Nick helps Judy

On shore, under his castle, Nick played the same song Judy sang to him on his clarinet, Toothless lay nearby as Nick played his clarinet. He stopped and sighed and got up off of the rock. Nick started walking around, getting Toothless' attention and causing him to get excited, and making him start growling.

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

Not far away, Judy 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!

Judy started to wake up and pushed her hair out of her eyes. As she did, she noticed her new knees and tail was caught by surprise. She raised one of her legs above water and saw a paw with three toes (cartoon animal characters have four fingers). She waved her foot and was fascinated. She had finally gotten her wish of having legs and a tail and being a normal rabbit. As she marveled at her new legs, Hiss flew overhead and landed on Judy's leg.

"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 fur-hairdo, right? You've been using the dinglehopper, right?"

Judy shook her head no, but kept smiling.

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

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

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

"SHE'S GOT LEGS AND A COTTONTAIL, YOU IDIOT!" Rabbit shouted.

Finally, Hiss jumped up, seeing Judy's legs and cottontail, and rose up in a flutter at the outburts.

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

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

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

"Judy's been turned into a normal rabbit," said Pixie.

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

Her legs 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.

Judy managed to get on her feet, 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 Judy's gray fur-hair.

Rabbit got frantic. "Just look at her. On legs and a cottontail. On normal rabbit legs with a normal rabbit cottontail! 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 mice.

Other than Rabbit's frantic yelling, Judy was getting up and getting the seaweed off of her fur-hair. 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. Judy 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 Judy started fading away when he saw Judy's sad, gloomy face. Fearing that Judy 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 fox."

Judy 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 an olive green bikini top with gold yellow trimming, a matching bikini bottom attached to a dark red slip, a gold armband, and a pair of olive green open-toed shoes with gold yellow lining. Hiss grabbed the bikini, slip, armband, and shoes.

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

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

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

Nick looked stunned. "Toothless? Huh . . . what,"

Toothless just happily started running ahead of Nick. The fox saw his pet dragon rush off. "Toothless!"

Back with Judy's friends, they managed to dress Judy up in the olive green and gold yellow bikini, dark red slip, gold armband, and olive green and gold yellow shoes over her lavender shell bra and green mermaid bikini bottom. She felt giddy wearing her first normal rabbit 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 bikini, slip, armband, and shoes.

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

Hiss flew off, and Rabbit, knowing that Judy would need him, rushed to the girl and hid in her olive green bikini bottom. Judy tried getting away from Toothless. But the hyper dragon kept intercepting her at every turn. Judy got on a small boulder at the beach as Toothless kissed her face.

"Toothless!" Nick called from a distance.

Toothless stopped licking Judy, turned, and ran to his master, leaving Judy to smile at the dragon.

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

As Nick petted his pet, his eyes widened when he noticed Judy sitting on the boulder.

"Oh . . . Oh, I see." said Nick, as he approached the female rabbit. Judy tried to compose herself by moving her ears out of her eyes.

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

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

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

Judy nodded yes with a big smile on her face. Toothless tried to lick her, but he was pushed down by Nick.

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

Toothless turned to Judy with excitement and also started feeling joyful and curious. Judy tried speaking. But with her voice gone, nothing came out of her mouth.

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

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

"You can't speak?"

Judy shook her head sadly. This caused Nick 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.

Toothless snorted in frustration. Judy is his master's rescuer! Couldn't he see that?

Judy did the same thing before coming up with an idea. *I know!* Judy thought. She moved her arms and hands around as if she was trying to do pantomime or charades. Nick tried to figure out what Judy was trying to say.

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

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

"Whoa, whoa, careful," said Nick, as he caught Judy in his arms. "Careful. Easy."

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

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

As Nick put Judy's arm 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. Nick guided Judy toward his castle. Walking was very hard for someone who spent their whole life swimming! Regardless, Nick was patient and made sure Judy did not fall. Eventually, they arrived at Nick's castle.

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

Pouring warm water from a jug over her head was a female duck with white feathers, an orange beak, legs, and feet, and short, gray hair tied up in a bun, wearing a pair of spectacles, a purple long-sleeved dress with a frilly, lavender collar, a white apron, matching frilly, ankle-length bloomers, lavender stockings, and purple high-heeled shoes. Her name was Mrs. Beakley, the castle maid. She was nearby, and she helped in getting Judy cleaned up.

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

Rabbit, who was hiding in Judy's bikini and slip, peeked out, but saw Mrs. Beakley overhead, taking the bikini and slip and preparing to leave the room. "I'll just - I'll just get these washed for you." she said.

In another room, the bikini and slip were put in large tub, and Becky Thatcher, Amy Lawrence, and Jenny McBride 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." Becky said, beginning to talk.

"No!" Amy exclaimed.

Becky washed the bikini and slip, causing Rabbit to feel uncomfortable with each scrub and movement, saying, "Mabel says she's a princess, but since when has Mabel ever gotten anything right? I mean really, this girl rabbit 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 bikini and sash, but he recovered immediately afterward, though he landed on the clothes in the laundry basket.

"Not my idea of a princess." said Becky, as she took the sash and the bikini and hung them on a clothesline, one by one, "If Nick'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 bikini bottom 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.