Advent Fantasy E-Book

Renier-Fréduman Mundil

• Herausgeber: BoD - Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 95

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Christmas trees sinking into the ground, light that won't disappear, sugar that becomes rare, all with and without the help of the rogue Uhlenspiegel, a medieval figure from northern Germany and the witty ideas of the people of Schilda, inhabitants of the fictional medieval town of Schilda who were known for their simplicity. Objects that turn into Christmas trees, a reindeer that loses its shadow and other mysterious things. The old sea captain tells fantastic Advent stories. An Advent calendar with a secret. The colorful pictures on the outside, the hidden doors, numbers among angels, nativity scenes and Santas. But something is not right. Look forward to enjoyable Christmas stories, tree books in one, amusing and entertaining.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Preface

My Advent Calendar

December 1st

December 2nd

December 3rd

December 4th, 5th and 6th

December 7th

December 8th

December 9th and 10th

December 11th

December 12th

December 13th

December 14th

December 15th and 16th

December 17th

December 18th

December 19th and 20th

December 21st

December 22nd

December 23rd

December 24th

Schilda in Advent

1. Advent - Schilda Christmas

2. Advent - Sweet post-Christmas decree

3. Advent - A unique(ly), upside-down Christmas world

4. Advent - Christmas - Beneath the surface of the globe

Blackbeard’s Eccentric Advent Stories

1. Advent - Sailing tree

2. Advent - The mysterious (Christmas) flakes

3. Advent - Living shadow Christmas

4. Advent - The missing beginning of Christmas

Preface

The following book contains three different books, each with four stories around the Christmas season:

My Advent Calendar

In German-speaking countries there is a tradition of the Christmas calendar to help children pass the time waiting for Christmas. From December 1st to 24th, a small door is opened every day, revealing a Christmas picture or a chocolate treat.

Schilda in Advent

"Uhlenspiegel" or "Eulenspiegel" is a 14th-century figure from northern Germany. He was a rogue who pretended to be stupid, but was actually very cunning, especially by taking figurative expressions literally and playing nasty jokes on his fellow citizens. The Schildbürger were inhabitants of the fictional medieval town of "Schilda" who were known for their simplicity, taking metaphorical meanings literally and then doing many absurd things. When Uhlenspiegel and the Schildbürger meet, double chaos is inevitable, even at Christmas.

Blackbeard’s eccentric Advent stories

"Blackbeard" is an old sea captain who has sailed all the waters of the earth and recounts his wondrous adventures to the monkey "Mikado."

These are astonishing experiences that, of course, also took place during the Christmas season.

My Advent Calendar

For my wife In memory of many wonderful Christmas seasons together

R.F. MUNDIL

MY AOVENT CALENOAR

NOVEL

My Advent Calendar

The best thing about Christmas was the Advent calendar. Everyone looked forward to it. Every year I looked forward to this disguised, mysterious, sweet gift. Outside, the colorful pictures, the hidden doors, numbers buzzing around between angels, nativity scenes and Santas. And once opened, the figures molded in chocolate. The doors got bigger every day. On December 24th there was even one with two wings, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the bulky chocolate figure behind it out. It was like that every year.

Another Advent calendar was hanging on my door just in time for December 1st. We had Santa Claus three times. The first one brought the Advent calendar, the second filled the boots and the third brought the presents on Christmas Eve. If we had visitors from America over the festive period, there was even an extra Santa Claus on Christmas Day. That completed the quartet.

December 1st

On the morning of December 1st, I was the first to run to the Advent calendar. Despite my dentist's admonitions, I would stuff the delicious chocolate into my mouth before brushing my teeth and let it melt like delicious dew between the gaps in my teeth and cavities.

I found the first door immediately, it was blocked by an angel. Years later, he reminded me of the cherubim with a flaming sword protecting paradise from mankind. The little angel on the paper still seemed to be asleep. It was only six o'clock in the morning and I took the opportunity for a sneaky attack to outwit the sleeping guard. I opened the door silently, always keeping an eye on the little angel. My anticipation grew with every millimeter I opened it. Finally, the door stood wide open in front of me, with the little angel, who obviously hadn't woken up, still at the back. To my surprise, the door was empty. An empty, punched-out hollow space stared back at me.

My little sister, I thought involuntarily, it couldn't have been anyone else. And angels could be trusted to make common cause with little girls. When my excitement had subsided, I discovered the note stuck to the back of the door. I carefully took it off and unfolded the paper. There was a single word on it that I had never read before: Buenos Aires.

This word sounded like sun and air, wind and distance. It sounded like colorful birds and dancing people. In any case, I imagined these things without knowing what Buenos Aires meant.

My tooth decay bacteria had rejoiced too soon, just like me, and so I spent the day in a somewhat bad mood, at least to the extent that a small child can be bad-tempered.

I had drawn a blank. Tomorrow would be a chance to win, I thought as I went to bed in the evening and stared at the Advent calendar for several minutes before falling asleep. Before sleep overcame me, I brought out my flashlight and looked for the second door from my bed. It was right next to a brown bear that was looking at me grimly.

Good, I thought, my little sister will also have respect for this bear. In my mind, I saw her hand flinch as she reached for the door and landed in the bear's thick fur instead. Reassured, I fell asleep.

December 2nd

The next morning, the second door was already open. Only the bear's head was still visible, the round body was folded back and stuck to the open cardboard door. The cherubim had not reappeared either. The field behind the two was white and empty; at first I thought I could smell the scent of chocolate and sweet black traces. Nothing. However, I found another folded up piece of paper. My disappointment was actually too great and my curiosity too small, but I unfolded the paper.

A picture of a small fishing boat appeared in front of me. It only had room for one man. In the bow were boxes in which the fish I had caught were wriggling. In front of the cabin door hung a huge shark's tooth that would have shaved your head if you hadn't been careful when going down. I discovered a red stain in the middle of the shark's tooth. Blood, no doubt about it. But I couldn't tell whether the blood was from the shark or the fisherman who had fought it. I couldn't find the man on the small fishing boat and the door to the galley was too narrow for me to climb down. I also thought it advisable, early in the morning and still sleepy, not to squeeze my head past a shark's tooth. Who knows, maybe it would suddenly bend over? Even this drop of blood could only be a few days old, because even a shark's tooth was always capable of pouncing on an unsuspecting victim.

At the breakfast table, I asked my little sister if she was afraid of a shark. She just shook her head.

I don't believe that, I contradicted her, why don't you hold out your hands? I'll say the word shark now and we'll see if your fingers tremble.

She guilelessly went along with my suggestion. I looked deep into my sister's eyes, put my voice as deep in my larynx as I could and said in a dark tone: Shark!

My little sister gave me an unblinking, bored look. It didn't matter. The whole thing was just to see if I could make out any suspicious scratch marks from a bear, bite marks from a shark's tooth, burns from a cherubim's flaming sword or just some chocolate residue on her fingers.

Nothing, nothing, nothing. Black luck for me, her hands were clean and spotless like freshly fallen snow.

December 3rd

If you drill in the ground, you can find all sorts of interesting things: Gold and silver, black oil in Arabia, copper in faraway Chile or chocolate in an Advent calendar. That's why my first career aspiration was to be a treasure digger, and in my childhood I often imagined digging holes in the ground all over the world and coming across the strangest things that no one had ever seen before; even living monster-like animals sometimes jumped out of the holes I dug in the ground as a treasure digger.

In any case, the 3rd door was not guarded by a cherubim or a grizzly. It was in a simple field. This must have been what the field looked like where the shepherds were camped, at least those of them who had to stay outside because there was no room for all the shepherds in the small stable. It was just big enough for three round kings who had traveled from far away. So I decided to drill for chocolate in the shepherds' field. After all, the Holy Land was an area where milk and honey flowed. Then perhaps there was a delicious piece of chocolate under the simple earth.

My test drilling was unsuccessful. I could have guessed it. Behind the third door was nothing but a vacuum, in which there was even less than nothing. Not even a breath of air escaped when the little grille opened.

Damn, someone had done a great job. I didn't find a note this time. Instead, there was a beautiful fish in the free space. It was long and supple, powerful and graceful at the same time, its fins gliding through the churning sea, its silvery blue scales shimmering beneath the surface. It exuded its power, which flowed together in a rope that reached as far as the small fishing boat.

Only now did I notice that the boat had neither sails nor a motor. It was being pulled through the water by the fish. On closer inspection, I discovered that the galley was now wide open. The strange fisherman, whom I had never seen before, must have been on deck in the meantime. Perhaps he had tied the boat to the glistening fish ‒ it was a marlin, by the way, as I later found out ‒ or perhaps he had tied the boat to the fish, like horses are harnessed to a cart to go out to sea.

I have not been able to find out in any book whether the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee also caught a marlin. What I did find was that this breezy Buenos Aires was close to a sea where thousands of these huge fish were to be found. And they all pulled small fishing boats through the water, or so I thought at the time, because if there were horses on land, there must be something similar for moving around on the water.

December 4th, 5th and 6th

We spent the weekend of December 4th to 6th with my father's sister. I used to think of her simply as my aunt. It was only later that I found out that she was my father's sister. She lived in a house on the edge of a mountain village, four hours away from us by car.