We rode for a few hours before reaching a crossroads, where a vendor stood beside a small light wooden wheelbarrow, filled with pots, pans and cutlery. He was a large, burly man wearing a beaver hat and a light red buttoned shirt and sporting a black mustache. He waved at us, but we ignored him.

"Hey, do you want some trinkets?" he yelled.

I stopped cold, and so did my brother. A faint image formed in my mind...

A man with fierce green eyes, long gray hair and a beard, wearing a small silver tiara and a navy-blue cloak with the white symbol of a wolf at its center. He was my father. He pointed at me and gave me a command.

"I want you to find my lost trinket!"

...I was snapped back to reality by the neighing of my steed. Me and my brother rode back to the forest and stopped at a thick tree.

"Brother, I think I remember a bit of what happened. Our father, Lord Vlad, wants us to find one of his lost trinkets. But I cannot recall what it is. Can you?"

"Neither do I, sorry."

I dismounted my horse. The I gasped and put both of my hands on my forehead. I took a few quick breaths. I was lost, I was an idiot for allowing myself and my brother to be distracted all those days in the inn.

Perhaps that is why they called it the Iris Inn. You get hypnotized, captured by all the colours of the building's drinks, the games, the tapestries. The building was always full of the addicted who never left.

"We're screwed! Our father will not forgive us for failing to find his ornament. Whatever it is, it is very valuable to him!" I yelled.

I grabbed a fist sized rock and threw it a few metres.

"Wait, we could give him the golden feather! It might be just as good if not better" I replied.

Boyan turned to me.

"You're right! But I would like to find this bird. I cannot resist!"

"No brother, I have no idea where to find it, and we need to bring our father something. If we can't bring him his trinket, perhaps the feather will make for a good alternative."

"Who cares about him or his trinket? Do you not want to see that bird again? Be honest with yourself!"

Suddenly, I remembered the bird, shining with all its colours and looking at me with its innocent pink eyes. Then I sympathized with my brother.

"You're right. Come on!"

We continued to ride through the trunks and stones of the birch forest. While wandering around, I surveyed the tops of the trees and kept my ears alert.

I heard many chirps and cries from songbirds, but they were not those of the bird. A blue mockingbird sat on the branches of one of the birches. A little distance away I caught a thrush flying over me. I rode forward and caught a magpie on the top of one of the trees, partially hidden by the orange leaves.

"This is nice, brother, but not what we're looking for" I said.

We kept going and the forest became less thick, making it easier for me to navigate my steed between the trees. The rocks also ceased dotting the grassy ground.

Eventually, I noticed a red glow inside my backpack. I opened it, and found that the glow came from my feather.

A loud bird's call sounded from above, cute, innocent, and shrill but at the same time piercing. My eyes were immediately drawn up to the bird soaring above me. Its many colours were amplified by the sun, so directly looking at it burned my eyes and I had to look down for a few seconds. But as the bird passed, I could see the colours shine below it like a kaleidoscope.

I was once again bewitched by the bird, and drew my horse forward, making it go as fast as I could.

"Hey! Wait for me!" yelled Boyan.

My brother rode beside me, but I kept my eyes up on the bird, though not looking directly at it and focusing on the rainbow colours. The trees moved past me, faster with each passing second, and the wind hit my face and body renewing my adrenaline and confidence.

I leaped over a fallen birch trunk as my horse whinnied. We rode across a small brook and the water splashed on my steed and my horse. I turned left and then right. All that time I carefully kept my eyes on the flying, feathered rainbow above me. I didn't care that my brother was no longer with me.

Eventually the forest ended, and I entered some wild plains with shiny, free flowing tall grass.

I stopped for a breath before setting off again. The bird chirped. I would go on like this for who knows how long, and eventually I looked forward, confident that the bird was still above me. The landscape around me hardly changed. However, hundreds of meters away sat two lines.

They were actually two roads, bounded by a pine forest in between them. The first road to the west, paved with white limestone and marble, appeared to be almost spotless. The second road made of cracked rock was overgrown with vines and brambles.

I looked up, but the bird had disappeared. I clenched my fists. I must have been so distracted in riding that the bird slipped away from me like my brother! I take a deep breath. Hopefully, they both can be found again. But at this time, I needed a break. I was sweaty and frozen from the long chase.

After a minute I entered the left road. My horse walked in a light canter, a welcome relaxing departure that allowed us both to conserve our energy. I tried to dissipate the burden of my brother, father's trinket, and the bird in the environment around me, and eventually calmed down a bit.

But from the corner of my eye, I noticed four men emerge from the trees, wearing padded leather shirts, brown circular hats and wielding wooden clubs. They held their weapons strongly and raised their shoulders. I tried to spur my horse forward, but a rock approached fast, and before I could do anything, it struck me in the side of the face and pushed me off my horse.

I fell to the floor hard and wailed in pain. I could not stop. My head burned, and my body felt like lead. My eyes barely stayed open, but I glimpsed a broad-shouldered, bearded scruffy man stop in front of me. I tried to wiggle to the side, but he laughed, raised his club, and slammed it on top of my head. Everything turned black.

The curtain of darkness parted again, but only partially. I did not know where I was. But I turned and saw a glimmer of light, metres away. My entire body ached. I tried to move my hands, but they were tied together. I sat behind a thick, rough wall, like rock. I realized I was in a cave.

Two of the men stood near the light. Two others approached me, and I panted.

"Quiet kid, you're ours now. We're taking all you've got!" said one of them, a balding man.

At that realization, I began to feel empty. They were going to take my precious feather! And perhaps me as well! I was a failure! I buried my head in my hands.

"Bo-ho-ho kid, do you need a hug?" said the other man, one with short, blond cropped hair and a face covered with pimples.

He extended his arms towards me, and I cringed. The two men who were near the light approached. The bald man reached into my pouch and grabbed the feather. But the feather sizzled and turned red causing him to wail in pain and drop the feather.

At that point, the man with the warts stopped and turned around. The feather fell and blew towards me, and I touched it with my right finger. Although still colored red, it felt normal, so I grabbed it and touched it on the rope between both of my hands. The rope burned off without hurting me and I separated my hands as the two halves of the rope fell on the floor.

I stood fast. The man with the wart threw a punch at me, but I swung my feather and scorched his arm, and he screamed and fell to the floor. The bald man lunged at me, but I shoved my hand forward and hit his face, which burned. He screeched and fell back on top of the bearded man behind him, who groaned.

I picked up my pouch and put it on, then I sprinted as fast as I could toward the entrance of the cave. But one final person stood there: a short man with a mullet and thick arms. He pushed me as I approached, and I staggered. Immediately, he threw a punch at my face. I was disoriented for a second before I swung my feather at him, causing him to jump back. I then ran outside the cave.

I turned around and saw the mullet man behind me, the wart man behind. But just as they left the cave, my horse whinnied and charged into them from the right. They yelled and fell to the floor. The horse approached me, and I immediately grabbed the saddle and mounted it, before riding away.

The cave was in a small hill, in an opening of the pine forest, where I could see the paved road far to the right, so I controlled my horse carefully as I rode down. I also watched out for the rocks on the floor. I reached the pine forest but did not stop riding until I was confident that I had covered enough distance between the thieves at the cave and myself.

After that, I stopped and sat on a nearby pine stump. I put on my crimson hat, and I took out the feather, which now had a golden colour.

I wondered when exactly does the feather grow and burn? It did so twice when people wanted to take it, but it also did so when the bird was close to me, and I wasn't burned when touching it. Has the feather chosen me? Is it meant for me? Or does it glow only when the bird is near me? Maybe the bird was near me when the feather burned its would-be takers, and I didn't notice? Perhaps both are true.

But this only strengthened my resolve to find the bird, one way or another. Despite my aches, I would not stop. I mounted my horse and rode on. I turned left, trying to find the overgrown road. I did not want to go back on the paved road. I had a hunch that the path was dangerous, perhaps due to what had just happened.

Soon I reached the overgrown road and followed it. The path was not the most comfortable, as in addition to the vines and brambles, it was uneven and bumpy, and I bounced on my horse. The rocky plains sat to my right. I followed the road for hours, taking my feather out every now and then. But it remained gold and did not shine or burn.

I reached another forest to my right, one with pines but also oaks, and I was surrounded on both sides by them. Eventually, the road ended in a giant rock surrounded by shrubs. I took out my feather again. Nothing. Where should I go? Eventually, I resolved to go right, into the pine and oak forest.

I rode on for days. I would not quit! Eventually, the number of pines dwindled, while the number of oaks increased, until they ended up as the only trees in the forest. The trees became taller, and some of them lost their leaves. The floor also became rockier, and the steed strained itself, neighing multiple times. My fatigue and tiredness increased, as did my aches and pain. I tried to keep up my energy by eating the bread and jerky and drinking the wine skin, but eventually they ran out. The feather still did not budge! I was losing my patience!