sea of tranquillity

 

“Oh my God” said Barry as she clambered up the feathered legs of Skybastian. Both Larry and Harry leaned down and took hold of her by the arms and hauled her on board! The eagle took off again with a wink and a nod to his passengers.

Skybastian flew them over the fields where Jack lives and far away from the forest where Little Red lives and over the river near the home of the Three Bears. He flew them over the Mountains of Mystery and finally to the Sea of Tranquillity. He did a neat two point landing onto the beach of Blibba Blubba Bay, scattering the sea shells by the sea shore.

No sooner had they slithered off his feathered back onto the shiny sand, when Skybastian took off again in a hurry. He had spotted the flying fish in the shallow waters of the bay. “H-U-N-G-R-Y” he squawked and flapped one wing to say farewell to the Arry girls.

“Where will we find FINKLEBLOOM” said Barry.

“I have no idea”, said Harry.

“Let’s see if we can find any signs – anything that looks like a FINKLEBLOOM” – said Larry.

“Do you even know what a FINKLEBLOOM looks like” asked Harry with a sneer.

“Nope. But I reckon I will know one when I see one”, said Larry with a laugh.

They began to walk across the sandy beach towards a group of rocks at the edge of the bay, just opposite a crop of tall palm trees. Just as they were approaching the rocks, they heard a shout from the trees and out slithered a school of mermaids and mermen; sleek and silvery with long fish tails. They were all talking at once loudly, and pointing at the girls in alarm.

The Arry girls could not understand one word – it all sounded like they were talking under water.

“Unbelievable, unintelligible”, said Harry.

“What on earth are they?” said Larry.

“WAAARRGGHHHH”, said Barry.

One of the silvery mermen rose up on his tail and began to wave his arms about trying to get the others to shut up! He beckoned to the girls. Larry looked at Harry, Barry looked at Larry and then gazed in amazement at the scaly, silvery people in front of them. Barry spotted one quiet, red headed Mermaid. “She looks just like Little Mermaid,” said Barry. “I think she’s friendly”, she said over the cacophony of sound. They were all Blibbing and Blubbing over the top of each other and arguing about something!

Larry looked at the strange fish people and shouted, “We’re looking for FINKLEBLOOM”.

When the leader heard the name he waved at the others to be quiet. “My name is Hans. I am a Swedish merman fish”, he said slowly in his best Swedish accented English. “Why are you seeking FINKLEBLOOM?”

Larry, Barry and Harry all began to tell Hans their story, each one spilling their words out in a rush, over the top of each other.

“We were buttering the toast”.

“We argued about who was doing what, and got into a big mess”.

“We teleported to Glassland to find the magic harp of the Ogre”.

“Skybastian brought us here to find FINKLEBLOOM.”

“We need help to fix our costumes”.

Hans raised his hands and placed them over this ears. “Slow down, one at a time please!” he said. “You lot are as bad as this lot. Always talking over each other, always arguing. I’ll bet you never get anything done either. Nothing ever gets done here and we can’t sleep properly because of the noise of the arguments.”

“What do you people argue about?” asked Harry.

“We’ve lost the key to cooperation”, said Hans sadly.

“What’s the key to cooperation”, asked Larry.

“What does cooperation mean”, asked Barry.