The old man at
my feet spoke first, “ Who are you and what do you want? ” He made no effort to
disguise the suspicion in his voice, which was quite understandable to me.
After all I was a complete stranger, dressed in a modern manner, who had just
barged into a public house in a very conservative village. “ My name is Eldor
Prenasta. I am from the south. I come here in an absolutely peaceful manner and
with no underhand objectives.” I could
sense that the tension among the people around me was easing off a little bit.
“ I work at an accountancy firm. This is my first holiday after getting this
job and I decided to come here, as I have never been to this part of the
country before.” I had decided to limit the revelation of the truth to this
much for now since I had only just met these people and I did not know how
sensitive the issue of this so called Tronix was to them. “I would be very
obliged if I could spend a few days with one of you as I am completely
unfamiliar with this area.” The old man walked across to the far side of the
room and seemed to be pondering my request. Slowly turning around, he summoned the other members to join him. He also indicated that I remain
seated.
After what seemed like a long discussion the group returned to their
positions around where I was sitting. The old man hesitated for a moment before
proceeding, “ As you are an outsider, we the elders of this village have
decided to permit you to stay amongst us for a few days. You can stay with
Lothar.” He indicated the tall cowboy. “He isn’t married and hence should have
the least trouble putting you up. As you may have noticed, we here in our
village do not support the winds of change, so a person visiting from the city
is always a welcome change.” Anyway it is getting late and I would think that
the time has come for us to retire to our homes for the night. Alright then
good night to everybody. We will be looking forward to hearing more from Eldor
about himself and his town tomorrow.”
Very soon,
everybody was making their way back home and I found myself in the company of
Lothar, heading towards a house slightly apart from the others. A friendly
chitchat immediately began between us. He asked me about my family and friends,
what I liked to eat, my opinion on city life, and a host of other questions.
Meanwhile, we reached the house. He unlocked a rather heavy padlock on the
front door using a key that he wore on a chain around his neck. Once inside, he
began an elaborate locking process, involving a couple of locks, three chains
and two bolts. I was quite surprised by this and was trying to fathom what this
threat could be against which such tight protection was required.
As if
answering my thoughts, Lothar suddenly stood up, obviously finished with the
locking procedure, “ You must be wondering why I take such precautions. There
are dangers out there in the woods which you might find difficult to
understand, serious dangers and anybody not taking adequate protection against
them could very well end up paying with their life.” He lowered his voice,
“Many people have become victims, my father and mother included.” “Why don’t
you move to the town then, why do you continue to stay in this danger and
constant fear of your lives?” I cried. There are reasons that you might find
difficult to understand, being an outsider. The people you saw at the Voice
Horn”, which I assumed was the name of the pub, “were friends of my father’s. I
have a duty to do my best to ensure that no harm comes to them.” Saying this
much, he indicated to me the couch on which I was to sleep, bade me good night
and retired to the single bed in the corner of the room. As much as I wanted to
find out more from him about this mysterious danger that seemed to hold all
these hardened men in such fear, I decided that this was not the time for
pushing the conversation. Quietly I changed into my nightgown and lay down. It
was only when my head touched the cushion on the couch that I realized how
tired I actually was. The waves of weariness washed over me and I settled into
a deep slumber in no time at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment