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During the dark days around New Year, Hekske (the little witch) and Falke (the 10-year old witch apprentice) suddenly felt the urge to fly. They took off from a clearing and flew in eastern direction. The scenery was breathtaking and they followed the flow of the mighty Danube River until it made a sharp turn to the right, while the girls headed straight towards the rolling hills and mysterious castles of Transylvania. The whole flight from Flanders had been cold, but after crossing the majestic Mureș river, the weather changed for the worse as it started to snow. It was a sticky kind of snow and soon Hekske and Falke were all white… and shivering from the cold. At the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, the witches were joined by a couple of ravens, who showed them the way to a hot spring in the middle of a vast forest. They gently touched down in the snow and – after a brief struggle to shuck off their frozen dresses – waded into the warm water. The girls felt their frozen fingers and toes warm up, and were in no hurry to get out of the hot spring. After a while, a pack of friendly wolves approached them and they also waded into the water, after which they gave a warm welcome hug to the witches. Hekske and Falke stayed in the water until their bodies started to glow. Now they were ready for the final part of their journey. After drying their long white dresses (and the wolves) with a magic spell, the alpha male showed the way. Strangely, despite walking barefoot on the snow, the girls didn’t have cold feet, while they climbed higher and higher through a darkening forest. Finally they reached a vantage point from where they had a breathtaking view of a truly impressive mountain. The ravens explained that this is Mount Kogaion, the holiest mountain of Dacia, where the ancient philosopher Zalmoxis lived in seclusion in a cave before mysteriously vanishing into thin air.
The wolves did not waste time and showed the way to Mount Kogaion, which can only be reached through a confusing maze of narrow paths in a thick forest. This is why since the time of Zalmoxis, not a single human has been able to reach this mythical mountain. But the wolves could find their way effortlessly through this labyrinth. This is the realm of the wolves. After a few hours, they had climbed above the tree line and headed straight towards a towering vertical granite wall, before the weather deteriorated and a fierce blizzard unleashed its power over the mountain. Despite only wearing a white long dress, the 2 barefoot witches strangely didn’t feel the cold and the snowflakes even didn’t seem to touch them. Finally the wolves stopped in their tracks. They were standing in front of an endless vertical wall. It looked like the end of their journey, but then Falke saw the entrance of a cave. The 2 witches went through the narrow opening. It was too dark to see anything, so Hekske created a few floating sparks with a gracious hand movement. Then they saw that this cave was way bigger than they thought. The girls went deeper and deeper, and passed through 7 cave chambers, each one bigger and more beautiful than the previous one. This must be the cave of Zalmoxis, and the girls knew they were the first visitors since the disappearance of the ancient philosopher over 2000 years ago. On the far end of the 7th chamber, Hekske’s heart skipped a beat when she saw a perfectly circular gateway. It was the weirdest and most beautiful object she had ever seen. The witches hesitated for a moment and looked at each other. Then Hekske took Falke’s hand, and they both strode through the gateway. At that moment, an extremely bright light started to shine in all colors of the rainbow, and even in colors they had never seen before. The girls lost all sense of space and time and it took a long while before they could open their eyes. And what they saw there left them dumbfounded…
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- Genre
- The Carpathian Gateway