How the beast of Kaunas fights adversity

When I first came to Lithuania, I knew it would be different from anything I had seen before. I’ve travelled a lot at this point and yet, arriving in Kaunas surprised me. As I walked through the streets of the old town I noticed my a warm and unknown feeling in my heart. I wasn’t sure what to do with this feeling, but I had heard stories about people describing it as something called „Home“, whatever that meant.

Now let me tell you that I do consider myself a rather smart kind of creature, I have read many books in the various lives I’ve lived and I do know quite a bit about various places of the globe, however, little did I know how much this little thing inside me would change, how getting to know Kaunas would change me. Or how I would change Kaunas.

Over the years I’ve had many years, some called me Baldorin others Baldur, some praised me as a dragon, or holy creature. But here, they would call me „Beast“, and they seemed suspicious about my dark shadow.
I’ve always tried to stay hidden, it is hard for human eyes, to see my whole size and form. I shape and shift from time to time. I hide in the corners and holes. Maybe that is how the rumours grew and people started telling tales.

Yet, they never knew who was really hiding in the cracks of old towns buildings, nor what I was doing there.

Now you may ask yourself „Hiding in the dark? Isn’t that what the villains do?“
In the darkness, they say, you find the robbers and rogue. And with them, often, the broken hearted, the ones left alone.
Yes. Right there in the darkness, that’s where I’d meet them. Walking in a small alley, the loners go their ways and try not to mind anybody’s business. I can smell the sorrow miles away, and I hear it come closer.

When I meet them for the first time, the shadows under their eyes tell their whole story. Some of them lost trust, others faith, but everyone lost something – that I know for sure.
Their shadows would be visible to each and every eye, but humans tend to ignore, what may cause trouble, or avoid what they don’t fully understand. They don’t like the shadows, that they carry as their burden.

Me, on the other side. I can see their truth. In every single one of them. I see the pain, like clear water drops and the tears that flood them inside out. But I see more than that. I see the soul and I see their inner child. 

It’s them, who see me. It seems like children are the ones who still believe in magic and fairy tales, in creatures like me, and when there is hope left, I appear. A spark hits their heart, as their inner child sees me. Slowly they start to believe again. And when they do,
That’s when my work is done, and I go back to hiding in my shadows. The shadows of another world.

I find them, and very rarely they also find me, because no one is meant to be broken. Beast, ironically, seems to have become my task. B-e-a-s-t. Because at the end of the day I am the one who befriends evil, anger, sorrow, tales.

Author: Maike