The Cracklebush Spits

This looks like a good spot, says Captain Baudin. I'll leave you to it.

For three days? asks the baby cuttlefish.

Of course not, says Captain Baudin. You are just a beginner.

Captain Baudin pulls the Nachoo onto a sandy embankment, edged by rocks and bushes.

The water drains out of the Nachoo.

The baby cuttlefish crawls out.

You probably haven't got long, says Captain Baudin.

That's okay, says the baby cuttlefish. Wait here while I do some collecting.

All right, says Captain Baudin. And when you're done collecting we'll take the specimens back to Gaius, for identification.

Yes captain, says the baby cuttlefish.

Captain Baudin settles down to wait at the water's edge, beside the beached Nachoo.

The baby cuttlefish drags himself along the sand to the shade of a bush.

The bush makes a crackling sound.

This must be a cracklebush, says the baby cuttlefish.

And who are you to decide that? asks the cracklebush.

Oo-er! The baby cuttlefish tries to remember his botanist name.

Jean-Batiste, says the baby cuttlefish, the first cool name he remembers.

Are you a caterpillar? ask the cracklebush.

No I'm a botanist, says the baby cuttlefish.

Jean-Botanist! cackles the cracklebush.

A beak pokes out of the cracklebush, attached to the face of an emu.

You look like a caterpillar, says the emu in the same voice as the cracklebush.

Jean-Botanist realises his mistake.

It had not been the cracklebush speaking.

I eat caterpillars, says the emu, but saltbush seeds are my favourite, so you're lucky.

I am lucky, say Jean-Botanist. Now I know the name of this bush.

My compliments, says the emu. 

I'm here collecting specimens, says Jean-Botanist.

Of what? asks the emu.

Saltbush seeds, says Jean-Botanist.

You don't look like you've collected any, says the emu.

Not yet, says Jean-Botanist. It's harder than I thought with these arms.

The emu looks at Jean-Botanist's arms, with suckers on the undersides.

Suckers are no good for picking seeds, says the emu. Here, let me help. How many?

Three will do, says Jean-Botanist.

The emu picks three saltbush seeds with his beak and spits them towards Jean-Botanist.

Many thanks, says Jean-Botanist. 

He rolls the three seeds back down the sand to the Nachoo.

The emu watches as Jean-Botanist pushes the seeds into the Nachoo, before entering the Nachoo (backwards) and being towed back to sea by a lobster in a sea captain's hat.

Enterprising young chap, thinks the emu.