Two weeks riding and I still haven't made it to the capital even though it should have been nine days by horse, and with the speed I'm going it normally would have been shorter than that. But every time I check the map, I have for some reason moved diagonally towards east, instead of the capital in the north. If it is because of the wolf, it would mean a second time it has tricked me with diagonal movements. At least I'm still week ahead of the caravan, so leaving wasn't the wrong choice in the matter, as I have made a steady progress towards my destination. But what could have been pulling me to the east?The second of the possessed is towards the north, so even if he or she isn't my destination as for now, it shouldn't throw my travels on their heads, as I'm heading towards him or her in a broader sense.

Stopping my horse so I could take a look at the map, I'm again confronted by the fact that my trip has taken few miles towards the east and in much bigger scale than before. No matter how much I try to keep my course straight, it keeps going curving, as no beforehand chosen course, using the landscape, using the sun or even using the compass keeps me on tract. Almost like my travels in the Forbidden woods, no matter how I stick to the road, I still get sent where the wolf wants. But if the curvature keeps getting bigger, isn't what I'm being pulled towards near? Time to find out I decide as I leave the guiding completely to the wolf.

Within an hour my journey ends in a small meadow in a sparse forest as I come face to face with a rather ugly looking man, wearing nothing but leather pants and boots. Behind him rides a small army of leather armored men, carrying claymores and composite bows. As I hold my gaze towards the man that I'm quite sure to be a possessed person, he tilts his head and starts staring back at me. I try to keep myself from smiling as his antics remind me of an owl, and now that I think of it, his hair does look like feathers. I decide to get the conversation going but before I have the time to open my mouth, he starts talking, cutting me of.

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Annoying, annoying... The word keeps repeating in my head as I lead the Huns through a sparse forest lacking any underbrush between the few trees that grow far apart from each other. Can this even be called a forest? No matter how I try to make it to Bayfort, the harbor town of the capital, I seem to be heading west instead. I can't find the north and my men are too chickenshit to lead or question my leadership skills, so now we are stuck on the road to nowhere. I guess I should confess my mistake, but even if I do that, my men would simply go on about how I could never make a mistake and we would get nowhere. I guess there is a negative side effect on the whole kill-all-who-question-or-contradict-you way of doing things. Well loss is a loss and there got to be something interesting on the west for my instincts to insist I go there.

As me and my troops arrive on a small clearing in the "forest" we been traveling in, I come face to face with an ugly bastard, the kinda ugly one gets from being possessed. He doesn't seem hostile for the moment, but me having an army behind my back could change that fast, so I give an order for them to leave and go to Bayfort as supposed to. They're useless when it comes to fighting possessed people anyway, as my recruiting tactics have proven. I simply find the nearest village to my current position and ask the villagers if they have a problem with thieves, if they say yes, I move towards what direction they warn me not to go to. When I get ambushed, I simply murder the ambushers except for one whose legs I break and get him to tell me where the camp is. Walk to the camp and repeat the slaughter, who lives joins. Usually they give up at the halfway point of the fight. That's how I got most of the thieves under my wing while some joined by their own volition. Of course my troops gotten so big nowadays that most of them work under their old thief clan monikers and I lead my personal group, the Huns, but they all still obey my overall commands and rules. That's how I had the men to spare to watch every harbor town there is.

Well, with my men gone and my plans finally working as planned, I begin the conversation with the man.

*****************************

The leader gives his command for the men to go ahead, towards some town I haven't heard of and turns silent after that. He remains silent, either waiting for the men to leave or thinking something, I don't know, but the silence gives me time to think the worst of him, as my mind goes on overly paranoid and starts telling me that the town name is some kind of code for the men to circle and surround me. But my ears and nose tell me that the men are actually leaving and I begin think that the shirtless leader doesn't want to fight.

He starts of the conversation without holding anything back: "I guess you're from Earth? And from the looks of it probably possessed too? Me too! Owl, I think. I'm Ollie Mason back on Earth, here with different name. Oh, from USA if you interested in that. He smiles with rather weird smile, but it is starting to look like he's not planning to kill me for now. So I answer: "Earth, possessed, most likely a wolf, Johnny Matthews and USA too. Oh, I go by John here, how about you?" "I think that can wait a bit, lets instead talk about what you're doing and where are you going?" He keeps his name hidden and it doesn't take too much time for me to figure out why, I have already entertained the idea of local thief king being from our world. "You know, Attila, that had you lied about your name, that could be actual possibility, but instead I politely refuse." He drops his smile and tilts his head little further and asks: "You heard of me? Oh, how weird it feels to be famous, but that no reason to refuse a talk is it? Are you shy?" He actually does the pleading puppy eyes as he beckons me to stay and talk.

"You want to talk? Okay, so lets talk; about me? I personally don't subscribe to the idea that two people from same world in a same situation having to stick together unless they want to, and I'm really not feeling that. About my destination and plans? My business so no. About joining you? Hell no. Great talk." He looks kinda angry about being told to go to hell with his propositions, but I somewhat expected that. He jumps down from his horse and starts talking: "Okay, ugly, don't wanna talk? Fine, but don't wanna join me because morals and whatnot? Not fine. I've seen enough of movies to know that leaving the wannabe here on his own is a big mistake and debating about how wrong it is to kill to survive gets boring after hearing the same conversation on every movie and TV-series there is. Plus philosophy was never my forte."

I jump of my horse and meet him near the center of the clearing. His eyes go from being full of confidence and defiance to full on "not going as planned" as I get closer. Not that of a surprise when one notes that I'm half a head taller, I have broader shoulders and lot more muscle than the little guy. "You know, I think my P.E grade was actually worse than my philosophy grade, so let's talk...?" He ask with humor in his tone and keeps going: "Now that I see the light and the size of its muscles I think I'm going straight" "If your head turns whenever you see beefed-up guy, I think going straight isn't the right term to use." He actually seems impressed with my pun, that's a first one, even if you count in my puns on Earth... But that's not the point here.

"You know what big guy? How about a deal; you join me and my merry band of... Ethically challenged blue-collar workers, and we stop the.... More morally questionable lines of our ways of acquiring wealth and fame." He asks full smiles. "And what of the less morally questionable lines of acquiring wealth and fame?" I ask. "Well, you know... When in Rome do as the Romans do... What I mean is that we are stuck in a medieval world that's like a copy of ours, with all the horrifying parts intact, like child marriage, racism, other forms of bigotry, laws defending women being nonexistent, laws defending peasants being near nonexistent and so on... I mean this is pretty horrible place to live in, unless you're rich and powerful." "Doesn't mean I accept you doing whatever you want, and I don't think you're even trying to fix any of those problems, so whats the point of talking about them?" I stare him down. "Well, the point is that this place is far more accepting of the... Less noble professions, like say, mercenary work?" "You want as to become mercenary group leaders with your band of thieves and murderers? You'd be doing the exact same thing you've been doing to this point, but with the excuse of war time, war ways!" I get angry and start shouting midway of my answer. "This way I didn't want to debate, you just keep shooting down my propositions by yelling about your morals, if you want this conversation going your way, contribute man, contribute. Like make a proposition of using me as your mercenary captain that does your dirty work, while you became some noble or a king with the land I conquer for you. That way I get to do what I want and you get to become a good king or something and implement whatever modern idea or technology you desire to help the poor and weak. You know, the plan to sacrifice the armies of the nobles and the nobles themselves, and maybe, just maybe some peasant supporters of said nobles for the common good?"

I end the "debate" with a well placed punch on his face, or that how it was supposed to go, but he rather easily ducked under my extended arm and said: "You know beefy, from my point of view, you're more of a tortoise than a wolf." My answer was simple: "Crap".