Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 LAGUNA WAS HAVING A MUCH better time than Baron Von Grump. She felt way better, a lot more confident, with her friends there. If they could jump into the river and learn to swim, then she could pass her swim test, she thought. Laguna swam just like her mom had taught her, and before she knew it, she had reached the floating marker. "I did it!" Laguna said. Vampyra whistled. Franky clapped. Wolfy howled. They were very excited for Laguna. "Okay, Laguna," Mrs. Lagoon said, "now swim back." But suddenly…

The sky got dark. The air grew windy. And the first few drops of rain spattered down over the river. "That does not look good," said Wolfy. He was looking out toward the lake, and he was right. It did not look good, not good at all. All the little clouds were mashed into one big, supersized monster cloud right over the center of the lake. "Listen to that wind!" said Vampyra. The wind roared like a hundred—no… a thousand—a thousand tractor trailers rushing by on the highway. A thousand tractor trailers filled with hungry, roaring lions. And each of those lions had a bullhorn to roar through. That's how loud the wind was! Trees bent waaaaay over, their tops almost brushing the ground. And the waves! Oh, the waves… The water was a churning, choppy mess. It was a very good thing that

Laguna, Vampyra, Franky, and Wolfy were not swimming in the lake. "I've never seen so much rain!" Franky said. "It's all coming down over the lake." That giant gray rain cloud was pouring so much rain on the lake that it was hard to see to the other side. No umbrella, no matter how big or how fancy, would have kept any villager dry in that rain. There was so much rain that the water was beginning to get close to overflowing, like a bathtub when the water keeps running and running and running and— CRACK! SLAM! THUD! Remember those trees that were bending over in the wind? Their tops almost brushing the ground? The roaring winds pushed two of those trees so hard that they broke right in half and fell at the mouth of the river, one

after the other, piling together until they stopped most of the water from flowing.

The rain kept falling, the lake water kept rising, and now the water had nowhere to go but up. It could not flow into the river and out of the lake. It started to get deeper, and it started to trickle over the banks. The water kept rising… …and RISING… …AND RISING… "The lake is going to flood the village if we don't do something!" said Vampyra. "We have to clear those trees!" Laguna said. And she was right. If they could just clear those trees, the lake water could drain into the river and flow away. "If the rain doesn't let up, I'm not so sure that anything will stop the lake from flooding the village," Mrs. Lagoon said. Something landed in the river with a KERSPLASH! "It's a duck!" said Franky.

"Quack." Remember how I told you that it was so windy in the village that the ducks could not even fly? Well, that did not stop this particular duck from trying. "Quack, quack," she said. That means Don't worry, I'm okay. "Where are the rest of your friends?" Wolfy asked. Annabelle (that was the name of this brave duck) told them all about the parade and the umbrella contest and the wind and finally… "Quack quack quack quack quack!" "The old windmill?" asked Wolfy. "Out of control?" Vampyra said. "Baron Von Grump must be behind this!" said Franky. "We've got to stop the windmill and clear the trees that are blocking the river," said Laguna.