 | Follow the magic - 2025 |  |
UP IN THE AIR
Since the frost still had a full grip on beautiful Faeo, I put on my warmest furs to get to the foreign merchants at the harbor behind the castle. I walked because I liked the cool winter air and my mind wandered here and there. When I arrived, I was able to admire one colorful boat after another. The traders had arranged their wares beautifully and invited me to buy.
Fabrics, spices, sweets, even armor and all sorts of things I had never seen before. I went to a carpet dealer on a larger ship, as my tapestry was getting very old. But I didn't like anything, not even the carpet, which was half hidden under two large crates. I put it back in the pile with the other textiles and wanted to get off the ship. Now I really have to say, I'm not a clumsy person at all. But I tripped over something and actually fell over the railing.
It happened incredibly quickly and before I knew it, I was no longer falling towards the water, but flying through the air. The inconspicuous carpet that I had pulled out from under the crates had caught me and was now carrying me away. Away from the harbor, away from my home. It was an interesting way to stumble into a new adventure and escape the cold.
NEW FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES
I had long since lost track of time as the carpet flew me through endless skies and clouds. I noticed that the air was gradually getting warmer.
I had spoken to him several times, but no response. In the end I kept quiet, after all I didn't want to disturb him either.
When the clouds cleared, I saw nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing. A vast, dry desert as far as my eyes could see offered me a desolate sight. Then I spotted a small town that the carpet was heading towards. As we got closer, I recognized a colorful festival in the alleyways of the town. Everything was decorated with garlands and balloons and it seemed that occasionally a woman and a man were connected by a ribbon around one wrist each. Of course, my curiosity was immediately aroused and the carpet seemed to sense this as it looked for a place to land.
How could it be otherwise, he didn't really succeed and I fell down just above the ground. A little further on, someone was sitting with their back to me. This someone was a young woman who was as absorbed in her thoughts as I only knew the elder to be. She hadn't noticed my rug either (which was now lying on an old, broken cart, probably resting).
She really was very pretty and seemed to have a clever mind.
Apparently I wasn't the only one to notice this, because a grim-faced gentleman with a large turban on his head came accompanied by two guards and wanted to put one of the ribbons on her that I had already seen others wearing in the air. After a brief exchange of words that I didn't understand, she refused, but the gentleman didn't like this refusal at all. He cursed and swore that he would destroy her life.
I could only watch, as I didn't yet know the customs and traditions in this country. When he was gone, I ran to comfort her. After a little persuasion, she told me what was going on. It was a kind of ceremony in preparation for the great star festival. You looked for a partner and then, through the ancient magic of the star festival, you were joined together forever. She had also fallen madly in love and waited for him to come and symbolically bind them together with a ribbon. But then the local sultan had him imprisoned so that he could have her for himself, thus ruining her plans.
She looked at me with tears in her eyes and I promised to do everything I could to help her.
THE MIRACLE OF THE LAMP
Helping the woman, Aleyna, turned out to be complicated. The sultan had come to power illegally, and that was all she would or could tell me. Supposedly he also had magic - and magic is best fought with magic.
She told me about an artifact that was hidden deep in the desert in an oasis. But no one had ever found it before, because this oasis appeared here and there like a freak of nature, without any rhythm that would have allowed us to guess where it was.
So we packed as many provisions as we could carry and set off for this legendary desert area.
I swear on everything I hold dear, I've never had so much sand around me in my life! It was just everywhere. After a few hours it was annoying, after two days it was almost unbearable and after seven days of desolate emptiness, we were now just as desolate and above all hopeless.
As our provisions were running low, we tried to head back towards the city. Even though Aleyna knew the area well, I was pretty sure she had no idea where exactly we were. We just kept wandering around like two empty shells. We had severely rationed the water and it was running low with no town in sight - which didn't make our situation any better.
I had lost track of time when we finally discovered palm trees. And where there were palm trees, there was water! This gave us new strength and we dragged our tired bodies to the patch of green.
We found water and colorful, edible fruit and replenished our supplies.
Just as we were about to set off, I stumbled. It was part of an old, moldy crate. My curiosity won out, of course, and I dug out the rest with my hands.
Without hesitation, I opened the unlocked lid and there it lay, bedded on red velvet that didn't match the box at all. A lamp.
THE COLORFUL ANIMAL
For a magic lamp, it was pretty inconspicuous. Neither Aleyna nor I had any idea how it could work, so we left it in its velvet bed. Unfortunately, the two of us now had to carry the box back to the town. The walk had been hard enough without the extra load and we didn't know exactly where to go.
I was annoyed that I hadn't taken the rug with me but had stowed it safely at Aleyna's house. It was probably my only chance of returning home at some point after this adventure was over.
We had decided to stay at the oasis for one night to recharge our batteries.
The next morning we woke up, or rather, we were woken from our sleep by a snort. Lying next to us - believe me when I tell you, I'm not joking - was a camel. But of course it wasn't just any camel, it was totally colorful from head to toe! Red, green, blue, yellow, purple, ... There was actually no color that couldn't be found on the animal. It lay there totally relaxed, as if we had been traveling with it for months. After a brief introduction, we loaded the crate and our provisions onto the colorful camel and set off. Following the animal, of course, as it not only provided shade, but also carried our precious load straight in a certain direction.
Aleyna and I quietly agreed to follow the animal.
There must have been worse ideas than trusting a colorful camel, right?
THE 40 STARS
We marched all day. When it got dark, we were a little surprised. Had it really been that long to get there? It's pitch dark in the desert at night, we wanted to stop for a rest, but our friend, the colorful camel, just kept walking. We held our hands at its sides so as not to lose it.
I remembered old stories like 1001 Nights and the 40 thieves. I occasionally asked my traveling companion about them, but Aleyna just smiled at her.
Suddenly we could see thousands of lights in front of us. It wasn't an illusion - beautiful paper lanterns in every pattern and color you could imagine lit up the night sky in front of us.
It was the Star Festival, the time when couples officially tied the knot in front of their families in a ceremony. I guess that was their way of getting married.
Aleyna led me through the narrow streets to her modest home. Of course, her lover was secretly waiting for her there. Our journey was soon over, as it was almost midnight and the end of the party was approaching. They both had families, but it was too late. So they asked me to be their witness and hold the ceremony with them - of course I accepted the honor and accompanied them to their happiness.
Later, during the small, meagre meal that was part of the ceremony, she told me about the origins of this celebration.
A father did not want to give his daughter into the hands of a man from the lower social class. His faith belonged to the sky and the stars, he said to the lovers: Only when all the constellations he knew were shining at the same time would he agree to their union. The two made an appointment for the next night to run away together, to give up their lives for their love. And then it happened - all the constellations lit up at once. The father counted 40 of them and he didn't know them all by far. He kept his word and the two of them were happy.
Since then, they celebrated that night and the paper lanterns symbolized the shining stars.
A wonderful story, but I wondered whether the two of them had secretly given the father something to make him suddenly see shining stars... Why else would this phenomenon occur?
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