Lullabelle the fairy along with her
mouse friend, Twitch, were visiting her cousin, Annabeth. Annabeth lived by the sea, and this was
Lullabelle’s first time to see the sea as well as Twitch’s.
Lullabelle
sat on Annabeth’s front porch adding ice cubes to her drink. The thermometer on the side of the
house read 98 degrees. Lullabelle
did not think she had ever been this hot.
Annabeth had assured her that later in the afternoon the sea breeze
would start to blow, and it wouldn’t feel quite so hot. However, Lullabelle wasn’t sure at this
point if that was possible.
Suddenly,
they all heard a loud explosion.
Lullabelle nearly jumped out of her skin. “What in the world was that?” she gasped.
“Oh,
that’s just the pirates in the harbor,” sighed Annabeth. “They must be practicing shooting
cannonballs again.”
Lullabelle
looked at Twitch and nodded. Hot
or not, this was something that just had to be investigated. She picked up Twitch and flew to the
harbor.
As
she reached the harbor, she saw the huge pirate ship anchored in the bay. Just then, another loud boom jolted
Lullabelle and Twitch, and a cannonball whizzed by them missing only by about
50 ft. They would have to be
careful.
Lullabelle
flew up to the side of the ship. She
and Twitch crawled in one of the canon holes that had been left open. She prayed the whole time that the
canon would not fire while she was that close to it, and it didn’t. Quietly, they crept along the wall as
they looked around in wonder.
Pirates were running here and there loading canons and preparing them to
fire. The pirates were far too
busy to notice a tiny fairy and a mouse sneaking up the steps to the main deck.
Once
they reached the main deck, they found their way to the captain’s
quarters. It was empty except for
the captain’s parrot. He appeared
to be asleep on a bird rail next to the window. Lullabelle and Twitch carefully explored the cabin trying to
be extra carefully quiet. They did
not want to wake that bird.
Just
then, Lullabelle slipped on a map that was lying on the table and caused a
whole roll of maps to fall to the floor.
Quick as a flash, Lullabelle darted behind a yellow curtain with Twitch
right behind her. Twitch’s gift of
camouflage kicked in, and he turned the same color as the curtain. Lullabelle had to stifle a giggle
because he looked just like a pile of mustard. Carefully, Lullabelle peeked out of the curtain. The bird was awake!
Lullabelle’s
mind raced as she tried to figure out how they could get passed the parrot and
to the door. Then Twitch leaned
back against the window and it moved slightly. The window was open!
Very slowly and carefully, Lullabelle and Twitch opened the window until
they could both squeeze out. They
were free!
With
Twitch in her arms, Lullabelle hightailed it back to Annabeth’s house. Behind them they could hear the loud
boom of the pirate’s canons firing, but they were safely out of range. Visiting a pirate’s ship had been
exciting, but they both agreed that they had had enough adventure for one day.
