The Crocodile Prince

There was a long, awkward silence as what Alex was saying sank in:

Rainy would have to leave.

By now, the other plushies had turned away from us and the normal chatter of the market returned, but it still felt too quiet.

Happy, I've observed, dislikes quiet. Especially when there are questions to be answered.

"How come you never told us you were a prince?" Happy asked skeptically.

Rainy looked from the ground to the pink elephant. "Well–"

"Yes, go on."

Rainy rolled his eyes at Happy's obliviousness. "You interrupted me. I was ABOUT to go on. Now, as I was sayi–"

"Hey! How dare you interrupt The Royal Prince Rainbow of the Crocodile Kingdom! You would be thrown in the dungeon, had you been back at our castle before the lion invasion!" The orange crocodile decided to chime in irritably, taking a defensive stance towards Happy with his sword.

Rainy shot a look straight forward that said loud and clear 'you've got to be joking.'

"So," I said quietly, not wanting to annoy Rainy any further, "you were a prince before you came to live with us?"

"Yes," Rainy sighed, "Remember when I fell out of the sky?"

Happy brightened up. "Oh yeah! I remember! We thought you were sent by Mira, haha. Berry was so clueless–"

After those words was a... loud and abrupt reaction in unison from Alex and I. Alex to accuse Happy again of "injustice against the prince" to think Rainy was "anything less than Mira herself," and me... to protect my pride, I guess... but I'm not clueless! Happy thought Rainy was sent by Mira, too!! I'm not clueless!!

It was just a bunch of annoying blabber in Rainy's ears, who obviously couldn't stand it. He looked at the ground and covered his ears (or whatever crocodile ears are called). It seemed odd that even though he was a prince, he held back from telling other plushies to be quiet.

The market's gaze wandered over to our loud squabble. I was embarrassed, and so was Alex, so we quieted down.

Rainy glanced around, and seeing our commotion silenced took his webbed reptilian paws (or whatever crocodile paws are called) from his ears. "I thought you'd go on all month. So yeah, I didn't literally fall from the sky. This lion– Patch I believe –launched me out of a cannon for some reason and that's how I ended up in this region of Jamaa. Patch was a friend of mine, but we hadn't spoken recently. Now I think I know why just out of the blue he suggested 'Hey Rainy, wanna get launched out of a cannon.'"

"Why?" we all said in unison. 

"If the..." Rainy struggled to say, "prince was gone, the lions could invade and take over."

TO BE CONTINUED