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- Herausgeber: Nosy Crow
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: The Rescue Princesses
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
Friendship, animals and secret royal adventures! With over one million Rescue Princesses titles sold, this action-packed series is the perfect combination of good friends, beautiful dresses, ninja moves and baby animals! The princesses are staying on the tropical island of Ampali for the summer. It's idyllic, until Clarabel finds a wounded dolphin and it becomes a race against time to save its life. How will they get it to safety before the tropical storm hits the island? From Paula Harrison, author of the Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue series. With short chapters and beautifully illustrated throughout, the Rescue Princesses series is perfect for readers aged seven and up. Related activity sheets are available on the Nosy Crow website. Check out the other titles in this series: The Secret Promise, The Silver Locket, The Moonlight Mystery and many more!
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Princess Clarabel bit her lip. Lightning cut through the sky in a jagged flash and the thunder boomed. The storm had pounced and the dolphin was out there, somewhere, trying to stay alive.
To James, thanks for understanding
Chapter One
The Island of Ampali
Princess Clarabel scattered the last crumbs of her breakfast for the brightly coloured birds that fluttered down to the veranda.
One small blue parrot sat on the wooden railing, eyeing her beadily.
“Go on then, or there’ll be none left,” laughed Clarabel, and the little parrot hopped down to peck at the pieces of apricot bread as if he knew exactly what she was saying.
After one last sip of peach juice Clarabel stepped off the veranda of the white palace on to a lawn that swept down to a clear, turquoise ocean.
Her golden hair flew out behind her in the sea breeze and the sapphire ring on her finger sparkled in the sunshine.
She loved staying here on the tropical island of Ampali. It was so much warmer than her home in the Kingdom of Winteria, where snow lay on the ground for most of the year.
The little blue parrot flew up to perch on her shoulder.
“Finished breakfast already?” said Clarabel.
“Squawk!” went the parrot.
Clarabel laughed and turned her eyes back to the ocean. In the distance, a row of small ships with snowy sails were practising for the Royal Regatta in two days’ time.
The regatta was a sailing-boat race and all twenty royal families from around the world had been invited to take part. Clarabel knew her father, the King of Winteria, was down at the harbour right now watching his crew sail.
Quick footsteps sounded behind her. Three princesses came racing out of the white-walled palace, laughing as they ran. Their light summer dresses seemed to float around them.
Princess Emily had red hair and a ruby ring, Jaminta had smooth dark hair and an emerald ring, and Lulu’s hair was wavy and black and she wore a ring of yellow topaz.
Clarabel’s heart lifted as they came closer. She’d met them all at a Grand Ball in the springtime. They had worked as a team to save the deer of Mistberg Forest and become great friends at the same time. The best thing about coming to Ampali Island was seeing each other again.
“Run, Clarabel, run!” cried Lulu, her eyes sparkling.
The little blue parrot squawked and flew off Clarabel’s shoulder in alarm.
Emily grabbed Clarabel’s hand and whirled her away to hide behind a row of palm trees that lined the edge of the garden.
“What’s going on?” asked Clarabel, trying to catch her breath.
Emily covered her mouth to stop her giggles, her red curls falling around her face.
“We’re making sure Prince Samuel doesn’t see us,” said Jaminta. “Queen Trudy’s decided that we should knit some kind of teapot covers for the Royal Regatta, so she’s sent him to find us and tell us to come inside.”
“Teapot covers?” said Clarabel, astonished. “You must mean tea cosies. We’re supposed to be making the flower garlands, aren’t we?”
“I think Queen Trudy just wants to stop us having fun,” whispered Emily. “I don’t mind making the flower garlands because those will look great on the marquee, but there’s no way I’m knitting those teapot things.”
“I bet she wants to make us sit still all day. That’s what she thinks princesses should do,” said Lulu.
“Shh! Here comes Samuel,” hissed Jaminta. “Remember your ninja moves, everyone.”
The four princesses ducked down. Clarabel silently went through her ninja training in her mind. Blend in with your surroundings. Wait for the right time to move. The princesses had practised a few ninja moves in the springtime but there was so much more to learn.
A scrawny boy with a sulky mouth stepped down off the veranda. “I can’t see them, Mother,” he called back. “They’ve gone.”
Slyly, he looked around him before taking a piece of paper out of his pocket. He unfolded it and held it up to the sunlight. Even from a distance the paper looked old and frayed at the edges.
With a loud rustling of feathers and leaves, the little blue parrot landed on the palm tree right above Clarabel’s head and looked down at her.
“Don’t parrots know any ninja moves?” whispered Emily, making Clarabel giggle.
Prince Samuel put the paper back in his pocket and stared hard in their direction.
The princesses froze as he came closer, peering behind red-flowered bushes. Any minute he would reach the path that led to the palm trees and the princesses’ hiding place.
“We have to get to the garden gate,” murmured Clarabel.
The others nodded. With slow, silent steps they crept past the palm trees and down the slope to the end of the garden. When Prince Samuel’s back was turned, they opened the gate and slipped through. Ahead of them lay the rolling sand dunes and then the wide, blue ocean.
Clarabel clicked the gate shut softly and glanced back. Samuel was walking round the palm trees where they’d been hiding. He was bending down to look into the bushes.
Suddenly the little blue parrot swooped down from the tree above, squawked loudly in Samuel’s ear and flew away again.
Prince Samuel clutched his head and bolted for the palace as if a gigantic animal was after him.
“Maybe that parrot does know some ninja moves after all,” said Clarabel, and they dashed across the sand dunes, filling the air with laughter.
Chapter Two
Princess Training
The princesses ran along the water’s edge, the sand flying beneath their feet.
Behind them lay the island’s harbour, with long rows of fishing boats and royal sailing ships. Miles and miles of golden beach stretched in front of them.
“I still can’t believe Prince Samuel was scared of a parrot,” said Lulu.
“He doesn’t seem to like animals very much,” replied Clarabel.
“We can’t escape him and Queen Trudy for ever,” said Jaminta. “But let’s not go back straightaway.”
“I know what we can do,” called Emily, running ahead. “Follow me!”
Emily led them away from the ocean, up the hill by the side of the white palace and into the rainforest. They stopped in a forest clearing with the chattering of birds and insects all around them.
Emily searched the ground and picked up a long coil of rope lying at the bottom of a tree. “Ally gave me this rope for practising, so I hid it here. She said if we were serious about rescuing animals we needed to work on our skills.”
Ally was Emily’s maid and the princesses trusted her completely. She’d helped them a little when they’d rescued the deer that springtime.
“The rope’s a great idea,” said Lulu. “We can use it to try out some new moves and stuff.”
“You mean we should try some climbing and somersaults? Like the drawings you put in all your letters?” asked Clarabel.
Lulu nodded. “I’ve been practising acrobatics a lot at home. We need to be ready for anything. One day we might need to rescue a creature at the top of a steep cliff or down a deep hole.”
Clarabel stifled a little shiver. When they’d rescued the deer the princesses had made a secret promise that they would always help an animal in trouble, no matter how dangerous it was. But Clarabel didn’t really like being too high up. Although how could she say so when the other princesses didn’t seem bothered at all?
They had been writing each other letters for weeks discussing what they needed to practise to become good at performing rescues.
