The Heroes of Aeseganora: Part 1 - The Oca-Tree

Escaping The Slaves - Part II

The room next to Innes' office was his private spa, clouded with steam and the strong smell of lavender wafting through the air. Innes was relaxing in his glossy white bath, in the warm, bubble-frothed water, reading a newspaper, not noticing the five little half fish half vegetable hybrids that had just pitter pattered into the room.

"Come on, Bluebell!" Innes barked out another command. "My massage is due."

"Massage?" Grouber asked, not knowing what the word meant, before noticing the creams and lotions sat on a bath side table. Just as he made for them with the intention to eat one of them, the other four jumped onto the tabletop and nervously fumbled with them, with Tunip being the only one that managed to smear his flippers with massage oil after squirting a tiny bit in his eyes.

"Hurry up!" Innes snapped. "I don't have all day, us Slaves need to leave this world soon!"

Approaching from behind, Tunip placed his oily flippers on Innes' shoulders, rubbing and squeezing them in the hopes that he was massaging him properly.

And from Innes' reaction, it seemed he was.

"Ooooohhh, that's so good!" Innes sighed in satisfaction. "This is very much needed, Bluebell. My muscles are as tight as a small opening in a cave."

That was true - the badger was in need of some stress relief after being anxious and annoyed about having to leave Aeseganora, as much as the Slaves believed it to be necessary.

While Tunip's flippers continued to do their soothing work, Innes' worries slowly melted away, feeling only smug satisfaction with the cleverness of their kidnap.

"Mmmmmm, don't stop there!" he said contentedly. "That Ollum king is such a self-obsessed, snobby young'un. I don't know what he was thinking, hiring those oh-so-magical animals. They couldn't live up to their own great-grandparents' expectations."
Those words did not go down well with the Vegimals, as the latter four bathed themselves in the creams and lotions. Thinking of the Octonauts, Tunip did his best to remain cool-headed, however, unknowingly to him, the slapping and kneading of Innes became more enthusiastic.

"They're all a bunch of brainless freaks, what with their 'Gups' and Octo-whatevers," Innes continued. "They won't- Ow! Bluebell! Not so violent, please!" He yelped out a cry os pain as Tunip's furious massaging became unbearable, and he shrugged Tunip's flippers away irritably. "In fact, enough massage. How about some music instead?"

He gestured over his shoulder to a corner of the room where an upright piano stood.

The Vegimals looked at the piano in dismay. Now what? They didn't really have a choice - they had to keep up the act, for the Octonauts' sake.

So Tunip strode over to the piano, and after a few moments of hesitation, he tried a few experimental plinks of the piano keys, which sounded absolutely terrible - flippers clearly weren't made for playing the piano.

Suddenly, the disturbing sound of angry yelling accompanied by frightened screaming rang throughout the building. It sounded like the guards had caught Ollum and the Octonauts.

Tunip knew he mustn't allow Innes to hear the commotion, so he hastily began making as much noise as possible, banging the keys of the piano and getting the other four to join him in chirping a "melody", which didn't match what was played on the piano.

Innes winced and covered his ears. "Agggh! What has gotten into you, Bluebell?"

He angrily turned to scowl at his servant.

Only it wasn't his servant. It was five half fish half vegetable hybrids.

"Bluebell?"

As Innes stared at the Vegimals, the real Bluebell - a sheep with two pairs of earrings on each ear - came into the room with a tray of hot chamomile tea and a plate of biscuits and a towel over her shoulder.