The Indebted Mr. Tibbleton (1)
On top of being denounced, spurned, and exiled. He had been beaten, hung, and left for dead. His horns cracked against the stones along the riverbed as his body flipped end over end in the under current. What little air he had snatched expelled through his nose. The rope dug into his wrists as the noose trailed behind him like a waterlogged kite tail. Disorientated, drowning, and desperate.