Zazz

Zazz is the royal advisor and best friend of Princess Sabrina, ruler of the Blue Lake.

## Biography

### The Sapphire Princess Meets a Monster

One morning, Princess Sabrina is anonymously given a beautiful golden picnic basket filled with good food. Sabrina chooses to share her gift with her three sisters and invites them to a picnic. As they wait for Roxanne, who is late as usual, Sabrina challenges Emily and Demetra to a race. Zazz advises her to race on a different boat, as the one she's using is weighed down by her friend and pilot Gurt, the heavy golden basket, and all the picnic things. Zazz offers to call the Nymphs to bring another boat, but Emily tells Sabrina to simply hop onto her lily-pad boat so they can race Demetra together. When Sabrina tries to leave her boat, however, the picnic basket magically jumps into her hands. Although surprised, Sabrina takes the opportunity to share a piece of chocolate with the hungry Zazz. Before they can take a bite, something knocks hard against the boat. Thinking that some water sprites may be playing a trick on her, Sabrina peers into the water despite Zazz pointing out that if the sprites don't want to be seen, they won't be. Suddenly, Sabrina screams and faints to Zazz's alarm. Luckily, Emily dumps some cold lake water on her sister's face, waking her up. Sabrina shakily describes a terrifyingly huge, gray, sharp-toothed face she saw in the water and Zazz speculates that the creature may be the legendary Blue Lake Monster, a being that is thought to be a demon left over from the Dark Times when Lord Bleak ruled the land. Sabrina's sisters are convinced that anything connected with Lord Bleak must be malevolent, but Sabrina is not so sure, even when Zazz indicates that something so hideous with so many teeth has to be evil. Sabrina gently replies that she only saw a face, which does not rule out a harmless water sprite trick, and Zazz reluctantly agrees that the princess has a point. Sabrina calms everyone down and encourages them all to eat their lunch, but no sooner does her hand touch the picnic basket than the monster's enormous gray head suddenly erupts above the water.

Sabrina reaches into the pouch at her waist and quickly tosses magical flying dust over her companions, who instantly rise into the air. She sends her sisters and Gurt to glide to the safety of the palace as she and Zazz fly to Misty Marsh where the wise Storkz live. Zazz is frightened by the cold mist and is startled when they suddenly come across Sage, the leader of the Storkz. They ask him about the Lake Creature -though Zazz insists that it's a monster- but Sabrina reminds her that they have no proof of that claim. Sage agrees with the princess and mentions that the creature has lived in the Blue Lake since the beginning, but it has very rarely shown itself to humans. He tells Sabrina that he and the Storkz will attempt to speak with the Lake Creature and that in the meantime, she should wait inside her palace. The princess makes Zazz promise to keep the creature a secret until they're sure of its intentions, but as they draw close to the palace they see a crowd of people lead by Gurt clamoring to hunt down and kill the monster.

Sabrina plans to fly above the monster and lead it into the Spinning Pool, hoping that it will get caught by the current and disappear forever, but the next time the little butterfly sees Sabrina the monster's enormous head is in her lap. Terrified that the monster has caught her princess, Zazz clings to Emily's hair and frantically urges her to run faster to save Sabrina. Gurt, Emily, and Demetra lead the people of the Blue Lake to rescue Sabrina from the monster, but are thrown into complete confusion when she throws her arms protectively over its head and commands them to stay back. Although they had all thought the monster was trying to hurt her, Sabrina now suspects that the creature was only trying to help her. Zazz flutters over to the golden picnic basket near the princess and notices that there are dead flies and ants surrounding the perfect food, indicating that it has been poisoned. Sabrina announces to her people that everything the creature did was to protect her from the poisoned food; it even ate a pear that she was about to bite to save her. She is devastated that the creature is dying of the poison and desperately wishes to help it somehow when Sage appears and informs the princess of a tiny purple flower that could cure the monster.

Sabrina fetches the flower herself and gently persuades the creature to eat it as Zazz and everyone else cautiously watch from a safe distance. When at last the creature opens its eyes, it begins to cry and begs the princess not to look at its ugliness. Zazz is shocked to hear it explain that it used to be a beautiful mermaid called Oona, the spirit of the Blue Lake, before Lord Bleak cursed her into her monstrous form. Everyone, including Zazz, is extremely ashamed from how they treated Oona just because she *looked* ugly and evil, and sincerely apologize to her. Oona accepts their apology, overjoyed to finally be able to talk to someone without them running away in terror. Sabrina would like to hold a feast in honor of their new friend, but with her picnic basket full of poisoned food she has nothing for them all to eat. Fortunately, Roxanne finally flies in on Hapgood with her own baskets of food, enough for everyone. Zazz happily flies to the Gilliwags, Nymphs, and Striders to inform them all of the picnic celebration.

## Trivia

* While Zazz is a realistic butterfly in the 1997 version, the 2020 reprint depicts him in a more cartoony style with arms and legs.