English Version Written: Mon, 19 Nov 2001

      Ashram opened his eyes and was awake at once. A sound had woken him up. He could fell his heart beat faster. A silent scratching and scraping at the door of his sleeping room. The room was dark, the thick curtains made it impossible to judge if it was morning or still night.

      Next to him he could fell Pirotess's warm body. Her calm and regular breath told him, that she was sleeping deeply. Should he wake her up? No, better not. May be it wasn't serious at all. Sometimes he was too suspicious, but being king one couldn't be too careful. Frequently enough someone had tried to kill him and his beloved Pirotess.

      Carefully, he turned on his side to get the knife that he always kept hidden under his pillow. His fingers fumbled for the grip, but couldn't find it. He searched more intensely. The knife wasn't there. He uttered a silent curse. The noise from the door was to be heard again and he recognized the silent speak of the door handle as it was turned slowly and carefully.

      His breath quickened. The knife was gone and his sword was at the other end of the room next to his armor. And, after all, where were the guards? Shouldn't they have noticed an invader long ago? At the very moment he wanted to turn around to warn Pirotess, the door was pushed open and some figures stormed into the room, yelling and shouting. They threw themselves onto the bed burieing him under their bodies. Ashram tried to fight them off, but there were to much of them. One was sitting on his legs, another on his chest and two of them were holding his arms. He could hear Pirotess scream terrified and intensified his endeavours.

      Then he could sense a wild motion next tohim and from the corner of the eye he saw her running towards the curtains, pushing them aside. The light of the early morning lightened the room and after all he could see his aggressors. He grow stiff. He hadn't expected that.

      "Oh really," Pirotess's voice was very angry. "You could at least let us sleep longer on Sundays, children."