Love of the Motherland

"All my officers are dead or captured. Artillery support is iffy at best. Air support is impossible. I have no tanks or guns and only two light machineguns. Yet the Soviets will probe me within twenty-four hours in Battalion strength – in case you didn't know that will mean about four hundred men."

"I will have to hold out until dark were the survivors will slip out to the west and set up another defensive outpost a few kilometers back waiting for the next push. So, Captain Sierech, you may choose the time of my death, but you can't change the fact that I'm going to die. All that matters to me is that we don't all die."

SS-Captain Sierech thought those words over carefully.

"Sergeant, there is more at stake here than only your command. There is a force at work here that can change the face of the whole war," he said.

"I don't believe you but I'm willing to listen," Heinz admitted.

"There is an enemy active against us that is worse than a whole Soviet Tank Army. It cripples our fighting men, chokes our supply lines, and masks our enemies," Sierech paused for dramatic effect, even going so far as to take an actor's artistic pose. Exactly how someone so effeminate made it into the homophobic ranks it the SS was beyond Klausenbach.

"We are fighting Winter itself. In Russia winter has taken a physical form and we, the true knights of the Aryan nation must hunt it down and destroy it," Sierech declared. Heinz's reaction was that this man had clearly lost his mind.

"We have tracked these attacks to this portion of the line, where German resistance has been strongest. Hundreds of men have been lost to a freezing death that attacks suddenly, without warning and without words escaping from the doomed commands."

"Okay, what does this 'Winter' look like? You are not asking me to shoot Santa Claus are you?" Heinz joked.

"No," Sierech grinned wickedly. "This enemy is a pale woman with blue lips and hair as dark as midnight. She wears simple peasant clothing and travels barefoot over the snow. Her touch is death – so cold it freezes you solid in seconds."

"Does that sound like anyone you know?" Sierech hinted.

"No," Heinz said without hesitation.

"How long has your woman been with you? She sounds exactly like the woman we are looking for," Sierech's grin was gone.

"Let me think ... September, when we were south of Moscow. I don't recall the village I got her at," Heinz lied though he wasn't sure why. "Besides, you saw her kiss me; I am hardly frozen solid."

That realization gave the SS man pause.

"I'll need to question her," Sierech insisted.

"Okay. Her German isn't very good, though she understand more than she can speak," Heinz pointed out.

"I speak fluent Russian," Sierech had turned his grin back to chilling and devilish. Heinz's heart sank. Even if she was the enemy, he had promised to protect her. That meant taking her prisoner, not putting her in some nameless grave.

The weather had worsened by the time the SS plus Heinz made it back to the village. Only a few men stood sentry. The rest of his tiny command, plus the villagers were crowded into the communal barn getting their hot meal. Sierech looked on with some distain.

"The villagers eat more than they are worth," he commented.

"The villagers are building my defenses and in this weather that's killing work. I'll rely on their women to treat my wounded and their men to repair thing during the lull in the fighting. They will need their strength to do that."

"You are soft," he accused Heinz.

"I'm practical. I don't have the men to guard them and fight off the Russian Army. It is a lesson you might take to heart," Heinz stated dryly.

"Dead men don't need guarding," the Captain smiled.

"Soldiers don't slaughter innocent civilians. I wonder what that makes you," Heinz ground out.

Sierech slapped Heinz across the face hard.

"I've had enough of your insolence," he seethed.

"You hit like a girl, Superman" Heinz chuckled though he felt blood in his mouth. Sierech found that amusing.

"The woman is in this village. I'm sure of it. He stormed off and grabbed Heinz's woman with Heinz quickly in tow. To SS guards interposed themselves when he drew close to Sierech and his victim. Sierech shouted something in Russian at the girl. The woman hesitated then answered but not in a way that made the SS Captain happy. Several more questions followed, each which seemed to confound the officer further.

He hurled the woman at Heinz.

"She is what you claim her to be – your whore," he spat. "Fine, gather all the villagers out in the square – Now!" Both soldiers and SS men snapped to obey. The villagers reacted with some distress.

"Separate the men from the woman," Sierech commanded. The Germans began to do it. The head of the commune tried to communicate with Heinz and Sierech. When the SS Captain shoved him aside, Heinz pulled him aside and patted his shoulder and smiled. The old man didn't seem all that placated.

Heinz stood up in front of Sierech, saluted and asked,

"What is the plan?" Sierech regarded the Sergeant with intense confidence.

"The individual I'm looking for is in this village and I'm going to flush them out," he smiled.

"Exactly how do you plan to do that?" Heinz worried.

"Simple; I shoot all the women. The woman who doesn't die is the one I'm looking for," she beamed in smug satisfaction. Heinz's eyes widened.

"That's insane," Heinz declared. "You can't slaughter all these people!"

"Watch me," Sierech glared back.

"No," Heinz said angrily. "This is an illegal order. I can't let you do it."

"Are you really planning to stop me," he sneered.

"Attention!" Heinz shouted. Suddenly everyone had weapons out, pointed at each other. Heinz had little doubt that at least half his men didn't support his decision, but he was their commander and they stood shoulder to shoulder with their comrades.

"That will not be necessary," the woman said in a heavily accented Russian voice. The lady Heinz had saved stepped past him and confronted the SS Captain. "You are looking for me Invader?" Cold radiated from her and snow began to fall. Sierech put the sniper case down and opened his/her trench coat. Things made a lot more sense when Heinz realized that Sierech was a woman by the cut of her uniform.

Her icy-blonde hair whirled in the snow, but her eyes burned with a fanatic's fury.

"You have come a long way to die, German," the Russian woman said.

"I've come a long way to slay you Sub-Human scum," Sierech laughed. She picked up a sword from the 'sniper' case and brandished it between the two of them.

"Heinz you and your men should depart this place. I, Daughter of Russia, have seen your compassion so I now urge you to leave my land and return to your Fatherland. I must deal with this one now," the Daughter smiled serenely as she indicated Sierech.

"I'm about to return you to the realm of myths, you witch," Sierech sneered.

The Daughter' aura became biting cold and a blast of air surrounded Sierech. Her blade glistened in the icy blast and seemed to cut through the breeze billowing through her shoulder length blonde hair.

"Cold-wrought iron wreathed in runes from the Thule Society bitch," Sierech gloated. "It is made to banish you forever."

A ripping blast of a German machinegun came from the north-eastern stronghold. It was one of their strongpoints.

"To the perimeter," Heinz screamed. His men hastened to obey. He was left with dozens of SS men standing around looking at the two women fight.

"You idiots," Heinz shouted. "Unless you plan to spend a short stay in a Siberian labor camp, get to the perimeter."

As he waited the volume of fire picked up. A SS under-officer began shouting order and all but two of the SS men scrambled off to aid in the defense. Heinz began shoving the Russian civilians around. Men he shoved toward the defenses while all he had to do was indicate that the women and children were to get back inside and to move there rapidly.

Without interruption the two women continued their duel. Snow and ice lashed out with artic fury only to be countered by Teutonic steel and will. Heinz didn't have longer to wait. He ran into the main building and called in to see what artillery he could get. He could make out the fire spreading around the village; fighting was raging around the north, south and east. Only their escape route to the west remained open.

He ran out back to the fight. The Daughter was badly cut, but she grappled with Sierech. The German howled in pain as the Daughter's touch etched ice-burns on her wrists. Sierech fell to her knees and the sword tumbled from her grasp. The Daughter growled in triumph.

"This land will be your grave Invader," murmured the Russia spirit. Heinz came over to the sword.

"It can only be wielded by those of pure Aryan blood," Sierech howled. Heinz lifted it up and hefted its weight.

"Kill her!" Sierech screamed. "For the Reich, kill the witch!" Heinz turned to the Daughter.

"Don't kill her," Heinz asked the Daughter.

"Why?" the Daughter asked.

"Since she has been looking for you so hard, why don't you take her back to where you are from?"

"NO!" screamed Sierech. Heinz's motives weren't ones of vengeance. He needed the Daughter to leave to give his command a hope of surviving. It was simply a matter of losing one to save the many.

The Daughter studied Heinz and smiled and nodded. A whirlwind of snow surrounded the two women with an intense cold. When the village center cleared, they were both gone. The snow over the village abated. Given their extended fields of fire and a bit of judicious fire support the German/SS command held off the Russian 'probe' until dark when the Russians called off the attack.

(That night)

Heinz walked around the perimeter one last time. It was well past midnight when he departed the last sentry when movement caught his eye. She stood in a doorway of one of the abandoned houses on the outskirts. Their eyes met and he walked over to her.

"Why?" she asked.

"We are not all monsters," he explained.

"You are invaders," she countered. Seeing his agony in the biting wind, she stepped back and beckoned him to come in. Heinz did and immediately noted the room's warmth despite the lack of a fire.

"Yes, I am," he shrugged, "yet you spared my men; thank you." The Daughter looked at him with eyes both ancient and young.

"Your men?" she asked.

"The men in my company," he clarified.

"You do no thank me for sparing you," she pointed at.

"I'm baffled why you didn't kill me when we first met. I figured I am on borrowed time," Heinz shrugged.

"A thousand years ago there was no Russia. Each Slavic tribe kept to itself, warred with the people of the steppe and lived by the ways of their ancestors. One day men began arriving from across the Shallow Sea and began moving up the great rivers of the Motherland until they passed south beyond us to the Lands of the Greeks."

"Byzantium?" Heinz guessed.

"Yes, I believe so. These men warred, took slaves, and traded. They built towns and cities – the first cities of Russia – and married into the Slavic tribes. Those children were the first Rus, who you might call the Varangians. They were the children of Germans like you. I saw that in you, men who could come in war but love the land. This could be your home Heinz Klausenbach."

"Daughter of Russia, I am the soldier of the German Nation. I hate being here, but I cannot leave my army, especially now when things are so desperate," Heinz sighed. The thought of leaving the violence behind him was strong, but the mantle of responsibility for his own men was stronger still.

"Do you have a family back in your Fatherland?" she asked softly.

"No. I mean I have a Mother and Father and a Sister, but no wife or children to go back to," he responded. The Daughter smiled.

"Stay with me," she offered. "You don't have to fight anymore. I can see that you hate the war."

"I hate it, but could you leave another Daughter to fight, no matter how bloody the struggle?"

"You deny me?" the Daughter said with menace.

"Yes," Heinz shrugged. "I must." The room's temperature dropped precipitously and Heinz's breath came out in ragged clouds once more.

The Daughter growled like a hungry bear in the near dark. She raced up grabbed Heinz by his upper arms, lifted him off the ground and shook him like a rag doll. His rifle clattered uselessly to the ground. The Daughter stared up into his eyes. Heinz was afraid, but he was also somewhat relieved. Death was coming for him at last. Now he could sleep. The Daughter dropped him to the ground.

"They will kill you all in a few days. There are hundreds of them and only a few dozen of you," she informed him. Heinz pulled himself up from the cold ground. "I could kill your pitiful few right now. Why shouldn't I? What could you do to stop me?"

"Nothing," Heinz confessed.

"Where is the sword?" she asked.

"I sent it back with the men that brought it here," Heinz informed her. The Daughter screeched and hit him across the face. Heinz staggered.

"Why? Why didn't you keep it and try to defend yourself?" she snarled.

"I don't have to be brilliant to figure out if the SS had it made that it isn't safe for normal men to use. I didn't want it," he answered.

"I am tired of dealing with you, German," the Daughter sighed. "You perplex me."

"Oh ... well, can I ask something of you before ..." Heinz said nervously.

"Do you want me to spare your life? Or the life of your men?" she responded heatedly.

"No, you are probably right. My men and I are doomed to be killed by Soviet troops; if not tomorrow then the next day," he admitted. "I'd like to kiss you. It has been so long since I've seen a young woman that I've nearly forgotten what one looks like."

"So, you would treat me like some peasant girl?" she sounded confused.

"Yes, I imagine so, but you're definitely the prettiest girl, peasant or otherwise, that I've seen."

"Is this some sort of sad effort for you to stay alive?" she sounded wary.

"Daughter I am too tired to play games. I'm about to walk out that door. If you are going to kiss me, kiss me. If you are going to freeze me then do so, but either way I'm going to get some rest," Heinz told her. Nothing was said for the longest time. Finally Heinz turned to leave.

"Stay with me Heinz. When the sun rises, I will leave you and your men in peace. If you are to die, you will perish at the hands of your fellow man," she promised. Heinz turned back and stepped into her arms. The Daughter stepped in to kiss him but Heinz drew his head back. She was about to react badly when Heinz smiled to her.

"I'd prefer you not freeze my face off Daughter," he reminded her. The Daughter took a deep breath and winter left her features to be replaced by the freshness of spring. She even looked somewhat embarrassed. Heinz reinitiated the aborted kiss. Warmth flushed through his system and fatigue fled.

Together they started stripping off his multiple layers of clothing. All those coats and jackets made their bedding. For Heinz their sex felt like it went on forever. For the Daughter it felt like it was much longer than that. He struggled for that immortal moment that stands at the end of existence, while she reached out for that very mortal feeling of unselfish passion and need.

(Epilogue)

In the morning she was gone. For two days the German's held out in the small village. With less than half of his men left, Sergeant Heinz led his soldiers out as they slipped past the tightening Soviet noose by night. He beat the odds for three more months before an artillery shell ended his life. The next day the heavens opened up and an early Russian rainstorm lashed the lands for days.

In the years that followed a lone woman was seen to wander the village late at night near the end of each December. The older villagers told the younger ones to leave the woman alone, that she grieved for a soldier that had passed through during the Great Patriotic War and died on some distant battlefield. Only the very oldest remembered who that man was.