Birch Manor - Aamu 2

Susan closed the door to the portals room behind her and leaned against it. She was not looking forward to going through the portals to Schiltach and back again. She re-opened the door and grasped a handful of cookies and a pear from one of the small tables. All of it went into a small bag and then into her faithful backpack. Then she reluctantly crossed the room and went through the faintly blue portal to Iceland.
It was true, the dizziness got better. Not by much, but you had to count your blessings. Susan shook her head and slowly left the tiny cubicle, turned down the stone hewn corridor and stopped outside the room with Shiltach clearly written over the door. She opened the door, it felt heavy, almost as if it did not want to open. The portal in the room were also faintly blue, sparkling and twisting. Susan walked over to the portal, the few steps needed to take her there, seemed to last forever. Portals are smart, she chided herself. They spare you for hours upon hours in a train or in a car. Get going already, my girl, then you'll be home in the sunshine at Birch Manor, singing wands for your grandkids in next to no time.
Susan closed her eyes and jumped.
When she opened her eyes again the sun once again shone upon her, a hotter sun, a bit higher in the sky too. And Aamu stood in the clearing with two men. One of them Susan's age, he looked like Susan always had imagined a German businessman, suit, tie and black shoes even in the warm sun. The young man had the same eyes as his mother; and Mr Weber's hair had surely had that very same nutbrown hue before it turned grey. But Susan was sure that he had never worn it that long. He and his mother were comfortably dressed in what Susan's mother jokingly called camping habits.
"Hello" Aamu said. "We were afraid you would not come after all."
"Pleased to meet you," Susan said. "And of course I would. Only a lot happened. Good mostly. Could we please go back now?"
"Can you bring us all three?" Aamu asked.
"I don't need to bring you," Susan protested. "And if you take Mr Weber's hand I'll offer my support to the young master."
"I'm Daniel," he said. "And I would gladly be led through the portal by you."
Susan looked at the portal, then back at Daniel and Mr Weber. "Can you see the portal?" she asked.
"No," Mr Weber answered. "It looks like a normal stretch of wood to me."
"Maybe," Daniel said, "If I squint, and do not look straight at it, I think I see something, something blue, flickery, maybe."
"That sounds just right. This is actually quite easy. You just hold my hand and go trough. You will maybe feel something like being turned upside down, maybe you won't feel a thing, more like going through a door into a dark room. Aamu, would you and your husband please go first?"

***

Aamu nodded, grasped her husband's hand and walked through the portal with determined steps. They disappeared.
"Wow," Daniel said. "I did not quite believe you."
"No?" Susan said looking at him."Why shouldn't you? A strange lady pops in and tells your mother she's a witch, and goes on blabbering of portals and flying brooms. I really get why you would not quite believe me."
Daniel looked at Susan, saw the wink in her blue-grey eyes and laughed a deep belly laugh.
"Let's test it, shall we." he said when he was able to talk again. Susan extended her hand and Daniel grasped it. Susan pulled them both through the shimmering portal.
In the dark of the portal room Daniel clutched her hand and made retching sounds. "Not fun!" he gasped. "Not fun at all."
"I actually don't find it a pleasure either," Susan said. "But it's fast. Now we're in Iceland." Susan stopped talking and clutched Daniel's arm. He looked at her. She was white as a sheet. He pulled her to a chair and sat her down. Aamu and Mr Weber came running over. "What's wrong," Aamu asked. Susan shook her head: "Nothing but me being stupid," she said reaching for her backpack. Daniel held it while she slipped her arms out of the loops. "I forgot to eat." She said pulling out the bag of cookies and crammed a couple into her mouth. Che chewed and swallowed and got some of her colour back. Another couple of cookies and a drink of water had her fully restored. "Sorry for the scare," she said. "I always get weak from going through more than two portals if I do not eat. Would you like some cookies too? Hilde is a great chef."
They all had some cookies and Daniel shook her head: "It actually helps. I did not feel like eating after that trip, but I'm better now with a cookie in my stomach. Can I have one more?"
"Please do." Susan said, holding out the bag. "How did you like Portal transfer, Mr. Weber?"
"I'm Uwe," he said and gave Susan his hand. "I did not feel a thing. It was like going through a door. Just as you said." Susan shook his hand. "Pleased to get to know you, Uwe." She rose, closed the bag on the remaining cookies and returned them to the backpack. "And now we have the other half of the journey in front of us. Please come."
She left the Shiltach portal room and went down the stony corridor. Daniel ran his hand over the walls, felt the doorways, looked at the ceiling and poked his head through all openings on their way. "This is in many ways a central station," Susan said. From here you can go lots of places, with no more ill effects than a dizzy spell - if you are a witch like me, that is."
Daniel laughed again. "I'd like to go to a lot of places," he said.
"So would I," Susan answered, "but now we're going back to Birch Manor, and this here portal is the right one." She turned down another corridor and opened a door with a blue symbol over it.
"Why are some of the doors named, while others have only blue squares and such?" Daniel asked
"That's not exactly a secret," Susan said, "but the explanation is fairly complicated, and I do not know it that well. Later you can ask Finnbogi - he's out Portals master - he'll be more than happy to explain."
"Are you implying that Daniel is a wizard?"  Aamu asked.
"Oh, blast it, I must still be a bit confused, but yes I am. Dizziness going through a portal is one of the tell-tale signs. I'm sure you felt it as well."
"I did," Aamu said. "And I remember having felt like this before. But like I told you yesterday I do not remember where."
"Me, a wizard?" Daniel said, a foolish grin spreading on his face. "I always loved reading stories about children going through a hidden door and finding themselves in another world where magic was real, Narnia, The little red school, the sorcerer's mill in Koselbruch, all these places ..."
"So much for my down-to-earth son," Aamu said with a sigh. "I thought that your Papa and your job had chased all these stories from your head."
"Mum, you're a librarian," Daniel said still smiling foolishly. "You if anybody should know that stories like these stay in your mind. How often have you told me of your own favourite books?"
"Let's get on," Susan said. "Aamu, you and Uwe go first again?"
"Can do," Aamu said. "I'm ready to have my head sorted out." She offered Uwe her arm, and together they walked through the portal.
"Did you really mean it?" Daniel said. "That I am a wizard, that I can do magic?"
"Yes I did, and yes I do. But if you do not hurry, I'm going to change you into a toad!" Susan waved her wand at Daniel, who grasped Susan's hand and went to the portal. "This one is easier to see. Let's go."

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