The Rat and the Bat

"The Rat and the Bat!" Louis said, jabbing his friend with his elbow. The high-pitched honk was emitted from Ray once again before it was Ray's turn to speak up.

"Or, the story of the curious oysters!" Ray added, before jabbing his friend with his elbow and making him let out the low-pitched honk. The gator and firefly then began to dance, making the honking noises again in the process. Louis was the first to sing.

Louis: *The sun was shining on the sea*
*Shining with all his might*

Ray was the next to sing before his face morphed into the sun.

Ray: *He did his very best to make*
*The billows smooth and bright*

Once Louis' face had changed into the moon, he sung out the next line.

Louis: *And this was odd because it was*

Now both the gator and the firefly sung out why the scene involving the sun was quite odd in their story.

Louis and Ray: *The middle of the night*

Then the gator and firefly's faces faded away, revealing a beach and the times of day and night that were split in half. Two figures emerged from behind a stone on the night side of the beach as they were walking side by side into the day side.

The first figure was a slender, yet muscular, pink rat with yellow eyes, black hair, a rose nose and ear innards, a long, pink tail, shark fangs, and sharp claws, wearing a black top hat with a gold ribbon, a white shirt, a lavender cravat with salmon pink stripes, a black coat, matching pants, and shoes, and white opera gloves. He was also twirling a long black cane in his right hand. His name was Professor Ratigan.

The second figure 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 a black cap, sleeveless dark blue sweater, black pants, and a gray shoe on his left foot. His name was Fidget, Ratigan's sidekick.

Louis: *The Rat and the Bat*
*Were walking close at hand*

Ray: *The beach was wide from side to side*
*But much too full of sand*

As the two were walking, Fidget's left foot sank into the sand, and he yanked it out, only to discover that his shoe was full of sand. He then pulled off his shoe and hammered the sole before a huge pile of sand, shells, and starfish came out of it.

"Mr. Ratigan!" Fidget said, as Ray had just said. "My brain begins to perk! We'll sweep this clear in half a year, if you don't mind the work!"

"Work!?" Ratigan exclaimed in shock, nearly dropping his cane on the sand. He cleared his throat and lifted a finger up in the air, as he held his cane in his right hand.

"The time has come to talk of other things," he said, as described by Ray. "Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Ratigan then skipped around Fidget and swiped his hammer, much to the peg-legged bat's befuddlement.

"Calloo-Callay, no work today! We're cabbages and kings!"

With Fidget's hammer, Ratigan pulled Fidget out of the sand, sending him toward a rock near the ocean. Fidget's head splashed into the water as his hammer landed right next to him, and he opened his eyes to see an old female oyster and her sleeping babies with a hungry expression on his face. That frightened the old oyster and her little ones, causing them to hide in their large green and small violet shells altogether. Once he dipped his head out, Fidget whistled loud enough to grab Ratigan's attention and pointed to the ocean. He even licked his lips hungrily as he rubbed his slender stomach. It had indicated that he had found food for them.

Ratigan, also licking his lips in hunger, frantically ran across the sand before stopping to see Fidget trying to get in the water with his hammer on hand. He yanked the bat by the neck with his cane and placed him back on the stone, giving him a bonk on the head with it and wagging his finger back and forth. Then, Ratigan walked into the ocean as he twirled his cane and stopped in front of the shells. The baby oysters took a quick peek, before closing up their shells again. Ratigan's cane tapped two times each of the first two oyster shells, and Ratigan lifted his hat up to show respect to the old oyster and her precious younger ones.

"Ohh, uhh, Oysters," he said to them. "Come and walk with us. The day is warm and bright. A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk would be a sheer delight."

Ratigan's offer of a walk on the sunny beach made the baby oysters open up their shells again and had happy smiles on their faces. Just then, Fidget submerged his head back into the water and added, "Yes, and should we get hungry on the way. We'll stop and, uh, have a bite."

That irked Ratigan and made him hit Fidget on the head many times with his cane, even though the two were underwater. He didn’t want their grand plan to backfire on them all because of Fidget's foolish mistake.

But Mother Oyster winked an eye and shook her head sadly as she glanced at a calendar hanging right next to her. It had the month of March with the thirty-one days shown to Ratigan and the ditzy Fidget. She knew that this was no time for her to abandon her beautiful green shell and her lovable oysters from the deep blue sea they had called home, as Louis had narrated to Minnie.

"The sea is nice. Take my advice, and stay right here." she said to her little ones, as Ray had added to the narration of their story.

Ratigan was unamused by what Mother Oyster had just answered, and he rose up from a stone he had sat on a moment ago.

"Yes, yes, of course, of course!" he said, "But, uhh...Aha!"

Ratigan shut Mother Oyster's green shell with his cane, thus not taking her advice. He was now ready to lure the baby oysters out of the ocean...with a pleasant song, of course.

Ratigan: *The time has come, my little friends*
*To talk of other things*
*Of shoes and ships and sealing wax*
*Cabbages and kings*
*And why the sea is boiling hot*
*And whether pigs have wings, ha ha*

A pinch on the cheek from Ratigan made one little oyster blush and giggle, with the other smiling at it.

Ratigan: *Calloo-Callay*
*Come, run away*
*With cabbages and kings!*

After Ratigan sang these three lines, he held his cane like a flute and started playing it. The little oysters heard the whistling tune and joyously followed him in a single file line, as they had hopped out of their beds. The song had also lured some fish in the ocean, though they chose to stay there afterward.

While Ratigan had returned to shore with the little oysters still in line, Fidget was gathering ship debris that had been abandoned on the sandy shores and considered using them to build a seafood restaurant for them. The little oysters were skipping merrily on the sand as they were still close behind Ratigan, who was still using the cane as a flute to keep them close to him. Fidget built the seafood restaurant out of the ship debris at a very rapid speed, just in time to let himself, Ratigan, and the little oysters inside. A slate-colored sign in the shape of a fish had the words "Fish Dinners" written in purple as it was hanging above the door.

Once everyone was inside the restaurant, Ratigan tied a napkin around his neck as he and the little oysters were sitting at a picnic table that had a white-and-red-striped tablecloth on it.

"Well now, uhhh...let me see," he said, just as Fidget took a seat and held up a knife and fork with a hungry expression on his face. Ratigan had something else in mind for Fidget, so he said to him, "Ah, a loaf of bread is what we chiefly need!"

Giving him a wink of approval, Fidget dashed out of the table and into the back room, which was a kitchen for him to make the food. Ratigan had a greedy smile on his face as he held two of the baby oysters in his right hand, only to see Fidget open the two doors and say, "Listen, how 'bout some pepper and salt and vinegar, eh?"

"Well, yes, yes, splendid idea!" Ratigan said to him with a hearty laugh, after he frantically placed the oysters down and picked up a menu, "Very good indeed."

Once Fidget went back into the kitchen, Ratigan placed the menu back on the table and said to the oysters, "Now, if you’re ready, dear Oysters, we can begin the feed!"

"Feed??!" the oysters repeated in a worried unison.

"Ohhh, yes," Ratigan said, picking up the oysters and holding them close to him. "The time has come, my little friends, to talk of food and things."

Meanwhile, Fidget was whipping up a special sauce for Ratigan to dip the oysters in and slicing a whole loaf of bread with a saw, as he sang a short little tune.

Fidget: *Of peppercorns and mustard seeds*
*And other seasonings*
*We'll mix 'em all together*
*In a sauce that's fit for kings*
*Calloo-Callay*
*We'll eat today*
*Like cabbages and kings*

With a bottle of vinegar on his head and holding a tray, the bread, and the sauce with his right hand, Fidget whistled as he merrily approached the table and placed the tray onto it.

"I...I weep for you, I..." Ratigan said, as he was weeping and wiping the tears away with his blue handkerchief before hiccuping a bit. "Ohh, excuse me. I deeply sympathize, for I've enjoyed your company, oh, much more than you realize."

Little did Fidget know that Ratigan was full, as he had eaten more than a bite while he was gone.

"Little Oysters? Little Oysters?" Fidget said, holding up the knife and fork he had earlier with a hungry look on his face. He, too, had a napkin tied around his neck as he was sitting at the table with an empty place in front of him.

"But answer there came none." Louis narrated.

Fidget crawled onto the table and peeked from behind the menu. His eyes suddenly widened in shock, his jaw dropped down, and his cap popped off of his head in reaction to the discovery: every one of the oysters had been eaten by Ratigan!

Ray narrated, "And this was scarcely odd because..."

"They'd been eaten! Every one!" Louis and Ray concluded.

Ratigan was sweating apprehensively as he slowly tiptoed and grabbed his cane, letting out a short, nervous laugh. However, Fidget's face was turning red as he was glaring at Ratigan with his hammer out, as he wanted to seek revenge on him for eating all of the oysters before he had the chance to try at least one.

"The time has come!" Ratigan exclaimed, as he darted through the door at a rapid pace. The furious Fidget chased right behind him, swinging his hammer in an attempt to hit Ratigan as the two were running down the sandy beach. Once the rat and the bat had disappeared into the night, the sun and the moon reappeared with the faces of Louis and Ray as they smiled. Then they sang the very last line.

Louis and Ray: *With cabbages and kings!*

The gator and the firefly landed on the grassy terrain with their honking noises once the story was over, and they stood up with their index fingers pointing upward.

"The end!" they said in unison with big smiles on their faces.

Minnie, who had been sitting on the log the whole time she was listening to the story, had a smile of content on her face in response to their melancholic yet wonderful tale. "That was a very sad story."

"Eh, and there's a moral to it." said Ray.

Minnie nodded her head in agreement and replied to him, "Oh, yes, there's a very good moral, indeed. If you happen to be an oyster."

She then rose up from the log, as she knew that she was supposed to be finding Kaa and discover what he was late for: a tea party or the royal croquet party.

"Well, it's been a nice time I had with you two." she said, only to be placed back down on the log by the gator and firefly.

"There's another recitation we wish to share with you!" Louis said to Minnie.

Minnie started to say something, "I'm sorry, but—"

"It’s entitled Old Father William!" But she was interrupted by Louis, who mentioned the title of their next story to her.

"No, really, I—"

"First verse!" Louis chirped merrily, interrupting Minnie again. As he started to sing, Ray took a cane and started to act like an elderly old man, his body quivering and walking slowly like a turtle.

Louis: *"You are old, Father William," the young man said,*
*"And your hair has become very white*
*And yet you incessantly stand on your head*
*Do you think, at your age, it is right, is right?*
*Do you think, at your age, it is right?"*

As the gator and firefly continued singing their song (and performing headstands in the process), Minnie got onto the other side of the log and rose up from there before leaving them behind in the lush green forest. Now she was finally on her way to find Kaa, as she had been delayed for quite a while by Louis and Ray's zany dances and their story she had just listened to.

*My number one priority is catching the Indian python and knowing what he is so tardy for,* she thought to herself as she kept walking through the woods, *Nothing can stop me from succeeding in my quest, no matter what happens in this weird world I’m in. That includes the bizarre moments of growing and shrinking I have went through before.*