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At the Cottage…

Mortesen rubs his eyes as he breathes a long sigh. He did not have a good sleep like he hoped for. During his slumber he had dreams that just felt too real. He saw himself wearing clothes that he’d never seen, wearing a cape and crown, then of all things being inside a castle.

The only time Mortesen had ever seen such is in Sicily, but those weren’t really castles either. Mortesen shook his head as he got up from the broken bed. As he walked out he noticed that the fire was low, so he chucked a few more pieces of wood into the fireplace.

Then a few minutes later Mortesen made himself some coffee, not really strong like he liked it, but he already decided that he better start conserving everything he had; including his coffee.

After a few moments to soak everything in, he put his cup down and headed towards the cellar.

“ Welp, I said I’d check this out now…”

Mortesen slowly opened the door, and what layed in front of him took him by surprise. For what lay in the cellar was a well made, ornate chest. For what he’d seen of the cottage, this was the most out of place object. As Mortesen walked over to it, he could see a carved symbol on it.

He had never seen such a symbol, but that was hardly a thought to him as he cautiously opened it ( chest like that were prone to be booby-trapped ). Mortesen sighed in relief as the box just opens like one should, without blowing up in his face. Mortesen then looks inside it, nothing. There was nothing inside the box, which almost made Mortesen start to curse, due to him believing he was about to die for nothing.

Just before he was about to start, Mortesen looks over at the wall and sees a black coat, kinda like an old cowboy duster coat, and next to it on a hook was a black hat that also reminded Mortesen of his own cowboy hats back home. Mortesen then notices a old cloth hanging next to it. It had holes in it, which then made Mortesen think he was now in some old crook’s place.

He just sighs as he takes the hat and the coat off their hooks. No point in thinking about that now. As he was about to head out he looks at the chest again and a thought crosses his mind.

“ Guess I better take that too, with this hat n this coat, I might just be able to get away with being a local for a few moments before the Krauts get it that I’m not…”

In a few moments, Mortesen takes off his OD green jacket and places it inside, along with the German officer’s uniform and boots, his helmet, extra ammo, a neatly folded US flag, some letters and pictures, the drum mag for his Thompson, the Luger pistol and a few other objects he wanted inside it to lighten his backpack. Then Mortesen placed his Thompson inside it, he figured he would not need something like it for now, and he did not want to use up anymore 45 ACP ammo.

Best use the pistols for now, especially my revolver. Mortesen says to himself, before thinking once more. And my sword…

Mortesen looks over at the Japanese katana that leans against the wall quietly, using his wind magic he retrieves it. As soon as it’s in his hands Mortesen shakes his head.

“ Still letting me wield you? ”

This was not the first nor would it be the last time Mortesen would ask the sword as to why it let’s him use it. After a few minutes he then attaches it to his belt and looked himself over. Mortesen laughed at himself.

“ Haha...what am I? Some sort of ‘Cowboy Samurai’... ”

Mortesen had his M1917 on his right hip instead of his left, which now had his M1911 and his katana, figuring that he’d have to use his skill at quick drawing to get out of things. Plus, he did not want try and pick up casings that he didn’t have to pick up ( Already thinking about hand-loading the used casings). Already he was shaking his head at himself, this would never fool any Nazi dog ( both kinds ).

“ Well...they wouldn’t have much time to think about it anyway...since I’d be holding this too…” He says as he picks up his BAR. Mortesen then puts on the belt he had loaded with 20 round BAR magazines around himself.

With that, Mortesen puts his backpack on, and he picks up the now heavy laden chest with ease. Throwing it over his shoulder Mortesen takes a look behind him. He had brought in fresh cut wood and placed the axe next to the wall, with its edge in a chuck of wood.

At least that way it won’t dull the blade…

Mortesen then looks at the table, where a note and a money clip sit. It wasn’t much, but he explains everything in the note, and hopefully the money would be enough to either pay to fix the bed or buy a new one.

Hopefully they’re okay with USDs…

He then looks at the rest of the place, Mortesen had found an old broom and swiped the place up as best he could, along with dust everything off. He and his brother were taught that if they use something that’s not theirs to clean it and give it back ( or in this case just clean everything ) to the owner in better condition then when the owner gave it to them.

I did the best I could do...hope they’ll forgive me…

Oh, the owner would forgive you, can’t blame her…

“ Ugh, you have quite the sense of timing. And, you used “her”, like you knew the owner was female…”

Perhaps I do...

“ Then shut up, I’d rather have such thoughts to myself.” Mortesen says as he then closes the door behind him.

Well I really can’t since you’d hear it too.

“ Then just shut up, like I told you last night...” Mortesen was already getting annoyed at himself, he’d never heard his conscious talk as if it had its own mind. He quickly took a look around and saw a very old trail leading out. So Mortesen quickly figured that if there’s a road it would be down that path.

A few minutes of walking down the old path brought Mortesen to the road he was looking for. Mortesen looks both ways and decides to head right, he had smelled the ocean when he was in that spirit’s forest the day before.

If he’s heading the right way, he should actually be close to any town that has boats. Which if Mortesen is in Nazi held territory, he’d try to steal a boat and get back to Allied held shores.

“ Welp, I hope they don’t mind me, I mean, I’m not some king coming to say “hi”.”

That made him chuckle uncomfortably.

And with that, Mortesen started to whistle to the tune of The British Grenadiers as he headed down the dusty road. He and his men had to grudgingly agree that some British marching songs were just too good not to learn.

Meanwhile, at the castle

Kaze yawned as he walked down the hall. He did not get as much sleep as he’d have liked, but with what he was thinking nobody could blame him. That would be him hoping that Darren would have a solution to how to get the S&W to work. Finally, he had enough and decided to go check on him. Kaze started to open the door to his brother’s workshop when he heard a voice he did not expect to hear that early in the morning.

“ What are you doing up so early Kaze? ” Kaze turns to see his mother standing next to him with an arched eyebrow. Kaze quickly said what was on his mind.

“ I could ask you the same thing mother…” He says with a smile.

“ Good one, but that’s not why I stopped you.” Athena says, her face growing more serious.

“ The reason why is why are you going into your brother’s studies with that.” She points to the S&W.

Kaze had brought it along with him, but when he tried to put it in a pocket it either fell out or looked odd on him. So he just held it in his hand.

“ Oh...Mother, did you by chance hear what happened yesterday? ” Athena shook her head.

“ I did from Sargeant Victoria, something about a loud popping sound in the Forbidden Forest…”

Athena says with a look of slight displeasure. While his mother still respected Victoria, she could not or did not want to think that Victoria could somehow be an equal to her in her late husband's heart.

Athena almost got up from her seat and shredded Anna’s first telling of the dreams she had when it referenced Victoria and her husband did that nearing the end. Athena also felt sick pleasure with what happens to Victoria at the end. Which made her two hearts sink.

She quickly shook her head and refocused on her son as he was about to say something.

“ Well, I had heard such a sound before...but it was when I found Anna…” Kaze says as he opens the door.

“ You never told me that. Kaze…” A look of disapproval appeared on her face.

“ I know, like I told Darren I did not think it mattered at the time...now it does.” Kaze says as he walks down the flight of stairs, with his mother behind him.

“ I hope whatever you put your brother too does not get him killed…” As they go down the flight of stairs talking more about the popping sound is when a loud BOOM shakes them and every guard dozing off on duty. They quickly run down the stairs to see a trace of smoke leaving the crack under the heavy door. Kaze swings the door open with his mother behind him, looking worried as a mother should be. They both look around a moment till they heard Darren getting off the floor in a coughing fit.

“ Darren!!! Are you okay!?!” As Kaze turns his brother around he sees that Darren’s entire body from the front is covered in what Kaze would attribute to soot.

“ Wow...I was not expecting that...note to self, don’t mix black with ‘smokeless’...” Darren coughs a little as he pats himself down, trying to get the black soot off him with little success.

“ What did you think you were doing!?! ” Their mother practically flips. A moment later she hugs Darren tightly, almost making Darren think he heard his ribs crack.

He quickly breaks free of the bear grip of his mother.

Inhales Deeply

“ I was trying to see what happens when you mix black powder with the solution I came up with. The solution itself should work for the S&W, I just wanted to see what happened when you mixed the two together…” He looks himself over.

“ Guess we see what happens… when you put too much of one of the other...or it’s due to both of them...”

Darren then waved them both over to a table where there were was a bowl full of similar if not exact copies of the casings that were in the S&W. All had the copper leading to lead topped heads.

“ You’ve been busy…” Kaze could not believe it, he’d figured it would have taken his brother last night and the whole day to figure something out.

“ Well...at first I took one of the ‘originals’ apart. They’re fairly simple little killing machines…” Darren states. “ you put a piece of shaped metal into a powder filled casing and then put a ‘starter’ in next. Though it is a better idea to put the starter in the rear of the casing first.”

A small smile implied that he did it the other way, and something happened. Which Kaze soon noticed a hole in the floor. Fearing the response from his mother, Kaze decided not to speak of it as Darren continued.

“ The powder in question is quite the mixture, which after seeing it burn first hand, it burns much faster than the black powder used in our fireworks…” Darren then rubs his nose.

“ And why I dub this mixture ‘smokeless’ is because it leaves very little to no smoke, unlike black powder. Seemed like a pretty straight forward name for it…” He then walks over to the bowl and hands one of the casings to Kaze.

“ It looks just like the ones that went for this” Kaze holds up the S&W. “ Even down to the printed numbers of it…”

" I had to even get it down to the last grain of powder..."

“Ahem…” Both princes turn slowly to see their mother with her arms crossed. Clearly, she did not like being forgotten.

“ And just what do you think you’re going to do with those? ” Athena says, the sound of her foot tapping the ground echoing through the room. Kaze then sighs.

“ Mother, those popping sounds were these things, well, not the same, but similar in terms of sound.” Kaze then took a deep breath.

“ Mother, these things can kill someone...and they would not need to be even close to us to hurt us. Just like a bow and arrow...except we can’t see them hit us...till it’s too late...and the weapon that person used can fire these things at an extremely fast rate…”

“ Surely the Forbidden Forest took care of whoever it was…” Athena argues only to hear her eldest son sigh.

“No, it did not, he escaped. Mother, you can be against this all the way through, but we need something that can match whatever he has! ” Kaze says, which he earns a smile from his mother.

“ I’m glad you said that Kaze, it shows you’re ready to lead when it calls for it…” Just as Athena was about to say something the door to Darren’s study swung open.

“ Your Majesties!!!” It was Alexei, along with Victoria and two other guards.

“ What is it Captain?” Athena asks, looking at her long time friend, she could tell that it was serious.

“ Castle guards and townsfolk reported hearing that loud popping sound again. Only this time it happened outside of the Forbidden Forest…” Athena made a face that said “ get on with it, we don’t have all day! ”

“ My Queen...we sent a group to check it out and they found a group of bandits...dead.”

“ So? Wouldn’t Bandit’s being killed by an unknown stranger or strangers be good news? ”

“ Your Majesty.. ” It was Victoria’s turn to speak. “ It’s not that the fact it was bandits killed, it’s how they were killed…” She then took a breath. “ Many of these bandits had holes in them...big ones…”

“ A few even had been hit in the head...My Queen..Princes...these bandit’s brains were splattered all over ground where their bodies laid…” A gasp escaped Athena as Kaze went over to the bowl and grabbed a handful of casings.

“ What are you doing, Kaze? ” Alexei asks as he sees Kaze put six of the odd looking objects into the black thing in his hand.

“ We may just need this…” Kaze says as he starts to walk away but Darren stops him.

“ Here Kaze.” Darren hands over a belt that many of the casing strung into it, along with a piece of leather strapped to the belt on the right side, then being sewn together as if to hold something. A moment later did Kaze figure it out and put the S&W inside it.

“ I figured you’d need something to carry that in, along with easy access to more shells...” And with that Kaze, Alexei, and Victoria left Darren’s study to head out and see what has happened. Leaving the two guards with the Queen and her youngest son.

“ Pardon us intruding into your thoughts your Majesties, but could you allow me and my fellow guard a change in the roster? We have been guarding Lord Rakar’s room for the past few weeks from evening till sunrise, and we would like to guard Miss Anna for awhile.”

Athena just nodded her head, not wanting to deal with such a small thing at the moment. So she just allowed them to be put on guarding her adopted daughter. Darren could not argue or complain about the two wanting to guard someone or something else that wasn’t his Uncle.

Meanwhile, on a road

Mortesen was walking down the road, he had been walking down the for a good two hours. When he looked at his watch it said it was only 0840. Mortesen has had about enough of The British Grenadiers, so now it was time to start doing another tune. He then thought of one.

" Yes I’ll rally round the flag, boys,
I’ll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
I will rally from the hillsides,
I will gather from the plains,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
The Union forever!
Hurrah, boys, Hurrah!
Down with the traitors,
Up with the stars;
And I’ll fill out the ranks
With a million freemen more!
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom! “

Mortesen was about to start the next verse when he felt the air around him change very quickly. He instantly put up a wall of air unseeable to the naked eye, and in a split second later an arrow gets caught in it. Mortesen, with three years of dodging bullets, had figured out that with practiced, magic users that specialize in wind magic could divert bullets from one's path. When spoken about this and if he could stop bullets mid air, Mortesen could only say that he’d be able to divert the air around it, not stop the bullet entirely. When asked if he could do it with an arrow, Mortesen said that it should be possible since an arrow moves slow enough to be seen; and in the words of the immortal bard, “ If it can be seen, it can be caught ”. And that saying itself means more than one.

“ What the hell!?! ”

Mortesen hears from someone in the brush. He thinks about calling out, but Mortesen knew right away that being if he was not as good as he was with his wind magic, he would have been dead. Mortesen lets go of the chest and takes hold of his BAR with an iron grip. It did not matter who shot first, what mattered now was his own life. In a matter of moments the stillness around would be shattered by the loud rhythmic tune of the BAR.

Mortesen pans his shot across, and to be met with squeals of distress and pain from those in the trees. Once he ran through the magazine he quickly shoved another one in, just as a group from behind him started to come out.

An Ambush.

“Shit!” Mortesen fires into those that he could see behind him. Their screams filled the air as the BAR ran dry. Mortesen then lets the BAR out of his hands and grabs for his pistols.

Seeing their friends attack the stranger from behind made the ones that could still fight come out since he was distracted. Their courage soured when he dropped what could only be described by them at that moment was a “thunder-stick”.

However, that soon faded when the stranger pulled two smaller ones from his hips and shot at both sides of the attackers. They then saw the stranger put one of the smaller thunder-sticks back on his hip and take out his sword. They’d never seen such a blade before, but it looked fragile to one of them, a wolf, and he decided to end this with his broadsword. No one knew of the demon that lay in Mortesen when it got “that close”.

“DIE YOU LITTLE-” The wolf never finished his sentence as Mortesen effortlessly got behind him and with and single slash, decapitates the wolf perfectly. Not even before the body of the wolf hit the blood-soaked dirt was Mortesen already killing his next foe. After a few more sliced and decapitated corpses later does Mortesen jump high into the air, and what looks like a split second, with his sword in his mouth, he reloads his handguns.

Those left standing started to run for their lives as one by one is shot in the back, dead.
Except for one, which was behind Mortesen, but that did not stop Mortesen from killing him. Mortesen drops his revolver and grabs for the sword in between his teeth.

In a split second Mortesen was able to parry the blow from the hound-dog behind him, and with his M1911, he smacks the dog person in his face. A moment later Mortesen put a 45 bullet in the man’s head.

Mortesen looks around, he defeated the bandits, but what he couldn’t shake was the fact they came at him with swords and arrows! He quickly picked up his revolver and BAR. Mortesen could hear the sounds of injured bandits around him.

I’m not going to ask where I am from the likes of them...guess I’ll just finish them off…

In 10 minutes, Mortesen finished off those that he had injured in the first few minutes of the fight. After a few moments to check the bodies for anything of use, all he found was probably some stolen jewelry, gold coins that had a branding that he’d never seen, and a few other odds and ends.

Mortesen shook his head as he put what valuable items he could not carry in his pockets into the chest, along with as many bullet casings he could find. Only when he was picking those up did Mortesen start to think about what had transpired.

Okay...so if I’m right...I may be in Belgium...these guys spoke English enough…

Yet... I doubt even the Belgian resistance is crazy enough to go to damn swords and arrows.

Nor does Belgium use currency like what I found...Where the hell am I…

After about half an hour after the firefight turned wild melee, did Mortesen get back on the road, this time sticking to the edge of the road instead of the damn middle. Which in retrospect, was a bad and honestly, too “ green ” thing to do. Mortesen must have figured he would have just looked like a resistance fighter. Or some guy with a chest and an American made weapon.

During his walk he saw some people on horseback come barreling up the road, the direction he was going.

Perhaps some resistance fighter dressed like him had just stolen a lot of weapons in a chest like what I got? Hence why all they had were swords and arrows? No...somebody should have had a handgun on them at least.

As he pondered this he began to hear the sound of hooves coming down the road. Thinking quickly, he crouches and gets behind a large tree, setting the chest down slowly to check the magazine in his BAR.

As he takes a look out he spots eight on horseback. Seven appeared to be wearing knight armor of all things while a blue hedgehog rode out in front.

Mortesen then lined up the hedgehog in his sights when his heart drop. For on horseback looked like a teen aged or adult version of his son Kaze. He quickly lowered his rifle, his hard set face fallen.

“ Kaze...have I been gone that long?....”

Mortesen says softly as his eyes go towards someone looking a lot like his friend Alexei, but older. That then lead to the vixen with red fur and brown hair.

“ N-N-No...you can’t be alive...Victoria…”

The group of horse riders continue to thunder past Mortesen, and when Mortesen believed it was safe did he curl up in a ball and cry into his knees. Believing that he had failed everything he had set out to do in his life and when he made it back home.