Aside from her own tracks, the forest was filled with evidence that life here was just as wild as any city madness. Only instead of humans partying, here the animals played the leading roles. A flurry of rabbit tracks proved it. Or the hoof print of a moose with a lumpy nose. And what about the shape of a girl’s body lying in the snow, waving her arms and legs? Isn’t that basically a jellyfish?
Suzanna loved nature. Like, really loved it. Maybe more than anyone.
Sure, the plant life in her homeland didn’t exactly wow her the way jungle videos did, and she was honestly kind of sick of the endless pines. But the best thing about them? They never withered. Even now, in the bitter cold, the firs and pines looked way better than cranky old Julius, the neighbor.
Nature injected them with botox, while Julius just injected her mom’s emotional state with needles, arguing with her over every damn thing.
There was still a whole day until dark, but Suzy was in a hurry anyway, for two reasons. First, Petra never really minded her wandering off, but she always asked her to be back before nightfall. And second, Suzy wasn’t exactly a fan of the night. That nearly pitch - black curtain, barely softened by streetlights - and even those didn’t help much. What’s the point of walking in the dark if you can’t see anything interesting? And besides, what streetlights are there in the forest?!
While mulling all that over, the girl kept walking, mentally retracing the path to the lake she’d never actually visited. She relied only on her mom’s stories and descriptions, which she had memorized in perfect detail. Suzy had a photographic, maybe even borderline freaky, memory for directions. That was one of her gifts.
Her thoughts might wander all the time, but her memory always stayed loyal.
She was always drawn to the distant unknown. And somehow, this little explorer had taught herself to imagine her familiar forest as something like a Latin American jungle - and in her head, she could travel insane distances just by wanting to.
Imagination and nothing but imagination. It helped her so much that when Petra gently asked whether her daughter wanted to follow Grofo, or even go off with him, Suzy shook her head and said:
- This is her Why would Suzanna need foreign lands when there are still so many places here she hasn’t explored?
Petra seemed satisfied with the answer. But with her, it was always hard to tell - mostly because what truly made her happy was when her daughter felt at peace with herself. And Suzy could only reach that state through a healthy dose of silence and new scenery.
And the two were completely linked. New scenery = silence. At least, in Suzy’s homeland.
And, as if the forest obeyed her will, the trees parted before this self - declared mistress of the wild, and her boot stepped out onto a snowy plateau scattered with frost - bitten wild scrub. At the far edge of this frozen plain stood a sharply outlined dotted line of mountains, towering and powerful. And at the center sat the cherry on this frozen cake: the lake.
?vrekj?la! The one and only!
The girl stretched her arms out toward it and froze, as if wanting to touch every little drop and shard of ice drifting along a course only she could see. If it weren’t for those little thawing streams - the last boats of a retreating winter - the lake would’ve looked so perfectly still, so serene, that just gazing at it could bring Suzy inner peace.
- What beauty! It’s just like home - only without factories or Suzanna can step forward and feel the wonder. -
Without thinking twice, the girl gave in to her instincts and quickly - almost running - reached the edge of the water. Dipping the tips of her fingers in, she closed her eyes at the icy burn and, pulling her hand out, immediately smiled.
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- And why did Mom refuse to bring Suzanna here? There’s nothing threatening in this piece of nature. Just like Petra, Suzanna believes that you shouldn’t disturb the spirits of a place or threaten their But if you behave properly, they’ll see that Suzanna just wants to enjoy herself and doesn’t pose any danger to their home. -
Satisfied with her thoughts, the girl peacefully stared into the lake's waters and, after standing like that for a while, suddenly felt a sharp headache. It was as if her skull had been clamped tight- she clutched her head with both hands and cried out from the pulsating poison spreading through her brain.
And then, all at once, it stopped.
Dazed, Suzanna looked at her hands, and then glanced around in confusion- but the fact remained: the pain had vanished almost instantly. Above the mountain peaks, the sun gleamed cheerfully, dressing the ridgeline in a juicy cartoon outfit. Everything looked so wonderful and bright that the girl got lost in the transformation.
The pain was gone and didn’t return. Suzie looked again into the lake’s waters... and found herself staring into a kind of abyss. The murky water had sharpened, like someone had cranked up the contrast on a TV, and it was no longer an opaque barrier to sight. Even the waters of tropical oceans would seem less transparent than this near - immaterial veil.
And beneath it, a new world opened.
It looked so absurd and disconnected from familiar reality that Suzie’s head now began to spin from how deeply her gaze sank into the chasm that had replaced the lakebed.
Down there, far below, lay a fantastical city. It looked like a futuristic metropolis, where dazzling skyscrapers shimmered like a star orbiting above them. This glowing orb illuminated the buildings
and served as a light source instead of street lamps. Around it flickered billboards showing a completely blank surface.
No ads, no text, nothing.
Nearby, coal - black chariots cut through the air, pulled by no horses, apparently powered by mechanical force. The streets of this city lay beyond even the magically sharpened vision of Suzanna, and she couldn’t make out what was happening deep down below.
Her eyes shifted from the chariots to steel birds flying in flocks over the rooftops, clearly not flying aimlessly but following their own mysterious logic and tasks.
The birds swooped past a rooftop where Suzie spotted a boy standing by a chimney. He leaned on it calmly, waiting. When one of the largest metal birds reached his head, he grabbed onto it with both hands, and together they began rising upward.
Up to where Suzanna stood!
Their ascent played out in slow motion, as though the resistance of the water still hampered their progress.
Suzanna didn’t know what to think. Truth be told, she wasn’t thinking at all- she simply dropped to her knees and plunged her arm in up to the elbow, hoping to help the boy make it to land. The traveler did the same, even releasing one hand from his flying device to unzip his gray hooded windbreaker.
- How much longer will she have to wait? Come on, hurry up, please! Suzie’s -
Ignoring the girl’s plea, their speed didn’t increase, and the would - be rescuer felt another rush of pain in her head. Crying out, she broke away from the vision and stood up, feeling like she was being torn to pieces. Grabbing her temples, the girl staggered away from the lake’s edge, off into the distance.
You could say she walked - wherever her eyes took her. - But her vision had suddenly blurred, and she couldn’t see where she was dragging herself. Suzie was moving purely by feel, relying on her senses to know she hadn’t passed out just yet.
The flash receded just as quickly as it had stormed her body. Suzie noticed that, without realizing it, she had made her way to a large boulder that looked like it had been lying there for hundreds- if not thousands- of years. She braced herself on it with her hands and shook her head. Her mind was foggy and her thinking muddled, but she was at least somewhat back to herself.
Pushing off from the rock, the girl stood up- only to immediately plop back down, now in a sitting position. And right in front of her, just a couple of steps away, stood the boy.
- You made it out? Good job! - Suzanna said cheerfully, without even having the time to be frightened by this stranger who had suddenly appeared in front of She just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
The boy bowed his head gratefully, clearly pleased with the warm reception, and raised a hand to his forehead.
Suzy got it right and replied:
- No, it doesn’t hurt It’s fine. Where’s your bird?
He shrugged and waved vaguely, like - somewhere over there. - She decided not to press him, tucked her legs underneath herself, and asked:
- Did you come here to make friends with me?
Another nod and a faint half - smile on the freckled, rosy - cheeked boy’s face. He looked nice, with a shock of fiery red hair combed into a slightly old - fashioned hairstyle with a long fringe. He wore the kind of pants fishermen in Suzy’s village usually had on, and his windbreaker was a little ragged, even torn in a few places.
Just a moment passed- maybe two- and his face began to change: it grew darker and sharper, a small scar appeared under his left eye, and then the features started to blur again, shifting until an entirely new face emerged through the young one.
Suzy could’ve sworn these changes weren’t just about shape or size- they seemed to age the face, unnaturally.
The boy’s hair turned grey in fast - forward, a thick beard sprouted on his chin, and deep wrinkles grabbed hold of his face like a mountain range wrapped around a valley.
And for some reason, a wave of anger suddenly rose up inside Suzy- directed at this strange visitor. She’d felt warmth toward his earlier forms, but this third one sparked a weird sense of threat. What kind exactly, she couldn’t tell, but her small fists clenched and her nostrils flared like a wild animal’s.
But was there even a reason?