Hiram reprimands Olivia

Olivia and Pudge swam as fast as they could, hoping that they didn't miss the concert. (Although we know that they already had). Unbeknownst to them, they were being spied by two bats, who were hiding underneath some boulders and plants.

One of them was a purplish-gray bat with lavender skin, a cherry-red nose, white teeth, and pink ear innards and eyes. His name is Batso the Bat.

The other one was a dark gray bat with yellow eyes, a pug nose, thin black eyebrows, sharp white fangs, a peg leg in place of his right foot, a notch in his right ear, and a broken wing, wearing dark blue swimming trunks and a gray flipper on his left foot. His name is Fidget the Bat.

Anyway, Batso and Fidget had magical eyes that are connected to a magical crystal ball, which is located in a big, dark and creepy cave. In that big, dark, and creepy cave, lived an octopus. She was a slender purple rubber octopus toy with sticky suckers on her 8 tentacles and glitter all over her body. Her name was Stretch the Toy Octopus.

"Yeeeeeees, hurry home, princess," said Stretch, as she watched her crystal ball. "We wouldn't want to miss old daddy's celebration, now, would we? Huh! Celebration indeed. Oh, bah! In *my* day, we had fantastical feasts when I lived in the palace."

Stretch took a scared shrimp from her shell and ate it very loudly.

"And now, look at me!" Stretch said gloomily, "Wasted away to practically nothing! Banished, and exiled, and practically starving! While he and his flimsy fish-folk celebrate." She swam a little in the room and looked at her reflection in the mirror, then at her crystal ball again. "Well, I'll give 'em something to celebrate soon enough."

She called to Batso and Fidget, "Batso! Fidget!" The two bats hit their heads on one of the boulders as Stretch told them, "I want you to keep an extra close watch on this pretty little daughter of his." she smiled very cruelly, finishing, "She may be the key to Flaversham's undoing."

Pudge sighed sadly and with disappointment as he anxiously listened to his friend's sentence just outside the throne room.

"I just don't know what we're going to do with you, young lady." Hiram said to his daughter.

Olivia shifted, head down hands behind her back, she really was sorry she had missed the concert. "Daddy, I'm sorry," she said, "I just forgot, I -"

Hiram cut her off. "As a result of your careless behavior,-" he said, waving a hand. But Timothy, in turn, interrupted the king from behind his crown, shouting, "Careless *and* reckless behavior!"

Hiram was angry, but he still loved his daughter. And he didn't want to seem to harsh, and he called out, "The entire celebration was-"

"Well, it was ruined!" Timothy yelled, popping out from Hiram's mustache, "That's all. Completely destroyed!"

Then he waved his hands in front of Olivia as he sighed, "This concert was to be the pinnacle of my distinguished career. Now thanks to you I am the laughing stock of the entire kingdom!"

Pudge understood if it was her father admonishing Olivia for her behavior but the little circus mouse was yelling at Olivia because his ego was hurt, and that was just wrong. So he got up in the circus mouse's face, as well as subsequently the toymaker mouse's face.

"But it wasn't her fault!" Pudge protested.

He blushed as the toymaker mouse glared at him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Um, well, first...This Gyrados chased us." The little penguin said nervously, "Yeah, yeah."

Pudge stuttered at a loss for the right words, but he quickly got caught up in his improvement story telling, saying, "And we tried to, but we couldn't, and he went, "Grrrrrrrrr!" And, and we were like, "Whoooaaaaaa!" Ah! And then we were safe. But then this cat came, and it was this is this, and that is that, and -"

Hiram was bewildered. "Cat?"

Pudge gasped and covered his beak. Then he hid behind Olivia a bit.

Hiram stood up. His amused face at the penguin's stuttering story quickly changed to one of anger. "What? Oh! You went up to the surface again, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?"

Olivia grimaced and shrugged trying to calm down her father while Pudge was still hiding behind her. "Nothing - happened." she stammered.

Hiram threw his hands up in exasperation rolling his eyes, saying, "Oh, Olivia. How many times must we go through this? You could've been seen by one of those barbarians. By...by one of those *normal mice*!"

"Daddy, they're *not* barbarians!" Olivia frowned at her father's choice of words towards the creatures she loved.

"They're dangerous!" said Hiram, glaring right back at his daughter. She hadn't seen the things Hiram had. She hadn't seen the nets or the fishing grounds that killed hundreds of innocent fish every day. Hiram was the king of the sea. And everything in it was his to watch and care for didn't she understand that?

Then Hiram tilted up her chin so maybe she might see the sad truth in his eyes, saying, "Do you think I want to see *my* youngest daughter snared by some Crash-eater's hook?"

But Olivia turned her head away at her father's gesture. He was treating her like an infant! She knew the dangerous of normal animals, especially mice, and their hooks. She went to explore shipwrecks, not fishing grounds. And did he think she was a fool?

"I'm 5 years old;" said Olivia angrily. "I'm not a baby anymore!"

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady." Hiram shouted, pointing his finger at his daughter.

Unable to put her word in edge-wise, Olivia spoke rapidly as her father paused, desperate to get him to understand, explaining, "Well,-"

"As long as you live under my ocean,-"

"Well,-"

"You'll obey my rules!"

"But if you would just listen!" she protested.

"Not another word!" Hiram yelled, as he turned away from her, "And I am *never*, *NEVER* to hear of you going to the surface again. Is that clear?"

Olivia swam off, crying a bit with Pudge following her.

Hiram slumped back on his throne, the anger he had felt early quickly disappeared as he watched his daughter flee the throne room crying.

"Hmph! Kids!" Timothy said, trying to console the toymaker mouse, "They think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you."

Hiram lifted his head off his hand and looked hesitantly over at the circus mouse. "Do you...think I...I was too hard on her?" he asked.

Timothy shook his head. "Definitely not." Then, with determined conviction, he said, "Why, if Olivia was *my* daughter, I'd show her who was boss. None of this "flitting to the surface" and other such nonsense. No, sir! I'd keep her under tight control.'

Hiram straightened up, and you could practically see the light bulb over his head. "You're absolutely right, Timothy!" he exclaimed.

"Of course." Timothy smirked, crossing his arms.

"Olivia needs constant supervision." said Hiram.

"Constant supervision." Timothy repeated, nodding in consent.

"Someone to watch over her." Hiram said, "To keep her out of trouble."

Timothy crossed his arms behind his back. "All the time." he said.

"And *YOU* are just the circus mouse to do it." Hiram said, poking Timothy in the chest, and the circus mouse's face fell. He gasped then swam away.

He grudgingly accepted his charge and the king dismissed him.

"How do I get myself into these situations?" Timothy said to himself, "I should be writing symphonies, not tagging along after some headstrong kid."

He threw his hands up in despair and shook his head. He rounded the corner, and his self-pity quickly changed into curiosity as he saw Olivia and Pudge looking around suspiciously before quickly swimming off.

"Hmm? What is that girl up to?" asked the little circus mouse, as he struggled to follow the two of them, collapsing on a rock and panting heavily when they finally reached their destination that was far away from the busy city.

The two looked around again before Olivia pulled a large stone back revealing a small cave dug into the rock.

Timothy hopped up and scurried quickly to follow them, barely making it through the door as the rock slid back into place over his tail.

He gasped, trying to free himself as quietly as possible. Pulling on a small plant growing in the sand he managed to pull himself out from under the rock, his momentum sending him flying where he came to a stop, hitting a strange object.

It was an hourglass. Timothy groaned and rubbed his head. Before he gasped, the pain was quickly forgotten as he gazed at the cave that lay before him. "Huh?" gasped the circus mouse in wonder.