Chapter 1 - Uncanny mist
A branch moved gently in the wind, its leaves making a soft rustle. When a bird perched on it, the branch swayed violently several times, causing some leaves to fall off the tree it belonged to. The bird seemed completely out of breath. Anyway, it almost looked like he was taking a deep breath.
The bird looked around a few times. Then he chirped happily. After sitting like that for a few minutes, he groped around on the branch a bit clumsily. Finally he saw some blossoms. He flitted up quickly, flapping his wings so fast he stopped in mid-air like a dragonfly. He then stuck his long, thin beak into one of the flowers and drank its nectar.
Only now could you see that the little bird was a hummingbird, colorful and graceful like a butterfly. And just as gracefully as he was hanging in the air and drinking nectar from the flowers, he floated down again and sat down next to a root of the big tree.
On the horizon, behind the hills, the sun was slowly rising. A tender dawn spread across the valley, and in the far east one could see another star, the only one that still managed to shine against the dawning sunlight.
Only a few small clouds floated across the sky. And it was pretty warm considering it was only about five in the morning. The whole valley could certainly look forward to a wonderful day.
When the hummingbird saw a squirrel crawling out from under the roots of the tree, it quickly flew up again and perched on a branch very high up. Again, the tree then lost some already withered leaves. And one of them hit the little squirrel. Puzzled, it looked along the tree. Then it shook its head and started looking for something in the ground.
Suddenly the squirrel was startled. A rattle was heard, spreading softly through the valley. The hills in the distance made his echoes reverberate again. The squirrel quickly hid under a large root and then peered out curiously to determine the cause of the chatter.
A girl in a short sundress rode slowly on a bicycle along a path that passed by the tree. When she saw the squirrel, the girl stopped her bike and got off. She gently pushed her light brown hair back from her face and pushed two small, beautifully braided pigtails behind her ears.
The girl might have been about 17 years old. She wore a modern hairstyle and her dress was also very fashionable.
She walked gently towards the tree under which the squirrel was hiding. Once there, she slowly knelt down and stretched out a hand. When the squirrel peeked out curiously, the girl smiled at it.
The squirrel then forgot his fear. Skillfully it padded out from under the root and jumped into the girl’s hand with one leap. Then it slipped over her arm and perched on her shoulder.
The girl then very carefully rummaged in a pocket of her dress and pulled out a few peanuts. When she gave one to the squirrel, it took it and ate it. Then the girl held out a second peanut, and the squirrel took that too. A third nut that the girl gave the squirrel also accepted.
And at the top of the tree sat the hummingbird and looked at the scenery with the girl and the squirrel in amazement.
Suddenly there was a loud bang that suddenly disturbed the quiet of the entire valley. The hummingbird then got frightened. He jumped up and flew away in a hurry. And the squirrel was so frightened that it quickly hopped off the girl’s shoulders and disappeared into the ground.
The girl could hardly breathe from shock. She clutched her heart. Then she slowly turned around and couldn’t believe what she saw behind her. Faster than lightning, the girl ran back to her bike, sat on it and started pedaling as hard as she could. What on earth had so frightened the hummingbird, the little squirrel and the girl that they all ran away at lightning speed?
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge wall of fog appeared in the valley. It was several hundred meters high and wide, and it seemed so dense that you couldn’t see through it. At dawn the smoke screen looked absolutely spooky, even spooky. And she made the whole valley appear in a strange, bizarre light.
The wind stirred the fog. Like a huge curtain hanging in front of an open window, the smoke screen slowly swayed back and forth. And with every movement, the white flashed in strange, strange flashes of light - as if the whole wall of smoke were made up of thousands of white colors. And the light of the rising sun reflected in the fog further supported this effect. You could almost say the whole thing looked like an aurora by day - but that couldn’t be, because aurorae are only seen at night, and besides, they never were in these climes where this great valley was located.
Suddenly there was a strange-sounding noise, which apparently also came from the fog. It was tinny and metallic. It sounded like a hum, a very, very low hum. Almost so deep that one could hardly perceive it anymore.
All of a sudden - and that happened within a few seconds - the whole wall of fog suddenly opened up. It split into two independent parts, as if someone had neatly parted it with a giant knife. And as it did, the metallic noise, the hum, grew louder and higher. It changed to louder and higher frequencies. Until it almost sounded like a bat screaming.
At the bottom of the smokescreen, on the ground, a person suddenly stepped out. Slowly and in step.
The person was a woman. A very pretty woman. She was blonde, had shoulder length hair and was wearing weird pants and an even weirder jacket. The jacket was black and had a strange sheen, as if it had silver streaks running through it. The trousers had a similar pattern to the jacket. And she had painted a white lightning bolt on each pant leg. A flash, as was also seen on the back of the jacket.
The strange woman took a few steady steps forward. Finally she stopped and then turned around - to where she had just walked out from.
But no sooner had the woman turned and looked than suddenly, in a strange way, all the fog disappeared. As mysterious as he just appeared, just as mysteriously he disappeared into nowhere. As if the whole wall of fog wasn’t there at all.
The woman didn’t seem surprised. She might have seemed to have expected this to happen. Or maybe she wasn’t even thinking about it.
The valley was now completely silent again. Only the rushing of the wind and the rustling of the leaves could still be heard.
The woman shook her head briefly. She seemed to have sand in her hair, which she now wiped out with her hand. Then she took a brush out of a bag she was carrying. After brushing her hair, she saw a small wooden bench ahead, right next to a fountain. Slowly - and now it looked almost difficult - the woman shuffled to the well. She pulled the pump lever a few times until some water came out of the faucet. Then she put her hands under it. She took several sips of the water and finally wet her face. When she was done, she sat on the bench and rested for a while.
The woman might have been in her mid-50s, you couldn’t say for sure. She looked younger in her strange clothes. She breathed wearily.
Everything suddenly seemed to be the same as before, when the sun finally peeked all the way over the horizon and the light of the last bright star of the night also disappeared. Quiet birdsong came from the nearby trees again - apparently the birds that fled from the smokescreen have now returned.
Lonely and alone, the strange woman was still sitting on the wooden bench, lost in thought, admiring and overhearing the scenery of this morning.
Suddenly she got up again. Now she had evidently gained enough strength. She closed her bag, put it back on her shoulders, and then she spied a path to her right, winding through countless, large pastures. She ran to the path. And then she slowly walked away. Slowly and evenly. And tired. Something must have happened to her that she was so out of breath, seemed so tired, and felt so weak.
And when the hummingbird and the squirrel came back to the tree where they were before, the mysterious, strange woman had already disappeared over the first hill.
