Some hours before, Hatchy was up in the forest looking for more beehives from which to collect honey. He was startled when he heard a series of loud shrieks, as if someone were in complete panic. 'Oooh!! Heeellp! Help me! Aaaaahh!'
He ran past some trees towards the source of the cries, and saw a young koala wildly waving a stick around, trying to shoo away a very angry swarm of bees, who seemed to be intent on killing the poor fellow. Hatchy, who was wearing his protective suit, dashed over, grabbed hold of the koala, and lead him away as quickly as he could towards a nearby pond, then pushed him right into it. Seeing that they could no longer easily sting him, the bees soon flew away.
'Hey, why did you push me in here? This water is really cold!' the koala seemed upset.
'To save your life, that's why. Those bees could have killed you!' Hatchy explained. 'Now climb out of there before you catch cold,' he said as he helped him out.
'Oooh! I hurt all over! They even stung my nose, oooooh!'
'Here, smear some of this on it,' Hatchy took a little jar of ointment out of his pocket and opened the lid, offering it to the koala, who took a dab and carefully rubbed it into his sore nose.
'What the heck were you doing near a beehive anyway, with just a stick and no protection?' Hatchy asked.
'Since when does a stick need protection?' the stranger answered with a question of his own.
'Huh? No, I mean you had no protection,' Hatchy could see that this koala wasn't very bright.
'Well, they don't give you eucalyptus liquor for nothin',' the koala explained. 'I thought I could get some honey up here in the forest, and then sell it for a few bottles of liquor before the celebration tonight.'
'Oh, you're from Koalatown, huh?' Hatchy now realized. 'But what are you doing here in the forest above Koalaville, then? Koalatown has a forest, too.'
'Yeah, I know, but there are so many koalas lookin' for nuts, berries, honey, or whatever in our forest today that I thought my chances of findin' somethin' valuable would be better if I came over here.' At that, the koala seemed to sway back and forth, and it looked to Hatchy as though he might lose consciousness.
'Hey,' Hatchy said as he put an arm around him, 'I'd better help you back to our grove.
Doctor Koala will have a look at those stings. Come on, let's go.'
The koala was too weak to protest, and Hatchy helped him walk down into Koalaville.
When they got to the border between the forest and the grove, a koala named Pringly saw them, and trotted over to help. Between the two of them, Pringly and Hatchy half-carried the smitten koala down to the little shack at the base of Doctor Koala's tree.
'Hey Doc, here's a patient for you,' Pringly said as he stuck his head through the door.
The doctor didn't seem to have any patients at the moment. 'Seems he's been stung by a bunch of bees.'
'Okay, put him down on this table here.' They carried him in and carefully laid him on the wooden examination table, then watched as the physician began to examine him.
'I could work a lot better if I didn't have you two looking over my shoulders. Get out of here! I'll tell you when I'm done,' Doctor Koala snapped at them.
'Boy, he is really crabby sometimes, isn't he?' Hatchy whispered to Pringly after they had stepped outside.
'Yeah, I know what you mean. Must be the stress of spending all day with sick creatures,' Pringly answered. The two then began to chat to pass the time while they were waiting; they definitely wanted to stick around to see how the patient was doing.
After about twenty minutes, Doctor Koala stepped out of the shack. 'Come on, you two. You can help me move him from the table to the cot. He needs to get some sleep now.'
They entered again, picked up the koala and placed him on the little cot that was up against the wall opposite the table.
'Well, Doc, how is he?' Hatchy asked.
'He'll be fine by tomorrow morning. I gave him some herbs to put him into a deep sleep. That'll help him recover. At first I thought he might be allergic to bee stings.'
'Well, was he?' Pringly wanted to know.
'No, of course not. If he were, he'd be in a better world right now,' the doctor replied.
'Huh?' the two grunted simultaneously.
'I mean, he'd have already bitten the dust,' the Doctor explained.
'What?' Hatchy and Pringly were still perplexed.
'I mean, he'd be dead!' Doctor Koala said, a bit peeved.
'Oh, no! But he won’t die, will he?' Hatchy worried.
'No, as I said, he apparently isn't allergic. He was stung a lot, though. At least fifteen or twenty times, I'd say. That sting on the nose will be hurting him the most the next few days, but that does have its bright side,' Doctor Koala added.
'Bright side? A sting on the nose would hurt like the devil! Where's the bright side there?'
Pringly asked, imagining how painful that would be.
'Well,' the doctor went on, 'because of the excruciating pain in his nose, he won't notice all those other stings on his body as much.'
'Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense,' Pringly now understood.
'Okay, Doctor Koala, we'll stop back tomorrow to see how he's doing.'
'Oh, before you go: what's this fellow's name, anyway?' the medicine koala asked.
'Oh, uuuuh… I think he said Mazooey, or something like that. I'm not sure, it all happened so fast. He is from Koalatown, though,' Hatchy said.
'I thought as much. Never seen him over here,' Doctor Koala responded.
'Okay then Doc, we'll see you tomorrow,' Pringly said as the two walked off.
'Are you sure we want to see Doc again tomorrow?' Hatchy asked.
'Yeah, sure. Don't you want to see how that koala's doing?' Pringly didn't understand Hatchy's attitude.
'Oh, of course, but I suspect that when Mazooey wakes up tomorrow and realizes he missed the big celebration, he's going to be in a really bad mood, so I suspect he and Doctor Koala are going to have one big argument, and our good Doctor will be really crabby!'
'Hmmm, I didn't think of that. Maybe we shouldn't stop by till tomorrow evening, then,' Pringly suggested.
'Yeah, good idea,' Hatchy agreed. 'Thanks for your help, Pringly. I'm heading home now.'
'Right, so am I. See you tomorrow!'