Snippet #2439600

Hold on to my leg, eh? thought Dreiberg to himself. Sound advise, boy. Leonard chuckled. The young man, Douglas, he quite liked so far. The enthusiasm was welcome. Experience told him that energy like that would come in handy. He puffed thoughtfully on his cigar. Twenty was young, indeed, though far from too young. He was more concerned with the bookish-looking young man. The poor lad seemed a nervous wreck. That, Leonard thought gruffly, was far more likely to get the entire lot of them into danger.

"It's Dreiberg, son," he clarified. "Dry, like the opposite of outside. Berg, like an iceberg in a frozen sea." He sighed, trying not to worry about whether or not he would need to constantly have his eyes on this one the entire expedition. He did not care to babysit, and certainly not while he was working. "And you've read my papers have you? Well I'm very flattered. We can, if you want to, discuss my ignorance of cultural identity at length, provided we don't drown on the way to the castle. And don't mind him, Kid," he added to Douglas. "If you're not experienced now, you'll be plenty by the time you get back home."

Adam had a point though. A holy man was a curious addition to the team, something he never considered essential to something like this. Despite the attempts of his earnestly Jewish parents, Leonard never found himself quite able to believe. Faith, like contentment, was something he had always lacked.

"I met a few nice folks at the train station," said Dreiberg, "But I don't speak German, so the conversation was brief." He peered out through the side of the carriage. The looming dark frame of Castle Waechter was in sight.

As the group emerged from their carriages, they were greeted by a middle aged man who could only have been the castle's butler. Dreiberg disposed of his cigar as he followed the man inside.

"It's a pleasure to meet you sir," he said to the butler, extending his hand for a shake. Leonard, informed as he was, was still somewhat out of place when it came to matters of formality as it applied to the opulent.