Crack of dawn, Bruderschaftdorf, Germany 1944
Joachim awoke to the barrel of his 9mm P08 Luger on his forehead.
An American voice came from the darkness, "Get up you Nazi piece of shit."
Joachim did as the voice said, he stood up and the light was turned on, he was staring into the face of Falco Jung. A wide grin was spread across his face.
"I can't believe you fell for that!" he whispered, "that make, what, 5 times that I got you with the American invasion story? You are so gullible!"
"Okay you got me now can you give me my pistol back!"
"Alright alright keep your panties on, eh?"
We left my house and walked to meet our two friends and fellow assassins Bernhard Faust and Lars Fuchs. Bernhard, or as we call him "the fist", was even bigger than Falco, although not nearly as bright as the rest of us. He's so big that he even lifted an entire tree that had fallen and was crushing someone in town. Being punched by him was the equivalent of being hit by a Panzer tank.
Lars is another story, we call him "the fox" because he is so sly, so slick, so quiet, he could sneak up on Death himself. He was thin, tall, and horse faced. Everything about the man was quiet, even his voice sounded like a mouse.
Bernhard looked up as we approached and said in a very deep voice, "'Ey, Eagle, Falco." I'm Eagle, they see me as the leader of our little pack of assassins, and the eagle is the symbol of the Assassin's Creed.
Falco jumped up on the rock that Lars was leaning against and he inhaled through his nose and exhaled with a sigh. "Perfect morning for killing some wild animals if I do say so myself!" he announced.
"It's a little cold out don't you think?" Lars complained.
"Well maybe for you little man!" Falco teased, "we all have meat on our bones! What do you got? Skin and bones?"
We all laughed, even Lars, we all laugh at our own expense when we are made fun of by each other. We know we are only joking around.
"Shall we do this then?" I asked. I didn't want to be gone too long.
"Alas," Falco said with a look of artificial sadness on his face, "the calmness of the morning has been broken by the screech of the Eagle!"
"I just don't want to be away for too long, that's all," I told him.
"Ah, well, yes I suppose we should go before the animals realize why there are men with guns in their territory."
We all walked out into the woods, guns at the ready for any sign of deer, buck, or turkey.
We set up camp, and then split up into four groups of one, I took north, Falco south, Lars east, Bernhard west.
I stepped carefully over twigs, dried leaves, and snake holes as I made my way through the forest, subconsciously picking up minor signs of life, the hooting of tired owls getting ready to sleep, the early morning birds chirping lazily, even the occasional rabbit poking out of its hole. I made my way forward and spotted a young doe. Careful not to make a sound I took in a breath aimed my rife right for the head, and fired.
Birds flew from trees and nearby bushes as the gun blast echoed throughout the forest. The doe collapsed with a soft thud. I walked over and grabbed it by the legs and pulled it back to camp. We would kill then skin and bring the furs to the market when we got back, keeping meat for food or antlers as trophies.
As I approached camp I saw that Falco had killed a buck and was already skinning it.
"Gave up quite a fight it did," he told me. "I had to shoot it five times before the sohn von ein Miststück went down."
I sat down on a log we dragged over to use as a seat and started to skin my own game. A few minutes went by before Bernhard came back carrying a friggin' grizzly over his shoulder. We applauded his kill and waited for Lars. Half an hour went by before he finally yelled for some help with his game. He an Bernhard returned with a doe much smaller than my own.
By the time night fell we had 3 bucks, 2 does and a grizzly skinned and ready for the transport home.
We sat up late with many beers, Falco stood up and raised his glass, "here is to a great hunt! I have no doubt in my mind that this was the best hunt we have had in years!"
After our "here, heres!" we all drained our cups. We bade each other good night and went to bed.
We woke up the next morning hung over and sore, but nevertheless we packed up camp, grabbed out game and headed for home.
We walked mostly in silence, the longest conversation we had was when we laughed at Falco, who had stepped in a pile of bear crap. As we approached the edge of the forest however our cheerful mood abruptly changed to anger. The village of Bruderschaftdorf was up in flames.