Even though it was a cheerful, sunny afternoon the crows watched her hungrily, like mortuary employees looking for a fresh job. They could sense her vulnerability.
The path wound as the woods thinned out. Mina spotted the East Bridge, a massive old, shingled crossing that spanned one of the many forks in the Stinkendblüt River where the four roads met.
This part of the river didn’t stink of slaughterhouse & factory waste like the waters closer to Pigskin Port. Still, people didn’t drink or swim or fish in any part of the river close to that cursed city.
As Mina approached the bridge she spotted a mostly human-shaped silhouette. It was standing guard in the middle of the road at the bridge entrance on the far side of the river.
The thing was obscured by the shadows but it had a tail. It was hunched over & had a hopping, hobbling sort of walk.
A cold sweat accompanied Mina’s throbbing heart. Mina could see that the creature had a jagged blade. The figure paced nervously & hadn’t spotted Mina yet.
Mina took Rudolf to the side of the road. Somehow, the dog hadn’t smelled the creature. If he had, he’d be an explosion of barking, charging up the road to fight.
Mina paused & came up with a plan to deal with this problem. She would stay hidden & cause a commotion, unknown to the beast. He would advance to find the source. She would unleash Rudolf & attack. Mina was exhilarated at the chance of killing this creature.
Mina threw a dead tree branch into the road, it landed with a crack & rustle of leaves.
The beast spun & hobbled towards the branch. As it got closer Mina could make out that he was a mix of man & rat. He ran with a distinct limp, as if he wasn’t used to standing on two legs.
The rat man was breathing heavily, spittle dripped from his tooth lined mouth. He carried a filthy, sharp piece of metal that screamed infection. The rat had a worm-like tail that waved behind him. Mina could smell on him the loathsome smell of a species that had only recently developed the culture of wearing clothes.
Mina let Rudolf free & charged the creature. The dog bit hard & wouldn’t let go even as the monster swung around violently.
Mina charged in after Rudolf with her knife ready. The rat-man tried to raise the alarm, but as he opened his mouth to squeak his breath was stopped. He received her blade in his gut. She was taken with the fury of battle & stabbed over & over again.
The rat man fell & Mina continued to stab him in & out with tremendous ferocity. His blood pumped all over the ground. She kept stabbing him long after he stopped quivering.
Mina wiped off her blade on his worn tunic & took a deep breath.
Mina grinned. It felt good to kill the rat, to direct her fury & sadness into the intensity of battle.
When she arrived on the East shore of the mighty Stinkendblüt river she noted that the woods stopped at the other side of the bridge. The river was fast-moving. Its milky appearance from the silt that it brought down from the mountains betrayed its depths. It served as a barrier between the safety of the Farms & the danger of the forest.
The farmlands surrounded & fed Brüttelburg, the biggest city in the eastern provinces of the Würstreich. She knew little about the city except that good people should avoid it. Despite those feelings, or maybe because of them, she felt drawn to it.
The sun was going down. It wasn’t safe to be out at night. She would have find an Inn to stay at.
Luckily there was a small village on the way to Brüttelburg. She got a meal & a room & slept soundly.
The next morning Mina set out. The sun lit up the farmlands, adding a golden hugh to everything.
The road wound its way through the fields & soon she saw the top of Brüttelburg looming in the distance & mountains further to the east of that.
The city was archaic & abnormal, a majestic merger of rock formations & man-made construction topped off with a series of towers that looked to hold rounded furnaces that belched pink smoke.
Brüttelburg was layered in three parts like her sister’s wedding cake. Each stratum had a massive, monstrous maw that served as an entry to that area. Wide stairways led up & through each of these mouths. Brüttelburg was more than just a big city, it was a sepulchral, pulsating megalopolis, a living thing.
Mina wound her way on the road to Brüttelburg followed by Rudolf, through collapsed stone battlements & enormous megalithic structures placed there by some forgotten race the city filled more of the horizon.
Flag-topped, pointy towers jutted out of the top & red shingled roofs covered every surface that sheltered the city from the weather. Mina found herself staring in awe at the city, It looked like it had been summoned out of the ground. She couldn’t believe the immensity of Brüttelburg. It was the biggest thing she had ever seen.
She approached the first step of the entrance, past clusters of peddlers selling their wares & every other kind of person slowly making their way inside. She was reminded again of the city’s enormity, losing count of the wide, stone steps as she made her way in.
Occasionally the air would shift out of Brüttelburg & the smell of concentrated, cramped people, human & animal waste was almost overpowering. The stench stung Mina’s eyes, she tried to breathe only through her mouth to give her nose a break. The summer sun was cooking the filth. Rudolf sniffed the air furiously, it was almost too much for the dog.
Brüttelburg was the oldest, biggest city in the Würstreich. It had been built on the ruins of an ancient, alien structure. The epic & imposing masonry had a feeling as if it was grown or magically manipulated & then filled in & built on top of by the newer occupants.
The city had an eldritch, mysterious, tomb-like nature to it. The tribal Valhal avoided the place calling it “die Krypta”, letting it lie dormant for centuries. Emerging from the Valhal, the Würst actively dismissed what they saw as any kind of superstitious motivation so they claimed the city as their own.
Once inhabited, Brüttelburg grew rapidly. The city operated as a Bulwark for the spread of Imperial power. The Würst stood on the shoulders of giants & discovered many of their secrets.
Mina finished climbing the steps & wiped the sweat out of her eyes. She was met by a huge market square surrounded by tall walls which were enclosed by a shadowy, smoky ceiling far above.
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