Sova hurriedly redressed himself. He was so shaken that he didn’t even notice that the right lens of his glasses was dirty. Even with just his left eye working properly, he could tell that it was not safe to be near Nashorn right now. Once he had informed him of the fight in the village, the tall albino simply sat down on a log and did not move or make any facial expressions whatsoever. With his pale skin, he appeared as though he was some strange statue dressed in human clothes. He had been like this for five minutes.

In the corner of his left eye, Sova saw Zmija tap Niedźwiedź’s arm and whisper into his ear.

“I think we should go and collect more firewood; just in case. Don’t you think that would be a good idea?” She whispered. Niedźwiedź nodded. Zmija grabbed two of his fingers with her hand. To an observer, it would have been reminiscent of how a father would hold the hand of a small child. Sova could see that the large man was scared. Zmija smiled at Niedźwiedź as they walked towards Sova. As she turned to her short, bespectacled companion her smile melted away instantly. She looked straight into Sova’s eyes and without saying a word he knew what she wanted; what she needed.

“Farkash is okay. He wasn’t involved in the fight and he only used his second face,” He said. He could see a wave of relief wash over Zmija.

“Thank you,” She answered. She then returned to Niedźwiedź, once again wearing a smile, and began to walk away.

About a minute or two after Niedźwiedź and Zmija left the camp, Sova saw the creature that had attacked Ekkehardt and Alexandra walking towards him. It was accompanied by a black wolf.

It was at this point when Sova noticed that his glasses were dirty. He removed them. For a moment his vision was reduced to a blurry unfocused mess as he wiped his glasses down with his shirt. Once all of the dirt was gone, he put them back on and saw that the creature was replaced by Hienă while the wolf had disappeared. He turned around and saw a naked Farkash grabbing a set of clothes that had been neatly folded for him. He paused briefly while dressing himself. He put his pants back and then stopped for a moment to look at Sova. His muscular chest was covered in scars. There was concern in his eyes. The both of them then turned to Nashorn and Hienă.

Nashorn was still sitting on the fallen tree. His red eyes, still emotionless, were focused on Hienă, who walked towards him with the carelessness and mirth of a child in a candy store. She stopped right in front of Nashorn.

Her weapon was no longer visible, as it had one feature that neither Ekkehardt nor Alexandra had observed. The blade of Hienă’s weapon was capable of collapsing into and expanding out of the hilt with the press of a button. Sometime before her arrival at the camp, she had collapsed the weapon and tucked it away into a pouch on her belt. Retrieving and deploying the weapon would be a simple task that Hienă could do with her eyes closed, but her hands were nowhere near her weapon.

“Oh Nashorn, I couldn’t help myself. The princess and her guard-dog were just standing out in the open, waiting to be cut up. I’m terribly sorry about that little… indiscretion…” She said, finishing her sentence with a wink.

Nashorn stared at her with cold red eyes.

Meanwhile

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“What the hell was that?” Alexandra asked as Ekkehardt examined his sword within the blockhouse. The interior of the blockhouse was a simple space that was crudely constructed out of wood. The room that they were in was filled with cots and barrels of stored food. Narrow arrow-slits were cut into all of the walls and equipped with wooden shutters. In between these arrow-slits hung large quivers, all full of arrows.

Alexandra, Ekkehardt, and Althaus were surrounded by Schwartzbaum’s men, who were now on guard like never before. The injured soldiers were taken into the blockhouse and were being treated. The two that were struck by the creature’s whip had been cut up, but their wounds were shallow. Ekkehardt believed that the creature’s weapon was meant to cause more pain than actual harm. Once the soldiers’ wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, it was likely that they would be okay, provided that they didn’t get sick. To prevent this, measures were being taken to ensure that they had access to the cleanest available air.

Ekkehardt wasn’t able to produce an answer to Alexandra’s question. Althaus was silent. The village elder was pale as a sheet, shaking back and forth in his chair, and staring off into the distance. Ekkehardt, who was not looking at Alexandra, held his sword out in front of him as he replayed the events of the fight in his mind. Eventually he spoke up.

“I don’t know…. I… I’ve never seen anything like that…” He finally said. He then turned to Althaus.

“Mr. Althaus, have you ever seen a creature like that before?” He asked. Althaus shook his head.

“No! That… that wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. That doesn’t happen here! We are good, peaceful people. We haven’t seen anything like that since… since the murders all those years ago!” Althaus exclaimed. His eyes darted around the room as he sat on the edge of his seat. Althaus then pointed his finger at Ekkehardt and Alexandra.

“It came for you! I know I saw it look at you! You brought it here!” He accused.

“Mr. Althaus, we don’t know any more about what that thing was than you do. How could we have brought it here?” Ekkhardt responded. Althaus gritted his teeth.

“I don’t know! All I know is that it wasn’t here yesterday and that if it comes back it’s going to hurt one of my people,” Althaus spat out.

“The count has already sent soldiers to take up positions in Weisshart, if it comes back then the village won’t have to deal with it alone,” Alexandra argued. Althaus shook his head.

“You saw what it did to those men. Are you sure that will be enough, especially after you take some of them with you?” Althaus responded.

“Sir,” Ekkehardt said, “If that creature is after us like how you said, then it will stop being your problem the moment we leave, which will be tomorrow morning.”

Althaus glared at Ekkehardt for a moment, but soon realized that the young man had a point. He then began to walk away.

“Fine…” he said before exiting the room. Ekkehardt sat back down and sighed. Alexandra turned to look at the sunset through one of the blockhouse’s arrow-slits.

‘Something about that creature feels familiar… I know it…’ Alexandra thought to herself.

Somewhere else, a short time later

Nashorn’s red eyes looked down at the figure beneath him and inhaled deeply. The porcelain-colored skin of his hands was now red. A humanoid bloody pulp lay belly-up beneath him.

“That was your final warning. Your next indiscretion will be your last,” He said before turning away. Hienă spat out some blood. She was too hurt to laugh, but that didn’t stop a large smile from forming on her lips. Her pain was great, but she knew everything was going to be okay, for soon she would get the chance to share it. She stared up at the night sky as a single barely-audible word escaped her lips:

“Princess…”