Johnny was a very shy, introverted guy. He just had moved to Wunternal, so he didn’t have any friends. His favourite pastime was his fantasy books – spells, medieval times, spirits from the forest, … that was all what Johnny’s world was about. 

One day he was running around on his bicycle and on the backyard of an abandoned house he noticed there was an uneven patch of soil without grass. Kind of like someone had buried something there. So one day, Johnny grabbed his uncle’s shovel and he dug and he dug… and nothing.

But he didn’t stop. Despite the scorching sun and the hours passing by, just when he was about to give up and go back home… clink! He hit something made out of metal. He shoved the shovel to the side and used his hands to try to take it out – it was an old tin cookie box. He opened it and inside there was some sort of a map. With mountains and strange symbols and a figure of.. an old man? Johnny folded the map and put it in his pocket. 

The day after, there was this cool group of friends having lunch in school. But he didn’t know what to say. Unfortunately, with some form of knot in his stomach, he couldn’t do anything about it… thus he went and sat alone in one of the corner tables. He saw them laughing and talking to each other while he, was there, with no-one. Eating silently. 

Some time later, he went on his bike and saw this group of kids playing basketball. He started yelling, awkwardly, and he scared them away. They all left. ‘I will never make friends’. Johnny, started crying.  

But he also clenched his fist and furrowed his eyebrows. With all that pent-up defeat burning inside him – ‘screw it!’ – he yelled, and took that map outside of his pocket and started following it. That mountain over there resembles Mt. Hichimai, not too far from where he lived. And that river, is River Venus… so he started following the map, step by step, and making sense of it until he reached the top of a mysterious foggy mountain, Mt. Hochima, where the figure of this old man was depicted… But there was nothing. 

‘So stupid! I wasted my time!’ So he turned around, tired, full of sweat and crumpled the map into a ball and angrily threw it away! As he was starting to move… ‘I see what you are seeking, Johnny!’ ‘What on Earth?’, he turned around. ‘How does he know my name?’ And there it was. An old warlock, dressed in black robes, with a long white beard and hair a hat, and a staff.

Johnny, I see what you seek, and in the name of the spirit of Mt. Hochima… BANG! He pointed the staff at him and there was a loud and bright thunder in the sky. ‘Now you can make friends’. And suddenly everything went dark. And then Johnny abruptly woke up in his bed. He was drenched in sweat and his heart was palpitating really fast.  

Nonetheless, it was Saturday, so he got on his bicycle and started pedaling and pedalling until he reached a park, with a soccer field and some some kids playing. He doesn’t know why or how, but a strange, new force from within him compelled him to go and very loudly tell at them ‘Hi my name is Johnny, can I play?’. They stopped, look at him with a confused face… and they passed him the ball. And let him play! 

And another day he went to the shops and he saw these kids playing on the arcades. And he said Hi to one of them, ‘nice T-Shirt’ and the kid smiled and then… they started playing together. 

Until the final day arrived. It was a Wednesday morning, and it was school lunchtime. The group of friends were, as usual, gathered on that table, talking and laughing. 

It was the scariest time of his life. His heart started beating really fast, sweat coming down his armpits and his hands started shaking. However, it that spell kicked in again. His eyes went blank and there was a big thunder that only he could hear in the sky roaring and BANG! He went to them and said. ‘Hi, my name is Johnny and I think you guys are really cool!’. They went silent. They looked him up and down… One of them whispered something to the ear of another, who seemed to be the older of the group and… ‘Thank you, you can join us’ and they made a spot for him to seat. 

They laughed and chatted and had a good time. 

And some time later, when Johnny was leaving to put his rubbish in the bin and ready to go back to class. BANG! The sky went dark. And Johnny could see up there, the old warlock ‘I cast no spell on you. Like a placebo, you believed something and suddenly you did what was already in your power to do, you took ownership of you problem, and step by step got better at it’.