Kaško wanted to surprise his friends Majka and Maxík. He looked around. There was no one on the street, so he quickly flew to his friends' window. He put a mysterious black pirate hat on his head. One he had brought from a long trip. For in the country of Haravara there are no pirates, perhaps only road pirates, but they don't usually wear hats.
Majka and Maxík were sitting by the big globe and sighing.
"Well, we're not going to the sea this year," they kept saying repeatedly.
"Why not?" Kaško exclaimed.
"What are you doing here?" Maxík and Majka yelled in fright. "And what are you doing in the window?"
"I wanted to surprise you! And here you sit in sorrow, ranting about the sea."
"The sea is far away, so this year we will stay at home."
"Awesome!" Kaško moaned happily.
"Thank you very much!" said the friends.
"I'll take you to the sea. Even to two seas!"
"To two?" they looked at Kaško in disbelief.
"Shall we go?" Kaško teased mischievously.
"Let's go, let's go!" The kids got up, Maxík started to pack his backpack and Majka her swimsuit, but then something occurred to them.
"When are we coming home?"
"Well, tonight," said Kaško.
"Tonight??" the children looked at Kaško, at each other, but since they had nothing to do anyway, they followed their little ghost.
"Come on! We'll take the bus today."
They were at the station in a moment and the bus ride also went quickly, because Maxík and Majka were planning what they were going to do on the beach.
Maxík suggested burying and digging in the sand, Majka suggested baking cookies and looking for sea animal shells.
Maxík suggested burying and digging in the sand, Majka suggested baking cookies and looking for sea animal shells.
The children got out and were a bit surprised.
"Kaško, it's beautiful here," the children began cautiously, "it's a beautiful lake, unbelievable nature... But this is not the sea!"
"This is not the sea, but this was the sea here. A huge sea! A few million years ago we couldn't swim here because sharks, ammonites, belemnites..." Kaško started explaining all that.
"And stalactites, right?" Maxík laughed.
"Stalactites are in caves!" corrected Kaško, because he didn't get the joke.
"Ammonites are such strange sea creatures. And there were plenty of them. Come, I'll show you something."
Kaško took them to the shore of the pond on a small hill. He began searching his pockets and he took out a small hoe and a shovel from one of them. He began digging slowly. Maxík reached into his backpack and found a small hammer. He didn't have anything to do anyway, so he started digging too.
Suddenly, Kaško exclaimed, "Look, this is a fossilized ammonite!" and he held up a stone creature above his head.
"It looks like a snail," Majka laughed.
"And here are the small teeth of a shark," he showed the small, curved teeth of a prehistoric sea hunter.
"And look, this belemnite looks like an arrowhead. It was a prehistoric sea swimmer. Your grandfathers and mothers used to find them petrified in the field. They thought they were arrowheads of Perun, the storm god. So, they collected them, and my grandmothers invented many prescriptions – for a love potion, for example. So, they cooked and drank concoctions of prehistoric animals," Kaško laughed.
Even Maxík and Majka couldn't stop laughing when they imagined their grandmother brewing and drinking tea from a prehistoric animal and thinking it was the magic arrow of Perun.
When they remembered their grandmother, Maxík took out his backpack, opened it and looked for something in it. After a while he took out a strange, twisted piece of iron, put it in his mouth between his teeth and started to strum on it, opening his mouth strangely. The iron played beautifully. It was like a frog jumping while still dancing with a seahorse.
"What is it, Maxík?" Kaško asked.
"That's a drumstick," he handed the playing iron to Kaško, "but you promised us two seas..."
"Right. Nearby is the real Slovak sea! Shall we go?"
"Let's go!"
The children stood up, but Kaško was still strumming his drumstick. He liked the sound so much that he couldn't stop playing.
"Shall we go?" the children exclaimed.
"Excuse me?" Kaško woke up from his musical rapture.
The children just rolled their eyes, and it was clear to Kaško what to do.
"I'm coming!" Kaško announced, strumming the drumstick for the last time.
They got back on the bus and drove to the Zemplínska Šírava lake. From behind the window, they watched the glittering surface of the water, on which boats were sailing and fishermen were resting on the banks or children were frolicking. The trip was fantastic. Maxík found two more echoing shanks and dried poppies in his rucksack. They immediately formed a band and started playing and singing.
"And here we are! The Slovak Sea in the country of Haravara."
Kaško wanted to make this magical moment more enjoyable. He took a drumstick between his teeth. He pulled the iron and... pop! He hit his teeth and his lips terribly.
"Yaaaaaw! I need some water!" Kaško shouted like mad.
Majka and Maxík scooped water and put it on his mouth. Maxík put one drop in his mouth.
"Kaško, you deceived us, because the water is not salty at all!"
"And?" Kaško wondered.
"And the sea is salty."
"Every sea in the world is salty, but not the Slovak one. Look, it's not about whether it's salty or whether it's huge, but look, the sea, it's that feeling of looking at the water and not seeing the end of it. And there you have it."
Kaško noticed that Majka and Maxík were quite frightened and were looking at the surface of the Šírava sea.
He turned his head and almost flew away. About three thousand and fifty fish heads glistened on the surface.
The fish just opened their mouths and Kaško started, "Hello. Nice and slow, slowly, let just one speak!" Kaško looked a bit like a fool.
He watched the fish open their mouths dumbly and answered them.
"What? You need help. Well, okay, okay. Wait a minute."
"Are you coming with me?" he asked the children.
"Where?"
"To help the fish."
"You understand them? ' Maxík and Majka shook their heads.
"I am deducting from their lips. I learned that from my great-great-uncle Jany," Kaško boasted.
"Are you coming?"
Before his surprised friends could answer him, Kaško pulled a plant out of his pocket, put it in their mouths and grabbed their hands. Before they knew it, they were underwater.
"This plant is miraculous and will help you to swim and breathe underwater for half an hour."
The children were amazed, their eyes lit up and they wanted to say something. But as soon as they opened their mouths, Kaško interfered.
"Yes, yes, it's the cousin of the plant Harry Potter used."
When the children recovered, they opened their eyes and went completely mute. They saw a fish town under the water.
"Here, where Šírava is today, there used to be fields and an airport. These were flooded with water. And today it's home to many species of fish, frogs, crayfish, and three stray turtles."
They saw the little fish chasing each other around the underwater hills and swimming so fast they looked as if they were about to fly away from the underwater airport. Instead of trees and flowers, there were aquatic plants growing. It was beautiful.
They were still swimming for fish. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they stopped and Kaško understood. The fish welcomed them to their kingdom, the only flooded building under the surface of the Šírava. They hadn't expected such a VIP tour with their own guides at all. Divers often come here, but they are not always interested in fish company. The Šírava inhabitants were all the happier about the new visitors.
'We need your help', cried the fish.
"One of the chimneys on the building is leaning dangerously and we are afraid it might fall completely and hurt someone," explained one fish.
Without blinking, Kaško and Maxík rolled up their sleeves, swam to the roof and propped the chimney with a wooden beam they found fallen nearby.
"That's it!" they clapped their hands and winked at Majka.
"Hooray! Thank you!" cried the fish excitedly.
"You have saved our kingdom, my friends! We will be forever grateful to you! Come again next time and feel free to bring other children. They certainly won't be bored on the Zemplínska Šírava lake", one of the fish was delighted.
They were given four lucky fish scales as souvenirs and escorted to the surface.
"That was wonderful!" Maxík exclaimed happily.
"I'd like to see what it looked like here a long time ago, when there was no water at all," sighed Majka romantically.
"Maybe I know where we could find such pictures and where you would feel like in the times when our sea wasn't here yet," Kaško mused, "there is a city called Michalovce not far away. There is an old manor house there. There's a museum there now, but Aunt Szirmay used to live there, and she used to make the best stuffed cabbage in the world."
"But we didn't want cabbage!" shouted the children.
"But they don't put out cabbages! But there are paintings by my friend, the painter Uncle Mousson, and photos of old Michalovce and its surroundings. Maybe in some painting or photo we will find your houses."
The children were already quite tired, so they didn't take the bus. Kaško transported them by magic and during the flight they even dried off.
The mansion was beautiful. Apart from paintings and photos, the children found a lot of interesting things there. For example, the Venus of Haravara land.
At night Maxík and Majka slept like dumb fish. They put fish scales of happiness under their pillows. That night they dreamed the most beautiful dreams.
