Post by Lorpius Prime on Mar 1, 2007 0:59:53 GMT -5
The forest ended five hills later. Jack gave no indication of stopping as they walked into the clearing, but Jay decided it was a good time to drop his suitcase and fall to his knees, chest heaving and arms aching.
Jack turned around, and his face showed his impatience. He backtracked a few steps to talk to Jay.
“There’s a farmhouse just a few hundred yards away. Think you can make it?”
Jay nodded through his panting, “Yes. Just catching my breath.”
He could see the red roof of a building in the distance, though there seemed to be quite a lot of intervening fields. But he would make it, by God, even if he had to sleep until he was dead at the end. So he planted his feet and lifted the bags again.
They didn’t make it all the way to the farmhouse. They were about halfway across the last field, with maybe two hundred feet to go before they reached the low stone wall behind the house, when they were met by three men.
They didn’t look like real people. They looked like caricatures of people, or something out of a play. They were all wearing lederhosen held up by braces. The man in the center wore a feathered green cap and carried a hoe. The men flanking him on either side were wearing more practical broad-rimmed hats, but they didn’t do anything to mitigate the ridiculous effect of their breeches.
There was a moment of awkward silence between the two groups, while each tried to decide what to make of each other. The moment was broken when Jay made a more important decision: that he was not going to make it to the house after all. He dropped the suitcase and collapsed on top of it.
One of the men ran forward, not in time to catch Jay, but he did offer a hand to help him back to his feet; and then helped steady him when Jay found his feet didn’t appreciate the gesture.
“Brauchen Sie Hilf?” The man with the hoe asked.
Rusty cogs in Jay’s mind tried to make sense of this. He settled on trying to go around the problem.
“Sprechen Sie Englisch?”
The man who’d sprung forward to help Jay answered, “Ah. English. Some.” The other two looked between the three people who’d just emerged from the burning forest, nodding.
“Do you need help?” Asked the same man.
Jack jerked his head towards the smoke rising from the treetops, “Our airship crashed. We would be grateful if you could give us some shelter, and the woman here needs a doctor.”
“Ja, ja! Come!” The man with the hoe, who seemed to be the oldest, waved them towards the house, then led the way. Jay was a little embarrassed when the one who’d helped him up carried the suitcase for him, but grateful.
The old man with the feathered cap leaned his hoe against the stone exterior of the house, then ushered them inside.
The interior was very plain, and dimly lit, but clean. They were led quickly through a small dining room, where Jay’s suitcase was deposited, and into a ground floor bedroom. Their host gestured to Mary and the large bed, and Jack set her down on top of the white sheets.
“She is hurt?” he inquired of Jack.
“Yes. A broken leg.” Mary showed them the splint on her leg to reinforce the point. “She needs a doctor.”
The man nodded, then spoke in rapid-fire German to the man who’d remained silent thus far. Jay couldn’t understand most of it, but did pick out the word “Doktor” somewhere in there. The younger man nodded and hurried out of the room.
“My son has gone to fetch a doctor from the town.”
“Thank you,” Jack doffed his hat and inclined his head graciously.
“Thank you,” Jay echoed.
“Vielen dank,” said Mary.
Jack and Jay both looked at her as if they’d never seen her before in their lives.
“You, you speak German?” Jay asked.
“And French. And a little Dutch, Italian, and Czech. How do you think I talk to passengers on an international airliner?” To her credit, she only smirked a little.
Rather than answering, Jay started coughing. He was pleased to see that even Jack was blushing.
“So, you are British,” their host was grinning and nodding as if he’d just uncovered a secret. Jay didn’t like the way his eyes sparkled. “Please, come, you will drink with us!”
Jay was not happy about being handed a giant stein of beer; his head started throbbing again at the sight of it. Knowing that he couldn’t very well refuse the gesture didn’t help. He sipped at the lager very slowly so he wouldn’t be forced to endure a refill too. The younger German, the one who’d helped him up, kept giving Jay a dirty look every time he put the mug to his lips; he clearly thought the Englishman a wimp. Jay sighed.
The old man was Heinrich Glunz. The younger one was his son Peter, and the one who’d gone to fetch a doctor was his other son, Thomas. Heinrich seemed to enjoy the opportunity to practice his English, but it was broken and he often had to rely on Mary to translate.
Peter’s English was apparently much better, but he didn’t like to speak much. Jay ignored him when he set his—still two-thirds full—beer down on a table, though really it was just a nightstand; they’d all crowded into the bedroom for Mary’s sake.
“So what is the local town, then? The one that, uh, Thomas has gone to?” The name wasn’t pronounced like it’s English counterpart, but sounded something like ‘toe-mahs’.
“Donauwörth,” Heinrich replied, “on the river. It is not far.”
“And this is your farm?” asked Jack. He was on his second beer.
“Ja. We, ah…” he looked to Mary.
They were barley farmers, mostly. They also had the obligatory vegetable patch, which they’d been working in when they saw the survivors emerge from the woods. The main harvest was still a few months away.
It was just the three men, they learned. Heinrich’s wife had died of tetanus two years ago. Thomas was engaged to a girl in town, but wouldn’t be married until January. Peter himself was seeing a girl on another farm, and though he wouldn’t talk about it, Heinrich apparently expected them to get married too.
“And then they will look after me!” Heinrich beamed. “Because that is what a good son does!”
Peter looked down at his feet. His father laughed, “And then I will rest; because that is what an old man does. He drinks beer and spoils the grandchildren.”
Mary giggled. Heinrich winked at her. Peter’s face turned a brighter red.
The brief pause ended with the sound of horses. Heinrich pulled back the curtains behind the bed so they could see out the window. There were about thirty soldiers mounted on horses trotting up the gentle slope towards the farmhouse. A black carriage came bouncing along behind.
Heinrich turned away from the window and said something in German to his son. Peter laughed; and without anything further, the two Glunzes shuffled out of the bedroom. Jay shrugged and followed.
When they got out of the front door, they found three of the soldiers dismounted and drawing up their horses to wooden posts. The rest of the riders were waiting outside the fence. They parted their horses to allow the carriage to pass through and pull up alongside the farmhouse.
Their host called a greeting to one of the dismounted men. The soldier—a captain, Jay surmised from the pips on his shoulder—nodded curtly. Then Heinrich turned to the carriage.
The driver, a middle-aged man, leapt down from his seat. After seeing to the horses, he strode over to the old farmer, and the two men embraced.
Emerging from the carriage, Jay recognized Thomas; the other man carried a black bag and had to be a doctor. He was dressed in dour black clothing, and Jay thought his face looked the way the Times’ resident caricaturist would draw a Frenchman. He wore a mustache and a goatee that were best described as pointy. They stuck out at right angles to his face and looked like he used them to impale prescription notes.
Heinrich and the Captain spoke for a few moments, during which Heinrich gestured to the forest on the other side of his house. The officer turned to Jay and spoke in crisp, flawless English.
“He says you were in an accident?”
“Er, yes. Our airship crashed. We—the three of us, I mean—we were able to get out.” Jay wasn’t sure why he felt uncomfortable talking to the man, but he did.
“Were there any other survivors?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t see anyone else.”
He nodded, then spoke quickly with the officer on his left. That man, a lieutenant, barked orders at the rest of the mounted soldiers, then retrieved his own horse. They rode towards the forest, leaving the Captain and another lieutenant behind.
“My men will search the forest. And I will notify nearby outposts to be on alert for others when I return.”
“Um, thank you.” Jay didn’t feel quite right saying it.
But the Captain nodded again, “Now, one of you is hurt? Thomas was insistent upon bringing Doctor Müller.”
“Oh yes, yes,” Jay looked to Heinrich, who gestured them inside. Jay walked in behind Peter, who seemed to be teasing his brother. The carriage driver came in after him.
They wouldn’t all fit into the bedroom. Peter, Thomas, the lieutenant, and the driver waited outside. Jay squeezed in to find Jack glaring at the Captain while Doctor Müller consulted with Mary.
After a brief back and forth between physician and patient, Müller said a few words to the elder Glunz, who quickly ushered the rest of the onlookers out of the room. He shut the door after them to help preserve Mary’s modesty.
“Well,” he said, “we don’t just have to stand around. Come! I have still a full barrel of lager that will not itself drink!”
Steins were fetched for the new arrivals and Thomas, and the rest were refilled. Jay had left his mug in the bedroom, and didn’t bring attention to the fact. They stood outside, leaning against the stone wall, enjoying the cool afternoon while the sun approached the treetops.
Thomas took over the job of translator in Mary’s absence; he had an accent but otherwise seemed perfectly comfortable in English. The cavalry captain, whose name they learned was Diener, spoke the language like he was a native. His lieutenant didn’t seem to speak at all, but stood stoically by the door. Jay wondered if his mouth had been welded shut.
It turned out that the driver of the carriage was Thomas’ prospective father-in-law, who’d agreed to put his carriage into service to return Thomas and Doctor Müller more quickly. His name was Ernst Brauer and he was one of the Glunzes’ most reliable customers; buying a good portion of their harvest every year for his small brewery. It was his beer they were drinking.
“Once more you prove yourself a most upstanding citizen, Herr Glunz,” said the Captain smoothly. The sun glinted off the silver eagle which adorned his pointed helmet. Heinrich beamed and the officer turned his head to look at the two British men; his dark eyes slid up and down as he examined Jack, but his face showed nothing of its judgment.
“I’m sure your guests appreciate your hospitality and generosity,” he waved his hand slightly when Jay started nodding, to indicate he was not finished. “However it would be rude to ask you to board, I know you have limited space and I’m sure they would rather be back on their way as soon as possible.”
Heinrich looked like he was about to protest, but Captain Diener turned his whole body away from the farmer to face Jack and Jay. The Bavarian trailed off before he’d hardly begun to speak.
“I can offer you two gentlemen and the woman accommodations back at the barracks until this matter of your accident is cleared up. I assure you, you will be most comfortable there. Donauwörth is a small town, it is true, but it is still very pleasant, and I think you will find it adequate to replace any… possessions you may have lost.”
He looked at Jay and his cheeks twitched ever so slightly in the tiniest shadow of a sneer. Jay was suddenly very conscious of his bare head again.
“Well…” Jay shifted uncomfortably; he frankly didn’t want to agree with anything the officer said right now. Jack was back to glaring.
“Of course we’ll go!” a woman's voice came floating out a window of the house. “Don’t be foolish, we’ve bothered this poor family enough!”
They all turned to look at the window. Doctor Müller poked his head out from behind the curtains to announce that he would be just a few more minutes and that they were lucky he arrived when he did before withdrawing from sight again.
Thomas turned away to look a question at everyone else, Jack and Jay just shrugged at him.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-
Jack turned around, and his face showed his impatience. He backtracked a few steps to talk to Jay.
“There’s a farmhouse just a few hundred yards away. Think you can make it?”
Jay nodded through his panting, “Yes. Just catching my breath.”
He could see the red roof of a building in the distance, though there seemed to be quite a lot of intervening fields. But he would make it, by God, even if he had to sleep until he was dead at the end. So he planted his feet and lifted the bags again.
They didn’t make it all the way to the farmhouse. They were about halfway across the last field, with maybe two hundred feet to go before they reached the low stone wall behind the house, when they were met by three men.
They didn’t look like real people. They looked like caricatures of people, or something out of a play. They were all wearing lederhosen held up by braces. The man in the center wore a feathered green cap and carried a hoe. The men flanking him on either side were wearing more practical broad-rimmed hats, but they didn’t do anything to mitigate the ridiculous effect of their breeches.
There was a moment of awkward silence between the two groups, while each tried to decide what to make of each other. The moment was broken when Jay made a more important decision: that he was not going to make it to the house after all. He dropped the suitcase and collapsed on top of it.
One of the men ran forward, not in time to catch Jay, but he did offer a hand to help him back to his feet; and then helped steady him when Jay found his feet didn’t appreciate the gesture.
“Brauchen Sie Hilf?” The man with the hoe asked.
Rusty cogs in Jay’s mind tried to make sense of this. He settled on trying to go around the problem.
“Sprechen Sie Englisch?”
The man who’d sprung forward to help Jay answered, “Ah. English. Some.” The other two looked between the three people who’d just emerged from the burning forest, nodding.
“Do you need help?” Asked the same man.
Jack jerked his head towards the smoke rising from the treetops, “Our airship crashed. We would be grateful if you could give us some shelter, and the woman here needs a doctor.”
“Ja, ja! Come!” The man with the hoe, who seemed to be the oldest, waved them towards the house, then led the way. Jay was a little embarrassed when the one who’d helped him up carried the suitcase for him, but grateful.
The old man with the feathered cap leaned his hoe against the stone exterior of the house, then ushered them inside.
The interior was very plain, and dimly lit, but clean. They were led quickly through a small dining room, where Jay’s suitcase was deposited, and into a ground floor bedroom. Their host gestured to Mary and the large bed, and Jack set her down on top of the white sheets.
“She is hurt?” he inquired of Jack.
“Yes. A broken leg.” Mary showed them the splint on her leg to reinforce the point. “She needs a doctor.”
The man nodded, then spoke in rapid-fire German to the man who’d remained silent thus far. Jay couldn’t understand most of it, but did pick out the word “Doktor” somewhere in there. The younger man nodded and hurried out of the room.
“My son has gone to fetch a doctor from the town.”
“Thank you,” Jack doffed his hat and inclined his head graciously.
“Thank you,” Jay echoed.
“Vielen dank,” said Mary.
Jack and Jay both looked at her as if they’d never seen her before in their lives.
“You, you speak German?” Jay asked.
“And French. And a little Dutch, Italian, and Czech. How do you think I talk to passengers on an international airliner?” To her credit, she only smirked a little.
Rather than answering, Jay started coughing. He was pleased to see that even Jack was blushing.
“So, you are British,” their host was grinning and nodding as if he’d just uncovered a secret. Jay didn’t like the way his eyes sparkled. “Please, come, you will drink with us!”
* * *
Jay was not happy about being handed a giant stein of beer; his head started throbbing again at the sight of it. Knowing that he couldn’t very well refuse the gesture didn’t help. He sipped at the lager very slowly so he wouldn’t be forced to endure a refill too. The younger German, the one who’d helped him up, kept giving Jay a dirty look every time he put the mug to his lips; he clearly thought the Englishman a wimp. Jay sighed.
The old man was Heinrich Glunz. The younger one was his son Peter, and the one who’d gone to fetch a doctor was his other son, Thomas. Heinrich seemed to enjoy the opportunity to practice his English, but it was broken and he often had to rely on Mary to translate.
Peter’s English was apparently much better, but he didn’t like to speak much. Jay ignored him when he set his—still two-thirds full—beer down on a table, though really it was just a nightstand; they’d all crowded into the bedroom for Mary’s sake.
“So what is the local town, then? The one that, uh, Thomas has gone to?” The name wasn’t pronounced like it’s English counterpart, but sounded something like ‘toe-mahs’.
“Donauwörth,” Heinrich replied, “on the river. It is not far.”
“And this is your farm?” asked Jack. He was on his second beer.
“Ja. We, ah…” he looked to Mary.
They were barley farmers, mostly. They also had the obligatory vegetable patch, which they’d been working in when they saw the survivors emerge from the woods. The main harvest was still a few months away.
It was just the three men, they learned. Heinrich’s wife had died of tetanus two years ago. Thomas was engaged to a girl in town, but wouldn’t be married until January. Peter himself was seeing a girl on another farm, and though he wouldn’t talk about it, Heinrich apparently expected them to get married too.
“And then they will look after me!” Heinrich beamed. “Because that is what a good son does!”
Peter looked down at his feet. His father laughed, “And then I will rest; because that is what an old man does. He drinks beer and spoils the grandchildren.”
Mary giggled. Heinrich winked at her. Peter’s face turned a brighter red.
The brief pause ended with the sound of horses. Heinrich pulled back the curtains behind the bed so they could see out the window. There were about thirty soldiers mounted on horses trotting up the gentle slope towards the farmhouse. A black carriage came bouncing along behind.
Heinrich turned away from the window and said something in German to his son. Peter laughed; and without anything further, the two Glunzes shuffled out of the bedroom. Jay shrugged and followed.
When they got out of the front door, they found three of the soldiers dismounted and drawing up their horses to wooden posts. The rest of the riders were waiting outside the fence. They parted their horses to allow the carriage to pass through and pull up alongside the farmhouse.
Their host called a greeting to one of the dismounted men. The soldier—a captain, Jay surmised from the pips on his shoulder—nodded curtly. Then Heinrich turned to the carriage.
The driver, a middle-aged man, leapt down from his seat. After seeing to the horses, he strode over to the old farmer, and the two men embraced.
Emerging from the carriage, Jay recognized Thomas; the other man carried a black bag and had to be a doctor. He was dressed in dour black clothing, and Jay thought his face looked the way the Times’ resident caricaturist would draw a Frenchman. He wore a mustache and a goatee that were best described as pointy. They stuck out at right angles to his face and looked like he used them to impale prescription notes.
Heinrich and the Captain spoke for a few moments, during which Heinrich gestured to the forest on the other side of his house. The officer turned to Jay and spoke in crisp, flawless English.
“He says you were in an accident?”
“Er, yes. Our airship crashed. We—the three of us, I mean—we were able to get out.” Jay wasn’t sure why he felt uncomfortable talking to the man, but he did.
“Were there any other survivors?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t see anyone else.”
He nodded, then spoke quickly with the officer on his left. That man, a lieutenant, barked orders at the rest of the mounted soldiers, then retrieved his own horse. They rode towards the forest, leaving the Captain and another lieutenant behind.
“My men will search the forest. And I will notify nearby outposts to be on alert for others when I return.”
“Um, thank you.” Jay didn’t feel quite right saying it.
But the Captain nodded again, “Now, one of you is hurt? Thomas was insistent upon bringing Doctor Müller.”
“Oh yes, yes,” Jay looked to Heinrich, who gestured them inside. Jay walked in behind Peter, who seemed to be teasing his brother. The carriage driver came in after him.
They wouldn’t all fit into the bedroom. Peter, Thomas, the lieutenant, and the driver waited outside. Jay squeezed in to find Jack glaring at the Captain while Doctor Müller consulted with Mary.
After a brief back and forth between physician and patient, Müller said a few words to the elder Glunz, who quickly ushered the rest of the onlookers out of the room. He shut the door after them to help preserve Mary’s modesty.
“Well,” he said, “we don’t just have to stand around. Come! I have still a full barrel of lager that will not itself drink!”
Steins were fetched for the new arrivals and Thomas, and the rest were refilled. Jay had left his mug in the bedroom, and didn’t bring attention to the fact. They stood outside, leaning against the stone wall, enjoying the cool afternoon while the sun approached the treetops.
Thomas took over the job of translator in Mary’s absence; he had an accent but otherwise seemed perfectly comfortable in English. The cavalry captain, whose name they learned was Diener, spoke the language like he was a native. His lieutenant didn’t seem to speak at all, but stood stoically by the door. Jay wondered if his mouth had been welded shut.
It turned out that the driver of the carriage was Thomas’ prospective father-in-law, who’d agreed to put his carriage into service to return Thomas and Doctor Müller more quickly. His name was Ernst Brauer and he was one of the Glunzes’ most reliable customers; buying a good portion of their harvest every year for his small brewery. It was his beer they were drinking.
“Once more you prove yourself a most upstanding citizen, Herr Glunz,” said the Captain smoothly. The sun glinted off the silver eagle which adorned his pointed helmet. Heinrich beamed and the officer turned his head to look at the two British men; his dark eyes slid up and down as he examined Jack, but his face showed nothing of its judgment.
“I’m sure your guests appreciate your hospitality and generosity,” he waved his hand slightly when Jay started nodding, to indicate he was not finished. “However it would be rude to ask you to board, I know you have limited space and I’m sure they would rather be back on their way as soon as possible.”
Heinrich looked like he was about to protest, but Captain Diener turned his whole body away from the farmer to face Jack and Jay. The Bavarian trailed off before he’d hardly begun to speak.
“I can offer you two gentlemen and the woman accommodations back at the barracks until this matter of your accident is cleared up. I assure you, you will be most comfortable there. Donauwörth is a small town, it is true, but it is still very pleasant, and I think you will find it adequate to replace any… possessions you may have lost.”
He looked at Jay and his cheeks twitched ever so slightly in the tiniest shadow of a sneer. Jay was suddenly very conscious of his bare head again.
“Well…” Jay shifted uncomfortably; he frankly didn’t want to agree with anything the officer said right now. Jack was back to glaring.
“Of course we’ll go!” a woman's voice came floating out a window of the house. “Don’t be foolish, we’ve bothered this poor family enough!”
They all turned to look at the window. Doctor Müller poked his head out from behind the curtains to announce that he would be just a few more minutes and that they were lucky he arrived when he did before withdrawing from sight again.
Thomas turned away to look a question at everyone else, Jack and Jay just shrugged at him.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-