The Kurgan shot up in bed. It was almost morning and the sun was just barely beginning to reach the horizon. As soon as he looked to the side and found her gone he went into a rage because he knew. He knew that if she wasn't with him in bed that she wasn't in the castle at all. He sprang out of bed and went to work putting together his dark armor that he kept ready on its stand. He stormed downstairs and bellowed for everyone to wake up. When the household was alert he told the men to go to the village and gather an army to gather immidiately.

They all may have been uneducated servants but they knew why he was ordering an army for immediate action and they knew to obey quick. He saddled his own horse and thundered out of the stables. He drove the creature hard as he burned down the road getting to Hartmann. Once at the castle he turned his steed ato the side and kicked the doors in, an easy feat for someone like him, and then turned forward again and rode to the main hall, he could hear voices coming from there.

"Hartmann!" He shouted.

To his disappointment three of Hartmann's sons sat at the table but not the lord himself, the eldest looked up from his guests surrounding him, he looked shocked at The Kurgan's appearance. His false surprise turned to anger and he stood up, his palms pressed against the table. "What is the meaning of this atrocity Count Von Krohn!?" He shouted steadily.

The Kurgan glared at him, "Where is she?!"

The elder son raised an eyebrow, "Whom ever could you be speaking about?"

His sister snickered rudely and stole little glances at the Black Knight. He shot her glares that killed her haughtiness with a pale face.

"You know damned well who!" He shouted and then dismounted and strode forever. He grabbed the younger man's ridiculously elaborate jerkin and shook him once so hard that his feathered hat fell to the ground. "My woman! A woman so fine and beautiful that she puts your whores and pig sister to shame!" The young women at the table looked at him in deep offence and shock, their jaws hung open and one stood angrily only to be pulled back down by down by her younger friend next to her. The Kurgan flicked his gaze to her and then turned his attention back to the Hartmann son. The young man looked back into eyes more like black holes.

The son was starting to lose his composure at the sight of his eyes, "I-I don't know what you're talking about Von Krohn." He was shaken again, "Count Von Krohn!" He corrected himself.

No guards were in the room, only waiting servants and they were too afraid to move, entranced as they were by The Kurgan's will to come in unannounced and begin attacking their lord's son. A man with such audacity no doubt had the strength to back his actions. They quietly stood by with mouths agape like everyone else. The Kurgan growled loudly and then swung the man to the side towards the table, clearing the plates and cups and food, slamming him to the hard wood surface. The air left the noble with a whoosh. The giant shook him again and his head smacked against the wood, dazing him.

"Where?!" He shouted in his face.

"I said I know naught!" The other man screamed, his haughty bravado cracked in his voice and he looked up terrified at the man above him. "I-I had no word that she was even missing!"

Suddenly the same sister who stood up before stood up again, "Let him go you brute! You filthy animal! Guards! Make haste!" She shouted.

The Kurgan stopped and stared at her brother while she continued to talk. Seeing the dark pleasure from thoughts forming in his head the Hartmann son became terrified for his hard-headed sister. He knew that her defiance would be her undoing, but he didn't stop her.

The girl went on, "You come here calling me and my ladies whores when your own woman is the true whore! We do not sleep around with brutish animals such as her. I hear she speak with a different tongue, she does not attend mass, she does not wear her hair properly! She the true whore you speak of! Now release my brother or our guards will end you, count or not!"

The dark haired giant didn't smile; he now had a new target. He threw the man in his hands to the ground and then stood up and quickly stalked towards her, his eyes pitch black. Her confidence disappeared quicker than a fox from the hunt. Her form seemed to shrink when he reached her and grabbed her neck and lifted her up into the air, slowly choking her and enjoying every second of it. Another shrieked and stood up, her mother. She grabbed his arm, yanking on it trying to make him drop her. He swung his arm and she was flung to the ground. As he choked the foolish woman he looked deep into her eyes and she had to look back, her blue eyes bulging from a red face. The other's in the hall stood there stupidly watching, unable to interfere.

Just as it seemed she was about to die the guards rushed in with their lances and swords. They rushed to him and he threw the woman towards the window. It shattered and she flew through it, landing the four feet to the ground and rolled through the grass. She lay on her back choking and crying as bits of glass stabbed her through her dress and her face. He drew his own sword and skewered the first man through and through. He kicked the body off his blade and brought it down the next mans helmet, going straight through to the brain, he kicked that one off too.

The lords and ladies in the hall scattered, screaming and some went to the aid of the Hartmann daughter. The Kurgan met the third man with brutality and the blows he delivered easily forced them back. Over and over from above and the sides he swung his sword, catching them in its deadly path. Soon he had hacked his way to his horse which was still standing patiently at the other end of the table. He mounted and looked back at the eldest Hartmann son.

"Another time Hartmann!" He shouted before turning and riding out.

His mission had been to find Duke Hartmann and take him back to torture him for the location of Arielle, he now knew that where ever the Duke was, Arielle was also. He'd come back and lay siege to the castle, perhaps capture the Hartmann children along the way and torture them, although he doubted they knew much. Their father was known for his strategic ways and The Kurgan wondered if he had told his children and wife anything at all.

"No matter," he thought to himself. "That will be his undoing. They'll be collateral for my woman, every last one will pay for her with their death."

He went along the road he came that led directly from his castle to theirs and it wasn't very long before he found his army massing in his village. He decided to gather more, to overwhelm Hartmann, and decided to go to his few allies. He knew he had allies in the Outlands hungry for war and he would supply them with sustenance.