CHAPTER 7: Magic and the Magic Journal

The beastie buddies left the Freistaat Thüringen and journeyed south.  Tired and half-asleep, they arrived at the station interchange and switched to the connecting train to Bayreuth in the Freistaat Bayern.  It was cosy inside the regional train.  The girl found herself a seat by the window, comfortably settling in the hard seat furnished with faded greyish blue upholstery.  She watched the unfamiliar greenery pass in a hazy blur and soon dozed off during the ride.

“And this magic journal of hers not only contained insights, feelings, and life lessons, but also crazy ideas and hybrids.”

Rocky the Expedition Soloist

In the early afternoon, the train arrived at the Bayreuth Hauptbahnhof.  They were half-awake and automatically flocked to the historic centre by following the signpost.  Prince embarked on his classic yet mysterious quest for happiness again.  He took the usual roll call when they reached the Residenzplatz, next to the statue of Markgrafen.

“Perhaps it’s a silly idea of mine,” the girl hiccupped, and her voice sounded scratchy, “Am I your mage, your myth fabricator, that sort of thing, that even I am not aware of?”

The girl vaguely recalled that she had done some scribblings on a mirror wall before, in which cats looked like mice and butterflies were confused with fireflies.  Maybe it was a magic mirror, she thought.

“Of course not!” replied Prince bluntly in disgust.

“Oh, sorry, it was just foolish of me,” the girl uttered a sigh of relief and apologised, “There’s just a series of bizarre coincidences that you guys are following me around.  I suppose this is just an immensely popular route to tour around the castles in Germany.”

Prince’s face turned greener.

After the fire of the Altes Stadtschloß, Markgrafen Friedrich of Brandenburg-Bayreuth appointed the Bayreuth court architect Joseph Saint-Pierre to build a new city residence.  The Neues Schloß was an elongated building with a row of intimate spaces, room by room.  Within its sandstone façade, the characteristic Bayreuth Rococo style was showcased in the fascinating interiors.  The ornate palm room was a totally cohesive artistic interior with delicate woodwork of walnut wall panels and gilded palm trees.

Since Prince was tight-lipped about his mage and his myth where he belonged, the girl’s curiosity for the beastie world grew even stronger.  She wondered if Rocky, the wise penguin, could enlighten her.

“Rocky, how did you meet your mage?” asked the girl.

As they walked down the avenue of beautiful chestnut and oak, Rocky told an anecdote about their adventure.  He spoke with enthusiasm and nostalgia, “My mage was then coming on an expedition ship from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, all the way to the Great White Continent.  She was having regular excursions in a Zodiac boat to explore the penguins’ colonies and to go for whale watching every day.  That was how she leant to draw my features.

“Then, on a stormy evening, she arrived in Stanley, the capital city of the Falkland Islands.  She finally had a moment to sit down to draw a rockhopper she met during the day, coloured it in, fine-tuned here and there, and finished with a few strokes of the spiky hairdo that impressed her the most.  You know, every magical creature jumped out from an enchanted medium.  It’s the source of magic and the crayon is the pixie dust of life.  And this magic journal of hers not only contained insights, feelings, and life lessons, but also crazy ideas and hybrids.  It is about love, passion, doubt, fear, hatred, anger, empathy, and everything else.  It helps her remember, review, and reflect.

“We had a great time together travelling in the South Atlantic Ocean before we parted.”

Rocky connected with endless reminiscences of their adventure together as if he could see their pastimes in the reflection of the water.  He felt like going for a swim, but the shallow waters of the L-shaped canal in the Hofgarten was nothing like the Drake Passage.  He dived in the canal and showed off his amazing techniques.

Rocky swam past the Schwaneninsel along the central axis of the canal.  The group figures of Thetis and Tritonen on the island remained unfinished, posing for a picturesque landscape painting.

“What happened afterwards?” the girl exclaimed, “Oh, Rocky, did she abandon you?”  Her imagination ran wild.

“No-no-no!  She didn’t do anything to hurt me,” clarified Rocky in the water.  He flapped his flippers on the water, hurtled through the air, and leaped ashore.

He took a deep breath and went on, “Cruising in the Zodiac boat with her was the best part of my life.  On the way to the Antarctic Peninsula, our big ship stopped by Base Orcadas, one of the Argentine permanent bases and the oldest of the stations still in operation in Antarctica.  Inside the station, she was busy writing postcards that would journey half the world to meet her again in her hometown.  As soon as the captain of the big ship announced that lunch was being served, all of a sudden, the passengers rushed to the Zodiac boats to head back.  It was my fault to have slow feet.  I didn’t make it in time.  Soon afterwards, the black clouds came and sealed off the sky.

“With its proximity to the South Pole and its geographical isolation, the wind was always howling and Base Orcadas was quickly covered in thick snow by the end of summer.  I was stuck in the ice every time I went outside.  I realised I was trapped in the station, so I waited and waited patiently.  I knew she had difficulty finding the way back to fetch me, and at last, I decided to go to her.

“I had been waiting for five summers and five winters at Base Orcadas and observed the routine and pattern of the personnel and activities.  I sailed off in the sixth summer, determined to leave the glittering icebergs behind me.  Later, I secretly boarded another expedition ship of the new season in open waters.  Even so, the Antarctic waters were unpredictable and rough, especially through the Drake Passage.”

Rocky shook his spiky feathers on his head and turned his gaze to the girl.  “Sometimes, my mage is absent-minded, but her true character trait does not make her less affectionate.  As long as she kept the magic journal close to her, the magic would guide me.”

“I am the only magical creature that has ever left her for so long.  At that time, I knew my image on the magic journal faded as I grew weaker away from her.  She kept recolouring my portrait and added a whale tail to help me swim across the ocean of fear.”

Rocky loved to stay in the water for a bit longer.  He promised to catch up before the shadow climbed to two-storey high.  The rest of the gang then went to visit the Markgräfliche Opernhaus.  Flora requested Bass to take a selfie with the beautiful preserved baroque opera house in the background, and he did.

The French architect Joseph Saint-Pierre designed the porch featuring ostentatiously detailed pillars on the front façade, while the Italian theatre architect Giuseppe Galli Bibiena and his son Carlo added the Late Baroque flamboyance in the execution of the auditorium and the tiered loges of wood and canvas. 

The volumetric theatre interior was set in dramatic undulations.  The splendid arrays of marquetry ornamentation and gilded embellishments articulated motion as well as the high-contrast atmosphere with exuberance.  As the sculpted angels played their heavenly instruments, Bass was awed into silence.