Lord Shen reprimands Kairi

Kairi, Kaa, and Baba Looey 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 a fox and a bear, who were hiding underneath some boulders and plants.

The fox was tall and slender, with red fur on his back, tail, ears, head and arms, black fur on his front and back paws, white furs on his stomach, mouth and tail's end tip, yellow eyes, sharp white teeth, and one gold tooth. His name was Foxy Loxy.

The bear was slender, but also big, burly, and bulky, with brown fur. His name was Lumpjaw, Foxy's partner in crime.

Anyway, Foxy and Lumpjaw 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 evil goddess of chaos. She was a slender, beautiful woman with light-dark blue skin, a mist built body, black phantom hair, red eyes, and a black octopus' lower abdomen with eight long tentacles (complete with purple suckers on the bottom). Her name was Eris.

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

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

"And now, look at me!" Eris 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 Foxy and Lumpjaw, "Foxy! Lumpjaw!" The fox and the bear hit their heads on one of the boulders as Eris told them, "I want you to keep an extra close watch on this pretty little niece of his." she smiled very cruelly, finishing, "She may be the key to Shen's undoing."

Kaa and Baba Looey sighed sadly and with disappointment as they anxiously listened to their friend's sentence just outside the throne room.

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

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

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

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

"Well, it was ruined!" Jim yelled, popping up in front of Shen's face, "That's all. Completely destroyed!"

Then he waved his wings in front of Kairi 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!"

Kaa and Baba Looey understood if it was her uncle admonishing Kairi for her behavior but the little crow was yelling at Kairi because his ego was hurt, and that was just wrong. So they got up in the crow's face, as well as subsequently the peacock lord's face.

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

"*¡Sí!*" He and Baba Looey blushed as the peacock lord glared at him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Um, well, first...*Este Triceratops* chased us." The little donkey said nervously.

"Yeah, that's right! Right! A triceratops!" Kaa said, "As a matter of fact it was a *big* triceratops."

Baba Looey 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 they went, "Grrrrrrrrr!" And, and we were like, "Whoooaaaaaa!" Ah! And then we were *salvamos*. But then this toon rabbit, *este conejos de dibujos animados*, came, and it was this is this, and that is that, and -"

Shen was bewildered. "Toon rabbit?"

"Baba Looey!" Kaa scolded, glaring at the donkey. Baba Looey gasped and covered his beak. Then he and Kaa hid in Kairi's hair a bit.

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

Kairi grimaced and shrugged trying to calm down her uncle while Kaa and Baba Looey were still hiding behind her. "Nothing - happened." she stammered.

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

"Uncle Shen, they're *not* barbarians!" Kairi frowned at her uncle's choice of words towards the creatures she loved.

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

Then Shen 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 niece snared by some fish-eater's hook?"

But Kairi turned her head away at her uncle's gesture. He was treating her like a child! She knew the dangerous of humans and their hooks. She went to explore shipwrecks, not fishing grounds. And did he think she was a fool?

"I'm 14 years old;" said Kairi angrily. "I'm not a child anymore!"

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

Unable to put her word in edge-wise, Kairi spoke rapidly as her uncle 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!" Shen yelled, as he turned away from her, "And I am *never*, *NEVER* to hear of you going to the surface again. Is that clear?"

Kairi swam off, crying a bit with Kaa and Baba Looey following her.

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

"Hmph! Teenagers!" Jim said, trying to console the peacock lord, "They think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you."

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

Jim shook his head. "Oh no, Your Majesty." Then, with determined conviction, he said, "Why, if Kairi was *my* niece, 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.'

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

"Of course." Jim smirked, crossing his wings.

"Kairi needs constant supervision." said Shen.

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

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

Jim crossed his wings behind his back. "All the time." he said.

"And *YOU* are just the crow to do it." Shen said, poking Jim in the chest, and the crow'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?" Jim said to himself, "I should be writing symphonies, not tagging along after some headstrong teenager."

He threw his wings up in despair and shook his head. He rounded the corner, and his self-pity quickly changed into curiosity as he saw Kairi, Kaa, and Baba Looey looking around suspiciously before quickly swimming off.

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

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

Jim 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. Jim 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 crow in wonder.