Solemnity and Silence Amidst the Knights Estates

"These places also being back - weighted memories. Memories of battles that turned into catastrophic massacres for our side or for the enemy, and of land that could never truly know peace - for it was founded by wars steeped in bloodlust, not survival."

Klaus admitted as Freila materialized beside him, whilst he stared at the Knights Estate before him: Castle Von Marienwerder. Unlike the Teutonic Order's Order Fortresses of red brick and distinctly orderly geometric bastions and great fortress chapels and cathedrals - Knights Estates were mansions and neo-feudal agricultural properties that had been given to the last of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, and which had for most of their subsequent existence, been managed and descendants of the Knights. Knights that at one point - Klaus under the name Hermann von Salza, had been the Grand Master of.

"And yet you choose to smoke and drag smoke into your lungs for calm instead of fleeing. You have always obeyed the path of your destiny with grace and dignity."

Freila replied as she materialized from the lightly thundering sky overhead, standing beside Kalus who now wore a simple light grey waist length coat that one side buttoned over the other, black riding pants, and knee high, tight black riding boots. Before him, stood Castle Von Marienwerder - a beautifully symmetrical baroque, rectangular estate house that was white with a red tile roof, with two smaller gust houses situated evenly on either side of the main house - which held countless rooms. In the nearby, vast wheat fields, Polish seasonal workers silently demonstrated their craft with sickles and scythes. Klaus observed this for a moment before finishing his cigarette and putting away his sterling silver and oak inlay cigarette case, while he headed for the entrance of Castle Von Marienwerder, with Freila by his side, who was invisible to all but him. Beyond the doors, tense conversations awaited.

"You mentioned that the Great White Wolves were in the forests here - hidden away. And I'll get to be reacquainted with them today?"

Klaus asked as he sat in his study - all around him, cases of the various types of armor and sword worn and used by Knights of the Teutonic Order displayed neatly in oak and glass cases stated at them as if listening, while he took out his ornate cigarette case and lit another to smoke.

"Just as I told you back in your Munich flat, yes. This is the land where they feel your essence the most, aside from back in the heartland of the Fatherland - where industrialization has made their ability to camouflage in the forests considerably more difficult, and their ability to sense you comparatively disrupted."

Freila replied with a bit of sadness in her voice. How the land now known as Germany had changed over the centuries! Yet - it was all part of the singular prophecy with which Klaus was at the center. 

"Take me to them, Freila. I must clear my head if I'm to be in one of my Knights Estates in East Elbia, for I can still hear their screams and see their faces - the slain who once walked this lands."

Klaus stated with a hint of sharpness at first that quickly then softened as hr closed his eyes. The armor and swords of the Knights of the Teutonic Order around him, and his ancestral estate brought back memories of horrifying battles where swords and armored fists clashed - he could still hear the screams of the dead, the frenzied, and the dying, along with the clash of metal, bone, flesh, and blood. 

"Very well, my Lord Protector. Let us ease your mind and soul before we return here."

Freila responded empathetically as Klaus stood and made his way out of his Knights Estate, his black and white fancily dressed and polished staff bowing to him politely as they lined through hallways whilst he passed. Soon enough, he and Freila were at the entrance of a vast forest that the sun seemingly couldn't break through the dense pine and oak foliage of. 

"I'm ready."

Klaus stated calmly as Freila ascended back into the sky, a small thunderstorm appearing as she did so. As Klaus made his way into the pine and oak forest, the sounds of the outside curtailed, the sights of the somewhat distantly neighboring Knights Estates vanished from view, as only an ancient nature took center view. 

"I come before you as the Lord Protector of Humanity - the one who lead the battle against the Dark Forces of the East centuries ago. You may reveal yourselves to me, of Great White Wolves of this scared land."

Klaus announced, and as if from thin air, materializing from the almost jagged views of the Forest, a single Great White Wolf appeared. True to the legend, she was healthily slender, as large as a village cottage, wise and calm - her fierceness being inherent to her being.

"I am Laufa. I shall hear what you have to say, Lord Protector."

Laufa stated psychically as she knelt her head silently and slightly in a reverent bow that Klaus returned, before speaking to her telepathically in turn.

"Very well. The prophecy continues - and time is of the essence. Our sacred land I am told, is to be wrought by changes that shall bring about a devastation the likes of which have only been seen in the battle that your kind and mine fought and bled alongside the Elves and the Dwarves at all those centuries ago."

Klaus responded psychically, while Laufa looked at him deeply with her large golden eyes. 

"A war then. And who is to unleash such wrath upon this land, and for what ultimate purpose does the prophecy bring forth? Is this the final word of the Gods and Goddesses of the Air and of the Water?"

Laufa questioned psychically as she gazed at Klaus - but not with menace, instead with reverence and a loyalty linked to centuries of camaraderie. 

"A war indeed - and it shall be two leaders of the blood of my own people who shall bring forth this war, as this is the prophecy as it has been foretold to me by one of the Goddesses of the Air. One leader shall enable the other - and upon the death of the elder, the younger shall bring forth the cataclysm."

Klaus responded psychically with solemnity in his voice. He dared not shed a tear before Laufa, nor Laufa before him. 

"In the end then - what is to become of  our sacred land?"

Laufa questioned Klaus psychically as she leaned in a but closer to him, with Klaus standing his ground unflinchingly as the Lord Protector.

"I am told by the Goddess of the Air that has guided me since the original battle for our fates - that this is the only way to save our Fatherland - it is the destiny with which we must cross through in our prophecy. Through the greatest darkness, we shall reach eternal light."

Klaus concluded psychically as Laufa nodded reverently once more, before swiftly disappearing into the dense forest as Klaus stood there momentarily. He knew that the next move that he had to make was to meet with the individuals who would bring forth the prophecy through war and destruction.