Goldauge international Teil 2

Wie versprochen, hier der zweiten Teil meiner englischen Übersetzung vom Mädchen mit den Augen aus Gold . Verbesserungsvorschläge werden gerne entgegengenommen :)

The third brother loved tidiness – and the enchanting smell of a specific plant. Hyra`s lavender, which bloomed during the whole year, enchanted him on his way into the west. He founded Soudale and became king of a city whose good smelling soups were traded like precious treasures in the whole country.
Behind the town he planted huge fields of lavender; a purple ocean, the scent so overwhelming that your head gets all dizzy. Here, only here, in the midst of those fields, the brother wanted to live and built a small castle for himself and his growing, royal family.

The last of the four brothers had a wild nature and decided to claim the south. Despite all deprivations he passed the mountains of Pals; a chain of steep mountain slopes and conifer forests that rose high into the sky in Hyra`s southernmost point.
He was richly rewarded for his efforts, since behind the barrier of stone and wood a terrific view of the fertile plain Anastis awaited the brother. In the middle of that rich vegetation reigned a lonely mountain. When the brother saw that gray giant, he decided to build his city directly under its shadows.

His kingdom increased rapidly and its beauty far exceeded the cities of his brothers. Unfortunately, he didn`t know about the doom that slept deep inside the earth right under his feet.
One day a powerful quake shook the earth of Anastis and the mountain came to life. It opened its crimson abyss and spit fiery rain until a coat of hot dust covered everything on and beyond the mountains of Pals.
The king of the south survived but he lost everything he had. Desperate and homeless, he turned to his brothers and begged them to give him some of their lands. However, over the years the hearts of the siblings had gotten hard and greedy. One after one they sent their pleading brother away. Rejected and bitter, the man fled back into Pals and hid there. He found refuge in the art of dark magic and while thinking of revenge his mind got lost more and more into its shadows. The three siblings began to fear the mad brother`s darkness. They feared it would not be long before he came and claimed by force the land he had once asked from them. To prevent that, they attacked him in a valley near the mountains.
When the men met at Pals no one survived. On that day all four siblings lost their lives and legend says that their families cried until their pain filled a whole salty sea – till today it gives the Valley Of Tears, the place where Hyra`s kings died, its sad name.

The children succeeded their dead fathers` thrones; two sons in the north and west and a daughter in the east. The brother from Anastis had a son, too; Sarray. Apparently, his dark magic and scorn were even worse than that of his cruel father. But the boy vanished after the fight in the Valley Of Tears. No more was heard about the sinister heir of the southern throne and the two kings and the queen were lulled into false sense of security.

Back then, when I read the legend of the Four Kingdoms for the first time, I felt my fingers travel over the pages, amazed and full of awe. At home, in Abnoba, I had never heard about that story before. Maybe because in Abnoba, the mysterious and dark wood that stretches between Inli and Maris, it is so easy to forget about the rest of the world. Until this present day, the other cities keep their respectful distance from Abnoba`s borders. The kingdoms prefer to examine the forest`s size and wilderness safely from afar.
The paths and trails that lead into the heart of the wood are entangled and hard to follow. Not many travelers find a way through. But anyone who is brave enough to go further, always further, comes across a city, built on the crowns of the trees and inhabited by people with eyes of gold.
Nobody knows where these people came from nor why they went so deep into the forest, but Abnoba tolerates the humans that build their homes high up in the treetops and connect their houses with narrow bridges.
Every child who is born in Abnoba has golden eyes. It`s said to be a gift from the forest because the humans respect and protect the sensitive balance that surrounds them. So long as this unwritten rule is honored, my beloved forest, is a refuge, a home and life for my people.

And this is where the story of the girl with the golden eyes begins – where my story begins.