Lilly and Fin: A Mermaid's Tale Read online

  “Well, I…” Lilly didn’t know what to answer. Merpups are really extraordinarily brave, especially the small ones, but that day had been too much, even for Lilly.

  “You don’t have to be afraid,” the giant kraken told her. “I’m sure I can handle that little monster of yours. I just thought you might want to watch.”

  Lilly thought of poor Fin and the terrible pincers. Then she nodded. “I’m coming.”

  “Great!” the giant kraken said, throwing Lilly up like a Ping-Pong ball. “I haven’t had this much fun in centuries. That monster won’t know what hit it.”

  The kraken’s cave had many exits. One of them was high up between the rocks.

  From there one had a first-class view of the crevice Lilly had fled into, and the Sea Devil hovering in front of it. “There it is!” the kraken whispered.

  “Yes. That’s the one,” Lilly whispered back. “It’s waiting for me to come out. Yuck!”

  “It really is quite big,” the kraken observed. “But not nearly as big as I am. I’ll swim a little closer. Come.”

  They stopped behind another rock. “You’ve been telling me fibs!” the kraken growled.

  “What? Why?” Lilly asked, surprised.

  “That there isn’t an animal at all. Or have you ever seen an animal made of metal? With screws and bolts and eyes made of glass?”

  “No, but what else could it be, then?” Lilly was confused.

  “That, you little pup, is a Two-Legs machine.”

  “What? So Two-Legs are also real?”

  The kraken shot Lilly an angry look. “Of course! You really don’t know much at all, do you?”

  “I…I just thought they were a scary tale for merpups. Just like…” Lilly stopped, looking embarrassed.

  “Just like the giant kraken.” The kraken gave her a friendly nudge. “I get it.”

  “How do you know about the Two-Legs?” the mergirl asked.

  The giant kraken rolled his eyes and started getting yellow spots all over his head. He always got those when he was embarrassed.

  “When I was younger, I’d sometimes play with their boats. You know, shake them a little. I thought that was funny, until I realized that the Two-Legs didn’t always survive falling into the water. Since then I just scare them a little every so often.”

  “Do they really eat merpups?” Lilly asked.

  “No idea. Maybe. Why do you ask? Oh, because of your friend?”

  Lilly nodded.

  “You know,” the kraken said, “maybe they just caught your friend so they can eat him later.”

  “But then we could still save him!” Lilly looked at the kraken, hope in her eyes.

  “Not a problem!” the kraken replied. “Come on. Those Two-Legs aren’t stupid. They built themselves quite a nice little machine there. But now it’s time I gave it a bit of a shake.”

  Mr. Snorkel’s eyes were red.

  “I can’t keep staring through this stupid thing!” he muttered, pushing the periscope aside.

  “She’ll be coming out any second!” Mrs. Snorkel said. “I can feel it.”

  “Humbug!” Mr. Snorkel growled. “You’ve been saying that for hours.” Ignatius Harkenear was lying on the floor. He’d been asleep for a while now.

  “We’ve caught giant sharks!” Mr. Snorkel ranted on. “And long sea serpents. But it has never taken this long. Blasted little slithers!”

  “Herman! Something’s coming!” Mrs. Snorkel suddenly called.

  “Sure!” Mr. Snorkel kept pacing up and down.

  “Herman! It’s huge!” Mrs. Snorkel cried.

  “Whatever!” Mr. Snorkel muttered. “We should just take that one merpup and call it a day. Let’s go back home.”

  The answer came as a piercing shriek. Mrs. Snorkel had jumped back from the porthole and was now cowering behind a chair.

  Someone was looking in through the thick glass, with eyes the size of an umbrella.

  Mr. Snorkel began to tremble all over. “Harkenear!” he breathed. “What is that out there?”

  But the detective was still snoring peacefully in his corner.

  Suddenly the Sea Devil began to shake as though it was in the grips of a mighty storm. Mr. Snorkel, Mrs. Snorkel, and Mr. Harkenear were rolling around the floor like marbles. Ignatius Harkenear finally woke up. “What is going on?” he shouted.

  “Out there!” Mr. Snorkel panted as he rolled under a table.

  “What?” Mr. Harkenear shrieked as he rolled against the wall.

  The giant eyes were still staring through the porthole, and they looked amused. For a brief moment, a little face also appeared in the glass, but nobody noticed that in all the commotion.

  “Our beautiful submarine!” Mrs. Snorkel wailed. “Herman, do something! I’m already bruised all over.”

  “We have to get to the escape pod!” Mr. Snorkel huffed. He was trying to crawl away, with Mrs. Snorkel and Mr. Harkenear behind him on all fours.

  The escape pod sat on top of the Sea Devil like an ugly wart. The only way in was up a narrow ladder. All three tried again and again to climb up, but the shaking and wobbling just wouldn’t stop, and they kept dropping off the ladder like ripe fruit. When they finally all made it to the top, they had bruises everywhere.

  “Seat belts!” Mr. Snorkel yelled.

  The other two strapped themselves in with trembling fingers. “Herman, we forgot the merpup!” Mrs. Snorkel whined.

  “Why don’t you get him, then?” Mr. Snorkel barked at her.

  “No! No!” Mrs. Snorkel whispered. “I think I’d rather not.”

  Mr. Snorkel pressed a shaky hand down on a huge red button.

  The little rescue pod gave a jolt before screeching toward the surface at breakneck speed.

  The three passengers cast one last glance back, and what they saw made their hair stand on end: their beautiful Sea Devil was being squeezed like an empty soda can by the giant arms of an enormous bright red kraken. And one of those red arms was just now reaching for their escape pod.

  Fin was still sitting in his tiny prison when the giant kraken started shaking the Sea Devil.

  The first jolt made the jar fall off its pedestal. It started rolling noisily back and forth on the floor.

  It was horrible. Just horrible!

  Hundreds of jars started rolling all over the big room. They smashed into the walls and into each other, and to Fin’s huge surprise, some of them even shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. “Oh no!” he gasped. Out there was air, nothing but disgusting, deadly air. Not a drop of water anywhere. And his prison was rolling toward the wall again.

  Fin squeezed his eyes shut. This, he thought, is definitely the worst day of my life, and the way things are going, it’s also going to be my last.

  Outside, Lilly was shouting, “What are you doing?” She was swimming in front of the giant kraken’s eyes.

  “I’m just giving those Two-Legs a little shake!” the giant kraken howled with delight. “They really don’t like that at all!”

  “But what about Fin?” Lilly cried. “Fin probably doesn’t like it, either. You’re hurting him!”

  “Nonsense!” the giant kraken boomed. This was way too much fun to just stop. “They’ll come out soon. You’ll see!” He began to hum to himself.

  “Who’s coming out?” Lilly asked.

  “The Two-Legs, you dimwit!” And at that very moment, the rescue pod shot away from the Sea Devil.

  “See?” The giant kraken triumphantly tucked the rather dented submarine under one arm and stretched another arm after the escapees. Soon the arm had wrapped itself around the pod, and the kraken leisurely started pulling it in.

  “Want to have a look inside?” he asked Lilly. “Maybe your friend is in there.”

  Lilly peered through one of the portholes. “Yuck!” She shook herself. “They’re disgusting. So pale. And one of them has funny eyes.”

  “Hmm.” The kraken nodded. “There’s also dark-skinned Two-Legs. They aren’t quite so dis
gusting. Though they’re all fairly yucky anyway.”

  “But Fin isn’t in there,” Lilly observed. She hung her head disappointedly.

  “Well, he’s probably still in that other thing.” The kraken apologetically shrugged his many shoulders. He shook the capsule like a rattle. “What shall we do with the Two-Legs?”

  “I don’t know.” Lilly suppressed a sob. “I don’t care. I just want Fin back.”

  “Fine, I’ll let them swim,” the kraken said. “They’re not good company, and they make very boring toys, and they definitely don’t taste good. Off you go, then!”

  He cast the capsule away. For a few moments, it just wove through the water like a drunken bug. Then it shot off toward the surface.

  “Don’t show yourselves around here again!” the kraken called after it, waving all his arms.

  Lilly could only think of one thing: what had happened to Fin?

  The kraken had stopped shaking the submarine, and Fin’s jar was still intact.

  It rolled across the glass splinters that now covered the entire floor, before stopping in a corner. Suddenly everything was still. Very still.

  Exhausted, Fin closed his eyes and leaned against the cold glass. His heart was still beating like crazy. But just as it started to slow down a bit, something knocked against his invisible prison.

  The Two-Legs are back, the merpup thought. Well, I don’t care. Another knock.

  And another. And one more.

  “Nobody’s home!” Fin grumbled.

  He reluctantly opened one eye—and quickly shut it again.

  Now I’ve gone completely mad, he thought. That had looked like a huge kraken arm.

  His prison was lifted up. The jar rocked back and forth. Fin opened the other eye. It was a kraken arm. A huge bright red arm. And it was carrying him toward a broken porthole, through which he could see the friendly shimmer of the ocean.

  Fin groaned and shut his eye again. That’s enough, he thought. If on top of everything else I’ll now also get eaten by a giant kraken….

  “Hey, Fin!” Lilly called. She kept knocking on the glass jar. “Open your eyes. Come on! It’s me!”

  But the merpup kept his eyes firmly squeezed shut.

  “Can you open this?” Lilly asked the kraken.

  “Sure.” The giant kraken wrapped the tip of one of his arms around the lid and squeezed it gently. Plop! The jar opened. Green seawater rushed inside. Fin opened his eyes.

  “Finally!” Lilly exclaimed, beaming at him. “Come out of there.”

  “No way!” Fin growled. He shot a very worried glance at the giant kraken.

  “You don’t have to be scared of him,” Lilly said. “He’s a friend of mine.”

  “You’ve got some funny friends,” Fin growled again. He stayed right where he was.

  So the kraken just tipped the jar upside down and shook the merpup out. “There!” he said, tapping his tentacle against Fin’s chest. “And now you can apologize for your bad manners, and you can thank me for rescuing you. Or I’ll eat you after all!”

  “Thanks. And sorry,” Fin said quickly. He floated behind Lilly’s back.

  “You’re welcome,” the giant kraken answered. “The pleasure was all mine. Haven’t had this much fun in a long time. And what do we do now?”

  “Now we have to get home, and quickly!” Lilly answered. “If I’m not back for dinner, I’m going to be in big trouble.”

  “Not a problem!” the giant kraken boomed. He held out a tentacle to the two merpups. “I’ll be your taxi!”

  And so the giant kraken brought Lilly and Fin home. Not all the way home, for that would have caused too much alarm in the city of the mermaids. No, he dropped them just where the guards couldn’t see them.

  “Good-bye,” he said. “I do hope you’ll come and visit?”

  “Sure!” Lilly promised, nudging her friend.

  “Definitely,” Fin muttered, though he still thought the kraken was too big.

  They all waved at each other, and then the kraken disappeared between the rocks. Lilly and Fin turned around and swam back into the city.

  “Next time my parents talk about the terrible giant kraken,” Lilly said, “I’m probably going to laugh!”

  “Well, I definitely won’t laugh next time someone talks about the Two-Legs,” Fin muttered. “They’re even worse than in all those stories.”

  They swam past the guards.

  “What shall we do tomorrow?” Lilly asked.

  “I’m going to sleep tomorrow,” answered Fin.

  “The whole day?”

  “The whole day.”

  “Hmm.”

  For a while, they just swam silently next to each other.

  “Fin?” Lilly finally asked.

  “What?”

  “I promise: I’ll listen to you the next time your scales itch.”

  Fin shot her a wary look. “Promise?”

  “On my honor!”

  They had reached the shipwreck where Lilly lived with her parents. “So you’ll be sleeping all day tomorrow?” Lilly asked again.

  “Maybe not,” Fin answered, grinning. “Might get a bit boring, don’t you think?”

  “Great! Then let’s meet tomorrow. The usual place?”

  Fin nodded.

  Suddenly a small lantern fish came zooming toward them. “Lamps!” Lilly sighed with relief. “You found your way home.”

  “Hey, you coward!” said Fin.

  “He doesn’t feel guilty at all.” Lilly observed.

  “Oh well.” Fin yawned. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See ya!” Lilly waved until Fin had disappeared behind the next wreck.

  “I’m so glad the Two-Legs didn’t eat him,” she whispered to Lamps. “After all, he’s my very best friend.”

  And then she and the little fish swam toward the brightly lit cabin where her parents were already waiting for her.

  Do you want to know what happened to the Snorkels and Mr. Harkenear?

  Well, their escape pod drifted across the ocean for over a week, until a huge, rusty freighter fished them out of the water.

  Mr. Snorkel and Mr. Harkenear both had a beard and a black eye because they had spent all the time fighting over whose fault it was that their hunt had gone so completely wrong.

  Mrs. Snorkel of course did not grow a beard, but she had red eyes from crying because she now didn’t have a merpup to put with her pink baby kraken. And all three of them were seasick from the escape pod bobbing on the waves. And they still had their bruises from being shaken by a giant kraken.

  They kept fighting even on board the freighter, until its captain finally threatened to leave them on some deserted island. From then on, they just shot each other nasty looks and kept trying to trip each other up.

  Mr. Snorkel kept muttering, “I’ll get them, those darned mermaids.” Mrs. Snorkel kept sighing as she looked out over the vast ocean.

  And Ignatius Harkenear decided right there and then to quit his profession as an underwater detective. And he really did.

  The Snorkels…well, I just can’t be so sure.

  I think they’re still trying to catch mermaids. Who knows? Maybe they’re just setting off again right now….

  HAVE MORE FIN-TASTIC FUN WITH LILLY AND FIN!

  You will find a treasure chest hidden in every picture of the main story (except for the little ones at the end of each chapter). Some are no bigger than a fingernail, so look closely. Happy treasure hunting!

  If you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll notice something even fishier about the illustrations in this book. Hidden in seven of the largest pictures is an animal that doesn’t belong underwater. Get your goggles on, and dive with Lilly and Fin to find all seven! The answers are on this page. No peeking!

  Answer key: wild boar, hedgehog, lion, dog, elephant, leopard, mouse

  Do you or a family member like to knit?

  Check out these knitting patterns!

  corneliafunke.com/en/news/knitted-underwater-he
roes

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CORNELIA FUNKE is the New York Times bestselling author of many magical books for children, including The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, and Inkheart. She was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2005. She was born in Germany and lives with her family in California.

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