The Nature Of The Beast
There's an old saying which suggests that walking into a wood at night and emerging intact will change you.
John, still coming to terms with the recent changes
to his spiritual being, decides to put this theory to the test and goes for a nightly romp in some nearby
woodlands.
Constantine stumbles across an old shepherd, who offers John a drink and the chance to have his fortune
read (for a tenner). A skeptical John turns him down, so the shepherd changes the price - this time
betting John that an old friend of his will turn up before the end of his fortune telling. If he doesn't,
then John can keep his money and have his fortune told for free.
John relents and agrees to the shepherds deal. First the shepherd speaks of John's past. John's tale is
told through the life of a fox and essentially shows how John's unwillingness to treat others as equals
has cost him in the past, especially during his various confrontations with The First Of The Fallen.
The telling of John's present shows that he is being faced with the choice of two paths - that of the
mystical or the more mundane. Constantine realises that the shepherd really is working
magic and as he debates as to whether or not to turn the last card, the tale of his future, a badger
wanders into the clearing in which he sits with the shepherd. The shepherd claims that this badger
'knows' John, having seen him just after the disaster at Newcastle.
John pays up but leaves without learning of his future.
As John leaves, we learn that he is destined to walk the path he once traveled before and that hard
times await him. The shepherd himself fades away, proving that he possesses godly powers...
Timeline
1998 : John encounters a strange fortune teller during a late jaunt in the woods.
Dates taken from Vertigo Secret Files : Hellblazer, written by Michael Bonner. Text by me.
|
|
|
Constantine crosses the path of a fortune teller.
|
|
|
A Higher Power ?
|
|
