Markus Seidel - The vanished village

Tom and I made our way to the last corner of the attic so that the dog could not see us. But the book was still lying right under the window. What did it say? The right solution is to save us?! What exactly was the task? Something about midgets. I had to read it again.

"Tom, we have to get the book!" I whispered to him. "We have to solve this weird riddle about the dwarves."

"Without me," he said, and I could tell he meant it. "I'm not moving an inch away from here." So I had to go and get it myself, or we'd be lost.

Bit by bit I slid on the floor to the window, the dog had disappeared, you could hear him barking, but he was no longer to be seen.

I grabbed the book, ran back to the corner where Tom was sitting, hurriedly opened the last page again and read falteringly and in a trembling voice:

"Once upon a time, there were three dwarfs called Red, Green and Blue. At some point one of them noticed: "That's funny. We have a red, a green and a blue hat on." - "True," said the dwarf in the blue hat, "but none of us wears a hat the color of our name." - "That's right," Green said.

Now it's your turn, Tom and Max: What color is the hat of blue? The right solution is the beginning of the adventure. And your salvation.

I looked at Tom and said, "Now what colour is the hat of blue?"

Tom blew his cheeks open: "We have to approach this logically," he said and thought about it. Suddenly the dog appeared again at the window, he opened his muzzle and we could see his huge teeth. His breath fogged up the window pane so that he was soon hardly recognizable. But you could still hear him quite well, him and his panting behind the roof window pane. My knees became soft, Tom cried out again. We moved to the back where he couldn't see us.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" I shouted. "Let us think. Well, he can't be wearing a blue hat, because his name is 'Blue', and the dwarves all have a different colour hat than their names. So he wears either the red hat or the green hat.

"That's right," said Tom, "and dwarf green on the other hand can't wear green, it can either wear blue or red. But red, who has noticed the whole thing, has to wear the blue hat, otherwise it won't fit with the others."

The dog was barking like crazy now, we looked anxiously to the window, it wouldn't be long before he would bite it open or turn the house upside down or do who knows what. We had to hurry, otherwise everything would be lost!

"So stay red and green," I shouted. I could hardly understand my own words, the dog yapped so loudly.

"But green can't wear green," said Tom, "so blue must wear the green hat. Dwarf blue wears the green hat! That's the solution! At least I hope so...-"

"Ta-da, and here I am!" - A dwarf with a green hat suddenly stood beside us. He was quite small, about half the size of us, and he was actually wearing a green hat. Blue, the dwarf, had a friendly face, we weren't afraid of him, even though we were of course a bit frightened when he suddenly appeared. So we had been right. Thank God, the solution was right. That was the main thing.

Blue looked at us laughing and made a little bow. The dog that had been barking until just now had disappeared, you could not hear or see him anymore; from one second to the next he was gone. Blue, the dwarf, had saved us. You could also say: we had saved ourselves. We had found the right solution.

"Well, you two," said Blau, "whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

"I'm Max," I said.

"And you?" asked Blau and turned to Tom, who was a little shy about telling his name.

"So, Max and Tom it is. You're lucky again, I'd say that dog didn't look very friendly, did he?"

"No, not at all," Tom said. "But where did you come from all of a sudden?"

"Weren't you just talking about me? "Whenever you talk about me, I visit, it's as simple as that." He laughed. Tom and I looked at each other a little surprised.

"And where are you from?" the dwarf wanted to know. Tom and I told him how we had come to this house.

"These are beautiful stories!" cried Blue, astonished. "Have you ever heard anything like it?!" He shook his head in disbelief, but somehow I had the impression that he was leading us around by the nose and that he knew exactly how Tom and I had got here.

"What's all this about the lost village?" I asked him. "Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ told us about it. She said we are here because we are to prevent this house from disappearing here too, the last one in the village. She said that if this house is gone too, all is lost."

"When she's right, she's right," Blau said mysteriously and grinned.

"But what can we do? I mean, what can we do?" I shouted. Maybe Blau had an answer to that.

"And where have all the other houses gone? And why are they gone?!", Tom asked.

"Take it easy," said the dwarf. "You two will find out soon enough. For now, I'm here to help you."

"What do you want to help us with?" I asked him.

"Come on, we have no time to lose," said Blau and went to the attic door. I followed him. Tom stopped: "I'm not going an inch further," he said determinedly, "I'm staying here. The whole thing honestly seems strange to me. Besides, it seems far too dangerous."

"Oops!" cried Blau, when he had opened the door, "the stairs are gone. It was there a moment ago. You can see how fast it goes."

Blau was right, the stairs had disappeared, you could see down to the lower floor, but it was too low to jump down from the attic.

"But where did it go, the stairs?" Tom wanted to know.

"Gone," said the dwarf. "Just like the houses in this village. You know how things disappear here, that's why you're here. Tell me, have you ever been in a balloon before?" He grinned and made a mysterious face.

Tom and I shook our heads.

"That's a good thing," said the dwarf. "Because the first time is always the best. Come on! Or do you want to get to know the dog better? To be honest, it's too dangerous for me, and I'll be glad to get out of here.

He turned around and walked quickly through the attic, past the small skylight, to a tiny door that we must have overlooked. Or hadn't it been there before?

"Are you ready?" he asked. But before I could ask "Ready for what?" he had already opened the door.

"Come!" cried Blue, "Get out." Fortunately, Tom was now also ready to come along. I think he had realised that it was not entirely safe to be left behind alone.

I had expected to stand in another room, or on a staircase leading somewhere. Instead, I was on a balcony with a hot air balloon floating in front of it. What was that supposed to mean? That we should get in that balloon?

"Jump into the basket," Blue asked me, and I did obediently what he said; I climbed up the balustrade of the balcony and jumped into the basket. From here I could see the shed in the garden, the shed in which I had hidden and which suddenly was no longer in our garden but here, at Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ's.

Tom was now also in the balloon; Blue, the dwarf, joined us, and off we went, because at that moment, the balloon lifted gently into the air as if on command.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.