A Libro Consiliorum Tale no. 10 - The Foreigner of Fawn Part 1 - The Unwelcoming
A Short Gothic Tragedy of a man and a town with a "secret".
The year is twenty-three, and men now walk across the sea in a large baroque. Pushed by the waters far away from the New World, S.S. Abadessa, a three-mast ship, the first of its kind, docks her mass on a troubled land. From within her womb, a man of peace steps forward, leaving his burdens and tonnage behind him. Emanuel Antonio is a man from the New World. He has a secret he does not want to share with anyone. He kneels his head down to the poorly brick streets before him with his tall, gallant stance and uneven shaved face.
"Mia, Bellalina... Elis," he stumbles. The town of Fawn was dark and vile. Its peasants showed no welcome to visitors. "This town is as grim as the sea that led me.”
Between the houses of bricks and stones, where narrow pathways curved and turned, a figure emerged from the shadows to greet Sir Antonio. "My master!" the strange figure, as if anxious, said. "An honor it is for you to enter...!" The strange figure was small and round in stature, wearing an old straw rug as a hood and caped robe. "I say it is a splendid honor, especially for your kind." He whispered the last word.
Emanual looked down at the figure moments before passing as he was about to expire. He was angry add puzzled. "I needeth not know, nor do I knoweth at all the words you speak.
“Ahh~aha! For he who stands before me does not know? This man of men thinks he is of that kind? Or this man of kinds thinks he is of men?" the figure said.
"You know nothing of me, vermin!” Emanuel replied.
He shouted loud enough for passersby not to hear. "Kern! tis my name!" But vermin is thy name I shall receive!" Emanuel grabbed the figure turning into the shadowy alleyway and throwing Kern onto the dark, bricked wall. Emanuel burst with a jolt of anger with a loud bang and gallant voice, “Heed my words to what I am about to say to you. Leave me alone! For those looking for closer death, death follows me!!!" Emanuel pushed Kern between stone roads, falling into mud and horse stool.
Kern, now covered in filth and dirt, eyes blinded by the smell, slowly stood up and walked back into the dark alleyway. Before he disappeared into the darkness, he made his farewell. "Yes…my master.”
The town of Fawn was a dark place, filled with houses made of wood instead of stone, the sky smudged by a factory of sorts. In the center of the town lies the sheriff, a tall, slender man, the tallest man Emmanuel had ever seen.
The sheriff despised newcomers to the city of Fawn or just anyone he did not know in general. "Hey, you, foreigner!" the sheriff shouted. “What brings you to my town?"
Emanuel, tired from his trip, clothes damp by the vigorous sea, shook his head. "A new life, sir..."
"A new... what?" The sheriff drank his ale. "No one comes to my town seeking anything, especially life."
Already not too keen on the town of Fawn, Emanuel was unbothered by the unwelcoming. "Then...I will be on my way.” He turned his back with his sights set on an old pub.
The sheriff took one quick half-step, though it looked like a leap to a regular-sized man slumped over Emanuel’s shoulder. The sheriff grew nearer to Emanuel's left ear while idle, breathing his ale and paste into his face. Like the legs of a spider, the sheriff’s fingers crawled up Emanuel’s back only to rest beside his neck. The sheriff whispered in Emanuel Antonio's ears, "I saw you... foreigner of the sea...roaming through my alleyways, speaking to the rats. Tell me, have you seen any beasts?"
As night drew nearer to the town of Fawn, Emmanuel's chest began to leap. "Beast, sheriff? I only know of the one before me.
"Overbold, aren't you, foreigner, but not too wise." The sheriff stood upright with his hand on Emanuel's shoulders. The ground shook as if a chariot of horses raced towards them.
It was Emanuel's heart. The murky sky grew darker and darker, and Emanuel, enriched with rage, started to feel a heaviness within his arms.
"Yes... foreigner, fear me like the wanderer you are! You look like trouble, trouble for me, trouble for Fawn! Go back to where you came…. Vermin!" The sheriff revolted with his stance, still towering over the angered Emanuel.
"Vermin, you say sheriff?" Emanuel heard the echoing laughter of Vermin Kern in his consciousness. "You have no idea the ‘trouble’ I bear witness to, nor the nightmares I hope to overcome, and the pain I wish to lay past!" The night was tensely dark when the clouds drew in from the east to cover the moonstone's light.
"Save your story for the drunks, for I need to keep an eye on you tonight!" the sheriff said. He used his right arm to reveal handcuffs with his left arm now surrounding Emanuel's neck.
Emanuel’s eyes, gleaming red like a wood fire, turned his body and flipped the sheriff, causing both to lose their balance on the bricked stone ground.
The sheriff, now falling, cocked his right leg back to regain his balance, but failed.
Emanuel, with the sheriff pinned to the ground, knelt over him. His breathing was fast and heavy, like a locomotive at full speed. His body swelled up as if to explode in seconds. Emanuel's eyes were once red like a wood fire, now blue due to the moonstone's rays shining above like a furnace at its highest temperature.
I warned you, sheriff, Sheriff of Fawn, I warned you in taking me to a place where my nightmares reminisce! Emanuel's voice seemed to change as if another spoke. Did you hear it?
"A live one, aren't you, foreigner! I will show you how to act in my town!" The sheriff regained his strength and rose from the ground. The sheriff shot up with his arms, now choking our boy, Emanuel.
As he struggled to break free from the fingers of the sheriff's grip, the sheriff punched Emanuel to the ground and finally put his handcuffs on him.
He trembled like a boiling pot and pebbles vibrating the ground, unleashing newfound energy! Emmanuel again spoke again in his regular voice. "I… am not... the beast you seek but —" In the same breath, different from Emanuel's, the more resonant voice began to surface.
I will be the beast you —
"Sheriff! Come quickly; it is the beast!” a loud man shouted.
The sheriff jumped up and ran with his men.