Translation

Rabenherz

Erinnerungen der Vergangenheit

Chapter 1: The Departure

When I was a kid I always wanted to be like the princesses in the fairy tales I was always told. I wanted to be rich and live in a dream castle. But I knew this dream would never come true. So I just kept dreaming. When you grew up a poor peasant girl, you didn't have much more. My family might be poor and our estate might barely produce enough food to save us from starvation in winter, but at least I had my imagination. There I lived in my own world. Sometimes I lived as a princess in a castle, other times I wandered around with the minstrels. Night after night and day after day I dreamed to myself. So it happened that at the age of about twelve I began to dream this one dream again and again.
At least they were parts, small fragments of this one dream. I always saw this beautiful amulet and this black-haired man. In my dream I was actually a kind of princess and this man was my "prince", so to speak.
The amulet served as a kind of recognition feature. The setting of the amulet was silver, on the front was a stone that looked like the moon in all its splendor and beauty. On the back of that version was a word engraved in an ancient script: Míonîn.*
It was a fantasy word my prince and I came up with.
So many years or even centuries passed in my recurring dream.
And yet we found each other again and again. But we also lost each other again and again. That was the price the Children of Light and Shadow had to pay if they wanted to love one another.

Some time after my thirteenth birthday, I decided to leave my village. The dreams, already so familiar to me as distant memories, came almost every night and were my constant companions. In the evening, after my father thought I was asleep, I packed a few things in a bag.I only took as much as I could actually carry. Not that it was much.
So I climbed out of my window and stepped onto the lower roof, under which our kitchen was. Almost silently I manage to sneak to the other end, from where I shimmy down the wooden planks of the wall, from which most of the plaster had crumbled. I ran away aimlessly. I just ran without paying attention to the way or signposts.
I ran most of the night, stopped in a forest clearing. By dawn I had already crossed the forest.
In the past, I had always been warned not to enter the forest. "If you get lost, child, you will never come back," they had said.
They were neither right nor wrong.
I wasn't lost, but I still wouldn't go back.
I took one last look over my shoulder. A sense of determination crept over me and I knew I was doing the right thing.

I followed the small road that ran into my future near the exit from the forest. Here and there there was a small yard, otherwise I was surrounded by green meadows and pastures. Gradually I got away from the fields and meadows. However, these larger groups of trees did not look like a forest. It was more like ... a kind of fence, a border.
I wondered if this might be the border with another kingdom and went on along the way. My heart was pounding louder and louder, racing faster and faster the closer I got to the groups of trees. I almost expected that at any moment a border guard would jump out from behind one of the old oaks or beeches and explain to me that I would not get any further here and that I should rather go home. Maybe he'd complain that kids these days are way too naughty to just sneak away and avoid work. I kept running.
But nothing of the sort happened.A little further back, however, between a few trees, on a small hill, like a clearing, I saw a large house. Possibly the seat of one of our liege lords, I suspected, and my chest swelled a little with pride at having exposed the hiding place of such a parasite. But apparently my imagination ran too far with me again.
All I found was a boy with almost fiery red hair and deep-looking jade eyes, similar to mine. He might be a year older than me, or two, but no more. The guy was alone. Was he playing out here? Possibly with the animals living here, so he could not come from the family of a feudal lord. These fanatical would-be aristocrats no longer had much sense of the beauties of the forests and fields and, in general, of all of nature around them.
The boy discovered me. "Hey! You! What are you doing here?"
I just stammered to myself. Had I now broken a law?
I felt a slight panic rise inside me. He leaned halfway over me as much as he could. That made him look even more impressive, even though he wasn't much taller than myself.
"II have no evil on my mind, really not! I ... I just wanted to know what is hidden behind these trees." My voice sounded more frightened than it really was. "Here? Nobody lives here except my family," he replied with a shrug. “We live here alone, but I don't mind!” When he proudly patted himself on the chest because he was so brave to endure the loneliness, something tinkled on his neck and a small amulet came out.
A moon-shaped stone was set in the silver setting, all in all the amulet looked very, very old. Suddenly the memories of my dream came back to my mind. "Oh, that's a beautiful necklace!Can i have a look at it? "I asked him in my most innocent tone.
Irritated, he put the chain off and carefully placed it in my outstretched hand.
“An old heirloom from my family,” he boasted, “according to my mother it is hundreds of years old.” The boy was clearly proud to be able to wear such a piece. However, I was only interested in what I would find on the back of the frame - ornotwould find.
The engraving was barely legible, weathered and worn. But she was there. I recognized every single line, every single character, no matter how small.
"Míonîn ..." I muttered.
“Please, what did you say?” In an instant my journey of thought was over and I was brought back to the here and now.
"Oh ... um ... Nothing, nothing at all! It was nice to have made your acquaintance !!",
I called to him at full speed. I could hear his quick steps as he chased after me and asked for the amulet back.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me without paying attention to where I was going.
I didn't know how long I had run away from him, let alone where I was. The only advantage of my situation was that I must have left the redhead behind. At least that's what I thought. I was pausing for a moment when I heard footsteps approaching rapidly. Startled like a deer, I sprinted away.
On my escape route, not far from me, I discovered an abandoned covered wagon, in front of which two horses were already harnessed.
I glanced aside to make sure no one saw me and might give me away.
Nobody was around.
So I climbed into the back of the car and hid under a blanket inside.

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*: Mionin comes from Gaelic and translates as "My dearest". The Gaelic language does not exist in this story.I have taken out a minimal change in the spelling. The meaning of the word stays the same.
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