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Tea tapped a finger on the last part of the tank before they entered the new distraction. People were touching things here, and they weren't getting in trouble! Sure, he'd been here before, but only running through, there was a difference between fleeing and cruising through with your friends. His ears perked up, an instand sign that he was going to do something stupid, just what that stupid thing was though, well he didn't quite know himself, nor did he care. Stupid was usually fun. Or was it the other way around?

In contrast to Evarobby, Sylvest had touched slimy-fishy stuff before... in fact, he had slimy-fishy things protruding from his back. Which he used to gently poke and prod at the fish in the touch pool that mainly consisted of tamed rays and cleaner fish. The cleaner fish were very tickly little buggers as they nibbled at dried ice cream and such on the octopus lad's arms. As such, he bubbled with giggles and twitched a bit, which scared the fish away momentarily.

"Hey, Eva... if you want to try, there's a stepladder right to my left that'll help you just reach the fish," Mouse said, gesturing to her left. "And what do you think of all this, Teagan?"

(Prepare yourself for a big post. XD I didn't mean for it to get this big, but I needed to include all of the stuff in it)

The little runt beamed at her before hurrying to the latter excitedly, hauling himself up and peering over the edge. Wow... This pool seemed just huge to him. He poked a hand down in the water, and immediately a bunch of little fish swam on over and began inspecting his fingers. He wriggled them about and then gave a slow smile. They were funny things to him, and tickled his fingers and palm. He tried to pet at one of them, and the slimy critter slipped right through his fingers, and all the others scattered for a bit. The texture surprised him, and he jerked back his hand slightly... And then decided he liked it and went back to trying to pet over the fish. How wierd.... Something else caught his eye. More towards the center of the tank was a ray. His ears perked and he watched the wierd little thing for a few seconds before pulling his hand out from the water and moving onto his knees- more on the edge of the tank than the latter. Actually, completely on the side of the tank. Sure, he wobbled a bit, but thanks to his tail he didn't have too much of a balance problem. He reached forward eagerly, trying to somehow touch that wierd thingy...

A quiet splash. (He doesn't weigh much, wouldn't make too big of a splash)

Suddenly, the 'roo was submerged in water. Eva stared ahead blanky, somewhat in shock, not quite realizing what happened. This might not be a problem for some other kid, who would simply swim out or something. But this tree kangaroo had never been in water in all of his short life. Everything came to him as he came face-to-face with a fish. He opened his mouth and found it filled with water. He found out that for some reason, he couldn't breathe underwater. And he didn't know how to swim- maybe it wasn't that deep of a pool, but to a runt like him... It went well over his head. The water might have gone to, say... A seven year olds waist. Eva was much shorter than a seven year old.

For the second time in all of his short life... Eva experienced true fear.

Tea's eyes went wide at the splash, Eva didn't know how to swim! He wasn't much calmer when the octopus tot dove in, now there were two there after all, but Sylvest seemed to be able to swim. He rushed over to the edge when he saw that Slyvest had the roo, knowing his own mother would kill him if he left them in that water. "Come on," He said, trying to sound calm as he reached down to take Eva up out of the water by the waist, thinking he could pull the octopus out second if he needed too, he could breathe fine there, right?

((Agh, sorry for the long post. XD; ))

"Oh, oh my- Are you alright, Eva?" Mouse called as she finally escaped the security guard, ran back to the tank, and retrieved Sylvest. Both of the toddlers looked quite wet, but had opposite reactions to it- the octopus lad looked very refreshed and proud of himself, while the little roo seemed to hate being cold and wet. "Ah... I better go get your dad--"

But before the teen could rush off in the direction of the tank Frieze was at, the portly security guard mumbled into an intercom reciever: "Would the parent of a small child with tan skin, blond hair, and the ears and tail of... some kind of monkey or something... please come to the touch pool and retrieve this kid? And, uhh... someone on staff should probably bring a towel or two, I guess..."

Seconds later, a group of five or six men wearing cheap pirate costumes rushed to the scene, brandishing towels and generally acting like the type of people that easily attract curious, hyperactive children. The security guard groaned very audibly, muttered something rude, and waddled back to wherever security guards were supposed to be.

Mouse could understand the guard's disdain, but she was still grateful that someone came around. Handing a towel to Teagan and taking one herself to wipe her glasses and dry off her face that had gotten splashed when Sylvest eagerly crawled into her arms, she started, "Thank you very much for the towels. I-"

"Ah, and what have we here? A wee seamonster scallywag!" one of the 'pirates' interrupted.

"Yeah, that's Sylvest... but he's not much of a monster. Kind of shy, really... I'm surprised he had the nerve to swim out and help Evarobby over there," Mouse replied with a slight irritability in her tone from being interrupted. Upon the mention of Evarobby, another couple of 'pirates' practically skipped over and began talking animatedly to Teagan and the roo.

The first pirate continued, "Ah, he's quite the little hero, then! I would love for him t'join me crew, but-" he peered intently at Sylvest- "he seems a bit wee yet for seafarin'."

"Yeah... I figured that..."

"So, let's make him an honorary member!" And, before Mouse could protest, the 'pirate' took off his blue-and-white striped bandanna and tied it on the octopus lad's head. "From this point forward, ye shall be known to the Swordfish Crew as..." Dramatic pause. "The Mighty Kraken!"

Mouse would have hit herself in the forehead if her arms weren't busy holding the newly pirate-ified Sylvest in her arms. Instead, she turned to watch Teagan and Evarobby be verbally assaulted by the others, just knowing that they would also get cheesy pirate nicknames for bravery or extreme daring or whatnot.