"I'll have words with Valmir von Raukov himself!" Marius yelled furiously. He pointed up at the city watchman who had ordered them to leave. "I'll have you know I know his bastard! I'll get Boris von Raukov and I'll go back to Nuln and have him marching back here with the entire 4th! I'll have you strung up! I'll..." He stopped to catch his breath. 

The day had been spent in the cold and wet, without rest or even a moment of respite to eat. The two had ridden hard back to Wolfenburg to escape any chance of being waylaid by beastmen or accosted by those fucking Grunwald bastards. The horses were near collapsed, and even Natasha looked a bit weathered and irritable. By the hammer, she must have been made of steel. All that riding and fighting and explosions and even if he was well rested he knew she could knock him out with a well-placed punch. Regardless, the blonde would-be merchant and the boyarina were in the middle of a throng of the helpless and the destitute, trying to make it into the city. Something had happened while they were gone, evidently. Something that was driving all the nearby villagers or local laborers to find protection in Wolfenburg's walls, and just their luck they had arrived right when the gates had been closed for the day. 

"Meyebie vwe can finte some food and bed in vone of the abandoned villages, da?" Natasha wondered. Marius had heard life was hard in troll country, and some of the more remote tribes still raided and pillaged one another as a matter of life and material. Taking someone's home while they were begging at the gate looked pretty tame compared to that, likely. Marius was tired enough to consider it. But some fool clutching a babe elbowed him, trying to get past the merchant at the front, and he felt a new surge of anger sweep over him. 

"No! We must get into the city!" He told her. "I'll have words with Grunwald and squeeze him for all he's worth, and I can't think without the knowledge I'll not be set upon tonight. A keen mind needs some security and I'm tired of beastmen." 

He felt like he was complaining like a petulant child, but Natasha heroically decided to stand upon her horse so as to get the watchman's attention. A few of the men above ceased their shouting to go home and turned to look at this warrior woman out of the wild north. 

"I am Natasha Andropolovskya, dughter of de march warden of troll kuntry! I hef come for busyness! Will you let me and paratner stay out of city?" 

It sounded like a very wild claim, and the men were silent for a moment. They looked at one another, and the entire thing made Marius unreasonably angry. He could usually talk himself through any situation. If this worked, he would be jealous, though he knew it was his exhaustion making him so. He did have to admit Natasha looked every inch what she claimed to be. 

"Bold claim! How do we know you are who you say you are?" A broad-faced man asked from under his helm. His question ended in a very unmanly squeak as a spear sailed over his head with incredible speed and struck the small ceiling above the archway to keep the elements off the guards. It quivered there, and crossbows and guns were drawn on Natasha. It was like she had reversed the polarity of her own magnetism, as men and women surged away from her position automatically. Marius was too dumbfounded to even move.  

"De seejul of my house is awn lance, and it is made from the Koroskinya tree. Only in de mountains aboof praag keyen you get it." She said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow in a superior look. "I expect lance beck vwen we get in." 

Marius's mouth dropped to the floor when the door was opened and left slightly ajar, with ostland halberdiers marching out and lowering their weapons to keep the crowd from rampaging through. None really had the heart to, however, and both Marius and Natasha were escorted inside the walls by a retinue of wolfenburg's finest. As stupified as he was, Marius did have the frame of mind to ask one of the soldiers. "Herr Halberdier, what has led all these refugees to the city?" 

The large man, his winged goatee as red as an early morning sun, looked at Marius incredulously. He huffed a small laugh and said. "I don't know where you've been sir, but the Norscans are invading Nordland. Almost a hundred thousand of the bastards, with their accursed monsters to boot."