Chapter 22– Elmbridge Old Gate, a New Door(2)

'I don't want to scare you, but unfortunately we don't have much time. You're far too important to them, being the Edwards' daughter. Please just trust me and let me do what is necessary to protect you."
Elizabeth approved, nodding her head slightly. She was too frightened to speak.
Professor Knudlac finally pulled out of his left sleeve a thin stick of mahogany with gold inlay and said the following words:
'Locus Inrita!"
Blackish dust came out of Elizabeth's clothes, and the particles got together in a small bulge of powder, then it disappeared as if swallowed by something.
'I reversed one of Miss Hortensia Blackwood's spells. To know all the time where you are, she cursed you using a powerful spell", Mr. Knudlac tried to explain what he had just done.
You would expect Elizabeth to be amazed at what happened, but she wasn't.
'So I used to project those light fountains unaware ... or maybe not?"
'Yes, almost any child like you can do ... little magic tricks at first."
Finally, the girl began to understand that what happened around her had a very clear reason.
'Miss Blackwood ... Hortensia? I felt she was a witch," Elizabeth managed to mumble.
'Yes, she is a very bad and strong witch. She was chosen by Vlad Dragoesti to watch over you. He didn't have the courage to kill you, because he didn't know what kind of magic protects you. Some evil and powerful wizards have been destroyed forever by such protective spells. That's why he chose to keep you alive under his supervision all the time. But we will discuss these things later. Follow me ..."
The two children followed the professor along some side paths. Elizabeth calmed down to the depths of her heart. She felt Mr. Knudlac just wanted to protect her, so she quietly followed the smart gentleman and the boy.
She could finally enjoy everything she saw. Beth admired everything before her heavenly eyes. For many years she saw nothing out of the orphanage windows but walls of other buildings, so she was pleasantly surprised by the greenery of the trees and the colours scattered on the ground of that mysterious park.
The unexpected visit of a hedgehog made her even more cheerful. Moreover, the chirping of the birds flying from one branch to another to build nests, red and furry squirrels, hairballs rolling on the twigs, made the girl as she had not been for long ... happy. As she had never been in the orphanage for so many years.
Finally, she had the opportunity to enjoy life ... to enjoy what the wonderful world outside the orphanage's walls offered.
What else could be said? It was a beautiful spring day, a day that brought the biggest changes in Elizabeth's life. Even if she did not know her future, such a pretty and good child, was happy she met someone who really cared about her. Someone with the same ancestor's blood, who gave right to life to all descendants, including to her.
This guy she didn't hear about offered her freedom and rescued her from that children's prison ... the orphanage.
Elizabeth, Johnny and Mr. Knudlac rushed through the park as if flying. They followed unknown paths, according to a logic that only Mr. Knudlac understood. The professor's speed that forced them move to keep up with him, made the two of them repeatedly confuse each other or get stuck in things lost by who knows who.
The trees shaped in a vault of greenery and flowers, with inviting scent, seemed to lead us slowly, slowly, into a fairy tale world. Still, ... it was not just a sensation, because anyone could say that the following part of the story was taken from a fairy tale.
At one point they got in front of a rusty metal gate, as old as hills. It had on it some unknown writs and inscriptions with built-in heads of creatures carved in bronze. Creatures as unknown as those words written on the gate.
They went past the gate and entered a meadow that had a huge and old oak in its midst. This oak was slightly different from all the other trees, which formed a large circle around it. The rest of the trees seemed to respectfully keep some distance from him so as not to disturb him, but they were still close enough to hear him. What to hear ...? The stories he probably had to say, because he was big and thick, and his bark was old and full of wrinkles so one would say he was the first tree that came up on Earth and he certainly heard many stories from all over the world.
Unlike the other trees that were green, this old and lofty oak had rusty leaves, as if he was the only tree that did not know that spring had come, but he thought it was still autumn outside.