El Duende (Read or listen to the illustrated story)

in #fiction6 years ago

El Duende aak fictionspawn.jpg

Pedro opened the door and went out to the barn. He held the goat inside now that winter was here. He milked it, as he always did, and went back into the house. His mother was in the kitchen.

-Here’s the milk, Pedro said, holding out the bucket.

-Put it on the floor, I’ll take care of it. She kept on cutting vegetables for the potaje.

His father was in the livingroom, reading a book in front of the fireplace. He was always reading when he wasn’t working. Pedro sat down on the wooden bench beside him.

-The goat is old, he said. -We’ll soon need another.

-There’s no money, hijo. How will we get a new goat with no money?

Pedro said nothing for a while.

-New times are coming, Padre. -We’ll soon be better off.

News came to the little village. The king had left the country. The second republic had been established. Times really were changing, and each year things got better for Pedro and his family.

Pedro met Lola on a village party, she was there with a friend. She was the most beautiful thing Pedro had ever seen. Less than a year after they got married. Pedro got a job as the shoemaker’s assistant, and soon he could afford a new goat for his family. Rich landlords were losing land to poor peasants. People were less hungry each day.

Pedro went out to the barn, as he used to. There was a full bucket of milk under the goat. It had had milked itself. Yes, all by itself.

-Lola! Cariño! Come! Look at this!

Lola came running. Pedro was pointing excitedly at the full bucket on the floor

-Look! Look!

-So you milked the goat… Like you do every day..?

-That’s just it! I didn’t milk the goat! It milked itself!

She looked at him for a moment.

-Hahaha! Milked itself…. Hahahaha! ¡Que graciosos eres!

She left, still laughing.

Pedro looked around the room. A creature was watching him from a beam in the ceiling. A little man with pointy ears and a little green hat on his head. For a moment their eyes met. The little man seemed to be laughing. He jumped off the beam, turned into a bird and flew out of a hole in the wall.

Pedro rubbed his eyes. Strange things were happening today, he didn’t know what to believe. He shrugged, took the milk and left.

Down the road people were shouting. He walked down the road, faster and faster until he was almost running.

Three bodies had been found in a field, executed in the darkness of the night.

El Duende 2 aak fictionspawn.jpg

The next day Pedro went out to milk the goat again and once again the goat was milked. This time the bucket was gone.

A bit confused Pedro looked around the barn. No milk anywhere, but the goat was empty. And there couldn’t have been anyone there. Could there?

-So someone has stolen our milk… That’s odd. It had never happened before. He was worried.

Someone was found dead almost every morning. Los señoritos, the rich landowners said they would kill anyone who had voted against the old system. Pedro knew he was in danger.

He was going down to meet his cousin and some friends to talk about the situation, something had to be done. He went to milk the goat first. He was about to grab the full bucket when he heard something behind him. He turned around.

His jaw fell. He had never really believed in the gnomes, but there it was. The same little creature he’d seen the other day. It was real.

-Hey! The gnome said. -You want some milk? He kicked the milk bucket over. Pedro looked at the milk on the floor.

-What did you do that for?

The little creature glared at him viciously. Then he kicked the goat in the butt.

-Hey! Stop that! What do you think you’re…

The little gnome ran towards him, kicked him in the leg.

-Why you little… Now Pedro was getting angry.

He tried to kick it, but he missed. He tried again. The soul less little cabron was too fast. It picked up a log from the floor. Hit him with it. Pedro grabbed a broken broom stick.

-Now you’ve done it! he said, hitting for the little man. Missing. All the time. El duende, on the other hand got in quite a few punches. After a long fight, Pedro was lying on the floor, exhausted. The little man was sitting on the bench laughing. Pedro was defeated. He got up, limped out of the barn.

He walked down towards town. He saw a large group of people further down. They were talking, shouting. People were running up and down the slope, screaming in despair. Pedro walked over, slowly, his whole body was hurting.

There were three bodies on the ground. The bodies of his cousin and the friends they were going to meet.

-They just shot them down! Señor Gomez was pulling his hair. -Who will be next? Who will be next!?

Pedro’s mother was there, crying her eyes out. -You have to leave, Pedro! You are in danger!

Pedro knew she was right. He went home.

-I have to go, he said to his wife.

She said nothing, ran and got the old hunting rifles down from the wall, started packing food and warm clothes.

The same afternoon they both left for the forest.

El Duende Pt 3 Aak fictionspawn.com.jpg

Pedro and Lola had been hiding for a long time in an old abandoned gypsy cave far into the woods. It would have been quite a cosy place under other circumstances. A wooden door in the entrance, and a small window in the earth wall.

Pedro’s mother came by every once in a while with food and wathever they would need. She told them the war was over. La Republica had lost.

One day they could see five men come up towards the cave, two of them had uniforms of the Guardia Civil. They were moving slowly, from tree to tree, from rock to rock. They knew where they were hiding.

Pedro took position at the door, Lola in the window. They loaded their guns. A bird flew down from one of the trees, landed in the bushes and disappeared. The men came closer.

-Don’t shoot yet, whispered Pedro. -I want to speak to them. Maybe we can get to some kind of agreement.

Lola held the rifle to her shoulder, looking firmly through the sight. -They will not bargain, mi amor. If we surrender we are dead.

The five men kept moving closer, signalling between themselves with their hands.

One of them started screaming. -Aaaaaahh! A snake! A snake bit me!

They stopped for a moment. Silence. Only the bitten man’s moans could be heard.

Another scream.

-It’s crawling with snakes!

Lola fired. Hit one of them in the shoulder. The ones still able to fight was shooting, retreating down the way they came from. Pedro and Lola got out and ran further into the forest behind the cave. They kept walking up towards the mountains.

That night they slept outside. They were cold and hungry.

Early in the morning Lola woke up to the sound of Pedro’s voice. From the depths of her dreams, reality slowly came back. A reality she did not want.

-We need to go.

They kept moving up the forest clothed mountains. Walked without pauses, without rest. At mid day they heard dogs barking. The men had gone to get reinforcements.

The dogs were coming closer, they could see them. Behind them they heard men shouting. Pedro and Lola started running, spines and branches cut their legs and arms.

The dogs were right behind them.

Out of the bushes a rabbit appeared. It ran in front of the dogs, teasing them. Then it ran off down a dry river lair. Pedro and Lola climbed up the hill, hid in the bushes. They could see the dogs far below. They were following a deer now, and the men were following the dogs. The rabbit could no longer be seen.

They kept walking up, crossing the high mountains. All night they walked, climbed down the mountain side, down through the forest.

In the early morning a man appeared. He had a gun in his hands. For a moment they froze, all three of them. Lola held her hand tight around her weapon.

-Bonjour! The man said with a friendly smile. -Ca va bien?

A French hunter. They were out of Spain. He signalled them to follow him.

Pedro turned around, looked back where they had come from to make sure no one was following. He saw a little man sitting on a stone. A little man with a green hat on his head. The gnome waved and jumped down behind the rocks.

A bird flew up and disappeared over the mountains.

(All content is my own, all rights reserved. Please share. Main inspiration and historical source: Requiem for a Spanish Peasant by Ramón J. Sender)

Sort:  

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

I loved listening to the audio while reading it! the picts are great!

You're such a good story teller, and I love your writing voice. ;)

I'm happy to hear that :)

Resteemed your article. This article was resteemed because you are part of the New Steemians project. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 70310.43
ETH 3568.34
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.73