"Mary, how are we going to do that?! Our stuff is back at our lab!" Maggie pointed out
"Botanical Garden wouldn't mind helping us"
"That stubborn turtle doesn't listen to anyone! He rarely listen to you!"
Maggie yelped as Garden bit into her finger.
"Well, that's normal. I'm not his master, after all."
"Y-you aren't? Then who?"
"That would be me…" Marigo replied, "I let Mary borrow him so she could harvest some of the plants on his back. My guess, he bit you every time you got close to them, huh?"
Garden grew to the size of a medium sized dog. There were grass and small trees on his shell. He crawled to Marigo and rubbed his head on her. Marigo smiled and handed him an apple. He happily accepted it and ate it whole. A small tree that beared small red fruit emerged on his shell.
"So explain to me how that turtle is going to take us there without us all drowning?" Maggie asked, "He's so tiny! He can't possibly-"
Garden huffed and a vine bopped her head.
"Tiny? Yeah, you haven't seen his true form have you?" Marigo laughed, "Come, I'll show you."
She walked outside and everyone followed. They just looked at each other as Marigo picked up a watering can. She started watering Garden. He dug into the ground and tunneled somewhere.
"Great… He ran away…" Maggie crossed her arms.
"No, there just was not enough space here." Marigo smirked as she jumped into the air.
Vines emerged from the ground and pulled everyone into the ground. When they finally were pulled into the light and they could see was fruit and vegetables. They were somehow in a forest of edible plants.
"WHERE ARE WE?!" Maggie screamed
The trees are all fruit trees? Is this a forest? How did we get here?" Chizel cautiously wandered around.
"I'm in heaven! Food everywhere!" Leon cheered as he tried to pick a blueberry.
A vine smacked his hand.
"Ow! Hey..."
"Garden only shares with people he trusts." Marigo sat on a vine swing, "From what I remember he was fond of Char."
"M-me?" Char pointed to herself
"Yeah, back in the day. Your mom would make me babysit you. At one point you keep throwing the vegetables you didn't like to him. He would happily eat them and let you ride on his shell. You would sometimes sleep on his shell."
"Huh? Mom never said anything about that…"
"Course not! She would kill me if I told her that a mutant plant turtle was playing with her only child."
"So where is he?" Jazzy asked,
"Well, you're standing on a small part of his shell. Everything you are seeing, actually growing on Garden's back. His name's not Botanical Garden for nothing."
"What- That's not-" Maggie stammered.
"How big is this guy?!" Chizel's eyes sparked for a minute, "I want to explore every inch of this shell! I need to know everything about this"
"Whoa, don't get your socks in a bunch" Jazzy bopped his head.
"Come on Jazzy. Where your sense of adventure? This is pretty exciting!"
"Heh, it will take you weeks to get from his head to the tip of his tail. He is VERY big. Well, enough delay… Let's head off for Mary's lab."
Only a light thump could be heard as the "ground" shook. Everyone grabbed a hold of something stable as the gigantic turtle slowly make his way to the sea. The waves looked like ripples from the height. After a while Garden began swimming out to the deep ocean.
Char noticed that Dylan hasn't said a word for a while now. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey are you okay?" she asked.
"I… guess I don't really know…" he sighed, "It's just kind of hard to take in… I can't be the only one left… I don't want to be alone…"
"You aren't alone. You have everyone here. Just because we aren't the same, doesn't mean we can't be friends. Hey, maybe, there are humans out there. You guys seem more advanced than the Octarians. Maybe you guys went to outerspace!"
"Heh, we did… There was a couple of people who landed on the different planets."
"You guys been out there?! No way!"
"Oh, you bet! They did such interesting projects and experiments. Like growing potatoes on Mars."
"Um, what's 'Mars'?"
"It's a planet, the red one next to ours."
"What else did you humans do?" Chizel seemed very interested
"Well, we finally explored the deepest part of Marianas Trench. We found so many interesting and dangerous creatures down there."
"What Mari on as Trench?" Leon asked as he tried picking an apple
"It's the deepest part of the ocean! It goes down so deep that no light can surpass the water. The pressure is enough to crush submarines if they are not reinforced with special materials."
"That sounds amazing! It sound like an exciting expedition!" Chizel exclaimed, "So what else did you guys do?"
"We could create superconductors." Dylan responded
"What is a superconductor" Chizel inquired.
"It is a super cold material that has no electrical resistance, you can send an electrical current through it and as long as it is below below certain temperature the electricity will never stop flowing, even without as source of power. Though the material has to incredibly cold, like near absolute zero."
" So I guess it would not be very practical to use" Maggie sighed
"What other things could humans do?" Char asked
"We were able to travel through time." Dylan suggested
"WHAT?! You gotta be pulling my tentacles now! That's not possible!... Is it?" Jazzy bit her lip
"It is called time dilation, though we could only move a few femtoseconds into the future… We couldn't travel backwards. Have you Octarians ever done anything like that?"
"Uh… no…" Maggie scratched her head, "I never heard of something like that. Still as much as I would like to experiment on this subject. I don't have the necessary energy to do so."
"Energy? Like electricity?"
"Yeah, we Octarians are sometimes infused with technology to improve our health. Without electricity we are doomed to die out."
"Did you guys ever think of solar power? You know getting energy from the sun. There are actually a couple of different energy sources. Our main source of energy, be it a hazard to the earth, was burning fossil fuels."
"Burning fossil fuels? What is fossil fuel?"
"Fossil fuels are the remains of ancient animals and plants from millions of years ago that either compressed into a flammable substance called coal, turned into gases, or liquefied and became oil. But we burned all of it, causing the earth to heat up and raise the sea levels. So… if do find any fossil fuels… don't use them. Just leave them alone."
"I don't think ya have to worry about that. We have something called Zap fish" Jazzy explained, "It has been providing us with electricity forever now"
" Zap fish?"
"Yeah, for centuries Inklings have been using electricity from Zap fish to power all of our cities."
"Could you tell us more about your "solar power" and other way to make electricity?" Mary asked.
"Of course I can."
"Don't leave out any details!" Chizel took out his notebook and got closer to Dylan
Leon started to climb up the tree. He looked around, before climbing back down.
"There's some land over there…" Leon smiled, "Does this mean we are really close to Octopia?"
"Is that so?" Mary climbed up and looked around, "Oh yeah, there's your house, Maggie."
"Okay, so it is getting pretty late…" Marigo replied, "So I guess we'll have to stay here for the night. Is that alright with you Maggie?"
"That's Magenta to you! We aren't exactly buddies you know." She put her hand on her hip, "But I guess it would be fine… "
"Come on now, Maggie. She's really nice." Mary climbed down from the tree,
"Humph, whatever you say, Mary"
Garden started shaking again as the thunderous thumps made their way onto land. Vines wrapped around everyone and put them gently on the floor. Everyone looked up at Garden. They only saw a huge Garden huge tree bark like leg. They looked like ants compared to Garden. He shrunk down to about half the Inkling's size. He nudged Char's back with his nose.
"Whoa, how'd you?" She got interrupted by him chewing on her tentacle, "Hey! Stop that!"
She started running around and Garden just watched her. Cauldern's eyes dilated and chased after her. Cauldern pounced on her and picked her up by her vest.
"Hey!" Char whined
"Hahaha, sorry Char. She's a kitten at heart." Mary giggled.
"My turn!" Leon dashed past Cauldern.
Cauldern placed Char back on the floor, and chased after Leon. He ran between Dylan, Jazzy, and Chizel. They too started running for their lives.
"LEON YA DORK! WHAT WERE YA THINKIN?!" Jazzy yelled at him
"I'm sorry! I wanted to play too!" Leon grinned.
"I never agreed to this!" Chizel cried out.
Cauldern picked up Dylan by the back his shirt. She curled up with him and started grooming his hair.
"Umm, help?" Dylan tried to escape Cauldern's grasp.
"My turn! My Turn!" Leon turned into a bright blue squid and jumped up and down in front of Cauldern.
Cauldern released Dylan and caught Leon. She started grooming the back of his mantle. He squirmed around.
"It tickles!"
"Ya are such a dork!" Jazzy rolled her eyes
"Yes, he is. But he's OUR dork." Chizel smirked
"What's that supposed to mean?" Leon whined
"Don't worry about it"
"All right, come on kiddies. Let's get inside and rest for the night." Marigo followed Mary and Maggie in.
Cauldern picked up Leon by his fin and followed her master.
"Hey, wait for us!" Jazzy ran in followed by Chizel, Char and Dylan.
They looked around at the inviting living room. There was a simple layout. A coffee table that sat in front of the very comfortable couch. A large flat-screen TV was mounted on the wall in a way that everyone could get a view of the screen. There were several flower pots with fake plants in them. Maggie was picking up the clothes and crumpled paper balls. Chizel twitched a bit, but regained his composure.
"I'm sorry for the mess." She tossed the things off into her room, "I never really expected any guests."
"Your house is very pretty." Char replied, "Thank you for letting us in… Even though..."
"Look I guess… I maybe was a bit too harsh to you guys." Maggie sighed, "It's just happened between the Octarians and the Inklings…"
"I understand… I had no idea what I did… I'm sorry"
"To be honest, it wasn't anyone's fault." Mary replied, "We've just been fighting too long. Did any of you know that we used to live alongside each other?"
"Yes, I believe I read that somewhere in the library" Chizel answered, "It had been over a couple of centuries since, right?"
"Very good… You do your research, don't you."
Chizel smiled sheepishly.
"So… what's with the sudden change of heart?" Jazzy asked.
"Well, our situation has become quite dire…" Maggie admitted, "I got desperate, but then I remembered reading about an ancient civilization that wasn't powered by any Zap Fish. I thought if I could find out how they did it, I could save Octopia."
"Thanks to Dylan, I believe we have what it takes to make Octopia a better place." Mary patted him on his back, "We don't really need much from you anymore, so I thought it would be best for you to stay with Marigo in Inkopolis. It's much too dangerous for you here"
"Especially with those creeps running the city. Luckily we have cloaked our house so it looks like a normal cliff to all outsiders."
"Creeps?" Char asked
"Those rotten Octarians that serve under the tyrant Luscas…" Maggie narrowed her eyes and looked away, "They have been robbing everyone's goods and forcing others to work under Luscas."
"Look, maybe it's best to not talk about them." Mary suggested, "Let's just get a good night's rest and head out early tomorrow, okay?"
"So how are we going to do this?" Marigo asked
"Hmm, there is one extra guest room…" Maggie pointed out, "So maybe all the kids can sleep in there?"
"Sounds like a plan. Come, I'll show you the room." Mary walked down the hallway.
Everyone made their way into a dusty room. Chizel nearly flipped out.
"No, no, no! This won't do!" Chizel shoved everyone out and slammed the door
The Octolings and Marigo looked back at Char, Jazzy, and Leon. Cauldern pounced on Leon again.
"Oh, Chizel's kind of a HUGE neat freak" Jazzy explained, "He can't stand dirty. It's funny how turf war doesn't cause him to freak out, like this. Don't worry he's pretty fast."
"Heheh… Good kitty" Leon patted her paw as she groomed his tentacles tied back
"Annd done." Chizel opened the door again, and untied the bandana from his head, "This is much better"
"Whoa, it does look much better" Mary blinked, "I have never seen the floor so shiny before"
"I'll say" Maggie muttered, "Anyways, there are two bunk beds in the room. So boys on that side and girls on the other side."
"Course, it doesn't have to be that way. It's not like we'll be watching or anything" Marigo smirked and winked.
"Wait what? What if-" Mary covered Maggie's mouth
"Let's not talk about that. Good night, guys. Come Cauldern, leave him alone."
Cauldern ran to Mary and the adults left the room. Jazzy climbed up into the top bunk and Char took the bottom one. Leon took the top and Chizel and Dylan took the bottom on the other side. It wasn't long before nearly everyone fell asleep. Char was tossing and turn as she tried to go to sleep. She always had a hard time sleeping without her heated blanket. She laid on her side facing the wall. Dylan noticed her and carefully got up without waking Chizel. He made his way to Char. She jolted a bit when he hugged her from behind.
"You were cold right?" Dylan asked.
"Dylan-" Char whispered
"It's fine. I have a hard time sleeping sometimes too."
"Thanks" She moved closer to him.
The two soon fell asleep. Just like how they first met. They slept peacefully, and neither one was cold anymore.
-Author's Notes-
This Chapter is a lot longer than the others... It's the least I can do for not posting as often as I would like. School's a pain that way. So same as always, what do you think? And should I fix anything? Thanks for reading! Sorry for the delay!
Actually I just thought about it if you guys wanna play splatoon with me my nintendo ID is corolful, other games my main account is the same username. If you want to talk to me on skype its the same as my username here. Please no calling/video messages only (still a bit uncomfortable with talking with new people. Just until I can become more comfort with chatting with you. It may take a while). This way you guys can get faster replies to questions, or if you just wanna talk. Just tell me you are a reader from one of my stories when I ask who you are. Please be respectful to me or I will block and or remove your contact.
