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

Rainbow???

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Rainbow!"

I darted my head around cluelessly and turned to Happy and Rainy. "Who's Rainbow? Happy, any idea? What about you, Rainy? Who's Rainbow?" 

Happy and rainy annoyingly didn't say anything, only looked at me disappointedly. The orange crocodile swished his eyes back and forth between us and glared at us expectantly.

"Well?!" He asked.

Rainy stepped forward and I put my face in my paws. Duh!

"What is it this time, Alex?" Rainy (Rainbow) said to the crocodile, looking at the ground. I guess Alex was the orange crocodile's name?

"You're needed back at the kingdom! Didn't you know?! The lions have taken over and everything is in chaos! I thought you knew! You're the crocodile prince, for Mira's sake!"

Other animals in the market began to look and whisper at us worriedly. There was silence in the group as his words sank in.

I couldn't stand the silence and blurted out. "You're a PRINCE, Rainy?!"

Alex flicked his head towards me and glared. "Shh... keep it down. There may be lions around." He whispered.

"But Rainy, I had no idea that–" I was cut off again by my friends' agitated faces. "Oh, right.." I whispered sheepishly. "Sorry."

Alex turned back to Rainy. "You need to be back at the castle by next month. I'll send some of the guards with you, if you like. You and you only need to be there to restore peace."

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Notice

Hi! Sorry for the inconvenience, but Berry The Koala will be on hiatus through the month of October. (I will not be posting here for all of October.)

Things have come up that make it hard to do so, sorry.

Bye!

–Quintanna/DoomyPanda

The Crocodilian Messenger Part 1

Yes, we did know that crocodile!

It was the very same crocodile that we had run into so many months ago!

I slowly shuffled closer to get a better look, but I should not have. I accidentally kicked a pebble, he glanced over at me, and immediately bolted out of the market.

I searched the crowd for Happy and Rainy. I had long lost sight of them when I was buying some 10 gem lemonade (which tasted a bit funny, now that I think of it), and I had to navigate through quickly enough to keep up with Rainy shifting between each shop. That crocodile could really move fast, especially when 10 gem food was involved. 

My unsteady trail through the crowd was just a repetitive "Excuse me! Pardon me! Sorry!" until finally, I spotted Rainy and Happy sitting at the far back eating peanuts. 

"Happy! Rainy! You'll never even guess what just happened!"

"You saw that very same orange crocodile that we had run into so many months ago?" The pink elephant replied coolly, all attention on the bag of peanuts.

"How did you know?" I asked.

Rainy piped in "We saw him too. Right around the lemonade stand. He cut in line... ugh." he rolled his eyes irritably.

"But don't you remember him?"

"Of course we do, we just thought that he wouldn't be much of a threat now. He was just minding his own business––"

"Cutting in line..." Rainy interrupted.

I sat down next to my friends and took a hand full of peanuts. Maybe this whole sighting didn't matter at all, and we'd never see the orange crocodile again.

Rainy stood up. "I think it's time to leave. The shops are beginning to close up."

I stood up with him. "C'mon, Happy."

"Okay!" Happy said with a mouth full of peanuts.

We started up the path to our den on the hill. Hummingbirds stopped at flowers to stick their beaks in to drink the nectar. It was peaceful, until we heard an unexpected voice from behind.

"Rainbow!"

TO BE CONTINUED

Sleepy Summer Days

Summer faded and blended together as each day passed, making the days seem shorter and shorter. Although it was supposedly the warmest season, the skies were often grey in the morning and the sun only broke through for an hour or so during the afternoon before retreating back behind the clouds. 

The truth is, it had not rained for months. The immense rain clouds just hung in view always, casting a dry light on Jamaa below. 

Bored of constantly looking out into the grey sky, I spent most of my time in the Chamber of Knowledge. I did puzzles and read the old dusty texts that lined the walls. It's really fun, actually! *cough*getoffyourcomputerandreadabook*cough* I haven't even read through a fourth of the books there yet, there are just so many!

Although, I really would like if they added some more biology to the shelves. I'm getting so tired of finding no informational text except about frogs, butterflies, and pandas all of the time!

I wonder who originally stocked this place so full of books... 

Luckily, there were at least a few days with nothing but sunshine. I used those days to go to the village with Happy and Rainy. There it was always packed with chirpy bunnies, giant giraffes, and many other animals. There was always something going on and sometimes it got so loud, it was really a wonder how we didn't hear it from our home!

It was nice to be so close to where everything is and be unable to hear it.

Hang on a second...

Do I know that crocodile??

********

TO BE CONTINUED!

Aftershock

    It was a long and rather exhausting series of events. I kept tripping over roots, taking wrong turns, getting chased by birds, stumbling upon creepy abandoned villages... It honestly wasn't as exciting as it sounds, though. Just a load of worry and scratches. 
    Upon finally arriving exhaustedly back at the den, I half expected Rainy and Happy to rush up to the door excitedly. The grave part of me imagined opening the door, revealing an empty, dark room. I opened the door, bracing myself for any painful hugs from Happy, or the complete desolateness that I dreaded. Instead, I was greeted with a casual "Oh, you're back. Hi."

    My friends were just sitting around sleepily, talking and playing games. Judging from the placement of the sun in the sky, it was just morning. Excitement and worry often dies down a bit after sleeping, so their lack of relief was understandable. 

"Sorry I took too long," I said, sheepishly.

Rainy laughed. "That's a large understatement. You took months!" 

"Yeah," said Happy. "seasons passed. It's like, October now."

"June." corrected Rainy. "Very late June. Anyway, we've missed you a whole lot and we're glad you're back home."

"Well, I'm glad to be back home, too." I said, sighing. 

   I dragged my feet over to a pillow and collapsed face-down. There has been nothing but chaos and running in these last pages, hasn't it, journal? Why am I even asking this book a question, it's inanimate. I guess I saw the 'talking to your journal' in other journals, like Rainy's--- Don't tell Rainy I was looking through his journal. Oh that's right, you're inanimate so you won't. Haha...

I soon drifted off to sleep.

************

   I awoke in the early morning light, just as the sun was beginning to peek over the distant mountain tops. Light clouds blew in wisps across it, not opaque enough to be a warning for rain, but not a guarantee of perfect weather either. Getting back up on my paws, I tripped a little. I had my fair share of scratches from tripping over roots and twigs, so it did little to hurt me. 

   I padded sleepily outdoors to the garden that had been kept watered even during the long three months I had been on the run from the lion. It was nice of Happy to do that. It seemed there was constant adventure from the moment I had stopped living a quiet life alone on the hill. I didn't reminisce about that lonely time, though, it was rather boring. Although these adventurous days were often a nuisance; distracting me from tasks and writing, I would never give them up even if you offered me 1,000,000,000 gems! 

    The sky glowed a fiery orange, lined with pink and purple streaks of dawn. I wondered if Rainy and Happy were up yet. They weren't particularly "early birds," and were known to sleep late into the summer day. I decided to walk back to the den to check, I wouldn't want them to think I was missing again.

   Rainy was still fast asleep, but Happy was up and eating strawberries from a green pot.

 "Good morning, Berry! I saw this weird bird. It didn't look like it was from here. It was small, with a kind of yellow band-thing across it's neck and stuff. Also, I got a pile of Jamaa Journals that I found in the village down below. You can look through them if you wanna, y'know, catch up." Said Happy.

 "Thanks," I said, walking over to the pile to the left of the den. 

I looked to the most recent one, Volume Ninety one. 

"Apparently, today is Freedom Day..."

***TO BE CONTINUED***

Climbing Trees

I ran and ran, trying not to forget which routes I took to get to the mushroom. I couldn't stop running, knowing that with my slow-ish koala gait I could easily be caught up to. 

'Why am I always running? Running AWAY from things?' I thought. 'I cant run very well or very fast! The only way I can comfortably get around is from climbing trees…'

I got an amazing idea. Not AMAZING, actually. I admit I had just been too dumb to think of it before. I stopped and looked up to a large tree – oak, probably – quickly hopped onto the trunk and started climbing. 
   I rested at the tenth branch and let myself think of what to do next. I had climbed a tree, now how do I get home? 

   My first instinct was to just get off of it and go on the same way I came; on paw. But then that would be a waste of time. I didn't just crawl into this tree to rest!
   I remembered when I was in Appondale and witnessed a monkey try to swing from a tree to another. I knew I didn't have the agility of a monkey, but if I believed, I could probably swing to another tree just like him! Well, the monkey I saw didn't ACTUALLY swing to another tree, just another branch. But either way, it was worth a shot.

   I crawled up a little higher on the tree until another one was in reach, and then jumped as strongly as I could. I just barely reached the branch on the second tree. I crawled over to the side, but realized that if I got close enough, I could simply climb to the other tree.
  I  did this until I finally got home.