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Chapter 6: ORDEAL

I looked at that face, but I had to turn my face because I could not stand the look. I heard the words - an endless tream - but I did not understand a single one. However, I understood their meaning - they were words of pain and desperation.

I looked at his clothes. He was not a Roman. Not a Hun either. I assumed he was an Allani, who had joined the Hun army. I forced myself to look at the face, again. Disgust and horror made my body shiver. However I realized that this man was neither deformed by combat wounds nor by torture. The wounds came from the inside. He had lumps all over, scarlet ones, some bleeding. I had to turn my face again. The man, I call it man, was still screaming. I understood his request. I took my axe and liberated him from his pain without looking at him again.

I left his corpus behind. Noone could have buried all the dead bodies in the town. I only hoped that another creature would take care of them.

Without a thought I followed the traces of the Huns. After a while I met a horse and could speed up.

I passed areas complety destroyed by the Barbarians. Only very few people seemed to have survived. Those who had run away when they saw me. My company were the unburried deads.

Although I hurried I could not get closer to the Huns. They were very fast, as usually. Ghosts ride fast, my mother used to say.

I folloewd the Huns for weeks. They crossed the Alps and I saw thatthey were heading for the centre of the world. And it looked like the world would loose that centre soon. However, then I saw something else. First only a few, three or four, then more and more and at last douzend of them. Dead Huns. Not killed by combat. They had they same faces as the man I killed when I left the town.