Chapter 50 - All Aboard!

            Narteb, Pip and Skaife stood on the pier.

            Lucy waved her hands about wildly, it looked a bit like a lizard haad crawled down her back.  But she must have been making signals to Sandy, for eventually the Pleiosaur lowered her head and rested it on the pier right before them!

            Narteb could hardly believe he was now gazing almost eye to eye with a giant sea creature!  She smelled strongly of the sea, which was fine with narteb, he loved that smell.

            “Well, we don’t have all say,” said Lucy, “Climb aboard, team.”

            Narteb, Pip and Skaife looked at each other and eventually Narteb realised Pip and Skaife were waiting for him, so he turned to face Sandy.  He looked ofr a place where he could stick his foot to start his ascent.

            e wedged his foot into her nostril.

            “Not there!  What are you doing?” said Lucy, “If she sneezes she’ll send  you flying a hundred feet!  See over there, at the back of her head?  There are leather straps you can hold onto all the way up her back.”

            Narteb walked around the back of Sandy’s head (her large reptilian eyes followed him.  Sure enough, he saw the leather straps.  It was almost like a leather ladder that went all the way along Sandy’s neck.  Narteb decided not to think too much about it and just started climbing, sticking his feet into the horizontal leather bits, one rung at a time, and gripping hard on whatever else he could hold onto.  He could feel himself getting higher and higher up, as he made his way along Sandy’s neck, until he eventually reached a series of white leather seats strapped to the highest part of her arched back.

            There was one seat at the front, probably for the driver, because that’s where the reins attached to this neat looking mechanism that held them in place.  Behind the driver’s seat were twelve more white leather seats, arranged side by side in pairs along the ride og Sandy’s back.  There was a narrow gap between the pairs of chair, an aisle that one could walk along to get to the back seats.

            Now that he had reached his destination, Narteb finally allowed himself to look around.

            “Wooo.  This is high up,” said Narteb and he took in a deep breath.

            Pip and Skaife followed son after and Narteb grabbed them each by the hand and helped them walk around to the white chairs.

            “I am certain this is not a good model for a safe transport business,” declared Pip.

            “It is beautiful up here, though,” said Skaife.

            “It certainly is,” said Narteb, gazing at her.

            She wrinkled her nose at him and smiled.

            “Okay, team,” called out Lucy from below, “Take your seats.  One person sit at the front and be the driver.”

            “What?” said Narteb, “Aren’t you coming with us?”

            “I’m sorry but I value my life.  No, its just the three of you going to Kuma.  Don’t worry, Sandy knows where she is going.  In theory, everything will be fine.  It’s more of an emergency thing.  Just pick someone to sit in the drivers seat and look pretty.”

            “Good luck, Narteb,” said Pip and he sat down in the first passenger seat.

            “”You can do it, Narteb.  I believe in you,” said Skaife, and she took a seat next to Pip.

            “Well, I guess I’m driving then,” said Narteb, “How hard can it be?”

            He sat down in the driver’s seat.  In front of him was a mechanism that attached to the think white leather reins which in turn attached to Sandy’s mouth.  The main part of it was two vertical discs each with a handle protruding horizontally out, one on the left and one on the right.

            “I’m assuming,” shouted Narteb, “If I wind the left handle, Sandy will turn left.  If I wind the right handle, she will turn right.  And then if I wind them both forwards at the same time, she will slow down, and if I wind them both backwards at the same time, she will go faster.  Is it something like that?”

            Lucy just looked up at Narteb, uninterested and shrugged her shoulders.  “Okay, good luck, team!” she said, “Off you go now!  And if you happen to make it alive to Kuma, remember to give my company, Bon Bon Voyage a good review, and be sure to mention how helpful and cute I am.”

            And with that, Lucy raised her arms.  The wind blew coolly across her.

            “Sandy!” she said, “Time to-”

            “WAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!!”

            It was the sound of a deep, loud voice.

            They all turned to look and saw the voice belonged to a large man with a black bushy beard, who wore a red jacket with yellow trimming.  He was running as fast as he could down the pier towards them.  He looked exhausted and his face was almost the same red as his jacket.

            “Wait!” he said once again, when he reached them, “I need passage to Kuma. Urgently.”