Read The animal 3 :: The clearing and memories (Anilec) Part 1

It all started on a stormy evening. My father was on the road again and my mother at a parent talk from my brother. I was watching a movie about wolves on TV when I heard a rumble from above. I thought it was my brother and didn't pay any attention to it. Suddenly, the power went out and it was pitch black. I had recorded the film and was therefore not angry that the power had failed. I heard something behind the sofa. Probably just the dog. I got up and wanted to go to my room, but first I had to brush my teeth. When I got to the bathroom, I was frightened because Blue, our dog, was lying on the small mat in front of the bathtub, because if Blue was lying here, it was a good question what it was behind the sofa. I looked out of the bathroom and my brother jumped out from behind a corner, shouted, "Clina!" and started yelling. I was so frightened that I slammed the bathroom door, stumbled and fell. My brother opened the door and laughed at me. He knew I was scared and he also knew I hated being scared. I kicked him and he hit back. We beat each other until Blue started whining. She hated arguments. I pushed my brother aside and ran back into the living room, opened the closet, took out the rain jacket, cap and a leash, put on a jacket and cap, took Blue on a leash and went out. I ran off without knowing where to go. I kept running. At the station I took the underpass and walked across the field behind it. I walked along the river and crossed it at the old wooden bridge. I ran into the forest without stopping. Suddenly I found myself in a clearing that I had never seen before. That was funny, because I actually knew the forest by heart. In the clearing there were two different hills. On the first hill stood an old large tree. On the second was a huge boulder. Water flowed over the boulders and formed a small waterfall, which lay in a small lake in the middle of the clearing. A small stream flowed out of the lake. On one side of the lake there was a small sandy beach. On the other side was a beautiful meadow, which was overgrown with many different flowers.. There were native flowers and very special and exotic, there were super rare flowers and common flowers like dandelions. Small fish also swam around in the lake and many different bird species sat on the tree, just as colourfully mixed together as the flowers on the meadow. This clearing was simply a dream. Not a single piece of garbage lay on the ground or swam in the lake. It seemed as if I was the first person to enter this clearing. Everything was so peaceful and quiet. Even the thunderstorm seemed to be quieter here. The wind was less strong, the thunder was quieter and the rain trickled down only gently instead of falling like stones from the sky. On the other side of the clearing, I heard branches breaking and my cousins Jael and Arika emerging from the forest, along with their cocker spaniel Caramel. Caramel barked to greet me and ran around the lake to me and Blue. At the creek, she just jumped over. I detached Blue from the leash and it ran towards Caramel. The dogs sniffed each other briefly and then came to me.

I stroked both of them briefly and waved Jael and Arika over to me. I wanted to ask them what they were doing in Rebach, but Arika came before me and asked me: "What are you doing in Gümmenbach? And where are we here I have never seen this part of the forest before and we know our forest as well as our pockets." I didn't know why they thought we were in Gümmenbach, but I replied: "1. I just ran away from home into our forest. Manuel once again made nonsense and frightened me to death, 2. we are not in Gümmenbach but in Rebach and 3. why did you come here???" We looked at each other questioningly and no one said anything anymore.. Behind the waterfall appeared a shadow slightly larger than Blue. Blue and Caramel sniffed in the air and started growling. They growled, "Go away! We are two against one. You don't have a chance!" This was nothing new to me, that I understood the dogs. I had been born with this gift and only Jael and Arika knew about it, because they had the same. But we couldn't just understand dogs. We could understand and speak every language in the world, not only human languages, but also animal languages. The shadow behind the waterfall growled back: "There may be two of you, but my pack has been around you for a long time. You are trapped!" The growl turned into a bark that sounded very much like a laugh. In the forest around us, I heard it rustling and branches breaking. I looked at Jael and Arika and knew we had to leave before we were attacked. Arika's fingernails became smaller and sharper, and Arika herself became smaller and smaller. A bright red light glowed around you, and when it went out, a small red tigered European wildcat stood in the place where Arika had previously stood. Jael also became smaller and around her it began to shine all white. When this light also went out, a snow-white bird, a raven, stood in their place. Jael flew into the nearest tree and Arika jumped up. I focused on my Native American zodiac sign: black raven. Soon after, a blue light blinded me and I began to shrink. I got black-bluish feathers and a beak grew on my face. My eyes got better and clothes and glasses became feathers. I flew up, took a spin over the clearing and then put on my wings. I rushed to the ground at my top speed and Jael joined me. Just before we hit the ground, we spread our wings at the same time and grabbed Caramel. It was a cocker spaniel and therefore not so difficult to lift. We put her next to Arika on the tree and Arika glowed again. When the light went out this time, a beautiful red and gold bird sat on the branch, a phoenix. We flew down again and lifted Blue on the tree together. Since Blue and Caramel could not climb well and Blue was bigger than Caramel, we put Blue on a slightly thicker branch than Caramel's and looked for a few branches, which we intertwined and made a small platform for our dogs. When the platform was stable enough, we put Blue and Caramel on it. Jael, Arika and I flew up the old tree on the one hill of the clearing and tried to see who was hiding behind the waterfall. I suddenly noticed a familiar smell and turned around. Behind us, a slightly older, black wolf came out of the forest and lifted its snout in our direction.