Witch Hunt

[WP] yes it's a witch hunt. But the moon's full for nine months now, the cows give black milk and scream instead of moo, and we gave up harvest because the cut stalks cry and bleed. All the broomsticks are missing and last night I heard the scarecrow laugh. A witch hunt is the sensible thing to do.

*****

Valdis looked up from the fire, as the group of men approached his family's encampment. Anger boiled in his veins as he recognized them. It joined the deep, steady drumbeat of the mantle of power that rested upon him, and threatened to carry him out of his body, and on to the hunt. He could tell many other who sat there felt the same way.

But since his father's passing, he was the eldest. It fell to him to set the example. As the leader approached, and doffed his hat, Valdis mastered his anger, and rose to confront him.

"I am seeking Thiess of Kaltenbrun." the man said, nervously.

Valdis scowled, and pointed to his chest. "You will find only his son, Valdis. My father is dead."

He looked alarmed. "Dead?"

Valdis shook his head, derisively. "Yes, he has died. Did you think he was immortal? He was already over fourscore years of age, the last time you saw him, Magistrate."

The man lowered his eyes. "I...I am sorry--" he began.

"I cannot but think that it did not aid his longevity, when you condemned my father, who did nothing but good for Livonia, as a heretic! When you had him, in his old age, flogged like a common criminal! When you banished him, and his family, from their homes!" Valdis snarled, and was answered by low growls from his brethren around the fire.

"We...we did not understand!" the man pleaded, wringing his hat in his hands. "Please, in the name of God, I beg you to--"

"The name of God?" Valdis shouted, stepping up to the man, his eyes flashing. "Why should you think His name will move us? Have you not named us servants of the Devil?"

Another of the company stepped up beside the old judge. "Please, sir! Please, listen to our plea. The witches...they have poisoned all of Livonia!"

"As my father warned you that they would, absent our vigil." Valdis replied, coldly.

"The cows give black milk that reeks of sulphur, and scream with inhuman voices long into the night!" Yet another supplicant wailed, desperately. "The stalks in the field cry and bleed and when cut!"

"Of course." Valdis said. "The witches have plundered the life and virtue that was in your beasts, and in your fields, and offered it up as tribute to their master. What is left to you, is pure corruption."

"You will...you will leave us to their mercy?" the Magistrate cried.

Valdis clenched his jaw. "Your 'evidence' against my father, was that he did not know the scriptures, that he could not understand them. He was a simple man, a man of the land. But I? He saw that I learned to read."

Lifting his chin, Valdis recited from Matthew's gospel by memory:

"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city."

The Magistrate's eyes widened in fear and surprise, his lower lip quivering.

But that moment of despair, that look on the Livonian Magistrate's face, was all the vengeance Valdis would have, for the cruel stripes on his kindly father's back.

"And yet, it is said that God would have spared those cities from fire and brimstone, if even ten righteous men could have been found within them. For all your foolishness, your arrogance, and your cruelty...there are at least that many in Livonia." Valdis said, reluctantly.

Around the fire, his brethren nodded grimly.

"Go!" Valdis snapped at the group of supplicants, pointing into the distance. He forced out the next words. "We...will help you. But what we do next is not for faithless eyes, it is not to be witnessed by those who have scorned our calling. Run! Look back, and you will wish you had been turned into a pillar of salt, instead of what will befall you!"

The Livonian company did not need to be told twice. They fled the firelight, and Valdis' baleful gaze. Around him, his brethren rose.

Valdis stripped off his shirt and cast it on the ground, then closed his eyes, and said a silent prayer, clutching the simple wooden cross around his neck. When he opened them again, his eyes had turned golden yellow, and lambent.

"Brothers of the pack!" Valdis snarled around his lengthening fangs. "Tonight, the Hounds of God go forth into Hell, to hunt the servants of the Evil One! The blasphemous ones that prey upon Livonia will feel our fangs at their throat!"

Far out into the distance, beneath the unnatural moonlight of benighted Livonia, the silence of the night was shattered by a chorus of exultant howls.

*****

THE END.

May. Month 5 out of 12. Like I said, April was a blur, and I better score wins in May or at least have some fun memorable experiences or may will be too.

Meaning I have to get out of my shell for once. Yikes. Anywayyys, how are you guys doing?