Summer Breeze -

Summer Breeze Full of verve, Melina kicked the heavy door, which didn´t resist and swung open. She ignored the sudden pain in her right foot and dropped her stuffed bag on the floor outside. Sighing, she spread her arms wide, enjoyed the warm sunshine on her skin and felt the fresh wind that streamed through her hair. Suddenly she heard a voice from behind her: "If you don´t take care, you´ll fly away!" "Oh my, Felix!" she shouted, annoyed, "I almost fell off the stairs because of you. What if you make yourself useful and carry my bag to the train?" "Well, you know - I don´t have now," he replied smirking and sprang down the stairs. Moaning, Melina lifted her bag again and carried it carefully, step by step, all the way to the platform, changing from one hand to the other occasionally. When she had arrived at the train, she sat down on a seat by the window and looked into the distance. The right side was taken by the castle of Owl´s Cliff, in which she had learned magic for a whole year now. In pleasant anticipation she was looking forward to the summer holidays, for which she had planned a sailing trip with her parents and her sister, who were muggles. Two weeks of turquoise-blue sea, much sun and at last spending time with her family again was making her completely restless. Arrived at the station, she ran into the open arms of her mother. "Melina, it´s so good to see you again! How are you? Did they cook properly at Owl´s Cliff? And did you wash and mend your clothes there?" Her mother began her flood of words. "Oh, mum," Melina laughed, "you can see that I´m fine, can´t you? Now, don´t be worried too much, let´s drive home as fast as possible!" Both of them carried Melina´s bag into the car and set off. When they arrived at home, Melina´s little sister immediately ran to meet them, excitedly calling: "Melina, are you able to do magic now? Can you show me?" "Hi, Nadine," Melina smiled, "I´m not allowed to use magic during the holidays, as long as I´m underage." Looking disappointed, Nadine went back into the house. "She bought herself a magic kit, to try it, too," her father, who now had arrived, said grinning. Melina laughed. The next day, the whole family squeezed into the stuffed car and set off to the Baltic Sea. The plan was to rent a dinghy to sail and to explore the sea with it. Said and done, they arrived without any traffic jams and got rent a boat, thanks to the father´s sailing license. They decided to carry the baggage into the house and to recover from the journey first; they didn´t want to go sailing until the next day, even if the kids could hardly wait. Fresh and well-rested they set off to their dinghy the next morning. The parents started to get ready for takeoff, clamping and fastening the sails, knotting several ropes, unpacking the oars and finally releasing the boat from its moorage. They would have been quicker if Nadine hadn´t constantly wanted to help, at least until Melina told her that there were gorgeous fish here at the harbour. Having heard this, Nadine stood in the shallow water with rubber boots and held a home-made fishing-rod, made of a stick and a string, into the water. When the parents called the siblings into the boat, Nadine was quite peeved because she didn´t catch a single fish and supposedly Melina had told her nonsense. But she quickly was reconciled again when she was allowed to handle the tiller to steer. Together with her dad, she manoeuvred the dinghy out of the harbour to sail out into the open sea. During the trip the father explained the siblings how to steer right, to keep the boat from standing still in the wind. They both quickly took a shine on steering and were constantly arguing about whose turn it was. "You have been doing it longer than me," Melina said. "I never did," Nadine shouted, "and anyway, you had your turn before that!" "Oh, kids, we´ll sail out often enough to let both of you steer more often." "Okay, now we are out far enough, let´s drive a jibe to be heading to the shores again," the father said. "A what?" Nadine asked. The one spoken to answer: "That´s a manoeuvre to turn around, but let me do that, there´s quite some danger that the boat might capsize." Delighted, Melanie felt the refreshing breeze; because on a boat, without shadow in the open sea, it warms up quickly, more quickly than on the shores. "There´s something with physics," she thought, "water reflects the sunbeams." It reminded her of her former school, when she hadn´t known anything about her magical powers and had led quite an ordinary life. "What´s normal, anyway?" she cut her thoughts off, "I´m a witch, so magic is normal." Suddenly she noticed that the boat had started to rock extraordinarily strong. "Dad´s doing his job," she calmed herself down, but held on to a rope as a precaution. "Let go the foresail!," he shouted. And again: "Melina, quickly!" "What shall I do?" she shouted back helplessly. But it already was too late: The boat tilted too hard and capsized. "I´m going to die," Melina believed, "but I´m so young!" Desperately, she lashed about; she had completely gotten lost. Her lungs seemed to burst. Every moment she knew that her breathable air now was gone, but every time it lasted a bit longer. Eventually, it seemed to take hours, she hit her head against a piece of wood, and pierced through the water surface a moment later. Her mother told her to sit on the keel, and she was at the end of her rope when she finally managed it take hold of the boat. She didn´t even realize how her mother was pulling her up. "What do we do now?" Nadine asked. "The only thing I have is my whistle... But we are too far away from the shores for it to be heard. And the rest is now lying at the bottom of the sea," the father answered. Miserably, Melina made herself comfortable on the keel. "Hey, Melina," her sister called, "can´t you simply spirit us away?" "Unfortunately, no," the one talked to answered, "I´m not allowed to perform magic in the holidays..." "Darn," Nadine griped, "now you know how to do it, and what´s the use? - Nothing!" Moodily, Melina stared into the distance and saw a bank of clouds that built itself up. "Oh no, not a storm as well!", she thought. The waves became higher and higher. In their crests, white little foam crowns started to be formed. The boat began to swing more and more. Until suddenly an incredibly big wave approached. Spellbound, his whole family stared at it. It seemed as if they wanted to detain it with her looks. Closer and closer it rolled and increased in height alarmingly. The crest soon arched over their heads and a huge water flood buried the whole family under itself and pressed them deeper and deeper.. "I won´t have that much luck once again," Melina thought. Her breathing air was already used and still she seemed to float down. At this moment she thought of her farewell from owl´s cliff and of Felix - "of what unimportant thing ones thinks, right before their death." She floated further down, her hair whirled around the head and she thought of nothing at all, she had completely concluded with her life. Suddenly she believed to feel a strange smell in her nose ... "Is this death?" she asked herself. She opened her eyes ... and saw a wall of water in front her. "One moment, this can´t be true! I can breathe and I´m alive - in the middle of sea!" "Well recognized," a foreign voice said. Startled, Melina looked for its origin. Then she saw an adventurously-looking man. He was a stubby person and his clothes seemed to exist only of colourful cloths. Well: He looked like arisen from a fairy tale. In spite of her searching looks he continued: "You are inside of an underwater hemisphere. I have created an opening for you, otherwise you would have drowned." "Er, thanks," she answered, taken aback, "but how can you create a passage that easily?" "With the help of magic," he answered. "I also have magic powers, but I have never heard of the fact that one should have succeeded in creating a kind of shield," Melina said. "Well, we are not like your kind," was his answer, "but you will find that out in time. Go along there!" He pointed his arm to the middle of the dome. Melina got on the way curiously. Soon she could see peculiarly looking objects. These were sandy coloured, had countless terraces and at least as many outgrowths. Color-splendid tendrils were growing on the walls, with the gigantic blossoms which exuded a sweetish smell. "Wow, this is unbelievable!" Melina mumbled. She continued her way and soon people appeared, like the man she had just met, which observed her curiously but also slightly contemptuously, as it seemed to her. After a while she came to a place around which many other buildings bulged circularly. Some kind of well stood in the middle of it. "Of course," Melina thought, "in the middle of sea there is certainly no fluent water or electricity, but nevertheless, people seem to be fully contented with it." She sunk on the edge of the well and considered what she should do now. Then the man who saved her showed up again. "So, did you look around enough?" he asked with a gentle smile. "This is like in a dream," Melina said. "Yes, our little world is wonderful," he replied dreamily, "but unfortunately not as perfect as it seems." "Why, what´s the matter about it?" Melina asked. "Not everyone is happy that I rescued you...," he answered. "Why?" was the appalled reaction."You are a witch from the upper world, where there is evil; you fight each other and you use muggle-technology! They don´t want to have anything to do with you. The council will decide over you further destiny during the course of the day. Meanwhile, you can come home with me, if you want to. "Until then, Melina had listened eagerly. "I would like to," she answered quietly, while her mind was reeling. After she had thought about it, she said: "It is totally irrelevant how the council decides, I want to go back to my... family, anyway." She had stopped at this word. What had happened to her parents and Nadine? Certainly, they weren´t down here! Had they drowned? - No, that could not be true! "It is not as easy as that," the man said, "for the council, there are only two possibilities: Either you stay, or you die." Melina looked at him, appalled at what he said. "Now, come home with me and relax a bit," he continued. Both of them set off. When they had arrived at the house, they halted in front of one of the strange-looking outgrowths. Melina questioned herself what that was supposed to mean, for there was a plain wall in front of her. All of a sudden, the man started to walk straight on, right to the middle of the wall, without pausing..., and eventually he disappeared in it. In this moment, Melina remembered the entry to platform 9 ¾, and followed him carefully. She hit the wall ungentle. "Damn," she thought, "what am I to do now?" In this moment the man stuck his head out of the wall, which looked very weird. "I´m sorry," he said, "I totally forgot that you can´t get in here with your powers. Try it again now," he said. Melina walked to the wall again, suspiciously, but this time it didn´t resist. The interior of the house just looked as fabulous as the exterior: Colourful corals covered the floor and the different rooms were open, which means they weren´t limited by doors as it was the case in the "normal" world. Between the different rooms there were reams of openings, like bubbles. Amazed, Melina stopped. "I will make up a bed for you, you can decide where you want to sleep," the man said. Melina pointed to the end the farthest away from the spot from where they entered the house - she wanted to be as alone as possible. The man stood in front of the wall and concentrated on the floor, from where all of a sudden a bed emerged, made of algae. This kind of magic, performed without a wand, amazed Melina incredibly, but she was too tired, so she laid down and fell asleep immediately. Agonized by horrible dreams, she tossed and turned in bed. Her host disappeared unseen... A few hours later Melina suddenly was shaken awake. "Wake up," the man hissed, "quickly, the council wants to have you killed!" "But... what...?" Melina asked, still halfway asleep, but the man towed her out of the house to the point where the water dome touched the bottom of the sea. "When I say ´now´, you have to go immediately through the hole I created. I will take care of the rest," the man said. Concentrated, he stared at the curved surface. "Now," he said with a stifled voice and gave Melina a push. "Thank you for...," Melina wanted to say, but the rest of the sentence was drowned in gurgling water. She dashed through the sea, diagonally towards the water surface. It seemed like hours had passed, when she finally emerged at the shores. She didn´t quite ask how her breathing air had lasted that long. She dropped onto the sand, which was warmed by the sun, and fell asleep. "Maybe it´s all just a dream," she thought, but with her presence at this lonely beach, this hope seemed elusive.