A- The Shadow

THE SHADOW "He stole into the city in the dead of night, his long black
velvet cloak fastened around his shoulders. They call him the Shadow
and like a shadow he ran, slipping unseen through the streets. Try as
they may, the Gaggers couldn't catch him, it was like trying to catch
smoke." The young children listened wide-eyed to Nana's tales of the
Shadow, the great hero of the West realm. Saul Murdock chuckled to
himself. He wondered what the children would have thought if they had
known the Shadow was in that very same room, just a few feet away. Saul
Murdock was a cheerful fellow. He was young and cheerful, his mop of
black hair falling over his coal black eyes, set deep in his dark brown
skin. He was average height and stocky but definitely not fat. His head
was too big for his body and his hands, too big for his arms. His
fingers were perfect though. He was a skilled carpenter but the only
thing was, he had a finger missing, third in on his left hand. His
laugh though, that was what really charmed people and made them pay
attention. As Nana had once said, "That lad's laugh is the tolling of
the St. Himall's bell." Saul had been born on the very same day that
the Gaggers had smashed the bell in the St. Himall's tower and never
more did it's deep, melodic tones tolling gently round the city. The
radio was on and there was a story of a group of young Gaggers who had
burst into a Tine school and killed a schooly and five children she was
teaching. Saul's brow furrowed and he touched his hand to his forehead
to feel the scar a Gagger had given him when his mother had been
killed. This was why he did it, this was why the Shadow had to rescue
the Tine's from the Gaggers. It was a long running feud but it wouldn't
end, not till the bell of St. Himall's chimed again. Saul was still
deep in thought when his little niece Emara, jumped up onto his lap and
snuggled into the warm folds of his long black velvet cloak.