The Furred Reich (22 page)

The wolves gaped at him. Master Sepp was already walking away from them, hoisting a crossbow upon his shoulder. The wolves kept their eyes glued to him and wondered if they heard him right. This really was insanity.

Kristiyan blew a whistle and ordered the men onto the ground and forward. Kasha was struggling along on the left. At about four fifths of the distance, Master Sepp’s silhouette appeared from the hill and he began launching arrows at once. The wolves hesitated for a moment, wondering what was happening. But Kristiyan’s whistle still prodded them forward. Master Sepp must have decided not to hurt his recruits, otherwise he would have hit a good few of them. Arrows swooshed over the wolves until they reached their objective.

For those who wanted to join the Lightning Rune Tribe, these days were a time of martyrdom. Most of the time, Vahn thought he was useless, impossibly inferior, and that he could never make a decent warrior. Despite the desperation, Vahn and the others tried to do better and better. But Master Sepp had has own ideas about “better,” ideas which could lead to the brink of death.

Heim Ins Reich

Sarah flicked her ears. Boots were crunching in the snow again. But this time it was too late. She had evaded the angry humans for awhile, but now it was too late to escape. Slowly opening one eye, she gazed up at a human standing before her, staring at her, just outside the evergreen she was sleeping under. Her eyes widened to the sight. It was one of the angry humans. She recognized the clothes.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she squeaked out, hugging the tree she grew up under. “I don’t mean harm and I want to live.”

The human said nothing.

“Please……” She couldn’t help but tremble, with thoughts of all those angry humans that came to her glade.

Sarah curled her spotted tail around her naked body.

“I’m, sorry…” The human breathed finally out. Then he dropped his gear and crumpled over into her tree and its dry shelter.

“Aieee!” Sarah leaped up to make room. Snow fell off the fir branches and onto both of them. Up close, the human didn’t look so scary. Actually, he looked a little sad and lonesome. And his outer uniform had tatters in it.

She leaned forward and sniffed at the human’s gear, picking up an old can that he dropped.

“Hey d-do you got any food?”

He didn’t respond.

“Hey,” she reached forward and poked him with her paw but he didn’t budge. It looked like the human was out cold.

———

“Hey… hey are you awake now?”

Hans blinked and looked up into the bright blue eyes of the spotted feline looking down right at him. Her silky white hair nearly touched his face.

“Wh… where am I?”

“My tree. Are you OK?”

“I’m… Ya, I’m alright.”

The snow leopardess pawed at his gear and tilted her head. “Do you got any food?” she asked.

“Not much. But since you let me stay here I can share…”

Hans emptied out his can. It was a paltry smattering of oats, almonds, walnuts and one small slab of dried meat. He offered the last slab. She scooted up close to him and took a bite of the meat.

“I’m almost out of food. Been walking. Many days. Almost one moon. What’s your name?”

“I’m Sarah Flame and you?”

“My name’s Hans.”

So her name was Sarah. This snow leopard was young, and probably more beautiful than she realized. Her gray fur was covered with spots and her belly fur was radiant white, matching the color of her long hair. These lands were silent in the winter, and Sarah was the first person he’d seen after days of questing. He looked up at the sun and realized that she’d been watching over him almost half the day.

“My name’s Hans. Um, I’m sorry for scaring you. When I saw you shaking and hugging the tree like that, it made me feel bad. Because you seem like a really helpful person…”

The snow leopard’s mouth went agape. “R-really? How can you tell that?”

She was blushing, too. Sarah was already sitting right next to him, and her thick fur warmed him to the touch.

“I get really lonely here,” she said. “I thought you were one of those humans that hurt animals.”

“Who, me? No, I’m really not like that. I’ve been walking through the mountain pass, and you’re the first snow creature I’ve seen. And since I don’t have any natural fur it’s been really cold.”

“Aww I’m sorry about all that.” She slid up closer and her tail curved around Hans’ waist, which was of course what he wanted.

“Wait,” she said, ears suddenly lowered.

“Are you gonna leave me?”

Well, that was a strange question. From Hans’ experience with women in this world, which was his only experience, usually they were the ones to leave him. For whatever reason. But Hans was hungry, frostbitten, and out of food. It was hard to say no to Sarah. Very hard.

“No. Um, no, I won’t leave you.”

“Yay!” Sarah giggled and squeezed him, and kissed him on the cheek.

Now was no time to hesitate, because these moments didn’t come too often. Hans took Sarah’s paw and kissed her softly on the mouth. Sarah gasped in surprise, but took the kiss and let Hans lead her through it. Hans was pretty sure she’d never done this before. She was still blushing when the kiss trailed off.

“I’m glad you found me because I get lonesome a lot and need company. I never thought I’d see so many humans, either.”

“I know how you feel. I’ve been traveling for months. Looking for my friends, a ship, and a way home. And I’ve never found anything. It’d be nice to stay with someone I like.” That was true. He’d also run out of food and the land had frozen over.

She pressed her pink nose against Hans’.

“And do you like someone?”

Hans chuckled, “Well, yes. I like you.”

She giggled and kissed him on the mouth this time.

“I know it’s cold here but you’ll get used to it I know you will! And I can hunt for you I’m a really good hunter!”

“Hunt? For me?”

“I know its kind of weird because I’m a girl and all but yes I’ll hunt for you!”

Hans realized then that he made the right decision, because chances were that he’d now make it through winter here.

“Thanks. You’re the best! I hope we can make this home.” Hans tried to sound as enthusiastic as she was. Excitement or not, he did need Sarah.

“I’m glad you want to, I wanna be with you forever.”

This time Sarah grabbed Hans’ face and pulled him in for a much more passionate kiss. Hans wondered what he was getting into. Well, no, he did know what it meant. Maybe this was what the lapine grandma warned him about with snow leopards. If so, it looked like he’d been caught.

Rotten Edifice

“Los! Los!”

A chorus of low growls rumbled out from the forest on many sides. At his signal, the Lightning Rune Tribe descended on another hamlet held by the Raiders. These wolves were no longer afraid of the green monsters. Sepp had done his best to rid his canines of their inferiority complex, and it showed.

The vengeful wolves leaped onto the towering monsters and tore into their skin while deadly projectiles flew out from within the dark woods, a place where the lumbering Greenskins slowly learned not to enter.

Sepp hoisted up his crossbow and took another shot that pierced a Raider locked into hand-to-hand struggle. The wolf landed on his paws as the monster fell onto the white floor. Since the Mauser was nearly out of bullets, ‘Master’ Sepp had switched to this new form of armament. An ax flew his way, and he ducked onto the ground while he watched his new ‘Kompanie’ in action.

As the chorus of yelps and screams got further away, Sepp and three others crawled on their bellies toward the outermost huts. He could see his two other groups finding the same success on the other side. Then there was a sound of footsteps coming their way. The ‘projectiles platoon’ stirred, ears flat back on their heads. Sepp reached out a hand,. One of the wolves handed him a ballistic arrow. In silence, the crossbow responded with a metallic click when he pulled a lever. Sepp took a breath, turned around and aimed the arrow at – It was Poetschke.

“It’s cleaned out,” Poetschke motioned them in, his bloodstained camouflage gleaming in the winter sunlight.

Sepp and his party followed Poetschke and turned a corner to see dead bodies strewn around the huts: Hulking green raiders lay in pools of congealed black. This time there were also tall, gray-skinned creatures with big front teeth. They were about as tall as the Raiders, but more slender. Like the Raiders, they also bled black.

“And what are those?” Sepp nudged a wolf and pointed to the gargoyle-like creatures.

“Never seen it before.”

“Well, go get Kasha and tell him to make sure our comrades get buried.”

“Jawohl Master Sepp,” the wolf replied crisply.

“Poetshke, where are the wolves of this village?” Sepp turned and asked the Sturmbannfuehrer.

“These ones stayed in their homes.”

“Bring them out, I’d like to get a look at them.”

Sepp picked an abandoned hut at the edge of the woods and finally sat down. Like most wolves, the previous inhabitants lived scantly. On the floor was a pallet of various furs, flint tools and a log to sit on. This would do. He set down his crossbow and went back outside. Re-organizing a freed village was a task he disliked, but such things needed to be done.

Outside, Poetschke and the others were pulling the wolves from their homes. Sepp looked on as the warriors shuffled the inhabitants toward the center. There were only a few men this time, and many of the women had bright red marks dotting their fur and skin. Not a one of them made any eye contact, just stared down at the ground.

“The further east we go, the more of this we’re going to see,” muttered one of the spear holders.

“Master Sepp! We caught one!”

Kristiyan came running up to his commander.

“We caught a raider hiding in one of the homes. Says he wants to talk to you.”

Two other wolves brought the green monster out of the hut. This one didn’t look much like the other warriors. He was quite a bit smaller than the others Sepp had seen.

“We don’t normally keep prisoners of your kind, so what can I do for you?”

“Ah,” the monster said in a raspy voice. He wasn’t dressed for combat, either.

“Me come here to send message to humans of, um, Rune Lightning Tribe. Oxbane, overlord of this land, he wanna see you. Say your tribe prove itself. He say Khanate willing to work with you. Have alliance.”

“Nice try, Grimeskin,” Kristiyan scoffed, “we’ll drive you east till you’re back in the hell you came from. We’ve already kicked in your door, now your whole rotten structure is falling apart.”

Sepp winced and shook his head Kristiyan before responding to the emissary.

“So. Where does this Oxbane fellow want to meet?” Sepp asked.

“Location in the middle. At the temple. Where the forest ends and gold grasses begin.”

Sepp looked to Kristiyan and asked if he knew the place in question. Kristiyan growled, “Master, he’s not worth—”

“We must at least hear them. Tell me. How far is it?”

“One days’ ride by your relic machine. Three days by feral equine,” Kristiyan said plainly.

“Fine. Tell this Oxbane of yours to give us a quarter moon.”

The green diplomat smiled at both of them through his pale green eyes.

“Alright. I will tell him so. Assume me free to go now?”

“Yes, go.”

The Grossdeutschland

Hans could feel Sarah snuggled against him and breathing on his chest. After he awoke she was still there, but that was no big surprise. Last night, Hans soon learned that Sarah was a virgin. It was easy to tell that Sarah was younger than the other girls he’d been with, and that she fell in love much more easily. Maybe that was what Hans needed, anyway.

He opened his eyes to watch her sleeping against his chest. The big pine tree was a nice shelter, and the warmth from Sarah’s body radiated onto his bare skin despite the winter air. He slid his hand down Sarah’s back and fondled her tail until she opened one eye at him.

“Good morning my love,” Sarah cooed up at him and groggily rubbed her head against his chest. They both closed their eyes again and laid there together until Hans wasn’t sure how long they’d been there.

“Baby?”

“Mmmhm?”

“Is this tree your home?”

Sarah blinked and stretched.

“Yes. I was born here. Some other animals try to take it from me but I defended it.”

Underneath his winter blanket he rubbed his foot against her hind paw, and she responded by doing the same.

“But you know us humans like to live in houses, right?”

“Hmm? What’s a house? Oh, that reminds me: I have to go out hunting today, right?”

Hans smiled at that news. “If you could, that would be great. I’ll go back to the forest while you do that. I saw some things worth harvesting on the way here.”

“Alright my love be safe.”

She climbed out of their sleeping bag and kissed him softly on the lips. He watched Sarah as she padded off into the snow. Hans lay back and stared up into the piney ceiling of their home.

Hans realized one thing: Slowly but surely, he was being pulled back to the life of a normal person. Since Belgorod, or maybe before then, terror overturned all his preconceptions and separated him from the normal human condition. Sarah was blotting those things out, and those things really needed to be blotted out. Maybe, by some way of providence, that was what these last few months’ journey was: A sieve, a filter between the life that was, and the normal life he had now. If so, maybe his journey had come to an end.

He stretched and slowly made his way up to face the bleak morning air. After months of trekking through the ‘North Continent,’ he’d gotten accustomed to foraging in the woods. That was what he intended on doing today. He dressed, strapped on his rifle, and made his way along a frozen river that meandered toward several patches of forest, fresh snow crunching beneath his boots.

“EYAAAAAAAAAH!”

It was Sarah. Something was attacking her. She didn’t seem too far away. Another feminine scream echoed through the snow. There was a small gray figure at a distance. While running, Hans loaded his weapon and fired a shot in its direction, which caused the animal, which now looked like some type of canine, to jump back.