Читать книгу Ilvie Little and the Fearless Sailors - Susanne Stemmer - Страница 5

Pooh! We’ve really been walking for a long time and we’ve gone really far!’ twinkles Theo the little monkey. ‘When will we finally get where we’re going? It seems to me we’ve been walking on this cliff for hours and days and weeks. We haven’t met anyoneatall and my stomach is growling something terrible!’

Ilvie sighs. Typical Theo. Since they had left the other elves a few hours ago, her little friend had taken every opportunity to complain.

‘Look around you, Theo! See how beautiful it is here,’ twinkles Ilvie back at him. ‘Come on, we’ll look for a good place to rest and then you can wolf down a strawberry cupcake from your knapsack!’ The little monkey doesn’t look convinced.

‘Hey, take a look up there—what’s that?’ calls Ilvie. ‘There’s something that looks like a swing! And someone’s sitting in it! Come on, let’s say hi!’

In the middle of the meadow behind the cliffs there’s a white swing. A little girl is sitting on it, rocking back and forth. There is a big box next to her, and every so often, she takes a piece of paper out of the box and ­examines it closely. Suddenly, the girl starts to swear: “By the grass-green, one-legged Amphiprion!” That sounds so horrible that Ilvie almost wants to plug her ears.

“Hello!” calls Ilvie when the girl has stopped swearing.

Theo quickly grabs Ilvie’s hand—something about human beings gives him the creeps. You never know what will occur to them and what they will do next.

The girl looks up in surprise and examines Ilvie and Theo through the thick lenses of her glasses. Ilvie notices that the little girl has a big bandage covering her right eye. “Hello!” says the girl, beaming when she sees Theo.

“By the thin-as-a-rail Tetraodon! You’re a sweet little monkey!”

‘Sweet? Sweet!’ twinkles Theo grumpily. ‘I’m notatall sweet. Sweet is an insult, you strange little human child!’

Sometimes, it’s really good that people can’t understand Theo’s twinkling, thinks Ilvie.

“I’m Leonie,” says the girl. “And who are you?”

“My name is Ilvie, and this is my friend Theo,” answers Ilvie, stroking the tufts of hair on the little monkey’s head as he bows courteously to Leonie. “We just wanted to stop a while. May we sit down next to you?”

“Yes, of course! I’m happy to meet you,” replies Leonie, sweeping the sheets of paper back into the box and putting it on the ground in order to make space for her new friends on the swing.

Carefully, Theo tries to climb up onto the swing. ‘Waaaah, this thing keeps moving!’ he twinkles indignantly. ‘What kind of strange seat is this in this peculiar human country? No normal monkey can climb up onto it!’

Ilvie and Leonie giggle. The way the little monkey was trying unsuccessfully to climb up onto the bench just looked silly.

“And voilà!” shouts Ilvie, grabbing Theo and placing him on the bench.

‘That’s better. That’s much better …’ twinkles Theo, still a bit grumpily. ‘And soon it will be even better. It’s good that I thought to bring along ­something to eat!’ He opens his knapsack and grabs a strawberry cupcake. Feeling happier already, he takes a big bite and looks at the two girls.

Suddenly he thinks of something. Munching on the cake in his mouth, he reaches into his knapsack again and pulls out two more cupcakes; the ­girls should also have something. Although he is grumpy, he is still a polite little monkey.

“Mmm, that looks good! Thank you, Theo,” says Leonie.

Ilvie looks around. Thus far, she really likes the human world. Her glance falls on the box next to the swing.

“Those are old photos of my great-grandmother,” explains Leonie, who had followed Ilvie’s gaze. “My people are sailors, and we all go to sea very early—some people even go as children. My ­great-grandmother Grace was a very famous sailor and pirate! Sometimes, when I’m longing for the sea, I drag out the box and look at old photos.”

“That sounds fascinating! May I see?” asks Ilvie curiously.

“Of course!” says Leonie, jumping from the swing, wiping her fingers on her overalls, and digging around in the box.

A pirate! A pirate for a great-grandmother! How exciting!

‘I think we’re going to like the human world a whole lot!’ she twinkles cheerfully to her little friend Theo.

‘Spirate, kirate … what is that? What do you do as a spirate?’ twinkles Theo back, still chewing. The human world seems cryptic to him.

Ilvie shakes her head at her little friend. Theo has a lot to learn about the human world!

“Ah, here it is!” says Leonie taking a photo from the box. “Look, this is my great-grandmother’s first ship—the Anastasia!”

“Wow, it’s beautiful! Take a look, Theo. What a beautiful ship the ­Anastasia is!” cries Ilvie with delight.

“Great-grandmother was so wise and strong that she conquered all the other pirate captains!” says Leonie. “After a while, the beautiful Anastasia was simply too small for the giant troop of courageous women and men who sailed with her. In the end, my great-grandmother had the biggest ­pirate ship that the world has ever seen, by the toothless Sphyraena!”

Leonie digs around in the box again. “Look at this!” Proudly, she holds up an old photo of a giant pirate ship. “That was the world’s largest pirate ship, and it belonged to my great-grandmother!”

“Wow, it’s really gigantic.” Ilvie is amazed. “Your great-grandmother was really a very courageous woman!”

“Oh yes, she was!” replies Leonie, staring off into space, lost in thought. “My great-grandmother’s goal was to fight for justice in the world. She ­believed that there are enough riches for everyone and that nobody has to be poor, but words alone aren’t enough to convince the rich people to give up a little of their wealth. That’s why my great-grandmother started stealing from the rich and giving what she stole to those who had less.”

Ilvie and Theo look at each other questioningly.

‘In the human world, there are people who have a lot and people who have less? I don’t understand that notevenalittlenotatall. Why is that?’ twinkles Theo with surprise.

Ilvie had heard about this in the land of the elves but couldn’t actually believe it.

‘Hmmm …’ Ilvie twinkles back. ‘I don’t know. I’ll ask Leonie when I get a chance.’

Leonie didn’t notice Ilvie and Theo’s twinkled conversation, so she just continues: “For a while, everything was just fine. My great-grandmother was fast, courageous, and wise—and she had a fast, courageous, and wise troop of women and men around her. Her specialty was robbing dangerous bandits and taking all their treasure. But then one day the evil, greedy ­Sicarius gang laid a trap for her, which became her downfall. My ­great-grandmother died as a hero and her crew with her. The ship sank, though, and the last and biggest treasure that she had collected was lost ­forever. Great-grandmother didn’t manage to give the treasure to anyone; she had hidden it so well that nobody in the world could find it.”

“Oh, that’s very sad, but also very exciting,” Ilvie mumbles dreamily. “Is it really not possible to find the treasure?”

“No,” replies Leonie sadly. “Somewhere, there’s a map that shows where the treasure is, but the map was also lost. Of course the mean, greedy ­Sicarius gang tried for years to find the map and the treasure—that was also the ­reason they lured my great-grandmother and her troop into the trap. ­Eventually, even the nasty crooks had to give up.” Leonie digs around in the box some more. “Oh, yes, here it is!” she cries with joy. “Look—this is a ­portrait of my great-grandmother.”

Ilvie handles the old photo carefully. “What a great, proud woman! And I really like her eye patch!” she says with admiration.

Leonie giggles. “Hee hee—yes, the eye patch; that was my great-grandmother’s fantastic pirate trick. You see, she fought on the decks of the ships that she and her troop conquered, but then sometimes the fight shifted suddenly down to the cabins and the rooms under the deck. When you go from sunlight into a darker room at first you can’t see anything because your eyes have to get used to the darkness. However, if you’ve ­always had one eye ­covered while the sun is shining and then you take the cover off in the dark, you can see much better than your ­opponents who had both eyes free in the sunshine. You should try it sometime! It really works. And there’s something else—­great-grandmother decided that she looked bolder and scarier with the eye patch; that’s why she almost always wore it when she was on board. It’s probably still in some box on her ship. Maybe I should put it on over my bandage—then I’d look as strong and bold as ­great-grandmother Grace!” says Leonie with a giggle.

“Why are you wearing the bandage? Not because of your great-grandmother?” Ilvie asks curiously.

“Oh, no!” replies Leonie. “It’s just that my left eye doesn’t work as well as my right one. So to train my left eye and get it used to seeing better, I have to c­over my right eye for a while. That’s all.”

‘Aha!’ twinkles Theo. ‘That’s a great trick! I’ll try it and we’ll see if I can see even better than I already do.’ He slides off the swing, holding his left eye shut and hopping around a tree. ‘Maybe it also works with your legs!’

“Oh dear,” Leonie snorts. “Theo, you’re really a hoot! Maybe you should join the circus!”

“Leonie!” calls a loud, droning man’s voice from far away. “Leonie! Lunchtime! Where are you? Leonie!”

“Oh, that’s papa! I have to run home for lunch,” says Leonie as she ­begins to pack the photos back into the box. “Will we see each other again later? Do you want to see the Anastasia? My great-grandmother’s boat is still down in the boat house, which once upon a time was used as a concert hall. Sometimes I go down there, have a look at it, and dream how things must have been when my great-grandmother went to sea on it. Do you want to go to the boathouse with me ­after lunch?”

“Of course we do! Gladly!” cries Ilvie, jumping off the swing. “I would most like to set sail on it right away to go on a treasure hunt!”

‘Waah!’ twinkles Theo with disgust. ‘Are you crazy? The waves get really big out there and there are storms! I won’t go with you. I’m sure I’d get really seasick! I don’t need any treasure!’ Defiantly, the little monkey puts his hands on his hips.

“Super, then we’ll meet here right after lunch!” says Leonie, running away. “I’m looking forward to it already!”

“See you later!” cries Ilvie to her new friend, but Leonie had already ­disappeared.

Ilvie sits back down on the swing next to Theo, swinging back and forth a little as she stares out at the ocean.

‘I know what you’re thinking about,’ twinkles Theo with disgust. ‘And ­no, we’re not doing that! We will NOT go to sea, Ilvie! The adventures we’re ­having on land are already exciting enough for a sensitive little monkey like me!’

‘How do you know that it’s so terrible out there when you’ve never been on the high sea?’ she twinkles back, putting her arm around her little friend. ‘We’ll see, dear Theo, we’ll see. But don’t worry, I’ll look after you, I promise!’