Chapter five, The Disappearing Lake. Zararah watched King Dagda from his enormous oak
four poster bed. He hung the do not disturb sign on his little round
door. His whistling turned to singing. He cut a flap in the bottle
with his saw and glued hinges onto the hatch. He painted a big set
of teeth on the front, two crazy eyes, and the name Shark on
her bow. Zarara knew that meant shark in Irish. His singing got louder
and louder, hooting out of the chimney and nearly blowing the roof off,
Zarara could see he was enjoying himself. Some brave fairies peeked in at the
window. At last, he threw open the door and handed the crowd a
long rope. Pull her out, he announced. Some of the fairies shrank
back, afraid of the angry looking bottle boat safety feature, he said,
pointing at the teeth to scare away seals and otters and bad elves. It
will be low tide in about an hour or so. Come on, let's
pull her down to the disappearing Lake. Zarara in her best sparkly dress for
meeting Princess muppett watched the fairies step down into Shork one by one as the
level of the lake slowly dropped. Laura in her shimmering green mermaid wetsuit with
a detachable tail, Jenny in last season's dandelion dress from the Fairy Collection.
She was pulling a heavy picnic basket, Gracious, who had dyed her hair
in rainbow colors and was dragging a large sack of art equipment, and Queen
Maeve in stylish purple waterproofs with high Viz stripes on the shoulder. Zarara hopped
in last, and they all sat on the little row of pebbles that stopped
the boat from tipping over. King dagged Us stood up at the front to
give his safety demonstration. Put on your seatbelts. I am going to close
the hatch. Please keep hold of the safety handles at all times. Do
not release the hatch until I say so. We have enough air to last
us until we surface. If we have an accident, hold onto the rope
and Laura will swim us to safety. When we arrive, I will give
the signal to hop out, and you must do so immediately. We don't
want to end up floating across the Atlantic, all the way to New York.
Not today, anyhow, Queen Maeve is going to give you mint leaves
to chew for travel sickness. May Mother Nature bless this boat and keep those
within her safe. King Dagda said he gave Shork a shove off a nearby
rock. Artur stood on the bank practicing his archery. He waived them with
an encouraging smile. Good luck. Oh it floats, shouted Sarah with glee.