The four of them decided to stay in their house on the bridge for another night so Gram could get some more rest. In the morning, Faolan went outside will all their waterskins to refill them below the bridge. The storm from two days ago was long gone but there were still small clouds in the sky. They looked as though one huge cloud had been ripped into many pieces and scattered over the sky. When Faolan got back inside, he was surprised by a very excited Moira, jumping around him like a little girl.

'I did it!' she exclaimed. 'I finally managed, look!' Faolan was confused but when he looked to where she was pointing, he saw a bush full of berries much like the one he'd once seen growing over the opening of their tunnel shortcut. He congratulated her sister and together they gathered the berries. Their father was looking after the horses while Gram was just getting up.

'I'll just go wash my face,' Gram muttered. He was already on his way out when Faolan reached him one of the waterskins.

'No need to go outside, I've just been down at the river, refilling our supplies,' Faolan explained when Gram gave him a confused look. The slim man looked pale and ill, but he smiled weakly while thanking Faolan and taking the waterskin.

After a quick breakfast, Faolan and Moira joined hands to make the house disappear again. They had already been surprised it didn't disappear overnight like their first bridges over the river had done. But now that they actively tried to make the trees shrink and disappear, nothing happened either.

'Seems like they don't want to go,' Moira commented.

'Don't worry about it, they will soon die, there's no earth for them to live off here. Once they're dead, they will look as though they had been put here without magic,' Merak said, smiling at his children proudly when he spoke the last word.

At first, they rode off the way they had back home, with Faolan sitting in front of Gram and Moira in front of her father. But Gram felt very weak and sometimes leaned over to one side to the point where he almost would have fallen down. Since Faolan wasn't big enough to hold him up, Merak decided to take Gram in front of him. To relieve the horse from some weight, they reorganised what was packed in the saddle bags. Faolan and Moira, who were now riding together, took up a happy conversation, speculating about their magic abilities, to defeat the silence which lay stubbornly over the forest.

Wherever they made halt, the twins were happy to grow some fruit and when evening came, they built another little house for themselves. This way, they left a trail of houses along the road, each one day's horse ride away from the next. By the time they got home, Gram was feeling a bit better but he coughed occasionally so Merak insisted that he'd stay with them for a few days before riding back to the king.

'There's no good in you dying on the road and giving no report at all. I'm sure the king would rather have this information late than never,' Merak repeated for the third time until Gram finally gave in.

A couple of weeks later, news reached them from Gram. He'd talked to the king and was promoted to be his personal messenger. It wasn't really a promotion, but at least he no longer had to spend his days in shanties with loads of men. The king offered the defeaters of the witch great riches, but they turned the offer down, asking only to be left in peace even though the king now knew of their powers. The next thing they heard was a job offer for Moira and Faolan as the king's personal protectors. Again, they turned the offer down. For now, they said. They were still just teenagers, after all.

When the story of two young magicians living in the woods spread in the country, it didn't take long for visitors to come to them. There were others with different kinds of powers among them and some even wanted to live with them. Merak allowed it and so they built a little village with houses made of living trees.

Soon the village earned a name as a school where everybody was both student and teacher. People shared their knowledge and the community was growing for a few years. Merak was one of the few men without magical powers and was, therefore, responsible for the administration.

Whenever Faolan wasn't with the others, he joined the chef who worked in the newly built tavern to learn as much as possible from him. Time was passing by and the twins felt closer than ever before, even though they were growing up to be completely different.

It took them years to find out about the witch's plans. A hunter in Peringal had caught a talking squirrel and sold it on the black market until one day, it reached Gram who was supposed to take it to his king. He recognized the beast immediately, for it laughed at the scars it had given him. The creature told them that the witch had planned to gain control over the kingdom by disabling its army first. Some of the other men who'd been fooled by her had died, but the others had returned to the king when they had found no war.

The only things that remained of the witch was a scary tree next to a bridge, which soon had many legends surrounding it, and a talking squirrel that was, for unknown reasons, never to be turned back into the human it had once been. Instead of killing it, Gram decided for it to be Tosa's pet for the rest of its life, knowing that there would be no greater torture for the squirrel.

In an attempt to buy its freedom, the squirrel told them that, together with the witch, it had been following the twins, trying to get them killed by the millipede and a pack of demonic creatures. Furthermore, they'd led them to believe that the war was real by spelling a whole village and its inhabitants so that they were invisible, but it couldn't tell where that village lay nor whether it was still under the spell. The squirrel even promised to reveal the witch's home and their conspirators if it was released from the princess, but Gram asked for the names first and the squirrel never came up with any.

Faolan met many new people and his life was very busy. The only person he'd met before she came to them was Tosa, who paid them a visit. Reglan, former leader of group 14, had told her about the twins' forming village and convinced her to bring them a present. However, she had not been able to leave her father's farm for a long time. By the time she got to them, Tosa was already a young woman when she brought them two saddles, even though they didn't have any horses. Moira felt a bit ashamed when Tosa asked her why she had lied about her name back at Sembar's farm. Tosa had found out about it when Reglan had told her about the twin's village, which he'd heard of on a trip to Cohos.

'I actually don't know why I told you my name was Mela...' Moira admitted. 'But I guess I thought it might be inappropriate to claim the name of the highest goddess.'

'Well, the names are usually reserved for royalty, and I might have been curious about it, but it really would not have been a big deal,' Tosa said. She looked like she was going to elaborate on the topic when the twins decided to interrupt her and asked her about the squirrel. Tosa told them that it had died during the previous winter after refusing to talk to anybody for several weeks. Then she changed the topic to how beautiful their village was and the three of them spend the rest of the evening talking, although the twins did not get to say very much.

Tosa stayed in the village for a few weeks and Moira constantly made jokes and spread rumours about the young woman and Faolan, who got along with each other well. Tosa didn't mind, but Faolan hated his sister a little bit for that. One day, when he confronted her with it, she laughed at him.

'Oh come on, you couldn't hate me,' she said.

'If you keep doing this, I will,' he said in fury.

'Why?' she asked.

'Because she's my friend and if you keep doing this, she may start to feel uncomfortable and want to leave again. I will not let you take my friend away from me,' he said. Moira looked serious now.

'I wouldn't do that. But I remember what you said all those years ago when you were falling back to the ground. Right after mother let go of your hand. You said you needed me. And you were right. But tell me, what exactly do you need me to do?'

'Nothing. I need you to be my sister and let me live my life. Just don't interfere with it and I'll be fine. If ever I shall need your help, I'll come and ask for it.'

'You'll come and beg,' she corrected him.

'That's never going to happen,' Faolan said, but deep within, he knew that the day would come when he'd need her help so badly, he'd even sink on his knees to get it. From that day on, Moira didn't tell any stories anymore. Faolan finally felt truly happy with the world, even though he knew the next stone on his path would come soon. But that didn't even sound too bad to him. What's life without a challenge every once in a while, Faolan thought to himself, and without friends who help you fight it.

//Hi there, you've reached the end of this book, yay! (or nay?) Well, there'sstill a short afterword for you to read and if you like, you can also have alook at the acknowledgement :) Have fun!