17 – On the Other Side
Did you miss the beginning of the story? Then start here:
On the Other Side:
Bruno, the Silent Thinker
As they step out of the shimmering light of the portal, some of them stumble slightly, blinking in a completely new environment. They immediately feel: This is no longer the painted forest. The air is different, the colors clearer, but less playful.
Jasper is the first to shake himself, stirring up dust and loose blades of grass. “Okay, that was… intense! Is everyone here?”
Leo lifts his head, counting with a calm gaze. “Baxter, Jasper, Luna, Sienna…”
“Where’s Milo?”
A rustling from a dense bush. A muffled “Ugh!” Then a spotted paw cautiously searching for support.
“I’m here!” Milo fights his way through the tall grass, his ears still full of leaves. “I think I landed wrong.”
Baxter yawns. “At least you landed. I was briefly worried you were still trapped somewhere between worlds.”
Milo is the first to look up and gaze into the distance—and then he stands there with his mouth open.
“Look!”
They all turn around—and see for the first time the world that now lies before them.
No more forest. Instead, wide fields stretching in gentle waves to the horizon. The colors are more natural, calmer—golden yellow, ocher tones, a rich green. No bright, pulsating red or playful patterns.
And then they see it.
In the distance rises something they do not know. Structures of stone and wood, lined up in neat rows. Towers, roofs, narrow paths winding between them.
Jasper blinks. “That’s… strange.”
Sienna growls softly. “That’s a city.”
They all turn to her.
“And how do you know that?” Milo asks curiously.
Sienna flicks her tail. “I just know.”
A gentle wind carries new scents—not just earth and leaves, but something sharp, unknown. A distant rumbling, metallic clinking, voices?
They stand there for a long time watching before the group slowly starts to move.
Luna, the elegant leopard, with her sharp powers of observation, has discovered something.
With quiet steps, she follows the traces she can barely name. And then she sees him.
Bruno.
He is painted. And yet he seems different. His fur bears fine, deep strokes, as if someone with a steady hand had deliberately set each line. No wild chaos like Jasper, no bright spots like Milo. Instead… clarity. Silence.
He watches them, calmly, with eyes that see more than he says.
“You’re painted,” Luna finally says softly, and in her voice, there’s more amazement than she’d like to admit.
Bruno tilts his head as if this is no surprise to him.
“Of course.”
The others are now coming closer. Jasper scrutinizes him skeptically, Sienna frowns. Milo has a thousand questions, but Leo lifts a paw to stop him.
“You were expecting us,” says the lion. It’s not a question.
Bruno smiles slightly. “Yes. And I know where you need to go.”
What happens next?
The companions have met Bruno. He leads them to an artist who already knows who they are. Has she made the first brushstroke?
But instead of answers, they are met with a new question:
Who actually discovered whom here?
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Bruno, the Silent Thinker
_Oil/Mixed Media on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
Price for the original available upon request – click here
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