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

The Discovery

Lt. Kwazii Cat sighed to himself as his shovel lurched a pile of pelagic sediments into Tweak Bunny's face. Himself, Tweak and Shellington Sea Otter were on their knees digging up the ocean floor with the tiny spades & shovels, searching for fossils for Shellington's new book. Usually, the Vegimals used these for planting & harvesting vegetables & plants in the Octopod's Garden Pod, and Tweak often used one of them to make sandcastles whenever the Octonauts were on holiday at the beach, or when she was brainstorming ideas for new inventions.

What's the point of digging for stupid fossils for Shellington's latest project when I could be racing with speedy sharks in the Gup-B, he thought to himself.

"Watch it, Kwazii!" Tweak said in annoyance.

Kwazii glared at her with a smirk. "Yeah, well, you're digging holes like a swan," he said. "and why are your ears rolled up? We're not in World War Three."

"I've only rolled them up because I'm getting sick of your moaning and complaining." Tweak said with a scowl, throwing her shovel at Kwazii's face.

"Yeah, and so am I," said Shellington, whose face was covered in sediments from burying it in a hole he was digging up. "so I suggest that you two stop arguing & get on with this. We're doing some serious work here."

"That's right," Captain Barnacles Bear said, watching from close by. "No bickering, please. We're working together as a team here, remember?"

"Yes, Captain!" The trio said together.

As they carried on digging, all they could find was a small stone, a bleached piece of coral, and a very old carrot. But no fossils.

Wow, an archaeological discovery of a vegetable, Tweak thought to herself.

Suddenly, Kwazii's shovel tapped on something hard.

"Shellington! Tweak! I think I've found something!" he called out.

"Really?" Shellington asked excitedly, reaching his paw in the hole to find what Kwazii found. "What is it?"

Shellington pulled out what looked like a rock with writing on it, examining it closely using his magnifying glass.

"Jumping jellyfish!" he said in awe, as he, Kwazii and Tweak swam back up.

************

Back onboard the Octopod, in the library, the crew watched as Professor Inkling Octopus raised the rock to his eyes.

"Goodness me!" he said in surprise. "I've seen ancient writing like this before, but I can't exactly remember where. Let me take a look in my books and see what I can find out."

He took a few books from his highest bookshelves and looked through them to search for any hints about the writing on the rock.

"Of course!" he exclaimed. "The writing is in an old language called Aulornan - an extinct language, meaning no-one else speaks it anymore."

Whilst Inkling was continuing to explain the Aulornan language to the crew, unknowingly to them, a glittering light appeared. It lazily drifted upwards until it was head-height with Barnacles and hovered in the Library. It looked like a glowing pom-pom.

"What is that?" asked Dashi Dog, all of their eyes following it carefully.

The spark seemed to turn at the sound of her voice, and floated towards the crew, and resting in front of them as though it were the centre of a flower, with the Octonauts as the petals.

"Is it alive?" Kwazii asked.

"I'm not sure," Inkling asked, reaching out and brushing his tentacle over the speck.

Immediately, the speck swelled, lengthening like a stick, then unfurled like a scroll, dulling to a pale brown sheet of paper. There was smart calligraphy on it and a smudged stamp in one corner.

Barnacles examined it. "Wow," he said. "A letter. Look at that, Professor!"

"Well, don't keep us waiting in suspense, Professor!" Kwazii said. "What does it say?"

Inkling took the letter in his tentacles and studied it even closer. "Well, the ink has faded quite a bit, and the writing's quite difficult to make out. It's obviously an extremely old paper."

"You got that right," said Kwazii. "It's all foosty! And it stinks as well."

"That's because of the age of it," Inkling said, his eyes narrowing to decipher the language of the writing. "And it's very difficult to decipher, even with my monocle!"

"Y'know, back in me pirate days," Kwazii began. "I used to be good at deciphering old-fashioned documents."

"Really?"

"Yeah! I can make the letter out no problem!"

Inkling was less than certain, but he didn't want to offend Kwazii like the rest of the crew often did whenever he spoke about his pirate past & tales of sea monsters.

"Be my guest." he said.

"Well, let's take a peek!" spoke an impatient Kwazii, taking the paper off of Inkling's tentacles.

Inside, it said:

Dear Captain Barnacles and crew,

I hope this letter finds you all well.

My name is Sir Ollum, leader of Aeseganora and king of Ocalihalla. I am writing to you on behalf of the current desperate situation in Aeseganora.

You may not be aware that our universe's magic levels have drastically dropped to dangerous stages by the actions of an unknown something, and I must stress that the speed at which it continues to get lower is now of the utmost concern. Day after day, we lose heaps of it, and only yesterday, it had reached the point where more dangerous weather is occurring than usual.

Life for all of this land's inhabitants has now become difficult. They have lost all hope, and are in desperate need for someone to discover who the perpetrator of this disaster is, and to stop them in order to save their home.

I find myself in the position of needing to ask for help from an external alliance who I can put my faith into that they will do all in their power to reverse this magic imbalance.

That external alliance is you. I believe that you have got all that it takes to save our home.

I trust that you shall be wondering to yourselves "Why us? Why have we been chosen to save this universe which we did not previously know about until now?" Well, I await your arrival at the Ocalihalla Palace, so I can tell you everything in more detail. I trust that you will do the honours of attending, however, if you do not, I shall not be upset. Instead, I shall cast a spell upon you that will make you sleep uneasily for the rest of your lives, knowing that you have sentenced us to a life of continued despair and eventual death.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Ollum

Leader of Aeseganora & King of Ocalihalla

The Octonauts were astounded by what they read. Now they knew what the extinct language on the rock - and the rusty letter meant. A kingdom desperately needed their help!

"Shiver me whiskers!" Kwazii exclaimed. "That rock & letter was a call for help! And the letter included a curse!"

Peso gulped at the mere thought of it.

"Yeah, but it's only for disturbed sleep," Shellington said. "They must be really desperate."

"Well, if it is a call for help, someone needs to answer it!" Barnacles responded, his voice determined. "Kwazii, sound the Octo-Alert!"

Kwazii ran to the Octo-Alert like a fast tiger & clicked it.

"Octonauts, to the HQ!"