Some girls, about thirteen years old, gathered in a bedroom by one bed, although time to sleep was announced by Miss Blackwood’s yells and screams more than fifteen minutes ago.
The children gathered around Elizabeth's bed. The bed where she would sleep for the first time without Dorothy, her best friend.
The blonde girl, unable to sleep, kept herself busy with a thing she used to do most of the time when she felt restless.
She organized some stuff in that bed. There was a narrow, pinched pot on the bed, its upper part being covered with a canvas that had some small figures cut into it. The bottom of that old and parched pot was completely missing, and on one side it had a bigger crack. At the bottom the pot had a piece of a blurred and broken mirror, with the mirror facing the upper part. There were some more pieces of mirror on the windowsill and on a small almost damaged nightstand. The one on the cold sill faced the dusty window, and the one on the nig
It's been more than two weeks since Dorothy Miller left the orphanage, but it seemed to Elizabeth that a human lifespan passed since then. She still did not get used to the thought that she would never see again the one who was always with her. That’s why, she seemed to see her every day sitting at the table where they usually ate, waiting for her in their room, or going down the stairs ... Not once did she run after her, grabbed her by hand, took her in her arms and held her tight and ... and only then did she see that it wasn't Dorothy Miller, but another girl. Every time it was like this ... Could it be anything harder than losing the last person who really cared about you? The only family you ever had ... when you were meant to not have no family ... … “Hello,” an elegantly dressed gentleman, wearing a long black coat to his knees over an expensive suit, with lacquered leather shoes, as only a lord could wear greeted respectfully. Th
“That's right, Mr. Green. You are perfectly right, sir ...” Mr. Green put his hand in a pocket of the overcoat and held out a plentiful purse for Harp. “I know I can’t reward the work you carried out in twenty years with these ...little devils. Consider it a small payment from Miss Elizabeth Edwards. From the work she will do, dear Mr. Harp. I'll get my money back from her work. Mr. Harp was the happiest man on Earth at that time. “I apologize, Mr. Green for having the courage to believe that the little miss’s life will not be as it should be with you. If I think better, you are more than adequate to correct and guide her in life. It is clear that you know very well that work ennobles man. “The harder it is, the more it ennobles us,” Mr. Green added sniggering. “That’s right, but you must also consider that these children must be educated as well through ...” Yet, Mr. Harp failed to finish the sentence. The boy John
“Catherine Edwards?!” Miss Blackwood ran down the corridors of the orphanage, with the reminder to limp from time to time when she met a small group of frightened children in her way. “Elizabeth, where are you, little bitch?!” As usual, the old lady fiercely looked for her... to make poor girl’s life even more miserable. The woman kept screaming. “Catherine Edwards ?!” She entered each tiny room, each dormitory stuffed with furniture and old closets. Some of those closets had no doors because they were eaten by bugs. She hit them with her crutch. The old lady saw a lot of children washing the floor blackened in time, not because of the dirt, but because the children used to polish it daily. That floor with traps here and there with rotten or broken planks. “Kid, where's Elizabeth Edwards?” The boy, about seven, carried a bucket full of water almost heavier than he was. He stopped near the old hag. “I don't
It was that kind of noon when even though the sun was in the sky for some time, in the shade of the trees it was quite cool. Even so, the scenery was so pleasant that you could sit carried away in those waves of greenery, listening to the birds’ spring songs.Next to a hidden forest path, where someone right in the head would not stop, there was a carriage. The horses were tired and hungry. They ate grass with gusto, like a wolf devouring its prey. It was clear they had come a long and difficult way.A man and two children got off the carriage. The man, Mr. Benjamin Green, paid the coachman for the trip and thanked him. Then he beckoned to the two children to follow him.Elizabeth’s heart was pounding with fear because she didn't know what was to happen next. Only when she saw the little boy Johnny smiling and winking at her, she recovered her courage and calmed down.How come this little boy who was hit so badly and probably that happened eve
Yet, she had no time to wonder more, for in a moment Johnny began to disintegrate slowly, slowly, smiling as if his gradual disappearance was something as normal as opening a door, until he completely vanished. His clothes vanished too. That mysterious tree seemed to have absorbed him. So no one could blame on Elizabeth that she was even more terrified now.There was some very fine, tickling dust rising slightly from the girl’s left hand. The girl was terrified ... She had her reasons. How would anyone feel if his hand becomes dust instantly, after which the same thing happens to his body?But when she felt Knudlac's palm clutching her hand gently and when she saw his soothing gaze, kinder than a father’s for his daughter, Elizabeth became much quieter."Don't be scared," the professor explained. We will go together in a much friendlier place, a place where you will be pleased to be. I promise."And after he saw that the girl also answered wit
Miss Harmony cleared her throat and began to say:“Of course. I'll start with ... How to explain to you, my dear? Until today you could only notice what you wanted to see. You spent your life in a real world, as those people who want to ... ignore magic. We call them ‘sceptic’. And this world is different from theirs.”“I was sceptic too?”Miss Harmony smiled so warmly that anyone would say her picture should be added to the word kindness in the dictionary.“Have you noticed anything strange with you so far?”“I saw I could make bright ponies ... out of nothing and other stuff like that.” “Then you aren’t sceptic. You couldn’t be sceptic ... Your parents were some of the best and most powerful wizards that mankind has ever had. Like Professor Eadan Knudlac. As for you, some people think you’ll ... the most powerful witch of your generation.”
“I drink water. To become the wisest wizard,” the boy replied as if it were the most obvious answer.Because Elizabeth was puzzled, Miss Harmony tried to explain to her:“Some rumours say that if you are a pure soul and you speak the truth in a difficult situation, this fountain will fulfil a wish when you sip in its water. And that you could become the wisest. At least that is what the old wizards ... and their legends say. But I say they are just myths, because I do not know someone who had a wish fulfilled by this well. It just managed to help the older ones trick their kids.The professor got close to Johnny who swallowed the water as cracked earth swallows the first drops of rain.“Johnny, stop! You have drunk water from the well and you did not become the wisest, as you can see ...”Miss Harmony looked at the little girl smiling and said:“I think he has drunk at least ten times water in this well.&r
“Unfortunately, we don't have time now, dear. Tomorrow after classes Johnny can accompany you wherever you want to go. And you can spend as much time as you want in this garden. If Johnny agrees to accompany you.“Of course, Miss Harmony.”The woman continued to present the surroundings, and the two children followed her.“Here is the Sanctuary of Mystical and Non-Mystical Creatures. You can meet anytime you want animals from the real world. You can search and see any life form that lives on Earth, underground or in the water.”"Or a beast-monster," Johnny smiled trying to imitate a beast in order to scare Elizabeth.But the girl was not scared at all by the so charming Johnny.“Johnny, please be nice,” the professor heckled him.Then turning to the girl:“Yes, it is an area with beasts. You can find out everything you want about them. But I advise you not to visit it. Becau