A Gypsy Song (The Eye of the Crystal Ball - The Wolfboy Chronicles) (15 page)

“So how do we get through?” Sara asked and drank some water.

Manolo got up from the rock he was sitting on.

“We put one foot in front of the other,” he said and strapped his guitar on his back.

On her way through the luminous forest Sara felt quite uplifted, and soon she decided to stop worrying about anything and just went wherever the giant trees left a path open for them. Manolo followed a few steps behind, looking ever so anxious. How he could keep that heavy-minded mood in these beautiful and glowing surroundings, she had a hard time understanding. To her it was like every step she took made her lighter and her troubles smaller and less important. And little by little she seemed to forget why she was even going through. She forgot her parents sorrow and her worry for her little brother.

Everywhere she went in the forest, a little voice in her head whispered to her. It told her she was awesome, that she was so beautiful, that she could do no wrong. And she enjoyed it. No one had ever said things like that to her.

In this forest there were no seasons and no alternation of day and night and she completely lost the feeling of time. She had no idea how long she had been walking, and little by little her pleasure of being called perfect and beautiful underwent a change.

She began to take it for granted.

And now she wanted more of it. She demanded more. Her thoughts began to circle. Why am I only beautiful? Why not gorgeous? Why are the trees not bending before me on my path? Don’t they know who I am?

Getting deeper into the forest, she began to feel like she was the ruler of everything. That with her magnificent powers and great looks no one would ever be able to stop her. And the small voice kept whispering that she was right to think like that. That the world was ungrateful for not bowing down to her. After all, Manolo had told her himself that she was to be the greatest sorcerer to ever have lived. Wasn’t that worth bowing down to? She snorted like the queen she was meant to be and saw to her satisfaction that the bushes moved and opened up a passage for her and the giant trees were bending to let her come through.

She never cared to look back at Manolo any longer to see if he was still behind her and as she just kept walking where the trees told her to, after awhile she got lost. But she never noticed herself, only Manolo, having less vanity in him and therefore being almost immune to the spellbinding voice, was now searching for her with great worry.

For awhile Sara amused herself by making passages and paths for her, asking the trees to bend and move for her, for she was truly The Mighty One as the whole world was about to see.

Not even once did she think of Manolo, her parents or her gravely ill little brother. It was as if they had all vanished from her mind, like the memories were erased and there was nothing left on her mind other than thoughts of herself.

“I should have someone build me a castle,” she said out loud. “It should be of the purest gold and red rubies and sapphires.”

And she dreamt about how she would sit on her throne and tell people what to do and how to behave and they would all be in awe of her beauty and great wisdom.

All that she was thinking while she was moving in circles getting nowhere.

Meanwhile, Manolo finally caught up with her and was watching her running around in circles with a feverish look in her eyes talking to herself.

“Sara,” he called, but she didn’t seem to react. So he called again, this time much louder.

“SARA!”

But still she seemed to be out of reach.

“Don’t you know who I am?” she asked and seemed to be talking to an imaginary person in front of her.

Manolo walked closer and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Sara?” he said again.

But not even his touch was noticed. She had gone into a world of her own and was shutting out everything else.

Manolo was in two minds. He knew Sara was captured by a strong spell and he also knew that there was only one way to get her out of it. He had to get a hold of the Shield of Truth but that meant that he had to leave Sara here in the forest all alone where she would be dragged even further into her own world.

But he also knew that he had no choice.

After taking just one last look at Sara, he left the forest and went back to where they had come from hoping that he would be able to find her again between the thick trunks. The cloud he saw in the distance was waiting for them to pass through the forest and Manolo hoped that it also would still be there when he got back.

He walked for hours not exactly knowing what he was looking for. The only thing he was certain of was that the Shield of Truth was hidden somewhere in the red mountains of Cazgill where Dzila lived.

If he had known that their pursuer was close behind him and coming closer by the hour, he might have hurried more and taken dangerous risks. It was that creature of darkness, which had been after them ever since they had started this journey. Since then the creature had grown into the size of an elephant. It ran with its nose to the ground, trotting along following Sara and Manolo’s trail getting closer to Vamila, the Forest of Vanity where Sara still was. Its tongue hung far out of its mouth and the freshness of the scent told the black bear that its prey was only a few miles ahead.

But suspecting nothing of this danger that was heading towards Sara, Manolo picked his way cautiously, since he had only heard rumors about Dzila, the king of all creatures. Rumors that told him to be careful.

Suddenly Manolo heard a noise that he couldn’t identify. It wasn't like any sound he had ever heard before in his life. It sounded like a roar of some kind but had great power to it and caused his entire body to tremble. Manolo now felt that the whole mountain next to him was shaking as he heard blocks of stone crashing down. To see what it was that had caused the mountain to shiver he stuck his head out carefully and looked into a clearing.

And then he saw it.

An enormous creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings like an eagle. Dzila was a huge griffin.

Now griffins are among the rarest of creatures and have always been regarded as a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.

So it wasn’t without reason that Manolo had to take in a few deep breaths to calm himself down and not be struck by fear or even awe of this magnificent creature, which had no resemblance to anything he had ever seen before in his more than two hundreds of years walking this earth. He knew that people seldom survived an encounter with such an animal. He also knew that this one probably served as the guardian of the shield that he was looking for. And a griffin of that size would not give it to him easily.

The great Dzila was the one making the earth and mountains move as he was thrashing about with his tail and claws. Out of his enormous beak came a sound that reminded Manolo of anger but also of sorrow. And that was when he saw it. The griffin wasn’t alone. In front of it lay another griffin on the ground. It wasn’t moving and it was lying in a pool of blood. It was smaller and bore the resemblance of a female.

Now, to really understand griffins one must remember that they—as only few animals do—mate for life. And not only do they do that, if either partner dies, then the other will continue throughout the rest of its life alone, never to search for a new mate, only mourning the one it had.

And that was exactly what Manolo was a witness to right now. The mourning of the griffin Dzila’s one and only love.

As Manolo realized that, he also realized that there had been a fight. A fight in which Dzila’s partner had lost her life. But the battle wasn’t over yet and the attacker robbing Dzila of his true love was about to strike again.

Manolo saw the anger in Dzila’s eyes as another creature came flying through the air spitting its fire on Dzila and burning his face.

It was a black dragon. Now black dragons were among the worst and most cowardly creatures. They would attack and kill its prey from the back leaving its opponent no chance to fight back. And because of its small size it could move fast and still it had the ability to spew as much fire as a normal-sized dragon.

The battle between the two creatures was fearsome. The griffin was trying to defend himself but it had a hard time flying and kept falling to the ground when it tried. Manolo now saw that one of its wings was broken and hung limply when he tried to move it.

The griffin was hurt.

The black dragon spewed fire and smoke came whirling out of the griffin’s neck. It smelled so bad that Manolo could hardly breathe. Once the griffin managed to grab onto the black dragon with its beak and managed to throw the dragon to the ground hurting its back, but the fast black dragon was quickly back in the air spewing its fire on the griffon, forcing it to run around on its lion-legs.

The dragon burst into a hideous laughter as it spewed its fire on the dead corpse lying on the ground. The female griffin was turned into a huge fire and the male griffin moaned loudly so the earth was moving under Manolo’s feet.

While the griffin ran towards the burning body of its love, the dragon set off to another attack from behind Dzila. The black dragon spewed its fire and the whole back of Dzila caught on fire.

Knowing a lot about fire, (and heartache) Manolo knew that it wouldn’t be long before Dzila would give into the pain of both the loss of his partner but also the burning pain on his body.

The black dragon was getting ready for one final attack on Dzila’s back when Manolo sprang from his hiding place and shouted from the top of his lungs.

“Behind you!”

The griffin turned around while the black dragon immediately stopped and turned about with the speed of light, confronting Manolo with its steel blue eyes in the black face.

And then Manolo heard the dragon’s voice. It was very high and slightly hoarse.

“A human,” he said. “It certainly is my lucky day. It has been a while since I had such a feast.”

“I am here to get the Shield of Truth,” Manolo yelled.

“Then it will be in your best interest that I kill its guardian, now wouldn’t it?” asked the dragon with a smirky smile. “Now let me finish the job, and I will get back to you afterwards.”

“No!” Manolo shouted. “I can’t let you do that.”

“What?” The dragon laughed. “So you think you can stop me, then?”

“Yes, I do. If you kill the griffin then the shield belongs to you and I will have to kill you.”

The dragon laughed even harder.

“Do you really think you can touch me?”

“Yes, I do.”

Then Manolo took in a big breath and with all his strength and energy he transformed himself into a flame that was taller than the griffin, even taller than the highest mountaintop in sight. Then he threw threads of fire at the dragon grabbing him by the legs, spinning him around in the air and throwing him over the mountaintops so far away it would take him weeks to get back.

When Manolo saw he was gone his body sank heavily to the ground. He heard the griffin move towards him but hadn’t the strength to move.

He was defenseless.

As the griffin came closer, Manolo sensed that he didn’t come to hurt him. Instead he felt Dzila examining him with his beak, and out of one eye he noticed the griffin grab on to its own broken wing and pull out a feather. It groaned as it did so, and then it put the feather on Manolo’s body.

It was believed that the feathers of a griffin had healing powers and now Manolo was about to prove it. At once he felt a wave of strength oozing through his muscles and body parts and a few seconds later he had restored his energy and stood on his feet again.

Dzila bowed its beak to the ground in front of an old shield made of bronze.

“It is yours,” he said.

Manolo looked at the griffin’s wings. Without being able to fly it would easily become a target for creatures like the black dragon.

Living for years as a Romani, Manolo had picked a few things up and learned some good craftsmanship. So with a little help from a tree, he tied some big branches underneath the griffin’s wings to support them. The griffin jumped on its feet for a bit and then flapped its wings and little by little it was in the air flying in circles over Manolo’s head. And then it flew over the mountaintop and disappeared.

Assuming that the griffin was long gone, he picked up the heavy bronze shield and started walking back to where he came from when all of a sudden he heard a voice.

“Need a ride?”

It was the griffin. Dzila had come back and was now offering to fly Manolo back to Vamila, the Forest of Vanity.

Flying on a griffin wasn’t as easy as it looked, Manolo soon realized. It was what one would call a bumpy ride. Even to get on it was quite a challenge. He had to place a foot on one of the lower branches of a tree and climb up. Then he put his hands on Dzila’s neck.

“Ready?” The griffin asked. “You’d better hold on.”

Dzila soared straight into the air. Manolo gripped his flanks with his knees, feeling the great wings rising powerfully beneath him. In the beginning he felt like he would fall off any minute since the griffin kept rising up and down several feet as he beat his wings to stay airborne. The beating of its wings was uncomfortable on both sides of him, making him feel like he was about to be thrown off. The glossy feathers were slippery under his fingers and he was afraid to hold on too strong and hurt the creature, so therefore he found himself rocking back and forwards holding on to the shield as the back of the griffin rose and fell with its wings.

But after some practice and a few outbursts like: “Oh ..No!” he felt like he got a hang of it. He urged Dzila to move faster forward and by pulling on its feathers in the neck he directed it towards the forest. The view was magnificent from up there. The sun was about to set and soon he saw the forest in the dusk behind a mountaintop.

“Up,” he said and gripped the griffin’s back firmly.

Dzila gave one sweep of his mighty wings and they were soaring even further upwards again, flying higher than the mountaintop.