The Mistletoe

Chapter IX

The bus took a long time, but we finally arrived at the lodge, which was almost at the top of a hill, surrounded by fog, in a kind of open field. The hotel was a kind of farm, and they had some places where you could do activities, like a playground for children, and places for campfires.

Downwards we had the trail and upwards, left and right, I could see how the forest obscured the hiking trail, but it seemed that all the hiking trails were very well marked, as the man had said. The scenery was beautiful and I could see a valley, where there was a very rural village, everything had a very similar vibe to my village, but without the lake and the volcano.

I could see the crow perched on the roof of the hotel. The architecture of the hotel was similar to the typical traditional houses of Austria and Germany. It was not very big, but big enough to accommodate a few families.

As I stared at the raven, the lady looked warmly at me and my father and said:

"Ah. Crows are typical around these parts; that one looks pretty big."

She waved her hands and gestured for us to understand better, as our German was not the best. I looked to the right and saw in the distance, on the footpath, a car marked "Polizei", and immediately assumed it must be a policeman. The pair of policemen were accompanied by what I think must have been a park ranger, who was saying things to them in German that, although I could hear, the dialect plus the speed made it difficult to understand exactly what they were talking about.

The lady, watching as I watched, said to me:

"Big wolf, two dead." Waving her hands and pointing her fingers, she looked noticeably worried and sad.

My father wasted no more time and asked about the rooms, and we went straight to the living room. There were two men drinking beers and playing chess, a little girl watching a children's video with her mother and two teenagers whispering while watching a music video.

The two men greeted us warmly, and the two teenage girls and the mother looked at us and exchanged smiles. We finally got to our room, tidied up and I got on the local wifi.

"I'm going to take a shower, son, make yourself comfortable in the meantime," he smiled as he went to the bathroom.

"Okay, Dad, enjoy!" I joked.

While connecting to the network with my tablet, I went out for a bit to get some fresh air. There I could contemplate the beautiful landscape once again and feel the fresh air. Two teenage girls came out with another guy, and one of them asked me in English.

"Aren't you cold?" she joked with a smile.

"Oh..." I said. "Um... No, I think I'm fine," I replied.

The three of them laughed, and I saw how bundled up they were, which made me realize that I seemed to have a different threshold for heat and cold compared to other people. Perhaps I should take note of that as well.

My dad came out, after showering, with many layers of clothes and a woolen hat. He also asked if I felt cold. I realized I was only wearing shorts and a green t-shirt; I hadn't changed clothes since leaving Chile because it was summer there and winter here.

"I think for now, we should be careful; we've had bad luck," my dad lamented.

"Why?" I asked.

"The issue with that animal has put people on alert, and it seems it's not advisable to go out for walks on the trails. One person claimed to have seen some kind of strange black wolf, and two people have died in the last three months; it attacked them in the throat," he looked out into the horizon.