The Saga of Eva Ohnestrumpf | Part II
Preface
My dearest reader, before we plunge headlong into new adventures, I should probably remind you of what happened on our last journey to the Cloud Islands. For our own memories are as fickle as the wind, as fleeting as summer and as deceptive as the fog that conjures up all manner of shapes in the twilight. But before you start nervously rummaging through your books, rest assured: I am here. As your companion on this new adventure, you can count on me, even though I have decided to remain discreetly in the background this time, as is appropriate for an omniscient narrator. So sit back, take a sip of tea and give me your attention one last time before the first chapter begins.
It all began with a girl named Eva Mathilda Ohnestrumpf, who wanted nothing more in the world than to fly airships in a particularly daring manner while wearing only one of her two socks – two wishes that an experienced aeronaut would describe as ‘reckless’, the harbour guard as ‘highly illegal’, and every GP as ‘running straight into a cold with your eyes wide open’.
In the cluttered attic of her foster father, Captain Greybeard, she found an old map with a strange pattern on the back – the same pattern that, I emphasise, completely without my intervention (before you accuse me of narrative manipulation!), was found on her socks. If this still seems strange to you, rest assured: Eva found it at least as strange, and she was the one who was stuck in it.
Together with her friend Nora and the taciturn – well, at least back then – navigator Finn, she embarked on an odyssey with an uncertain outcome. They escaped pirates, braved storms, unravelled ancient mysteries and made the unpleasant discovery that some people are not what they seem.
For the pirate Black Mara and the mysterious Leander also wanted the map. In the end, it all led to a secret older and greater than they could have ever imagined: the Heart of Heaven, a floating magnetic core whose invisible force held the cloud islands aloft.
Things turned out as they had to: the heart was unstable, Leander megalomaniac, the pirates furious, and Eva’s beloved airship Rex Ventorum… well, let’s just say: may every honest air captain spare a minute’s silence for her. Her sacrifice, an explosion that shook the sky itself, stabilised the heart once more. And when all seemed lost, Eva realised that she still carried the energy of the storm zones within her. With one last, desperate idea, she saved not only her friends, but also the cloud islands.
Much has happened since then.
Eva now stands at the threshold of a new era as the heir to the ancient order of pilots, Conclave Aeris Fidelium (the discerning reader may recall the abbreviation C.A.F.). Nora is working on a propulsion system that will revolutionise aviation. Finn is a highly sought-after navigator for storm zones – and now even talks when he’s not specifically asked to. And the cloud islands? They float peacefully in the air once more – unaware of who they have to thank for their safety.
You, on the other hand, know. And now, my loyal reader, it is time to move on. For while everyone believes that the worst of the turbulence has passed, the wind has long since begun to whisper again.
