Invasion of Fischler part IV

by Eduarde

I suppose I better tell you what happened after that love-sick Antonio got skewered by those Moerderbande. Serves him right for thinking more about his middle leg than his fighting arm. I would never be that stupid - stop laughing you!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes...

It did not take very long for Franz, Don Carlos and myself to finish off the Moerderbande. I think one of them managed to get away, but he won't be coming back after us in this lifetime. We tied up and blindfolded our young mesmeriser while she was still unconscious. Don Carlos was of the opinion we should cut her throat there and then. But I think wiser heads prevailed and instead tended her wounds. After all it was not her fault she went through all this just to get into my pants.What! I heard that!

We also freed Dandelion from the underground cavern where he had been locked away by our previous captors. At this point we decided to take the children to an orphanage. They began to protest this but Franz gave them a very moving speech about why they should go with us. Unfortunately I was falling asleep at that point so I cannot tell you what it was about. But it was a very moving speech.

Antonio was very badly hurt and there was nothing we could do for him so we tied him to a stretcher and we all started heading back to Stutzung.

We arrived there without any incidence and put Antonio in a Hospice to recover. We also handed the children over to the orphanage and warned the priest in charge about the strange power of the girl. As we left I noticed her looking out a window at us. Poor girl, she is still in love with me.

Anyway we did not waste much time and soon we headed north again towards Freiburg.

After a few hours on the road we came across a group of peasants in some obvious difficulty with their wagon. It looked like a wheel had come off and they were trying to repair it. They seemed to be struggling a bit so we offered our assistance, after all we are the good guys. But we had barely gotten our hands dirty when we found ourselves surrounded by a somewhat motley crew of peasants holding crude weapons (not as crude as my weapon perhaps but... anyway). They actually wanted to rob us. I think all of us at that point were thinking the same thing: after taking on entire armies and monsters from your worst nightmare, this seemed rather comical.

We did manage to talk them out of robbing us by explaining that we did NOT want to chop them into little bits and feed them to the wolves, that really we understand that times are tough and in fact we appreciated the amusing interlude. Don Carlos even tossed them a guilder to help them on their way. We left them at the side of the road arguing as to who's stupid idea this was anyway.

Further along the way we had to pass by some dark forest where all sort of strange sounds were coming. I wonder, are there any forests in Eisen that just have trees? Well, we kept on riding as quick as we could, which was not very since most of us cannot ride to save our collective ass. But as the sun began to sink we saw large shadowy figures loping not too far away. Wolves.

Big wolves and lots of them. Not good, we were almost wiped out by a pack of large wolves not too long ago, and we were still some time away from Seeufer, the nearest town. By the time the sun had gone completely we could see the light of Seeufer but it was too late. We would not reach it in time and the wolves began to close in. Standing our ground we prepared for a fight we could not possibly win.

Suddenly we could hear singing in the distance. A rich, deep baritone. Pretty good too, much better than Fanz's Eisen marching songs. Anyway when the wolves heard this they froze in their tracks, and as the singing came closer they began to slink away, tails between their legs.

Out of the darkness came a big bearded man, still singing his song. He introduced himself as Franz Behre, protector of these parts. It is his singing that keeps all manner of creatures at bay and allows Seeufer to exist. He admonished us for being outside the city walls at night (rather redundantly I thought as we had admonished ourselves quite severely for exactly the same thing) but agreed to lead us to safety behind the walls. At the city gates, the guard was reluctant to let us in as he had orders not to open the gate after dark. But when Franz Behre threatened to tear him a new hole (or words to that effect) the guard relented and let us in. Thanking Mr Behre profusely we left him and entered Seeufer.