The Taringol

A Children’s Tale 

from Springles and Fellborn 

Once upon a time a long time ago there lived a mean old man. No one knew why he was so mean. Maybe he had lived a hard life. Maybe that’s just how he was born. But no one could remember a time when he was different. Ask anyone in the village and they all agreed that the old man was a hateful and cranky old sod that you should avoid at all costs. He never joined in any of the village celebrations. He yelled at children who played near his house. He cursed the preacher and all of the gods. He had no friends, no family, no pets, and no neighbors. The cranky old man lived all by himself on the very edge of the village and only came into town to buy goods and verbally abuse anyone who tried to talk to him. As such, everyone avoided him.

One day, the old man was sitting on his front porch grumbling to himself about the weather and his old bones when he noticed an odd stranger standing in his yard. This was strange.  No one approached the old man if they knew any better. The stranger wore a long brown cloak and a straw hat that obscured his face. The old man shouted for the stranger to go away and get off his property but the stranger didn’t move or respond in any way. 

After a while, the old man got tired of yelling and figured maybe the stranger didn’t understand his language or maybe he was deaf. The old man decided he would have to be a bit more forceful. He got his crossbow and pointed it at the stranger and threatened to shoot but still the stranger didn’t move. Really angry now, the old man shot the stranger and would have hit him right in the chest. But instead of falling over or crying out, the stranger just vanished. This scared the old man and he retreated into his house and locked all of his doors and windows.

Eventually, it got dark and the old man went to sleep. The next day the old man peeked out of his house but there was no sign of the stranger. The old man was still afraid and he decided it was a good time to go into town and buy supplies. As he walked down the road, he looked back and there was the stranger standing on the road in the distance watching him. The old man began to run but every time he looked back there was the stranger silently watching.

The old man ran all of the way into town and went straight to the general goods store. He told the storekeeper what had happened and that he was being followed. The storekeeper looked outside the road but he didn’t see anyone. When the old man looked, there was the stranger. No one else in the town could see the stranger, just the old man. The townsfolk thought the cranky old man had finally lost his mind. He thought they were playing a cruel joke on him. But because the old man was so mean, eventually the townsfolk told him to go away.

By then, night had fallen and the old man had to walk home by himself. No one knows exactly what happened that night but a few people remember waking to the sound of a distant scream. When morning came, a few brave souls decided to go and check on the cranky old man. They got to his house and they found a skeleton sitting on the old man’s porch with a straw hat on its head. There was no sign of the cranky old man and no one ever saw him again.