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Book Three

Ghost Desert

This is the world where the story of the third book unfolds.
The map shows the key locations from the book.
Click on them to learn more.

  • The Steamboat Mississippi

    They were somewhere in the middle of the river, aboard an old, rusty, and firmly anchored steamboat. Nothing around them looked familiar. In fact, this part of the forest could hardly be called a forest anymore — it had completely changed its color, from green to red.
  • The Spider’s Attack

    Entangled in the silvery threads of a giant web stretched between two of the sword-like plants, Peter lay completely motionless. Looming over him, busy wrapping up his freshly caught prey, a massive, fat spider was softly humming to himself.
  • Fido’s Dwelling

    Before their eyes appeared a large home, built on a sturdy platform suspended from the tree’s thickest branches. The fleshy crown had been literally hollowed out from within, like a giant watermelon someone had scooped clean with a spoon.
  • The Red Desert

    “Right. Now listen carefully,” said Fido, while intently surveying the vast plain that stretched out before them. As far as the eye could see lay a barren field, dotted here and there with small clusters of trees.
  • The Battle with the Gorgons

    Out of the red twilight above their heads, three nightmarishly hideous, terrifying creatures came hurtling toward them at great speed. At first glance, they appeared to be women — their greenish, scale-covered skin glinting dully in the dim glow that passed for daylight in this place.
  • Inside the “Whale’s Belly”

    They had ended up in something that, at first glance, resembled the interior of a ship — at least that was the impression given by the enormous ribs rising straight from the ground and covered on the outside with some coarse material. How large the entire structure was couldn’t be said, as its outlines vanished far into the darkness.
  • Outside the “Whale’s Belly”

    No one knows what kind of monster left its bones here, nor where it came from. In any case, it’s long been dead — all that remains is the massive skeleton and fossilized skin. And as you can see, it makes quite a decent place to live.
  • The Island “Guards”

    “Hey, you there!” shouted one of the guards — a small, terribly scruffy rooster dressed in torn jeans, a colorful shirt missing half its buttons, and boots with enormous, jangling spurs.
  • New Encounters with Old Acquaintances

    Before any of the travelers could blink, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by three tall figures, tightly wrapped in long cloaks, their faces hidden behind masks. In their hands, long metal blades gleamed dully.
  • Knightly Duel

    The Screen Knight was something like a crudely assembled iron frame on wheels — some strange kind of self-propelled contraption that moved with awful creaking and clanking, wobbling from side to side like a drunkard, since its wheels didn’t seem to be quite the same size.
  • Broken Freddy

    The hideout was dimly lit, and at first, Pouchy couldn’t make out a thing. But soon her eyes adjusted, and she saw that her friend was holding in her lap… a giant hollowed-out pumpkin, from which two snapped sticks protruded, tied together in a cross.
  • A Courtroom Procedure

    From the upper floor of the building emerged the three dreadful Gorgons. This time, they were dressed in long togas that billowed freely around them, and suspended between them on an improvised stretcher hung a massive cage — inside it lay Fido, curled up in a ball.
  • The Stolen Altar

    At last! One by one, the massive stone pillars began to sway and slowly topple to the ground. Yes! Perfect! So they were going to make it after all. It was about time.
  • The Volcano

    “Don’t pretend to be foolish,” Mr. Laptsev said with a crooked smile. “You already know what I’ve planned — admit it. Ha, ha, ha... So, who shall we throw into the mouth of the volcano today?”
  • Balloon Flight

    “Prepare the balloon!” Mr. Laptsev ordered curtly. “And tie her up tightly — I don’t want any trouble from her up in the air!”

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Ghost Forest

Ghost Park

Ghost Desert

Read more …Map of Book Three

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Pictures from the Ghost Desert

Scenes in which Firecurl discovers
that new friendships and courage
can overcome even the darkest magic.

Book Three – Selected Scenes

  • The Mysterious Visitors

  • On board the
    “Mississippi”

  • The Battle with the
    Gorgons

  • In the belly
    of the whale

  • Midnight
    skirmish

  • Knightly
    duel

  • A judicial
    procedure

  • The Ghostly
    Nerod Laptsev

  • Flight with
    balloon

Quick jump to

Ghost Forest
Selected Scenes

Ghost Park
Selected Scenes

Ghost Desert
Selected Scenes

Read more …Book Three – Selected Scenes

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The Mysterious Visitors

It was only a matter of time
before someone beyond the screen spoke.
But this is no virus, nor a mystery —
it is a voice looking for a home.

When Anne found the computer turned on again a few days later, she didn’t even get angry. She simply didn’t have time — the screen was already flashing with a bold message: “Do not touch the keyboard!”

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Reflections on the scene

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

Sometimes, the smallest creatures carry the greatest meaning. In this charming and quietly unsettling scene, we discover that Anne has unknowingly brought ants from Antazonia into the real world. It’s a moment that perfectly captures the book’s uncanny mix of realism and fantasy: the creatures are not magical, but they operate her computer with shocking precision, under the command of the quietly brilliant Engineer Dan. The idea that a band of ants has occupied the keyboard to communicate through the computer is both funny and disturbing. What child hasn’t imagined their machine having a secret life?

The return of Pouchy—Anne’s beloved backpack—is equally heartwarming. Their reunion, handled through the ants’ new communication method, is written with perfect lightness. It marks the reawakening of the magical connection to the Ghost Forest, but also reveals how fragile and incomplete that connection has become. The blackened glass sphere, once a portal, now sits inert—its silence a sign of how distant the Forest feels. Yet the scene refuses despair: it teases a new path, a solution, maybe even a reinvention.

This first scene is all about quiet beginnings—signals in the static, whispers from a world we thought unreachable. The entire final book of the trilogy begins not with a bang, but with a tiny step across dimensions: a single ant, crawling across a keyboard.

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

Participants in the scene

Anne

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Ghost Forest
Selected Scenes

Ghost Park
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Ghost Desert
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Read more …Book III – Scene 01: The Mysterious Visitors

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On Board the “Mississippi” 

Red mist, strange plants,
a ghostly silence.
Anne wakes up on the deck.
The ants are here,
but the Forest is no longer the same.

Only now did Pouchy take a closer look — and gasped as well. The Ghost Forest, always full of surprises, had outdone itself this time. Thick low clouds obscured everything around them, and the air was filled with a fine red dust that made breathing horribly difficult.

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Reflections on the scene

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

This scene marks a turning point: Anne’s fantastic world, once magical and lush, is now reduced to a desolate, poisoned landscape. For readers who’ve journeyed with her since Book I, the transformation is as shocking as it is symbolic. When Peter first realizes the Ghost Forest is real, his stunned reaction mirrors that of any outsider suddenly thrust into someone else’s inner universe—especially one shaped by trauma, adventure, and growth.

But this is no longer the whimsical forest of talking hedgehogs and playful ghost games. Instead, the land is scorched, lifeless, and bitterly changed. The image of the once-majestic “Mississipy” now rusting in a red river sets the tone: we are deep in the aftermath of a catastrophe no one yet understands.

And then there’s Peter. In contrast to Anne’s hardened resolve, he embodies vulnerability, panic, and the human instinct to cling to the familiar. His tears and fears are not mocked—they’re absorbed gently by Pouchy and Anne, though not without a little teasing. For the first time, Peter sees that Anne’s stories were never just stories. They were testimonies.

This reflection isn’t just about a ruined forest. It’s about what happens when others finally begin to believe your truth—just as the truth itself turns monstrous and barely recognizable. For Anne, this confirmation comes with little comfort. Now begins the harder task: navigating a world where your imagination used to thrive, but where survival and meaning must be re-forged from ashes.

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

Participants in the scene

  • Anne

  • Pouchy

  • Peter

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Ghost Forest
Selected Scenes

Ghost Park
Selected Scenes

Ghost Desert
Selected Scenes

Read more …Book III – Scene 02: On Board the “Mississippi”

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The Battle with the Gorgons

They followed him through dust and silence.
But the silence betrayed them.
Now he is gone – and they must go on,
wounded, afraid, and completely alone.

Out of the red twilight above their heads, three nightmarishly ugly, terrifying creatures appeared at incredible speed.

At first glance they looked like women, their greenish, scaly skin glinting dully in the dim glow that passed for daylight here.

Read more

Reflections on the scene

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

Fido, the fierce little warrior of the Red Desert, seems unstoppable—until the moment he isn’t.

This scene jolts us. Not because of the gorgons’ monstrous appearance (though Diana’s illustration doesn’t spare us the horror), but because we see something shatter in the narrative: our assumption that loyalty and bravery are enough to win. Fido fights like a hero, protects like a guardian, bleeds like a legend—and still, he is taken.

But what really deepens this scene is what lies beneath the fight: the ghosts that ambush Fido aren’t strangers. They are his ghosts. Toys he broke. Bonds he severed. We’ve already learned this lesson with Anne—but Fido hasn’t. He carries his past like a closed box, refusing to look inside. And so the ghosts don’t haunt him from the shadows; they charge at him head-on.

This is where Ghost Desert turns the knife: even in a world built on magic and memory, no one is safe from what they haven’t made peace with. The forest is no longer just Anne’s trial—it’s a mirror for others, too. For Peter. For Fido. For everyone.

And then there’s the silence after the battle. A cloak dropped in the dust. A child crying for someone he thought indestructible. In a book full of whirlwinds and riddles, it’s the simplest moment that cuts deepest: the fear of losing someone who made us feel safe.

Fido is gone. And suddenly, we’re not sure this story will have a happy ending.

⸻ ❦ ⸻

– ❦ –

Participants in the scene

  • Anne

  • Pouchy

  • Peter

  • Fido the Dwarf

  • The Gorgons

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Ghost Forest
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Ghost Park
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Ghost Desert
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Read more …Book III – Scene 03: The Battle with the Gorgons

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