutes had gone by, she went back out to help the two men. She herself had a few scratches, but otherwise she was fine.
“You know me, always running into trouble”, Kwazii limps over to a chair.
“You know me, always going with the flow”, Paani chooses to follow Kwazii’s way of going around the question.
Pearl shoots them both an angry glare.
“You had us all worried sick!”, she proclaimed.
“Sorry”, Kwazii whispers, ears flopping down.
“Why don’t we save the yell’ng for later?”, Ranger Marsh suggests with a hint of sarcasm, while he takes out the disinfectant.
Pearl joins them in the kitchen, letting herself sink into a chair. She lifts her head, facing the ceiling with her eyes closed. Periwinkle hesitantly makes his way over to her, giving her a hug once in front of her. The rest of the kids silently remain seated in the open area of the kitchen, all watching how Ranger Marsh bandages both Kwazii and Paani’s wounds. After finishing up with them, he turns his attention to Pearl.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine”, Pearl quickly says after noticing Ranger March approaching her.
“Are ya sure? Not even some disinfectant?”, Ranger Marsh asks cautiously.
“Yeah”, Pearl answers, a drop of nervousness in her voice.
“Alright”, Ranger Marsh says with his thick accent. He eyes Pearl a little longer before packing everything back inside of the first aid kit.
“Care to explain what happened out there?”, Ranger Marsh asks with the stern voice filled with the worry of a father. The three adults almost look like kids getting told off by their father as they all deflate into their chairs. Squirt puts a tentacle to his mouth in an effort to not start laughing. Pearl shots the men an accusing look, silently demanding to hear what they had been up to until she showed up. Kwazii stands up, wincing in pain as he remembers the state of his right leg. He quickly forgets about the pain, getting ready to tell his side of the story. His eye sparkles with a sense of adventure and his tail excitedly whips the moist air in the cabin.
“There I was, distracting the green anaconda as the kids ran to safety. While we were exploring the thick and moist rainforest, we had accidentally gotten too close to her nest. I ordered the kids to run to safety and call for help as I lead the snake in the other direction. It was a brave and honorable sacrifice if I do say so myself. But…I might or might not have gotten myself in a bigger mess”, Kwazii’s excitement slowly fades away. He drops his gaze to the ground.
“I found him getting chased by a group of howler monkeys. They were not too happy about us being in their territory”, Paani jumps in to finish the story.
“I found the boys up in the trees trying to get the howler monkeys off of their tails. I followed them from the ground and we eventually figured out a way to get them down safely”, Pearl finishes the story.
“Safely?”, Ranger Marsh asks sarcastically, the harsh fatherly love deep in his voice.
“As safely as possible”, Pearl seems to be resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
She seems to be in a bad mood. I wonder why. Could it be because she got in trouble for Kwazii’s mistake?, Squirt’s thoughts start spiraling back into his head.
“Well, at least ya made it back in one piece”, Ranger Marsh sighs.
“Sit down Kwazii. Let me get you all something to eat”, the lime green rabbit offers. Kwazii immediately obeys and waits with the others for Ranger Marsh to return with some food.
Kwazii had called Dashi to let her know that they’re ready to be picked up. Paani had insisted on joining them in order to help Kwazii. The ginger cat had protested against it, but Paani stayed as stubborn as a mule.
Now they’re in the Octo-ray on their way back to the Octopod.
[I wrote this right after an English lesson. Can you tell? Funnily enough, this suits Squirt’s character.]
