Gil helps Susan

On shore, under his castle, Gil played the same song Susan sang to him on his clarinet, Angus lay nearby as Gil played his clarinet. He stopped and sighed and got up off of the rock. Gil started walking around, getting Angus' attention, causing him to get excited, and making him neigh happily.

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

Not far away, Susan and her friends finally managed to get her to the shore. It was exhausting, but everyone made it to the shore.

Lumpy, Roo, and Gene were the only ones exhausted and weary that they collasped near the rocks!

Susan started to wake up and pushed the strands of her hair out of her eyes. As she did, she noticed her new knees and was caught by surprise. She raised one of her legs above water and saw a foot and four toes (in cartoons, human beings have four fingers on their hands). She wiggled her toes and was fascinated. She had finally gotten her wish of having legs and being a human. As she marveled at her new legs, John flew overhead and landed on Susan'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 hairdo, right? You've been using the dinglehopper, right?"

Susan shook her head no, but kept smiling.

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

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

Susan shook her leg to get John to notice, and he stood on her leg, annoying Gene. "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, YOU IDIOT!" Gene shouted.

Finally, John jumped up, seeing Susan's legs, and rose up in a flutter at the outburts.

"She traded her voice to the evil secretary and got legs." Gene explained, "Jeez, man . . ."

By that time, John had flown and sat on a rock by the duck genie. "I knew that."

While Susan attempted to stand, Lumpy and Roo explained to John what was going to happen.

"Susan's been turned into a human." said Lumpy.

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

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 Gene.

Susan 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 Lumpy, Roo, Gene, and John wet and causing John to have a piece of seaweed hanging off his nose. Another piece of seaweed was on top of Susan's red hair.

Gene got frantic. "Just look at her. On legs. On human legs! My nerves are shot. This is a catastrophe! What would her father say? I'll tell you what her father'd say, he'd say he's gonna kill himself a duck genie, that's what her father'd say!" he complained, turning his attention to the heffalump and kangaroo joey.

Other than Gene's frantic yelling, Susan was getting up and getting the seaweed out of her hair. Hearing this, she saw Gene starting to head into the water, and then she picked him up and shook her head frantically, trying to make him change his mind. Susan didn't want her father 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 Horace.

Gene 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 secretary to give you back your voice, you could go home with all the normal fish, and just be . . . just be . . ."

Gene's hope for Susan started fading away when he saw Susan's sad, gloomy face. Fearing that Susan would get more depressed than she was when her grotto was destroyed by Horace's anger, Gene 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 high schooler."

Susan smiled and kissed the duck genie before putting him down.

"Boy. What a softie I'm turning out to be." he said.

John came across what appeared to be a light green sleeveless dress that stops above her knees (similar to Tinker Bell's dress) and a pair of matching ballet slippers with white cotton balls on them. John grabbed the dress and slippers.

"Now, Susan, I'm tellin' ya," said the fox, "If you wanna be a human, the first thing you gotta do is dress like one. Now lemme see."

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

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

Gil looked stunned. "Angus? Huh . . . what,"

Angus just happily started running ahead of Gil. The high schooler saw his pet horse rush off. "Angus!"

Back with Susan's friends, they managed to dress Susan up in the green dress and matching ballet slippers over her black shell bra and matching mermaid bikini bottom. She was still wearing her star barrette and square glasses, as well. She felt giddy wearing her first human clothes. John gave a wolf whistle as he checked out his friend. "Ya look great, kid!" he said. "Ya look - sensational." Lumpy and Roo agreed, but Gene felt skeptical about the outfit.

Suddenly, everyone heard Angus' excited neighing nearby and looked. They spotted Angus charging towards them. Lumpy and Roo yelped, got spooked, and hid under the shallow water.

John flew off, and Gene, knowing that Susan would need him, rushed to the girl and hid in her dress. Susan tried getting away from Angus. But the hyper horse kept intercepting her at every turn. Susan got on a small boulder at the beach as Angus kissed her face.

"Angus!" Gil called from a distance.

Angus stopped licking Susan, turned, and ran to his master, leaving Susan to smile at the horse.

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

As Gil petted his pet, his eyes widened when he noticed Susan sitting on the boulder. Angus neighed.

"Oh . . . Oh, I see." said Gil, as he approached the girl. Susan tried to compose herself by moving her hair out of her face.

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

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

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

Susan nodded yes with a big smile on her face. Angus whinnied in excitement. He tried to lick her, but he was pushed down by Gil.

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

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

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

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

"You can't speak?"

Susan shook her head sadly. This caused Gil 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.

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

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

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

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

"Whoa, whoa, careful," said Gil, as he caught Susan 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 high schooler, "Don't worry, I'll help you. Come on . . . Come on, you'll be okay."

As Gil put Susan's arm over his shoulder, she glimpsed behind her and gave her friends a big grin. Lumpy, Roo, and John smiled at her and wished her good luck. Gil guided Susan toward his castle. Walking was very hard for someone who spent their whole life swimming! Regardless, Gil was patient and made sure Susan did not fall. Eventually, they arrived at Gil's castle.

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

Pouring warm water from a jug over her head was a 16-year-old Scottish princess with light freckles, a round face, rosy cheeks, pink lips, long curly red hair, and blue eyes, wearing a Phthalo dark teal cotton Medieval-style off-the-shoulder dress with long arms, gold trimming and beadings, and floor-length skirt, and taupe boots. Her name was Merida, the castle maid. She was nearby, and she helped in getting Susan cleaned up.

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

Gene, who was hiding in Susan's dress, peeked out, but saw Merida overhead, taking the dress and preparing to leave the room. "I'll just - I'll just get this washed for you." she said.

In another room, the dress was put in large tub, and Sibella, Mavis, and Draculaura helped wash them. Unfortunately, Gene was still stuck in the dress, and he couldn’t get out.

"Well, you must have at least heard about this, girls." Sibella said, beginning to talk.

"No!" Mavis exclaimed.

Sibella washed the dress, causing Gene to feel uncomfortable with each scrub and movement, saying, "Frances says she's a princess, but since when has Frances ever gotten anything right? I mean really, this girl shows up in rags and doesn't speak-"

"Madame," said Gene. "Please!"

As this conversation went on, he was squished by a presser, along with the dress, but he recovered immediately afterward, though he landed on the clothes in the laundry basket.

"Not my idea of a princess." said Sibella, as she took the dress and hung it on a clothesline, "If Gil'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. Gene jumped out of the dress and landed in a room through a window. Relieved to be out of that experience, Gene 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, real deep-fried ducks on a plate. This was the castle kitchen, and the sight of so many dead sea creatures was too much for Gene to take. He fainted in fear.