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Father Finn vs The Dragon
Finn McCool reimagined as a fearless frontiersman faces off against a monster from deep in the mountains
As a boy, I heard from my grandfather that the strongest man who ever roamed the mountains of Kentucky was, in fact, an Irish preacher by the name of Finn McCool. Now Finn wasn’t like your gentile Sunday school teacher; he was a trapper and marksman who could remember every word in the bible by heart.
“Jesus,” said Finn, “is the fish of all knowledge and through Jesus the greatest of things are possible.”
The Lord certainly granted Father Finn great strength since it was said he could fell a tree in one blow of his axe and was known to deal with bears much the same way: with only one blow. However, even the greatest strength could be tested however by the things that lived in the deep forest where even the Cherokee won’t tread.
One story that I heard about Father Finn was that high up on the peak of some particularly dangerous mountain lived what could rightly be called a dragon. That said, a friend told me that he had heard it was a demon come from hell. Whatever the case, it fed on whatever got lost in the woods, men included.
Father Finn had heard from the Cherokee that this monster, whatever exactly it was, could be found…
