Rain Street Clockmaker

When it started pouring like an onion, Amelia hid under the canopy of a small shop on Rain Street. She was just about to walk home after school, but she wasn't about to get wet. She was joined by Maks, her classmate who now looked like a soggy hen after a ride on his scooter. - 'Hi, running away from the rain too? - Amelia asked. Maks just nodded and wiped his wet forehead. Behind the shop's display window, dozens of old clocks glimmered. A large standing clock was just striking fourteen o'clock, and a small silver alarm clock trembled quietly on a shelf. The door creaked slightly and an old man with glasses as thick as if he had binoculars looked out from behind them. - Do you want to hide from the rain? - he asked kindly. - Come in, perhaps we can find something interesting to do while we wait? They stepped tentatively inside, immediately enveloped in silence and the smell of dust mixed with metal. The clocks, one after the other, ticked completely out of sync, as if each had its own time. - See, here we have the oldest clocks in the city! - said the old man, leading them up a narrow winding staircase. - But... I have something really unusual in the basement. Amelia and Maks exchanged glances, but curiosity was stronger. They followed the old man down the stairs to the cellar, where even older clocks were waiting. One of them caught Amelia's eye: golden, decorated with mysterious markings and glowing stones. The clockmaker smiled enigmatically. - This is a time clock. No one has dared to wind it yet. Perhaps today... will enough courage be gathered? Amelia turned the key without thinking. The clock chimed one, then another, and the mechanism glowed with a green light. Suddenly they felt the floor begin to tremble, the walls spin and the world around them disappear into a haze. When they opened their eyes, a dense forest stretched around them, and instead of the clockmaker, they saw fur-clad children looking at them curiously. Just then they heard a loud rumbling of the ground and a strange, deep roar.... What had happened? Will they be able to return to their own time?