Silence reigned. You could hardly tell a house from a rock, a lamb from a pile of firewood, because everything was covered in that crystallized cream.

But one of those many afternoons something happened. In the distance a crow flew towards the village, coming from the forest. It flew from house to house looking for something, until it landed on a chimney, looked inside and flew in.

First he stopped at a table, looked carefully at the people inside and jumped on the head of the smallest one. In his beak he carried a twig, which if you looked at it carefully you could see how through the small knots ran a faint orange flame.

And with that twig it touched the girl's head, then the crow jumped to the other head, a little bigger, doing the same thing.

The cream began to evaporate from their bodies and taking a breath of air they woke up.

The first thing they did was hug each other tightly and then cry inconsolably because their parents were in such a state.

The raven approached them and stared at them. With a melodious caw similar to a siren's song, he calmed them down.

Then with the last use of the magic twig he knocked on the door of the house so that the magic cream evaporated.

The twig then turned to ash which slowly fell to the ground. It was time to leave.

***

Galani and Liana left the house following the raven that perched from time to time to wait for them. It was leading them into the forest and that made Galani a little nervous. They walked little by little, tree after tree, always in the company of the raven. The daylight was slowly fading because the treetops were getting bigger and bushier.

The ground was getting colder and softer. When they reached the swamp Liana stopped, not only was she tired but her legs did not have enough strength to move forward through that buttery, slimy paste of earth.

- I can't walk Galani! - said little Liana with tears in her eyes, holding out her arms to Galani.

Galani turned to her and picked her up as if she were a bag of pineapples.

- I'll carry you Liana, don't worry. - Galani pursed her lips and held on to her as tightly as she could.

Bravely Galani took step after step while keeping her eyes on the crow, her face started to get redder and redder, the mud was almost up to their knees, when they reached solid ground she put Liana down in surrender. She was exhausted.

***

The raven came down and landed on Galani's shoulder, it looked at her and she could see how the eyes of that bird had an intense color and brightness equal to the magic cream.

In the distance illuminating the path, a lantern came floating quietly and guided them to what seemed to be the last stretch of the path. As the sunlight began to filter more and more intensely through the trees, it faded and disappeared.

The trees there were different from the trees in the rest of the forest. They were stubbier and a little lower, among them there were paths and if you saw them carefully you could see doors, windows, stairs and some decorations that made them look like houses, but they were not inhabited. Except for one of them, which had two lanterns like the ones they found in the forest on each side of the door.

The little girls approached and the door opened by itself, as if they were waiting for them.