I         

t was still dark outside, the sun was in no hurry to rise, clouds floated slowly across the sky, and there were plenty of them. Maxík and Majka were listening to music that suited the weather, beautiful and melancholic, and then...

Bang, crash, smash, bang, crack...

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaau" came a cry from somewhere.

"What was that?" Majka startled and looked around the room to see who was screaming so horribly.

"I don't know, but let's hide quickly," Maxík grabbed Majka and pulled her into the back of the wardrobe.

"Can you hear anything?" her trembling sister asked timidly after a moment.

"No," whispered Maxík.

"Our house has collapsed," said Majka slowly, with her eyes almost popping out of her head in fear.

"No, it has not," Maxík reassured his sister.

"How do you know?" asked Majka, gently tapping her slippers on the floor to see if they were still on the ground.

"Because we're sitting at the back of the wardrobe," Maxík tapped his forehead.

"That's true," Majka calmed down.

"See?" Maxík replied quietly and slowly looked up from the floor to see what had made the loud bang.

"So, what happened?"

"I don't know... shhh," Maxík put his fingers to his lips and listened.

"What is it?" Majka looked around, frightened.

"Can you hear that?" Max asked quietly.

"Someone is breathing heavily, sneezing, and wheezing," Majka tried to identify all the sounds.

"It sounds like someone is sick in here," Maxík mused and dared to peek out.

"That's me," came a voice from somewhere on the floor.

"Did you hear that?" Maxík plucked up his courage and looked around the room.

"It was very quiet," Majka ventured, peeking out with one eye.

"And it was raspy," Maxík continued to search for the unknown creature.

"But it was as if someone said..." Majka tried to recollect the faint words.

"It's me, Kaško," came a slightly stronger voice.

They both ran out from behind the wardrobe and saw their friend, the ghost Kaško, lying on the floor. Maxík immediately bent down to him, while Majka was so surprised that she couldn't move. Kaško used to fly around the room, not just lie on the floor.

"Kaško, what happened to you?" Maxík broke the silence and hoarseness.

"I think I'm ill," Kaško whispered, as if he had a steam locomotive without steam in his throat.

"Wait, we'll cure you right away," Majka exclaimed, still surprised, and ran to the kitchen.

"Here we go," and in a few seconds she was already putting honey and some medicine into Kaško's mouth and putting water on to boil for tea.

"Guys, this won't help me," Kaško said, sitting down on his tail.

"Well, because we ghosts don't have illnesses like you do," Kaško tried to explain his reluctance to Majka.

"Well, we have..." Kaško wanted to say something, but Majka's eyes lit up and she was already pushing her little couch closer to him.

"Thank you, I'm pleased that..." whispered Kaško.

"So, lie down here on the couch and tell me something about your childhood," Majka sat down with Maxík next to Kaško and they picked up their schoolbooks and pens.

"Why should he tell you anything about his childhood?" Kaško didn't understand.

"I saw a movie where there was a doctor who treated mental illness, and he did it by having someone sit on a couch and talk about their childhood and..."

"But I don't have mental illnesses," Kaško said, almost offended, and his tail began to shake strangely, as if he wanted to fly away but didn't have enough strength to do so.

"But you're a ghost..." Majka continued.

"And that's why I have ghost illnesses and not mental illnesses," Kaško tried to explain as clearly as possible.

"Oh, and how are those treated?" They picked up their pens and schoolbooks again and waited for an answer.

"You see, we, ghosts, like to fly, but when we get sick, we have to be treated underground," Kaško tapped his tail on the floor.

"You mean we have to bury you underground?" Majka couldn't believe her ears.

"Like potatoes?" Maxík wanted to join the discussion, but somehow it didn't work out.

"Oh no, stop it, you're scaring me,'" Kaško asked the siblings.

"So, what should we do?"

"I need speleotherapy," Kaško replied without hesitation.

"And where can we buy that?" Both siblings got up from the ground, ready to quickly buy something they didn't know.

"You don't know what that is?" Kaško couldn't understand.

"No," Maxík and Majka replied in unison.

"It's healing in a cave."

"In a cave?" Kaško's best friends looked at each other, not believing their ears and thinking he was hallucinating.

"And where is that?" Maxík was the first to recover.

"In the Gombasek Cave."

"But you can't fly," Maxík pondered.

"No, I can't," Kaško looked at his almost limp body.

"So, how do we get there?" Majka asked timidly.

"By train to Rožňava and by bus to Gombasek," Kaško stretched out his sick arm and showed them where it was on the map.

"Let's go for it, then," Majka got up from the ground and put down her pen and psychotherapy workbook.

The children packed up at lightning speed and took Kaško's spirit on their shoulders. Like any proper spirit, he weighed only 16 grams and, of course, no one could see him—except for Majka and Maxík. They travelled exactly as Kaško had told them and arrived at a strangely beautiful place.

"Kaško, but this doesn't look like a cave, it looks like a super children's park," Majka looked around in disbelief, unable to understand how come they had never been here to play before.

"Well, this is the Gombasek complex, where families with children usually go," whispered Kaško.

"And how do you know that?"

"I came here recently to see Kleofáš," Kaško replied without hesitation.

"Who?" asked his siblings almost simultaneously.

"My ghost friend, who was also being treated here."

"But where is the cave?" Maxík searched for a hole in the ground.

"Here on this hill—we just have to walk past this beautiful lake, around these wooden barbecue pits, and..."

"What?" Majka interrupted his flow of words.

"Families come here to barbecue and spend time," Kaško explained.

"Oh," Majka understood, and probably Maxík too.

"And then around these statues and we'll be there."

"But it's probably closed now," Maxík said sadly and began to worry about Kaško, who was getting weaker.

"That's what we're here for." Kaško blinked at least one eye.

"Huh?"

"Well, because we ghosts heal a little lower down, in the corridors where you humans don't go on tours."

"How come?" Majka felt a little offended that the Haravara ghosts had some kind of advantage again.

"Every cave is bigger than the place where tourists go," Kaško began.

"Sure," agreed the siblings, "because there are some places we couldn't crawl through."

"Or they're underwater," Kaško pondered.

"Or they're tiny," added Maxík.

"Or dangerous," Majka's eyes sparkled.

"And we heal ourselves in one such chamber—but mind you, today you will meet someone you have never met before and probably didn't even know they still lived in Haravara," Kaško paused, as if remembering something very serious.

"Who?"

"Well, you'll see."

Kaško took a kind of whistle out of his pocket, whistled a tune, and in a moment two new ghosts were standing next to them. As it turned out, they were the cave administrators. They had a bit of a problem with Maxík and Majka going into the cave, but when Kaško vouched for them and they proved that they were truly so exceptional that they could see them, they took them both on some kind of carts, reminiscent of hospital carts but without wheels, and off they went.

Well, they went—they flew, straight underground.

"Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooop," Kaško suddenly shouted with his last ounce of strength, and everyone stopped.

"We forgot this," Kaško pointed to the wall and the siblings.

"What is it?" Maxík asked Kaško as he handed him a box.

"Your magic plant, so you can walk through walls with us."

Maxík and Majka chewed the plant and imagined what would have happened if Kaško hadn't stopped them. They would probably have been treated in that cave.

After a short while, they were flying underground. They flew through the beautiful halls of the Gombasek Cave. They learned that there was even a stalactite or stalagmite or some other thing that you could touch and stroke for good luck, which you don't have in other caves.

“Kaško?”

"Yes," Kaško replied to Majka with his last ounce of energy.

 "And people don't get treated here?"

"You mean with our method?"

"Yeah."

"They used to be treated, but now there are fewer of them," Kaško smiled, because apparently the fact that people are less often treated in caves suits them - the ghosts of the Haravara land.

"And why?" Majka asked.

"I don't know," Kaško admitted and continued, "even though speleotherapy began in the Gombasek Cave as the first cave, not only in Haravara, but also in the surrounding countries."

"Well then," Majka dreamed, already looking forward to those cave adventures.

"A few years ago, this cave was even listed as a World Natural Heritage Site," Kaško recalled.

"And why was that?

"Because it's a beautiful cave and there are things in it that you won't find anywhere else in the world," Kaško gave a timid smile.

"And what is that?" Maxík and Majka asked curiously.

"That's what heals us," Kaško smiled even more mysteriously, and it seemed that he was already completely healed.

"And what is that?"

“This!”

Majka and Maxík looked around, unable to believe their eyes.

"Wow. What is that?"

"Those are sinter straws," Kaško replied as wisely as he could.

"What?" his friends didn't understand at all.

"They're thin, strange straws," Kaško tried to explain the inexplicable.

"Like straws?"

"Exactly, but they're made of a mineral and..."

"And how do they treat you?" Maxík couldn't wait, because he couldn't imagine how these things sticking out of the wall like thin straws or small drops could treat anyone.

"Um..."

Kaško didn't finish his sentence, and then it happened. A giant slowly approached them from behind a large rock.

"Good morning, Mr. Kaško," he said in a deep voice like some kind of performing artist—that is, a reciter—and Majka almost fainted—but not from the voice, but from fear.

"Hello, Krasoň," Kaško greeted him politely.

"Krasoň?" Majka couldn't believe her ears.

"Not because he's beautiful, but because he's the giant of the Slovak Karst, where we are right now," Kaško whispered in Majka's ear so that Krasoň couldn't hear.

"Oh, then everything is clear, even though I didn't expect to find a giant here, in the underground," Majka admitted, breathing normally now and her eyes no longer so frightened.

"Imagine what would happen if he appeared above ground," Kaško laughed.

"I'd rather not imagine that," said Maxík, who had been sitting with his eyes and mouth wide open.

"Can we go?" asked Krasoň.

"Of course," Kaško opened his arms.

Krasoň took Kaško in one hand, lifted him up to a straw, and growled.

"In the part of the Gombasek Cave where people go, there are stalagmites as tall as three metres."

"Wow," was all Majka and Maxík could say.

"But here they are six metres long, see?" Krasoň pointed around him, and only then did the two siblings – the little humans – realised how beautiful their surroundings were, how magical everything around them was.

"Some of them are special," laughed Kaško, who was clearly in a better mood now.

"Special?" asked the little humans, now truly expecting anything.

And then they saw Krasoň put Kaško to a straw, and he began to drink normally through it, as if the ground were a glass of juice and this were a straw.

"Mother Nature has many secrets, and many of them are hidden in water and underground—and this is one of them," Krasoň winked at them.

"Wow," Maxík and Majka couldn't believe their eyes.

"Is that better, Mr. Kaško?" Krasoň asked politely.

"I can already feel the power,"

"Mother Earth knows what you need," Kaško patted him gently on the shoulder.

"So, I can slowly start flying," Kaško stretched and was about to say something—some kind of spell...

"Ha-ha-ha"—the giant Krasoň laughed so heartily that visitors to the cave would surely have heard him if there had been any.

"Did I say anything funny?" Kaško didn't understand the fit of laughter.

"Your treatment has barely begun," Krasoň whispered in his ear.

"But we need to get home by evening," Majka remembered her mom and dad.

"Don't worry, we'll just move to another part, to a hall where people come during the day and admire the little straws and think they're just little drops," Krasoň laughed at people's ignorance.

"And aren't they?" Maxík asked cautiously.

Krasoň just smiled, picked Kaško up again, sat him on the cart, and moved so fast that Majka and Maxík couldn't keep up with him.

Suddenly, the cart stopped, or rather, it was stopped by a kind of cord or rope, and when Maxík and Majka looked at the end of the rope, they almost fainted.

"Have you never seen dwarves before?", cried a cheerful dwarf in blue suspenders and a strange cap on his head.

"Only in children's stories," was all the shocked Majka could manage to say. Maxík was just standing there staring.

"Ah, newcomers," the dwarf slapped his knees.

"These are humans," Kaško introduced the newcomers.

"But, but... what are they doing here in our part of the cave?" he looked at both dwarves incredulously and suspiciously.

"Well... " Kaško wanted to explain.

"And how come they can see us?" all the dwarves in the cave, who had not paid any attention to Maxík and Majka until now because they thought they couldn't see them, stood up.

"They just can, that's all," Kaško said curtly.

"Are they special?" asked one of the dwarves, looking at Max and May.

"They are," confirmed Kaško, hugging his friends.

"Well, come on in," said the dwarf, pointing somewhere.

Maxik, Majka, Kaško, and the two dwarves entered the hall, where you can also go if you visit the Gombasek Cave, and then they noticed a number of small stalactites and stalagmites on the walls, and behind them about 15 dwarves.

"'Pshhh,'" they whispered, and small hammers appeared in the dwarves' hands, because every proper dwarf has a hammer, and they began to play beautiful music on the stalactites.

"I don't understand how they don't break the stalactites with those hammers," whispered Majka.

"Those are hammers that the dwarves make from a special crystal called carillon," Kaško pointed to a stone in the rock.

"What kind?"

"Carillon," Kaško repeated.

"But that doesn't exist," smiled Maxík, who knows a thing or two about stones.

"Hmmm, you don't know it, but as you can see, it exists," Kaško began to move to the rhythm of the hammer music.

Everyone fell silent and let themselves be healed.

Suddenly, they realised that it was quiet everywhere. The dwarves had finished playing.

Our friends slowly opened their eyes.

"So, Mr. Kaško and his friends, I think you should do one last thing now," said one of the dwarves with a mischievous smile, as if from a storybook.

"And that is?" asked Kaško.

"To dive properly."

"Nooooooooooooooooo," cried Majka.

"Is there a problem, young lady?" one of the dwarves looked at Majka in confusion.

"It's just that I don't have a swimsuit, and I can't just dive into the water," Majka gasped.

"You will dive into yourself."

"Into myself?" Even Kaško didn't understand that.

"We have a special place for that," they slowly left the cave and the dwarf pointed somewhere down into the valley.

"An old monastery with a manor house and a tower and..." the dwarf explained further.

"Sure thing, I'm flying..." Kaško spread his arms.

"But you can't fly yet!" the dwarf stopped him.

"How do we get there?" asked Kaško.

"Come on," sighed the dwarf, exasperated by his uncomprehending visitors.

The dwarves led their friends out of the cave and pointed to a sort of tower.

"Should we jump?" Majka began to worry.

The dwarves just laughed and disappeared.

Maxík took a good look at the tower.

"It's a zipline!"

"What's that?" Kaško didn't understand a word.

"It's a cable car," said Maxík, pointing to the cables that led from the tower down somewhere.

"What kind of cable car?" Majka was now gasping for air too.

"You hang on to it, and it takes you somewhere along the cable," said Maxík, clearly looking forward to the trip.

"Not somewhere, but as far as I can see, straight to the old monastery."

Majka and Maxík carried 16-gram Kaško up to the tower, strapped themselves in, and let themselves down.

"The zipline is great," exclaimed Maxík.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," shouted Kaško behind them as they rode. There is no other track like this anywhere in the vicinity, and it takes you all the way to the old monastery.

The friends got out and saw a strange window and the beautifully maintained ruins of the monastery.

"So, this is where you ghosts come to meditate?"

"Also here," Kaško was finally at a familiar place, "but we have something here."

"What is it?" Maxík and Majka waited for another surprise.

"Look at that wall," Kaško pointed somewhere on the wall.

"A hand," said the siblings at once, and indeed, all that remained of a larger painting on the wall was a beautiful large hand.

"What is it doing?" Majka asked cautiously.

"It feels like it's caressing you," Maxík examined the hand.

"It's watching over you—it's a magical hand—under which even we, ghosts, can close our eyes, think of nothing, and nothing will happen to us," Kaško explained.

"A mysterious hand will watch over you?"

"Exactly," Kaško sat down under the mysterious hand, which remained on one of the walls that had been preserved here, closed his eyes, and healed himself.

"What about us?" his friends looked around.

"Look," Maxík pointed to something.

Right next to it stood a small castle with a café and a kind of window that was not on the wall but just stood on the ground.

"What kind of window is that?"

"Kaško probably won't tell us, so let's take a look ourselves," said Maxík, moving toward the window.

"'Awesome, it's almost magical,' whispered Majka when they got to the window.

Someone came up with this window into history—when you look through it at the monastery, you can see what the monastery used to look like.

"That's great," Majka gushed.

Maxík and Majka bought some tea and delicious juice, looked through the window, and went to the castle to see a small exhibition of things that were found here when everything was being restored.s

"We have to bring Dad and Mom here."

"At least for a day."

"Exactly, we'll have fun here like never before."

"And we haven't even been to the observation tower yet," Maxík discovered another interesting thing.

"Or the places in the cave where people go," Majka remembered.

And as they were looking at the window, they fell asleep and didn't even notice when Kaško, refreshed and relaxed, took them home to their beds.