"Goodbye my boy!" well meant? Perhaps Benedict could give him an answer.


Destin had brought his mother to her apartment above the dining room and now laid her in a large feather bed under a window on which ivy vines grew up from the floor. The rain was still pounding heavily against the window. In the semi-darkness he looked closely at his mother and felt her tenderness, which was soon to be so distant.


Suddenly Benedict was in the room.Destin hadn't seen him coming, nor had he heard him coming. It had appeared as quickly as a shadow and was only now showing itself. Destin didn't turn around because he was sure the answer to his question would show up sooner than he'd thought.


"What ...?" "Go pack! Quick! And only take the bare essentials with you. Weapons wouldn't be bad either!" Benedict ordered in a stern tone. "Where to ...?" "East, to your father!" "How ...?" "Later!" "Why ...?" "You have to be taken away from here! You are no longer safe here ! "" But it's my birthday today and ... "" No buts! " the wizard snapped at him. "It might have been your last day here!" Benedict explained, still with a certain impatience in his voice.


After a short pause and a long look at his sleeping mother, Destin suddenly turned around and looked into Benedict's eyes searchingly:


“What does my father have to do with it?” The magician ignored the question and added at the end of his speech: “Go pack!We leave immediately! "Then he turned and strutted out of the room.




The guests had been gone some time when Destin stepped out from behind the counter with a large olfactory sack on his back and a long sword in his belt. He had a long, black coat around his shoulders and now looked even more like his father.


Benedikt had pulled his hat low over his forehead and was sitting on a wine barrel by the door.


"I left a note for mother!" said Destin as he approached. Benedict started up. "What do you have?" he roared. "He could come and see him!" he continued. Destin tried to calm him down: "Don't worry, I didn't write on it where we were going. I couldn't really know that myself! Oh, who is" he "?"


Benedict was frightened. He had gossiped. Dejected and grim, he said: “Your father!” “I almost thought that! Mother keeps talking about it.She thinks I am not listening, but I am listening very carefully! I got that from her. She used to listen to a lot of people. So I know that I'm half vampire, half human. She said my father used to call me "demon spawn" in letters! "Now Benedict was more than astonished. He would never have thought that the little boy would know so much.


"Okay, let's go!" he laughed and they stole out of the house, in the middle of the roaring storm and the pounding rain.


As they walked the cobblestones, they pulled their coats tightly around them. Every now and then Benedict stopped and sniffed the air. Except for the damp smell of the mist and the smell of horses in their stables, he couldn't smell any other smell, like that of a vampire.


They came quickly out of the city, walking through the mud, which had been terribly churned up by the rain and storm. Destin wasn't used to walking through such weather and wrapped himself up even deeper in his cloak.On their way east, they passed fallen tree trunks that had been torn up by the wind. They just heard his whistling in front of them, then again behind them and next to them. Overall it was terrible weather and only I had experienced it on my trip from Thomas Hut to Vampirtown.


Beside them on the left, the mountain ranges loomed up and Benedict made it clear to Destin that they had to cross them or hike through the Colon Desert. All in all, the mountains would be safer and easier to traverse. Destin agreed and together they crept up the mountain path without leaving any footprints. The path became steeper and narrower, so they had to press themselves tightly against the rock face in order not to be torn down by the storm. On their current path, only small ferns and yellow grasses that snaked out of crevices in the rock grew.


Soon they were high above Gorstadt and the storm subsided. They were soaked and tired from battling the storm.Benedict discovered a cave (actually a small niche in the rock) and they prepared their camp for the night. After this long march they crouched tiredly in their sleeping bags, which were to be found in the sleeping bags under all sorts of food and weapons, and Destin fell asleep in a flash. Benedict stayed awake for a few hours and observed the surroundings. He wasn't sure if they had really made the right decision. After all, they had left no traces and they had a large lead over the riders that Petrus had sent to get Destin. Benedict did this solely for Destin's mother and the future of the world. Nothing would come out of the whole thing for him, because he would be too old to enjoy his fame. Hopefully there won't be another failure like Benedict did back then, thought Benedict. In the now dead Benedict, his reborn soul was hidden. He had failed, so I would fail too, he said.

Outside the cave, drops of water fell from the walls and gathered in small rivulets that meandered down the valley. It almost calmed him down a little. He could go without sleep for 3 days and 3 nights at his age. Unfortunately he hadn't slept for 2 days and 2 nights. On the one hand he had to stay awake to guard Destin, on the other hand he wanted to sleep to be fit again the next morning.


He was even more tired than before over the long brooding. After a few more minutes, which seemed endless to him, he slipped silently into dreamland.




The heat overwhelms anyone who doesn't wear a sun hat or hat. It was the same with Destin. He got up early and was drenched in sweat. Yesterday it was still cold and today it was suddenly warm again. After a refreshing pour, always followed by a searing heat, Lisa had always said to Destin when he was a baby.


When he stepped out of the cave, he saw a bright blue sky with very few clouds.When he walked a little to stretch his legs, he came to a steep precipice. He stared down for a while, then got thirsty. When he fished his water bottle out of his backpack and took a long swig, he had hot water in his mouth. The sun had shone so brightly on the backpack that it had brought the water to a boil.


He climbed a scree slope and found himself in a small grassy spot with a spruce tree. Apart from this small green area, there were only stones to be seen far and wide.


Suddenly he recognized a blurry figure on the horizon. The creature had a staff with two buckets of water on it. She was definitely not wearing a hat and hunched over.


Destin ducked into the grass, then crawled carefully back down the slope and sprinted to the alcove.


"Benedict, Benedict!" he called, but no magician was in sight. Only his big, blue, broad-brimmed hat could be seen.Destin was on his own. He was about to reach for the hilt of his long sword when his hand reached into space. He looked around frantically. Over there in a corner of the cave lay his black cloak and sword. He hurried over and pulled the blade from its sheath. Farther away he heard someone whistling, someone coming closer and closer. The blood froze in Destin's veins as he could hear the sloshing of water in the buckets that the guy was carrying more and more clearly. The man came up to him. Destin immediately squeezed himself into a crevice and in the same instant he wondered where the wizard was.


The whistle turned the corner and Destin shot out of hiding with his shear raised. Now he stopped in the middle of the movement. Benedict stood bent over with his burden and looked at him bitterly.


"You're already awake!" he snapped. "Could have helped me! I made it all the way from here to the Blutsee and back again on my own, just to bring us water to boil and drink!I think that just calls for a thank you! "


he moaned and put down the buckets with a groan.




The soup tasted wonderful. It was a stew made from mushrooms, herbs, and beets. They had made the fire for the soup from the dry cones of the spruce. Benedict set everything on fire with a magic spell. They then held the bucket over the fire and after 10 minutes the food was ready.


When they had finished eating, they packed up their sleeping bags and set off on their further journey. As they were stepping over the stones and it was getting colder and colder, Destin asked why the lake from which Benedict had taken water was called Blood Lake, because the water was not red at all. The magician considered his answer and then said that a blacksmith named Bloodbeard once lived up here by the lake. He bought the lake and called it that.


After a couple of hours they came to a fairly flat surface. Much grass and trees grew here.Warm winds brushed the meadows and rocked the spruce trees back and forth. It thundered.


Destin winced and then shook his head: "No, it can't go on like this! I don't want another storm like yesterday!" The wizard just nodded and laughed.


The way was much slower and they followed a small mountain path, which led them into a pass. They had made the first hill in the chain.


Sometimes there was a flash of lightning on the horizon and they counted the seconds until the thunder started. So they always knew how far away they were from the storm. The ferns grew lush and the moss showed up much more often. The pass led between two ranges of hills and they could already see the little huts of the dwarfs from afar. The storm had stopped with them. From now on they had to be careful, because predatory giants often hid behind the two hills.


The sky above Destin and Benedict was bright blue and the sun shone mercilessly.The puddles that