Alongside those who are sinful.

Chapter 3

It was sometime during the night when Dietrich awoke to commotion at the front gates of the village. Moving methodically the man angled himself towards the village, binoculars rising to meet his eyes.

There appeared to be more felines at the gates, angrily shouting. He was close enough that he could just barely hear the sounds of their wretched voices, hissing and snarling as they argued about something only known to God. There were about 10 in front of the gate, dressed in rags and leather belts and straps which held a litany of barbaric weapons. They were yowling as they waved a banner to the growing group of guards above them. Dietrich could make out a skull of what he assumed was this feline race pinned to the top of the banner.

"Definitely bandits....and what's this?" Asked Dietrich, mentally. As he was studying them, he noticed what appeared to be a female bandit walk up through the group. He called it female due to what he believed were breasts on its chest. The others went silent up until "she" started arguing once more. This female bandit had a particularly interesting black fur pattern with red spots, not unlike a cheetah's. She only wore crude, tattered pants which cut off right at her calves and had a very flashy sword of some kind strapped to her side.

"Hmm. Maybe she is a leader of some sort, or a figure head. But what a magnificently stunning coat! I have never seen such a coloration on that pattern!"

Dietrich felt a breeze run up his backside as he looked through his binoculars and cursed silently.

"I am upwind! Damn it! They will smell me for sure!" Thought the man. He watched as seemingly all commotion at the gates stopped. Every animal turned to look in his direction and that's when he realized that these creatures were still animals. They had the senses of them. Hearing, sight, and smell. Cats had good night vision, which meant that they might be able to see him. He made sure to move no muscle, keeping as still as he possibly could.

"Perhaps they might miss me should they glance over me." Thought the man. The bandit leader suddenly looked back to the gate and gave off a call, the likes of which Dietrich had never heard before. It sounded akin to a panthers growl mixed with a dogs bark.

The bandits took off in the direction opposite of him, likely back to their home base or whatever. The bandit leader looked back in his direction once more and followed suit. All went quiet and the village guards as well as the village did not make a single peep for the rest of an hour. Before he went back to sleep, Dietrich decided it would be a great idea to move stealthily back up the hill a fair ways to ensure that he wouldn't be surprised by a group of scouts or searchers while he slept.

He left no trace, the years of practicing such movement rendering any chance of tracking him to zero. A small yet well covered thicket of brush would serve as his bedding, and after crawling all the way to it, he fell asleep on the ground quite easily.

XXX

When Dietrich awoke, he was surprised to find that he wasn't alone. In fact, there was another human there with him, roughly a few meters away sleeping against a tree. However, he wasn't happy to find out that is was a Soviet sniper.

And a female one at that.

The man sat up. While he had reservations about women serving in the armed forces, Dietrich was well aware of the reputation that they had earned in Stalingrad and beyond. They were capable and efficient, proving to be very dangerous foes that he made sure to pay extra special attention to when counter sniping. Dietrich took the time to study her.

She wore the ever so lackluster khaki colored uniform that all Soviet conscripts were issued as well as the standard black jackboots. A dagger was wedged between one of the boots and her calf, giving Dietrich the impression that she was somewhat experienced. Her webbing was the standard Soviet rifleman's kit, consisting of ammo pouches, bread bag, and other utility packs that he never bothered to learn about. She had an SVT-40 rifle and it was equipped with one of the smaller PU scopes.