Robert

Chapter Seven : An Interlude

Georgetown was old, older than most cities yet surprisingly it had never grown past being a town.

Rich in both history and wealth, it was content being overlooked by both historians and politicians. The town was, however, larger than most. It boasted some of the best architectural feats in the region some of which dated back as far as the liberation struggle. It was old, strong and proud. Its past though, that took a darker turn.

To understand this we must study different parts of the towns story, each segment as important as the last. By no means is this town haunted in the strict sense, nor does it possess an exclusive horror that terrories its inhabitants, but rather it is a convergence of all the terrible things from across the continent of reality. To illustrate this we shall study a legend from the farthest reaches of what is now Canada. The legend of the NightCrawler.

In July of 1567 a lumberjack in a small lumbering party was found dead in his tent, his body hoisted on spikes, entrails hanging. This happened deep in a forest known to the locals for its dark and sinister nocturnal activities. Others even believed the devil resided in that forest.

Every morning animal carcasses were discovered along the forest edge, guts spilling out, none of the flesh consumed. Noone ever saw what did this but all they knew was it did not cross into the plains that began when the woods ended, unless of course there was nothing left to hunt. This became the case for a time and the beast began to roam the settlement seeking victims. To appease what ever beast lay within, they would herd in sheep or goats into the woods. These surprisingly would never end up at the forest edge. As the years progressed jewels began to be offered. These were also accepted. The unspoken bargain was simple. Offerings for their lives.

Another surprise was despite how much wealth was drained by weekly offerings the settlement seemed to thrive, gradually turning into a trading hub of immense wealth. Whatever was in that forest was no ordinary animal. A few decades later the ancient forest attracted lumberjack camps eventually leading to the incident earlier mentioned. This was not the only death but one of many.

North of the settlement, which had become a town called Oak Hope, in rough translation, another incident worth mentioning occurred. This time it was a merchant who, deep in his cups, had decided to hunt down this beast. Reputation of Oak Hopes strange tradition had reached the ears of many traders and hunters. Most desired a glimpse of this monster, other more foolish folk desired to slay it and sell it after all a monster pelt was bound to be costly.

This merchant whose name is unclear but is more commonly referred to as John, decided to hunt this legendary beast. It is said he trudged through the forest for months, his company abandoning him for dead.

He was later discovered sitting in the road that cut close to the woods wearing all sorts of jewels and a skull for a hat. He spoke of discovering a layer in the deepest part of the woods, a hole with a mound of treasure and bones in the middle. Many begged him to guide them, John declined no matter the price and set off to return home to Orren Falls, a settlement down south. As the reader my have deduced, Orren Falls is present day Georgetown. Unfortunately John was not heard of again but a monster began to reside in the woods thousands of miles from Oak Hope. This is also thousands of miles from Georgetown.

Now the peculiar thing we shall study is the behaviour of these two so called monsters. Legend would say John became the second beast and logic would suggest this to be true. These two creatures were know to disappear once every seventy six years and return on the seventy seventh year. Enough oral history has been passed down for us to be certain of this. The dates differ but never the time span. Always, on the seventy sixth year whatever was offered would be found the next morning.

And now we must speak of Matthew Caroline, an eighty nine year old man who lived in Orren Falls in 1678. What information we have about his experiences we have from his diary and from the entry made by the constable's son in the log book of the town events. Unfortunately both of these are highly damaged and cannot be completely recited, but the gist of the tales can be made out.

The diary speaks of an incounter with one of the beast in a dark and isolated wood, it's chief characteristic, as previously ascertained, being hording. Matthew described a mound of treasure and bones. There had been a burglary problem that year. Both precious items and livestock had been going missing. The beast he encountered never completely showed itself, and would only growl. Matthew, being in his youth at the time, had not stuck around to investigate.

The second piece of evidence is a log of his death years later. It is unfortunately brief but describes a bloody sight of guts and gore buried in a horde of treasure and animal bones, his head being the only thing intact. The true gold, however, lies not in the details but rather in the date. It was dated seventy six years after Matthew's entry in his diary.