So they strayed like this a couple of days, and no one helped them ; but they didnlt even think about their hunger, or s’eepiness, all they thought about was seeing their mother again. The stork was following them, and every now and then appeared on random roofs, sitting on one leg and mumbling to them: "Donlt stop, donlt stop!”
The little streets had little plates with unidentified letters and they were so entangled that sometimes it gave them the impression that theylre walking in a circle, on the same streets. Fatigue, hunger and the cold air of the night wore them out. They saw as the passersby looked at them with compassion, and at times, a man or a woman would let down a bucket filled with water and said: -
"Please, come in my house, my dears, I will give you food and you can rest…” Un a roof nearby, a stork was standing on one leg, watching them worried. A strange instinct, the words and the presence of the stork always made them refuse the offers of the people.
- "You know what?” said the boy to the girl. "I think that the inhabitants of this city came here just like we did, in a quest for the fountain.
They couldnlt find it, couldnlt withstand, received housing and remained here forever."
- "I think so too”, murmured the girl and shook off her tiredness and weariness. We donlt need to receive any help, not even if we die."
They walked for another while, without counting the days, nights, weeks or even months. And one day, the boy leaned powerless against a wall. When he started walking again, his sister saw that his back was dirty of red and blue chalk, and saw that it had the design of a fountain. With their last strength, the children knocked on the castlels gate.
An old and bent lady, dressed in black, was hardly coming from the bottom of a long courtyard, and it seemed that she was not coming any longer.
