Chapter 1

Original Summary: Rollan returned to Spain and kept contact with Gerda, to who he still was attracted to. Hoping to see the blonde one day ago he has made the realization, she had gotten engaged to somebody else. The Spaniard still valued their friendship and made his way up to the North and by coincidence encounters Gerda, which had been on a trip as well. Both fall off the track and needed to look together for an alternate way to get back on the right path. The two's mutual affection for one another seemed to be still present after all this time, the question is, will their love for each other win this time?

Magicians have lived among us for decades hiding their true nature in order to remain alive and live peacefully. A few magicians under them had tried to create a better world with their magic in order to create peace. The Snow Queen, The Fire King, Loki, Hercules, Mavka, the Sandman, Saint Nicklaus, and other mythically inspired beings have taken that chance to do so, in both good and bad ways. The most recent one is the Snow Queen, once considered the most powerful magician. To be correct, she still is it. De facto, the only thing, that weakened her powers was a specific hand mirror. The hand mirror, that was created by another powerful magician under the name Vegard.

The world took another spin on the day, his daughter found out her brother was alive and she went by herself accompanied by a minion of the queen to look for the boy. By the end, the little girl was really capable to catch the Snow Queen and send her into the mirrorlands to stop the eternal frost the sorcerer created years ago. Some humans had this bad view of magicians since the Snow Queen's deed and one day King Harald worked on a plan to lock up all magicians in the world of the mirrorlands. To his surprise, the same girl defeated Harald as well, which to his surprise turned out to be a magician as well! Even less the girl under the name Gerda had help of a human boy, Rollan. It was thanks to him, the girl gained again force to fight for the freedom of her family and magicians. The better, her magic had gotten active at the right moment to help her take down King Harald's powerful invention. Between Gerda and King Harald a promise was made. He apologized to everyone for what he had done and confessed, that magicians have the right to live among humans as well, despite having that one difference. The gift. Gerda learned more about herself and the issue, that happened to Rollan in the past couldn't be changed, but he learned to let it go and so did Gerda. The two accepted it and became friends. Gerda was just as the day she met him attracted to the raven-haired and Rollan…..well, he was willing to die for the girl in order to save her family. Gerda appreciated it, despite it if she had to say farewell to him, things would have been bad in some way. Rollan accepted Gerda's friendship and went with the flow, waiting for the moment the girl would be able to see in him something more than he was at that moment. Months had passed and Rollan heard from the trolls his mother was worried about him. That's when Rollan thought about leaving the place to return back to his mother. He promised Gerda, when he could he would return and thought about confessing his love for her on the day of the departure. Tragically Rollan on purpose didn't do that. He didn't fear being rejected or being laughed at. No, Gerda would never laugh at him. In fact, she respected him and understood his feelings of being hurt or treated as a joke, when you want to help in something. He avoided confessing to her, cause he believed it was the wrong moment. It was too early to do anything, after everything he had done. It partially wasn't his fault, but the Fire Demon in his body. Major things he had done or said during the curse of the wishing stone felt to him like things, that would need time to vanish or even not. He simply left Gerda back with one long embrace. He promised her to respond to her letters, which she offered to make to hear how he was doing. Rollan and Gerda's friendship turned into a pen pal friendship from that day on, this letting their relationship live on from black ink on paper.

Months had passed, both sides had gotten busy with their lives and fewer letters came until one time Gerda didn't seem to send Rollan any letter, saddening the boy, which assumed he must have turned a burden for the blonde. Within that time, Rollan receives one last letter from Gerda, thus bringing the Spaniard a new surprise. The girl was actually engaged with someone else! This was the last thing he expected to hear from her, but he accepted it. He knew and felt, that a girl like Gerda deserved someone else, rather than Rollan. This is, at least Rollan's thoughts…..well the negative thoughts. Fate does know every place and puzzle in the world and brought Rollan back to Gerda's sight again, cause both had belonged together.

Then why is Gerda engaged to someone else and Rollan is not doing anything about it? Sometimes happy endings take a different road. Some roads are straight, others have curves, road junctions, and road signs. Their love story has never stopped to what it seemed to the two. In reality, their path continued, just they didn't expect in which way it was about to go…

Rollan was now 22 years old, with 17 he had left Spain to meet the trolls in the troll kingdom hoping to find the wishing stone. The trip had turned his life upside down. Everything he remembered to have witnessed there had fascinated and scared Rollan's mother. Rollan wasn't able to leave her mother for a longer period of time again, so he stood in her home until he finished his professional education at the guard academy. Throughout that time, Rollan slowly had an interest in visiting his friends on the other side of the continent. If he had the chance he would go up anyway, but he would be there for a couple of weeks only, rather than a longer period. He had been gone for years, all the people's live there have changed. Gerda's too. He knows very well if he wanted to confess to her, that his feelings about her didn't vanish at all, mostly due to the two being communicative with each other with cards. It would feel weird to say her that. Eventually, it wouldn't, but he can't take out that possibility. Right now, since her last letter Rollan knows she's engaged. Rollan doesn't know who the guy is. She has never mentioned him in any of the other letters. Perhaps he was the reason she barely wrote him anymore? She was working on their relationship and well, things around her or both of them were changing. Rollan now was out of her league or how he felt since his issue. Always. The only thing he knows about that guy was, that his name was Mars and that he was a sort of magician as well. A Chinese-Australian man, that according to her was from a prestigious family of magicians, which had an invention shop. Rollan was actually curious about the guy, cause for the inventing part it made him think of King Harald, that one king, that was a fanatic about science and inventing. Who knows, the world was evolving, things were getting better, new sorts of vehicles were improved, and new inventions appeared on the market. The last thing, that Rollan remembered to have seen was a polaroid. It would take a specific scenario from real life and print it on a piece of paper. Usually, a painter would be painting that on canvas for hours and with that apparatus…...you've got it in seconds! Quite fascinating.

Rollan had borrowed one of them for his attendance on the last day at guard academy, which a friend of his used to take a picture of him and his mother together. That picture hung inside the living room of his mom on a wall.

Rollan stood inside the living room, looking at that image of himself with the mother. From the kitchen stepped out his mother, which looked for her son and noticed him looking at the image. The woman smiled and walked past the man, then placed her hand on his shoulder to kiss him on his cheek.

"Que pasa hijo?" Questioned the mother watching Rollan shrug his shoulders.

"Yo no sei. I'm not sure, how I'm supposed to feel about this,"

"You have finished your education and you're going to be one of the guards here in Alicante. You should be proud of it," Stated the mother making Rollan nod.

"Si…...I just feel something is missing like my life isn't complete," Said Rollan making the mother frown sadly, knowing it was a lovesickness bothering her son.

"Perhaps you need to stop answering your friend's letters or simply tell her how you feel and receive an actual answer from her. As long as you don't know the real answer you won't get her out of your head," Commented the mother. "Déjala ir,"

"Como?"

"If you keep holding on to something you know you can't have, no matter how much you love it…...let it go. Trust me, that will make you feel better someday. Not today nor next week, but it will be fast, I promise," Commented Rollan's mother making the son nod.

Someone knocked on the door, calling their attention and Rollan walked towards the door to open it to see a man around his height with a shaved head and black pants, a green shirt, and a few envelopes in his hands.

"Buenas Tardes Leticia, Hola Rollan," Greeted the Spaniard watching the sad Rollan wave at the friend, while Rollan's mom smiled.

"Oye Pastor. Como estas?" Questioned Leticia making the man smile.

"Muy bien," Responded Pastor. "Rollan, my neighbor Rodrigo had two letters here with your name. I just came here to pass them to you," Commented the raven-haired man handing them out to Rollan to see one of the letters was from the academy and the second one had a Northern address with Gerda's name on it. Rollan looked at the letter with a sad face, which made Pastor along with Leticia exchange sad looks.

"Amigo. There are many other women in the world. If you want we can go to the festival at the beach next weekend and you'll get to meet a few women. What do you say?" Questioned Pastor watching Rollan shake his head.

"One woman is enough. I'm not looking for games as you do," Responded Rollan sad making Pastor chuckle.

"Alright, but you could get to know somebody and I don't know…...get to know her?" Suggested Pastor watching Rollan open the letter to see it was an official wedding invitation to Gerda's wedding. "You're hereby invited to attend the ceremony of Gerda and Mars at the church of St. Peter…..expecting a response until…..they forgot the date," Commented Pastor showing Rollan the letter, which shrugged his shoulders. "Do you plan to go there?"

"I don't know," Responded Rollan. "I've been thinking about going there some time by the end of my education,"

"Which you have reached already,"

"Si…...I don't know. I had thought about visiting Gerda and hang out with her. Eventually hoping on something coming out for both of us,"

"You can still do that, except you're not going to romantically progress with her due to the engagement. But you as a good friend of hers, you can show her how much her friendship means to you and I don't know….you both remain as friends. That's…...good too," Mumbled Pastor knowing very well, it wouldn't work out for everyone. "I have an idea for you. We two go there together, stay there until the wedding is over, so you have time to get to know the Gerda she is now and eventually who that guy is,"

"You know, I really want the best for her. That she's happy and treated well. I just…...well….."

"Thought you could be that guy?" Questioned Pastor making Rollan nod.

"Si," Responded Rollan, then Pastor passed his hand on the friend's shoulder.

"Put your head up, amigo. You still have her friendship. That's something no one can take away," Said the short-haired man making Rollan nod with a pout. "Get in. I know somebody, that can help us get a cheaper flight for us to go visit your friend. I just need to call him,"

"Us?"

"Yes, I'm going as a good friend," Commented Pastor. "Maybe I'll find on my way some Scandinavian chick," Joked the Spaniard watching Rollan shake his head and got into the house, while Leticia glimpsed at the duo with a little smile.