The Hunt

            When a group of people decide to put the investment into creating a city, location is one of the most important factors to take into consideration.  You’ve got to find the right foundation for your future homes and offices, the right ground for your citizens to walk over.  You’ve got to find some place sturdy, preferably flat, though hills work almost as well if they are solid enough.  You do not want marshlands, or wetlands, or a frozen wasteland.

            Most of all, you do not want a swamp.  Swamps are full of dangerous animals and diseases, and create soft, infertile soil that does not create what one would characterize as ideal living quarters.

            There are only two conditions that cause a person to believe that building a city over a swamp would be a good idea.  The first is the condition of being insane.  The second is the condition of being in Florida.  The differences between these conditions are subtle, if such differences exist at all.

            Still, even if you were a manic citizen of Florida bent on building cities in the worst possible locations, you could pave a nice foundation if you had the money.  The wealthy districts and the tourist districts all had nice homes, with clean water and a million-dollar-per-brick guarantee of sturdy grounding.

            If there was one thing that could be said about the Punto Diez, a small diner on the outskirts of the city, it certainly was not that it was a wealthy district.  It could not even be claimed to be a frequent tourist rest stop.  Of course, being Florida, it could not entirely avoid a tourist every now and then.  Generally, however, the local regulars could make themselves unwelcoming enough to keep most who came in the hopes of a Kodak moment out of the diner.  This was often unnecessary; the building itself looked run-down enough on the outside and seedy enough on the side to keep most strangers away.

            Everyone in the little diner knew everyone else’s name, where they worked or went to school, and who their families were.  Seedy though it appeared, it bore no difference from most small-town diners except for one important distinction: the swamp.  On the fringes of civilization, the Punto Diez’s architects had not been quite as thorough in meeting their safety regulations when designing the place as they could have been.  They took their money and left a poorly structured building at best to fend against the fierce oppression of the swamplands.

            As a result, no chances could be taken.  All water had to be boiled, and perishable food was delivered at the beginning of each week, to avoid keeping it in the presence of the swamp for too long.

            Still, they succeeded admirably in overcoming their difficulties.  They had a strong enough local client base to be able to afford to take extra measures.  Their customers did not complain about the prices that far exceeded the quality of their meals; they understood that the Punto Diez was a place that had special needs, and those needs were a constant consumer of profits.  In the end, the Punto Diez was simply a place for people to meet, get some caffeine, maybe an egg, and relax.  It straddled the thin line between being a diner and simply being a mess hall.

            To say that Edward was new would be misleading.  He had been coming to the Punto Diez since he was a small child; he could not remember a time without it.  It was only recently that he had begun waiting tables there.  Things moved slowly in the lazy diner, and only one waiter was really necessary.  His predecessor had trained him with retirement in mind, having served almost a lifetime.

            Though Edward had ambitions, and sought means for further education, his family had little money, and many expected that a steady income would bind him from pursuing his ambitions.  They saw it all the time; the old waiter retired at an elderly age, and hired a young boy or girl.  The young waiter or waitress did not plan to stay long, but ended up unable to gather the means to leave.  Until the day came when they, at an old age, would pass the baton to a representative from the next generation.

            Edward was certainly intelligent enough to expect a decent education, but his background and financial situation were no different than his predecessors, and the local folk had no reason to believe that he would fare any better.

            These things were not currently troubling him, nor was the task at hand of dealing with the customers on his mind.  Business was normally slow enough for him to daydream, and on that day, he could not help himself.

            “Excuse me,” She said to him, “but I think we’re a little lost.”

            He sighed to himself.  That woman, he thought dreamily.  She had been a tourist, but to have strayed so far out from the safe bounds of the city seemed against the odds.  He found himself speculating about destiny.

            “Wow,” he commented, half in awe of her beauty, half in awe of her astonishing lack of a sense of direction, “I think you’re more than just a little lost”.

            The girls he had grown up with were nice enough, and they certainly were not lacking in appearance.  His father had assured him for his entire life that there existed no beauty on Earth greater than the Latina woman.  He had never doubted this, but then, he had never really met anyone other than Latina women.  Until…

            He noted how pale she was, how brightly her green eyes sparkled, and how tense her jaw clenched shut.  It was clear that being lost in so seedy an area was making her nervous, though she did an admirable job of hiding it when she spoke.  His light-hearted teasing caused her to relax a little.  “Yeah, this is my first time driving here.  I mean, I’ve been before, but never been the one driving” she sounded almost apologetic.

            “Oye, Eduardo!” called a middle-aged customer suddenly, “Pay attention to your customers, mijo!  There’s a stranger there who has been waiting for quite a while!”  That was the way things worked in the Punto Diez; the regular customers were as much a part of the management as any of Edward’s actual bosses.  They had all known his family for generations, and they had watched him grow up.  As such, everyone older than him felt somewhat responsible for his well being.  It was like having an entire town of parents, or uncles.  Edward sometimes wondered whether everyone in Florida wasn’t related to him, somehow.

            But what they had said was odd.  He looked over and saw, sitting alone, a rather large man he had never seen before.  This would be the first time he dealt with a customer from outside of their little community.  Taking a deep breath, he grabbed his pencil and pad of paper and approached the stranger.

           
            “Hello, welcome to the Punto Diez,” Edward said, speaking English without any discernable accent, “would you like a drink to start with or are you ready to order?” The stranger did not reply immediately.

            He had his hands palm-down on the table, curled slightly so that the tips of his fingers weren’t visible.  He wore black gloves that ended before the joints of the fingers, with holes for his knuckles, as well.  He had massively large hair, though it did not fall far below his shoulders, instead, it had a great volume around his head.  That, along with his large, untrimmed black beard, gave him the appearance of having almost a lion’s mane.  Edward couldn’t see his eyes.  When the man opened his mouth to talk, he revealed four very prominent canines.  “I don’t want anything on your menu.  I want information.” He said in a low voice.

            “Information?” Edward was completely taken aback by this response, “I’m sorry, sir, you must be in the wrong place.  Nothing ever goes on around here that’s worth talking about.”

            “You are worth talking to,” the man insisted, “you will know what it is that I’m looking for.”

            “How can you be so certain?” Edward asked, growing increasingly nervous in the presence of this strange manner of man, “You have never even seen me before, and it’s not as though you could have heard of me from reputation.  I have none.  So how do you know that I’ll be of any help to you?”

            The man took a sharp intake of breath through his nose.  “I know,” he said simply.

            “Well, I am afraid that I have other customers to attend to, so I cannot talk to you right now,” Edward said immediately.

            “I’ll wait.  Get me some tea.”

            “We do not serve tea.”

            “Then boil me some water to drink.”

            “Will that be all?” Edward really wanted this strange man to go away.  Even in the presence of familiar faces, he did not feel safe from him.  The man nodded, never so much as glancing at Edward.  The young waiter hurried to the kitchen.

            Night came, and the man had not left.  Soon, it was closing time, and, with the exception of the old cook in the kitchen who was cleaning up, only the man and Edward remained.  Once he was sure that it would only be them, the man gestured for Edward to take a seat. “You know something that I need you to tell me,” the man said immediately.

            “Who are you?” Edward asked, exasperated and on edge.  There was a moment’s silence.

            “You may call me Stray.” The once nameless man replied contemplatively.  Edward stared at him.  Stray’s eyes were hidden in the shadow of his hair, and it did not help matters any that the sun was getting lower in the horizon.

            “Well, Mister…Stray,” Edward said politely, “what is it that you think I can help you with?”

            “I think nothing,” snorted the unkempt man, “I know that you have seen her, and I wish to know where she is.” Edward blinked.

            “Forgive me, but…who is this that you speak of?”

            “Don’t be a fool, boy.  You know who I refer to.”

            “But…how could…”

            “Do not ask questions.  You will be rewarded if you cooperate, but I will get this out of you, one way or another.” Stray interrupted.

            “But you can’t possibly expect—” Edward was cut off when Stray’s fist, moving with blurring speed, came down upon the table between them.  The table, a solid fiberglass make, split apart and crashed into several pieces.  Edward reacted instantly by jumping out of his seat in shock.  The cook ran out from the kitchen, shouting and demanding to know what had made the noise.  Edward, thinking better of ratting on the larger man, assured his superior that the table had simply been rickety, and had broken accidentally.  After some persuasion, the cook returned to the kitchen, swearing in full voice.

            “Understand this,” Stray explained in a quiet, menacing tone, “I have searched far and wide for the girl without wings, and I will stop at nothing to find her.  I do not wish to cause you harm, but I will break you without hesitation if you get between me and what I desire.”

            “We had better talk outside,” Edward said quietly, “I don’t need you causing any more trouble for me here.” Stray did not protest.  He stood up, towering over a head taller than Edward.  Yet Edward noted that he did not appear to be all that muscular.  But then, the long dark green trenchcoat concealed most of his body.

            Edward led the way outside, and then immediately turned to face him. “Look, I think that you must be insane, and I must be even more insane to still be talking to you,” he stuttered, “but—how do you know about this girl?  And why is she so important to you?”

            “I thought we agreed that there would be no questions.” Stray retorted.

            “We never agreed to anything!  And if you want me to help you, you’re going to tell me what this is about.  I don’t care if you hurt me, I’m not going to let just anyone find her unless I think there’s a good reason for it!” Edward shouted, breathing heavily.  For the first time, Stray looked him in the eyes.  Edward was immediately startled by the unkempt man’s appearance—his right eye was a deep blue, but his left eye was a light green.  These dual colors assessed the young waiter with a burning intensity for what felt like an eternity before the strange man bowed his head, and the eyes retreated under the shadow of his hair once more.

            “I will let that outburst pass, as it is clear from you passion that you actually saw…her…saw…” he trailed off, as if talking on a subject too sacred for him to tread on.

            “Who?  What is her name?  Why is she so important?” Edward pressed, a little more gently.

            “Her name is…or was…Rosetta,” Stray said hesitantly, “and she is the most beautiful of all creatures that walks this degenerate world of man.”

            “If she is who I think she is, I would not feel the need to disagree,” the younger man mused, “so how well do you know her?”

            “I know of her.”

            “You expect me to send a complete stranger after her?” Edward asked in disbelief.  Stray emitted a low noise that could only be called a growl.

            “You begin to frustrate me, boy,” he snapped, “how well we know one another s none of your concern.  I seek only to see her, and I have come too far to be turned away by the likes of you!”

            “Please, señor, calm yourself,” Edward said quickly, “I simply want to make sure that I am not sending a criminal or murderer after the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon.”

            “I…” Stray said, slowly, “…am not a criminal.  But I am not much better.”

            “What is that supposed to mean?” Edward asked, eyeing the older man’s long, pointed nails which gleamed in the dim moonlight.

            “There are many things in this world that you do not understand, boy,” the unkempt man retorted, “and I will not waste my time explaining personal matters to deaf ears.”

            “Don’t you write me off!” Edward said angrily, “In my life here, I have known many stranger things than you could ever dream of!  I have heard that the owners of this place, dating back over a hundred years, still reside here even in death.  I know this, because my family and friends have seen them on many a dark night, and it is common knowledge in our town who they are.  I have seen men die in the jaws of a crocodile, and them found them alive and well, the next morning, as though they had never met with any trouble at all.  Once a year, for every year that I have been alive, I have been blessed with many gifts from God’s saints.  My mother has continued to give me strength and comfort me, even though she’s—” he stopped, his throat tightening, and attempted to control himself.  Fighting back the hot water that threatened to flood from his eyes, he clenched his fists and said defiantly, “so don’t you pretend that you know what I will and will not believe.  Because you don’t know anything.  Nothing at all.”

            There was a long and terrible silence.  Stray did not convey any outward reaction to this outburst, and Edward stared on, his eyes challenging the older man.

            “Very well,” Stray replied, “but be warned; I do not care whether or not you believe what I am about to tell you.  Once I have finished, you will tell me what I want to know.  I am no crocodile, boy; if you betray me, you will not be found alive and well tomorrow morning.” Edward lost his outward coolness and smiled expectantly.  He could not help but be excited.  This entire ordeal was new to his life, and he stood, ready to absorb the strange man’s every word.

            “I was once a lowly and common thug, in a city far away.  My city was not built upon poisonous waters as this one is, but it had its own poisons flowing through it none the less.  I made my living doing the dirty deeds of others, and it paid well.”

            “But I was an ambitious man, and I could never be satisfied as an underling.  Slowly, I accumulated power through alliances and illegal trading.  It was not long before I was at the head of my own organization, set up solely for the purpose of expanding my influence.”

            “I was an aggressive leader, and demanded nothing short of supremacy within my own realm.  My men were constantly slaughtering our competitors.  This did not weigh heavily upon my conscience, however, as to me, it seemed nothing more than one group of criminals slaying another group.”

            “We were a rapidly growing syndicate, and, at the height of my reign, the largest and most powerful there was.”

            “It was on the day I ordered the subjugation of one final group that the course of my life was drastically altered.”

            “I had no sooner issued the order for violent action than…than…”

            “Than…It…appeared to me.”

            “I cannot begin to describe It to you.  All I can do is describe the knowledge one has, when in Its presence, that It exists—exists in a way that you and I do not, exists in a more solid, more absolute sense.”

            “It spoke—and yet, it had no voice.  In my blindness, I attempted to slay it, but before I could so much as move, It had changed everything.”

            “I was in a new place, a home, dropped straight into the middle of a family’s life.  And yet, I was not there at all.  I had no sense of myself—all I knew was this family.  All I knew was their warmth, their joy.  This was a life that I was completely foreign to.  Yet, It molded me into the air they breathed, the blood that pumped through their hearts, the tenderness they shared.”

            “I remained in this state for many days.  With each day, I grew more in love with father, mother, and little daughter.  Without shame, I say that I have never loved any creature as I loved hem, though they were unaware of my presence.”

            “But It had not brought me there to keep me there forever.  I did not know Its purpose until it was too late.  The days I spent with them were held within some unknown window of the past that It had hurled me into.  On that last, terrible day, I watched without the power to do a thing as my own men, engaging in territorial warfare with some unseen foe, used the little home as a shield, and butchered the only family I had ever loved in the process without so much as a moment’s hesitation.”

            “I saw then the pathetic joke of my empire.  This was no war between factions, no swordsmen dying by the sword—this was a blood bath that I had long since lost control over.  The word came to me then—Beast.  We are nothing but BEASTS!”

            “I was fully aware of my self for the first time in weeks, as an empty light emanated from my core.”

            “And then It spoke, without speaking—you have seen the fruits of your kingdom, it mocked, now, what do you desire, oh great king?  For anything you feel the right to claim, I will grant you.”

            “The word came to me again, then.  Beast.  And…”

            “I had myself branded as an animal, no longer completely human.  My heart cried for retribution, yet I knew that I was the one solely responsible, and the men I employed were but beasts of burden.”

            “Since then, I have lived on the fringes of humanity, and I have seen much, but still I am consumed by loathing.  I cannot find any reason to go on, even to seek redemption.  This is my curse, and this is how I have lived for a period spanning many life times.  I continue to seek a reason to continue on, or a reason to end my miserable existence entirely.  Until I find either of these, I can only search.”

            The one who named himself Stray fell silent then, and showed no sign of continuing.  Edward was completely without a thing to say, and felt ever further out of his depth.  Yet he could not help but feel wonder before this strange man, or beast, who lived a life of perpetual self-torment and yet continued on, somehow.  There it was, the question he sought an answer to.  He had found the words to speak.  “But…why?  Why then?”

            “Why what, child?”

            “Why are you going on?  And what does that girl have to do with anything?” Edward asked, genuinely interested.

            Stray considered the young man again, and paused to regain the ability to speak.

            “In my travels, I have heard rumors, of a woman whose beauty surpassed all mortals of the realm, and whose spirit was forged of stronger stuff than any of her peers.”

            “But I did not take interest in this until the first time I caught her scent.  It was faint; she had not been nearby for a long time.  Yet her scent still lingered, and even in its reduced state, it emanated such a presence…such…”

            “I pursued the scent relentlessly, as well as information about her.  She is the one that was called Rosetta, who soared among the Highest.  Her wings were cut by great forces, she has roamed our mortal lands in search for the pure.”

            “The pure?” Edward asked cynically, conjuring up images of saints and innocent maidens and other such lofty figures.

            “You are ignorant, boy,” Stray replied in a tone gentler than the harshness of his words, “the pure are those who are true to nothing other than their own souls.  Most of us give in to outer desires for power, or for lust, or to appear greater or even lesser than what we are—but there are a few, a handful, who are nothing but themselves.  These Rosetta seeks, and it is from meeting them and looking after them that she hopes to one day regain her wings.”

            “And what do you want with her?” the young waiter asked curiously, “I mean, what’s she got to offer you?”

            “if what they say is true…if…” the older man appeared to be exerting a great effort to contain himself, “…any world that harbors such a creature is a world worth living in, no matter how pathetic my own life might be.”

            “So you want to see her for your redemption?”

            “No…I want to see her because…well, I just want to see her.” Stray said simply.  Edward thought about this for a short while.

            “Ok,” he said, “I’ll tell you where I gave her directions to go.  But I don’t know the exact house, only the street.”

            “That will suffice; I will be able to discern the specifics for myself.”

            “Hold on, though,” Edward added, “I’ve got a condition.”

            “You try my patience, boy.”

            “Do you want my help or don’t you?”

            “Well, out with it.”

            “I want to go with you.”

            A small smile formed on the beast’s face, revealing the tips of his top canines.

            Edward had not known Stray for even a day, and yet, found the beast’s almost nervous behavior once they reached the townhouse surprising.  The unkempt man did not seem the type to let himself be rattled, but then, this was no ordinary circumstance.

            The woman who answered the door was exactly as Edward remembered her.  With the streetlights lighting up her face, he found himself completely disarmed.  She looked at Stray, and, unconcerned by his strange appearance, asked in a friendly, but almost shy tone “May I help you?”

            Stray seemed uncertain of what exactly to do.  “I am—my name is—around here I am known as—” he attempted unsuccessfully, then swallowed, and composed himself.  “Who I am is unimportant.  I merely wish to give you this.” He said as calmly as he could, handing her something too small for Edward to see.  From the lace that fell around the woman’s hands when Stray dropped the item there, Edward guessed it to be a pendant of some sort.

            “Thank…thank you…” she said, uncertain of how to respond.  Stray stared down at the pendant.  This is all that I can do for you, to honor your memory.  I have given the symbol of your family name to the purest spirit in existence.

            “It is true what they say,” he murmured, almost too low for her to hear, “you are…most beautiful.”

            Without another word, he turned and walked away.  He walked towards the heart of the city.  Edward stared at the one who had been known as Rosetta.  She looked at him, then at the retreating figure.

            “Hey!” Edward shouted after the older man, “Hey!  What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” He ran after him.  He walked alongside the larger man.  “Where are you going?  She’s right back there!  You’re going the wrong way!”

            “I have done what I came to do,” the beast replied, “I have seen her and  have honored my lost family.  That is all.”

            “Don’t tell me that after finally finding her, you’re just going to go, just like that!” Edward cried, “You’re really very insane, you know?” Stray stopped and stared at the smaller man.

            “What would you have me do?” He asked bluntly, “I have seen her.  I profane her with my presence by remaining any longer.  If I am worthy of being near her, she will seek me out on her own some day.  I would not advise you to hold your breath while you wait, however.”

            “But..but…I don’t understand…then why’d you come here at all?” Edward stuttered.

            “You may yet understand, in time, boy.  Now come, we have much to do, and a long journey ahead of us.”

            “Wha-what?”

            “Don’t tell me that you intended to remain a waiter in the swamps forever.  I thought you had more spirit in you than that,” Stray replied cheekily.  Without looking back, he continued to walk.  Edward stared at the back of his head for a moment.

            No, I guess not, he thought.  He spared one last glance behind him before catching up with his new companion.

            The woman that was once named Rosetta watched the figures retreat, before finally going back into the safe confines of the house, and closing the door.