[Nogrod]

Herbert awoke suddenly to the chirping of the swallow. It was already bright outside and the morning light crept into the pillbox.

He had had a dream. In it the powers of good and evil clashed resulting in the annihilation of both. It was like Mr. Hearst had said. They had gone, vanished, disappeared… fallen into nothingness. There was no good or evil anymore. He knew now Mr. Hearst had talked the truth.

He looked at the figurines that were scattered around the table as he had slept his head on it. Slowly he started gathering them back to their positions and built confidence. He was confirmed. Now he knew what it would take.

He would try to find the final answer now.

He took a figurine into his hand and shook as he did it.

It was her grannie, old-aunt Cellie she was called.

His mind wandered back to his early childhood. They were indeed his first memories. Feeling good in the arms of the old auntie, safe from anything evil in the world. And he remembered from later times a host of occasions when his mother had cried and yelled to him but the serene auntie had just silenced her defending him from whatever mischief it had been he had been guilty of. She had called the shots in regards to his mother and he had been thankful of that. She loved him and he loved her. Now he realised the latter part of the equitation as well.

And she had always baked the bunnies he could smell even now. And he had always gotten the first one “to taste” while the bun had been so hot it burnt his fingers.

He remembered her old and wise smile, the light of her eyes that loved him through and through.

She had been left behind when the great evacuation had been staged. She had refused to run from her home where she belonged and even if the soldiers had been quite rough on her she had kept her mind and they had left her there to her birth-place, her home.

He remembered her waving her hand from the small window of her modest cabin when they left while artillery-shells hammered the fields on the lower fields.

She was alive. He knew it.

But now there was no good or evil… And she would be the next one to go… he would pass this test…

Be calm… impassionate… It’s a question of power now. Calm down,… calm down… Do it! Do it!

Herbert threw the figurine to the floor and jumped on it.

The figurine broke into pieces. But it hurt.

He saw his left foot was bleeding. It was bleeding quite heavily.

He was about to scream for help when he realised there was no one to hear his call.

He sat back on the chair and opened a drawer where he knew there were bandaging materials left from the army.

It hurt.


*~*

“Ready for news, everyone? Dur was a WW, but was converted back. Spill your guts please, Dur”. It was the phantom who first opened his mouth after the wailing for Izzy had gone on for quite a while.

Roa poked Dury with a pitchfork: “Start talking now!”

Finally Durelin emerged from the crowd. “Celuien is the only wolf I know, because the second wolf was picked up just this last Night.”

That information was then followed by everyone – well not exactly everyone – casting their votes for Celuien.


Then there was the duel.


After that people seemed to go numb.

In the end Lommy opened her mouth reminding then they should lynch Celuien.

Brinn agreed they had to do what had to be done.

“I'm just a poor innocent candle maker – cookies anyone?”.

“Into the candle-wax as yesterday?” McCaber asked only realising he was too late. Nobody seemed to listen to him. The men were hacking Celuien to pieces.


Meanwhile the women gathered together.

“These confessing wolves start to be pretty boring, eh?” Lommy exclaimed.

“I know what you mean, it's starting to feel like an AA meeting: my name is Celuien/Nilp/Rikae and I am a very evil person" Lalaith added.

“I have nothing more to say at the moment” Greenie grumbled.

“It is getting a little dull having nothing to do other than turn up and all vote for one person.” Kath groaned.

Roa filled in: “The past few days have been a tad silly, with there being so little to debate. ToMorrow we start wolf-hunting for ourselves again.”

No one could count into how many pieces Celuien the wolf had been hacked into.

*~*

Alive:

+ A Little Green, a fortune-teller - folklorist - herb-grower - unofficial therapist, advisor and midwife, most presumably a witch, the gammer (the eccentric mother of Lommy & Mac)
+ Shastanis Althreduin, astrologer/fortune teller, gaffer (Greenie's husband, father of Lommy & Mac)

+ Thinlómien, a bird tamer, adult (married to Nilp, Macalaure's sister)
+ Eönwë, Rikae's unofficial helper-person, 22 (their son)
+ Kath, tavern owner, 20 (their daughter, Brinn's life partner)
+ Satansaloser 2005, Lommy's assistant, 17 (their daughter)

+ Lhunardawen, healer's apprentice, 20 (Cailín's daughter, good twin of Durelin)
+ Durelin, poisoner 20 (Lhuna's evil twin, daughter of Cailín)


+ Roa_Aoife, school teacher, adult (mother of Legate, Brinn and Kit, wife of Nogrod, sister of Rikae)
+ Brinniel, Greenie's apprentice, 21 (Legate's sister and Kitanna's twin sister, Kath's life partner)
+ Legate of Amon Lanc, sheep herder with tp, 19 (brother of Brinn & Kit, Sally's boyfriend, Agan's ex-bf)

+ Lalaith, chocolate maker, adult (sister of Nerwen, mother of Aganzir, Volo's daughter)

+ Mormegil, adult (son of Volo, husband of Celuien, father of Gwath and McCaber)
+ Gwathagor, a highwayman, 20 (McCaber's big brother)
+ McCaber, a henchman, 18 (Gwath's little brother, dates Aganzir)


The dead:
Eomer of the Rohirrim, adult (Cailín's husband, Lhuna's and Dury's father); An innocent beheaded by the werewolves on Night1
Nogrod, the judge, adult (Roa's husband, father of Legate, Brinn and Kit); An innocent torn in two by werewolves on Night1
Nerwen, the healer, adult (sister of Lalaith, Volo's daughter); An innocent nailed to the oak-tree on Day1.
Volo, the guy who knows everything about staying alive, the gaffer (Father of Nogrod, morm, Nerwen and Lalaith); The seer mutilated and eyes pulled off on Night2.
Kitanna, a tavern wench 21 (Legate's sister and Brinn's twin sister); An innocent ripped into pieces and thrown into the well on Night2.
Aganzir, the little match girl, 15 (Lalaith's daughter, dates McCaber); A werewolf burnt alive on Day2.
Macalaure, apple farmer, adult (married to Rikae, Lommy's brother); The ranger overpowered by four werewolves in a fight and torn to pieces on Night3.
The Ka, a dog whipper (a fatherless and ageless little child of Lalaith); An innocent impaled to a spear her doll in her hand on Night3.
Cailín, guinea pig breeder, adult (Nilp's sister); A werewolf melted into a candle-wax and burnt on Day3.
Diamond 18, dissolute, 11 (phantom's pre-teen littlesister); The seer eyes picked out (once again, what a bore...), throat slit and thrown into the well on Night4.
Nilpaurion Felagund, a house-bound sandwich-maker, adult (married to Lommy); A werewolf committed a suicide when the whole village turned against him on Day4.
Isabellkya, a gammer who loves asparagus and throwing knives (Shasta's sister); An innocent cut down in a way too horrible to describe on Night5.
Rikae, a lumberjack, adult (married to Macalaure, Roa's sister); The EW vanished in the battle of the Wizards on Day5.
the phantom, sheep herder with Legate, 21 (their adopted son, Di's brother); The GW vanished in the battle of the Wizards on Day5.
Celuien, a candle maker, adult (wife of morm, mother of Gwath and McCaber); A werewolf sliced in pieces by the men of the village on Day5.



Night6 is on.

Whatever you wish to do… do it... those able to do it...

Others just hush!