had formed last night started to steam slightly. to the right and left of the two hikers who were on the run, there were steep rock faces and in front of them was the notorious Teufelspass. It was so called because on both sides of the pass entrance there were stone figures that looked like devils. In reality, however, they were giants with horns. It was the symbol of the pass, as giants often stayed here. They stood on top of the cliffs and threw stones at the travelers. When the people were met, they were picked up and fried on skewers. But were there really any giants left in this area? It was said that they all headed south and then perished miserably in the Colon Desert. No one knew why they had migrated south. Something must have attracted them, an invisible force perhaps, or they were lured away to make the pass passable.


To the right of them, mountains rising pointed out of the fog could be seen.They were called fog peaks. The dwarves had their own expression for it, namely the tip of the whale. On the left the rock castle towered up and behind it the Saalenland. The country got its name from the Saale house.


Cool winds washed through the pass. It was like a wind tunnel and it was hard to fight against not jumping in the air and being carried westward. This would also be a treacherous trap, as the pointed mountains of Vampire Land were in the west.


The pass was almost level, but always sloped slightly to the east. When the winds came they blew upwards. In this case it would be easier to go west, although you would have to go uphill. Far in front of you when the pass led to the end was the largest coniferous forest in the whole area. Then followed the dwarf pass to the dwarf castle.


The whole floor of the pass was covered with moss. There were only a few bushes at the edge because the wind would have knocked them down in the middle.

It took them all day to cross the pass. When the sun disappeared behind the mountains in the east, a brief reddened evening set in and made everything shimmer orange. They set up their evening camp under a large fir tree at the edge of the forest. Destin unrolled the sleeping bags and prepared dinner by looking for firewood and pine cones and lighting them. After a few minutes, the fire was burning and they began to eat. The ration for everyone was a bit sparse than in the morning because they had poured the best things into the morning soup.


After the meal, Benedict stood at the edge of the forest and pensively looked out at the tips of the fog. Destin wondered what he was thinking about right now. As a child he had only seen him twice and only for minutes at a time. He used to be a very busy man and always causing trouble. With age he got serious, like today. You could say calcified. But he had spurned such people himself.Now and then he still cracked jokes, but he was never like 6-13 years ago.


When Destin finally fell asleep, Benedict was still standing alone in the dark and thinking about his life. He had done a lot wrong and he was ready to change everything as long as it was in his power. A smile crossed his face and he remembered times long gone, like his childhood.


When he was a baby, he was found in the woods by an old man named Saruman. Saruman was a wizard and even the most powerful of his time. And that's how Benedict got to know magic.


At 12, he was as good at magic as breathing. Then, at 32, he was promoted to the rank of magician. When he turned 40 he was called a Druid, a member of the most mysterious order of all. But when he created the talismans at the age of 50, he was banned from the sect. With all his anger, he waged war on the vampires and was captured until he was freed from the future by his reborn soul.Then his greatest adventure so far began. He roamed the country and fought courageously against the fine, until he finally even survived his rebirth. The world is funny, he thought, and all because of an egg that the future could predict. He shook his head sadly and lay down too. Before going to sleep, he looked at the silver, crescent-shaped moon and the bright stars. They seemed somehow familiar to him. The last thing he thought about his mother he had never had, then he fell asleep in the arms of nature.




The next big day came and they both woke up at the same time. The fire had burned down to the coals and the last sparks crackled in the fresh morning air. The dew hang on the grass and the cobwebs. It even dripped down from the pine needles. This is how Benedict and Destin were awakened. With a cool drop on your nose.


They had nothing left for breakfast, so they chewed on a few roots.Unfortunately, they didn't find berries like Demona and Toni back then. They quenched their thirst with the drops of dew. Shortly afterwards, they tidied up their storage area neatly and obliterated all traces of their presence. Cleverly they shouldered their rucksacks and made their way east to the dwarves.




As they walked through the forest, they heard the clatter of hoofs from the distance. Benedict was shocked when their surroundings dissolved in fog.


"The riders!" the wizard whispered to Destin. At first he didn't really know what Benedict meant, but then he remembered his mother's words to a guest. They all knew the riders. But how did they find us? Destin wondered, crouching backwards in a brazen bush. Benedict crawled behind a half-rotten tree trunk that had fallen over in the grass. It was still a long way to the Dwarf Pass and no one wanted to follow it continuously and without stopping. The sweat of fear emerged from his forehead.What should you do now? He was particularly worried about Destin, who was still inexperienced in combat. Soon he could no longer see the hand in front of his eyes, as the fog grew thicker and thicker. All he heard was the steady tock, tock, the hooves of the Gauls. His heart started racing and he glanced over at Destin. He seemed worried too, but not as much as Benedict. The boy just didn't know the lurking danger and so he wasn't worried about it. But Benedict was very worried.


Suddenly a shadow emerged from the fog. And the black rider was sitting right in front of him on a horse monster. It was black as the night and had its ears close to the head, always ready to gallop off at any moment. The horse snorted and shuffled its foot in the earth when the rider stopped. He leaned forward and sniffed the air. Hissing noises reached Destin 's ear and he winced at the thought that the rider might spot him.Benedict didn't move. His body was pressed firmly against the trunk in order to attract as little attention as possible. If only there weren't that fog everywhere, thought Benedict, and snuggled closer to the slowly crumbling bark of the trunk.


The rider in the black tattered cloak was now very still. As quiet and immobile as Benedict and Destin. The black tried to get an idea of ​​the surroundings through spiritual power. The bark on which Benedict was leaning crumbled and the pieces pattered on the floor. Now the jumper shrieked and struck his metal claws into the trunk on which Benedict was leaning. The tree broke in half and splinters of wood flew through the air. Even though Benedict backed away at lightning speed, the Spliters hit him in the eye. He felt a sharp pain and quickly closed his eyes, but it was too late, he had lost his eyesight forever. The rider pulled his claws from the trunk and rushed towards the now blind magician with vicious cries.Benedict felt his way around and got scratched. The pain he felt at that moment was nothing compared to what he felt in his heart when he lost his eyesight. He would be blind forever. In the low rush he said it softly: “Forever!” He was scratched again and he screamed again, this time louder than before: “Forever!” Suddenly a spirit of redemption seized him and he screamed at full volume as he reared up: "Forever !!!!!"


The rider withdrew fearfully, but the now angry wizard, who still wanted to see so much beautiful things in the world, lunged at him, grabbed a branch on the ground and stabbed in the dark shadows under the hood. "I'll show you what it's like to be blind forever!" he roared out of sheer hatred and stabbed again. The black yelped and backed away to his horse, which suddenly jumped over the trunk and hit the ground with a thud.The needles on the ground shattered and the mist evaporated. The jumper swung himself onto his horse riding past and disappeared into the bushes as quickly as he came.


Exhausted, Benedict sank down. He had taken his eyesight from him, thought Destin and only now dared to come out of his hiding place again. The thought of having a blind guide didn't really get into his head. The only thing Destin knew was that he had to go northeast to get to the dwarves. He was amazed that he took Benedict's fate for granted.


Suddenly something scared him. He realized that he had inherited his father's legacy a long time ago, and he found it all like a game. It was clear to him that he could no longer be with Benedict. He would endanger him with his mere presence. Only now did he realize that he was crying. He didn't cry out of fear or suffering, but out of hatred. Out of hatred of yourself.As he listened to the surroundings, he recognized the weak voice of Benedict: "Destin ... Destin! Come here my boy ...!" Destin obeyed him and wiped his tears as he sat down and took his hand. He realized that he was doing the same thing that he was doing with his mother. The blind magician waited a moment before continuing and then whispered, "I need you, my boy! You have to take me quickly ... to the dwarves ... I think ... I'm going ... to the end." ..! "He had to cough and then spoke in agony:" I'm just ... too old for ... such games! "He coughed again and this time a stream of blood