On the evening of the third of December, when Eric was sitting on a bench in a small but cozy garden that was located in the backyard of his temporary residence, Rudolph approached him and sat quietly beside him.
" Good evening, my old battle friend. "Agree, the beautiful weather is a light frost and silence. Only fresh, crisp snow is missing.
"You know why I came. "
"Dear friend, why did you come, you have written on your face," the baron smiled.
"Is this so obvious? "
Of course. Yes, and does not fit with your character the desire to sit in the evening on the bench and look at the night sky and the moon.
Right? But let's go back to that conversation, which began at the carcassed city. The longer I am near you, the more I get stronger in my doubts. You're not Eric. At least, certainly not that fucking little boy, that he could not see anything around except horses and women. Who are you?
- What led you to such conclusions?
"You do not want to answer? "
" We're in no hurry, so I want to talk. "Are you really against this?
- No, not at all. When I met you after that terrible night, I could barely keep my fright. At first, I thought that you were a rebel dead man - a descendant of hell, but your peaceful and calm behavior changed my mind. I decided to talk to you. And what did I find? Instead of a naive teenager, a completely unfamiliar person with a big and quirky mind spoke to me.
" Why did not you tell me about this uncle? "He would immediately use this to execute me, accusing, for example, of witchcraft.
- I was scared.
Why? Just why? ? I would not say that you are a timid man.
"It's one thing with enemies to fight and it's quite another matter to resist what you do not understand and even do not guess what the goals are. I remembered the old curse that I was lying on the family crypt, and therefore I decided that one of the founders of the family had revived in you.
" Dear friend, there are a lot of superstitions in you. Do you think that long-dead people will be able to reborn in foreign bodies?
" It does not matter. "The important thing is that I then believed it. Later, I changed my mind. I decided that I had faced something truly terrible and terrible.
"And what made you think that? "
" Your uncle, or rather, what was left of him, after the ritual that you somehow prepared your mother for an eerie deed. "She was all broken - legs, ribs. She was left only with her left hand so that she could eat. She was completely incapable of representing a threat even for the mouse, and here such an event. The knife is just predictable, but her behavior is still in my head. I thought it was some kind of monstrous coincidence, exactly until I saw those unfortunate people who, having lost their mind, threw themselves at us with only one desire - to kill, kill and die. I've never seen this. It's really scary and I do not want to see this anymore.
"Do you think I kept my mother up for four days? "
- No, I have no idea what you did there and, frankly, I do not even want to know.
And in vainI just talked to her. Why are you so shy?
- With you will. I've never seen people go crazy after a conversation.
- Come on, she was completely in the mind and clear consciousness, well, or almost clear.
"What happened to her? "
" Have you ever heard of warriors who fell into a battle rage? "So, you do not know that I wanted to pull her out and run away at first. But my mother refused and decided to die, as she could not survive in the state she was in by that time. I invited her to leave, as they say, "with songs and dances" and explained how to do it. And when my dearly loved uncle came to her, she was already in a trance of fighting rage and felt neither pain nor fear. Scary a mouse if you corner it.
"Especially when this mouse has a knife and foam from its mouth. "
- Now, you're already joking. You have nostalgia, you are all in your thoughts. And you do not care who I am anymore. Am I right?
" However! "How clever! Yes, you are a master to speak the language!
- Yes, where there. Where to me, wretched, to the master?
- Do not be weak. But since you returned to the conversation, why?
- I do not know how to explain everything to you, since there is no clarity on this issue. But since you went so far in your observations and generalizations, it's foolish to continue to maneuver.
- Why?
" I trust you and do not want my confidant to have faith in me. "After all, your doubts gnaw at you and torment you. Why do I need it? Who will drive my warriors instead of you?
"So you really are not Eric? "
Yes and no. The body is definitely his. But the consciousness you know, I can not explain how I got into his body, I do not even know what kind of place it is. "Eric waved his hand around the district.
- Why?
" Where I lived before that ill-fated morning, it was almost all the same, with the exception of time. "What year is it in our yard? It is true 6710 from the creation of the world. And I was born in 7488. - Rudolph already breathless and with wild eyes stared at Eric. - Yes exactly. After death, or what happened to me, I woke up not only in another body, but also in a completely different time.
- And what was your name in that life?