Crane helps Viper

On shore, under his castle, Crane played the same song Viper sang to him on his clarinet, Lenny lay nearby as Crane played his clarinet. He stopped and sighed and got up off of the rock. Crane started walking around, getting Lenny's attention and causing him to get excited.

"What is it, Crane?" asked the shark.

"That voice." Crane said, "I can't get it out of my head." He turned to Lenny, saying, "I've looked everywhere, Lenny. Where could she be?"

Not far away, Viper and her friends finally managed to get her to the shore. It was exhausting, but everyone made it to the shore.

Pixie, Dixie, and Rabbit were the only ones exhausted and weary that they collasped near the rocks!

Viper started to wake up and pushed the lotuses on both sides of her head. As she did, she noticed her new tail and coils and was caught by surprise. She raised her long tail and saw it (snakes don't have arms and legs). She wagged her tail and was fascinated. She had finally gotten her wish of having a tail and being a normal snake. As she marveled at her new tail, Hiss flew overhead and landed on Viper's tail.

"Well, look at what the catfish dragged in!" he exclaimed, "Look at ya! Look at ya! There's something different. Don't tell me, I got it. It's your skin tone, right? You've been using the face creamer, right?"

Viper shook her head no, but kept smiling.

"No? No, huh?" Then Hiss thought for a moment and said, "Well let me see. New . . . seashells?"

Viper didn’t respond, but smirked at Hiss, hoping he’d find out the answer. "No new seashells."

Viper shook her tail to get Hiss to notice, and he stood on her tail, annoying Rabbit. "I gotta admit I can't put my tail on it right now," he said. "But if I just stand here long enough I know that I'll -"

"SHE'S GOT A TAIL, YOU IDIOT!" Rabbit shouted.

Finally, Hiss jumped up, seeing Viper's tail, and rose up in a flutter at the outburts.

"She traded her voice to the snake queen and got a tail." Rabbit explained, "Jeez, man . . ."

By that time, Hiss had flown and sat on a rock by the rabbit. "I knew that."

While Viper attempted to stand, Pixie and Dixie explained to Hiss what was going to happen.

"Viper's been turned into a normal snake." said Pixie.

"She's gotta make the bird fall in love with her, and he's gotta ki- he's gotta kiss her." added Dixie.

Her coils were a little wobbly. It was as if watching a baby try to stand on its own with no support for the first time.

"And she's only got three days." said Rabbit.

Viper managed to get on her tail, but quickly found herself unable to stand still. She quickly lost her balance and fell over in the water, causing a splash that got Pixie, Dixie, Rabbit, and Hiss wet and causing Hiss to have a piece of seaweed hanging off his nose. Another piece of seaweed was on top of Viper's head.

Rabbit got frantic. "Just look at her. On a tail. On a normal snake tail! My nerves are shot. This is a catastrophe! What would her uncle say? I'll tell you what her uncle'd say, he'd say he's gonna kill himself a rabbit, that's what her uncle'd say!" he complained, turning his attention to the two mice.

Other than Rabbit's frantic yelling, Viper was getting up and getting the seaweed off her head. Hearing this, she saw Rabbit starting to head into the water, and then she picked him up and shook her head frantically, trying to make him change his mind. Viper didn’t want her uncle to find out about what she just did, and, picking him up and shaking her head no are in an attempt to stop him from going to tell Kaa.

Rabbit carried on complaining. "I'm gonna march meself straight home right now and tell him just like I shoulda done de minute . . . and don't you shake your head at me, young lady." Eventually, he stopped complaining and spoke in a normal tone of voice. "Maybe there's still time. If we could get that snake queen to give you back your voice, you could go home with all the normal fish, and just be . . . just be . . ."

Rabbit's hope for Viper started fading away when he saw Viper's sad, gloomy face. Fearing that Viper would get more depressed than she was when her grotto was destroyed by Kaa's anger, Rabbit finally started to give in, saying, "Just be miserable for the rest of your life. All right, all right. I'll try to help you find that bird."

Viper smiled and kissed the rabbit before putting him down.

"Boy. What a softie I'm turning out to be." he said.

Hiss came across what appeared to be a dress that consists of a navy blue bodice which has olive, crimson, green, and orange prints on the front with copper lining, a light chartreuse short-sleeved blouse that has a purple-and-gold brooch in the middle, an apple-green sleeveless cropped gilet with teal, dark green, brown, orange, and chartreuse rosemaling on the front and back, and a teal skirt with yellow, olive, and brown sunflower prints with darker teal stalks and leaves with smaller olive, dark teal, and purple designs between each sunflower (which has a wavy looping yellow line with light teal dots above each loop, and a small dark teal leaf design on the left, middle part of the skirt (similar to the dress Anna wore on her birthday) and a pale olive-yellow petticoat. Hiss grabbed the dress and petticoat.

"Now, Viper, I'm tellin' ya," said the snake, "If you wanna be a normal snake, the first thing you gotta do is dress like one. Now lemme see."

Before that, he noticed that with Viper's mertail gone, she wasn't wearing anything from the waist down, …except her shell bra, mermaid bikini bottom, and lotuses.

Meanwhile, Crane continued trudging down the beach, unable to take the girl’s voice out of her head. But as he walked, Lenny detected a scent, one that he recognized from before. Suddenly getting excited, he tried getting Crane to follow him. "Crane, look!" cried the shark.

Crane looked stunned. "Lenny? Huh . . . what,"

Lenny just happily started swimming ahead of Crane. The bird saw his pet shark rush off. "Lenny!"

Back with Viper's friends, they managed to dress Viper up in the navy blue, olive, crimson, green, orange, copper lining, light chartreuse, purple, gold, apple-green, teal, dark green, chartreuse, yellow, brown, dark teal, and light teal dress and pale olive-yellow petticoat over her jungle green shell bra and matching mermaid bikini bottom. She was still wearing her lotuses on her head, as well. She felt giddy wearing her first normal snake clothes. Hiss gave a wolf whistle as he checked out his friend. "Ya look great, kid!" he said. "Ya look - sensational." Pixie and Dixie agreed. But Rabbit felt skeptical about the dress and petticoat.

"The snake must be this way! She's this way! Follow me!"

Suddenly, everyone heard Lenny's excited shouting nearby and looked. They spotted Lenny charging towards them. Pixie and Dixie yelped, got spooked, and hid under the shallow water.

Hiss flew off, and Rabbit, knowing that Viper would need him, rushed to the girl and hid in her dress. Viper tried getting away from Lenny. But the hyper shark kept intercepting her at every turn. Viper got on a small boulder at the beach as Lenny kissed her face.

"Lenny!" Crane called from a distance.

Lenny stopped licking Viper, turned, and ran to his master, leaving Viper to smile at the shark.

"Lenny!" Crane called before seeing his pet, and tried to calm Lenny down. "Quiet, Lenny! What's gotten into you fella?"

As Crane petted his pet, his eyes widened when he noticed Viper sitting on the boulder. "There she is!" Lenny said.

"Oh . . . Oh, I see." said Crane, as he approached the snake. Viper tried to compose herself by turning her head from one direction to the other a bit.

"Are you O.K., miss?" asked Crane, as he playfully ruffled Lenny's head. "I'm sorry if this knucklehead scared you." he said, "He's harmless, really - . . ."

Crane stopped talking and stared at Viper, but as he did, he started having a feeling. There was something familiar about her. Viper smiled very lovingly at him.

"You . . . seem very familiar . . . to me." Crane said skeptically, "Have we met?"

Viper nodded yes with a big smile on her face. "She's the one, the snake I was talking to you about earlier!" Lenny cried in excitement. He tried to lick her, but he was pushed down by Crane.

"We have met?" asked Crane, as he grasped her tail, "I knew it! You're the one - the one I've been looking for! What's your name?

Lenny turned to Viper with excitement and also started feeling joyful and curious. "Yes, what is it?" he asked. Viper tried speaking. But with her voice gone, nothing came out of her mouth.

"What's wrong?" Crane asked, "What is it?"

Viper patted on her throat and showed Crane her neck, trying to show that she couldn’t talk.

"You can't speak?"

Viper shook her head sadly. This caused Crane to feel down. "Oh." he said, "Then you couldn't be who I thought." He was sure that this girl was the one who saved him.

Lenny rolled his eyes in frustration. "Oh, brother!" Viper is his master's rescuer! Couldn't he see that?

Viper did the same thing before coming up with an idea. *I know!* Viper thought. She moved her tail and the rest of her body around as if she was trying to do pantomime or charades. Crane tried to figure out what Viper was trying to say.

"What is it?" he asked, "You're hurt? No, No . . . You need help."

Viper tried to make more body movements to communicate. But then, she lost her balance and fell off the boulder!

"Whoa, whoa, careful," said Crane, as he caught Viper in his wings. "Careful. Easy."

The two stared at each other in a shocked and awkward way.

"Gee, you must have really been through something." said the bird, "Don't worry, I'll help you. Come on . . . Come on, you'll be okay."

As Crane put Viper's coils over his shoulder, she glimpsed behind her and gave her friends a big grin. Pixie, Dixie, and Hiss smiled at her and wished her good luck. Crane guided Viper toward his castle. Slithering was very hard for someone who spent their whole life swimming! Regardless, Crane was patient and made sure Viper did not fall. Eventually, they arrived at Crane's castle.

Later in the day, Viper was introduced to the animals and people working at the castle. The first order of business was to clean Viper up and get her washed for dinner. In her tub filled with bubbles, Viper played with them, overcome by fascination.

Pouring warm water from a jug over her head was an 18-year-old Norwegian woman with strawberry-blonde hair tied in braided pigtails with a platinum blond streak and turquoise eyes, wearing a black sweetheart bodice with off-the-shoulder dark green sleeves and rose, teal, blue, and purple prints on it, a greenish-gold trim, a black satin-laced necklace with a bronze pendant of Arendelle's symbol, an olive drab pleated skirt with sashes (consisting of asparagus centers with pink, crimson, dark olive green, olive drab, and blue prints on it between cream sides) and dark green pleats, a cream-colored petticoat, matching bloomers, white stockings, and black ballet shoes. Her name was Anna, the castle maid. She was nearby, and she helped in getting Viper cleaned up.

"Washed up from a shipwreck?" gasped Anna, "Oh, the poor thing! We'll have you feeling better in no time.

Rabbit, who was hiding in Viper's dress, peeked out, but saw Anna overhead, taking the dress and petticoat and preparing to leave the room. "I'll just - I'll just get this washed for you." she said.

In another room, the dress and petticoat were put in large tub, and Jeanette Miller, Rapunzel, and Merida helped wash them. Unfortunately, Rabbit was still stuck in these clothes, and he couldn’t get out.

"Well, you must have at least heard about this, girls." Jeanette said, beginning to talk.

"No!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

Jeanette washed the dress and petticoat, causing Rabbit to feel uncomfortable with each scrub and movement, saying, "Esther says she's a princess, but since when has Esther ever gotten anything right? I mean really, this girl snake shows up in rags and doesn't speak-"

"Madame," said Rabbit. "Please!"

As this conversation went on, he was squished by a presser, along with the dress and petticoat, but he recovered immediately afterward, though he landed on the clothes in the laundry basket.

"Not my idea of a princess." said Jeanette, as she took the dress and the petticoat and hung them on a clothesline, one by one, "If Crane's looking for a girl, I know a couple of highly available ones right here."

As the clothes were hung from the clothesline, they were moved towards the nearby castle. Rabbit jumped out of the dress and landed in a room through a window. Relieved to be out of that experience, Rabbit started to get up. But as he did, he saw something absolutely horrifying: beheaded fish with sharp blades, cooked squid and octopi in a pan, and worst of all, deep-fried rabbits on a plate. This was the castle kitchen, and the sight of so many dead sea creatures was too much for Rabbit to take. He fainted in fear.