[center][img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjE1OC5mYmRlNDEuUVhOcmFXNGdUR0VnUVhOclpYSnliMjVsLjA,/coffee-written.regular.png[/img][/center][hr]

It was hard to believe it only took 14 hours to trade Rio’s tropical heat for a misty evening chill.  In Askin's opinion, flight was silly and baffling, and no number of airplane rides would change that, but no one really asked Askin his opinion, and the complementary snacks were nice enough, so he kept these and other thoughts to himself.

They were back in Europe again; it was a very different place from what Askin remembered.  There was much less war, for one thing.  Apparently the Germanic raiders were some kind of important nation-state these days?  According to Brown, they made some very good chocolate.  

Askin didn’t entirely know why he had been given such a preposterous amount of money from the hoard Jonas appropriated.  He also didn’t entirely know why the group was letting him join the party, or why he was going along with it.  But after two weeks, he found himself hoping—deeply, quietly, privately—that they had no plans on sending him away any time soon.

He enjoyed waking up and having someone other than an empty room to share the morning with.  He enjoyed the routine.  He enjoyed the grocery shopping, and the small menial day to day things to which, apparently, only he and Otsana and sometimes Brenda were willing and capable.  He enjoyed having something solid and real to do with his hands, and he enjoyed knowing there was a place he was going back to at the end of the day, and he enjoyed the feeling of not being lonely.  The muggings he could’ve done less with, but if you were going to be a tourist in Rio, according to Brenda, then suck up and deal with it.  

Apparently Jonas had stolen the money, prize-winnings from the tournament, and Otsana may or may not have a bounty on her head.  But Askin didn’t dwell on those things.  [i]You can’t blame me,[/i] he thought, [i]for wanting to be happy.[/i]

In Germany, they had rented a truck, in which Brenda, Jonas, Brown, and Askin had rumbled over the winding countryside road, the engine grumbling and straining as it tackled older, wilder terrain with each passing mile.  Otsana and Klara roared along at an even pace, their motorcycle moving side by side with the truck whenever the muddy street widened enough to make room.

Askin had never spent much time away from Iberia.  With Al-Andalus to the south, and the Christian Kingdoms of the north, it seemed like you only had to wait, and the corners of the world would come to you.  Apparently, however, Askin had missed quite a bit.

“Uh, I’ve never been to Germany before,” said Brown.  “Is that super loud murder machine normal?  Because I don’t think that’s normal.”

Askin was also not much an expert on ‘normal,’ or on Germany, but he guessed, "Not a hundred percent sure, but I'm thinking no."

Far ahead, an enormous body dipped in and out of the graying sky.  It was long and metal and silver, and its massive wings cut through the clouds like the heads of whales surfacing from a skin of the sea.  Where it moved, the displaced air roared in protest, like the sound of a hundred jet engines.  It would’ve been hard to tell where the giant ended and where it began if not for the mouth, a searing red hot chasm cut into the sky, and it poured fire down on the town below.

“We can’t fight that in the middle of town,” said Askin.  “Is there any way to lure it somewhere else, force it to land?”