5 comments/ 6380 views/ 11 favorites The Hidden Manor By: ponygirlie This is a tale about fantasies involving the past and the mysterious creatures in the forest, who roamed the ranges of a sparsely populated region. The myths about wolves and werewolves are always linked to the shadowy forests. The historical background of the German nation building and the drive for wolf extinction is following facts rather closely. ***** Chapter 1 Maria-Eva had been trying to pay a surprise visit to her twin sister. Her parents had been enamored with the names of Eva and Maria. And they had not wanted to favor either of the born siblings. So her twin sister had been named Eva-Maria. Her twin had written a letter to her home in Basel, informing her that she had become engaged in 2018. This came as an utter surprise. Nothing had indicated that her sister ever intended to get engaged. Eva-Maria had always wanted to wait for her 'prince' - but that prince had never shown up. In the meantime, Maria had assumed that her sister Eva-Maria would never marry. And now this! Maria-Eva had not received an invitation for the engagement itself. Of course this was quite romantic, a secret engagement always possessed that charm of hidden passion and love. But she was annoyed that her twin sister had hidden all from her. And she had been more annoyed, when she learned that her husband and she were not even invited to get to know that mysterious new fiancé. Her sister claimed to be on an extended sort of vacation trip with a sailing yacht on the Baltic Sea. And soon Maria-Eva became worried as well, as she had not been able to contact her sister by phone. Finally she had picked up that letter and identified the origin of that letter from the postal stamp as coming from a small village in the vicinity of one of the larger forests in Mecklenburg, the northeastern part of Germany. That was peculiar, too. Her sister was not at all interested being in a flat landscape, where practically no mountains existed, only ant hills at best. Eva-Maria just loved the sight of rugged rocks on mountaintops and steep valleys with rushing rivers and lived in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains. When she tried to call the flat in that town, she received the message that the phone had been disconnected. After inquiring she learned that the apartment had been rented out to a new tenant and that her sister had given up residency... That made her decision. Maria-Eva was going to visit the small village in the very north of Germany on this Monday. Her husband Siegfried had once again scheduled a weekly stay for research in Davos, so it was convenient enough. He did not worry at all. For him, her sister had always been somewhat erratic and weird with her love for nobility, even if they did get along very well. Her sister always told her how fortunate she was to have him as her husband, whenever Maria complained that he tried to convince her to locate to Davos into the mountainous area. Only slowly he adapted to love the comfort of Basel at home for the weekends, while enjoying the splendor of the higher mountains during the week for his research. After their seven years of marriage Basel had become a nice compromise between the two of them - far enough from higher mountains to be comfortable for her and close enough to the Alps for her husband. The only drawback of that compromise being the missing suitability for building a family and now she was already well above thirty... Maria-Eva prepared the trip very well. She tried to learn as much as possible about the neighborhood of that village. Her curiosity had been peaked when she read some adventurous stories about an old manor, which had been close to the village. It had been abandoned in late 1918, after the former Baron as owner had abdicated and escaped to Russia just in the same way as Emperor Wilhelm II had escaped to the Netherlands. The buildings had fallen in disarray, as nobody had wanted that place for unknown reasons. However, the stables and the outlines of the moats were still intact, and the stables had been converted into a small chalet. Maria-Eva was very curious to learn about that hidden place. That Monday evening as she arrived in the village at the only inn, she learned even more about it. But she did not learn anything about the stay of her sister. It was as if she had been swallowed by the earth. The restaurant chief stated simply that her sister had claimed to be going on a longer trip. Indeed the border police confirmed that she had been leaving Germany by boat from the Harbor of Wismar, so Maria-Eva could not declare her as missing at the police. She was annoyed and did not believe that for a second, but could not find any argument to change the opinion of the police. She was determined to find out where she had been staying. At least the postal stamp proved to be the right one - so she must have passed through the village. She tried to inquire about houses being located outside of the village center, where her sister might have stayed. However, the only house of a bigger size seemed to be that hidden chalet in the woods. Unfortunately that forest was private property. The villagers were convinced that the owner was a wealthy man, apparently heir to the former baron, who had resided here many years ago. The owner seemed to be very distant and rather mysterious, he rarely ventured into the village. Even his staff was not coming at all into the village; apparently their contract did not allow that. He now enjoyed the pleasures of local hunting in the forest. It was rumored that he had been hunting in Africa, and that he had wild animals from Africa living at his site. Next morning she was buying some cake at the bakery, when the baker's wife looked so surprised staring into the street that she had to look as well. On the street there was a man, who looked a bit out of place. It was partly his clothing which seemed a bit odd and partly his sun-burned skin, which was unusual here in Northern Germany. His dark skin made him look older than his years, she guessed he was in his early twenties. As she turned again to the young woman in her apron in order to ask for the price of the strawberry tart, she heard the door being opened after some moments and that sun-burned man came in. This man was attractive! He was moving to a place where he could watch her from the side. She could see him from the angle of her eyes. He didn't say a word, but his eyes roamed over her entire body - it felt as if he would undress her right in this shop. She could not help blushing. Then he left the shop again. The baker's wife giggled: "That guy was from the manor - he is rather strange, but quite attractive. What do you think?" She gathered all her wit in order to be able to reply at all, evading that question: "Oh that was the owner?" As she glanced rapidly back out again, he had already disappeared from her view. She was very much intrigued, to say the least. In fact, she had thought before that the villagers were exaggerating when they had called him 'strange', but she was baffled. She just had to learn more about this unconventional man. She did ask whether the castle could be visited. The Bakers wife giggled again: "Oh, so you do find him attractive... Well, he doesn't accept visitors. Even important parts of the forest are nowadays only with limited access for the villagers. Trespassing is no longer allowed for those parts he has fenced off as forest cultures - and those surround the manor almost completely. And then..." Her voice trailed off. Maria-Eva looked questioningly. The woman continued: "You know, they say that very strange creatures roam in that forest, as soon as dusk approaches. A pack of giant wolves had been seen. Even brave hunters have qualms about it, when they did hear a wolf howl out aloud and others chimed in. It was said that it had the size of a fully grown deer!" Maria-Eva was laughing: "A wolf with such a giant size? Come on, that is certainly not true and quite exaggerated." The wife was offended: "You may ask anybody at the hunter club in the village. Anyhow, nowadays no villager in his right mind is venturing into this forest after sunset or entering it before sunrise. Just that you know..." She did not learn any more from that woman. Being back at the inn she wanted to discuss that with her best friend and called Gertrud by phone. Her friend was not open for it: "Maria-Eva, don't be such a romantic fool to want to talk about castles and exotic creatures. You do have a nice husband and you don't need a prince. Leave that kind of talk better to your sister, who loves nobility." That was the end of that discussion - and maybe she was right, but she couldn't get that thought out of her head. Chapter 2 Maria-Eva was determined to learn more about that mysterious man and his house, as she felt that this was somehow related to the disappearance of her sister. She rented a bike and tried the forest roads. However, she could only get a glimpse from afar of that Manor. It did really look derelict, and most of the Manor itself did show fallen walls and a rather destroyed roof. There was no way to get closer with that bike, as there was no apparent path to the buildings from that forest road. She got back to the inn. She had to find a walking path to it, if she wanted to learn more. On the way back she chose a different route and encountered at a small creek the ruins of an ancient water mill. Only the stumps of the walls existed and what probably had been the casing for the millwheel. It was romantic and told a story of the past with the status of Mecklenburg as something akin to a breadbasket for northern Germany. The very same day she excused herself for a longer walk and walked through the fields of wheat and rye, approaching the forest. The big signaling 'Forestation zones - don't disturb the wildlife' made her think twice, as she reached the grass meadow that followed the forest outline as far as she could see. It was perhaps 20 yards width covered by wild herbs and typical grass varieties found in forests. Additionally the fence protected the first zone of the forest, consisting of a plantation of young trees. But soon she found a section of the fence that had been torn down by some event. There again a pictorial did show a warning hand as warning against intrusion. But then again, to venture a small distance into the forest could certainly not be very dangerous. So she chose a small path for entering it. The tall grass made it difficult to enter, and it felt as if she had to push through a curtain. After she had advanced into the forest for a minute and gotten into the part with taller full-grown trees, the oppressing silence was suddenly to be felt. She could not shake off the feeling that someone or something was watching her, and again, she felt almost as though she were being undressed by the penetrating gaze of somebody. She shuddered and she thought that this forest was indeed special. She decided to turn back. As she turned around to head back, there was suddenly a rather big grey dog, apparently something like an overgrown shepherd, standing in the way. She was shocked, but somehow his stance was not really menacing. So she tried some small steps to sidestep him, but as she did he started to growl and to show his teeth - maybe this was a wolf after all? At least she could not recognize any trace of a collar or similar attire fit for an owned dog. Terrified, she stopped immediately and retreated. As soon as she did, he stopped growling and started to wave his tail. A wolf would not do so and she did no longer feel that threatened. So she took another step back and then she turned to go the next crossing in order to turn left, but as soon as she tried that, he blocked her way. And that continued for all other directions, except for the one deeper into the forest. He was behaving like a shepherd who had found a lost sheep and he was leading her back to the flock. Maria-Eva wondered if it had been the grey shepherd's eyes she had felt on her. But she had felt so exposed. Surely, it was not this great, grey dog, so much larger than any dog she was used to, that had made her feel as though she were naked in the forest. Suddenly the ears of the dog (or wolf?) oriented themselves to the source of some whistle-like sounds coming from a distance some hundred yards away. The dog seemed focused to identify this new source of motion of noise. She decided to take this opportunity and take a turn left in direction of the meadow. Indeed he did not follow her, but sniffed into the direction of that new noise. When he finally decided to catch up with her again, she was already at the border to the meadow. For a moment she was afraid, as the close meshed fence made it impossible for her to pass, but then she tried to squeeze herself through a rather small gap between an older oak tree and a wooden post of the fence. Then she became scared, as she believed to be trapped. She had the absurd impression that the tree had swayed closer to the post making the gap smaller. Her back was rubbing against the rough bark of the oak tree, whilst her legs and arms seemed to embrace the wooden post. She was caught and tried in vain to get her left thigh through. It felt as if the post would split her body vertically in two while pinning her against the tree. The grey animal approached in giant leaps. In panic she let her handbag glide from her arm and tried to push with both hands the wooden post back. Suddenly she heard voices from the corn field adjacent to the meadow. The dog stopped dead in his tracks. Seconds later she was free. The giant dog did not follow her. He stared at her for a moment, then turned and disappeared in the forest. Had it been the rush of fear or the disorientation caused by the trap? Somehow she felt a sudden change. The sky seemed to be less luminous, as if she was going to faint. Then she perceived a sudden pang of hunger and the equally unsettling feeling of an overfull bladder. She knew that people were probably close, only hidden by the tall corn plants and maybe emerging any moment, but she could not help it. Her bladder was close to bursting. She just had to squat down and relieve herself. She had barely finished, when she perceived some movements in the cornfield. Hastily she pulled her panties up and rushed to smooth her summer dress. Two villagers appeared and called out to her. She shouted back, that she needed to retrieve her handbag before meeting them, but she could not see it. As she met them, they asked her why she was still close to the forest at that time. She did not quite understand the question, but then she perceived the sun being close to the horizon. It had to be rather late. She was puzzled. Could it be that she had been more than four hours in the forest? She accepted the offer to ride back to town on the tractor. Back in the rented inn room, she did find a letter waiting for her on the wooden table. Immediately she recognized the handwriting of her sister, even though she had used the letters of Suetterlin, which she had learned during her studies of German literature: My dear darling, Do not look for me, if you want to escape your destiny. Don't try to find out where I have been travelling to or when I did so. It may already be too late to avoid your destiny, but you should try it. Your destiny will change your life more than you could ever imagine. I am not able to tell you more, as this letter may be intercepted. If you manage to escape your destiny, then I will be happily accepting to miss my destiny and thus avoid the guilt already lacing my dreams. Travel back home and be assured that I am being taking care of in an old-fashioned manner befitting nobility, as I do have two attendants to serve me and all the standing in society, which I always wished to achieve. So, please follow my advice to travel back straightaway. Even more important, if you can't go back immediately, do not use anything else than closed limousines outside of the village! This was unsettling. Never before had her sister written to her in such a warning style, and certainly she always signed her letters! Something was definitely wrong. But much more was wrong. The letter did not have any postal stamp. The paper was looking quite odd, and it was thicker than any letter she had ever seen. She wished she could have reached her husband, but he was having a conference meeting and had turned off his mobile for two days. She decided to involve a specialist as of tomorrow. Chapter 3 On Wednesday, the next morning she headed to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg. She had an appointment with a private investigation service. She left the letter for investigation and was told to come back in the afternoon. When she arrived at 3 pm, the detective looked at her with an odd expression on his face: "Mrs. Gruber, you have been trying to pull my leg! But I am puzzled why you do this when you are paying for it?" Maria-Eva did not understand why he said that: "Pardon me?" "Mrs. Gruber, you have claimed to have received that letter yesterday from your sister, right? Well, we have been trying to start by locating the manufacturer of the paper of the letter and to date the time the ink has been put on paper. The hired expert declared that both had an age of more than 150 years. He had been adamant about the age, claiming it was more the lower limit of age for this letter. I do see some problems with your sister writing a letter to you 150 years ago..." Maria-Eva was dumbfounded. She stared at the detective in utter disbelief. This could not be true! The detective realized that too. "Okay. Mrs. Gruber, it looks as if somebody pulled your leg, too! Why do you assume it is your sister writing you this? It does not contain her name or your name. Handwritings in old letters are easy to be mistaken, since your experience in identifying is certainly limited, as you admitted yourself." Maria-Eva had to admit that she had no other proof than the knowledge that the handwriting looked similar to Eva-Maria's, when she had demonstrated her knowledge some years ago. She had to admit as well that she had not seen other handwritings. She agreed to pay the fee and agreed that it was best to abandon any other investigation. She could not prove it at all, but she had the feeling that it had been her sister, who had written her this. But she could not explain at all why this letter was dated with an age of at least 150 years. She travelled back. She slept in the inn, but it was not a calm and relaxing night. She tossed and turned in her bed. She had weird dreams and woke up several times feeling hot and bothered. On Thursday, the next morning she was determined to get at least her handbag back and to find out who had wanted her not to venture into the forest. She was no longer sure that her sister had written that letter to her, but she had to know for sure. She was going to let the letter be examined by a detective agency in Basel, when travelling back. After breakfast she decided to fly back via Hamburg to Basel with the late afternoon flight in Hamburg. She was impatient to find out who had an interest to confuse her with such a letter. She chose attire which would be appropriate for meeting with the detective agency in Basel. She was in a hurry to have that issue clarified and had scheduled the meeting for the same evening. She wanted to look serious, when she presented that hoax letter. In consequence she slipped into the grey pencil skirt and the white blouse with the matching grey jacket. She called a taxi service to bring her to the train station Ludwigslust in order to continue by train to Hamburg Airport. When the driver arrived, she asked him to make a detour via the forest edge close to that big corn field. The Hidden Manor She did not even bother to change from her charcoal colored high heels into comfortable shoes, as she asked the driver to stop as close as possible to the spot, where she had escaped the forest and where she would find her handbag again. He stopped at the field path opposite to that oak tree. He would wait for her, since 20 yards was not that much to cover. She had prepared for it in bringing a bright flashlight in order to search in the dark underbrushes. And indeed, this proved to be an excellent idea. She could spot her cognac colored handbag not much more than five yards away from the spot where she had crossed the fence. She found it puzzling that her handbag was not closer to the spot when it had left her arm, but she did not bother to think about it a lot. In ten seconds she would have it back. Once again she squeezed herself through the uncomfortable gap and arrived briskly at the bag. As she turned around to head back, it was disturbing to see that the distance to cover seemed more like twenty yards. And suddenly there was a great black dog, apparently something like an overgrown Russian Terrier, standing in the way. She was immediately suspicious. This time the stance of this dog was more menacing. As soon as she tried the smallest step he started to growl and to show his teeth. Now she was really terrified, she stopped immediately and retreated. As soon as she did, he stopped growling, but he still looked rather intimidating. She did not dare to voice any shout for help, as he bared his teeth at the slightest sign of her opening her mouth. Then another dark grey dog or wolf appeared. He was even bigger than that Russian Terrier. In an instant he had snatched her handbag away from her - the handbag she had just managed to retrieve! She yelped out of surprise, and in the next instant she was overthrown by both and pushed with her head into the green moss and onto her belly. Then the bigger of the both stretched out on all fours and laid on her back in this way. It was very weird to feel his hot nuzzle applied to her neck and to feel his groin weighing onto her behind. The weight of the wolf pushed her into the moss and she could barely breathe let alone voice anything. This was even more frustrating, as she heard a man talk to the taxi driver and convince him to return to the inn. She heard the engine of the cab engage und the sounds of a car moving away from the spot, where it should have waited for her. Then she had another disturbing sensation. The cock of that beast started to grow and pressed itself into her ass creek. It felt like an eternity, but probably it lasted less than a minute. She could not move, but she felt his maleness grow quick and quicker. She became alarmed. However, she was allowed to get up again, when the sound of the car ebbed away. Her face felt hot and she was all bothered. As soon as she tried to walk out of the forest, both blocked her way. And that continued for all other directions, except for the one deeper into the forest. They were leading her into a planned direction, but she had no idea where this was or who had planned that. As she walked deeper into the forest, she felt as if this was a planned kidnapping. But this was certainly caused by the surreal situation - wolves do not plan such actions. Finally she ended up in a clearing in the midst of the forest which was surrounded on all sides by a large path. And there was again that creature looking definitely like a dark grey, giant wolf. Every time she tried to move out, the wolves were standing already there and making her retreat. Somehow she was put into a strange sort of prison. A prison with no walls to be seen, but invisible boundaries did exist. And now she understood why the villagers were talking about werewolves, because that kind of behavior was indeed very unusual and the size of the wolves was unusually large. But strange as it was, she was not really feeling menaced in terms of being attacked by them or fearing to be attacked, as long as she did respect the invisible walls. She wondered only what would happen next. But for the next few hours nothing happened at all - she was 'imprisoned', but that was it - apart from the fact that it was getting darker and that she was sure now that she had missed her plane. She started to become rather thirsty. Some minutes later the dark grey wolf appeared with a watermelon in his snout and opened it deep with his sharp fang, then offering it to her. Surprised she took it and sipped the delicious liquid. Soon after having quenched her thirst, her bladder started to make its presence known. Sooner or later she would have to release herself, but she tried to postpone that because she did not have her handbag with tissues and somehow she was also concerned about the wolves. How would they react? Suddenly she felt again the strange sensation that someone was watching her. She had goose bumps on her skin. But she did not hear any twigs breaking or other telltale signs. That made her ill at ease - she had that creepy feeling that somebody was stalking her. That sensation that somebody is looking at your back haunted her. She called out: "Somebody here???" Nobody answered, but that unsettling emotion of being watched did not leave her. That made her even more reluctant to release her bladder, but once she had started to think about... Well, that unwanted thought now came back again almost every minute - till she had to cross her legs. She would not be able to postpone it for long, so she decided to go ahead in a denser part of the brushes in that forest clearing. Dense, because she still had that scary sensation of somebody human being out there, who did not want make himself known. With her heart hammering, she chose a somewhat secluded spot where she could squat down. She looked around. She still felt nervous. Then opened the back zipper and started hesitatingly to pull her grey, tight skirt up. She took another look to be sure that no human being was around. Then she pulled her white panties down to her knees, while she simultaneously sat down into a squatting position. Somehow it worried her that the bright color of the knickers seemed to almost glow in the darkness of the forest. It was an immense relief, as she could let go. She had held it for so long, it took her a while to finish. When she finished making her little stream in the forest, she crouched higher to a position like in skiing. Her panties were still around her knees, her tight skirt still pulled up. She stood momentarily like a Greek statue to drip dry. Finally she started pulling her white panties back up. Had Maria-Eva known where to concentrate her gaze in the dark underbrush to her right she would have seen two eyes glowing yellow in the dark shadow of the forest underbrush. As she squatted, the eyes glowed with a rich intensity. While she released herself, the sound of her pee on the fallen leaves of the forest floor filled the forest with the sound of running water, a little stream in the forest - and those eyes glowed, never blinking, never turning away. And had she seen, she would have thought she saw a smile. And as she bent to pull up her panties, they stepped from their cover as silent as ghosts. She was just smoothing her skirt down, as she heard a sonorous voice addressing her: "Well, the Lady from the village - what are you doing here?" She jumped out of surprise, as this voice sounded very close to her - and indeed when she turned, the man from the bakery was only a few feet from her, accompanied by the giant dark wolf at his side. How did they get so close, without her hearing them? But then she thought what she had been doing just moments ago! She was mortified - did the guy see her squatting down? Maria-Eva's cheeks turned a deep red as the man reached out to take her hand. She could hardly speak. With her eyes down, she managed to stammer out, "You... you did recognize ... me?" She was surprised as he extended his hand, as if he would know her already very well. She hardly knew what she was doing as she gave the strange man her hand. In that very moment the grey wolf sniffed intensely with his head down at the spot, where she had squatted. Moments later he lifted his hind leg and urinated on that very spot. Then both, man and wolf looked at her with an eerie intensity. She felt an intense throbbing rush through her body which filled her with longing and glimpses of far away lands and adventures she had never had. Were they doing this to her, making her feel like this? The pulsing beat concentrated itself in her groin and made her gasp. For a dreadful moment she thought she was going to climax here and now in front of them. Those feelings made her blush even more as she felt her blood rushing to her face and to her ... she dared not even think the work, for she felt her thoughts could be somehow read inside her head. "I was so surprised to see you in the bakery, but apparently I was led there to find you, and now you have been led to me. I am Richard von Steinhart-Wolf and at my side is ... well, let us discuss that later." And as they walked and talked, he was leading Maria-Eva ever deeper into the forest. She knew that the wolf at his side, if she bolted, could catch her within seconds. She did not think he would harm her, but there was a certain fear that crept up into her heart. What had she gotten herself in for? She thought to herself, feeling uncomfortable. And then she looked at the man to see if he had read her thoughts. She must have been more anxious than she realized, for already she felt the need to pee again. The thought was disturbing. They came to what seemed a large clearing, but it was hard to tell because a deep swirling fog filled the clearing like a cauldron filled with a steaming magic potion. The man led Maria-Eva into the fog, and it swirled around them, clinging to Maria-Eva, and she thought she felt fingers touching her legs, gripping, caressing. And there before them was a dark shadow. The swirling mist began to clear, and there before Maria-Eva's eyes the great, grey hidden Manor house appeared as though it had been invisible only seconds before. Maria could not believe her eyes. There was no sign at all that it had ever been ruined. It did look more than intact. The drawbridge came down, and the strange man, still leading Maria-Eva by her hand, brought her across the moat into the Manor. Casually he mentioned that the bluff fosse contained some poisonous water snakes. Maria looked at him in shock. As soon as they were safely inside, the drawbridge went up - seemingly of its own accord. There was no escape possible. Ladies in waiting surrounded Maria-Eva and led her away into the castle up stairs and across walkways, higher and higher into the castle reaches. They prattled and made much over her, telling her how much master had wanted her and why did she not arrive earlier. Her eyes were looking around in wonder. The ladies were quite strangely clothed and they seemed to talk awkward; two of them led her into some sort of bedroom. One of the ladies was an elderly woman being clad in a long, brown robe and the other was a rather young woman, almost a girl; even though in her exotic outfit it was difficult to estimate her age. Then they led her through a great wooden door into the most luxurious of rooms, a bedroom. The ceiling must have been 5 meters high, the bed was round and very big, more than 3 meters across, but the room was so big that the bed looked small. The bed had black satin sheets and pillow cases, and there must have been 10 pillows on the bed. The room was done in gold and red. Maria-Eva even thought the gold must be real. And there by the 3 meter high window with the arched top, was a pool. As she looked at it, she realized it was a bath ... and it was full of steaming hot water. And beside it a full length mirror, well, if one considers a 3 meter high specimen full-length. The two attendants - she was beginning to realize they considered themselves her attendants - brought Maria-Eva to the mirror. She stood between it and the steaming bath as her ladies in waiting began to undress her. "Where did you get these strange and horrible clothes?" the lovely young attendant asked her. "If we would even call them clothes,'" laughed the other older one. They would hardly touch her skirt or her panties, and as soon as they had them off her, they threw them out the window. "To be thrown away!" they said with finality. She stood naked before these women, and they openly admired her beauty to each other, gazing first at her, and then at her naked image in the mirror. They could hardly resist touching her. "She has the most beautiful legs in the entire Grand Duchy," said one. Maria thought that she did not hear right. Grand Duchy, what were they talking about? She was for sure not in Luxemburg or was she? "No wonder, the masters did look at her! See the curves of her bottom." They put their hands over their mouths and giggled. The younger one could not resist. She gently caressed the underside of her breast. Her nipple became rigid. "And see how sensitive she is even when we touch her. We can only imagine what will happen if the masters touch her." Both took hold of her arms and led her toward the bath. "Wait. Wait," she said. "I need to ... I need to ..." She could not say the words aloud to them. "Ohhhhh! Yes, mistress. Come this way." And they led her behind a lattice work where was a porcelain chamber pot on a slightly elevated level beside another window. Her eyes were opening wide, as she realized that this location was supposed to be the restroom. She was rather shocked: "Don't you have a real restroom?" Both laughed out aloud: "You are joking, don't you?" They did not leave her. As she realized that apparently they did not want to leave her alone, she tried to impose herself: "Now, you are going to leave me immediately...!" They did look undecided in the first moment, but then they looked at each other. One took her left arm, the other one the right one. They led her to the chamber pot and gripped simultaneously her thighs to lower her like a child onto it. As they spread her thighs, she could not believe it all. It was more than awkward. Yet the servants did not let go. Finally she understood that she did not have any choice and she did let go. It was disturbing as all listened to her pee ringing in the porcelain bowl, and when she had finished... "No, mistress, you cannot. Let us." And they reached down with cotton cloth and wiped her clean. Maria-Eva's cheeks were fiery red. That was so embarrassing and yet apparently meant to be a routine service, they were very familiar with. She didn't know where to look. And in some way she was very much more comfortable to slip into the prepared bath. "Ahhhhhh." She let the hot water cover her until she leaned back against the side, resting her head on the edge, her nipples just protruding out of the water. "Did you see the look on Master Richard's face when he brought her in?" "Yes, he is so happy to have her here." This time it did register in her mind, they really talked about her as if her arrival had been expected! She had no clue why they were talking like that. But for them it seemed to be a fact. She was confused; she had never been in that strange building nor seen the man from the bakery more than one time. "It will be a raucous time in here tonight, this we know." Again, the women giggled at the revelry they imagined for that evening and Maria felt uneasy. But before she could try to investigate this issue, a long howl from outside stopped all her thinking. Her hairs on her neck were standing up. It did not seem menacing as she was safe inside the building, but it did have such an eerie quality, that she was sure that she never heard such a sound before. And then, another howl from inside the house joined in. This was frightening, as it did appear to come from an adjacent room. As she was so clearly in shock, the attendants looked quite surprised; they did not seem to understand her alarm. In the next moment, the man called Richard entered with the dark grey wolf at his side. Instantaneously she covered herself with her hands as best as possible. She felt her face becoming hot. "Lady Maria-Eva, please excuse this awkwardness, but this is so important that we can't afford to err. My brother wolf will have to confirm his sensation for sure. Attendants, hold her with her arms outstretched - NOW!" In the next instant, both obeyed instantaneously and gripped her arms, thus uncovering her completely. She was stunned as the wolf came close and sniffed at her feminine center, while she blushed furiously. Then he licked her folds and she felt his rough tongue. It was as if an electric discharge radiated from the touch point out through her entire body. She winced as all looked at her curiously, while she felt herself become wet, as the wolf whimpered excitedly and barked very short. "As I thought... Lady Maria, you are allowed to be clothed again. Then we will talk. Attendant, fetch the robe we have discussed before." Chapter 4 Her confusion was complete, as both exited the room as quick as they had entered. Instants later she received a white silk slip as only undergarment, and then both attendants fussed over her they helped her into a burgundy red robe with golden embroidered sleeves and a long yet decent slit on the right side of the knee-length skirt part. Then they equipped her with golden pendants studded with blue sapphires and red rubies and an ornamented necklace with the very same stones and an additional bright yellow amber stone with a tooth in it. Then they led her to the adjacent room, where she was offered a seat opposite to two adjacent wing chairs. One of them was occupied by Richard, whereas in front of the other the dark grey wolf lounged. "Lady Maria-Eva, I am sorry for all the commotion that happened. Please hear me out, before you may start questions. Let me begin in telling you that the apparent wolf at my side is my brother Walter in his werewolf state. He did confirm with his sharp senses, what I already strongly suspected. We have committed an error before, so it was important to be right this time. According to a premonition of our father, the survival of our subspecies in Central Europe does depend on the last Baron, who is also the last Werewolf of our House Steinhart-Wolf, to be able to escape to Russia in 1918 with the cunning help of his mother and her relations to Russia. The mother of him will be somebody having the first names of Maria and Eva - and she will appear in the year 2018 in the vicinity of our old Manor in the village, who serves as hunting lodge nowadays and will be a ruin in 2018." This was way too much. She could no longer wait to ask. What he was telling her, was ludicrous. Werewolf! Escape in 1918! This was madness - as they lived here in 2018! "I don't know what you have consumed as drugs, mein Herr, but I think you should let me get free instantly before the police will investigate. We live here in 2018, for Christ's sake! And you are not really believing that I am going to accept your Werewolf talk, will you?" "Lady Maria-Eva, please hear me out, I will provide proof as soon as possible, but you have to know the reasons for our actions before. If the last Baron Steinhart-Wolf is not able to escape, the Central European subspecies of Werewolves will be extinct. And he will fail to escape, if his mother is not able to organize the reception of him in Russia. That has also been very clear in that premonition of my father. So it is vital for our House to be able to make sure that his mom comes from the future. Me and my brother Walter do have that mission in the year 1850 - and we have been sent to 2018 by the combined effort of the magical forces of all still existing werewolves in Mecklenburg. We had to make sure that we do find her. And we thought we did. Your sister Eva-Maria appeared quite some weeks ago - and she had almost the perfect smell and..." The Hidden Manor "Where is she? What did you do to her? You can't ..." She was shocked! "Lady Maria-Eva, calm down, your sister is perfectly well and you may talk to her in some minutes. However, please hear me out, I need you to understand the whole issue completely, before we can decide. Her first names had been Eva and Maria, just as the premonition said. It was almost too easy, as your sister loved to be talking to Walter, the reigning Baron of our lands. Of course he was in his human form. He gained her confidence and confessed the whole plot, while he introduced her to our barony. Initially she had been thrilled and agreed to take him as fiancé, and that has been made public. At that time she agreed to forged papers in 2018 documenting her departure with a yacht from Wismar, a she relished the thought to become a Baroness. However, she became less thrilled as she realized that our lands in 1850 are sparsely populated and that cultural events are rare. Me and Walter, we became more and more uncertain about her. Nevertheless, we could not let her go as the magical energy had already been spent to transport her to the year 1850. Our agreement with the yacht owner had prescribed that the sailboat would be declared as capsized and sunken in two weeks from now and we can't change that anymore, so we can't let her reappear in the village. This might raise inspections by the police - and that is something we can't afford at all. In short, it became very clear that we had been looking for the wrong person. Your sister had been telling us before, that you had the name Maria. Well, after we learned that you have the first name Maria-Eva ... According to Walter, you have the perfect smell - and he is adamant about it - you are the perfect mate for him. ... And here you are." "This is outrageous! You can't just abduct people! This is criminal! You have deceived and seduced her just for your own good! And now you are telling me you will do the same to me! And I am married!" She was outraged. "You can now talk to your sister - and hear her opinion about us. I can understand your anger, but you should understand our situation, too. Each year, at least some of us werewolves are being shot dead because of the drive to extinguish wolves and werewolves alike. For us it is a war for survival. And it is a need for us to conquest the right mate. Maybe it is not legal, what we intend to do, but as Napoleon said, all is fair in love and war..." He waved to the attendants to fetch her sister. Half a minute later she appeared in a blue robe, similar in cut to Maria's, and rushed to her, embracing her. "Maria, I did try so hard to convince you to avoid your destiny, but here you are. I have been dreaming about our destinies every night since I wrote that letter to you. I have never thought that my own dream could become my destiny, but my dreams say it now." "Eva, are you okay? You talk like you are on drugs? What have they done to you? You should have asked me before you had barged into that...!" Maria did try to avoid sounding reproachful, but she could not quite evade that undertone in her voice. "Maria, you will need to see with your own eyes what happened to me and feel with your own body what happens, if a werewolf protects and caresses you. I have been really overwhelmed by that kind of passion but I am not made for the landscape of Mecklenburg and neither for the time period of 1850, but you might be better suited for it. I will not say more, in order to let you form your own judgement." "Lady Maria, I told you that I will provide proof. We need to visit the village right now in order for you to understand. We do not have a lot of time on our hands, since you will be expected back in Basel on Friday, but latest on Saturday. And your husband may wait until that day, but if your cell phone does not answer, while you are no longer at the inn, he will declare you missing and police will search the area of the village. All of us from our time have to go back before that happens. One of the two of you has to stay in our time and the other will be sent back to your time and to your husband since you are identical twins..." Maria was flabbergasted. Those guys behaved now rather polite but they were ruthless. She was not going to accept this mad plan at all! "Your Lordship, I demand that you will release my sister and me immediately. Kidnapping is a severe crime - and you will be punished by the law, if my husband files complaint!" "Lady Maria, you did apparently not listen well enough. Baron Walter has announced publicly that he has a fiancée named Eva-Maria Isegrim. If neither of you two show up as that, then rumors about kidnapping in our time will appear. And we can't afford rumors, as suspicion is already high enough about us being werewolves. In our time wolves and werewolves are being hunted in order to be extinguished, wherever possible. You may not understand that, but it makes us liable to make a sacrifice, too. The balance between our times has to be kept. For keeping one in our time, we will have to send one from our time to your time with the identity of Maria-Eva. And it can only be one with werewolf genes in order to keep the balance. You two have those genes, so we need to keep the balance." Maria did not believe her ears. She had werewolf genes? What kind of bullshit was this? And why didn't her sister oppose his words as well? "Eva, don't stand there and remain silent. Tell them that this is madness and that you won't stand for it!" "Maria, you may not believe that, but I have started to have had strong forebodings, ever since I arrived here. I know that you will fight to accept your destiny, but you will finally accept and embrace your destiny. And your destiny is to become the mate of this werewolf Walter and at the same time to become the Baroness Eva-Maria von Steinhart-Wolf as his human wife. I know this, because I did visit your gravestone in Russia in my dreams with Eva-Maria engraved on it. You will be very happy, except for initially missing me and your husband. My destiny is as clear as yours in my repeating dreams. I will become Maria-Eva, the wife of Siegfried Gruber, and I will live with him in Davos, which will make him happy. He will never learn that I am your sister, but believe to his very end that I am Maria-Eva. In my dreams we will be protected by a werewolf, who will sacrifice human life and live permanently as a wolfhound." This was very spooky. Eva did talk with such certitude that Maria shivered. At the same time she was mad at Eva. How could she even dare to think such, even less spell it out in public? "Eva, I can't believe you are really saying this. It is my husband you are talking about. How can you tell that you would deceive him and betray me at the same time? This is despicable and selfish on your part!" "Maria, let us assume, you were in my place. What would you do, if you are staying here? Tell him that his wife is stranded in the 18th century? Let him mourn his unattainable wife and be sent to the nuthouse? Be assured, if you tell him that, you will be sent there or you will be charged with forged papers and potential murder. He is a man of science. He will never believe that time travel is possible and that werewolves do exist. In the end he will have lost his wife and have her sister ended up in the lunatic asylum or in prison. Do you suppose that makes him happy? Now, who is being selfish here, when instead he would be able to live happily in Davos and only have to miss his unloved sister?" That left Maria speechless. Of course, Eva was right about Siegfried being a science man. True also, that nobody would believe somebody claiming time travel as reason for the disappearance of a person. In fact, she grasped that the claiming to be Eva-Maria while in possession of the papers of Maria-Eva did raise suspicions about how she got those papers. "Eva and Maria, you may discuss that later on. And be assured, you have the full liberty of decision, on condition that one of you stays here and the other gets back into the 21st century with the identity of Maria-Eva. We will have a baroness with the first names Maria and Eva, and we will not care in which order they are - at least I won't, whereas Walter... Now, it will be useful, if Maria-Eva gets to know the village in the 19th century, as this will make her believe the truth and grant her the ability to make an informed decision." That was Machiavellian! Richard did intend to let them make the decision who was going to stay. Maria glared at him. "I will escape at the next possibility and call the police! You can't make me stay. This is not going to happen - period!" "Fine - if you do that, you will already have taken your decision. Eva-Maria will be sent back - and you will come back sooner or later to us, as you are in the 19th century right now. We don't even need to look for you. You will come on your own, as you have no money and no place to stay. Only we can transport one of you back into the 21st century. And we will not abstain from the opportunity to have as fiancée the woman according to our omen." The Wolf at the side of Richard whimpered excitedly as Richard detailed his view about her futile threat. Maria was stunned as she realized that if she really was in the 19th century, he would probably be right. It dawned on her that she had no power to make them do as she wanted. In this century criminal prosecution against a baron by a woman with no influence was unthinkable. She could not go to the police and tell them that she and her sister had been kidnapped from the 21st century, especially not, if her sister was the fiancée of that baron. "Your Lordship, I will cooperate, if only to make the life of my sister Eva not more difficult." "Lady Maria - that is a wise decision. Believe me; we would not force your hand, if the survival of our group would not be at stake. I propose that we depart immediately with the coach. Lady Eva is better staying here in order to avoid confusion in the village." Some minutes later, Richard and his wolf as well as Maria were sitting in the horse-drawn coach. Slowly but surely Maria started really to believe in being in the 19th century. The carriage was lit by lanterns containing candles. The wolf was lying on the floor of the coach and warming this way her bare lower legs. Absentmindedly she stroked his head gently. Instantly he looked up and his eyes did show his intelligence, even if his position on the floor seemed exactly like that of a well-trained dog. Richard smiled. The coachman started over the drawbridge into the woods. Close to the village they turned onto a cobblestone plastered road and entered the community. It was an eye opener as Maria perceived the inn in a state with fresh wood beams instead of the weathered framings she had witnessed only a few hours ago. Behind the inn she perceived stables, which she had not seen during her stay. Probably they had been demolished, when no longer needed. Most other houses did look quite different, but the inn had still the same shape as when she had stayed there or as when she will stay there in the future. It was awkward to understand that this inn would be the same in 168 years, except that it would be aged by that number of years. The bakery was to be seen as well, but it was devoid of the large glass windows it displayed in 2018, instead it had tiny crooked windows. The coachman opened the door of the coach and helped them get out. Villagers greeted respectfully as they stopped at the inn. "Your Lordship, your Ladyship - we wish a nice evening to you." Suddenly she grasped that she was meant with that title. It felt awkward. The innkeeper greeted them cheerfully and confirmed that he had prepared all His Lordship had ordered. Maria was curious what that was. A minute later she knew all. The inn had prepared special treats for a dinner to be transported to the Manor and some nice wines. Additionally he had prepared a room, where Maria was to change into riding clothes, as they all would ride back to the castle by horse. "Lady Maria, your sister told us that you are an excellent rider. I thought that we should pass by the watermill." The stallion she obtained was a magnificent animal. It was indeed a joy to ride it, even if the dark was only lit by torches. Richard was leading the way with one and a servant holding one at the end of the small caravan. He smiled amused as she pranced joyfully with the proud stallion. The wolf circled the small group with graceful movements and watchful eyes. The watermill was busy and it was unbelievable to see that those ruins had been once a solid stone house with a wooden wheel turning in the water of the creek. The miller greeted them respectfully and glanced a bit fearful at the large wolf. He seemed uneasy about it, perhaps also because he had a yard full of chickens. It was a scene right of a picture book for children. Immediately thoughts came up in her mind about stories beginning with 'Once upon a time...'. They were offered some house prepared bread - it was delicious and she did not remember having ever had such a wonderful bread. The delight must have shown on her face. "Yes, Lady Maria - we do have simple delights, but they are genuine and given by the nature freely. And you do seem to appreciate them, which is a bit of a contrast to your sister, who mainly appreciated to be titled as 'Ladyship'. Here is no stink in the air, as there is in your time close to the road with the awful smell of burned oil." Instantaneously she regretted to have shown her joy with tasting that bread. She had the dreadful feeling that this constituted already another step of her not being allowed to leave this 19th century. "Walter, run back to the Manor and prepare all for the final discussion. You know what I mean, right?" A short bark and the giant, dark grey wolf departed with an amazing speed. In an instant he disappeared in the forest, covering the 100 meters or so in a few seconds. That was not natural! Even a fast greyhound would have seemed slow to that. Maria was amazed. Back at the castle she was greeted by a man having a striking resemblance with Richard. Perhaps a year younger, but that was not sure as his skin was more fair than that of Richard. He was less attractive in terms of his skin, but his face was chiseled in such a way that he seemed to be the archetype of a male face. "I am Walter - pleased to meet you, Lady of the Woods", he smiled with a grin that extended also to his eyes. She was surprised to hear his words. Richard saw her confusion and explained quickly: "It is feasible to switch from wereform to human in 30 minutes, if you do employ magic, but it does cost you. However, I did ask Walter to do that, as it is important for your decision." She did agree with his opinion. If Richard was attractive, Walter did top that easily in a way which would be difficult to explain. Somehow she just felt attracted to him. Perhaps all that talk about destiny was not as absurd as she had thought. May be continued.