Decidedly silly story of the plural of platypus.
For some reason this snippet came into my head. (Okay, okay, it was Two in the Bush, all right?) The idea of wartime leaders demanding Australian wildlife kind of lodged and turned into...this.

Warning: May contain silliness.


"You know what we need?" Tom said thoughtfully.

"No. Do tell."

"A platypus."

There was a pause.

"A platypus," Jordan said carefully.

"Yep. A platypus."

Collette eyed the pair of them. "I don't suppose you'd tell me why we need a platypus?" she asked.

"Historical rule," Tom said. " All outnumbered leaders on the side of right must, at some point during a difficult war, demand platypuses. Milit'ry tradition."

"What is the plural of platypus?" Sara wondered and then began experimenting with endings.

"Good idea though," Jordan said thoughtfully. "It'd be nice to have a platypus around the place."

"We could keep it in the lake," Tom suggested.

"Two things," said Collette. "Where are we supposed to get a platypus, and how, exactly, did this tradition start?"

"Winston Churchill," Tom explained. "He demanded a platypus in the middle of World War Two. Bloke in Austrailia caught one and trained it up, sent it over to England..."

"What did they do with it?"

"Nothing, really; it died two days out from Liverpool."

"And you think our venture will be more successful because...?"

"Wel, for one thing," Tom said, pushing himself up on an elbow, "we won't be dropping depth charges."

"How would we get it here?" Jordan asked. "Troop of eagles carrying it in a net?"

"Good grief, that'd give the most stotic of platy...podes a heart attack."

"Isn't Austrailia far away?" Sara asked.

"That's not the point," Tom said firmly. "The point is that we are obtaining a platypus."

"For no reason."

"Of course there's a reason," Jordan said. "It'll be fun."