Chapter 1

Lord Mitten was not happy, not happy at all.

It was 5 past 12, which meant that his daily petting session had started 5 minutes ago. Or rather, it should have. Because instead of sitting softly bedded on a cushion and having his silky shiny dark brown fur stroked, he was alone in the room and sitting on the floor. He stared reproachfully at the cushionless rocking chair.

Unusual, most unusual.

Norna was - atypically for her age as a human - a very reliable 16-year-old and always kept their appointment. The former guardian of Amanth thought for a moment, licked his left paw and stood up leisurely. He stretched his nose into the air, sniffed and slowly left the house.

Reliable when it came to appointments and with a penchant for sweets. Norna never left the house without a small supply of honey cookies. Lord Mitten followed the sweet smell out of the village along the lake towards the forest.

Spring was in the air and the sun's rays could finally be felt again after the long winter. They warmed his fur and a good mood spread through him despite the broken appointment.

"Ohhhh, what sun glitter, what joyful fire the sight of you awakens in me. Eredil, you gloooow of the heart and moonlight!"

The wind picked up his sublime song and carried it on towards the water.

"What are you whining about again, you only ate an hour ago!" called a voice from a shabby shed by the lake. Olf, the fisherman from Anaholm, was busy repairing nets at this time of day before the first customers arrived again after midday.

Lord Mitten briefly interrupted his walk and looked towards the lake with a sigh.

Oh, what art philistines he lived with, truly tragic. To call the sounds of the mermaids of Olphudia whining bordered on blasphemy! Fortunately, the enchanting sirens were spared the fate of being confronted with people like Olf and their misguided tastes. Although, when he thought about it, they might have preferred the art crime to extinction.

"An interesting thought," he murmured, giving the assumption more room in his head.

"The more I think about it... a wonderful question worth discussing at the next tea party!" With this pleasing prospect, he started moving again.

It was a real shame that most of the magical songs were lost in the confusion of the penultimate catastrophe. A real pity! For his part, he would do his best to keep the melodies alive and save them from being forgotten forever.

"Ohhhhh, what a sweet sound, what a gentle breath your naaaame is to me, dear Eredil!"

Krakrakra! Disturbed in their midday rest, the crows flew in flocks from the leafy crowns of the mighty gron trees that stretched out before him at the edge of the forest.

********

I wonder what Lord Mitten is doing right now, Norna asked herself as she stared up at the sky and filled her imaginary zoo with more cloud animals.

... Another rabbit. If it goes on like this, the enclosure will soon be full and I'll have to expand.

She had to smile at the thought until her focus turned back to the handsome tomcat.

In any case, not what he had actually planned, she answered the question dryly to herself and grimaced as if she had bitten into one of the sour thali fruits.

Because then she would be sitting next to a rocking chair and stroking him instead of sitting forlornly on a tree stump.

Norna sighed and pushed a strand of her half-length brown hair back behind her ear. She slid around on the tree stump, hoping to find a more comfortable position. After a while, she gave up and tried to reconcile herself with the hard wood.

Fantastic firewood.

She patted the bark and turned her gaze to the creatures hopping a few meters from her, who seemed so close and yet so far away at the same time.

Why do rabbits have to be so soft and fluffy!

She had a preference for animals with soft fur like Lord Mitten or rabbits and simply couldn't resist them. Unlike her cat, however, the bouncy four-legged friends didn't sit still and let themselves be stroked, but hopped away. So what else could she do but follow them! And before she knew it, she had lost her way and was stranded in this small clearing - surrounded by tall trees.

Dad will be so angry when he finds me, she thought.

Norma felt queasy and the idea of getting up and trying to find her own way home won out for a moment.

She sighed.

Stupid idea.

Her father had told her several times that if she ever got lost, she should stay in one place and wait for help. Otherwise she would only get even more lost. So there was nothing left for her to do but sit here and wait. Wait for the lecture in form of her father to reach her.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Great.

Another sigh left her mouth as she looked up at the sky again, filling her zoo.

This is... could... if I turn my head a little maybe...

Norna squinted her eyes.

A bear!

With a lot of imagination... and a terrible illness.

It rustled.

Norna looked towards the dense bushes that had spread out under an old deciduous tree. A few of the leaves moved slightly.

"Hello?"

She stood up slowly and moved cautiously towards the bushes. Her eyes scanned the greenery for any clues as to her visit.

Nothing.

Indecisively, she stopped and stared at the bushes.

It rustled again.

Her heart was pounding and her voice sounded strangely high-pitched.

"Is someone there? I'm lost and can't find my way back home!" she spoke hastily into the void.

A chaos of feelings of hope, fear and curiosity spread through her and made her stay put like a frightened deer about to flee.

WOOOSHH!

A white rabbit jumped out of the bushes, dashed across the clearing and disappeared behind the trees. Norna took a startled step back and stumbled over the exposed roots of an old gnarled tree. She plopped down on her butt and looked in bewilderment with her big blue eyes after the long-disappeared rabbit.

Relief spread through her, and her rigid expression gave way to a broad smile.

"Don't scare me like that! 5 points off on the cuteness scale!" she called after the rabbit.

She lay down on the grass, stretched out all her limbs and laughed the stress out of her body.

"Hahaha!"

What a scaredy-cat I am, Norna thought, shaking her head at herself.

No dangerous animal or even monster had been sighted in this forest for over 10 years. She would have to be very unlucky to come across one now.

She stood up leisurely and brushed the dirt off her pants. On the way back to the tree stump, she looked up at the sun to check the time.

Oh dear.

The sun was still almost at its zenith. It would be quite a while before her father would close the store and notice her disappearance. It dawned on her that she would be sitting here for a very long time. Monsters were not her greatest enemy, boredom was.

"Stupid rabbits!"

"Stupid fluffy bliss!" she shouted in frustration.

Krakrakra! Disturbed in their midday rest, the crows flew in flocks from the leafy crowns of the mighty gron trees that surrounded the clearing. Again.

*****

After a while, her stomach began to growl.

The few honey cookies had long since been eaten and she hadn't brought anything else with her. What was the point? She didn't need any rations for the walk to the well at the edge of the village.

Fetch water, put on a pot for the rice, pet Lord Mitten. That was the plan.

A good plan.

Thwarted by the hopping fluffiness.

"Stupid rabbits!" Norna shook her fist in the direction of the bushes.

The bitter reality: She already knew that she would learn absolutely nothing from this experience. Nothing! The next time a squirrel crossed her path, she would run after it just as she had done today.

Norna sighed. If it wasn't so tragic, she could almost be proud of her absolute devotion to cute creatures.

"Ouhh..me..ouh....ah..h. Ouhh..aui..raa....hhh!"

“Huh?”

Norna's train of thought was suddenly interrupted.

Strange noises reached her ears from the depths of the forest. She frowned.

What is that?

No human still among the living could sound like that, even if they had wanted to. Was she really so unlucky that she would encounter the first monster in over 10 years in this forest?

She listened further and realized that the sounds were getting closer.

"OHHh meow..raoo.aahhh!"

Norna froze and concentrated on the sounds.

“Hmm?”

The sounds seemed familiar to her. Very familiar. Being woken out of bed suddenly in the morning familiar.

Two almond-shaped eyes flashed at her from the bushes.

"Lord Mitten!"

She watched wide-eyed as Lord Mitten emerged from the bushes opposite her with a graceful gait.

"Meow."

The cat sat down and licked his white left paw extensively - the only part of his body that wasn't dark brown. After he apparently thought he had licked it clean again to an acceptable level, he stood up. He looked at her unimpressed for a moment, turned around and then slowly disappeared into the bushes.

"What are you doing here? Wait!"

Norma hastily got up and ran after the burly cat.

"We can't just leave, otherwise Dad won't find us! Come back!"

She fought her way through the bushes, her gaze wandering from left to right in search of the feline friend. Why did he have to be brown of all things! Brown like the forest floor. Brown like the dried leaves of the gron trees. There was a flash of white in front of her. A good distance in front of her, Lord Mitten sat on a tree trunk and licked his paw. He looked her in the eye, jumped off the trunk and disappeared again.

"Wait!"

Norna ran after him. Lord Mitten seemed to think the whole thing was a game. He kept appearing a few meters in front of her, only to disappear again. Then - when she was firmly convinced that she had really and finally lost him - he would reappear. It was frustrating.

"Lord Mitten! It's not funny anymore, we have to..."

The sentence stuck in Nornas mouth unfinished. She had just fought her way through the bushes, again, and was now looking at a large open space for the first time in a few hours. The cow pasture of Anaholm to be precise. The cows looked at her just as perplexed as she looked at them. One cow in particular, on whose back Lord Mitten had settled down and was sunbathing.

"What... How... Huh?!"

On the way back to the village, Lord Mitten joined her and walked leisurely beside her in the direction of home, as if nothing special had happened. Norna looked broodingly in the direction of the cat.

How had he found her and more importantly, how had he found the way back? Coincidence or no coincidence? The tomcat didn't give her a glance.

What an arrogant cat! she thought with amusement.

Never mind.

The main thing was that her father hadn't found out about the whole debacle. Norna smiled to herself and thought about how she could say thank you to the cat.

An extra large portion of fish! That should work.

*****

In a wooded area not far from Anaholm.

"How could you let such an opportunity pass you by! All alone, without weapons, with a hint of honey smell. The perfect welcome buffet after our long journey from the north!" the big frost wolf grumbled discontentedly and looked at his companion reproachfully.

"Be glad I'm still keeping an eye on my surroundings while you focus only on your future meals! I've already told you once, you're going to kill us all!" the silver wolf hissed at him.

"You almost have to go out of your way to overlook a monster like that, and you even wanted to eat what was his! I should have listened to my mother. She warned me about you, but noooo I had to live out my rebellious side. That's what I get for it now. I don't care what you do, I'm not staying here. Not with a neighborhood like this."

She turned around and walked towards Frost Mountains.