Echo

A boy (Otto) and Mathilde play tag 50 years before the start of World War I. He has a good hiding place, so he takes out a book to read called The Thirteenth Harmonica of Otto Messenger.

A Witch, a Kiss, a Prophecy. A king needs for his first child to be a son, or else the kingdom will pass to his younger brother. The king’s child is a daughter, but he makes a secret deal with the midwife to take the daughter away and pretend she died at birth. Instead of abandoning the child, the midwife gives her to a forest witch, naming the baby girl Eins. The king’s next children are also daughters, and he does the same thing. The midwife names these children Zwei and Drei before giving them to the witch. The midwife promises each child that one day in their future, a bell will chime and a path will be revealed. Finally, the king’s fourth child is a son, but he claims it’s his first.

Otto looks up from the book he’s been reading, having forgotten about the game of hide-and-seek he’s in the middle of. He leaves his spot and wanders through the woods. He gets lost and scared before suddenly hearing voices telling him where to go. He finds three women who introduce themselves as Eins, Zwei, and Drei. Otto is surprised—he recognizes them as characters from his story book. They ask for Otto to read them their story.

A Secret, a Spell, a Final Deed. After being abandoned by the king, Eins, Zwei, and Drei grow up in a cottage in the woods with the witch. It’s a hard life in poverty, and the witch makes them work. Time passes, and the king’s younger brother dies young, making the king’s schemes unnecessary. The king himself becomes ill and dies before ever seeing his daughters again. On the coronation of the king’s son, the midwife tells the son about his three older sisters in the woods. Eins, Zwei, and Drei are overjoyed when the midwife comes to tell them their brother wants them back. But the witch gets angry, calling them ungrateful and cursing them, saying they’ll only be free if they save a soul from death and if a messenger comes with a woodwind instrument to carry their souls out. The three sisters then seemingly get teleported to a strange forest they don’t recognize.

Otto looks up again from the book he’s reading. Eins, Zwei, and Drei ask him to read more, but the pages are blank. The sisters ask Otto if he has a woodwind with him, but all he has is a harmonica. Each sister plays a melody on the harmonica. They tell Otto that the harmonica will help him find his way out of the woods, then they cast a spell to put him to sleep.

Otto wakes from a dream. He still has the harmonica but Eins, Zwei, and Drei are nowhere around. He wanders around in the woods until eventually he hears voices calling his name. It’s the search party looking for him. His father and Mathilde come greet him. No one believes his story about the three sisters, but he keeps the harmonica with him wherever he goes. When people start thinking he’s strange, he hides the harmonica, still keeping it nearby. He never forgets his responsibility to be a messenger for the three sisters.