The Vandraren Short Stories:
A Tale of Stars and Hedgehogs (2020-2021)

by the author

A small room. Two young men are coming in, looking around as if they were searching for someone. Shortly after them a young woman enters and the three – the main characters of our story – greet each other.

Tamina: “Hey guys, how are you?”

Sadwyn: “I’m fine. Except, that I had to come here from surfing just for this. And the waves were just about perfect. So, what are we supposed to do?”

Arwan: “Some sort of interview. Like, introduce ourselves.”

Tamina: “To who?”

Arwan: “To some readers. Please don’t ask me.”

Tamina: “Too bad – for that’s what I just did. So, what are we supposed to tell those readers?”

Sadwyn: “I think, I can imagine what Arwan is up to. Do you mean something like: ‘Hi, my name’s Sadwyn Davies. I’m really old and by the way, I’m dead. Any questions?’”

Arwan: “Well, I wouldn’t put it this straightforward, but apart from that, yes.”

Sadwyn: “And our interviewers... are they invisible or haven’t they arrived at all yet?”

Arwan: “Probably the latter. Although as a magician I can’t exclude option one with a hundred percent certainty.”

Tamina: “They’ll certainly arrive any minute. Meanwhile, we can also keep talking.”

Sadwyn: “Fine by me. We wanna sit? Over there’s a couch. It’s just a pity they don’t have an armchair.”

Tamina: “Just because you’re always chilling in your favorite armchair in your house in Cardiff doesn’t mean, that everybody is supposed to own such a thing.”

Sadwyn: “C’mon, I’m about ninety years old, I think I have the right for some luxury.”

Tamina: “But you really shouldn’t put it this way during our interview. I mean, you look like you were about twenty-nine. And if you tell them in your next sentence, that your favorite hobby is surfing, you’ll probably put them over the edge.”

Sadwyn: “And we’re just talking about yours truly here. Can you imagine what’s happening, if they ask Arwan about his life? ‘Hello, my name is Arwan ap Rhys ap Arawn Llewellyn and already my name should clearly indicate that this interview might take a little longer. I’m a powerful magician, who is descended from an influential wizarding family. In my free time I’m an active ghostchaser, who hunts down the common undead. And by the way, I’m the bassist of a medieval folk rock band, but nobody ever believes that, as I’m so heavily disguised during our concerts, that nobody is able to recognize me anymore. Apart from that I’m a massive know-it-all and I hold three doctor’s degrees and...’”

Arwan: “Stop talking, Wynn. And what do you mean with disguise? That isn’t a camouflage!”

Tamina: “But you’ll have to admit, that the shift is... drastic. I mean, changing from a twenty-two year old with chin-long, black hair to a thirty-five year old with sandy hair – I’d have never thought of that. Were you inspired by Sadwyn?”

Arwan: “You mean, because he’s blond-haired? Certainly not. I just needed something inconspicuous.”

Sadwyn: “And it obviously worked pretty well. Do you really think that our interviewers will arrive here this very day? I’d really like to go back surfing.”

Tamina: “Now that’s funny, Wynn. A Vandraren, who is short of time? Are you kidding me?”

Sadwyn: “And that’s also something that you better don’t mention in our interview... Or I’ll have to explain what a Vandraren is and I can certainly do without that.”

Arwan: “Although that’s not so difficult at all. It’s simply the Swedish term for the word ‘journeyman’.”

Sadwyn: “And in addition it’s the description for immortal beings that are ironically from a medical point of view dead. Have you ever tried to explain this to an at least halfway sane person?”

Arwan: “I have. It didn’t work.”

Sadwyn: “You see? So now I’ve got a serious question: What are they going to ask us at all? We’ve decided to tell the world our story. Are we supposed to brag about how fantastic it is?”

Arwan: “Don’t worry. Although I honestly have to admit, that in my opinion some parts of it are bit goey. And I’m still uncertain what I’m supposed to think about the fact that my name appears in about every second sentence.”

Tamina: “I believe that you can indeed learn something from the story. For it’s about being brave and daring something new. And discovering the magic in our world. Apart from that, if you ask me, Arwan, your name appears way too less in it.”

Sadwyn: “Well, if you allow me to add my two cents to this; in my view there could’ve been one or two more pages about surfing. The thing will definitely not win any prizes for being the surfer’s guide of the year. And you’re sure our Interviewers aren’t invisible?”

Arwan: “We are. But actually, we have to go as well. I may remind you that Tamina’s and my next mission are due, and we’d better accomplish that before her parents come home from work.”

Sadwyn: “How could I forget that? We haven’t talked about our Tamina here at all yet. Average student and dauntless ghostchaser at once. But your last sentence is just plainly hilarious, Arwan. You two are about going out, hunting down scary, and occasionally downright dangerous, undead and all that you’re worried about is that your partner’s parents might get wind of it.”

Arwan: “Hey, that’s wrong! You know what I think about this. And, that I’m always worried.”

Sadwyn: “For sure. About the world and his wife. We know. But at least you can hear Tamina’s thoughts and heal her, in case she gets injured.”

Arwan: “Anyway. I don’t think that our interviewers will still come here. Suppose we go now?”

Tamina: “We’d better go. I told my parents, that I was out with friends so we don’t need to worry about that. But before we go on our mission, I’d like to make a short detour to Québec and we also need to travel to Dakar.”

Sadwyn: “Now I’m confused. I thought your mission would take place somewhere in Germany?”

Arwan: “You know that we have a secret little cabin in the wilderness of Québec in Canada, where our weapons are stored. And you’re right, our mission takes place in Germany, but since we haven’t been anywhere near our today’s target location yet, we just can’t simply travel there using a magic spell. I mean, translokalize, and that’s why...”

Tamina: “... we have to travel to Dakar first, where our ships are lying at anchor. At the harbor of the isle of Gorée. I’m sure we’ve told you. And with our ships we can fly to our mission.”

Sadwyn: “I know. And I always need to laugh about what your leaders dream up just to keep you busy.”

Tamina: “Don’t ask... Helios and Stratos can be rather...”

Arwan: “... peculiar at times. But you better never underestimate them, for they can be downright...”

Tamina: “... dangerous.”

Sadwyn: “Stop talking! That’s giving me headaches! So, if you’re okay with that, I’m off. I’ll translokalize straight back to Hawaii and luckily I don’t need a flying ship for that.”

Arwan: “Have fun. Can we meet this evening in Cardiff again? I’ll be there later, for I need to do some research at the library.”

Sadwyn: “Surely. What would you do without the library at my parent’s house? You’d be in serious trouble! What do you think, how long your mission will take?”

Arwan: “Possible. And, as usually, no clue.”

Sadwyn: “I’ll keep my fingers crossed. So, I’m off.”

Arwan: “I guess that’s our cue to leave as well. Are you ready?”

Tamina: “Not at all. Let’s go!”

by Tamina

As soon as we had arrived in our cabin in Québec, we went over our equipment. Actually, we always had it with us on our missions, but we just wanted to make sure we had everything packed in. First, there were our wands. Second, I had a bow and a quiver with me and Arwan had two daggers. Additionally, he had some medicine so that he could take care of me in case I got injured. Although he also was gifted with the ability of healing injuries, Arwan wanted to play safe. Shortly before we set out to our mission, I looked around in our cabin. The small living room, the kitchenette and our two minimalist rooms. In my view it was strangely cozy here. But the thought of the upcoming events would make this feeling vanish in an instant.

“It’s time”, Arwan said and sighed, while I took his hand and we translokalized to Dakar. As usually at the sight of our ships – two gigantic windjammers – I felt overwhelmed by the thought that a single person was able to navigate them. I sighed and boarded my ship, named Conqueror of the Winds, while Arwan went over to his own ship, Wavebreaker. A few minutes later we were already sailing out of the port. And our mission began...

I ran through a forest. Slowly I really began hating those forests – not the trees, though, they were awesome. For they were producing oxygen and so. What I hated in contrast were those stupid undead, who obviously always were taking refuge in those said forests. So, why again had I joined the ghostchasers? Yes, because my life had been way too boring before.

“Could you please hate yourself a little bit less at the moment and run a bit faster?”, Arwan next to me asked. Instead of an answer I tried to run quicker.

It was afternoon, which was a huge advantage to most of our previous missions. At least in the broad daylight I could see where I was running. The disadvantage, however, was that I also was able see to the nice undead following us. In a forest you could have guessed it was an undead jogger or mushroom hunter, threatening us with his walking poles or mushroom almanac. Sadly not. Instead, a disgruntled, sixteenth-century peasant came spurting behind us.

“And the forest shall stay common!”, he yelled at us, while swaying a scythe violently in his hand. Obviously he wanted his forest to... what?

“Not, that I disagree with you”, shouted my partner with his doctor’s title in history back, “but you’re about five centuries late for that! The Peasant War is already over for some years, you know?!”

Yet the scary pseudo-reaper simply continued chasing us, for he was certainly thinking that we were two conceited noblemen. Then Arwan seemed to have enough, for he stopped all of a sudden and raised his last weapon: his wand. His two daggers were already sticking somewhere further away in a tree. We hadn’t been quick enough to hunt the peasant down back then and he had freed himself. And had directly started attacking me. Gee, thanks. That had also been the reason for our unplanned spurt right now. In an instant, Arwan changed his wand with the blue signs on it into a sword that also had those signs written onto the blade. It was a special power of his wand and had to do with exactly those sapphire colored signs. A second later, he had already thrown it towards the peasant, who had stopped and looked at us in disbelief. However, he still seemed to have brilliant reflexes, for he was able to stop the sword with his scythe before it could touch him. Then he aimed his weapon and threw it – of course right into my direction. And again, gee, thanks.

I dived headlong aside to dodge the scythe and managed it just in time. Therefore, I performed a dive roll, which by definition probably bore more resemblance to ungracefully rolling around rather than anything else. Logically, this action was to be followed by a loud and misplaced snapping noise, as a bone in my left forearm conked out. I couldn’t bite back a scream and lay on the ground motionless for a moment. I could feel Arwan’s shock all too clearly, but I also knew that he couldn’t help me right now and clenched my teeth. Then a thought struck me: at this very moment, the peasant only paid attention to Arwan, who was unarmed now. So I drew my own wand with my right hand, my face wreathing in pain. I would never ever be able to properly aim it at the peasant. If I tried to finish him off in this position, my spell would definitely miss him, that was certain. But I knew someone, who had a chance.

Catch!, I thought and threw my beautiful wand into Arwan’s direction without hesitation.

He also didn’t hesitate and I had a feeling that he was already casting the spell in his mind, which we used to hunt down the undead. Then my wand emitted a shining ray of light and a few seconds later the peasant literally became history. I slowly got to my feet and dusted myself off with my right hand, while my left arm was dangling around in an interesting angle. And hurt. Luckily, at least the forest floor had been dry. Arwan gave me back my wand and then collected his own equipment.

As soon as our weapons were secured, he examined my damaged arm and sighed. Then, he cautiously stroked over it and I finally felt the pain fading. In those moments I honestly had to ask myself why I still was a member of the ghostchasers.

When my arm was finally restored, Arwan looked at me with a worried expression in his eyes and asked: “Do you have any other injuries?”

I shook my head and could feel how he relaxed instantly.

When we were already on our way back to our windjammers, which we had parked at the outskirts of the forest, I curiously asked Arwan: “By the way, what has this guy been talking about? Something about the come-on?”

Arwan looked at me bemused, but then he understood. He started smiling, as he answered: “You mean the common?”

I slowly nodded and he continued: “In German, this is also named the ‘Allmende’. It used to be a part of land that belonged to all of the villagers. The forest also used to be common land. But during the lifetime of our poor peasant here more and more noblemen tried to gain access to this very land, especially to the privilege of using it.”

I looked at him and said: “And the villagers certainly didn’t like that?”

Arwan shook his head. “Although the Peasant War – for that’s what it’s usually named – had many reasons, the peasant’s call for more freedom and right was one aspect of it.”

I let that information sink in. Meanwhile, we had reached our ships and translokalized back aboard.

We were already on our way back to Dakar – of course invisible for other people’s eyes – when I slowly said: “I can’t really imagine all this. The way, life used to be back then...”

Arwan grinned and answered: “Me too, at least in some moments and even though I have experienced already so much of it myself. Those are the moments, when I honestly think that I wouldn’t believe any of it, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

After we had anchored our ships at the harbor of the isle of Gorée, we made a short detour to Sadwyn, who had just come back from surfing. The mission hadn’t taken as long as we had expected and so I had a bit time left now. As we told Wynn what had happened on our last mission, he was, as usually, quite astonished...

by Arwan

After Tamina had wished us good night and translokalized home, Sadwyn and I sat in silence for a few minutes. Actually, I had wanted to already be back at the library for some researches, but I had a feeling, that Wynn needed to talk about something serious. Which was quite unusual for him. But since I was well aware of not hacking into his mind, I couldn’t really tell what was going on behind those shining blue eyes. Finally, my cousin locked eyes with me and slowly began to speak.

“You know”, he began and shifted uncomfortably in his beloved armchair, the very same that Tamina had mocked earlier this day, “although I know only too well, why you have joined the ghostchasers, I think I haven’t really understood, why you’re still an active member. I mean, Tamina is being in constant danger on your missions. And apart from that – you’re a Vandraren. I mean, you’re dead yourself. Don’t you find it... strange to hunt down other dead people?“

I sighed and looked out of the window, while I tried to find an answer to those questions. It wasn’t, as if I hadn’t asked them to myself, quite often by the way. Yet I hesitated now, as my cousin brought up the topic. After a few moments, my gaze wandered over to a remarkable building – named the Insole Court – which was standing proud and upright in the distance. And it had been there for so many years already...

I sighed again and looked back at my cousin, who was watching me. I took a deep breath and said: “That are a lot of questions. Difficult questions, though I can understand them perfectly well. Most of them I can’t answer with a hundred percent certainty, either. But I’ll try to explain at least a few of them as clearly as possible.”

I waited for a moment to clear my mind, before I continued. “It sounds odd, why someone, who is technically spoken dead, spends his time chasing other dead people. But as you certainly know, Wynn, there is a huge difference between being dead and being undead. We have never been dead the way they were. We have never finally died and then returned from death like they did. And although we both don’t know what – or better to say, who – made us, what we are, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty. I don’t want this to define who I am now. I want to lead my own life, find my own destiny, even if my heart doesn’t beat anymore and even if I don’t grow any older. Do you know, why I’ve decided to study history, all those decades ago?”

Wynn smiled at me and answered: “Because you like old stuff?”

I had to bite back a smile as well. “Stay serious. No, the true reason was, that I wanted to understand our history – my history. Where me and my ancestors came from. I’m wandering this earth for so many years, yet the more I get to see of it and the more I learn about mankind, the less I have the feeling that I understand it. Maybe it’s good, that human life is limited to a certain time span, though many people seem to think different on that topic. What I want to say is that an action – no matter how important or trivial – is followed by a consequence. And I wanted to understand this pattern. Or, to speak in bigger terms – our history defines, who we are today. Even though people sometimes don’t want to see it and rather spend their time following around some celebrity or another on social media – even that will have consequences one day. They might not change the world – but they will be there.”

“Thus far I think, I can understand you. So, what has recently changed?”, Sadwyn asked. “I have a feeling, that, to express it in your words, you don’t only want to understand this – may I call it a circle? So, that you don’t only want to understand this circle, but to break it. Is that true?”

Somehow my cousin seemed to understand me better, than I had hoped for, although his still confused expression told me otherwise. “You’re surprisingly right, Wynn”, I therefore replied, “I want to break my own circle of life. In my past, as it now dawns to me, I probably literally always lived in the past. In my own past. I only ever looked back. I kept grieving about the loss of my family. About the loss of good friends. You know the story. But recently, maybe even since I joined the ghostchasers and encountered so many undead, who were just like me – staying in the past forever and never moving on – I understood, that I also need to pay a look into the future. That I need to find new goals, new dreams, give my existence a new direction. Even plans of the future can change your present, did you know?”

“I can imagine”, Sadwyn said. Then he smiled. “That seems to be a lot of wisdom you acquired in a short time. I wonder where you took it from.”

I grinned. “Certainly not from you and your endless stories about surfing”, I replied and my cousin laughed.

“Are you sure?”, he asked, still smiling.

“This is one of the things I do feel absolutely sure about.”

I sighed and came back to our former topic. “To make a long story short”, I said, “I have finally realized, that neither only a focus on the past, nor on the future will create a full picture of life. You need to find a balance. And as you know, I’m always trying to understand myself, defining, who I really am. Recently I had to learn though, that there will probably never be a final answer to this question. People change, and even though I’m dead, so do I.”

“You have changed a lot, even if you yourself haven’t noticed”, Sadwyn confirmed. “It’s not just the color of your eyes or the fact that you’re a ghostchaser. Your whole behavior has become... more vivid. As if you were not desperately all the time trying to turn your wheel of life back. I just hope, it will stay that way.” At his last words, his expression became a little worried again and he sighed.

I couldn’t suppress a sigh myself, as I answered: “I don’t know what the future holds. I can just do, what I always keep doing: hope for the best.”

Sadwyn nodded. “Then I will hope for you, too.”

I nodded and absently played around with my leather wristband. And although I tried to ignore his thoughts, I was certain, that both Sadwyn and I were thinking of our young friend at this moment. Tamina. Asking ourselves, what the future might hold for her. Or, what she was doing right now, as I was quite certain, that she wasn’t peacefully asleep, as she should have been. I had an unsettling feeling, that she was somewhere outside. But why? 

by Tamina

It was nighttime. I sat in my parents’ garden for already quite a while and looked up to the stars that were shining above me, while I tinkered with the leather wristband around my left arm. Luckily we had gotten off our mission lightly today. I had just hurt my arm a bit. I cautiously stroked over it with my other hand and shivered, as I thought back. But already a moment later, I needed to suppress a smile, as I thought of Sadwyn’s reaction to our report. He always seemed so utterly surprised when we recounted our missions that it was already cute again. And I had been certain that he, being an immortal Vandraren, had already seen and been through anything. But seemingly this wasn’t so.   

I sighed and watched those many stars above me. Since it was new moon today, they seemed to be especially bright and I even could guess their different colors. It was a mild night and I sat on my little sister’s swing only wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I scanned the nearer surroundings. It was really dark here in our little settlement in the Ore Mountains, right at the edge of nowhere (and with a lovely view of no man’s land). But I liked it. In our garden a few high, old trees were swaying softly in the wind and it felt like they were whispering quietly. I looked further around. In the distance, on the other side of our garden fence, was a huge field. Currently, some cows were grazing on it and I could hear them moving and chewing. That made me smile. Finally, I glanced over to my parents’ house. All of the windows were dark, since the rest of my family was asleep for already a while. But this wasn’t a surprise, as it was already past 11 pm. If my parents knew, what I was doing out here... I nearly started laughing. What would they say, if they ever found out that I was an active member of the ghostchasers? I thought back to how I had found my way to that organization. Before becoming a member, I would have never believed that magic and magicians truly existed at all. And now... I was a ghostchaser myself, who hunted down undead. And although I had joined this organization just very recently, time seemed to have flown even quicker than usual ever since. Ever since I had met Arwan at the concert of his band. Only, that I had been convinced back then that his name was Alex and that he was way older than his twenty-two years. Although... when I was exact, he was way older than twenty-two. Even way older than thirty-five, which I had guessed him to be during his concert at the ruins of that monastery. This evening had changed my life forever.

Memories of it came to my mind and I smiled as I saw them before my inner eye again: It is a warm early summer night and the atmosphere is tingling with pure magic. A few soft clouds are slowly moving across the sky while the sun is setting, painting them in a beautiful range of colors. Actually, a thunderstorm has been forecast for this very evening and so I am relieved to see that the forecast has been wrong. Many people are around, some of them dressed in medieval garb. The concert itself is one of those unique experiences, of which you instantly know that they will remain in your heart and mind forever. The music fills the air and for a split second, the world stops to listen to all those memories that are relived and all those dreams that are born in this very moment. Slowly the night falls and the first stars are twinkling in the sky.

During the break, Alex – I mean Arwan – had appeared totally out of the blue in front of me, after I had gotten lost in the ruins of the monastery. He had handed me a ruby red crystal ball and I honestly hadn’t had the faintest clue, what I was supposed to do with it.

It then had taken a little while until I had learned that I had been chosen to join the organization of the ghostchasers. At first I was very uncertain, whether to accept or not. But since I had been on a mission today it should be obvious, how I finally had decided. I was just relieved, that Arwan had decided to also join the ghostchasers and become my partner, in order to help me during my missions. Although it had been quite a shock to see his real appearance all of a sudden and without warning for the very first time. To be honest, I had been so shocked that I had instantly passed out.

I sighed again and stroked my brown hair out of my eyes. Then I thought back to what we had already experienced. How Arwan – supported by his cousin Sadwyn, who I had met shortly after – had secretly started teaching me to perform magic... If I ever told that to anybody else, they’d probably think I’d gone insane. I needed to smile as I imagined that. At least until the thought came to my mind that I now had so many more secrets to keep from my friends – especially my best friend Marie. And that caused an uneasy feeling deep down in my gut. At the moment, she would never even dream of what I was doing in secret, but I feared the day she might find it out...

After I had sat on my sister’s swing for another few minutes, I realized how tired I was. But this really shouldn’t surprise me, as it had been a long and eventful day... Yet I hesitated, to go back inside. I enjoyed this time outside here, alone. The air seemed fresher at night and helped me, to clear my mind. To keep my feet on the ground. I looked around and saw the world that I knew, being fast asleep (except, that I really couldn’t see much in the dark). At the same time a completely new world was just awakening. I only could guess how many animals were awake now here around me.

Suddenly a strange noise nearly made me jump. It sounded odd, just like a snarl. I abruptly turned around and seriously considered drawing my wand, which I always had with me. I looked around, while my heart started to beat faster. But I couldn’t detect anything. What had that been? Maybe I had simply imagined it? No, there it was again! Next to the conifer!

I slowly got up and went to the plant. Shortly, before I had completely circled it, I finally detected the originator of those strange snarls and sighed in relief. I hadn’t noticed that I had held my breath for the whole time. Right in front of me on the lawn sat a little hedgehog. We usually had hedgehogs in our garden and I was certain that I had met this very hedgehog already before. As I looked closer, I realized that it was a very small animal, and therefore probably still rather young. The hedgehog on the other hand was watching me. Then he turned around and made his way across the lawn towards the high trees. Finally he vanished in the darkness. I could hear a last short rustling in the copse, but eventually even this sound faded and everything went silent again. I got back to my feet and stretched. While I looked up to the stars above me again I struggled to hold back a yawning. It had indeed been a long day. And it was time to go back inside.

Just in this very moment, I noticed a movement above me. A little sheet of paper slowly came falling down towards me and I was instantly alarmed, for I knew only too well, what it was. A message from Helios and Stratos, the leaders of the ghostchasers. Normally, they would inform us about the target location for our next mission that way, but we had just been on a mission, so that should be impossible. Maybe I should explain that we went on missions ‘only’ once a month. Yet this little sheet of paper was now so close that I could snatch it out of the air. I unfolded it, my heart racing and my hands trembling.

Eventually I read: Dear ghostchasers, an unplanned incident has occurred. Please report to our headquarters tomorrow at 10 am CEST! May the undead always be well-disposed to you... blah blah blah. Helios and Stratos

I was shocked. What did that mean? And how should I do that - report to the headquarters tomorrow at 10 am? Tomorrow was Friday and so that would be right in my physic lesson... Not that I had anything against missing it, but my teachers would probably be less happy. I really had to find a solution for that. But not now, for I definitely needed to get some sleep. I pouched the little sheet of paper and suppressed a shiver.

As I slowly walked to our front door, I had to think of the little hedgehog again and felt strangely close to him. I didn’t know why, but I was certain that our paths would cross again one day. 

by Tamina

“And? Do you already have an idea, what we want to do at the weekend?” My best friend Marie curiously looked at me, while I broke out my sandwich. And by the way, blushed. It was morning break and we sat on a bench in our schoolyard.

I looked at her and started to stammer a very intelligent sounding “Uhm...”, followed by “not really”. Which – translated into something sensible – should indeed mean: ‘Actually, I wanted to meet my friends, who are by the way magicians, at the other end of the continent in order to continue practicing how to perform magic myself.’

“I had hoped, that we might do something together”, Marie continued and now looked at me askance. “I’ve heard that our open air bath might reopen soon.”

She was probably right with that, for it was rather warm already and so it wouldn’t take long anymore, until the big fun started. Yet...

“Don’t you think, it might be still a bit too cold for that?”, I slowly replied and got another critical glance from my best friend.

“I hadn’t thought that you were so oversensitive”, she grinned and nudged me.

I tried to laugh with her while searching for a way out of this dilemma. I stroked my hair out of my face, which the wind had blown into my eyes, while my best friend just shook her head with ostentation to show me that she, with her short pixie cut, wasn’t having such problems.

Then an idea struck me: “Do you want to meet on Saturday or on Sunday?”, I asked Marie. Maybe I could meet her one day and Arwan and Sadwyn the other?

My best friend replied: “I’d like to go for Saturday, because I’ll have to help my parents and my brother to clean our rabbit hutch on Sunday.” At those words she smiled apologetically.

Marie’s parents had bought three little rabbits for her and her brother some time ago. But, as Marie always liked to emphasize, had those little rabbits meanwhile ‘violently grown, developed a horse’s appetite and an elephant’s digestion’.

That’s why I just laughed and said: “Okay, so maybe we can meet tomorrow and see, whether our open air bath is already open for a cheap icicle experiment. And in case it’s not, we can just go to the swimming lake and relax there.”

Marie smiled with delight and nodded. “Three o’clock?”, she asked and I nodded, while I also smiled. I had already hoped that the danger was over by now and just wanted to chomp into my sandwich, as my friend all of a sudden asked: “And what will you do on Sunday?”

I stopped dead, still holding my breakfast midair, and didn’t even notice how a gigantic smudge of butter placed itself neatly on my dark blue jeans. I looked at my best friend bewildered and Marie watched me for a moment bemused, before she broke into laughter. This sound finally brought me back to reality and I focused back on Marie, while I also tried to get rid of my jeans’ new decoration.

Eventually, I forced myself to answer: “I still need to do my homework. Apart from that... I don’t know. Unfortunately, my grandma won't visit us as she usually would have done, for she currently is on holiday.”

“I haven’t seen your grandma Ariana in ages”, Marie said, as she watched the huge, soft clouds that were moving slowly across the sky. After a moment of silence, she added: “Seriously, I was quite worried for a moment. The way you were looking at me, just like you were plotting something... Luckily, I know you quite well and I’m certain that you’re not a superhero in disguise.” Now she smiled, while I just managed a dry “ha ha”.

If Marie knew, how wrong she was... But since I honestly couldn’t tell her that, I tried to sound cheerful, as I replied: “Oh, are you certain? I was just about breaking out my wand in order to cast an especially mean spell.” Then I winked.

My best friend started grinning and raised her hands. “Oh no, please not”, she replied, “not, that you make all our teachers disappear. Or our entire school!” Now her grin turned into laughter, while I couldn’t help but wonder whether such a spell really existed.

Shortly after that our break was nearly over and we got up and made our way back inside. Directly in front of us three of my classmates – who liked to call themselves our “queens” – were walking. What should already indicate everything about Audrey, Helena and Charlotte. Although we were walking at least five meters behind them, I nearly couldn’t breathe anymore, for the scent of their perfume was so incredibly strong.

In front of our school door they suddenly stopped and turned around. Exactly in a way, that Marie and I never would get past them.

“Oh, see who’s there”, Audrey said and grinned meanly, while she watched us approach.

I swallowed hard. Then I sighed and asked: “What do you want from us?” Yet I could feel my heart starting to beat faster. I just wasn’t very self-confident, and no matter how often people kept telling me to work on this problem, I was still rather shy. Except for situations like this, I didn’t have any problems with that. I liked myself just the way I was – at least mostly. But even I could hear that my voice was trembling now and that annoyed me.

“Oh, we don’t want anything”, Helena replied with a mean grin on her face, “but you two look like you wanted to come a bit late for our physic lesson!”

I didn’t really understand what she was up to, but then I could hear a bell ringing inside our school. It was the first of two rings, which indicated, that our next lesson would start in five minutes. I got more and more flustered, since my classmates still were blocking the doors. As if I hadn’t had any other problems! I was due to meet the creepy and dangerous leaders of a magical organization that hunted down undead in less than half an hour, having no clue how to short-term duplicate myself so that my physic teacher wouldn’t notice it. Arwan, who I had written a short message this morning, was equally worried and had not really had an idea, what Helios and Stratos might be up to. With all those thoughts in my mind I seriously didn’t have the nerve to dream up a clever reply to Helena’s comment.

“But we haven’t done anything to you!”, I therefore said absent-mindedly after a moment of silence.

Our “queens” noticed my uncertainty with a sneer. And slowly I understood. They wanted to scare me. Frighten me. Prove, that they were tougher than me. I felt, how I got angry and probably also blushed. But I didn’t care. They had been playing such games with me for too long. It was time to do something against it. And wasn’t I a magician after all? I just needed to find a way to get past my nasty classmates.

The wind blew gently through my hair again. Suddenly an idea struck me. I took a deep breath. Then I concentrated and made a step towards the three girls, who were watching me askance. I thought of all the undead, that I already had hunted down and all the challenges, that I had mastered.

“You know”, I began and thought of Arwan, the immortal Vandraren, and that he and Sadwyn believed in me. “If you want to stay outside here forever, that’s fine by me. Marie and I, however, will go inside through this door right behind you, right now.”

I made another step towards the girls in front of me. They were so stunned, that they indeed made a step back, while Marie slowly followed me. I now had detected a little space between Charlotte and Audrey and walked towards the two of them, while they watched me without speaking. “Have fun coming late, and see you later”, I added and went inside our school.

Inside, I took a deep breath, while Marie still looked at me confused. “How did you do that?”, she eventually asked.

“You know”, I replied and grinned weakly, “I don’t need any magic for that. Just a little self-belief.”

We made our way to our class room, while my head was already about solving my life's next world-shaking problem: how would I manage to clone myself within the next few minutes, without anyone noticing it?

Five minutes later. Situation report: I sat in my physic lesson, still being very un-cloned and still without an ingenious plan how to sneak away from class for an unpredictable amount of time within the next minutes. The lesson began and I nearly jumped, as our teacher entered the room. The hands of our wall clock obviously had decided to willfully ignore about every physical law that I ever had heard of, just in order to annoy me, for they seemed to race across the clock face. Finally, it was five minutes to ten and I was already seriously considering to simply running out of the room screaming, suddenly the door opened. It was our class teacher. She asked our physic teacher, if he could help her with her laptop and they left the room together. I looked at Marie. This was my chance.

“Marie”, I whispered, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, but I have to go… somewhere. If our teacher returns before I do, will you help me?”

My best friend chuckled and answered: “Of course. As long as you haven’t just decided that you are a superhero in disguise after all.”

I tried to laugh and raced out of the room. Luckily, the corridor was empty and with racing heart and trembling hands I translokalized to our headquarters. Helios and Stratos were awaiting us.

by Arwan

I stood in the gigantic entrance hall of our headquarters and looked around nervously. It was 10 am CEST. The hall around me was empty. Tamina, where are you?, I thought. Just this very second, my young partner arrived next to me, still panting for air.

“Are you alright?”, I cautiously asked.

Tamina nodded. “Yeah, I just had to sneak away from my class. I hope this won’t take too long.”

We waited in the completely empty hall and the oppressive silence was lying heavily over us like a thick blanket, sending a shiver through my body. Just as I thought I couldn’t bear it any longer, two shadowy figures appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Helios and Stratos. As they saw us, they looked bemused. Then they slowly approached us.

A few feet away, they both stopped and Helios asked: “Why are you here? Haven’t you just accomplished a mission a few days ago?”

I stared at her in surprise. But before I could answer, Tamina spluttered: “Haven’t you sent us a message? That we were supposed to come here? That you needed to talk to us? Something about an ‘unplanned incident’?”

Now Stratos shook his head, as he answered: “No, there’s no such thing as an ‘unplanned incident’, as you put it. We definitely didn’t send you a message or asked you to come here.”

Tamina rummaged around in the pocket of her jeans. Then she drew a little sheet of paper out and unfolded it. She showed it to Helios, who read it, looking surprised.

After Helios had finished reading, she said: “Well, I regret that you came here in vain, but Stratos and I certainly didn’t write that. Whoever sent you this message maybe was just playing a trick on you. So, if you don’t have anything else to discuss, please excuse Stratos and me. We need to go back to sorting your next mission aims out. We’ll inform you about your next target location soon. Until then, may the undead be well-disposed to you!” And with that, Helios and Stratos vanished.

“What was that?”, Tamina asked, after she had recovered from this strange conversation.

I shook my head. “I have no clue”, I answered.

“That was weird, even by their standards”, Tamina said, still looking bewildered. “Do you have any idea, who sent us this paper?”, she then added, showing me the little sheet.

I examined it and sighed. “Not the faintest idea”, I eventually admitted.

We stood in the middle of the gigantic entrance hall for another few moments, before Tamina suddenly shrieked: “My lesson! I need to get back!” She was already about translokalizing back to her school, as she looked at me and added: “Hope to see you on Sunday?”

I nodded and a second later she was gone.

I was just about leaving as well, as I suddenly heard a voice behind me: “Wait!”

I turned around and saw that one of Helios’ and Stratos’ assistants was approaching me. As all the others, he was completely dressed in white and I was sure, that he wouldn’t tell me his name, even if I asked him for it. He now was very close to me, but I somehow had the odd feeling of having seen this very assistant already before.

“Wait”, he repeated and stopped right in front of me, before he continued to speak, lowering his voice. “I need to tell you something. But not here. Follow me.” And with that he turned around and started walking away.

After a second of confusion, I did as I was told. What was going on here? We had just walked a few steps, but as usually the magic of this place would make the entrance hall vanish. Instead, we were suddenly in a confusing labyrinth of corridors, all looking equally white. I followed the man for another few minutes, before he seemed to have reached his destination. He stopped in front of an unremarkable door and opened it. I walked in after him and was surprised to see that we were in the magical archive. I carefully closed the door behind me, while the assistant was watching me sternly.

Eventually, he began to speak again: “I need to tell you something important. It concerns your partner. And you better keep it secret, if you know, what is good for her. And you.”

A shiver ran through my veins and before I could hold it back I said: “This was you. You sent us this obscure message. Why?”

The assistant sighed. “Because of the things that are going on here. But you really need to keep this secret. If Helios and Stratos ever found out that I told you about...” He shook his head.

“Your partner is in great danger”, he then said, completely out of the context.

“Why?”, I whispered and looked at him in despair. “What do you mean with that, what is happening here?”

The assistant glared at me, before he continued. “It’s because of Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. As you certainly know, they are ghostchasers, just like Tamina and you. I recently overheard one of their conversations. They are plotting something to finally hunt Tamina down. They were saying something about ‘revenge’ and some old ‘scores’ they had to settle. I don’t know the exact context, but your partner wouldn’t be the first ghostchaser, who dies at the hands of the two. Be careful.” After he had finished speaking, he turned around and was already on his way out again, as I held him back.

I was so shocked that I didn’t manage to think straight anymore and so I just stammered: “But why have you told me that? Why are you helping me?”

He turned back to me and in this very moment I understood. “This is you. You are the same assistant, who showed Tamina and me around here right after we became ghostchasers. The one, who took us to our ships in Senegal and to our cabin in Québec.”

The man nodded. “But don’t think that this changes anything”, he said, looking at me haughtily. “I just can’t be bothered to having to introduce some new and equally untalented ghostchasers to this business here every few days. If you could look out for your partner, so that she stays alive for a little longer, I would be much obliged to you.” He had said those words in a sarcastic tone and after he had bowed to me in an equally sarcastic way he vanished.

I needed a few minutes to regain my self-composure. Suddenly there were so many more new worries that I slowly had the feeling of completely losing track. Finally, I sighed and also left the archive. I really needed to get away from here. I knew that Tamina and I had to keep going, for which alternatives did we have?

I knew that, if we ever decided to leave the ghostchasers, we would not be allowed to meet again forever. And as an experienced dead I can assure you that forever is indeed quite a long time. On the other hand, I also couldn’t ask Helios and Stratos to simply release us from our duties for a little while, because then they certainly would be extra suspicious of us. Apart from that I didn’t believe that any of this might change anything. Jaropolk and Ke’Indra still would continue to pursue their goal. How could I protect Tamina? I sighed. Probably it was time to break out the magic books again and teach Tamina some defensive – and some less defensive – spells.

by Sadwyn

It was Sunday afternoon. At least it was Sunday afternoon, where I had just translokalized. Arwan, Tamina and yours truly wanted to meet at my home in Cardiff and continue teaching Tamina some new spells. I glanced around, but at the first sight I couldn’t detect anybody in my living room. Yeah, I was being a little late, but I had been out with friends on the other side of the earth and I hadn’t looked on my watch. Now I carefully looked around again and eventually saw Tamina, who was grinning. Probably, because I still had my surfboard with me. But I couldn’t find Arwan anywhere. Where was he?

“Do you know, where my cousin is?”, I therefore asked Tamina and she kept grinning, as she replied: “Oh, you know, he’s just showing me a spell. He is around here somewhere, he’s just invisible.”

“Ah, the old trick”, I said and couldn’t suppress a grin myself. “But I thought you already knew that spell?”, I added and felt a bit confused. I was sure that we had already taught Tamina how to become invisible. Or was I mistaking something? I really felt old in this very moment.

Luckily, Tamina shook her head and replied: “Don’t worry. I know how to become both invisible and visible again.” She certainly wanted to indicate that she knew both spells for that action, as you needed one spell to become invisible and another one to become back visible again.

“See?”, Tamina said and disappeared. A moment later, I could see her again. “Mephainō and Phainō. It’s not that difficult. They are very creative modifications of some ancient Greek words, aren’t they?”, she asked.

I nodded. “That’s right. So, can you tell me, what Arwan is actually up to?”

In this very second, the flower vase next to me suddenly decided to explode. In an instant, I had jumped, raised my wand and tried to aim it at a possible invader. But there was no one. Instead, Arwan appeared directly in front of me and said: “Sorry for the vase. And hi, by the way. Today, I wanted to practice casting spells with Tamina, while she is invisible. You know that it takes an extra of concentration and training to keep up several spells at once.”

“And that’s why you decided to destroy my home?”, I replied, but also couldn’t hold back a relieved sigh.

Arwan grinned apologetically, before he repaired the vase with a little move of his wand. It neatly clued itself back together and took its former place at the table. Luckily, there hadn’t been any flowers in it.

I shook my head and grinned too. Meanwhile, Tamina had been looking back and forth between my cousin and me. But she was already used to our occasional bickering. I mean, when you’ve spent the past seventy years or so hanging out together, that will definitely allow some bickering.

“Anything else that I’ve missed?”, I asked and Tamina sighed.

Then she said: “Honestly, I don’t know how you manage to keep all this secret. Your ability to perform magic. Your life as Vandraren. It feels like I’ve joined the ghostchasers just yesterday and I’m already having trouble to not accidentally let my friends know what’s going on. Especially my best friend, Marie.”

Now both Arwan and I were looking alarmed, maybe I even a bit more than my cousin, for he certainly had an idea, what was currently going on. But even he looked worried and so I slowly asked: “Do you fear... that she might find it out?” If the answer was yes, then we’d all be in serious trouble.

But to my relief, Tamina shook her head. She tried to smile and added: “Don’t worry. That’s not the problem. It’s just an odd feeling to suddenly having secrets to keep from my best friend.”

I nodded sympathetically. Getting used to pretending to other people that I was still alive also had taken me a little while.

“And you, Arwan?”, I asked my cousin, hoping, that he had something funny to tell to lift all our spirits again.

My cousin seemed to have understood, for he replied: “Way too much. You know, our drummer just called me a few minutes before you arrived here. My entire band is in total excitement, for our violinist somehow had the utmost-best-brilliant-whatever idea for our upcoming tour. That’s why we all want to meet in exactly... seventeen and a half minutes at our recording studio in London. So, I hope you don’t mind that I need to leave you in latest seventeen minutes.”

Tamina and I shook our heads, both grinning about my cousin’s story. “Then Sadwyn and I will just keep practicing together”, Tamina said. “By the way, can we get back to that? And Arwan, can you do the trick with the vase again? Sadwyn’s face, when it exploded out of the blue, was brilliant!”

Arwan grinned apologetically and said: “But it really wasn’t planned that way. Actually, I had wanted to make his surfboard explode, for it’s always in my way, everywhere in the house, especially when I need to get past with my guitar and when I’m in a hurry.”

I knew that it was only a joke and so I just grinned. “So you finally admit that you’re too old to aim your wand properly? Maybe it’s good that you need to go to your band meeting. I’ll meanwhile teach Tamina how to detune your bass without even touching it!”

Now we all laughed. After a while, we came back to our actual topic and Arwan said: “Maybe it’s the best, Tamina, if you start by performing the spell that will make you invisible. After that we can go on to moving some items. If you manage that, we start casting several ‘real’ spells at once.”

I nodded, for I knew what Arwan was up to. Generally, you needed a spell to perform magic. You didn’t necessarily need to say it aloud, it usually was sufficient to simply speak it in your mind. But as a trained magician, you also could move simple items by the sheer force of will. Like, make a pencil roll from one side of your desk to the other. It was just a little trick, but it was quite useful at times. And it wasn’t as taxing as casting a proper spell. So, we did as we had planned and Tamina took my beloved vase as a handy item to train with.

“If you make it explode, I’ll force you to clue all the pieces together without using magic!”, I threatened, but Tamina just laughed. After all, it worked pretty well.

Exactly seventeen minutes later, Arwan said: “Sorry, but I have to leave you now. Do you think, you can handle this without me?”

“Of course we can!”, Tamina replied, yet I had the feeling, that she was looking a bit sad.

Arwan got his guitar and was on his way to London a few moments later. Tamina and I looked at each other, both silent.

“You’re alright?”, I eventually asked, as she still hadn’t said anything, since Arwan had left.

“Yeah”, she replied, “it’s just... something I wanted to ask him. About keeping secrets from friends and making decisions. Never mind, it’s not so important.”

Yet she looked so insecure, that I sighed and offered: “Well, as you know, I’m a Vandraren, too. And I hope you also trust me enough that you maybe might want to talk with me about it? I know that people like to reduce me to my hobby surfing, but I also have seen a lot of crazy stuff during my life and maybe yours truly is able to help you with a bit of his Vandraren-wisdom.” I winked and was relieved to see Tamina grin again.

After a short moment I added: “But not here. I think we have practiced enough for today. May I show you one of my favorite places on this earth? Of course it’s at the seaside, but I bet, you will love it. As far as I know, many known writers and poets have taken inspiration from this place and going there always helps me to clear my mind.”

As I saw Tamina’s surprised reaction to my last words, I said: “You know, with us Vandraren, you always need to expect something that you can’t see on the first sight or on the surface. You always need to expect the invisible!” Then I took her hand and we translokalized. 

by Tamina

We stood at the seaside. I could see the waves rolling up to the shore and breaking with a rumbling sound several dozen meters beneath me. We were standing high upon a cliff and I was absolutely staggered by the view and the atmosphere. I took a deep breath; the air smelled and tasted of the fresh salt water that was splashing beneath us. Finally I turned around to Sadwyn, who had watched me with a little grin on his face.

“Wow”, I said, “it’s staggeringly beautiful here. If the air weren’t so fresh, I’d even say breathtakingly beautiful. How comes you never told Arwan or me about this place?”

“Well”, Sadwyn replied, “Arwan knows that I sometimes come here to clear my mind. And I guess we two simply hadn’t had the chance to talk about it yet. As there have been, or still are, so many other things going on...” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. There really were one or two things going on...

“So”, Wynn interrupted my thoughts, “you wanted to talk about secrets? Has it anything got to do with our currently ongoing events? Like, Jaropolk and Ke’Indra trying to hunt you down or your parents and friends finding out about your secret life as mighty magician?” He winked.   

I grinned for a short moment. If it just were that easy. Those problems were easy to name. Yet I was thinking about something else. I needed a moment to put my thoughts into a coherent sentence and Sadwyn watched me curiously, before his gaze wandered back to the sea.     

Finally, I took a deep breath and began: “Two days ago, I had a little... argument with three of my classmates. They were trying to frighten and play a little trick on me... Well, that’s not so important and...”    

“Wait”, Sadwyn interrupted me, looking stern, “someone is bullying you and you say this wasn’t important? Of course it is!”    

“Marie and I got of lightly”, I replied, “and that’s not the point. What I wanted to say is...”

“But they aren’t doing this regularly, are they?”, Wynn interrupted me anew and I shook my head.    

“No, that’s probably just the way they are. Listen, can we get back to me talking gibberish about some obscure problem that I am maybe or not just imagining? I’m having enough trouble speaking about it anyway.”    

Sadwyn sighed. Then he said: “Fine. But if they keep bullying you, you go to a teacher. D’accord?”    

“Yes, sir”, I replied and Sadwyn nodded encouragingly.

“So, what’s up? And I’m sure you aren’t just imagining your worries – where do you even take such formulations from? You really ought to become more self-conscious.”

“And that’s exactly the problem”, I started. “As I was in that... said situation... I really felt helpless. On the one hand, I knew that they were just trying to frighten me, but on the other hand, I simply didn’t really dare to speak up at first. And this has set me thinking.” I waited for a few moments, to let Sadwyn process what I had just said. Then I continued. “I keep wondering how people manage to make decisions or say their own opinion, just directly the way it is, without thinking too much about the possible consequences. In situations like the one two days ago or generally, when I’m in unfamiliar surroundings, I try to think of what might happen, if I do this or that thing. Like... if my actions could cause any negative consequences for someone else.”    

“But I hope, you’re not thinking of your mean classmates?”, Sadwyn asked and raised an eyebrow. “If I were you, I’d already casted a really nasty spell on them.” He winked and I sighed.    

“For a moment I was seriously considering that”, I eventually admitted. “But ironically I had to learn that being able to perform magic doesn't make things easier any bit at all.” Then I thought about it agian. “Okay, maybe that was a stupid example. Let’s take another one. What about you bringing me here? I’ve been curious for already a while to learn more about you. Like, how you cope with being a Vandraren or how you manage to always be so positive. But I never had the courage to ask you, because I feared that you’d simply tell me to get lost.”

Wynn let that sink in for a moment. Then he replied: “First of all, I’d never say that. And to answer your question: You know, during my life time – if you want to call it ‘life’ time – I have seen some pretty crazy stuff. And I understood that sometimes good and sometimes really miserable things happen. That is something I can’t change. But I think that my personal attitude towards those events can alter the way I perceive them. If I only ever focus on the negative side of things, this certainly will upset me. And so I decided that I would try to look at the bright side of things instead. It won’t prevent the bad things from happening, but it hopefully will prevent me from moaning about it all the time.”

I was fascinated to finally find out more about Wynn and so I cautiously continued: “And why do you seem to be all about surfing?”

Now Wynn chuckled. “Well, because I like it. It makes me feel free. It’s only the sea and me. Yet there is this tingling feeling of unpredictability. You never know what the next wave might hold. It’s always an adventure, always a challenge.”

“Must be awesome”, I sighed. “Having come to terms with yourself.”  

“Well, no matter how often we bicker with each other, it’s good to have a companion like Arwan. Someone who understands you and who you can talk to openly.” I sighed. After a short break, Sadwyn glanced at me worried. “You suddenly look so sad?”, he eventually added.     

I shook my head. “Sorry. It’s just... I don’t really understand it myself. But when you said how glad you are to have Arwan to talk about stuff...” I shivered. But then I simply couldn’t hold back any longer. “Listen, Wynn. I really don’t want to bother you”, I finally continued. “It’s just sometimes... I wish I could have someone like that as well. Sometimes all those crazy things that are going on in my life make me feel utterly sad. And alone. It feels like I am being torn apart. On the one hand, there is my normal everyday life. On the other hand, I'm a member of a magical organization that hunts down undead. My life has gone completely crazy and I can't share it with anyone of my family or other friends...”

I saw that Sadwyn started to say something and therefore interrupted him, before he could even say a single word. “As I said, I’m really sorry for bothering you. I certainly don’t want to cause any discomfort. I know what you want to say and you're right; Wynn, why the hell am I telling you this? Running around screaming out my sorrows doesn't make things any better and I'm well aware of that everybody's got their own problems in life, many of them being way worse than mine. I just feel like being caught in this endless strife of trying and finding some place I truly do belong to. A place to call home. Where I am not the single piece in the jigsaw that doesn't really fit anywhere. To be brutally honest with you; sometimes I just want to scream all this out to the world. To this superficiality and selfishness. But I know that it wouldn’t change a thing. It would just make other people sad as well. People I hold dear. So I never show how torn I sometimes really feel. The only thing I can do is keep going.” After I had finished, I noticed that a lonely teardrop was running down my cheek and angrily wiped it away. What had made me break down so hard?

Sadwyn looked at me and obviously didn’t know what to say. So I took a deep breath and came to an end. “Anyway, thanks for listening to all that gibberish. I think, what I actually was trying to say is that I’m thankful for every experience that doesn’t make me feel this way anymore, be it just for a split second”, I therefore added and tried to shake off my sadness. A sadness that had been accompanying me way too long and probably wasn’t even necessary. Certainly it wasn’t helpful.

“What I have just learned about you”, Sadwyn replied after a while, obviously heroically trying to lift my spirits again, “is that you’re generally thinking way too much. And especially way too much about a possible future. When have you ever done or tried something without playing every possible outcome of it through?”

“Well, if you ask that way...” I slowly answered. “Maybe, as I decided to join the ghostchasers. Maybe that was a desperate try to break free from all those endless fears and guessing of possible futures. And second-guessing. And third-guessing. Anyway. I just needed to get rid of that. Thanks for listening, Wynn.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t know you were so worried all the time. But as you know, since I’m more the spontaneous guy, I can only advise you to sometimes just stop thinking about what might happen and simply do it. Because, if you never try out anything, in the end nothing will ever happen.” Then a thought seemed to come to his mind. “Maybe you’d like to go surfing with me one day?”, he offered and winked.

I nodded uncertainly. “Maybe.”    

“You know”, Sadwyn added after a while, “I had a very interesting conversation with Arwan the other day. He seems to have the exact contrary problem to yours. While you always try to make out a possible future, he recently told me that he feared he’s lived in his own past for way too long. I think you two make a brilliant team!”

I realized that he was just joking and grinned. Somehow, it really had helped me to talk to Sadwyn. But his last sentence definitely called for payback. So I said: “Thanks Wynn. By the way, are you sure you really still need that vase in your living room in Cardiff? Maybe I’ll just get back to that as soon as we start practicing explosion spells.”

by Arwan

I was in an archive of a small Saxon town. In between all those old documents I was hoping to find some magic books. And apart from that I was reading a little about this region's history; I mean, I had studied history some time ago and somehow the historian deep down within me had said 'hi' again. I was currently rather often around in Saxony and so the idea had struck me that I could find our a bit more about Tamina’s home. But actually, I was thinking about something else...

There had been new problems concerning Jaropolk and Ke’Indra occuring. The two magicians were still trying to hunt my partner down. During the past days, Tamina had told me several times that she had seen her two persecutors showing up, especially in a way that Tamina inevitably would notice them. Until now this always had been in public and they hadn’t attacked Tamina yet, but this was only a question of time...

And so I was highly alarmed, as I suddenly received a message from her – it was morning and Tamina actually was supposed to be at school. I had just been flipping through some documents, books and papers, which I had selected earlier, as all of a sudden my phone vibrated. As mentioned, a message from Tamina.

She wrote: You have a moment for me?

I got up. A few seconds later I met her in an empty classroom.

“What’s happened?”, I asked, although I hadn’t even fully appeared yet. I carefully looked at my partner, but luckily she seemed to be sound.

As Tamina saw my worried glance, she quickly replied: “I’m alright. It’s just... it happened again. I saw them. Today, when I was on my way to school. Although I’m not even certain, whether it really was them. It was extremely bizarre. I all of a sudden had the feeling of seeing two shadows at the bus stop, when I was waiting for our school bus. A few moments later it was all over again.”

I sighed and thought about what she had just told me. This sounded exactly like Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. Luckily they hadn’t attacked Tamina. But this was indeed very unsettling. Then a different thought came to my mind. “Shouldn’t you be in your lesson?”, I asked instead and raised an eyebrow.

Tamina shook her head. “No, we’re having a free period, for our math teacher is ill. The others all have gone elsewhere. What I mean is...” She was searching for words for a moment. “I don’t want to cause panic because of nothing, but I fear the day they’ll go beyond mere threats...”

I hesitated. Then I slowly said: “You’re right, we can’t be careful enough. But I don’t think that you are in danger at school. Especially not here at school, for there are always other people around, who are by the way non-magicians.” I was thinking of her classmates and was certain, that the two ghostchasers didn’t want to be uncovered here. Tamina nodded.

“But we really should be careful”, I added after a moment. “If it makes you feel better, I can ask Sadwyn to additionally watch out for you. With his gigantic surfboard he’s so creepy that he scares everyone off!” At those words I winked.

Tamina seemed to be relieved and grinned.

Then we stood for a moment in silence, until the school bell literally made us jump.

My partner winced and said: “The next lesson starts in five minutes. I have to go.” She glanced at me again and added much quieter: “Thanks... for everything.” Then she dashed out of the room.

I waited a few moments, before I also made my way back to the archive. But even when I was already back studying the old papers, I only thought about my young partner. And Jaropolk and Ke’Indra.

I had to do something! Since the assistant at the headquarters more or less directly had told me that Tamina was in danger, I was desperately searching for a way out of all this. But no matter what I had tried, I hadn’t managed to find more detailed information about Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. So the only thing that I could tell with certainty was that they were dressed way too glamorous all the time. And, that they probably were already rather old. Maybe even several hundred years, which would mean that they were even way older than I was. But I didn’t know how they had managed to stop ageing. At least they weren’t Vandraren, for I would definitely have noticed that. I even had tried to find out more about them in our magical archive at the headquarters, but strangely Helios and Stratos directly had flashed into action and asked, what I was doing. I slowly had understood that the two seemed to have a special status among all the ghostchasers, although I didn’t know, why. And so I kept pondering.

Finally the idea struck me that I might ask Sadwyn – maybe he was having another idea, what we could do?

At least we had started practicing some new spells with Tamina and she had become quite good at casting them, while she was being invisible. That had been very important to me to make sure that she could protect herself.  

With all those worrying thoughts in my mind, I decided to stop researching for today and got up.

A few days later, Sadwyn appeared completely out of the blue in Cardiff. I was pretty surprised, for I had been certain that he actually should have been on a surf contest or another. Sadwyn was looking anxious and his still dripping curls told me, that he indeed must have been frolicking in the waters just moments ago.

“Good to see you”, he began and approached me. Then he continued: “I just had an idea, who might know something about Jaropolk and Ke’Indra.”

I looked at him in surprise. We had tried so much in vain and nonetheless Sadwyn now glanced at me as if he had just had an enlightenment as bright as a supernova.

“What do you think about asking Merlin, son of Merlin for his advice? As son of the legendary Merlin he's definitely been getting around a little bit. Maybe he knows the two?”

I hadn’t thought of this yet. But Merlin, son of Merlin, indeed was a wizard with many contacts and as one of the best wand manufacturers in the world, he probably indeed had gotten around a bit.  

“The question is just”, I replied, “how can we contact him? By now this has only been possible through his website and every time it had been concerning our wands...”

“Pha”, Wynn interrupted me, “somehow this guy must have done his business in times before the internet. It’s just a pity we didn’t ask him for his phone number, when we saw him the last time.”

I couldn’t suppress a grin. But a few moments later I got back serious again. “So, how can we ask Merlin?”

“Merlin, son of Merlin”, Wynn corrected me with a wink. “You know that he freaks out every time you forget to address him by his full title.”

I nodded. Merlin really could be a little special when it came to his name.

“And if we simply pretend to having a problem with our wands? Maybe they unfortunately let confetti rain everywhere, all day long?” Sadwyn suggested and grinned.

No sooner said than done. We filled in the contact form on Merlin’s website and waited. But Merlin probably was very busy today or he simply didn’t buy the story of our confetti-raining wands, for it took nearly two hours, until he finally arrived.

“I heard there’s a problem with your wands?” At those words he critically raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, Merlin... I mean Merlin, son of Merlin”, I hastily added, “we are seeking important information that my even save my partner’s life. It’s concerning two magicians.”

Merlin critically glanced back and forth between Wynn and me. Eventually he sighed. “So everything’s alright with your wands? I thought as much. My wands are way too good to just let confetti rain out of the blue. A little more creativity next time, please.” He hesitated for a moment. “Normally, I’d simply go by now. But actually I think your young partner is pretty cute, and so I’ll do you this favor. Although I can’t promise that I’ll be able to help you.” After this monologue my ears were still ringing for a few moments and even Wynn was looking uneasy. If I had to describe Merlin’s voice I’d state that it was a weird mixture of fingernails scratching over a slate, an aviary full of birds that were all chirping in a different key and a horde of pensioners all yelling ‘silence’ at once.

Eventually my ears stopped ringing and I could think about answering. “They are called Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. We only know that they are quite a few centuries old and don’t seem to age anymore. They definitely aren’t Vandraren. Actually we only know for certain that they are both ghostchasers.”

Merlin raised his eyebrows. “Jaropolk? Ke’Indra?” he then asked with his cheeping voice that instantly sent a shiver down my spine.

Sadwyn nodded. “Do you know them?”, he eventually added, as Merlin didn’t answer.

Merlin now was looking pretty annoyed. Finally he admitted: “I’m sorry. But I’ve never heard of them.”

I sighed. Merlin shook his head with ostentation and got up. “I’m sorry that I can’t be of help for you. Have a nice day.” And with that he vanished.

But only a split second after Merlin had gone, all of a sudden everything in me froze dead. I didn’t even know why, but I was absolutely certain that my young partner was in great danger... Where was she? I looked at my smartphone. Nothing. I tried to feel, where she was. To no avail. I paced around in the room, while my cousin anxiously watched me. But he couldn’t help me either and in my mind I reproached myself for not having guarded her better... 

by Tamina

Yummy. Vanilla. My most favorite ice cream. That was what I normally would have said at the thought of going to our local ice cream parlor with my best friend Marie. Yet I now desperately tried to find an excuse to not having to go to this very place with her. It wasn’t as if I suddenly had developed an aversion to ice cream. It was the mere thought of having to go to our local market square that made me shiver. I had seen Jaropolk and Ke’Indra several times during the last weeks and months. But they had gotten the closest to me only there.

“Oh come on, please”, Marie said and grinned, while she broke our her sandwich. It again was a warm and sunny morning and again we were sitting in our schoolyard, having breakfast.

I sighed, while I unwrapped my own sandwich. Maybe it was okay? I hoped that my two persecutors weren’t watching every single step that I made, so maybe I could risk this little trip with my best friend? “Fine”, I heard myself say, before I could think about it any longer.

Marie smiled and replied: “Great! Let’s meet at three o’clock?”

I nodded and she grinned.

In the afternoon, I made my way to our local market square. On my way I tried to ignore the unsettling feeling in my gut. That’s why I gave my best to grin cheerfully, as I met Marie. She smiled back and we sat down. Eventually I began to relax and we started chatting.

“How’s your family doing?”, Marie asked after a while.

I chuckled as I replied: “Oh, they’re fine. Mia is still absolutely proud of finally being a schoolchild. And my grandma Ariana has just come back from her latest holiday. I think she’s been to the Mediterranean or so. And she told me that she is planning to go on a trip to Dresden soon. You know, because she was born and has spent a part of her childhood there.”

Marie curiously looked at me. “I didn’t know that”, she eventually admitted.

I nodded. “Yeah, she’s lived there until World War II. Until Dresden was bombed in February 1945. After her parents had died, she grew up here in the Ore Mountains with her aunt and uncle.” I sighed.

We sat in silence for another few moments, before I changed topic. “Have you actually understood our latest chemistry homework?”, I asked and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t understand a single word our teacher said.” Now I grinned sheepishly.

Marie also chuckled as she replied: “Sorry, not really. I think I’ll just ask our class representative Doris. She’s great at chemistry; maybe she can explain it to me.” This sounded like a good plan and I nodded.

After we had finished our ice cream, we slowly got up and Marie went to get her bike. I, on the other hand, looked at my watch only to see that I had more than twenty minutes left until my bus was due. Marie said goodbye to me and I slowly made my way across the market square. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I was completely alone now and that made me feel insecure. I looked around. At the first sight, I couldn’t see anything unusual. But as I glanced around anew, I all of a sudden noticed two shadowy figures appearing on the other side of the market square seemingly out of nowhere. I froze in shock, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, hoping that I was just having a very realistic hallucination, although deep down within me I knew better. I opened my eyes again. They still were there.

Although they were quite a bit away, I instantly recognized them. They were a radiating merciless, cold determination that you never were able to forget anymore, once you had felt it. And as usually they were dressed as glamorous, as if they were just on their way to a gala dinner. Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. And they were approaching me quickly. With their wands aimed at me. Instinctively I turned around and started running into the other direction. I needed to get away from them! Directly in front of me a narrow lane branched off. I looked back only to see that Jaropolk and Ke’Indra were still following me. Without a second thought I ran towards the narrow lane.

The abrupt change from the bright sunlight to darkness probably was the reason, why I couldn’t see anything for a moment. Nonetheless I kept running and also drew my wand, just in case. I glanced back over my shoulder, but couldn’t see Jaropolk and Ke’Indra yet. Then all of a sudden my sprint was painfully stopped by an obstacle. I only realized that the world suddenly spun around me and I lay on the pavement a split second later. I looked up. Eventually my eyes had gotten used to the dim light and I could see what had stopped me. Or better to say, who. Next to me stood a man, watching me with a worried expression on his face. At first, I was relieved to see that it wasn’t Jaropolk. But nonetheless I was frozen in shock. There was a perfect strange passerby standing next to me and I was lying here with my wand raised!

I tried to get up. The stranger held out his hand and pulled me up. As I stood next to him, he looked at me askance. I stared back. No one said a word.

“You’re alright?” he finally asked. 

I nodded, yet again glanced back over my shoulder. The lane behind me was still empty, but I was certain, that Jaropolk and Ke’Indra would be here any time soon. I glanced back to my counterpart.

“For that you are looking pretty stressed out”, he commented. “Are you followed by someone?”

I swallowed hard. Then I slowly replied: “Uhm... yeah. Somehow.” Meanwhile, I desperately searched for a way out. But how should I do that? I couldn’t dissolve into nothing while this guy was watching me! Then an alarming thought struck me; what was, if he was an accomplice of Jaropolk and Ke’Indra? At least I was sure that I never had seen him in our town before. On the other hand, if he was working together with them, he wouldn’t watch me this surprised, maybe even stumped. So probably he was just a tourist.

“Can I help you?”, he eventually asked.

And in this very second I heard a frightening noise. Jaropolk and Ke’Indra were getting closer and it certainly would only take seconds, until they would enter the lane. The stranger tucked his hair behind his ear and also glanced over to the market square.

A split second before my persecutors entered the lane, I cast the spell that would make me invisible without a second thought. And cursed myself in this very moment. How could I have been so stupid to use magic while this stranger was watching me? Yet I knew that I had other problems right now.

Jaropolk and Ke’Indra stepped into the lane with a sneer on their faces. But this quickly turned into surprise, as they realized that the lane was empty except for the passerby. I anxiously watched my persecutors. They looked around and obviously couldn’t detect me.

Finally Jaropolk asked: “Excuse me, but you haven’t seen... a young girl walking past? Brown eyes? Equally brown hair?”

The stranger confidently looked at the two. If he was wondering how I had vanished into thin air this suddenly, he managed not to show. I involuntarily held my breath. Finally he answered: “Nope, I haven’t seen anyone.”

Jaropolk raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? She must have come through here!”

Now the man theatrically raised his arms and replied: “As I already said, I haven’t seen anyone here. And since this lane is very far from anything that can be called wide, she wouldn’t have gotten past me without me noticing. I’m sorry, but I obviously can’t help you. Maybe you should look for her somewhere else. Have a nice day!” And then he had the nerve to indifferently turn away.

I was completely dumfounded. Jaropolk and Ke’Indra obviously too. They looked bewildered at each other for a moment, but finally they turned around and left. I wasn’t certain whether they really believed what this man next to me had said. Then an idea struck me. I slowly raised my wand and aimed it at a few dustbins that were standing at the other end of the market square. In my mind, I cast a short spell and made them fall over with a loud, cracking sound.

“She must be somewhere over there!”, Ke’Indra exclaimed and the two rushed away.

After they had disappeared, the stranger made a few steps towards the market square and carefully looked around as if to make sure that they really were gone. Eventually, he nodded and turned back. “They’re gone. You can come back out again, wherever you are.”

I swallowed and cast the spell that would make me visible again. I nervously looked at the stranger. He looked at me.

After a moment of silence, he slowly said: “Don’t worry. I honestly don’t want to know how you did that. But in my view you really should get away from here, before they come back.”

Suddenly, the wind forcefully blew through our narrow lane and I shivered. Before I finally left, I turned around to the stranger once again and whispered “Thanks.” Then I ran away as fast as I could.

I didn’t know where to go. Maybe I could translokalize to Cardiff? The question was just, whether I had the time to stop running and focus enough to cast the spell properly. I already panted for air again and felt, how I got slower. Why did I have to be so unathletic? I ran through this labyrinth of narrow streets and had completely lost track, where I actually was. Finally I thought of Arwan. I would be so glad, if he could come and help me. And maybe also bring Sadwyn with him. Finally I couldn’t go on anymore and stopped. Arwan, where are you?, I desperately thought. Just in this very second, two shadows materialized next to me. I shrieked. Oh no... I had been to slow...

by Sadwyn

“Tamina!”, my cousin exclaimed as we finally had found her. But obviously she hadn’t been expecting us appearing right in front of her in, for she shrieked and looked, as if she was frightened to death. Then she realized that it were simply Arwan and me, who had appeared next to her and she relaxed a bit. I was just relieved that she hadn’t cast an explosion spell on us. Although technically spoken nothing should happen, I wasn’t really keen on trying it out.

“Arwan! Wynn!”, Tamina exclaimed. “They’re here! Jaropolk and Ke’Indra! I've seen them a few streets away!” She lowered her voice and continued: “I managed to distract them, but I bet they're still searching for me.” She shivered.

Arwan and I exchanged a worried glance. So my cousin had been right; Tamina had been in danger. Where had he known that from? I tried to recollect what had happened directly before my cousin and I had translokalized here: After Merlin, son of Merlin, had vanished, Arwan all of a sudden had jumped up and looked as shocked as if someone had tried to blow up his guitar. The only words that he had said to me were: 'Tamina. Something’s wrong. She's in danger. We must find her!’

I really hadn’t had a clue how he could be so sure, but hadn’t commented. Arwan then had paced our living room, desperately trying to 'sense' where his young partner was. If I hadn’t known my cousin was a highly skilled magician, I’d officially declared him mad. For you need to know that 'sensing' someone being so far away from you actually isn’t possible – even if you’re a Vandraren. Nonetheless Arwan had stared at the opposite wall for a few moments, until he had exclaimed all of a sudden: “She’s in her hometown. Or at least somewhere around. And she seems scared. We must hurry.” This had been followed by a row of cusswords, which would even have made me blush, if I still could have blushed in a way living human beings could. So I had looked at my cousin bemused and got up. As I had stood next to him, he had taken my hand and translokalized. Only a split second later we had appeared next to Tamina.

“Then one of us should follow them”, Arwan now urged and I nodded. “Maybe we can finally catch them”, he added. We had tried so often to stop those two evil ghostchasers, but they always had vanished too quickly. So if they still were around searching for Tamina, then this could be our chance.

Yet I also could see that Tamina looked at us completely horrified. She didn’t want us getting in danger, and so she was shocked that we were seriously considering trying to hunt down her two persecutors. She automatically stroked over the scar on her right forearm and frowned.

“I will go”, Arwan next to me said and Tamina froze in shock.

“No”, she whispered and looked at him in despair, “please, Arwan, don’t! You know how mad they are…”

“Tamina, listen”, Arwan interrupted her desperately, “this might be our chance to end all this. To save you from them. But I can’t wait any longer anymore, or they’ll be gone. I have already fought against them, I know what to expect.” With that, he wanted to leave, but Tamina took his hand, as if that could stop him from leaving. Arwan sighed and said: “Tamina. We must find them! Or you’ll never be safe again!”

For a moment, Tamina seemed deeply sunken in her thoughts. Then she looked determined. She took a deep breath and replied: “Then I'll come with you. I'm tired off being afraid.”

Arwan shook his head. “No! I mean, you have already learned a lot, but you're not ready for this yet!”

Before he could add another word I interrupted him: “And that’s why I will go. You stay here with Tamina.” And before my cousin could disagree with me, I had vanished.

I slowly made my way through all those small streets, trying to detect even the slightest hint of Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. I even went back to the market square again, but I had no luck. For a split second I had been sure that I had sensed their magic quite close to me, but this feeling vanished as quickly as it had come. Arwan on the other hand had written me a short message to inform me, that he and Tamina had translokalized to Cardiff, so that she was safe at least. I was relieved that she was no longer in danger, but felt a bit insecure myself. The market square and all the old little streets very strangely empty; I didn’t meet a single other human being, let alone the two I had been looking for so desperately. It now had been nearly a year ago, that I had protected Tamina for the very first time against those two ghostchasers. Ironically, it had been exactly here, on this very market square. History sometimes could be cruelly ironical.

And now I was here again, searching for them anew. But the longer I walked up and down the streets, the more I was convinced that my search was in vain. Finally, after more than half an hour, I stopped searching. They were gone. Again. I sighed and translokalized back to Cardiff. Arwan would not be amused.

“I'm so sorry”, I sighed as I arrived in Cardiff, “but I couldn’t find them.”

Arwan nodded and absent-mindedly tinkered with his leather wristband. “I guess, they already sensed us and escaped”, he then replied. Eventually he locked eyes with me. I could feel his helplessness, his insecurity and his despair of the situation all too clearly. He didn’t say a single word, but I nonetheless understood his silent question: Will we ever be able to defeat them? I sighed. Eventually I lowered my gaze. In fact, I didn’t know the answer.

Tamina meanwhile was sitting on my couch, staring out of the window. She seemed to be deeply sunken in her thoughts. Yet I saw that she was struggling to hold back tears. Arwan followed my gaze. He went over to her and sat down next to her. Tamina cautiously rested her head against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry”, she eventually whispered.

Arwan shook his head. “You haven’t done anything wrong.” Then he visibly struggled to pull himself together. “We are lucky that they didn’t hurt you. That’s all that matters at the moment."

Yet now Tamina looked at him in despair and a lonely teardrop ran down her cheek. “No”, she sighed, “no, I did something wrong. Something very wrong.” She hesitated for a moment, until she continued. “I used magic in front of a stranger. It was just... Jaropolk and Ke’Indra were following me and I needed to hide away and so I cast the spell to become invisible, but this guy also was there in this narrow lane and he saw me, but Jaropolk and Ke’Indra already were so close and I didn't know what to do and then he...”

“Shhhhh”, Arwan gently interrupted her at this point. Then he thought for a moment. “Do you know him?”, he finally asked.

Tamina shook her head. “No, I've never seen him before. I guess, he probably just was a tourist.”

“And does he know anything about you?”, I asked. “Like, your name or where you come from or that you are a ghostchaser?”, I continued.

Tamina again shook her head. “No”, she whispered.

I relaxed a bit and so I said: “Don’t worry. This happened to Arwan and me already, too. As I see it, there's only a slim chance that you ever will meet him again and we can assume that he either will forget about it completely or will figure that it was just a weird prank."

Tamina didn’t really seem convinced, but she nodded and relaxed a bit. Yet the two here in front of me looked so hopeless that I felt the inner need to lift their spirits a bit.

“You know”, I began and started pacing the room in front of them. “I’m well aware of that the situation is far from normal. But we must not lose hope now. You two, you have been through so much together. You have mastered so many challenges and I’m totally staggered how you manage to be such brave ghostchasers and stuff. Don’t give up. Neither now, nor in the future.  Because if you ever stop believing in that there might be a way out of all this, then we certainly won’t find it. Never give up! I couldn’t bear losing my best friends this way!”

I looked at them and hoped that I had managed to root them on.

Eventually Tamina glanced at me and asked: “You really think that we can get through this?”

I nodded forcefully and replied: “Yes, I do.”

Now she smiled a bit and even Arwan didn’t look so hopeless anymore. That was a great relief. If there was one thing in the world that was dangerous for a Vandraren, it was hopelessness.

Eventually my cousin got up and said: “Let’s get cracking!”

by Tamina

I sat outside in my family’s garden once again. It again was a warm and starlit night. I sighed. So much had happened during the last days that I felt completely overwhelmed by it. Finally it had happened. I had felt a lingering danger for already a while, but now I was sure that my final confrontation with Jaropolk and Ke’Indra was close. Very close. I didn’t know, where and when it would happen, but eventually it would happen one way or another. And I was damn scared. I had gotten off lightly today, but who knew, what was going to happen next? And I still had a bad feeling about having used magic in front of someone, who wasn’t a magician. I should have found another way, but I had been so frightened and a silent voice in my mind whispered that there had indeed been few alternatives, if I hadn’t wanted to risk being directly attacked by Jaropolk and Ke’Indra. And I certainly would never see this passerby again. Nonetheless. Someone else knew about my magic skills... What consequences might that have one day?

Suddenly I thought I had heard a noise directly next to me. I looked around and slowly got up from my sister’s swing. Somehow this snarl had sounded familiar. I glanced around, until I finally found what I had been looking for. Or to be precise, who. The little hedgehog had returned. He sat only a few feet away, sheltered by one of our huge conifers, and looked at me. I approached the hedgehog and knelt down in front of him. I was absolutely certain that this was the same hedgehog I had met several times before. He didn’t move a muscle, although he didn’t seem to be scared. Was the hedgehog recognizing me? I looked closer. The hedgehog looked back. I figured that he had grown since I had seen him the last time. The hedgehog still watched me. Without thinking I sat down next to him. I glanced back to the stars for a moment. I had never really thought closer about the nature of hedgehogs, but in this second the thought struck me, that we were quite similar. The little hedgehog had his quills as a protection. This made me think of Jaropolk and Ke’Indra, which raised the question: what was my protection? Again our eyes met and without a second thought I started telling my little hedgehog about my latest experiences. I didn’t know whether he understood my feelings, but he remained and seemed to listen. And so we sat there beneath those beautiful stars in peaceful silence. Two beings, that never were meant to be together and whose paths yet had crossed for a split moment in life now. It was a surreal experience, just perfectly fine for a short tale. A tale of stars and hedgehogs.

by the author

A small room. Two young men are coming in, looking around as if they were searching for someone. Shortly after them a young woman enters and the three – the main characters of our story – greet each other.

Tamina: “Hey guys, how are you?”

Sadwyn: “I’m okay. Except, that I had to come here from surfing just for this AGAIN. Do you really think that our meeting or interview or whatever this is going to be will take place as planned this time?”

Arwan: “I do hope so.”

Tamina: “Are you prepared?”

Sadwyn: “Always! And if we can’t answer a question, I may just recount my latest adventure, you know, when I went to Biarritz and...”

Arwan: “... Everybody will run away screaming in an instant. Wynn, this STILL isn’t going to be a surfer’s guide.”

Tamina: “Right. It’s about our story. Our adventures. Which will be in a book, soon. Oh my gosh I can’t believe we’re seriously doing that.”

Sadwyn: “Do I hear some insecurity? I thought all this was actually your idea. To tell the world about Vandraren.”

Arwan: “Hey, we’ve all been through a lot during the past weeks. It’s okay to feel uncertain.”

Sadwyn: “Relax. We wanna sit? Over there’s a couch. Oh and look, they’ve got an armchair!”

Arwan: “Now he’s happy.”

Suddenly, another person enters the room. It’s a young woman with disheveled hair and a notebook in her hands, panting for air.

Tamina: “Oh, hi Michelle. Great you made it!”

Michelle: “Hi, thanks for your time.”

Sadwyn: “Good to see you! How are you?”

Michelle: “I’m okay, thanks. Hope you’re fine as well.”

Tamina: “A little nervous, but apart from that, thankfully yes. This is our last meeting before the book will be published, isn’t it?”

Michelle: “Yes. The book will soon be available and I’d like to make sure today, that we’ve done and... considered everything.”

Arwan: “Not a bad idea. Let’s go over to the couch and sit.”

Tamina: “Great.”

Arwan: “So, as I see it, we’ve got all the essential components. The text is finished, the cover is ready and...”

Sadwyn: “Isn’t that everything that matters? Sorry, I’ve never published a book before. And speaking of the contents – is that story in it, you know, when I met Tamina for the very first time? When we were in her hometown and...”

Michelle: “Sadwyn, would you awfully mind NOT telling the world just about everything that is happening in the book? People are meant read this by themselves.”

Tamina: “Actually, there’s a whole lot more to consider. Our website’s ready?”

Michelle: “Just for merely a year.”

Sadwyn: “And what about the title of the book – Did you already tell us that? And the marketing? And the publisher? And have you thought about...”

Michelle: “Sorry, Wynn, could you please talk a little slower? I need to write that down to create some sort of epilogue for our current series of short stories.”

Sadwyn: “Oops, sorry. Maybe we should take a break? Your pen looks like it’s gonna burst in flames soon.”

Michelle: “No, I’m fine, thanks. Actually, I don’t think that we already revealed the title, but you’re right, it’s time now. The book is going to be titled:

The Vandraren Stories: Buch I – Geisterjäger.”

Sadwyn: “Was that German?”

Michelle: “Yeah, for now the book will be published in German only. Maybe we can publish an English version one day, too. Let’s see. Is there anything left that we need to talk about?”

Sadwyn: “Nope, I think, we double-checked everything. I mean, the contents should be correct and as long as you got all the names right... Arwan, why are you making such stupid gestures as if you wanted to chop your head off? And Michelle, why do you look as if you accidentally jumped into a cooking pot full of boiling water? Did I miss something?”

Arwan: “Believe me, names are not a good topic right now. Definitely not.”

Sadwyn: “Ahhm okay. You talked to everybody involved and got all the Okays necessary?”

Michelle: “Yes I did.”

Arwan: “Really everybody?”

Michelle: “YES.”

Sadwyn: “I mean, really really everybody? Not that you missed someone? That would be a pity. There are lots of people to consider... the illustrator of your cover, the publisher’s staff, the M...”

Michelle: “Yes I did that. Different topic: do you think the story is plausible? I mean, I wrote everything down in strict accordance to what you told me. But I hope people will be able to follow the story line.”

Arwan: “Well, we’ve tried our best. We can only see, whether it’s going to work out.”

Michelle: “You must admit that some parts of it are pretty crazy. Especially, what you told me for the latest short stories. By the way, did you find out anything about this stranger?”

Arwan: “No, but I honestly don’t think that we’ll ever meet him again and –“

Michelle: “Arwan, are you sure that I should write this down? In written stories this is just an awful cliffhanger in order to indicate, that you’ll surely meet that person again.”

Arwan: “But not tomorrow and certainly not today.”

Michelle: “Arrrgh, can’t you just for once tell me an easy-going, straightforward story that’s easy to write down? I think the next time I write a book, I’m just gonna write about stones. At least they don’t move.”

Tamina: “Oh come on, you’d fall asleep after writing down the first couple of sentences. And I still believe that you can indeed learn something from the story. Let’s just give it a try.”

Sadwyn: “I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Do you mind me saying good-bye? I told some friends on the other side of the planet that I’d come by in a few minutes.”

Arwan: “I guess that’s our cue to leave as well. Are you ready, Tamina, to let our story loose into the world?”

Tamina: “Not at all. Let’s do it!”

Michelle: “Thanks for your time. Let’s venture into the unknown...”

Tonight

While our stars are shining bright

Two ships

Right up to the full moon shall be ascending

Forevermore I’ll follow our song

Hoping for magic to guide the paths I shall roam