"It's our birthday today! He promised he'd tell us everything," Hichy said as he woke up.
"Tell us what?" Inata asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"What happened. He said he'd reveal everything he knew on the day we turned thirteen. He can't go back on it now."
Although the house had four bedrooms, they had always slept in the same one, in two perfectly identical beds set side by side. It was still early, but Hichy did not seem ready to let his sister sleep in. How could a being so delicate, with a face covered in freckles and fiery red hair, have come out of a woman's womb at the same time as him? he wondered. Being twins was just about the only certainty they had, and he was determined to understand where they came from.
His own hair was long as well, though dark brown. He had never felt the need to cut it above the shoulders, unaware that things could be done any differently, since they had never met other children their age, or even other human beings.
Hichy and Inata wore clothes made from adult shirts and trousers, as well as original pieces cut from the hides of wild beasts roaming the forest. Even if sometimes rudimentary, their outfits were always perfectly clean. Lice, fleas, and other parasites were unknown to them, as were illnesses and the other legacies of a human civilisation that had always remained foreign to them.
After getting dressed, they took the grand staircase down to join Golock in the dining room on the ground floor. The Golem had no bedroom and did not need one, since they had never seen him sleep or even doze off. The rooms upstairs were theirs: one filled with books, another with wooden toys, and the last reserved for study. This large house, surrounded by a vast clearing and guarded on all sides by an impenetrable forest, had been their entire universe for as long as they could remember.
All of this might have seemed perfectly normal to them if the many books they read had not introduced them to worlds where children went to school and had parents waiting for them in the evening. All those incredible stories, of humans who loved or fought, who were born, lived, and died, blended together in their minds. These fantastic tales allowed them to dream of distant horizons, to fly beyond that wall of trees they could never cross, which had always been their prison.
"Mmm, that smells good!" Inata exclaimed as she sat down at the table.
Golock smiled, at least as much as a Golem could. He had prepared quail eggs and pancakes covered in honey. He moved from one place to another, taking care of them with the utmost attention so that their plates were never lacking. His movements were surprisingly precise given his mass and stature, not quite as imposing as a giant's, but towering over them by a good metre.
The two teenagers sat down and devoured their breakfast with gusto. The amount of food they needed kept increasing, and Golock sometimes had to be away for several days to bring back the meat their stomachs demanded.
"So? Are you going to tell us?" Hichy asked, growing more and more insistent.
"Tonight," Golock replied in his cavernous voice.
"That's not fair!" the boy shouted, slamming his fist on the table. "A promise is a promise, and today we turn thirteen."
"Not quite. You were born at dusk, and it is at dusk that I will speak. Until then, you have a beautiful day ahead of you, and you must enjoy it."
"Still, we do have parents!" the boy exclaimed.
"Tonight," Golock repeated.
Hichy felt anger rising inside him and clenched his fists, ready to strike the Golem with all his strength. His sister grabbed his arm before he could commit an irreparable act. This benevolent monster had taken care of them as best he could, never getting angry or showing the slightest weakness. He had not raised the twins to be loved, but because it was his duty. Who had asked him to, and why? These questions came back again and again, and the answers were never satisfactory.
"Come with me into the garden," Inata said, taking her brother by the hand.
She had a way of speaking that was neither an order nor a question, yet one Hichy could not resist. He could sense the moment when he had to obey her without trying to understand why. It was not submission, since the reverse was equally true when Hichy had to lead the way and his sister entrusted him with her protection. The process was the same; only the field of action differed.
The estate they lived on contained everything children could dream of: a crystal-clear pond to swim in when it was too hot, and an orchard where the branches of fruit trees bent under the weight of juicy peaches. Golock had built a swing more than ten metres high that allowed them to touch the sky with their toes, right next to a giant trampoline made of elastic vines.
Behind the archery range where they trained several times a week lay a vast meadow where they never failed to gallop their ponies. When they were full and tired of their games, they would retreat to the treehouse in the great oak, dozens of metres above the ground. It was their private domain, where they loved to sleep on summer nights.
Yet none of this was enough for Hichy, and he was unhappy to have nothing to compare their material comfort to. Eating is only enjoyable when one is hungry, and drinking only when one is thirsty. Being rich is only interesting when one knows it is possible to be poor, and all the gold in the world is useless when there is nothing to buy.
"Playing bores me," he said as they walked through the garden. "Games are no longer for our age. Last night, I dreamed I could rise into the air."
"I also dreamed strange things a few days ago," his sister replied. "But the strangest part is that they became real."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for some time now, I've had the impression that I can act on objects from a distance."
"Without touching them?"
"Yes, you'll see."
Inata took a twig and placed it against the trunk of a tree. Then she stepped back and fixed her gaze on the small piece of wood.
"Breathe!" her brother teased. "You're all red."
"Wait, be quiet and don't distract me."
After a long moment, the twig tipped to the right and fell to the ground.
"It's just the wind," Hichy scoffed. "And even if it really was you who moved that branch, it wouldn't be a very impressive magical power."
"You don't believe me? Then lay it flat on your hand. Is there any wind right now?"
"No," her brother conceded.
"Don't move and watch."
The twins stared at the piece of wood, but nothing happened. Hichy was about to say something when his sister stopped him with a gesture. Then, all of a sudden, the twig began to move in his hand, very gently, but enough for him to see it had nothing to do with the wind. It turned a quarter of a turn before slipping free and falling to the ground.
"Wow!" he exclaimed. "Have you tried it with other things?"
"It only works with very light objects. But I feel like the power has been growing stronger lately."
"Do you think it's connected to our thirteenth birthday and what Golock has to tell us?"
"Yes, I do. But tell me, if it works for me, why wouldn't it be the same for you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe you really can fly, just like in your dreams."
"Nonsense! You're really stupid."
"You're the idiot. Just try."
Hichy jumped, no higher than usual, and landed back on both feet. Yet it seemed that his fall was oddly hesitant, as if he had stayed suspended for a second too long.
"Try jumping as far as you can," his sister said.
The boy took a run-up, sprinted, and pushed off with his feet. He rose a metre above the ground and glided as if carried by a cushion of air before landing a good ten metres away.
"See!"
"I don't see what's so extraordinary about it. I've always been stronger than you."
"You think it's normal to jump that far?"
"Maybe it is. How would we know? I'm getting better with age, that's all."
The two children spent the rest of the day testing their newly discovered abilities, without being able to determine whether they belonged to the realm of pure normality or something extraordinary. And Golock was no help as a reference, since he was far from what could be called normal. None of their books mentioned the existence of Golems, and they suspected that the being who had raised them was not entirely ordinary.
They ate their supper as the sun began to set. Then, after wiping his bowl with a large piece of bread, Hichy simply looked up at Golock to make it clear that they would tolerate no further delay.
"I promised to tell you everything, and the moment has indeed come," the Golem said.
"So, our parents... are they alive?" Inata asked.
"Unfortunately not. They are truly dead. That is something I never hid from you."
"Did you know them? Who were they? Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Hichy asked.
"To protect you, and because your parents were not ordinary parents. They have nothing to do with what you may have read in your books. You cannot imagine what they are."
"But—"
"Let me speak now. Be quiet so I can tell you their story."