“Hans.”
“Gefreiter Hans Hepner! Roll call!”
“…Hansie?”
Jochen felt himself jolted out of sleep. He rustled around and sat up, noticing shreds of pale moonlight seeping into the barn. Knittel, Rettlinger and Koechlin were all asleep. Guhl was sitting by himself in the far corner. Jochen roused up to his feet and sat next to him, the two of them staring out through the cracks.
“Can’t sleep, sir?”
The two were now of equal rank, yet Guhl still addressed him as a superior. Actually, there were no ranks anymore.
“No…”
“Bad dreams?”
“Yeah. Something like that. All of them keep coming to me in my sleep.”
His former subordinate nodded. “Me too…”
“I miss them already.”
“Yeah…”
There wasn’t much either could do, except just be there. After a moment Guhl glanced over to him.
“Jochen, do you know of a Landser named Hans Hepner?”
Peiper stopped staring out of the barn and whipped around to Guhl. “…Not until I fell asleep tonight. I assume you know of him?”
Guhl shook his head. “No. This Hans guy appeared in my dream, but for the life of me I’ve never seen or heard of the man.”
“It’s funny. I was about to ask you the same question. He also appeared in my dream. I’ll ask Teddy Wisch about it when I’m able to.”
After some two weeks of walking through the Alps on back roads, Peiper and his comrades crossed into Bavaria. He was finally home.
Through much of their journey the five of them marched in silence, and this gave Jochen plenty of time to think about the life that awaited him. It was impossible to know what lay ahead, and that unnerved him. His young wife, son and daughters were in for a surprise! And until his four comrades could find their way home, the Peiper house would be entertaining some guests, too. That thought made him chuckle to himself.
“What are you thinking about?” The tall, bald-headed Knittel asked, shuffling up from the back.
“Oh, not much. Just looking forward to having four house guests for awhile.”
“We… Er… I won’t burden you for too long sir.”
“I almost wish you would.”
Peiper smiled. Springtime in Bavaria made one forget even the darkest of worries.
“FREEZE!”
Jochen had heard English spoken in the past, but not of this kind. It sounded obnoxious, chummy and irritating all at the same time. About twelve American soldiers surrounded them on a tennis court. There was no point in even trying to run.
The Americans searched all five of them, but seemed more interested in the two officers. In a few minutes an American army truck showed up, a Studebaker, from what Jochen could see.
“You two,” the captain said, pointing to Peiper and Guhl, “come with us onto the truck.”
The Americans separated the officers from the other three and loaded them into the back. Jochen looked out between the wooden bars at Koechlin, Knittel and Roettlinger, who were receding into the distance forever.
Gott mit uns
Food was running out, yet Asril and the others had made it to the lands bordering Ahuran. Desert sands shifted into deep chasms of russet mountains and cliffs. To Asril, this place looked mythical, a place of stories that never reached the ears of anyone in Aolom. Hex told them that this land had several names to different peoples.
“Once we cross the Surobi River we’ll be there.” He told the three cats one night. “Last time I was here there were roving gangs scouring the lands, and I don’t see a reason for things to be any better these days.”
The next morning Tari distributed the few scraps of food that remained. Although the situation seemed dire, Hex wasn’t worried, and that held everyone together.
While they scaled one of the many steep hills, the Kitsune pulled something out of his brown bag. It was a paw-held cannon of some kind. Asril squinted. She’d never seen anything like it before. It looked like a shiny tube attached to a curved, wooden handle. Hex stuck the paw cannon into a hilt attached to a belt he was now wearing. A belt with a funny crown on the buckle. Tanjung must have noticed it, too.
“What’s that? ‘Gott Mit Uns?’ What does that mean?”
“Actually, I’m not sure what it means. This was a parting gift. From a friend of the family. It might come in handy. Now let’s go.”
By the next day, Asril was beginning to feel light-headed. She wasn’t sure where the border was, only that it was close, and that she wouldn’t be able to make it much farther before her body just gave out. This world was much bigger than she had imagined. Fleeing through deserts and gorges on an empty stomach introduced her to new depths of exhaustion.
“There it is,” Tanjung called out from ahead. “Down there!”
Down there was right. The greenish blue Surobi meandered beneath them as the four of them stared down. It was hard to believe that Ahuran was the gorge on the other side. For so long, Ahuran was just an idea planted in her mind. Now the idea was the reddish crag on the other side of the river, same as the reddish crag they stood upon.
Hex broke the silence. “We just have to find a flat surface. A border crossing will likely be there. If worse comes to worst we can just swim it.”
That sounded like a terrible idea.
“There should be one up this way.”
There was. Sure enough, in the distance Asril could see a boat parked on the misty, red embankment on the other side.
“Aaagh!”
It was Tanjung. An arrow flew out from behind a cropping of rocks, and gouged into his ribs. Two feline-looking bandits jumped out at Tanjung.
“Get back!” he screamed to the girls behind him. The attackers sprinted at Tanjung, but the air soon cracked, and one of the attackers flew back to the sound of Hex’s cannonball and landed with a thud. The other bandit froze in place. Tanjung gutted him and made the assailant pay for his hesitation.
The bandit’s scream was broken by the woosh of another arrow, this one gored through the young cat’s thigh. Tanjung fell to the dust in silence.
Hex’s keen sight returned the favor, though, and Asril heard another cannonball roar up from the ground. It cut through the thicket and thumped into the fur and flesh hidden inside. Another scream came from there. An arrow grazed over Hex and two burly men emerged. They had clubs crowned with nails.
“Nice job fox…” One called out from just a few paces away.
“Give us the two girls and we’ll let you go right on through. If not… a couple more of us die and we get what we want anyway…”
Asril shrieked silently and waited for the Kitsune prince to fire another round. He didn’t. Instead, she saw him stand up and raise his hands. Hex was…
“Get the fuck out of here here, pretty boy. Before we change our minds.”
No! He was just walking off… Hex disappeared behind the thieves and made for the river. The nailbat brutes approached Asril’s thicket. Tari sobbed quietly, unable to control the fear anymore.
“Shh, shhh. We should have never trusted Hex, you hear me?!” Asril hissed.
“Just shut up! Get yourself together — we’re gonna get over to that side yet, understand?!” She continued.
Tari looked to Asril with tear-filled eyes.
“We wait for them to come close, grab us. Then you stick the dagger in. There’s only two of them left. If we both do it there’s only the archer. Aim for the thigh. Right here, OK?” Asril pointed to the inner part of her leg.
“Just one hit. That’s all you need.”
The footsteps approached and Tari’s breathy cries gave the two cats away.
“Well-look-at-this… Fresh meat…”