At dawn, no one was able to keep their eyes closed anymore. Pale spears of dim light climbed over the peaks of the highest mountains and illuminated the still sleepy woods. Even the trees would move faster than Alan, stiff and sore in his curled position. He had slept and watched over a goat wool blanket on the floor. His brother was next to him.
Gobel, the first to walk through the creaking hall, didn't say a word. He was agitated, even though he dared not move anyone out of his stupor.
"Make the idiot sit still" muttered Rolf. Opening his eyes he saw Gobel move near the door and come back, again and again, in a kind of frantic dance. Rolf kicked Alan, then they both stood up. Johan, at the other end of the room, was shaking himself to become lucid.
"Where is Hildemar?" Gobel's brother was not with the four of them in the large room. At Alan's question, Rolf and Johan looked around. They stood at attention and the lumberjack strode towards the room where the girls rested.
Rolf went to open the main door. Gobel, out of control, ran into the street immediately. The morning air was freezing cold and hit them like a wall. They immediately felt awake, alert.
Gobel, with his hands in his curly hair, turned left and walked no more than ten meters before stopping. He had always been a quiet boy, and although retarded his brother had trusted that he would be self-sufficient someday. Now he looked like nothing more than a maniac, barely aware of reality. And the reality was that a trail of fresh blood was drifting away from the corner of a stable towards the woods.
Alan also came along with Rolf. Then Johan arrived with Katia and Isik under his arm.
"The girls are fine."
"The pastor probably not."
On the outer stones, a nocturnal pee mark placed someone in the alley, probably Hildemar himself.
"Traces?" Johan asked.
"It was him?" Katia thought aloud, holding her little sister. "Did he run away because he was guilty?"
Rolf looked her up and down. Johan couldn't help but notice. After a few moments, he said, "I don't think he ran away."
He pointed to the trail of blood, hinting at his thoughts perfectly.
"So it happened again."
"I have not been!" Alan immediately thought of protecting himself. But no one believed it could have been him. Not alone at least.
Johan looked at Rolf questioningly.
"Don't think about it."
"Don't you think I can suspect Gobel?"
The little boy, understanding, took a few steps away, shaking his head.
"I don't know what to believe" Rolf admitted.
"But you went out last night." Johan hadn't been able to sleep much, feeling he was in danger. In the numerous nighttime breaks from sleep, he had also noticed Rolf's absence in the room at one point.
"This time I have witnesses" the blond admitted with a smile. He threw a lewd smile at Katia.
She blushed. "He was with me last night."
Johan wasn't so surprised, he just found it dirty that they had chosen such an unhappy night. Alan, for his part, stared at them both in amazement and dismay. Had Katia really given herself to his brother? He realized he couldn't handle such a thing. He tried to focus on something else.
"If it wasn't you, not Alan, not Gobel, and the girls - God forgive me for even the thought - were with you... what the hell is going on?"
Alan knelt where the blood began. He put his hand to the ground. "Maybe a beast."
Johan frowned. "There is no bear that can do such damage, and so silently."
"Wolves perhaps. A ferocious pack. Look, this looks like a footprint." The mark of a large padded foot was recognizable in a half-footprint of blood.
"I've never seen wolves do such a thing. And never seen such big wolves."
"Maybe Hildemar went out to, uhm, do his things, and got caught."
Rolf looked straight across the alley. A hundred meters ahead the woods began. "They must have taken his body away."
Gobel had begun to clap his hands on his head, turning as if in hysteria. He couldn't hear what they were saying. Was his brother taken away? Ferocious animals? He wanted his brother there, with him.
"The corpses had wounds that might have looked like bites or claws, I grant you, but wolves making such a massacre have never been seen." Johan felt more relaxed. Since the blame for it all passed to the animals, his hardened muscles had regained confidence.
"I see no other explanation."
Gobel turned towards the woods. He gritted his teeth, obsessed with the intermittent red streak leaving the village. He decided not to wait for a second longer: with quick steps, he set off in search of his brother.
"Gobel!" Alan yelled, without taking a step "come back here!"
"Damn that kid." Johan didn't know for a moment what to do. He looked at Katia and little Isik. They couldn't follow him. "I'm going to get it" he finally decided. Addressing the Kaiser brothers, he thundered: "You stay here with the girls." And he set out in pursuit.
Rolf made an angry grimace. Johan was slow, however strong, and had only one hatchet, however large. He, instead, had a rifle. "Alan, let's go."
Alan let Rolf precede him. Then he instinctively took Katia by the hand. He had already forgotten the mysteries of the past night. He just wanted to protect her. «Follow us. I won't leave you here at the mercy of beasts. "
Isik didn't cry, he almost didn't seem to understand exactly what was happening. He was staring at Alan with a questioning face.
Katia nodded. The three of them ran into the woods too.