To my dearest friends and followers,
I've been sharing the first novella I ever wrote when I was 13. Part 1 and 2 are available to read in the blog Archive. I'll be sharing part 4 next week.
CHAPTER 7
"The Sea Monster"
Elina sat down on a log in the shade next to the river and pulled out a notebook and pencil from her pocket. She didn't want to talk to Star just yet and tried her best to find out what Shellie's clue meant. "Let's see," she said to herself, tapping the pencil on her lip. "Shellie had to be speaking English. Maybe it's old English like I'm reading about in school."
"No, that can't be it," she said a few moments later. "Herte si a ugrosgoe edunr atwer ragned, og dan kalt ot het esa serho," she said as she wrote the words in her book. "Hmm. It's definitely not old English and etreh doesn't say anything, so it's nothing spelled backwards," Elina said to herself. She sat in silence for a few minutes and thought. What did it say?
The Island was like a nice spring day. It was warm with a cool breeze now and then. All of the flowers were in bloom. Every little bee was busy at work, flying from flower to flower. Every so often a young fawn would come and put its little mouth in the water and quench its thirst. Not far away stood the mother keeping watch.
"I think I've got it!" exclaimed Elina. "These words have to be unscrambled! Herte is there..." Elina trailed off, writing everything down in her book.
"I've got it! I've got it!" Elina shouted, waving her book around. "There is a gorgeous under water garden, go there and talk to the sea horse."
Elina jumped into the river and was on her way to the under water garden, and somehow she knew where it was. The river turned into the ocean and Elina came to a shipwreck under the water that was overgrown with plants of all different kinds and colors. Sitting on a chair behind a desk was a human size seahorse wearing spectacles, for this horse was rather old and blind.
"Can you help me?" She asked as she swam closer to it.
"The Sea Monster," said the seahorse.
"What about a sea monster?"
"The Sea Monster," repeated the sea horse.
"I'm supposed to come here and talk to a seahorse. Can you help me?" said Elina.
Again the seahorse gave the same reply.
"Perhaps I can talk to a different seahorse?" she said.
"The Sea Monster," he said again.
"Can you tell me what that means?" she asked.
The seahorse ignored her.
"Please?" she asked sweetly.
Still there was no answer.
"Oh! Darn you!" Elina was irritated and left.
"I don't know what to do. Am I supposed to ask a sea monster?" she wondered to herself. "Which one do I even go to? The serpent outside the castle or Scum? What if they try to eat me?" these thoughts just kept circling her mind.
CHAPTER 8
"Weepers Willows"
Elina's walkings brought her to a lake with lily pads and big frogs sat croaking on the tops of them. In the grass next to the lake, was Star rolling on her back like a silly foal.
"I have discovered many things, and again am at a dead end," Elina said.
Star got up and looked at her. "Sit down and tell me all about it."
Elina told her everything, and finished with talking about the princess. "She kept telling me her name. Beautiful Bella. She gave me a note that said to talk to you if I didn't understand what that meant."
"Well," said Star, "you said she kept telling you her name? Beautiful Bella, Beautiful Bella..." Star trailed off and thought.
"Hmm," she said, walking back in forth. "It has to mean something..."
Elina sat down and plucked a single blade of grass and kept ripping it up smaller and smaller just to pass the time.
"Ooh!" Star said. "I think I've figured it out!"
Elina looked up excitedly. "What is it?!"
"The boy is hidden underground. Belle, or Bella, literally means beautiful. Bella - there is a plant rarely seen on the island, Belladonna. It is beautiful, but it is poisonous. No one would ever disturb such a plant. Perhaps the boy is hidden underneath a Belladonna plant!"
"Oh!" Elina exclaimed. "How exciting! Then we should begin looking! Do you have a map of Balodia, so we may keep track of where we've been?"
"Very nice," Elina said as she studied the map. "We'll put X's on the areas once we've looked there."
"You decide where we shall look first!" Star said.
"Well," Elina looked at the map, "we are nearest Weepers Willows. Let's go there."
On they walked until they reached Weepers Willows.
A long-legged hermit with big feet, a long white bushy beard, and a large crooked nose sat on a branch of a willow tree. He had a leg dangling on each side. He was holding his tattered shirt to his eyes as he weeped. Every so often he would blow his nose, which sounded like he was playing a trumpet.
"That," Star said, pointing with her hoof, "is the Weeper."
"He's not very pretty," Elina said.
"Now be nice," Star said.
"He's too busy weeping to notice us," Elina said. "I'm sure he won't mind if we look around his willow trees."
So the two walked around and searched near the little creek and in the little creek and around the willow trees and in the willow trees. They found nothing.
Just then, the hermit looked down at them and jumped from his tree.
"What are ye doin' in my willow trees?" he growled fiercely.
"What are you doing in you're willow trees?" Elina replied sassily.
"THEY ARE MY WILLOW TREES!"
"Quite right then," Elina said. "We were only looking for a Belladonna plant."
"There ain't no Belladonna here! Go away or I'll..." he finished by threatening with a fist.
Elina got on Star's back, drew a big X on Weepers Willows and the two left.
CHAPTER 9
"The Lagoon"
Elina and Star went to the Lagoon next, being the closing place according to the map.
"Nope. No Belladonna plant here," Said Elina after she and Star looked around. "You wait here. I'll go in the water and see if I see anything."
She jumped in the water and was looking along rock walls and the bottom of the ocean when she saw Shellie.
"What ya doin'?" asked Shellie curiously as she swam to Elina.
"Looking for something."
"May I ask what?"
"Sure."
"What are you looking for?"
"A Belladonna plant."
"Why?"
"I have to if I want to find the boy."
"Oh," Shellie sighed. "What about my treasure? Have you given up?"
"No," Elina said. "I did talk to the seahorse though. It said 'the sea monster' over and over."
Shellie laughed like a child. "Can I tell you what it means? Please, please, please!" she begged, bursting with excitement.
"Ok. But it better make sense," Elina warned.
"The Sea Monster is not a monster at all. It's an old ship that sunk a long time ago."
"Ooh!" Elina said, smiling happily. "Sometimes you make no sense at all and sometimes you couldn't be more clear!"
"Well, that's not quite true. I could tell you where the ship is," Shellie said. "But I'm not going to."
"Star!" Elina shouted, once out of the water. "Guess what?"
"I give up. What?"
"I talked to Shellie! She said The Sea Monster is the name of a ship!"
"That's good," Star nodded in approval. "But we're not looking for Shellie's hidden treasure right now. We're looking for the boy."
"Oh, alright," Elina said. She put an X over the Lagoon.
**Again, thank you for reading!!
Yours truly,
Me
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