WITCH - The Queen

Chapter 76

Annemarie

Annemarie sat on a simple wooden bench in front of the small wooden house they had bought for the family. Her little daughter jumped happily on her lap and protested as soon as Annemarie wanted to sit her down again.

They had bought the house spontaneously, so no one knew they owned it. It had a total of two floors, but all the rooms were small. They didn't have a back garden, just a small fenced front yard. Torsten had provisionally repaired the roof with the help of their new neighbors. No one would suspect them in an old, broken house. Here, they were able to retire without any worries. On their 'escape' from their own property, they had driven to this small village close to the border of the elven forests. It was also not far from the mountains of the wolves.

At the time of the purchase, they had pretended to be rich traders who wanted to afford a holiday home. Since they carried enough money with them and could pay for the house immediately, the previous owner did not ask any further questions. They had enough money with them to go into hiding for a few months.

And the children were happy. Rayk had befriended their neighbor's young son. A human family. They did not recognize the princess. No one did this, so far from the castle. Nobody recognized Torsten either.

Nevertheless... Was it the right decision? To disappear for months? Because of a feeling? Was she starting to get paranoid?

Annemarie did not trust her brother's intentions. But, had she perhaps overreacted?

"Mom!", shouted Rayk, who was playing in the front yard. He had built something out of small wooden sticks and leaves. "Look! A trap!"

"And trap? For what?", she asked him with a smile.

"Mice!" Rayk had spotted a mouse in the garden the day before. Since then, he wanted to catch one and keep it as a pet.

"Oh! A great trap!", she praised him and hoped very much that he would not bring any mice into the house.

Torsten

Pretending to be a simple trader had a decisive disadvantage: Torsten had to pay the blood tax. Just like all human citizens of the country. Therefore, he was on his way to the local blood center, which was just outside the village.

He used one of the public carriages for this. It was old and a bit broken, but the coachman brought Torsten to his destination in a good mood and would wait for him there. That's how they had arranged it.

The blood center was a large building with blacked-out windows, which was responsible for several villages in the area. Torsten registered under a false name (he even needed false papers for this. But he was a good forger. His aunt had taught him many years ago.) After a brief registration with a bad-tempered vampire lady at the reception desk, he went into the narrow hallway where other people were already waiting for their 'blood delivery'. The tax had to be paid by men every two months. Therules where different for women. There were no fixed dates, but it was checked that all taxpayers fulfilled their duty. A painstaking job for which Torsten did not envy the employees of the center. Way too much paperwork and way too many lists of names.

"I haven't seen you here very often!", one of the other humans suddenly spoke to him.

"Huh?" Torsten blinked. "Oh. Yes. I've only recently moved here. My name is Kiano", he introduced himself with his false name. Annemarie and the children also lived here under new names. "I moved here with my wife Aluna." Rayk had been given the new name Bijan and Rosina was called Bia.

"Very pleased to meet you. My name is Oke", the young man replied. "I've been living here for a few years. I first lived in the Werewolf Territory."

"In the mountains?"