Susanne Stemmer - Ilvie Little and the Fearless Sailors

“Ha! There’s the little door!” cries Leonie with excitement. “Darn it, I can’t get it open!”

Both girls look like they are about to fall.

‘Oooooooh, be careful!’ twinkles Theo, peeking out from behind his hands.

Craaaack! Both girls would have fallen over if Ilvie hadn’t found her ­balance quickly.

‘Aaaaahhhhh! I knew something bad would happen, but you just wouldn’t listen to me,’ twinkles Theo. He had only heard the noise and thought all was lost.

“Ha! By the red-green spotted Taeniura Lymma!” cries Leonie with joy. “We’ve conquered the little door!” Slowly, she extends her hand into the hollow space behind the little door. “There’s something here, something pointy …” she says with excitement. “I’ll pull it out!”

Both girls look like they are about to fall again.

“Can you hold onto me, Ilvie?” calls Leonie as she stretches to pull the pointy thing out of the ­hollow space.

“Sure … certainly …” says Ilvie, straining. “For hours!”

“By the lame-winged Aetobatus Narinari!” Suddenly, Leonie is ­celebrating, holding a shiny little chest triumphantly in the air. “It’s the chest in the photo! It’s my great-grandmother Grace’s chest!”

“Yippeeeeee!” rejoices Ilvie. “Now, be careful. I’ll help you down!”

Ilvie carefully helps her friend down from the shelf, then both girls climb down from the table and place the chest on the desk. Slowly and carefully, Leonie opens it, holding her breath.

‘What’s in it? What’s in it?’ twinkles Theo eagerly, trying to climb onto the table in order to see better.

Ilvie helps him up. ‘Theo, I believe we’ve found the treasure map,’ she twinkles with joy.

“Here’s a piece of paper—this looks like it.” says Leonie, beaming as she pulls a rolled-up paper out of the chest and gently opens it out. “By the green-eared Coleoid! A map!” she cries so loudly that Theo has to cover his ears. “Amazing! We actually found the map that so many people have ­looked for! And it was always right here on the Anastasia!”

“Yippee!” shouts Ilvie even louder, while Theo dances his monkey-joy jiggling dance which makes Leonie shriek with laughter. The girls put the map on the table and unroll it completely.

“Great-grandmother Grace’s treasure map,” breathes Leonie joyfully. ­Beaming, the girls look at each other.

Slowly, Ilvie draws her hand across the map. “Hey, Leonie, take a look—somebody wrote something here!” she says, trying to decode the old handwriting. Ilvie continues, “Here, it says: ‘Turned three times, turned over three times. The first secret is in the temple of silence and knowledge and the everlasting lightness of life. Anyone who wants to find the treasure has to be very brave. It will take three trips, three stations on the wild, tossing sea …’ What does that mean?”

Leonie celebrates with a squeal and her free eye shines with enthusiasm. “Great-grandmother Grace was always a drama queen,” she says. “And it doesn’t surprise me one bit that she didn’t just hide one treasure map that shows exactly where the treasure is.”

She grins at her new friend and continues joyfully, “Ilvie, we’re going to sea! You’re completely right, my new friend, wherever you came from—we will search for and find this treasure. We’ve got a boat, we have all the charts and equipment that we need, I can sail really well, and we will all learn ­whatever else we have to learn on the way. We’ll set sail and complete ­great-grandmother Grace’s mission. And all of this is due to that great, courageous woman! We have to go, nothing else will do! By the two-headed Scorpaenopsis Lactomaculata!”

“Yippee!” rejoices Ilvie. “We’re going to sea! The fearless sailors are going to sea!”

The two girls hug each other and dance wildly around the library.

“I think we’d best prepare ourselves for a long trip,” Leonie giggles ­between two sailor dance steps. “Great-grandmother Grace loved tricky riddles and secret languages; I fear she won’t make things easy for those ­looking for the treasure—us that is!”

“That’s OK,” rejoices Ilvie, turning a few wild pirouettes. “We’ll find this treasure, I’m sure of it!”

‘Ohmygod … ohmygod,’ twinkles Theo, watching the whole scene with fearful amazement and then covering his eyes with both hands again. ‘Now I have to go to sea too! Storms and waves and seasickness and spirates! Help! Ilvie, you can’t do this to me! It’s too much for such a little monkey!’

‘Theo, don’t worry, it will be great! We’re going on a treasure hunt! Don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you,’ twinkles Ilvie, hugging the little monkey tightly. ‘We’ll have a super good first adventure on human land, Theo!’

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