Fear and Folly by Maurits Zwankhuizen

Author:Maurits Zwankhuizen [Zwankhuizen, Maurits]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-30T22:00:00+00:00

The pub had a small beer garden out the front. The pint before me and the cloudless sky above conspired to make me sleepy but I kept one furtive eye on the road. Sure enough, he was on time. He walked rapidly along the path which led between the pub and the road. I’d never tried to engage a stranger in conversation before – well, not a male one anyway – and it took some coaxing to get him to sit down beside me but the offer of a free pint won him over.

He looked curious but guarded. He eyed the pub with a concerned look.

My first question was simple – his name.

“Nick,” he said.

My second took him by surprise.

“Are you a druid?”

His eyes flashed with suspicion.

“There are no druids anymore.”

“That’s something a druid would say,” I said with a smile.

He smiled back with his lips but not his eyes.

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’ve always been interested in druidry,” I lied. “Nature worship. Paganism, if you will.”

“I haven’t seen you at any of our gatherings.”

“You have gatherings?” I asked. “How many of you are there?”

“Always one less than what we begin with,” and he drew a finger across his throat, a finger with a blue D tattooed on it.

I gulped but he was smiling for real now.

“I’m just telling you what you expect to hear,” he said. “The truth is more mundane. It’s just me. And I merely have an interest in the ancients. And in nature. You should call me a natural historian instead of a druid.”

“Do you have an interest in beer?” I asked.

He laughed. “Of course.”

“Then let me get us some pints,” I said and went inside. Bill and his mate were seated at the bar. I saw them look from me to the outside beer garden and back.

Bill got out the first bars of a mock howl before a shove from his mate silenced him.

I nodded briefly, returned outside and was relieved to find Nick still seated at the bench.

Before I could sit down, he caught me off-guard with a question of his own.

“So why did you follow me to Deeble Tor?”

How was I supposed to respond?

“You saw me?”

“No, but I’m omniscient. I know all that passes among the ancient hills. The trees, they talk to me.” He stared at me for a moment in silence before breaking into a laugh. “Of course I heard you. Seriously, you made more noise than a herd of elephants.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just that I’m interested in the ancients, too. I’m keen to get an understanding of the worlds beyond ours, the worlds we can’t see but can only feel.”

“Other worlds, hey.”

I couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement. He stared at me unsettlingly as he took a sip of his beer. As he grasped his pint, I noticed blue letters tattooed across all the fingers of his right hand just above the knuckle. Without showing my interest, I managed to see that the letters read C-D-N-R-N from thumb to pinkie.

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