It was getting late in the afternoon as the two brothers Klaus and Nick ran through the field, deftly avoiding the cow droppings. They had finished their farm chores for the day and had gone out on what they called “an adventure,” which usually consisted of pretending to be fighting a black knight or escaping from a bear.
“Last to the trees is a loser,” Klaus called out as he started to sprint to the edge of the woods.
Nick knew his younger brother well enough to have expected the challenge. His longer legs allowed him to catch up and he managed a small cry of “loser” as he crashed onto a narrow deer path only a few feet before his sibling.
“Not fair,” exclaimed Klaus as he dropped on the ground next to him. “You always win!”
Even though they were siblings, the brothers were very different. Klaus had always been stockier than his brother, his hair darker than Nicholas’ straw-blonde, and curlier as well. Nicholas was tall for his ten years and slender like his father.
After a few moments they caught their breath and curiously looked around. The path they were on was clearly outlined in the thick undergrowth. Deer were plenty in the woods, often coming out of the forest at dusk to feed on the fields. The farmers detested them but there was not much they could do.
“Have you seen this before?” Klaus asked. “I wonder where this path leads.”
“Dunno, let’s find out.”
“You know what Dad says about going into the forest, right?”
Nick dismissed the concern with a shake of his head. “That talk about witches is just to scare little children. And Fred was saying the other day that nobody had seen any wolves around here since forever. We’re only checking out this path for a little bit and we’ll be back before it gets dark.”
Klaus wasn’t going to disagree on this with his brother and followed him along the meandering path. The dense forest looked somber and foreboding so late in the afternoon when the rays of the setting sun had a hard time breaking through to the ground.
The first couple of hundred feet into the forest they were excited about exploring new territory, but before long they started to get bored. One tree looked very much like the next one, and other than the occasional squirrel there wasn’t much in the form of wildlife to be seen.
Suddenly, Nick stopped.
“Do you see that?” he pointed. “It looks like an elf dancing!”
Klaus squinted.
“I think it’s a clearing. Maybe it’s the deer’s den!”
They carefully continued and soon reached the edge of a grass-covered open area in the middle of the forest.
The older brother took note of the spot where the path ended into the clearing as he walked onto the grass.
“How strange, it looks like a perfect circle!”
“Maybe there is a wizard living here after all?” Klaus suggested.
“Nonsense, there are no wizards here. But it does look strange.”
They walked to the middle of the clearing and looked around.
“Yeah, it does look strange,” Nick agreed. “You know, let’s just sit down for a few moments and then we’ll head back home. It’ll be getting time anyway.”
They sat down back to back, leaning into each other as they were used to doing.
“Do you hear it?”
Nick nodded as he also heard the humming sound that was slowly getting louder. With the sound, a vibration came through the ground that was getting stronger too.
“Maybe we should leave. This is a seriously strange place.”
Nick shook his head. “No, I want to know what is happening here. Father will want to know if there is something strange going on in the forest so close to the farm.”
Goosebumps appeared upon Klaus’ arm and he stood up.
“It is getting cold. And dark. Look at the sky!”
Within a few seconds, the sky turned pitch black, except for the stars that had come out. But it was far too early for night to have fallen!
Nick stood up too and looked at the small patch of sky visible from the clearing in amazement.
“The stars are moving, you see that? They are not standing still at all!”
Klaus nodded and took Nick’s hand.
“I want to go home now,” he whispered.
Nick agreed and looked around to find the path they had come from, but it was too dark to see anything clearly.
Before he could ask his brother about finding the path, the stars disappeared and the sky turned bright as day again. But within seconds it turned back to night, and then continued flickering back and forth between day and night.
Still holding on to his brother, Nick tried to walk to the edge of the clearing, but found he couldn’t. Instead, they were turned around, first gently, then faster and faster.
As the flicker between night and day turned into a continuous gray twilight, the trees suddenly seemed to have dropped all their leaves. The ground turned snow white for a moment, then the trees were green again. Klaus and Nick were still turning around, faster and faster.
Nick and Klaus desperately tried to hold onto each other, but in the end the swirling was too strong and they had to let go. Then everything turned pitch black. Within moments, they were lost to each other for a long, long time.