Gurt

**Gurt** is a Gilliwag resident of the Blue Lake and a good friend of Princess Sabrina.

## Biography

### The Sapphire Princess Meets a Monster

One day, the Princess Sabrina is anonymously gifted a golden picnic basket and invites her three sisters over for a picnic. Emily and Demetra arrive on time, but Roxanne is late as usual. Gurt pilots Sabrina's boat as she and her sisters paddle around the Blue Lake, eventually deciding to have a race. Sabrina notices that her boat is heavy with the weight of Gurt, the golden basket, and all the picnic things, so she tries to hop on to Emily's lily-pad boat. However, the golden basket magically jumps into her arms when she tries to leave. Although surprised, Sabrina takes the opportunity to share a piece of chocolate with her best friend and royal advisor, 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 and suddenly screams, falling into a faint.

Emily splashes some cold lake water on her sister's face, waking her up. Sabrina shakily describes a huge, gray face with many teeth she saw beneath the water and Gurt offers to see what it was, diving into the lake. He follows its shadow until it disappears into the Deep Dark, an area of water that is so cold and murky hardly anything swims there. Zazz speculates that the creature may be the legendary Blue Lake Monster, but Gurt is skeptical and points out that he's never heard of it attacking anyone before. Sabrina is inclined to agree with Gurt and calms everyone down, encouraging them to begin their lunch. But no sooner does her hand touch the golden basket than the monster burst roaring from the water.

Sabrina quickly reaches into the small pouch at her waist and tosses her magical flying dust over her companions, who instantly rise into the air. She sends her sisters and Gurt to the safety of the palace while she and Zazz fly to Misty Marsh to consult the wise Storkz. Meanwhile, Gurt is concerned for the safety of the princess and gathers a crowd of people in front of the palace and arms them with willow wands, urging them to hunt down and kill the monster in order to protect her. They all search the lake for any sign of the monster, but when they finally find it they see it already has its enormous head in Princess Sabrina's lap. Gurt, Emily (with Zazz clinging to her hair), and Demetra lead the other lake dwellers in a race to attack the monster and save Sabrina, but they're all 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. The crowd notices the golden picnic basket near the princess and sees a bunch of 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, leader of the Storkz, 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 Gurt 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. When the creature explains that before she was cursed into her monstrous form, she used to be a beautiful mermaid called Oona, Gurt recognizes her as the spirit of the Blue Lake who is said to have existed since the beginning of time. Everyone including Gurt 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 celebration complete with a feast, 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. Gurt helps to prepare the picnic celebration with the other lake dwellers in honor of their new friend.