Cover

Peter Gotthardt

The Magical Falcon 1

The Mad Sorceress

SAGA Egmont




The falcon and his friends

Carvallo

At one moment, he is a falcon, the next he is a prince. But no matter what, he is always brave and gallant. He is searching for the world, where his people belong.

Monika

She likes to know everything about others. The things she can’t get out of them, she tries to guess.

Sigurd

He likes to know all sorts of things. What he does not know already, he finds online or at the library.

Sandra

Sandra is Sigurd’s baby sister. She wants to be part of everything. But she is better at interfering than at thinking before she acts.

Chapter 1

“Ruff! Woof-woof! Grrr!”

“Hsss! Meaaaauowwll!”

A dog stood at the base of a pear tree, barking loudly and heatedly. A cat was sitting in the tree. It hissed wildly and angrily.

“Can’t you keep that damn dog on a leash” a girl yelled from the neighbouring garden. Her name was Monika and it was her cat.

“That sneaky beast could just have stayed clear of our garden” a boy yelled over the hedge. His name was Sigurd and it was his dog.

“Such a nice, little cat couldn’t possibly bother anyone” Monika answered back.

“Nice” Sigurd exclaimed. “That little serial killer is trying to exterminate all the birds in the garden.”

“Oh, that couple of house sparrows…”

“It’s not house sparrows” Sigurd corrected her.

“Tree sparrows. And chaffinches. And…”

He was interrupted by a loud POP! It sounded almost like a balloon popping.

A large bird flew out of a black hole in the sky.

A falcon! Sigurd thought as it streaked past him.

But where did it come from?

Right in front of his eyes, the hole closed again with a sucking sound.

He turned his head after the falcon…

And just barely saw some guy flying directly through the hedge head first and land in Monika’s garden. Right in the middle of a bed of marigolds.

Monika screamed.

Sigurd starred with open-mouthed.

Even the dog and the cat forgot to bark and hiss.

“Ouch” the stranger said and got on his feet. It was a young man. He brushed dirt and petals off his clothes; a sky-blue jerkin with silver embroidery, a short cape draped over one shoulder and a pair of trousers fitting tightly around his legs.

He picked his hat up and tried to straighten the broken feather in it. Then he bowed deeply to Monika and said: “I apologize a thousand times, My Lady, that I come barging in like this.”

“Who… who are you?” she asked.

Sigurd hurried through the hole in the hedge and said: “Where did the falcon go?”

“The falcon, that’s me” the stranger replied.

“I am Prince Carvallo.”

Cool, Sigurd thought.

He can turn into a falcon, like those who turn into werewolves.

He is a were-falcon!

A prince! I am standing here, talking to a prince!!

Monika cheered inside. Isn’t that just totally awesome?

“Can you tell me where I have ended up?“ Carvallo asked.