The Lost Quest

It was dark. Yannic could feel his head under the water. Water was rushing into his ears and nose. The swirling current of the water got his vision blurred. He was trying to open the door of the car, but the pressure of water had jammed it, it won’t open. He felt the old man grabbing his arms and trying to pull him towards the back seat. He was terrified. He could see each strands of the old man’s beard floating in the water. Yannic was struggling to let go but he had realized the only way out was the rear window of the car. He was stuck on the front seat with his seat belt on. To his wonder, the old man was pretty strong that he dragged Yannic out of the car through the rear window and swam towards the surface. Yannic was half conscious and terrified floating on the river the old man was dragging him towards the shore. He felt the drizzle upon his face. As he heard the thunder of lightening, the drizzle turned into howling rain. The hails started hitting his head. Then a large whirl of the water rushed towards them separating the men and taking them along with it. Then Yannic saw bright flashes of warm unstoppable lights.

The bright light made Yannic unable to keep his eyes closed. As he opened his eyes, he realized it was scorching sun of the noon. He was lying on a shore. He could feel sand of the shore into his mouth. He felt waves were gently touching and leaving his feet. He got up, looked around. He was alone! In front of him was a dense pine forest, behind him was the deep wide river and forest on the other side. Where was the highway? Yannic couldn’t figure anything out. He had to find his brother. It was already noon and he was on a shore of some river in middle of an unknown forest. He could feel his cell on the pants pocket. He took it out, it was all soaked up in water.

He took out the battery and left it to dry, facing the battery and the cell towards the sun.

“Walking along the river shore leads you out of the woods!” Yannic had read this somewhere. He started walking through the shore to find a way out of the forest. As the battery got dried, he kept it on the cell and switched it on. The mobile started beeping. 1..,2…,3.,4……..10 messages.

“Where are you?”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Call me now!”

“I am worried. Why is your cell switched off?”

Yannic hadn’t even finished reading all those messages, the cell rang. It was Tiara.

“Hello!”

“Where are you Yannic? Why didn’t you wake me up? Why did you switched off the cell? I had been trying to reach you for hours.”

“I had to get Aiden. We’ll be home soon.”

“Where are you? I’m going to come right now.”

“Hmmm… I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I came to the place where Aiden had been camping.”

“The place where Aiden had camped isn’t

farther than 3 hours. You should have arrived by now.”

(A typical couple fight started)

“Where are you? I am worried Yannic. Are you all right? Something’s wrong!” said Tiara.

“No sweet heart. I’ll be home soon. You take care.”

“You left me alone at our wedding night and you’re not home yet. You even don’t know where you are. Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, I’ll be there as soon as I….”

“Beep…Beep………….Beep”

The battery went dead, the mobile had soaked up huge amount of water.

Yannic looked the mobile in despise. He felt like throwing it into the cold water. However, he again took out the battery held it towards the sun and fixed his way along the shore.

After walking for hours, all he could find was the wood getting denser and denser, the wide river shrinking to a narrow stream and there was no trace of the way out. He was lost in the forest. He felt grumbling in his stomach. He was hungry. Hours of meaningless walk only led him to an empty stomach. He hadn’t any thing to eat. He decided to enter the forest in hopes of finding some wild fruits. Say his bad luck, it was a pine forest. There was nothing except of hard cones and prickly leaves on the ground. He saw a rugged hut, few meters away, in the forest. He walked to the hut. Roof of straw, walls of mud and mushrooms growing all over the old wooden door had given it a very creepy look.

He knocked once! Twice! Thrice! The Old man opened the door.

Yannic freaked out, he hadn’t expected the old stranger opening the door of that weird hut. He remembered him pulling out of the car and saving him last night. The old man was giving him the warm smile with his crooked teeth hidden behind the white beard.

“Who are you? Why do I keep on bumping on you?”

“I felt like you were trying to save me last night, but then why did you leave me at the shore?” “I fell into the river because of you, though. How did you get into the car, by the way? ” The old man spread welcoming hands to let Yannic inside .Yannic stepped back, picked up a stone at the side of the door, and targeted the old man. “You cannot hurt me. Stay away!!”

The old man burst into laughter, “Do you think I’m going to harm you? Didn’t you recognize me?”

He looked into his eyes. He felt warmth and care. He looked at his smile, it was pure and full of love.

“I think I know you.” said Yannic.

The man smiled.

“Grand pa! You look like my grandpa.” Yannic recognized his face behind the bushy beard and wrinkles. “I loosed two months before my wedding. I had to bury him with these hands.” Yannic stared at his palms.

The old man pulled out the golden

pocket watch hung around his neck under his white cloak.

“Where did you get that?”

“Did you forget? You left it on my cemetery.”

Yannic felt like it was a dream. He pricked his finger to a nail stuck on the door, he was bleeding. It was real. Yannic held his head against his hands, felt weak on his knees and sat in front of the door.

“How is that possible? My grand pa died. I buried him!” “I buried you with my own hands. How can you be alive?” screamed Yannic.

“I never died, I never die. It was just a role that ended.”

“I am the same person who raised you up. But, I’m not your Grand pa. I was never your Grand pa. I’m Zohar, I am a wizard.”