“Where should we go?” Sophie asked Patrick.
“Along the path by the lake,” he answered. Sophie and Patrick came closer to the lake.
“I remembered this lake, my dad and I often come here’ Sophie told Patrick. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful blue lake. Where is the tree you were found at?” asked Sophie.
“That oak is on the other side of the lake, and we’ll have to cross it in that boat,” said Patrick.
“But how do we do that?” asked Sophie. “I’m small and can’t row.”
Patrick climbed out of Sophie’s pocket, jumped to the ground, looked around and saw two small flat boards on the grass.
“Look what I found!” Patrick exclaimed. “You can use these boards to row, and I’ll help you row with my hands.”
Sophie took two flat boards, put the little mouse on her shoulder, went down to the lake and sat into a small boat on the shore of the lake. The boat did not look anything like safe, and it was quite clear that it had been put still on the bank for a long time. But, anyway, Patrick and Sophie got into this boat. Sophie and Patrick used the boards to kick off from the bank and slowly headed to the other side of the lake. To move faster they decided to row harder. They reached the middle of the lake, suddenly the sun faded, thick black clouds appeared out of the blue, and the wind started blowing with a dreadful force. The boat started rocking back and forth, Sophie got frightened, and Patrick jumped into her pocket having his ears covered. Suddenly, the wind stroke so powerfully that the boat overturned, and Sophie and Patrick found themselves in the water
Chapter 2. Liechtenstein Castle
Sophie opened her eyes, sat up and looked around trying to figure out where she was, and whether she was even alive. A few seconds after, Sophie realized that she couldn’t see Patrick anywhere near. Sophie got to her feet and looked around once again and saw Patrick lying inert near the old oak. He was no longer the little mouse as always; he was at least twice taller than Sophie. She dashed to him and kneeled trying to bring him to his senses. A few seconds after, Patrick opened his eyes, and Sophie breathed a deep sigh of relief realizing that he was alive.
“Am I dead? Am I in heaven?” Patrick asked Sophie.
“No, seemingly, we are alive. But I don’t understand what happened to us and how we ended up here,” said Sophie.
“What happened to you? Why are you so small?” Patrick stood up and dusted himself off.
“I don’t know,” she answered, “I suppose that you turned into a big mouse.”
The place where Sophie and Patrick were, looked like the other side of the lake, and the old oak Patrick had told Sophie about was also there. It was very cold and dreadfully scary outside.
“I wonder where we are now?” Patrick asked Sophie.
“I would like to know either, she said. “I don’t know what to do as well. I’m also very scared.”
“Look, there’s a path, maybe it is leading to our house,” said Patrick.
Scared and frozen Sophie and Patrick followed the path along the lake.
“I’m scared,” whispered Sophie.
“Me, too, but we have to go,” Patrick said.
They passed along the lake and took a path to the forest deep. It was still dark and cold outside, the wind was making branches of trees whir in the wind, it sounded like crunching and creaking at the same time, cuckooing and cawing birds felt frightening. Sophie just though she heard something behind her in bushes, she looked back, but saw no one there. Sophie walked a little deeper into the forest and heard a noise reminding branches crunching under her feet, and in a moment the road collapsed under Sophie and Patrick’s feet, and they found themselves in a net hanging over a deep hole. Men came out of the bushes. They were dressed in dirty ragged trenches, they held axes and swords.
“Look at our take,” said one of them. “Well, look what the cats dragged in! A girl and an overgrown rat.”
“I’m not a rat, I’m a little mouse!!!” said Patrick with outrage.
“Moreover, it can talk! I’m sure we will yield a lot of gold coins for a talking rat.”
“Who are you?” Patrick asked them.
“I am Edwin, and these are my friends. Now it’s my turn to ask questions,” said Edwin. “Where are you from and what are you doing in my forest?”
“We don’t know how we got here. We were crossing the lake on a boat, the boat got overturned by the strong wind. We woke up on the bank, we saw a path and figured it would lead us home,” said Sophie.
“Stop feeding us lies!” Edwin said. “Hey, girl, didn’t your mother and father tell you that lying to adults is bad?” Edwin asked Sophie.
“I’m not lying. Let us go, please!!!” cried Sophie begging Edwin.
“Cut them off and pack up.” Edwin ordered his friends, “Let’s take them home, we’ll decide their fate tomorrow.”
“Maybe they will serve as a delicious dinner,” said one-eyed man with huge burn scars on his face pulling Sophie and Patrick out of the net, ‘or maybe it is better to sell them into slavery at tomorrow’s fair,” he continued laughing.
They tied guys’ feet and hands and put them in a horse-drawn cart. Sophie was very scared, she was crying and begging to release them. Patrick tried to calm her down and promised that everything would be fine, and they would get out. The cart stopped after a while, Sophie and Patrick understood that they had reached the destination point.
“Lads, unload everything, take this girl and rat to the basement and lock them up there, let them sit there until morning. And don’t forget to give them bread and water, we do not need them starve to death before morning,” Edwin gave the orders.
They brought Sophie and Patrick to a dirty old house. It didn’t look like a house where people live, but more like an abandoned dwelling. They passed through the living room and approached the stairs up to the second floor. There was a door under the stairs, the scarred man opened it and let Patrick and Sophie down into the basement. Leaving he muttered, “Why all the hard work is always on us…? All that he does is giving orders: bring it here, unload it there, take it there. He always yells at us and calls us stupid losers.”
“Shut up, you whipping boy!!! Go on and tell him all this? And if you are not brave enough, just keep your mouth shut and do what you ought to.”
It seemed that the scar face was talking to someone, but no one was beside him. He left and slammed the door behind him. The basement was furnished with an old mattress, dusty blanket and an almost burned out candle lit by the scarred man on his way out. Sophie sat down on the mattress and began to cry.
“What shall we do?” she asked Patrick.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I think we should come with an idea, but first we need to eat and sleep a bit, and tomorrow we will see what we can do.”
Sophie broke off a piece of bread and gave it to Patrick, they ate a little and lay down on the mattress. Sophie couldn’t sleep for a long time, she was thinking about tomorrow, her mom and dad must be worried and already started looking for her. Patrick had been up most of the night, trying to figure out how to get out of the basement. He looked over the basement and saw a barred window.
“How about we try to remove the bars and climb out of the window?!” he asked Sophie.
The window was out of their reach, they looked for something to stand on, but they found nothing except two barrels against the opposite wall. Nevertheless, Patrick decided to try to move one of the barrels. Fortunately,