Pogo would rather have stayed lying down! The tree cave in which the squirrelcat had snuggled up was warm, fluffy and perfect for dreaming of summer and sunshine. But today was the last day! The last day they could stay! The last day on which the fire of wishes burned! For only 21 days this flame blazed and lit up the souls until the darkest night. After that, the days and the paths to all wishes became longer and longer.
For the last 20 days, Pogo had preferred to stay put and Dim Jazifa had let him be. But with each passing day, she felt more and more compelled to go on a journey to give her most ardent wish to the flame before it disappeared into the unattainable distance. The path was long. Through Gona’s forest, over the steps of Eishall, down into the Endless Plain, where snow turned to ice and light to frost. Somewhere there blazed the magic of the shortest day and the longest night, more powerful even than shooting star wishes, rainbow endings and the wonders of lost eyelashes
And so Pogo and his friend now stood with their feet deep in the snow and gazed into the winter forest! As they trudged off, he was glad that at least a few rays of sunshine warmed his fur. Dim was silent and her thoughts rushed ahead of her steps.
After far too many hours and far too few provisions, they reached the stone organ pipes on which the gnomes and the wind played their songs.
“The edge of the forest is close,” Dim finally said, “and the lowlands are not far away. Only warm thoughts can help against the cold there.” She smiled at Pogo. “But I guess you have enough of that for both of us, my friend!” She pulled a parchment out of the inside of her coat, on which she had written her wish, to tuck it into her belt and use it to warm her insides.
The squirrelcat shook a few snowflakes out of his fur and crept forward. Because Dim was right, he had plenty of warm thoughts!
Together they ventured out from under the trees … just to stop again shortly afterwards. Only their eyes continued to wander over the huge steps into the icy depths.
“Who but giants could ever have hewn this staircase out of the rock?” the adventurer thought aloud and her little friend nodded quietly, while the rest of him shivered more from fear than from the cold. “Don’t be afraid,” she reassured him. “Whoever the master builders were, they returned to the Sky Forest a long time ago.
Climbing rather than walking, they descended the steps of Eishall, named after the legendary throne room of Allasani, the first Queen of Winter, who is said to have held court somewhere in the Endless Plain.
With every step that took the two companions deeper, they found it harder to breathe. The air threatened to freeze in their chests and the blood in their veins.So they moved so close together that the fire of their friendship kept them alive.
When they finally reached the foot of the giant staircase, a world of terrible beauty spread out before their eyes. Meadows of ice flowers and forests of frost stretched white and far into eternity. Even time itself seemed to be frozen here, as huts and palaces from ancient times, from fairy tales and stories, appeared and disappeared in the distance as if in an unpolished mirror of ice.
The next few hours – or days? – Dim and Pogo would later have little memory of, because like their boots and paws, they also got stuck in the frost again and again. In the cold, which was capable of breaking even the mightiest rock, their hearts threatened to burst.
“I’m sorry!” Dim whispered with the last of her strength and took Pogo in her arms, who didn’t know whether these words were meant for him or simply for everything.
When she had set him down again and he was thinking about simply lying down and letting the next snow cover him, a spark set itself in the frost in front of his nose and burned up with a whisper. Excited, the squirrelcat looked up at Dim, whose gaze was already fixed on a golden light flickering between the bare trees.
“The flame of wishes!” she shouted louder than this place had heard in a long time. New strength ignited in the two adventurers as they hurried towards their destination. When only an ice-covered tree bridge separated them from their destination, they reminded themselves to be careful. Foot by foot, they approached a fork in the tree in which the stone head of a beautiful woman was enthroned. She wore a bronze crown, in the center of which a flame blossomed like a summer flower. The sight of the woman and the blaze of the fire brought life back to Dim and Pogo’s bodies. Intricate glyphs adorned the wood of the tree, the meaning of which neither of them could decipher. And yet they sensed the power of the ancient magic inherent in the signs.
They approached the bust reverently and bowed down as if to a queen. Strangely enough, they were not startled when she began to speak without moving her gray lips: “Yesterday I was the mistress of ice,” she said with cool majesty, “today I am the servant of fire. Can you tell me what I will be tomorrow?”
Dim raised her eyes and pondered for a long time before answering: “Free! At least that’s what I wish for you, because as both a mistress and a servant, you are bound to this world. Either through wealth or duty. But one day we will all be ashes and free to choose our path, on earth and in heaven.”
“You are wise Dim Jazifa,” the statue replied. “And I am only willing to listen to the wishes of the wise. Hand him over to the fire when you are sure.”
“I am,” said the Daughter of Summer and pulled the small parchment from her belt. She pressed it to her heart once more and winked at Pogo. Then she placed her wish in the crown of flames.
Glowing ash swirled around the fire and rose into the clear sky. Dim’s gaze followed the sparks as they traveled south on the swift wings of the north wind, though she had her eyes closed. She reached the shores of winter and crossed the sea of night until the golden shores of summer appeared on the horizon.
“I miss you,” Dim’s voice whispered on the wind.
“And I miss you,” replied Mian, at whose feet the ashes mingled with the desert sand. “But I’ll see you again soon. I promise you that.”
When Dim opened her eyes again, she found herself in Gona’s forest, where winter seemed like summer to her. She gazed lovingly at the softly snoring Pogo.
“How lucky I am,” she thought, “to have such a wise friend whose greatest wish was to sleep peacefully curled up in his cave. And it had been a second stroke of luck to write this wish in very small letters on the parchment. For she did not know whether the way back would not have been the end for both of them.
Exhausted but happy, she also went to sleep and looked forward to dreams that would soon come true.
Credits
All clothes are selfmade!
Pogo is made from polymer clay and felt
Story by my husband Tobi Junge and myself