Nervously Marja rolled to her side, turned her back on Bastian and Raven, even though it was incredibly difficult for her. But finally she couldn't watch them all night either; Bastian, as he clutched his tightened legs with obvious indisposition and Raven, as she stared at the fire as if spellbound, repeatedly making hissing sounds.

Every time she did that, Marja tensed up involuntarily, but at least a little lesser each time, until at some point she didn't really care any more. Yet she thought she could feel Raven's piercing gaze in her back, and that feeling just wouldn't let her sleep.

Only a few hours remained until the twilight creatures, who only dared to leave their hiding place between the morning and evening hours, had left again and they could finally continue their journey. Although Marja had stayed up all night, she still couldn't fall asleep. She felt observed. As if the threat were hanging over them like a dark cloud, erupting at any moment. And Marja didn't know if this was all due to the presence of the Lady in White.

"We...", she suddenly heard Bastian babbling in a low voice. "We can put out the fire if it is ... um... frightening you." Now Marja would have loved to turn around inconspicuously to see how Raven reacted, but on the one hand she could imagine it so well that it shook her, and on the other hand she had found a just so bearable lying position at the moment, between a root and an unpleasantly piercing thorn bush.

"Put out the fire", Raven hissed dangerously and Marja thought she heard Bastian pull his legs closer to his belly. "Are you suicidal? I - yes - I don't care, but I do my best and keep guard here and then you want to put out the fire!"

Marja could literally see Bastian recoiling at every word she so threateningly and loathsomely uttered. She herself certainly did. Twilight creatures feared fire, so Bastian had used all his street knowledge to finally let a few small flames flicker out of the dry wood. These flames grew to a warming campfire, which drove away the clinking winter cold - at least in Marja's back.

"Wake her up," she suddenly heard Raven bawling. Marja could not say if those were really the words she had spoken, but when she heard hesitant steps on the leaves, and finally a big hand grabbing and shaking her arm roughly, it was clear to her that she was not mishearing.

Ponderously Marja sat up. Her neck hurt and felt incredibly tense, and her arm was tingling as it regained feeling. She hadn't been able to sleep, but even lying down for hours didn't do her limbs any good, as Marja had to realize.

She was surprised to see that Raven was not sitting there at all, but was probably running around the fire for a long time. She was so silent because the floor did not give way under her feathery weight, and that was fascinating to watch. Marja herself had never been a real lightweight, but that something like that was possible would probably have made any anorexic model mad. Raven's hips didn't look as bony as those of a skinny female. She was slim, but not too slender. How did she preserve her nice silhouette? Marja wasn't even sure if she was eating at all.

Bastian clutched Marja's arm rudely and pulled her to her legs. "Ow!", she uttered as she twisted to get out of his grip. "You're hurting me!"

The beggar gave her a disapproving look, but released his strong, corneal-covered hand from her thin, weak arm. With a reproachful expression Marja rubbed the spot, which must have turned red, but was covered by her warm sweater and thick winter jacket.

"She has to stop whining," Raven decided as she stroked through the thin mane of Morning Pallor who had been standing there like a statue the whole time. The horse snorted and turned his head to its mistress, touching her white cheek with its gray nostrils.

Raven seemed to touch the back of the animal only very slightly. That's all she needed to swing up with a light-footed jump. Morning Pallor must have wondered where she had suddenly disappeared to, but she probably felt a hardly noticeable weight on her tender back.

She probably felt it, because the horse awakened from its twilight sleep and absorbed the unbridled energy of its rider. Morning Pallor began to dance, arching her elegant back and banging her big head. Marja noticed that she was as beautiful as her mistress. Her deep black eyes shimmered impressively in the rising sun, which slowly shifted into her midday position, she had dainty nostrils which inflated with every excited breath, and it looked graceful how a few veins under her skin wriggled along the sides of her head. The scalp of the horse was taut and its shape simply breathtaking, but the best fit was the shock of hair, which reached up to the eyes and provided a strong contrast to the shimmering white.

"Are you coming now?" asked Raven edgily while curbing Morning Pallor. Her black hair was still perfectly tied together and she was wearing the metre-long ghostly veil that was apparently the trademark of the Lady in White.

With a sinister expression Bastian picked up another large branch lying around. Marja looked at him with a frown. "What do you want this for? She mocked, but didn't want to sound as derogatory as she had done after all.

She could not blame Bastian for reacting a little angrily. "No, little girl! Better be grateful when I try to defend us against all these hideous creatures who are doing their nastiness here," he approached her and stroked with one hand over the big wooden stick, dirty with damp earth, as if he wanted to comfort him.

"I'm sorry," Marja muttered embarrassed and nodded at Raven without looking into her eyes fearing that she would then no longer be able to move properly or even be petrified, as Medusa did with her victims. Without a further word, Raven steered Morning Pallor between the trees that stood close to each other. The horse wiggled through the firs, spruces and other conifers without even a trace of resin sticking to its silky fur.

Marja - who was much smaller than the elegant animal - did less well. As she fought her way through the thicket that housed the darkness as if it would not let it go, she stumbled clumsily over roots hidden under leaves and scraped trees or held on to them, so that her once clean, brown-grey winter jacket was not only smeared by the earth but also stuck with resin.

She took a look behind her to make sure Bastian was there, but he bravely kept up with the girls. He was also a lot more sure-footed than Marja, but nonetheless did not manage to avoid the trees and bushes that stumbled around the undergrowth half as well as Morning Pallor.

Every ten minutes Raven had to parry her excited horse and wait for them with an impatient look before she separated again and only thanks to her shining veil didn't disappear completely in the shade of the treetops.

Marja caught herself casting longing glances behind herself again and again, back to the coast, which had long since disappeared behind countless plants. She didn't know if she would find her way back, but she knew she would love to.

A shadow in the shape of an animal scurried between the trees and instinctively Marja accelerated her pace. There were wild animals here? You better hope so, she said to herself, gritting her teeth together to prevent trembling. The rest of the creatures here are much more unfriendly after all ...

She heard a penetrating sound - which turned out to be a neigh. Relieved Marja's shoulders sank downwards because she knew a horse very close by. But ... Morning Pallor was in front of her and the neighing came ... from behind. Nervously Marja started to run and caught up with Raven.

The fact that Morning Pallor had stopped with his ears open and that Raven was annoyed and tried to persuade her to continue did not exactly relieve Marja's tension.

"I heard a neigh - but it didn't come from Morning Pallor! Her voice was nothing more than a whisper as she worriedly told Raven about it. Raven looked at her disparagingly, as if she had only now noticed that someone else had joined her.

She shrugged her narrow shoulders and clicked to spur on Morning Pallor. "She has her quarrels with Pooka. Otherwise she wouldn't be bitching like that now", Raven explained with a teasing voice to her horse. "But I would like to prevent, if possible, that the two of them go for each other's throat again."

Panting, Bastian's figure came to a halt next to her, "This beast shall stay away from me," he puffed angrily. At this moment Marja noticed the shadow again, which became bigger and bigger between the trees, until a black animal fought its way through the leaves.

"Ah, damn it!" cursed Raven. "Shoo! Go away!" She made a wagging hand movement in the direction of the shaggy animal, which put on its ears like Morning Pallor. It was the living proof that horses are not always these majestic creatures who led strutting parades. The rather small horse's matted fur hung down from his belly and was knotted with burdock. Its head seemed too big for its body and the small dark button-like eyes set a little too far in front at the head.

Aggressively it hit its black tail, which was in the same condition as the coat in general: knotted and full of burrs and other dirt.

Raven twisted her white-blue eyes into slits as the strange horse curiously stepped a few steps forward. "Pooka ... Leave us alone," she tried to scare it away, but it showed no reaction. Pooka just kept hitting the tail.

He eyed the strangers curiously and sniffed at Marja very extensively. Her parents had often told her to stay away from wild animals, but the little horse seemed so sweet and friendly that she smiled and stroked his shaggy neck.

Raven's gaze wandered to the fur glued to the horse's legs by crumbs. "I told you so many times, you get what's left after the harvest, nothing else," she scolded.

"Don't tell me what to do, you ordinary servant!" Marja jerked away in shock from the black pony, could not believe that this strange voice had actually emanated from it. It turned its head towards her and a mischievous expression flashed in its dark eyes. "Oh, I see you've picked up friends, Morning Pallor!"

Marja pressed her hand in front of her mouth to suppress a sharp scream. The pony snorted amused, while Morning Pallor showed it the dazzling white teeth.

Suddenly Bastian pushed Marja back and held his stick to the horse. "Stay back, you beast," he raised it with a threatening voice. Pooka took a step back and the pony-like stubbornness was reflected in its button eyes. Was he a real horse at all?

Morning Pallor had quietly stepped up to him and would probably bite if Raven didn't hold her head back with the reins. "That's enough," she screamed angrily and seemed to want to kill Pooka with her eyes. "You disappear on the spot! And don't think about taking these people with you, just disappear!

The black pony's ears twitched back and forth amusedly. If it could shrug its shoulders, it probably would. Given the mischievous expression and his eyes, Marja would love to fluff through his fur again, even though her hand was still darkened by dirt and felt the same.

"Whatever you say." For some reason she liked the little horse's voice. Bright and chattering, like a duck's, pressed as if someone was holding his nose, and yet it seemed so fitting to the shaggy figure that she had to smirk. "But don't yell at me like that. You upset my sensitive horse ears. Oh, Morning Pallor, I certainly don't envy you!

Then the pudgy figure turned around its own axis and disappeared between the trees like the shadow Marja had mistaken it for. It left nothing behind but three confused and one extremely angry figure.

"This cursed dirty dog! Horse! Don't let him rip you off, I won't grant him this triumph," Raven hissed and finally managed to persuade Morning Pallor to go on. " By Callirius, how is it that he has not yet been slaughtered by the crowd..."!

As if dazed, Bastian and Marja staggered beside her. Both had never experienced anything like this before, not even Bastian, who seemed to have circumnavigated the whole world. Finally Marja dared to ask: "A horse that can talk? But how is that possible?" Her tender, childlike voice seemed almost frightened.

"Pooka", Bastian mumbled again and again instead and seemed very absent-minded.

Bitterness resonated in Raven's voice when she said: "It's better if you know little. I can only say that you won't meet Pooka as a horse only". When she turned, she looked at the travellers with such urgency that Marja had to lower her head. "Trust no one."

And Marja wondered how often she was going to hear this sentence again.