Tournament - The Headless Horseman vs. The Leprechaun

[Boratz]

Sleepy Hollow

 

1790

 From afar, Katrina Tassel's beauty could make the most stoic men tremble. She was kind to all, and never met a stranger. When she became of age to be married, it was all but certain that her hand would go to Abraham Van Brunt. Abraham was strong and brave, but with his strength came great arrogance. There was another who competed for the hand of Katrina. A lean and lanky man who was a schoolmaster to most of the town's youth. This superstitious man was Ichabod Crane. While Van Brunt was confident and arrogant, Crane was more preserved and humbler. He was deeply infatuated with Katrina, and desired to be her husband. There was a sense of pessimism within the schoolmaster of Ichabod Crane. He envied the strength and courage that Van Brunt had possessed and felt that he would never be good enough for the beautiful Katrina. 

 In the small village of Sleepy Hollow, a festival was being prepared. As the village gathered; Van Brunt took this opportunity to impress the elegant Katrina, but she quickly dismissed his advances. Ichabod quickly went to Katrina and conversed with her. The two walked through the center of the village where the festival was going to take place. They saw the children run by in laughter. Katrina let out a laugh or two, as Ichabod was able to muster a few jokes. Knowing the festival of Saint Patrick was fast approaching, Ichabod wanted to ask Katrina if she would attend the festivities with him. Before he could spit the words out of his mouth, he heard the cries of a woman as she ran through the village. With cries and moans, the woman wept as she fell down before the rest of the town's people.

 She was surrounded by many as tears strolled down her face. The crying woman screamed that she found her husband's headless corpse on the Hollow Trail. After the rest of the town's people discovered the remains, they did the best they could to comfort the widow. Through what words she could find, she spoke of a woman that stood in the woods outside of their home in the nights prior to the horrific discovery. A pale woman with long stringy hair that wore a gray cloak. This woman unleashed an eerie shriek that was almost deafening to both the widow and her late husband. She said that when her husband would go outside to confront this woman, she would disappear. The late husband would speak of a figure in the distance that road a horse and claimed that it was as if the figure was missing their head.

 As the weeping widow continued to recount the events, she said that her late husband was growing delusional. He would not eat, and he trembled in fear. She said that he would say how he saw manifestations of himself out in the woods. The night before she discovered his remains, the shrieking woman returned and stood within the forest. With what courage the late husband had left, he went into the woods to confront the pale woman. The widow then cried that he never returned. At dawn, she went to search for him, only to discover his remains that were left on the Hollow Trail. 

 Ichabod heard what the widow had said and knew he had heard something similar to this before from his readings. The wives of Sleepy Hollow were able to calm the widow. She stayed with one of her closest friends. Despite the tragedy, the festival was going to continue as planned. While many were shaken by the recent tragedy, the elders felt as if it would be appropriate to lift the spirits of the town. 

 As night had come, the festivities had begun. Ichabod was going to accompany Katrina to the festival and went to meet her at her house. As he knocked on the door, she opened it and asked if he would wait inside as she finished getting ready. Katrina's parents had already departed for the festival. It was Katrina and Ichabod at the residence alone. As Katrina had finished getting ready, she stood before the schoolmaster. Ichabod was in disbelief as he could have sworn Katrina was an Angel from above. There was a silence in the room as candlelight filled the room. The silence quickly faded as a sickening screech pierced through the air. 

 Ichabod and Katrina gazed out the window. In the trees, they could see a wailing pale woman. Her cries were almost deafening as the two watched in horror. In an instant, the woman disappeared into the night as they saw a figure riding upon a dark horse. The Horseman disappeared into the darkness as Katrina fell to her knees. Tears rolled down her face as she remembered the story that the widow had told earlier that day. Ichabod tried his best to calm her down, but fear had overcome Katrina.

 Katrina decided that she would not attend the first night of this St. Patrick Festival, and she went into her bed. Ichabod struggled with the thought that he heard of these entities before. He rode his trusted horse, Gunpowder to the library. He stomped through the door and swiftly glanced through the many books of this library. As he searched, he found a set of books that was donated by the O'Grady estate. Lord O'Grady was a wealthy immigrant from Ireland and settled outside of Sleepy Hollow. Before his untimely death in recent months, there were rumors that he had a vast fortune hidden somewhere on his land. 

 Flipping through the pages, the schoolmaster saw descriptions and images that almost took his very breath from him. One of the legends that the book spoke of was that of the banshee, a herald of death. Her weeping cries signaled the death of a loved one or a family member. Ichabod slouched back into his chair as he realized that death was coming for the woman that he wished to marry. As the candlelight enveloped the pages, he saw another legend that was just as terrifying as the banshee. The legend of the dullahan. A headless rider in black that was also said to be a herald of death. This rider claimed the lives of those targeted for death. As Ichabod read about the dullahan, there were passages that spoke of a trade that could be made with the headless herald of death. The passages said that you could give the dullahan gold to spare the life of those that it targeted. 

 Ichabod rubbed his eyes and stood up over the table. He was but a schoolmaster and did not possess much in the way of fortune. If the rumors were true of Lord O'Grady, Ichabod would have to travel to his abandoned estate. He would have to find the rumored fortune that Lord O'Grady possessed, and trade it with the dullahan to save the life of Katrina. The school master made his way outside and was preparing to make his way to his steed. Before he reached his horse, he was confronted by Van Brunt.

 “You think Katrina would marry a weak man such as yourself! I was a soldier and I am a hero in this town! I am better than you could ever be!” Van Brunt said drunkenly as he pushed Ichabod onto the ground.

 “I am not going to fight, but I am going to save Katrina on this night. I will prove to you and to all that the pen is truly mightier than the sword!” Ichabod yelled as he got up to his feet.

 Van Brunt tried to attack Ichabod, but Ichabod managed to trip the stocky man onto the ground. Ichabod could smell the rum in Van Brunt’s breath. As Van Brunt, tried to push himself to his feet, Ichabod took this opportunity to get on the back of Gunpowder and started to make his journey to the O'Grady Estate. As he raced through the Hollow, he saw something deep within the trees. With the dim moon light, he believed that it must be his mind playing tricks on him. He almost thought he saw himself in the woods before it quickly faded into the night.

Ichabod made his way to the O'Grady Estate and he could feel that this place was engulfed in evil. The home was abandoned since the passing of Lord O'Grady. Dust had all but covered the empty rooms. As Ichabod sauntered through the hallways, he felt as if he was being led to a cellar. Ichabod slowly went down into the cellar and saw a chest before him. He held his lantern before the chest and found a way to pry it open. Inside he saw what appeared to be a pot of gold. A sense of relief overcame the schoolmaster as he rubbed his hand across the gold coins. He saw what appeared to be a journal and Ichabod quickly opened the paged. He read through the writings and made his way to the last entry.

"Something has followed me here... I was able to trap the beast but alas, I do not know how long I can keep the monster contained. The beast torments me with his chants, and I fear I will never find a way to put an end to this evil. I know my end is soon as I have heard the cries of the banshee and have seen the fetch in the early mornings. I know my end is soon. In death, my hopes are to be reunited with my dear Victoria. How sorry I am that I brought this pain upon you, my dear Victoria... My deepest regret was taking this cursed gold as only evil has followed me to this country." - O'Grady

 Ichabod gazed down at the gold and then back at the journal. He heard what appeared to be a voice coming from a doorway in the corner of the cellar. Ichabod crept toward the door and the voice begged for him to remove the lock. Unaware of what was trapped on the other side of the door, Ichabod pried the door open and fell back on the ground at the sight before him. A small hideous creature in a green suit stood before the schoolmaster. 

"Bout time someone freed me from that cage! Now give me my gold, or ye will die!" The Leprechaun said with a sickening grin.

 "What... What are you?" Ichabod asked as he tried crawling away from the creature.

"I am a Leprechaun, wouldn't you know! And I am finally free, so ye better give me my gold before I kill ye!" The Leprechaun chuckled.

 Ichabod quickly glanced at the pot of gold and then back at the creature. In a quick moment, he threw the lantern at the creature and watched as it was engulfed in flames. The schoolmaster quickly rose to his feet and ran off with the pot of gold in his arms. He knew he had to escape, and he knew he had to save Katrina. He could hear the fowl beast from behind him.

"Ye will not escape me! I will get back me gold and rip ye apart limb by limb!" The Leprechaun roared as the flames spread throughout the abandoned home.

 Ichabod road through the Hollow as he knew it was only a matter of time. Death was imminent for the woman that he had fallen in love with, and he had to save her. As he road, something had caught his eye once again in the forest. He brought Gunpowder to a steady walk as he glared at the figure in the trees. For moment, he was in disbelief as he thought he was seeing a spirit of himself within the woods. The doppelganger of himself stood before a tree in the Hollow, and quickly disappeared once again into the night. Ichabod saw the tree in the moon light. It was a rotting tulip tree that appeared to open up at its base.

 Before the rotting tulip tree that was scared with the lightning marks. The trembling Ichabod slipped off of Gunpowder. With whistling air from all around, Ichabod slowly reached for the pot of gold. His hands shook as he heard rustling in the background. As he staggered back with the pot of gold in his hands, he felt a presence behind him. Glancing back over his shoulder, Ichabod saw the infamous legend sitting upon his horse. The dreadful horse of the Horseman glared at the frightful Ichabod as the schoolmaster's mouth dropped. In desperation, Ichabod slowly raised the pot of gold up to the Horseman and begged that he spare Katrina. For a moment, the whistling sound had stopped and there was only silence. 

 "AHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE!" An eerie screech tore through the night. Ichabod recognized the whaling cries of the banshee. In that moment, he realized that the banshee was not heralding the impending death of Katrina. He gasped as the Horseman lifted his axe above its headless body. Ichabod fell back upon the ground beneath him and realized that this was not a dullahan that the book spoke of. This must have been the spirit of something else entirely. Ichabod threw the pot of gold away from him and the coins scattered across the ground. He tried to crawl away from the Hessian entity, but he heard a shrill voice behind him. Ichabod rolled around and pushed himself off the ground. Behind him was the short nefarious creature that he had encountered earlier. 

"Thought ye could escape with me gold! I told ye that ye would not escape me! Now I will kill ye and take back me gold!" The Leprechaun yelled as a giggled at the terrified schoolmaster.

 The small creature glared at Ichabod and then quickly turned his attention to the Headless Horseman. Laughing hysterically, the Leprechaun pointed at the Hessian spirit. "Ye will not get in my way! Get away from me gold and get away from what is mine!" 

 The Headless Horseman turned his attention to the nefarious creature. For a brief moment, Ichabod froze as the two entities engaged in a battle. As the fear lingered within him, he finally mustered the courage to run away. Leaving the Headless Horseman and the Leprechaun to battle one another...

[Callisto]

Learn More About
The Headless Horseman
Read more about The Headless Horseman at Wikipedia
Official Site: Paramount Pictures Links: Wikipedia Entry IMDB Profile HAUNTEDHOUSES.COM

The Leprechaun
Read more about The Leprechaun at Wikipedia
Official Site: Lion Gates Films Links: Leprechaun Wikipedia page Leprechaun imdb page Leprechaun Rotten Tomatoes

[Boratz]

Hope you enjoy

Im not damiliar with Irish mythology or culture so I did ny best with what research I did 

I thought this would be a fun story so I went with it

[Pizzaguy2995]

An amazingly well written battle Boratz. This right here is why your one of my favorite guys on this site. Perfect 5 out 5 score.

To figure out who wins this mythological matchup we’ll have to really examine what makes these horror legends tick. The main advantage the Headless Horseman has going into this is that he has no notable weaknesses. He is an undead entity who by all accounts shouldn’t exist yet does. Their is not much anybody could really do to stop him as not even death itself could stop him from rising again. On the other hand the Leprechaun, while a very powerful being, is still just a mortal creature of flesh and blood. He might be hard to kill, but he has been killed several times in several different ways throughout his film series. So what happens when you pit an entity that literally can’t be killed verses a being that is just very hard to kill? It might be a long, drawn out fight, but death will eventually claim the one who can actually die.

Beware, beware, the Headless Horseman!

[Fox]

Wonderful job on this tournament entry.  A very engaging tale that leverages the familiar Sleepy Hollow story with a new twist.  Fantastical, and yet creepy.  Packed with an exploration of the mythology, yet still manages to work in a romance angle.  I'd say this entry is hitting on all cylinders.

Thanks for the read!

 

 

[Boratz]

14 hours ago, Pizzaguy2995 said:

An amazingly well written battle Boratz. This right here is why your one of my favorite guys on this site. Perfect 5 out 5 score.

To figure out who wins this mythological matchup we’ll have to really examine what makes these horror legends tick. The main advantage the Headless Horseman has going into this is that he has no notable weaknesses. He is an undead entity who by all accounts shouldn’t exist yet does. Their is not much anybody could really do to stop him as not even death itself could stop him from rising again. On the other hand the Leprechaun, while a very powerful being, is still just a mortal creature of flesh and blood. He might be hard to kill, but he has been killed several times in several different ways throughout his film series. So what happens when you pit an entity that literally can’t be killed verses a being that is just very hard to kill? It might be a long, drawn out fight, but death will eventually claim the one who can actually die.

Beware, beware, the Headless Horseman!

Thanks Pizzaguy! That means a lot and I am really glad that you enjoyed it!

[DSkillz]

Heh, just before this match popped up, I was going to suggest that someone use Lubdan for a tourney match.

Another great entry, Boratz! For someone who's not familiar with these legends, you sure did meld them together very well. A few problems with grammar and sentence structure keep me from quite giving this 5.0, though. 

As for the match, neither Lubdan nor the Horseman can kill each other through their usual means, and I doubt either will really try to figure out the other's weakness (if the Horseman even has one, that is).  This could go on for some time until one or both entities lose interest or an outside party figures out the Leprechaun's weakness and uses it against him.

Given the fact that the Leprechaun has more obvious and exploitable weaknesses, I'm inclined to think an outside influence may eventually (and likely, inadvertently) help the Horseman win this one.

[Boratz]

11 hours ago, DSkillz said:

Heh, just before this match popped up, I was going to suggest that someone use Lubdan for a tourney match.

Another great entry, Boratz! For someone who's not familiar with these legends, you sure did meld them together very well. A few problems with grammar and sentence structure keep me from quite giving this 5.0, though. 

As for the match, neither Lubdan nor the Horseman can kill each other through their usual means, and I doubt either will really try to figure out the other's weakness (if the Horseman even has one, that is).  This could go on for some time until one or both entities lose interest or an outside party figures out the Leprechaun's weakness and uses it against him.

Given the fact that the Leprechaun has more obvious and exploitable weaknesses, I'm inclined to think an outside influence may eventually (and likely, inadvertently) help the Horseman win this one.

Thanks, Dskillz

I did have issues melding them together. I did look into Irish mythology and got directed to Celtic mythology. There's a lot of stuff and I did tweak a couple things for a story purpose. This was definitely a difficult tournament. 

[Fox]

48 minutes ago, Boratz said:

 This was definitely a difficult tournament. 

The tournament seems pretty straightforward to me.  It states:

The match set-up must be a flash-fiction story which includes Irish folklore, history and/or myth in some fashion.

That's fairly open.  Example:

Daredevil is Irish. Bulls-Eye is Irish.  They hate each other.  A creative person could do something with that, working in some Ireland details.

I personally could come up with all kind of matches to run here.

[Boratz]

22 minutes ago, Fox said:

The tournament seems pretty straightforward to me.  It states:

The match set-up must be a flash-fiction story which includes Irish folklore, history and/or myth in some fashion.

That's fairly open.  Example:

Daredevil is Irish. Bulls-Eye is Irish.  They hate each other.  A creative person could do something with that, working in some Ireland details.

I personally could come up with all kind of matches to run here.

I guess I never thought about it from that perspective. I was considering Banshee from Marvel at one point but I probably overthink things more than I should.

[DSkillz]

7 hours ago, Fox said:

Daredevil is Irish. Bulls-Eye is Irish.  They hate each other.  A creative person could do something with that, working in some Ireland details.

I personally could come up with all kind of matches to run here.

Huh. Well, if we're using Irish heritage in that vein, then I believe Black Canary is Irish, too.

[Boratz]

2 hours ago, DSkillz said:

Huh. Well, if we're using Irish heritage in that vein, that I believe Black Canary is Irish, too.

I could look this up but just being lazy. Wasn't Juggernaut Irish? I know his pal Black Tom Cassidy was

[JohnnyChany]

A fantastic read and tournament entry, Boratz. I was leaning toward the Headless Horseman mainly because I just prefer him as a character. After having read Pizzaguy's analysis, I feel even better about that pick.

[Culwych1]

Great entry! And ultimately agree with Pizzaguy's analysis as well - although that leprechaun is a crafty little $%*&. 

[Boratz]

13 hours ago, JohnnyChany said:

A fantastic read and tournament entry, Boratz. I was leaning toward the Headless Horseman mainly because I just prefer him as a character. After having read Pizzaguy's analysis, I feel even better about that pick.

Thanks Johnny!

[Boratz]

1 hour ago, Culwych1 said:

Great entry! And ultimately agree with Pizzaguy's analysis as well - although that leprechaun is a crafty little $%*&. 

Thanks Culwych!

[Mercenaryblade]

Nice use of the celtic myths such as the banshee and fetch. Love that the horseman got confused for the Doolahan. Nice touch there!

[Boratz]

36 minutes ago, Mercenaryblade said:

Nice use of the celtic myths such as the banshee and fetch. Love that the horseman got confused for the Doolahan. Nice touch there!

Thanks Merc,

In my research of some of these characters and myths, I saw somewhere that Horseman was inspired by the dullahan but not actually a dullahan himself. So I thought that'd be fun twist in there 

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
5.00 - Pizzaguy2995
4.80 - Fox
4.00 - Mercenaryblade
4.80 - DSkillz
5.00 - patrickthekid

FPA Calculation:
5 Total Votes cast
23.60 Total Combined Score
23.60 / 5 = 4.72 Final Rating on the match

MATCH SCORE
The Headless Horseman: 6
The Leprechaun: 3

[Fox]

Removing @Pizzaguy2995 score. Per the rules, you can't rate your competition.

Member Ratings:
4.80 - Fox
4.00 - Mercenaryblade
4.80 - DSkillz
5.00 - patrickthekid

FPA Calculation:
4 Total Votes cast
18.60 Total Combined Score
18.60 / 4 = 4.65 Final Rating on the match