The captain of the guard frowned deeply as Hood recounted the story of the ill-fated mission. When she heard duke Glupa’s message, her face grew darker still. “I don’t like it.” She muttered. “It’s clearly some sort of trap.” “Of course it’s some sort of trap, but it’s possible it’s a trap meant only for me, and not for this city and its people.” “Do you really believe the other wolves will just get up and leave if you go through with this?” Hood shrugged. “I frankly have no idea. I’ve never known wolves to act like this. But can we really afford not to try? The region is facing a famine!” The captain of the guard opened her mouth to argue further, but the magistrate cut in, silencing her. “We certainly cannot. Captain, I understand your misgivings. I certainly don’t trust the word of a demon any more than you do, but desperate times call for desperate measures.” The captain sighed deeply. “Fine, but I’m sending a company of the city guard with you to…” “You’ll do no such thing.” Hood argued. “In case this turns out to be some sort of ruse, you need every guard you can spare up on the walls, ready to defend the city.” “You can’t seriously mean to say you’re going out to face the demon king on your own? That’s suicide!” “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not going alone. Tell me, do you have a record of all the demon hunters currently in the city?” “I believe so, why?” “Any mention in there about a pair of brothers named Franz and Helmut Maurer?” “Maurer…” Her eyes widened. “Wait, aren’t they the…” “That’s them.” Hood replied before she could finish. “Do you know where they’re staying?” “I can probably find out. One moment.” Hood turned to Ulrik as the captain of the guard started digging through her records. “You’ve been very quiet, Ulrik. I don’t think you’ve said a word since you got captured.” “That’s just it.” Ulrik growled. “I got captured! Even after all this, those wolves took me down like it was nothing.” “There were over four dozen wolves there, Ulrik. There’s no shame in losing when you’re outnumbered more than twenty to one.” “You weren’t captured.” “No, I’m too stubborn to allow myself to be captured. If you weren’t there, I’d probably have kept on fighting until they were forced to kill me. You getting captured might very well have saved my life.” Ulrik did not seem particularly mollified by that thought, but he didn’t have a chance to respond before the captain came back holding a ratty old parchment that had probably been washed and rewritten several dozen times. “Here we go. The Maurer brothers arrived here two weeks ago. They’re staying at an inn in the red district called the Rising Oak.” “That’s them all right. Come on, Ulrik. You’re about to get a proper taste of city life.” The Rising Oak was a disreputable establishment in an equally disreputable part of the city, but it was also very expensive, thus offsetting its disreputability with the inherent sense of respectability that went hand in hand with large amounts of money. The place was festooned with red and purple silk and gauze, and even in these troubled times the air inside was heavy with incense and tobacco smoke and the sound of laughter and general merriment was underscored by a pleasant melody on flute and harp. “So, who are these people we’re looking for?” Ulrik asked, trying very hard not to stare at the extremely scantily clad men and women that wandered the floor carrying drinks and food. “Trust me. You’ll know them when we see them.” She wandered into the smoky depths of the tavern, Ulrik trailing after her like a lost puppy. Oh, he’d heard about establishments like this before. Mostly from wandering preachers decrying them as dens of sin and unhealthy living. But actually being inside one he felt utterly lost and out of place. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before he heard Hood calling out. “Franz! Helmut! There you are, you disgusting swine! I’ve been looking for you.” Following her gaze, Ulrik did a small double take. Sitting at a table in the very corner of the establishment was a pair of… Well, honestly they looked like nothing so much as a pair of wild boars awkwardly moulded into humanlike shapes. Their heads were covered in short brown bristles, their faces extended into flat, piglike snouts and their mouths sported vicious-looking tusks almost four inches long. Most of their huge, bulky bodies were covered in thick cloth and leathers, but he could see that their hands looked like some sort of twisted compromise between trotters and human hands. One of them had a serving girl in his lap, the woman clearly more attracted by the silver in his purse than she was repulsed by his appearance, while the other was drinking ale from what looked like a four-pint pitcher. When Hood caller out to them, they turned to her with irritated grunts, their beady black eyes narrowing, but when they recognized her they broke into wide, toothy grins. “Why as I live and breathe! Hood! How the hell have you been, you miserable old hag? It’s been almost five years since we saw you last.” “Oh, you know, been busy killing wolves and drinking myself into oblivion.” “Same, same.” The pig-man handed the girl in his lap a few more coins before shooing her away. “Off with you, gel, we’ve got company. But if you come see me tonight there’ll be plenty more silver to be had.” The girl giggled in a way that sounded slightly rehearsed and gave him a kiss on the snout before vanishing into the smoky depths of the inn. Hood wrinkled her nose slightly as the girl walked past, though Ulrik wasn’t sure if it was in disapproval or just because the girl stank to high heavens of floral perfume. “Still whoring like a young noble, I see.” “Ah, come off it, you meddling old crow. If you didn’t have the body of a little baby I’m sure you’d have a young man or two eating out of your palm right now.” “And if you weren’t such a disgusting pig maybe you could keep it in your pants for more than half an hour at a time.” The man scoffed, but his brother laughed appreciatively. “Oh, it’s true. Franz would probably have every disease known to man if he could still get people diseases. I at least try to be a bit selective, but Franz will poke at anything with two legs and an arse. So, who’s the whelp? It’s a rare thing for you to travel in company.” “This is Ulrik. He’s a hunter as well.” “Hah. A hunter? Useless little boy like him? Looks like a long streak of piss to me. Probably crapped his pants the first time he saw a…” There was a sudden blur of motion and a loud thud, which ended with a dagger buried two inches deep into the table in front of him. “The whelp is mine!” Hood growled, her uncomfortably sharp teeth gleaming in the candlelight. “He is pack, and if you say one more word out of turn I’ll be having swineflesh for supper.” “Duly noted.” The pig-man replied and pried the dagger from the wood, handing it back to hood with a conciliatory smile. “So, what brings the great demon-spooker of the north this far into the lowlands?” “Same thing as you, no doubt.” “Looking for Old Fenris, are you?” “Not looking, found. Would you believe the arsehole actually called me out? I’m to meet with him in the royal hunting grounds the day after tomorrow.” Franz frowned deeply, his large, pointy ears flicking back and forth. “That’s awful strange. Why would the arsehole king care enough about you to arrange a meeting?” “He wants to fight me, apparently. I figured you two would want in on it.” “Well, you figured right. Been looking for him for years now.” “Why is that?” Ulrik asked curiously. The two pig-men looked at each other for a moment, before Helmut shrugged a little awkwardly. “Suppose we might as well tell you. If you’re going to face Old Fenris, it’s better that you know a little about what kind of demon you’re dealing with.” “We weren’t always like this, you know.” Franz added. “We were just men once, bricklayers by trade. When Old Fenris came for us, we didn’t know what to do. He chased us through the woods and across the fields until we got to our brother’s house. Barricaded ourselves inside.” “You have another brother?” “We had another brother. Sebastian, gods rest his soul. He was a better man than either of us. He was out working when we barricaded ourselves inside his house. That house was a thing of beauty, you know. Sebastian was a stonemason, not a bricklayer like us, and his house was like a little fortress. Even the demon king couldn’t break in.” “So what happened?” “He lay there, just waiting by the door, until our brother came back from work. Caught him and tortured him right in front of the house, trying to lure us out with his screams. ‘Don’t you want to save your brother’ he asked. ‘Just open the door and he won’t have to suffer any longer’.” “And what did you do?” “Well, we stayed inside, didn’t we? Look, kid, I never claimed to be a good or righteous man, and I certainly wasn’t going to go out and fight the demon king in some suicidal attempt to save my brother. After a while, Fenris grew bored. He said that if we’d rather live like cowardly swine than die like men, then he’d grant that wish. Used our brother’s dying breath to put some sort of curse on us, changed us into this. Said we’d live like this until we were ready to face him and die like men.” “And so you went looking for him?” “Hell no! I keep telling you, whelp, we’re not good people. Sebastian was the good brother. No, we were fully content to be pig-men as long as we were alive pig-men. Only reason we started hunting demons is no-one wanted to hire a pair of bricklayers that look like some kind of monsters. Besides, these cursed bodies have a good deal of demonic strength in them. Gives us an edge.” “So what changed. Why are you out looking for Fenris now?” “We’ve had a good run, lad. We’ve been fighting and drinking and whoring our way across the land for a good thirty years now. And even though it’s hard to tell with these cursed bodies, we’re not getting any younger. Soon enough, we’ll start slowing down, and in the demon-hunting business getting slow is a good way to get dead. The way we see it, when we inevitably die at the claws of some murderous wolf-beast, we’d rather do it as men than as pigs.” “Well, you’ll get your chance the day after tomorrow.” Hood remarked. “I’m going to need some help taking on Old Fenris, and other than Ulrik you two are the only people I trust to stand at my side.” “That’s high praise, coming from a crotchety old bitch like you. We’ll stand with you, Hood. Gods know you’ll need all the help you can get.”