Susanne Stemmer - Ilvie Little and the Fearless Sailors

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.”