A MONSTER OF A TIME!

Based on 'Unsolved Selfie Mysteries' by Nina Daniels

Written by Scrubb1910

""Okay, guys! Say...Sunshine!"

Rosie, Emily, Molly and Mavis were all gathered around in a group together. Rosie, wearing a cherry-red tie-side bikini, held out her phone and took a picture of her and the other girls all roomed in together. Molly was wearing her yellow tankini, Emily was wearing her dark green bikini, this time with a chocolate brown sarong with gold trim tied around her waist. Mavis had her black lycra t-shirt and yellow bikini briefs. They all laughed happily. Just then, Molly noticed something.

"Just a minute, what's that?" she asked.

"What's what?" asked Rosie.

"That," said Molly, pointing at what appeared to be a black object in the distance.

"Probably a pesky fly," suggested Mavis.

"I can't see any buzzing around," said Rosie.

Salty and Porter were passing by.

"Ahoy, lassies!" he crowed.

"Ahoy, Salty!" called Rosie. "You'll never guess what we found in the background!"

And she showed him and Porter the sea monster.

"Blisterin' barracudas!" exclaimed Salty, "That there's a sea monster!"

"No way!" gasped Rosie, her eyes widened with wonder.

"Yes, way," replied Porter and nodded.

"We must've caught it on camera," said Mavis.

"A sea monster?" asked Molly. "Oh, I hope it's not scary."

Emily and Mavis were skeptical.

"Nonsense!" Emily scoffed, "There has to be a simple explanation behind it."

"Perhaps we should check it out," suggested Rosie.

"That would be a good idea," agreed Emily.

And so, Rosie and Emily went to investigate.

"Coming, Molly?" asked Rosie.

"Oh, I don't know," said Molly, earnestly, "That monster might turn out to be frightening."

"You're not scared of it, are you?" asked Rosie.

"What? N-no, I'm n-not!" Molly replied, sounding a little indignant.

"It's okay, Molly. You don't have to come along if you don't want to."

"I'll wait here with you," Mavis offered kindly, "how does that sound?"

"Um, well...okay, then," agreed Molly.

"Porter 'n' I, we'll try and lure it out," said Salty.

"'Scuse e a mo," said Porter and both men went to get a net and a harpoon.

Emily took off her sarong and placed it into her bag. Then, she and Rosie went into the water together and swam into the distance.

"I hope they'll be alright," murmured Molly.

Just then, Percy and Oliver showed up.

"Mavis? Molly? You haven't seen Prenderghast, have you?" asked Percy.

"Who?" asked Molly, "Never heard of him."

"Well, he has an orange mouth, yellow skin and feathers sticking out of his head and bottom and a hole around his tummy," explained Percy.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Molly, "You have an interesting friend, Percy!"

Mavis face-palmed herself and sighed.

"He's a duck," Oliver explained.

"Oh," said Molly, blushing with embarrassment.

"Of course, he is," said Percy, "but not just any duck - he's a buoyancy aid, too!"

"Well, why didn't you say so?" laughed Molly.

"I did," answered Percy.

"And I've been helping him look for him," added Oliver.

Suddenly, they saw something coming towards them...it was Emily with something following behind her.

"Emily!" cried Molly, "Are you okay? Did you see the monster?"

"Monster?" Oliver was puzzled.

"What monster?" asked Percy.

Before Emily could explain, Salty and Porter had returned on the beach. Porter was making strange noises.

"What's Porter doing?" asked Mavis.

"He's performing a mating call," explained Salty, "That way, we can easily capture the monster! Look, it's working now!" And he pointed at the direction.

"Yipes! It's heading toward us!" shrieked Molly. Oliver jumped behind Mavis in fright.

"It's coming straight for us!" panicked Percy. "Then, it's going to gobble us up!"

"Have at ye, foul beast!"

Salty and Porter charged at it, Porter holding a net and Salty holding a harpoon.

"No, wait!" Emily shouted and ran after them.

Porter threw the net over what appeared to be something rising up toward them, but as Salty readied the harpoon…

"Hey! What's the big idea?"

"It talked!" gasped Porter.

But Emily knew who the voice belonged to. It was Rosie. She took what appeared to be something covered in seaweed off her head.

"Looks like we've caught our monster," smiled Rosie.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that," apologised Salty.

"Yeah, sorry," apologised Porter and he and Emily helped the net off Rosie.

"PRENDERGHAST!" Percy cried happily and he ran up to his duck floatie.

"Thank you so much, Rosie and Emily!"

"Oh, no prob, Percy," giggled Rosie.

Rosie gave it to him and he hugged it.

"Well!" chuckled Emily, "I knew there just was a simple explanation!"

Oliver was feeling rather embarrassed as was Molly, too.

"Fancy us being scared by that," muttered Oliver.

Molly just blushed. "Fancy us scared silly by that."

"Well, I'm just glad no-one got hurt, that's all I can say," said Salty.

"And there wasn't a monster after all," added Porter.

Everyone all laughed, except Percy who was still hugging his duck floatie.

"I knew you'd come back to me, Prenderghast."