Chapter 5
Rollan and Gerda stood together in front of the ticket corner seeing along with the vendor, what tickets he had available for sale.
"Don't you really have anything at the moment for anywhere around the Scandinavian peninsula?" Questioned Gerda watching the man shake his head, then show beside him all the available boxes with the several places they had at the moment for the present ships.
"Warsaw is the closest location I can suggest you go through. Prague, Salzburg, Milan, Timisoara, Sarajevo, and Montpellier are the current locations with free spots right now," Commented the man making Gerda nod, then Rollan raised his hand to ask him something else.
"Isn't there a chance, we can now in which of these locations we can seek for a way to get to Murmansk?" Questioned Rollan making the man shake his head.
"We don't have the knowledge of the other places. What I can suggest you, which will just give you a longer travel way is to take the train and head to Copenhagen. There you have definitely a better chance to get home or to Malmö instead. None of the available fleets can at the moment help you or the others of your former passenger ship out. You really gotta wait a week or two or look for an alternative route," Explained the man making Gerda nod.
"Too bad compensations for flights haven't been invented yet," Commented Rollan neutrally, then exchanged looks with a sad Gerda.
"What are we going to do now?" Questioned Gerda looking at her friend, which looked at the man again.
"Where's the next train station?" Questioned the Spaniard, then the vendor pointed at the coast.
"The best way is to follow the road at the harbor. You come along with a sign, pointing in the direction of the train station. It's not hard to miss," Explained the ticket vendor making Rollan nod and look at Gerda.
"Let's take the train," Said Rollan making Gerda nod and told the vendor thank you, then followed the raven-haired along the grass towards the harbor.
"Have you ever been in Rotterdam?" Questioned the blonde making Rollan shake his head.
"No," Answered Rollan. "I think on that time I traveled for the first time to Bergen I went through Belgium and someplace in Germany," Explained Rollan. "It took me about two days because I needed to switch in many train stations, then wait a while for the next train,"
"Oh so we're going to come a little late than expected," Asked Gerda.
"Wasn't your wedding by the end of the month?" Questioned Rollan making Gerda nod.
"Yes, but that's not the problem. The problem is I send my parents a letter about, that I went by airship, but this was before the accident,"
"Ah okay, if you want we can stop and look for a mail office to see if they can send a new letter," Suggested Rollan, then Gerda looked in her bag pack as well to take out a couple of sheets rolled up in a roll and took from in there a pen.
"Lucky I still got some sheets left over. They were meant for Kai to draw on it, but he's now not here for them," Mentioned Gerda making Rollan nod.
"That's good for now," Spoke Rollan. "What will you write down?"
"For now on, I will just write, that Kai and I got separated from each other at the boarding and he's most likely to be in Malmö now. I'm looking for a train to leave Rotterdam, cause our airship was stroke by a bolt of lightning. I'm not alone, you're here with me too. We're going to take a little while. That's it for now," Gerda spoke. "They will be relieved, when they know I'm not alone. The only problem is just Kai. Will we meet him in Malmö, will he continue his journey or go back? There's no way, we could tell him, what happened," Stated Gerda making Rollan nod.
"Pastor's there with him. He had promised to wait for me at the harbor in Malmö. Eventually, they will hear about, what happened, when they see our ship didn't arrive," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod.
"Okay, that's good," Commented Gerda, then she noticed a pole on their way and looked up to see a few different locations, including one leading to a post office. "Look in 10 minutes there's a post office. We can go there right now and write the letter," Suggested Gerda making Rollan nod.
"Sure, we can look later for a train," Agreed Rollan, then accompanied the blonde along the other path to head into the center of the town.
Kai and Pastor left together a post office and Pastor carried on his hands a map of Malmö, which he opened to take a look at it.
"Okay, I have sent a new letter to my parents. All we need to know now is when Gerda and Rollan arrive here,"
"Or how," Added Pastor. "I'm not sure how both are going to find a new ride here. As you heard before, no other ride was available for now. The only thing we know is, they're all alive," Commented Pastor stopping by a park, where he saw a few townies hanging around for the afternoon. "They're in good hands on whoever has carried all the unlucky passengers to the next town. They all just need to know, how to get here in an alternate way"
"It be easier, if I had been with her instead. If I knew Rollan would be there with her I could have switched with him or you with Gerda," Mentioned Kai making Pastor nod.
"Don't worry about them. Rollan has traveled all by himself to Spain and back to your native location. He's an excellent guide and he cherishes his friendship with your sister a lot. He would never let her back in trouble," Stated Pastor making Kai nod.
"This might sound crazy to say, but I'm sort of glad, that he's the one there with her," Confessed Kai. "We might not have the best relationship, but anything, that bothers Gerda Rollan is most likely to help her solve it,"
"So, you do know that he's in love with her as well it seems?" Asked Pastor making Kai wide his eyes surprised.
"He still loves her?" Asked Kai curious making Pastor nod.
"Well as far as I have understand, he had never stopped. They both kept writing to each other those friendly letters to each other. This might have given Rollan a sort of motivation to not stop it. I don't know how a long-time crush works out. The only thing I know was, that he felt sad about her engagement but still agreed on coming to attend the wedding, cause he still was curious to see everyone else in your town and hope that Gerda was going to be in good hands. That sort of thing," Commented Pastor. "Rollan is actually the opposite of me. He found Gerda and fell for her. They had this situation, that has tested their interest in each other until something else happened with Rollan helping her out and she saving his life,"
"He…..it's thanks to him, Gerda's gained the power to free herself and fight for the rest of the magician clans. Otherwise, things would have been different now,"
"The two have quite a story," Commented Pastor making Kai nod.
"Yeah, despite all that, it's kind of strange how both are not together. They were obviously in love during the last moments as well. Why else would she put off so much effort in protecting him? Why would she risk everything in order to save Rollan's life? Those were acts, which hinted, that she still was into him. She acted without thinking straight. That's what many people do, when they're in love or still got mixed feelings about the person,"
"I don't know anything about girls, nor your sister, but one thing I can say is, that love can come in many ways and forms. We don't even know if their love story has ended on the day he left to go back to his mother or if their story is still ongoing," Commented Pastor watching Kai think about his words. "How many people had to fight for their own love story?"
"Many people I guess," Responded Kai unsure, then stopped to think about the situation. "Hey…...there are these sorts of coincidences and occurrences all over the world, right?" Asked Kai making Pastor tilt his head confused. "Do you know that one legend, where a simple townsman befriends a random girl as a kid, then a war between their tribes broke out and years later they met again, then got married? That one legend, where the parents had twins and one of them had mystic powers and it had something to do, with what happened in the past?"
"Uh no?" Responded Pastor making Kai roll his eyes.
"Anyway, people thought the love story as them as a kid had ended, but somehow they have found to each other again,"
"Okay….oh wasn't that man engaged to someone else and upon recognizing her former love he fought with people to get to her?"
"Yeah,"
"Oh then I know the story,"
"Perhaps Rollan and Gerda's story has never ended there, perhaps it will end at some point in the future. Maybe Rollan and Gerda during the trip will realize, they still like each other and burst this wedding or…...like in some books, he stops their wedding and confesses!" Kai announced surprised about his remembering, while Pastor looked confused about it.
"It's one option," Commented Pastor. "The only thing I fear is that things might go differently and both end up having their heart broken,"
"Oh that wouldn't be good," Commented Kai. "Look I may not like Rollan as much as you do, but the one guy Gerda is engaged with I don't like either. Something about him bothers me. I don't know if it's his personality from being different from mine and Rollan's or if it's his heritage. His family is prestigious. The father is an excellent inventor, his wife owns the store, where they produce his inventions and advertise for it. She's also responsible for notifying further people to take interest in it. Then Mars and his older sister are their children. I don't know much about his sister, but he's a little bit of a douche. He's dating Gerda and all that, but like he only focuses on the good thing about their relationship. He's not quite fair in their relationship. Last time, he had a problem Gerda and I helped him solve it. The other few times Gerda had one as well, but he didn't move a finger. He just….I don't know…...he didn't really show any interest in her. He would just comment on something related to it, but it wouldn't solve anything. In the end, Gerda ended up solving the problem the other way around without nobody's help or she would need to ask someone else. I don't expect him to know everyone's problems or be able to understand them, but at least give it a try. If it still doesn't work, pity, at least you're being supportive. ,"
"Your future brother-in-law sounds useless," Commented Pastor making Kai nod.
"I know, no one's perfect, but how come he be like that in their relationship? He's so lucky Gerda is used to handling problems on her own. Others would have left him back,"
"Perhaps both were never right for each other. They just can't see it for now," Mentioned Pastor and Kai leaned his back against a bush.
"Sorry for babbling around. It's just, I wish I could make Gerda understand it. Perhaps she knows it already, but she feels like it's not as bad as it sounds. Or I'm too worried about her. Anything,"
"Maybe. To be honest, I just got confused a little. I'm sorry," Apologized Pastor, then Kai looked into the park to see the people there hanging out. "Hey, I've got the map here. Until we know more about Gerda and Rollan's faith, let us walk around, getting to know this place. Do you come along?" Questioned Pastor watching Kai look at the direction, which led to the harbor of the town, then Kai nodded. "If you like, we can pass by the harbor every once in a while and see, if they have any information. I'm sure they can at least say, they have seen someone with blonde or black hair. The rest we can figure out by ourselves," Commented Pastor making Kai nod and walked into the park, followed by the Spaniard.
Gerda and Rollan sat on the train together looking into a book together. Gerda had a different one over her lap, but had her eyes interested in the one Rollan was showing her.
"Lobo is the most famous story in Spain. He was disguised in dark clothing and would fight against criminals and other injustices caused by humans. His trademarks are a long, dark cape, a black tiger doe hat, and a sword. Sometimes, when he left places he would use his sword and scratch his initial anywhere like on that picture here," Rollan explained showing an image of a tree with an engraved L on it. "When I was younger I tried to do everything from the book in real life. This is why some classmates of mine made fun of me. Mainly, because I was inspired by this book here,"
"A town's hero was he, right?" Questioned Gerda making Rollan nod.
"Yeah, that sort of thing. A fictional hero and a real-life hero are different. In the books everything that is done is easy but in real life….."
"It's hard work and you gotta take a lot of risks and be lucky as well. There are many factors, but if you ask me, being a legend isn't that cool after a specific amount of time. I thought it was great at first, but with time, it got irritante and ,...monotono. Energy consuming. You'd be telling people the same thing 100 times. The reason Kai and I did that was in order to survive,"
"Yes, I remember that," Stated Rollan, then switched to the next page to show a sketch of the hero fighting a pirate. "Have I ever told you, that the pirates, that I tried to stop were the ones from Alfida's mom?"
"Yes, Alfida also stated she was the one, who handed you out that troll legend book, where you found the sheet of the wishing stone," Added Gerda watching Rollan sank down his head a little saddened about the memory.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to her on that day," Commented Rollan making Gerda shake her head and place her hand on his shoulder.
"A lot of things happened between us in the past, but I'm glad to have met you," Confessed Gerda. "Thank you for the friendship we have and still have carried through our mails,"
"No problem. I was happy to be able to know how you were doing or help you out with anything," Answered Rollan watching Gerda switch to the next page and heard from above the suitcase compact Luta fall down making Gerda shut her eyes up in shock to see her weasel on the ground growling at a mouse, then she ran off following the little animal. Rollan had noticed the weasel ran away as well, then looked at the blonde, which shrugged her shoulders.
"You know Luta is like a cat and might go after certain prey," Commented Gerda making Rollan nod.
"I just got surprised to find a mouse in here," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod, then Rollan looked out of the window and noticed an upcoming billboard and elbowed Gerda to obtain her attention. "Look you wanted to know, what our next location was going to be," Stated Rollan and Gerda moved her head over Rollan's shoulder to look at the window and see a blue location sign with the name Bremen.
"Have you still gotten the map with you?" Questioned the blonde watching Rollan get up to pick up his backpack and take out his map to open it, then got down to show it to Gerda and both searched together for the place they had just entered into.
"It's here and according to the ticket vendor we have to switch train in Hamburg to ride to Kolding. There we can go to Copenhagen to arrive at the harbor and with luck, we have a ride to Malmö or better, to home," Stated Rollan making Gerda cross her arms shaking her head amused. "Okay, we have to go to Malmö and see if we can find Kai. We can do that. As long as he doesn't leave Malmö and we don't fall off our way, we'll be together in one or two days," Calculated Rollan making Gerda nod, then heard a woman squeal making both Rollan and Gerda cover her ears to see the mouse ran on the floor, while the weasel kept following the creature making Gerda chuckle.
"I better go pick up Luta, before she causes more trouble," Announced Gerda making Rollan nod and watch her get up to go look for the weasel. Rollan got up to see the mouse pass between her legs, then Gerda bowed down to catch the weasel and held her closer to herself making the pet pout from not being able to catch the mouse due to her owner. Gerda looked back at the Spaniard with her weasel in her arms, making Rollan smile enamored with the blonde who kept caressing the animal's back.