Disclaimer: I don't own Inkheart.
Summary: In the chapter 'Capricorns Maid' it states that the short guard found Dustfinger in a small town ion the north and dragged him back to Capricorn. This is my version of that event.
The Entertainer
"... Dustfinger was much more concerned about the guards outside Capricorn's house. Two of them were lounging by the entrance. It as one of these, a small, sturdy man, who'd found Dustfinger four years ago ..." Inkheart pg332
Years later, she would, like many others, remember how the man, with his odd little pet marten, had blown into town. Looking like a stray cat that had been in too many fights, and acting just as jumpy, he struck an odd image walking by the school. She could remember the distrust they'd shown him, how they'd pulled their children away from him and glared. That was until he'd performed.
It had been like a dream when the ragged street entertainer had first lit up the sky and turned day to night for a few brief minutes. The children of the town soon forgot their mothers warnings and crowded around him in awe. The adults, for that matter, had been blown away as well. Amazed by the apparent ease this man flirted with death.
Soon enough, the entertainer had wormed his way into the towns affections. It wasn't odd to see him outside the corner shop, juggling for the few pennies they could spare, his concentration never lapsing no matter how much he made. He became more than just an entertainer, he became their entertainer. Many of them offered him a place at their table for meals. She remembered how he'd sat in her scrubbed kitchen more than once, always shy and always glancing around like he expected the devil himself to spring from the corner.
It had never occurred to any of them that this was hunted man. A throwback to the middle ages maybe, but not hunted. So when, on that dark evening, the men in black suits had shown up in the crowd, no one had paid them any mind. Until, for the first time, the entertainers concentration slipped. The bottle he'd been holding dropped from his fingers and shattered.
One of the men, a rather short fellow, clapped slowly, seemingly enjoying the look of dark terror on the entertainers face.
"You're a hard man to track when you want to be," he smiled as his companion walked over and grasped the entertainer's arm. "Had us chasing all across this damn world. It's not nice to stand somebody up, and Capricorn is awful hurt."
The entertainer flinched, and tried to gather up his bags despite the taller man's grip on his arm. Several members of the crowd moved forward, gathering up his things for him, and slipping them haphazardly into his bags. Mothers held their children, and her own grandchild clutched her leg in terror. The entertainer nodded gratefully, accepting his bags as they were handed to him, his pet marten attempting to claw the do goooder through the leather of the backpack. The two men hauled him away before anyone could think of anything else to do.
It wasn't long after that that the entertainer became a fireside story. He became many things - a magician and an escaped convict amoung other things. Nobody doubted that he'd been a bad man hiding in their town from either the police, or aliens, depending on the story. Nobody seemed to want to remember his show, how he'd lit up the nights, how he'd made them all laugh. How he'd given them something to look forward to on the dark cold evenings.
Sometimes even she forgot that about him. Sometimes she was convinced, like many others, that the entertainer had been the villain of the tale. Until she remembered the look of terror on his scarred face, the way he'd jumped at shadows, and realised that no true villain was ever that afraid of the good guys.
xXx
It's probably crap ... but can you R&R anyway? It's my first fic.
