A death in the pueblo

The second story challenge"A death in the pueblo" needs to have at least the following subjects:
- Someone must die or be "presumed dead".
- You must include a lace hanky
- Zorro must use his whip
- You must mention Albondigas Soup
- The Alcalde must be in a jail cell.

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Zorro Productions. This is not intended to infringe upon any rights by Goodman/ Rosen Productions/ New world Television, Zorro Productions, the estate of John McCullay or anyone else. It is just to entertain other fans.

The Don of Selvagens

It is so dark here, can't believe anyone remains sane after all this time being here. Counting the stones, counting the times the sun lights those little squaremeters, counting the times I have been thinking about home, my friends and … everything I have lost.

A lone man, with a dark beard and mustache stared at the wall in front of him, having lost track of the times he had been pondering over this thought and had almost lost counting the hours, the days, the weeks and even the months he had been sitting there. Blues started inspecting the stones again and wondered whether he should start giving each piece of the cold material names at all. Will he stay in the confined room long enough to have given each stone a name and remember them in the end?

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, announcing his dinner, existing from only a piece of dry bread and a cup of water. With some luck, a piece of old meat would be among the ruminations of the "host's" dinner, but mostly that only happened when another prisoner had been executed or died from misery. With a dry thought he dismissed the idea that the meat could have been from that unlucky person.

The man, called Frontierra, who was in charge of this hell, really was an evil man enjoying the sight of mistreatment and was always in for a punishment, the scars on his body were evidence enough to believe it.
The young man had held his head high when he was under interrogation, never letting the humiliation and pain show on his handsome features. The whip had been a true master for the lesson keeping your mouth closed as nobody was going to believe in his innocence. "Obey and your time will pass by quietly, making the best of your ordeal," were the words after the last hit he got.

After that mortal flogging, he thought he surprisingly survived, he kept thinking about the things he had said and never would. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. How could he know that there were groups preparing an attack at the king? He would never attack the king. His father had taught him to respect the king as the owed the king a lot.
Dismissing the memories he hurried over to the door, where he eagerly accepted the food and ate it at high speed as if there

were others who would steal it from him. But no one was there in the same room. When he realized this, he ate at a slower piece and thought with sarcasm, "Why should I hurry, I have plenty of time and there is no one to talk to."

A sound next to him made him jump and spill his water.
"Who the blaze are you!" the young man scolded at an old man who suddenly appeared through the wall.
"Excuse me," the man with a red beard and mustache with about the same length as his beard and mustache sounded friendly, however confused, "I must have miscalculated. This isn't the outside wall."

"No, it obviously isn't," the young man stated as a matter of factly, still trying to comprehend the situation. "But who are you?"
"My name, young man, is Edmond, for you," the man smiled brightly, "for the outside world it would be Sir Edmond Kendall."
The young man's eyebrows rose in recognition of the name. This man would have been his teacher the next semester. He had seen the man before when he crossed the hall's of university, but he wouldn't have recognized him if the man hadn't just told him.

"You seem to have lost your tongue young man. Don't be impressed by titles, whereas they are of no use in prison. Even in real life they are worth nothing. All people of society, who think they are the world, are nothing but hypocrites, manipulative people and beasts hidden behind masks of fake politeness."
"What about the king?" the young man asked shocked at the obvious traitorous insinuation.
"A king is needed to herd the sheep, but even he has his doubtful actions," answered the old man with a long red long curling hair. "I can see you have much to learn, but before I start teaching you, I would like to know your name."

The young man was too shocked to introduce himself, which was rewarded with a large smile. The old man didn't care a bit about the young man's lack of manners.
"It seems I turned your world upside down. Why don't call I you Rafael after the archangel. I promise you my friend, you will get the journey of your life! I am just too excited to have finally have a companion after all the work I had done to get out of here."

Rafael's education started from that moment on. Days turned into weeks, which turned into months before they realized that another year had passed. The young man grew, mentally, physically and even spiritually.
One day the old man asked the question the young man dreaded to be asked and answer in the beginning, "what did you do to upset the king?"

Rafael shrugged his shoulder while he huffed, "I would say I am innocent, but it seems everyone is in here."
"Not really," the master replied, "we are only the king's disgrace. So what did you do?"
"Being at the wrong place at the wrong time, I suppose," Rafael suggested with a dry edge.

"And where was that?"
"I was on my way to the west side of Madrid to find my fiancé, when I accidentally met a riot." The young man narrated slowly.
"I have a feeling I shouldn't ask you why you were going to find her," the older man asked rhetorically.

A humorous laugh that answered the question told Edmond to be silent. With his patience the story surely would be told. Restless, the young man stood up, paced the small room a few times and sloughed against the wall. The only sound heard was the vibration of the air that both men breathed out.

After another many seconds had passed, Rafael faced the master swordsman.
"My father had sent me to Madrid to study, so I would be able to take his place in society at home. I had only been in Madrid for two months, when I met her. We fell in love and wanted to wait to marry when I graduated. Just the heart was stronger than the mind. When I knew her four months I asked her to marry me as soon as possible.

"As we agreed, I made the arrangements with the priest in Colmenar. He was kind, very understanding. He counseled patience. I guess he could see my growing anxiety. And so I waited, thinking only of you, making plans for our future, planning our family.

And so I sat and waited for her, I felt. . . confused. Absentminded I drew figures with a stick in the dirt at his feet. Going over her every word in my mind. I knew that we shared a promise, a devotion. Then I realized she wasn't going to come at all. I was utterly heartbroken."

After a deep sigh to retrieve his composure he explained why he went after her. "Still, I couldn't believe she had let me down, and I figured something must have gone wrong and a friend of mine wasn't able to give her my message about the time the wedding could take place. Maybe her father had second thoughts or maybe she was feeling she wasn't good enough to become my wife. …"

"Why would that be?" Sir Kendall questioned with a hard edge in his voice. He couldn't understand why his pupil would think this way. He had found that the young man had more in him then he had showed and he wanted his pupil to see it for himself too.
"I .. eh… you will probably be angry with me," stammered the tall pupil.

"Try me," Sir Kendall challenged. At the shy and careful glance he got he added, "If I get angry, we'll settle it with another battle."
A spark showed in the blue eyes, the older man had come to know so well.

"Because I am Diego de la Vega, a distant relative of the king." His stance was confident and it looked as if he was ready for the fight to come and eager to win it.
The older man only got more relaxed under the icy challenging stare. Looking at his dirty and broken fingernails he said, "I am glad you finally feel you can trust me."

"You're not angry?" Diego asked confused after all time they had shared with so many conversations and somehow he felt lost because he looked forward to a good battle between the two of them.
"No, I am not," the man replied with an approving smile, "Actually, I can understand why you never mentioned your name. You are a smart man, Diego, never doubt your intelligence and be proud of your heritage. And try to work on your poker face a bit more, because I can really tell you wanted me to become angry for the battle I had promised."

Diego's head bent at the reprimand.
"However, I don't mind having you at sword's end, as you still have to learn many things."
At that Diego practically jumped up to get the swords. After they saluted an interesting battle was started, in which the master was not spared nor was the student. Even in the confined, dark room, which was lightened with only one burning candle, there seemed to be space enough for retreat and attack.

"Is that all you have got?" Sir Kendall taunted, "after all this time, you have nothing new on your sleeve?"

Diego only smiled recognizing the pestering to have him in a moment of blindness, making his defense vulnerable, but he didn't catch the bait. His answer was a double riposte followed by an addition of his own and took the man down with a sweep of his foot. Before Diego was able to have the tip of his sword, a plain piece of wood, at his adversary's throat, the man rolled away with his sword still in his hand. With a quick parade Diego's sword was slammed backward, while the young man was aiming for the master's throat.

It seemed the master was going to win the battle, but with a fast contre-attaque Diego was able to disarm him. Again Diego had a smirk on his face when he was moving his sword toward his adversary to bring him on his knees in surrender. He just wasn't prepared for the knife that was suddenly directed at his face. His mind reacted as quick as he had never experience. His right strong hand with slim fingers took the hand with the knife, followed by his left hand, which took the upper arm that held the dangerous weapon. With an immense force he brought the arm down on his leg, making the knife drop. To make sure the danger was really eliminated, he turned the arm to have it put on the other man's back and pressed him down to the floor. Not so much forgivingly he jumped on the man.

"Alright," Sir Kendall breathed heavily, however smiling content with the student's abilities, "I see the puppy can bite."
Diego had a proud look on his face at the compliment.
"Let's see if you can do that with perception as well."
"What do you mean?"

"We haven't figured out why you have been locked up it," the master reminded his student. Diego really was confused and repeated his statement. "Like I said, I was at the wrong time and the wrong place, making people believe I was one of the riots."
"Wrong," a harsh tone of voice answered his statement. With a softer expression the old man explained, "she could have sent you a message. Wasn't there anything particular about the situation? Maybe it was with the padre who seemed too patient, or a friend who was too much a friend of yours."

Diego took a moment to think about the suggestions.
Suddenly a thought crossed his mind. One of his friends had gone to announce his coming to the priest, because he was too noble and felt obliged to bring his lady and her friends to one of her friend's home, before he went to the church.

"Manguero is befriended with some students who had a scholarship. Some of our exams had been taken and I know there were a few, who were not so good at those subjects."
"Go on," the master swordsman continued while he played with his sword.

"Even one of them had a friend, who had an eye on the woman I asked to become my wife." A flashback of a party popped up the surface.
"Good, go on," Edmond encouraged.
"That guy wasn't as honest as I am in school. He cheated. Everyone knew."
"How was she?"

Diego blinked at the question, knowing the master he didn't ask without reason and answered without hesitation."She was as naive as I was, her father was a merchant, but he wasn't a very honest man either with prejudice against the royalty." Diego's mind was working fast to comprehend the situation. A bad feeling started to grow about Sir Kendall's suggestion that it wasn't all gold that glitters.

"Wouldn't the father want to have you for a son?" Sir Kendall continued interrogating his pupil.
"He had accused me of being too loyal, fair and soft to everyone around me." Speaking out this insult caused old pain to find a way out. Diego hadn't known it had hurt him more than he had let on. Still he tried to suppress it.
Sir Kendall denied all emotions and went on. He somehow had seen the whole situation through, but his pupil had to figure it out for himself. "How about that other student? Would he fit in the vision of the father? Wouldn't he come up with a plan to get you out of the way?"

Suddenly Diego jumped up, angrily kicking against the wall where he found his sword and in a redness of outrage he attacked Sir Kendall. The master was prepared for this and allowed his student to vent his emotions. After a few strikes the master felt the younger man was coming to his sense.
Flabbergasted and curious Sir Kendall asked, "Who is DeSoto?"

-Z-

to be continued

A/N I really hope you like this chapter. There is more to come and I will upload the next chapter as soon as possible.