Honest John reprimands Wendy

Wendy, Skippy, and Piglet 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 vultures, who were hiding underneath some boulders and plants.

The first vulture was an Indian one with pink skin, dark gray feathers, a white collar of feathers around his neck, a pink beak with a red tip, and orange feet, wearing a purple waterproof cape and a silver helmet. His name was Trigger.

The second vulture was another Indian one with the same pink skin, dark gray feathers, a white collar of feathers around his neck, a pink beak with a red tip, and orange feet as his cousin, wearing a purple waterproof cloak with a hood attached to it. His name was Nutsy, Trigger's cousin and partner in crime.

Anyway, Trigger and Nutsy 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 queen. She was an icily beautiful woman with a serene, unfeeling face, a slender figure, pale skin, green eyes, long raven black hair, red lips, and seemingly penciled-on eyebrows, and a black octopus' lower abdomen with eight long tentacles (complete with purple suckers on the bottom), wearing a black balaclava that covers her ears, neck and hair, leaving her face exposed, a golden pendant that seems to connect with the collar, and a golden crown atop her head with 5 spikes on the front and a jewel on the tip of the middle and tallest spike. Her name was Queen Grimhilde.

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

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

"And now, look at me!" Grimhilde 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 Trigger and Nutsy, "Trigger! Nutsy!" The two vultures hit their heads on one of the boulders as Grimhilde 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 John's undoing."

Skippy and Piglet 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." John said to his niece.

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

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

John 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!" Amos yelled, popping up in front of John's face, "That's all. Completely destroyed!"

Then he waved his hands in front of Wendy 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!"

Skippy and Piglet understood if it was her uncle admonishing Wendy for her behavior but the little mouse was yelling at Wendy because his ego was hurt, and that was just wrong. So they got up in the mouse's face, as well as subsequently the gentleman fox's face.

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

"Yeah!" added Piglet. He and Skippy blushed as the gentleman fox glared at him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Um, well, first...This crocodile chased us." The little pig said nervously.

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

Piglet 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 squirrel came, and it was this is this, and that is that, and -"

John was bewildered. "Squirrel?"

"Piglet!" Skippy scolded, putting his hands on his hips and glaring at the pig. Piglet gasped and covered his mouth. Then he and Skippy hid in Wendy's hair a bit.

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

Wendy grimaced and shrugged trying to calm down her uncle while Skippy and Piglet were still hiding in her hair. "Nothing - happened." she stammered.

John threw his hands up in exasperation rolling his eyes, saying, "Oh, Wendy. 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 John, they're *not* barbarians!" Wendy frowned at her uncle's choice of words towards the creatures she loved.

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

Then John 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 Wendy turned her head away at her uncle's gesture. He was treating her like a baby! 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 12 years old;" said Wendy angrily. "I'm not a baby anymore!"

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

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

Wendy swam off, crying a bit with Skippy and Piglet following her.

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

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

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

Amos shook his head. "Oh no, Your Majesty." Then, with determined conviction, he said, "Why, if Wendy 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.'

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

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

"Wendy needs constant supervision." said John.

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

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

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

"And *YOU* are just the mouse to do it." John said, poking Dijon in the chest, and the 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?" Amos 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 Wendy, Skippy, and Piglet looking around suspiciously before quickly swimming off.

"Hmm? What is that girl up to?" asked the little mouse, 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 Wendy pulled a large stone back revealing a small cave dug into the rock.

Amos 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. Amos 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 mouse in wonder.