On the Story Sea (9781743583531) (3 page)

Buddy dropped his juggling balls. He had seen that look on Lola's face before.

Lola had a
plan
.

Soon Lola, Pirate Sal and Buddy were back up on deck.

Sal ordered the ship's crew to bring up the treasure chests.

‘But only the ones full of stories,' she said.

Lola watched the funny puppet pirates struggle to carry the heavy chests.

Soon the chests were all lined up, ready to go.

Pirate Sal was busy getting the fishing nets into place.

Buddy was standing next to Lola, watching it all.

‘I hope this works,' he said. ‘By my buttons, I do!'

Lola smiled. But she was nervous, too. It was a simple plan. Was it
too
simple?

If it went wrong, they would lose all the stories Pirate Sal had been keeping safe in the treasure chests. They would be even worse off than they were now!

But Lola knew they had to try. They
had
to stop the Plastic Prince.

If he took
all
the great ideas from the world's stories, he would become even stronger. And then the whole Kingdom would be in danger!

Pirate Sal appeared at Lola's side. ‘Everything is ready,' she said.

Together, Lola, Buddy and Pirate Sal walked over to the treasure chests.

‘We should take one chest each,' said Sal. ‘Are you ready?'

Buddy nodded.

Lola took a deep breath and nodded too.

‘It's a splendid plan, Lola,' said Pirate Sal. ‘Let's hope it works!'

Lola, Pirate Sal and Buddy each opened a treasure chest. Then, one by one, they started
throwing
the pages into the sea. The pages fluttered down and landed in the water.

‘When they get wet, the stories will leave the paper and return to float in the Story Sea,' called Pirate Sal.

Lola, Buddy and Sal worked quickly, throwing in more and more stories.

Soon the treasure chests were empty. Out at sea, a long line of pages drifted away from the ship.

They watched and waited.

Lola began to worry. Perhaps it wasn't such a good plan after all.

They watched and waited some more.
What if I've made a terrible mistake?
Lola thought.

Then, all of a sudden, it happened. There was a big splash, and the huge plastic submarine leapt out of the water!

Then it dived back down, sinking beneath the waves.

Lola felt her heart beating loudly. ‘It's working,' she cried. ‘It's working!' The submarine jumped out of the water again.

It was moving quickly. And it was coming their way!

Each time the submarine jumped up they could see its big, open mouth scooping up the stories.

The first part of Lola's plan was working. But what would happen next?

In a few minutes, the submarine would be really close. The crew took their positions.

Pirate Sal climbed up the mast, ready to give the signal.

This was the scariest moment. Lola was holding her breath. This
had
to work.

Buddy touched her arm.

‘It will be OK, Lola,' he whispered. ‘I can feel it in my stuffing.' Lola put her arm around her cuddly friend.

Then there was an almighty great
SPLASH!

Lola gasped.

The submarine was right next to them!

It was so close that Lola could see in through the round windows.

The submarine was full of Almost Toys. So, they were right – the submarine
was
from Nevercalm!

‘Release the nets!' yelled Pirate Sal.

The puppet pirate crew threw the fishing nets over the submarine.

The submarine was big and powerful. But it was also caught in Pirate Sal's huge fishing nets.

‘
Yippee
!' Lola cried. ‘We did it!'

Buddy started to turn cartwheels on deck as the pirate crew tied long ropes around the submarine.

Then they hoisted it high above the ship.

As the submarine swayed in the breeze, hundreds of pages started to fall from its giant open mouth.

More and more stories
poured
out.

Lola laughed in delight. She grabbed Buddy's mitten and danced beneath the falling pages.

Soon the deck of the ship was covered in stories.

Pirate Sal slid down on a rope from the mast, grinning.

Just then, Lola heard a rattling coming from the submarine above them. She grabbed Buddy and dived out of the way.

Just in time!

Four Almost Toys fell out of the submarine and onto the deck in a heap.

They were very
odd-looking
.

Lola always felt a bit sorry for Almost Toys. They were brightly painted, but they never looked quite right.

And because they were plastic, they didn't look, well, cuddly. Not at all.

Pirate Sal strode over to Lola and Buddy.

‘We'll break up the plastic
subma-thingy
,' said Pirate Sal. ‘And we'll drop it in the drink!'

Buddy looked confused.

‘The
drink
means the sea,' explained Lola.

‘And then, these four toys can walk the plank!' said Pirate Sal.

Lola knew what that meant. It was a famous pirate punishment.

Enemies were made to walk along a wooden plank into the sea – and they never came out again.

‘No,' said Lola. ‘That's not fair!'

Pirate Sal looked at her, surprised.

‘Pirate Sal,' said Lola, ‘it's just not right. These Almost Toys were only following orders. We shouldn't hurt them.'

‘But they were
stealing stories
,' said Pirate Sal.

‘Only because they were told to,' said Lola firmly. ‘Look at them.

Do you really think this was
their
idea?'

Pirate Sal looked over at the rather sad Almost Toys. Then she nodded slowly.

‘You're right,' she said. ‘We will keep them on board. Who knows? We might make pirates out of them yet!'

Lola laughed. The Almost Toys looked absolutely
nothing
like pirates.

Pirate Sal unclipped one of her gold button earrings and placed it in Lola's hand.

‘This is a present to say thank you,' said Pirate Sal. ‘And when you visit again, you will be known to all as
First Mate Lola
!'

Lola beamed. Buddy did another wonky cartwheel and landed on his head, his juggling balls rolling all over the deck.