Mikolay and Julia live in the same neighbourhood and go to the same school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Every other weekend they attend Magical Weekend School for children of magical creatures. Julia really likes school as she is one of the best students. But Mikolay wouldn’t mind if there weren’t as many Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He doesn’t mind the weekend school because he can do lots of magic, which he really loves and is exceptionally good at. When Mikolay and Julia aren’t at school, they usually go exploring and adventuring, which is Mikolay’s true passion.
Mikolay’s and Julia’s mummies are both witches in charge of fixing things. The young wizards don’t quite know what mums exactly do. But they travel for work a lot and in their absence, Mikolay and Julia have plenty of opportunities to explore and go adventuring.
– “You realize that auntie Barbara doesn’t want us to chase Potter, don’t you?” – Julia reprimanded Mikolay, trying to catch her breath after all the unwanted and very unnecessary, in her opinion running she had to do.
– “Potter wanted to show me something. Now I’ll never know what that was! She just disappeared amongst the bushes!” – Mikolay mumbled in his defence.
– “Ever since we got here, you’ve been imagining things.”
– “Oh, really?” – Mikolay smiled cheekily before quickly adding: – “How would you explain all the bizarre noises and shadows at auntie’s house and the garden?”
– “I haven’t noticed anything odd,” – answered Julia.
– “Is that so!? So, you don’t think these apples look odd?” – Mikolay asked before picking up an enormous purple apple from the ground. – “Am I imagining this?”
– “It’s just an average size apple,” – Julia shrugged her shoulders. – “But, hmmm, the trees do look unusually tall,” – she looked around the forest with awe, admiring the trees, which were so tall that it seemed to reach all the way up to the sky.
– “Trees?” – Mikolay looked confused for a fraction of a second.
– “Hmmm… this is strange. You see huge apples, and I see tall trees. Maybe we are in parallel worlds,” – wondered Julia aloud.
– “Parallel worlds?!?” – Mikolay asked curiously.
– “I’ve read somewhere that sometimes, for some reason, the worlds collide. For some planets, the collision of the parallel worlds is a natural event. However, if the collision lasts too long or happens between dimensions that aren’t used to colliding, it can generate unusual phenomena. The book said that planets and even galaxies would sometimes disappear… for good.”
– “How can we find out if what is happening is the collision of a parallel world?” – Mikolay was utterly amazed.
– “I don’t think you can just FIND OUT if this is a collision or not. A lot of it is based on small details that we might not even be able to see or understand, ” – revealed Julia.
– “So, let’s assume that the collision took place,” – Julia nodded in agreement. – “I bet that Potter wanted to show us something important related to the collision of the parallel words. If we could only find her,” – Mikolay was getting really excited now.
– “Why don’t we try a vision spell, which I practised only a few days ago? This way, we could see what Potter wanted to show us,” – Julia took her wand out and repeated distinctly “La retrac naj” three times.
A blurred image showing Potter standing next to a vast volcanic mountain appeared on the nearest tree trunk. The mountain looked fierce and inaccessible, with stormy clouds hanging above its peak. Fire and smoke were coming out from many small cracks on the outside of the mountain.
– “Could this be the place Potter wanted us to see?” – Julia uttered timidly when the image disappeared.
– “It must be. Otherwise, why would she drag us here?” – Mikolay was already lost deeply in his racing thoughts. – “I just wonder what the best way to get to that mountain.”
A moment later, a soft female voice intoned: – “You don’t have much time to get to the mountain. The collision is spreading all over our Galaxy FAST.”
– “Who is that?” – Mikolay immediately pulled his wand out.
– “Please don’t be scared. I’m not going to hurt you. Please, put your wand away,” – boomed the voice again.
– “OMG!” – Julia shouted, pointing towards a towering shadow. – “Are you a giant?” – She asked when the girl with long skinny legs wearing short dungarees and a straw hat emerged from the shadow.
– “Yes, I’m not going to hurt you,” – the soft voice resounded again. – “I’ve been observing the two of you since you arrived at your auntie’s house.”
– “I’m Julia and this is my best friend, Mikolay.” – Julia extended her tiny hand toward the giant girl. – “What is your name?”
– “We don’t use names. Names and words are unnecessary on my planet. We communicate without words,” – answered the Giant. – “But you can call me Tulip. I use this name when I come across other species.”
– “Non-verbal communication does exist,” – Julia clapped her hands in delight. – “I’ve read all about that,” – she was beaming with pride.
– “Of course, you did,” – grumbled Mikolay.
– “You should read more,” – whispered Julia.
Mikolay decided it would be most productive to ignore Julia’s comment and engage in conversation with Tulip instead.
– “Do you know what is happening?” – Mikolay began, while in his mind, he saw a great adventure ahead of him.
– “The collision of the parallel worlds began only two weeks ago. My world has experienced many parallel collisions in the past. However, at least five parallel worlds collided this time, which had never happened before. Since then, we have been trying to find some clues and leads to how this came about, but so far, we have not made much progress,” – Tulip looked away, trying to hide her sadness.
– “Mikolay, we can’t leave Tulip on her own,” – Julia stated firmly.
– “I have a strange feeling we ought to get to the mountain we saw on the tree trunk,” – said Mikolay.
– “We also know about the mountain and feel that it plays a vital part in this collision. However, we haven’t been able to locate where it is,” – confessed Tulip.
– “What do you think, Julia?” – Mikolay was certain that Julia already had a few ideas up her sleeve.
– “I’m thinking… the safest option is the crystal ball. It isn’t detectable by any power field or any electrical equipment that may or may not surround the mountain,” – Julia concluded before pulling out her shiny crystal ball from her trousers side pocket. – “Tulip, Mikolay, quickly touch the crystal ball! Hurry!”
In a blink of an eye, Mikolay, Julia and Tulip found themselves inside the mountain. It was dreadfully dark, wet and full of hairy spiders and other crawlies. The insects were creeping all over the floor, walls, the ceiling and of course, they immediately started climbing over Mikolay, Julia and Tulip.
– “Which way now?” – Julia asked, frantically trying to get rid of the spider, which managed to jump on her head and got tangled in her long hair.
– “Let’s follow the steps,” – proposed Tulip
– “Wait. It will be safer to use the invisibility spell. This doesn’t look like a friendly place to me,” – Mikolay pulled his wand out and said three times: “Invisia botica”.
The staircase was unusually narrow, leading through a few waterfalls and automatic doors made of solid rock that no magic could move. Luckily, Tulip didn’t have any problems opening the doors. Giants are well known for having amazing physical abilities without the need for magic.
The journey up the mountain steps took much longer than they expected. Once they got to the top, they discovered a large room crammed with humans, who strangely enough behaved like robots, while inputting numbers into a colossal machine that slightly resembled modern computers.
Once Tulip figured out how those machines work, she connected to the largest one and started processing data to her friends through Giant’s advanced inner IT body system.
While Tulip was busy with the data processing, Mikolay and Julia were hard at work investigating who was behind the collision. They looked everywhere: inside shelves, desks and in dark corners. But they couldn’t find any clues.
– “Mikolay! Mikolay! I think the invisibility cover stopped working?!” – Julia whispered suddenly.
– “Of course, it’s working!” – Mikolay replied nonchalantly and carried on examining a map he had just found on one of the shelves.
– “So why is this woman staring at us?” – Julia asked impatiently.
– “Maybe her third eye is open,” – Tulip suggested from above their heads. She was still processing information through her inner system, which made her eyes go round and round and glitter from time to time.
– “But I thought humans didn’t know how to use their third eye!” – Julia declared.
– “These aren’t humans, my dear friends, but Andagors. Andagors are highly evolved beings that can use limited magic and have a very well-developed chakra system, which allows them to see what most species can’t see. They don’t come from our Galaxy,” – explained Tulip.
– “Like artificial intelligence kind of beings?” – Mikolay asked in a muted voice.
But Tulip cut him short, screaming: – “You must run. They’ve just noticed us.”
– “What about you?” – Julia shouted back.
– “Don’t worry about me. The other Giants are on their way,” – Tulip blocked the escaped route to give Mikolay and Julia enough time to make it back home.
Andagors started throwing spells at Tulip, but she was skilled at fighting them back. Besides, she already knew what they were capable of, having just uploaded their system. Julia rapidly pulled the crystal ball out of her pocket, snatched Mikolay’s hand, and they were transported to the back garden in a jiffy.
– “That was scary,” – Julia was still shaking like a leaf once they landed amongst the apple trees.
– “We should have stayed to help Tulip!” – Mikolay wasn’t happy about returning and leaving their new friend alone.
– “Mikolay, we are too small. We couldn’t have helped her,” – Julia put her crystal ball back in her pocket. Mikolay knew she was right, but it didn’t make him feel any better about the whole misadventure. – “We did what we could. We got her inside the mountain. Now her Giant friends will have to help,” – concluded Julia before going back inside the house.
However, for a few days afterwards, Mikolay and Julia were uneasy living in the unknown of what had happened. Both were silently looking for any unusual signs or sounds. Finally, one beautiful evening a forest fairy brought a letter from Tulip addressed to Mikolay and Julia.
Tulip wrote that after a long and courageous battle with Andagors, the Giants took over the mountain, which was set to self-destruct in case of any trouble. The mountain did blow up, destroying many species and parallel worlds from our Galaxy in the process. However, they have also helped to save many other species and worlds from destruction by hacking the algorithm the Andagors used to create the artificial collision of parallel words. Unfortunately, Lester, the wizard who set up everything in motion, escaped once again.
In the meantime, the giants have been looking for the right place to call it home, not only for themselves but also for the other species who managed to flee the destructive collision of the world. Tulip promised to keep the two of them informed of their whereabouts.
– “I wonder how this big explosion will affect the balance of our Galaxy?” – Mikolay asked out loud
– “Only time will tell,” – whispered Julia, who knew Lester would come back again, causing even more troubles. But she wasn’t certain the two of them could handle him alone just yet.
THE END