Peso Inspected his new patient in the Gup-W. The gup was currently based by the side of an african river, helping any injured or sick animals that pass by or ones that has been brought to him by the other octonauts that had fanned out to find any other fish in need of aid.
One of these fish that had been brought to him was an eel looking creature, with four tentacle-like appendages and a finned tail.
"Hello there," Peso said, looking at his patient ,"what creature might you be?"
"I am Lungfish." the Lungfish said in a toddler like voice ,"I lungfish nameded Larry."
(once again i can't input images so just imagine or look it up)
"Ok," Peso replied, "what seems to be the problem?"
"My fin hurt," Larry said.
Peso looked closely at the lungfish's thin tentacle-like fins and noticed that one of them had a pink tinge. A tell tale sign that that area had been hurt and needs to be bandaged.
"Looks like you need a bandage," Peso said, he opened his medical bag and took out a bandage and wrapped the fish's fin in it.
"Thank you," the lungfish said, "it feel more better ."
"You're welcome," Peso said, picking up the fish and placing it into the recovery tank, "next patient!"
Kwazii and the captain walked into the Gup-W carrying a huge fish that looked very sick. They plonked it into the tank in front of peso. It was a large catfish that had a sickly looking green tinge to its face.
"What happened to you?" Peso asked
"I feel sick," the fish groaned, "and I don't like it."
Peso gave the fish a quick check up, checking inside its mouth, having the fish explain how it feels and inspecting the fins.
"I diagnose you with Mcguffinitis, it makes freshwater fish very sick. Luckily I have the cure to it, I just need to remember where I put it."
Peso walked over to the cabinets on the other side of his medical room (IDK what to call it. Maybe a clinic?) and started opening draws. He opened and shut five before finding a small plastic jar full of standard looking white pills.
"Two of these pills should do the trick," he said, walking back over the sick fish."
Peso tried to twist the top off the jar but it was stuck fast.
"Let me try," Kwazii yelled, snatching the pot out of Peso's flippers, "there's nothing a little pirate swashbuckling can't handle!"
Kwazii tried to yank the top of the medicine pot but to no avail. Kwazii slumped and wordlessly handed the jar over to Captain Barnacles. The captain twisted the lid with all his strength, cracking the plastic with the force of it but still the lid did not budge.
Suddenly the pot slipped out of the captain's fury hands, flying across the gup.
"I've got it!" Kwazii yelled, leaping for the jar and missing it entirely, basically just belly flopping onto the floor."
"After that jar!" the Captain ordered.
Peso and Barnacles turned and ran after the pot of medicine which was bouncing at speed towards the river. They both leapt for the jar at the same time but they collided mid air, allowing the medicine to bounce into the river and get swept away.
"Uh oh," the captain said ,"looks like it's time to sound the Octo alert!"
Captain Barnacles pulled the Octo-Compass out his pocket and pressed the Octo alert button.
"Octonauts, to the Gup-W!"
(Cue Octo-Alert Sequence)
"Octonauts, we have a problem," the captain announced, "there is a very ill catfish in the sickbay and the only cure for its disease in a pot of special medicine that is currently being swept downstream. We need to find that medicine fast before it's too late.
Dashi, are you able to show us where the river leads?"
"Aye Aye captain," Dashi replied and then entered some commands into an electronic interface and and making a map of the area flicker onto one of the screens in the gup ," the river lead all the way down to a large african swamp. That's where I'd recommend you search."
"But that place is massive!" Kwazii pointed out, "it would take months to find that pot."
"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" Shelington squealed, raising his hand like an excited schoolboy.
"Yes Shelington?" the captain said
"I have something that might help," he yelled, walking over to the fish recovery tanks and picking up the lungfish, "this little fella is a master of survival, they've been around for hundreds of millions of years and survived four mass extinctions. I'm sure he can help you in your search."
Kwazii looked uncertainly at the fish, with it's odd appearance and a look in its eyes that indicated a lack of anything behind them.
"I'm not so sure about that matey," Kwazii said ,"that fish doesn't look like the swashbuckling type."
"Well what's the harm in bringing him along anyway," Shelington reasoned ,"just put him in a fish pack and take him with you. Pleeeeeeaaaaaas?"
"Oh alright," Kwazii caved in, "we'll bring the fish."
Kwazii and Peso were both crammed into the Gup-B as it shot down the river. The Gup-B wasn't meant for more than one passenger so Kwazi was struggling to drive and see with Peso squishing him against the wall and obstructing his view.
"Could you try and keep you're flipper out the way matey," Kwazii asked ,"i can't see a thing."
"Well at least you got the chair,"Peso replied ,"I'm squashed against the ceiling."
"True, but I still need to drive," Kwazii rebuked ,"and if I can't see while I'm driving,we'll both end up wedged in the riverbed."
Despite the penguin obstructions, Kwazii managed to safely manoeuvre the gup through the river. The river opened up into a large expanse of swamp. The water stretched for miles with lush vegetation growing throughout. And somewhere in amongst it all was the pot of medicine. Kwazi got out the gup then reached up and turned on his radio.
"Ok," he said ,"we've arrived, now where's the thingymabob?"
"You have to find it," Dashi said, "we don't have a tracker on everything we own." (although some episodes make me think they do)
"So how the heck am I meant to get the medicine," Kwazii exclaimed, "this place is huge."
"I guess we should start looking then" Peso suggested.
Just as Kwazii was about to end the call Shelington's voice came through yelling "WAIT WAIT!"
"Don't forget about the lungfish," the scientist reminded.
"Yea yea yea," Kwazii replied dismissively and then switched off the radio.
Kwazii and Peso began to search through the wetland to try and find the bottle of medicine but it was hopeless. They searched under every rock, and checked in every patch of reeds but this method had its drawbacks as after an hour they had only gotten about 5 metres from the gup-B.
After rummaging about in some vegetation, Kwazii felt the lungfish bumping its head against the glass as if trying to get out.
"Oh what the heck," Kwazii said, pressing the button on the side of the fishpack, releasing the Lungfish into the water ,"What's the worst that could happen."
The fish swam about a bit and shook its head about as if waking up.
"I see you have finally called on the survival expert," the Lungfish said, now with a rugged african accent.
"Have i?" Kwazii said, slightly baffled by the fish.
"Well you released me did you not?" the fish replied, "now what is it that you endeavour to do in this swamp."
"We're looking for some medicine," Peso answered, swimming over to Kwazii, "could you help us find it."
"That can be arranged," Larry said, "though we lungfish are almost blind, we have an excellent sense of smell."
The lungfish began to sniff the water and listing of what he smelt
"Strange cat, mud, plant, mud, weird bird, fish, can, shugar, catfish, m..."
"Wait!" Peso exclaimed, "what did you just say."
"Sugar?" the fish replied quizzically, "i though we were looking for medicine."
"The pills are sugar coated to make them taste better," peso explained,"But you shouldn't be able to smell anything, those pills are in an air and water tight jar."
"The captain cracked it remember," Kwazii reminded, "there must be a leak for the smell to escape from."
"Do you think the medicine will be viable?" the fish asked.
"Yes," peso confirmed," they're made to last, even under water, we still have a few hours to find them before they disintegrate."
"Well then," the fish said, "times a waisting."
The fish swam off into the murky water and vegetation. Before the octonauts could even process what had happened, the fish was gone. After a few seconds it poked its head out from behind some reeds and rolled its eyes.
"Well come on then," the fish urged ,"try and keep up."
The octonauts struggled to keep up with the fish. Though it didn't swim particularly fast, the water was murky and the octonauts kept getting tangled in weeds, losing the fish, or swimming into rocks.
"How the heck can a blind fish like you navigate through this place." Kwazii wondered after getting his foot stuck in some reeds.
"It's my modified fins," said the fish waving his tentacle like appendages about, "they let me feel my surroundings and navigate my way through my environment. Now hurry up, we're close."
The trio continued swimming through the swamp following the fish's nose until Larry suddenly stopped just as they were about to round a patch of plants and signalled to the others to stop as well.
"What is it little matey," Kwazii whispered.
"The medicine is right around the corner," he said ,"but I can sense something else too."
"Is it something scary?" Peso asked fearfully.
"Yes," the lungfish replied," using these things called electro receptors that are one my nose can sense the little electrical currents that almost all animals use to send messages through their body and using special sensors called lateral lines, I can pick up tiny disturbances in the water. Using these senses i can see that there is a large creature just around that corner that seems to be lying completely still, which probably means it's a..."
"Crocodile," Kwazii finished the sentence.
"We'll continue slowly," the lungfish planned, "no sudden movements."
The Octonauts tiptoed forward and peeked around the water plants and saw a napping Nile Crocodile, sleeping right next to the pot of medicine.
Larry silently gestured to continue towards the crocodile and the trio cautiously approached the sleeping predator. Kwazii reached his hand out to try and grab the medicine but Peso began to make a strange noise behind him.
"ah-Ah-AH-AHCHOO!"
Peso sneezed and bumped into Kwazi while doing so. The pirate then lurched forwards and onto the croc. The crocodilian woke with a start.
It whipped its tail around and accidentally smacked the jar of medicine out the water and into the sky. Kwazii frantically swam to the surface to see where the pot had gone and was not happy by what he saw. The pot had flown in a high arc through the air and landed on the back of a passing goose. That goose then flew into the distance and just at the edge of Kwazii's vision he saw the medicine fall from the goose and land somewhere over yonder.
"Doh!" Kwazii said in annoyance as he descended back into the water, "now we have to go all the way over there to find the medicine."
"K-K-K-K-Kwazi-i!" Peso stuttered ,"look!"
Kwazii looked up and saw a very angry looking Nile Crocodile staring back at him.
"Hold tight matey, this requires a little pirate cunning."
Kwazii grabbed Peso's flipper and Peso grabbed the lungfish. Kwazii then reached behind him and unplugged his oxygen tank.
A flurry of bubbles immediately filled the water. The plan was that he'd angle the tube to steer himself but that all went to pot and the three of them were manicly propelled through the water.
The tank eventually ran out of air, dumping them right by the edge of the water. Kwazii took off his helmet and breathed in fresh air. He plopped Larry back in the fish pack and then surveyed the area trying to remember which direction the bird had gone.
Using his memory, he eventually managed to position roughly where the bird had gone and waved his crewmate over.
"I think that the pot of medicine is just over there," Kwazii said, pointing into the distance.
"Looks like this is where my usefulness ends," Larry said ,"lead the way."
The octonauts trekked through the african terrain, constantly stumbling and tripping on tufts of grass and divets in the ground. They all soon arrived at the rough area where Kwazii saw the Pot of Medicine fall.
The two wandered the area looking for the pot, checking inside of small shrubs and on the dusty floor. After a while the two weren't sure what to do. The area that they needed to check was over 500M2 making it highly likely that they'd never find it in the wide expanse of the wild.
But just as peso was walking along he noticed a damp spot on the floor. He walked over to it and saw that it was spreading outwards from a small shrub. Upon closer inspection, amongst the branches of the shrub was the pot of medicine releasing a slow trickle of water onto the hard soil
"Kwazii!" Peso yelled, "'I found the medicine."
When Kwazii heard Peso's call he began to jog over. Peso inspected the pills and concluded that they were still viable, though they certainly wouldn't pass any hygiene tests.
As Kwazii was running over, he accidentally tripped on a stone and fell forward, smashing the fish pack to pieces and spilling Larry onto the mud
"AAAH!" Both the cat and the lungfish screamed.
"Flappity flippers!" Peso exclaimed ,"fish need water to breathe. This is bad!"
"No," the lungfish said raspily, "I can breathe air, but I need to make sure that I stay moist. If I get too dry I can die."
"Well what should we do!" Kwazii asked frantically. The wetland was too far away to take the fish without it drying out in the hot sun and neither octonaut had any water.
"Oh you don't need to do anything ," Larry assured ,"I have one more trick up my nonexistent sleeve."
The water that the Fish-pack spilled had turned the ground where the lungfish lay into mud. Larry turned to look at the mud and wedged his head into it. He then began to eat the mud and then excrete in out his gill, slowly digging himself deeper into the mud. Soon he was out of sight.
(i know you can't just pour water onto dry ground and make mud but the actual show's done so much worse and i'm not rewriting the plot because of mud)
The two stood there for a moment, not sure what to make of the situation but Kwazii finally took the initiative and called base.
"Kwazii to Gup-W, Come in Gup-W"
"We hear you loud and clear Kwazii," Replied Dashi through the speaker."
"We need an inland pickup," Kwazii explained.
"You sure?" Dashi asked ,"it will take a while. We need to send someone back to the octopod to get the Gup-H and then drive it all the way out to you."
"It's special circumstances," Kwazi replied.
"Ok then, Tweek will be there not shortly."
The Gup-H Slowly descended and landed on the hard earth to the cheers of Peso and Kwazii who both had gone over an hour without water.
"Good job in finding that medicine," Tweak congratulated," not sure why you ended up over here but i'm sure there's a reason. Also, where's larry?"
"Umm," Kwazii said ,"he's down there."
Kwazii pointed down at the floor where Larry had buried himself. It had now dried up in
The sun.
"In the floor?" Tweak questioned, unsure how a fish could manage to get stuck underground
Peso and Kwazii both nodded in sync.
"Ok then..." tweak said, still uncertain,"I do have some digging tools in the back of the gup-H from that problem with the razor clams but I can't be sure we won't hit the fish."
The three thought for a moment before Kazii had a bright idea.
"What if," he said ,"we give ourselves a bit of leeway."
The Octonauts looked up in awe and confusion as the Gup-H descended from the air, carrying a huge clog of dirt on the end of a rope using a suction cup.
Captain Barnacles detached the huge lump of soil from the helicopter and inspected it.
"Any idea what this could be Shelington?" he asked
"Well to me it looks like a lump of dirt," he replied, "but from certain angles it looks kind of like a dinosaur."
The captain tilted his head slightly to get a better look at the cold of earth.
"My gosh! It does look like a dinosaur!"
"That's not why we brought it here though mateys," Kwazii said, walking over to the others from the Gup-H which tweak had landed a little distance off."Larry the lungfish is in there, he wiggled into some mud and we weren't really sure what to do."
"Ah , I see he pulled a lungfish on you!" Shelington said ,"come inside, i'll show you what happened.."
The crew followed Shelington inside the Gup-W where he switched on one of the screens and began to show what happened with a visual aid.
"When the dry season comes ," he explained, "Lungfish need a way to stay moist even though there is no water. Because of this, they have evolved a remarkable skill called aestivation. When their water evaporates and lakes become mud, the fish burrow down into the mud and make a kind of cocoon out of hardened Mucus. In this state they drastically slow their metabolism and can stay like that for over two years and still, as soon as the rains come, wake up and continue with their life."
"Wow," Kwazii exclaimed ,"all these tricks certainly made him a big help on our mission."
"We couldn't have done it without him" Peso announced "Oh, that reminds me, we still need to make that fish better."
Peso walked over to the catfish which had a sickly green parlour to its face and pulled the medicine out his medical bag.
"Say ah," Peso commanded
"AaAaaahhHhh!" the fish replied shakily
Peso tried to unscrew the lid but it was still stuck fast.
"Oh," he said defeatedly ,"I still can't open the jar."
"Maybe Larry has one more trick up his sleeve that may help." Shelington said ,"Vegimals! Get some hoses!"
The Giant lump of dirt was still where the octonauts had left it but now it was being showered with water pumped up from the river. The vegimals danced around in a circle spraying water all over the hunk of soil, progressively making the hoses more and more tangled.
As they sprayed, bits of the earth started to splat to the floor as mud, slowly eroding away at the huge wad. But after many circuits around the dirt, the hoses finally reached the end of their reach and the vegimals all fell to the floor, jolted by the sudden halting of the hoses. At that moment a small mound appeared at the top of the now pile of mud. It rumbled a bit and then out popped larry.
"Hello," he greeted ,"what year is it?"
Kwazii chuckled, "it's still the same year matey."
"Well that's good," he said, relieved ,"you never really know when you're wake up next."
"By the way matey," Kwazii mentioned ," would you be able to help us open this here jar of pills we've been chasing, none of us have been able to open it."
"Oh, well of course,'' Larry assured ,"my mouth is specialised for cracking open the hard shells of mollusks, and your pot is no different. Give it here."
Kwazi put the jar into the Lungfish's mouth and then Larry bit down, making a clean split through the middle of the jar.
"Wow!" Kwazii exclaimed ,"you know what matey? You really are quite some survival expert."
And with that the screen fades to black, showing a wide shot of all the octonauts and Larry the lungfish, still sitting atop his mound of mud.
~Creature report~*
Calling all Octonauts!
Kwazii, Peso, Shelington, Dashi, Inkling ,Tweek
Tunip!
Kwazi, activate creature report!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
Facts:
Lungfish have lots of tricks
Check! Check! Check!
To get them out of a fix
Check! Check! Mee!
Thought they are blind they have a good sense of smell
Creature Report! Creature Report!
And electroreceptors as well
Creature Report! Creature Report!
And when their home starts to dry
Check! Check! Chup!
They can cocoon underground, for a very long time.
Dance Break!
Go Lungfish, Go Lungfish,Go Lungfish!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
We're done with our mission!
Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!