The Mermaid’s Herb

By Shona Gupta

WSS is not a typical 11-year-old you might find in
Nairobi. His secretly exciting life gets more exciting
and challenging when he meets Bella, a dinosaur,
and two young friends.
He must help give this long extinct species of
dinosaurs its chance of survival, and also find the
missing families of his friends. All roads lead them
to a magical Mermaid’s Herb.
Will WSS be able to help his friends? Will they
together find The Mermaid’s Herb?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Srishti Publishers
• Release date: Jun 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9789387022669

Book preview

India

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank each and everyone in my family for supporting me in writing this book.

It started out as a comic book for a competition which I could not attend due to some reasons. My mother and father suggested that I continue this comic series as a full-fledged book for children of my age. And once I completed it, my parents knew that this must be published. I thank my father as he has really spent a lot of his time and energy in making my dream book a reality.

I would also like to thank my friends Meha and Ashia, who were very supportive and never ceased in providing me with new and interesting ideas.

I also want to thank Shubham, my sevenyear-old brother, who cheered me on and reminded me every day that my book will shake the world, and will sell worldwide.

I would never forget Ms Jyoti Sharma, Vice-Principal of Podar International School, Powai, for helping me during difficult times I faced in the school. She was always eager for my book to see light of the day. Also, I thank the entire staff of my school, which has been teaching me for the last six years.

Last but not the least, I must thank Srishti Publishers for choosing my work for printing, and Ishan Uncle for bringing my story to life through his illustrations.

I have enjoyed this process of putting my imagination into words. And I hope my message expresses gratitude towards everyone, even those who I have not been able to cover through the note above.

With lots of love and gratitude,

Shona

1

The invitation

from Bella

It was six in the morning and WSS, the superhero, was in bed.

He was quite tired after a hard long night of handling the garbage segregation of the entire neighbourhood of Georgetown. It was the most thickly populated part of Nairobi, where he had lived all his life. He was feeling strangely cold, very cold.

He woke up at nine, shivering and coughing. Rubbing his eyes, he saw everything coming back into focus again. At the foot of the bed, the floor was flooded with presents and thank you cards from people he had helped in his last two years as Waste Segregation Servant. It was a voluntary service which he had started as a kid of ten. His real name was John, however people who knew him and loved him, started calling him WSS, short form for ‘World’s Small Soldier’.

It was Christmas day. He climbed out of bed and threw open his room’s mist-covered window to allow the day’s light and air to come in. WSS was a twelve years old, however, at a height of more than five feet six inches, he appeared like an athletic teenager. Of African descent, he had brown shiny skin with curly hair. Deviating from his descent, strangely, he had misty blue eyes, which he believed came from his European mother. Even though he looked like any ordinary boy, his powers were known only to the people whom he had helped. By his own will, he could decrease and increase anything at will. He could fly and summon anything he wanted.

His misty blue eyes were dry as the cold wind blew into his face and his curly brown hair flew back. Rubbing his eyes, he smiled and said, I have been so busy lately, that I have lost of track of time. I must thank all my friends who remembered to send me these presents.

He walked to his walk-in closet and chose to wear a red T-shirt and jeans. He sat down beside his presents and started ripping off the wrapping paper. In the pile of presents, an envelope caught his eye. He grabbed it and opened it. It read:

Respected WSS,

I am Bella. You do not know me. You are the first person in this world who I am writing to for help. My future generations will thank you. If your busy time permits, I seek your time today at 1 p.m. It would be an honour if you accept my invitation and come to meet me at the edge of town. You can drop your confirmation through your most trusted messengers:) at the place of our meeting.

I hope you accept it. Merry Christmas! I will wait for you to come.

Bella

WSS read and thought, ‘Could it be a trick? A joke? Why would some stranger ask me to meet at the edge of town?’ But again, he had faced stranger things than unusual letters from unknown people in the past as well. His young brain couldn’t take it, but he sensed this was kind of important and he should go. He wrote ‘yes’ on a chit of paper, marking it ‘For Bella’, and asked a passing pigeon, one amongst his most trusted messengers, to deliver it. The bird happily agreed to its dearest friend.

So, at 1 p.m. WSS flew across to the end of Nairobi. What he saw took his breath away. A green dinosaur was waiting for him. WSS landed on the ground and tried moving his lips, but no sound came out. Bella, the young little dinosaur cheerfully said, Close your mouth, WSS, or a fly will fly inside. I’m Bella and we are going to have a great time!

She dragged him into a nearby forest and they started chatting. After he got over his shock, he had the time of his life. They talked, laughed, whistled, sang songs, played catch, fetch and volleyball. They had races and so much more. Time literally flew. Around 6 p.m., WSS’s special watch rang into the silence. He took a look at it and a troubled look crossed his face.

I am really sorry, but I have to go. There is an emergency.

Can I come too? asked Bella. WSS might have argued that it was too dangerous, but he was running out of time, so he nodded and flew up like a rocket and motioned her to follow.

2

Attack on the

headquarters

Bella had to hurry to keep up with WSS’s pace.

What’s going on? shouted Bella, as she followed WSS, dodging a building.

You will understand when you get inside, replied WSS. He froze in terror as he reached his headquarters — a large hidden place inside an old unoccupied house, which was supposedly his ancestral home. Some dark figures were trying to force their way in.

WSS quickly reduced Bella to toy-size. Even a superhero like WSS could not fight so many people single-handedly. He went behind a wall and hid Bella alongside.

One of the hooded figures said in a cracking voice, Come out, you coward, and fight us!

WSS hoped that the special charm he had put on his headquarters worked, and these intruders would not be able to get inside. It seemed that the charm had somehow failed and the intruders were already inside.

I have an idea, said Bella.

What? said WSS desperately.

I can go through that window and try scaring whatever those things are, said Bella.

But how will you get through that window unnoticed? asked WSS.

You will throw me through that window and help grow my size, replied Bella.

But it is too dangerous! protested WSS, but Bella didn’t listen.

Fine, sighed WSS. Here you go!

And WSS threw the pocket-sized Bella into his HQ windows. She crashed inside. WSS murmured the magic words to turn Bella into a guerilla-sized green dinosaur. Bella saw swords, other small gadgets, machines, monitors and a microphone. She picked up the microphone and shouted,

Hello, men from hell! You want a lesson to break into hell again?

The intruders were shivering in their pants. They just turned their backs and ran out of the door from the headquarters. Bella shouted again, Never again you try to come here!

WSS came out of his hiding. He was laughing. Bella, you’ve made my Christmas special. Would you like to start living with me?

3

Bella’s reward