The sail unfurled and Basil was flung into the air. He opened his eyes, gasped, and frantically began to fly. He looked down only to discover the ship had already moved on.  There was nothing below him but water. He looked out toward the horizon in every direction, but there was no land to be seen.

“You’ll just have to fly home then, Basil,” he said to himself, trying not to panic. He looked down to see which way the waves were moving, and decided to fly in the same direction, hoping they would guide him home.

He flew and flew until he began to feel he had been flying forever. He had no way of knowing how far he might have traveled, but there was still no land in sight. The trouble was, he hadn’t really gotten much sleep the day before and he was dreadfully tired.

Then he realized he was dropping closer and closer to the ocean and he cried out in fear.

“Help! Someone help me!”

But no one was in sight.

He fought as hard as he could to continue to fly, but was terrified he was about to fall into the sea. He looked down, expecting to see the waves just inches away. Instead he saw a huge eye. He wasn’t about to fall into the ocean. He was about to land on a great blue whale. His cry for help had been heard after all.

The instant Basil landed on the great whale, it surged forward. Keeping its back above the surface of the water, it moved every bit as fast as the sailing ship, but in the opposite direction. Basil was having a great time. His fear and exhaustion were forgotten. Traveling by whale was way better than traveling by ship. As he hung on for dear life, a huge grin covered his little bat face.

as soon as they came within sight of land, the whale flipped up his gigantic tail and prepared to return to the open sea. Basil called out a delighted and very grateful thank you and set off to fly home.

As soon as he entered the cave, his family began to wake up. They had no idea he had even been gone. Basil decided it was best to keep it that way. Otherwise he figured he would be grounded for sure.