[center][h3]Alban[/h3][/center]

[indent][i]Mud[/i]. It clung thickly to Albans' leather boots and pasted his trousers to his legs. His leather duster and his satchel were coated with brown clumps of what could only be horse manure, grass and dirt. [i]Mein Gott[/i]...he thought.[i]What a country[/i]. But he pushed on; as he had across war-ravaged Virginia and Pennsylvania, across this continent as far away from that...[i]Dämon..[/i]. Alban stopped his trek suddenly and listened. Had he heard a noise? These mountain passes carried sounds weirdly-maybe it was only a-[i]no..[/i] A shriek.

Alban scurried off the road and up a rocky bank to his right. He ducked behind a wide [i]Ponderosa[/i] and pulled his pistol from its' holster. He checked the rounds in the revolver quietly, and after a moment he peeked around the great pine to check the road. A crow had landed very near to where he had been standing only a moment ago. It turned it's head sideways, to look at Alban. The black bird pecked at its' foot for a moment and then took flight. Alban, gun still drawn cautiously descended to the road once more. The bird had removed a tin cylinder from its foot. Alban read the note twice.[i]A meeting...How did they find me? Never mind. This is what I have been waiting for. Maybe now I can find some answers...[/i]  [/indent]

[indent]Colorado was a town in the grip of something...disturbing. As Alban trecked into town, he took note of the shuttered windows, the barred doors. The closed Granary. The well defended Barracks and the Jacobs Lament boys encamped outside town. Alban suddenly felt very alone-very...[i]Foreign[/i]; and he suddenly wished he was walking the cobbled streets of Vienna, strolling alongside the river [i]Wein[/i].[/indent]

[indent]"Watch it!" said a man, bumping into Alban. 

"Es tut uns leid,"  said Alban. [i]Sorry.[/i] The man lumbered away with a grunt. "Wait," called Alban. "I'm looking for the Lone Stallion Saloon."

The man, without turning said, "your standing in front of it you dumb foreign bastard!"[/indent]