The Slayer
Return
4.1 Rosenheim
Most of the city was leveled by the bombing during
the war but there were scattered remains of their structures. One of the last
standing structures was the St Nikolaus and Holy Spirit Faith in the inner
city, with it’s with its baroque onion dome. There was where Helmut was heading
with his load of skins and furs. There he would meet up with Father Joseph and
they would pray together. He made his way by the river banks of Inn with his
companion orb hovering above him. The orb was absorbing the sunlight to re-charge
its power pack but it also act as his early alert on any strangers or creatures.
Just as he walked by the dried river bed of Inn, he
was soon alerted to the sounds of distress from further down the path. He
unloaded the burden on his back and pulled up his broadsword. His wait was not
long when the figure of child led by the lady appeared before him. The duo ran
towards him and seeks his protection.
"We are pursued by the cursed hounds."
Canine creatures that once adorned these lands as domesticated house guards are
now roving packs of hunters. Just as she completed the sentence, Helmut saw the
pack of six large hounds which had came rushing at the riverbanks. These
furless bare skinned large hounds with their deadly fangs stopped their rush to
look at the figure that stood between them and their prey.
"Cursed curs of the land," Helmut muttered
to himself. He had killed many of them but he would never feed on them as these
are abominations of science. He looked from the corner of his eyes that two
ladies are safe behind his bundle of load.
"There is a bone dagger in the load."
Helmut told the older lady. "Use it for your own."
He had fashioned off crude weapons from the bones of
his prey and then given them to the refugees of the city. Father Joseph had
questioned him on it, and his reply was that nothing that can be used should be
discarded. He reminded Father Joseph that Samson, the fabled strong man of the
biblical tales once wield the jawbone of the donkey to vanquish an army.
Helmut was not a patience man, as he rushed at the
hounds, swinging his broadsword. The first strike took the jaw off the first
hound, while the second was to cut deep into another hounds rear end leaving
its entrails trailing out. The other four hounds were not keen to be killed
then ran off howling their protest.
"You are..." Helmut turned to face the
ladies but had not his left shoulder shield protected him, he would have been
an undead soon. The elder lady who had bared her fangs had jumped onto him, but
the shield had stopped her bite. Helmut shook her off his body and followed on
with the thrust of the broadsword into her face
"Foul creatures of the dark!" Helmut
shouted out as he pulled out his broadsword. He had seen them before; blood
suckers which used to travel in the dark but now they feared not the sunlight.
He turned to looked at the child who sat there behind the bundle. She had her
right hand at her neck to stifle the flow of blood. She had been cursed and may
revert to be one of them, but he was not a man who kills children.
Helmut drew out a piece of the rags on him and threw
it to the child.
"Come with me. Father Joseph may have a cure
for you. Or he would do the last rites for you." Helmut grabbed his load
and proceeded on with the child following at his heels. He soon reached the
market place of Rosenheim and was swarmed by the mass of refugees. They shied
from the child when they saw her wound on the neck.
"She's cursed!" One of the refugees
shouted and words started to spread. Soon Helmut had to hold the child in his
arms to avoid any of them from harming her. He was near to the Faith when he
saw the Guardians. There was also the man he seeks.
"Father Joseph, I ...." Helmut released
his hold on the child to let her stand by his side.
"Speak no more, my son." Father Joseph dressed
in the brown robe with a waist belt that held his trusted dagger and small
shovel. Father Joseph once told Helmut, the dagger to protect him and the
shovel to bury the one who died from his protection.
The kind priest had taken custody of the child and
ushered her into the sanctuary of the Faith grounds. She was led by others who
allowed the priest to see to his care who had arrived.
"Helmut, you are sometimes a fool." Father
Joseph told his care but he did not elaborate as he led the man into the Faith.
He had news for the man and its time his destiny would be revealed.
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