After months, its finally done!
Last year, for October, I found a weekly prompt for the month event. One of them was "Troll Toll" and I thought about my own cultural folklore and what could fit into this idea.
That's when the legend of "The Devils' Sentry Box" came to mind. Did I do some mental gymnastics? Perhaps?
Essentially, we have two forts in Puerto Rico, the one we call "El Morro" and the other which is "Castillo San Cristobal."
It is in the later that you will find the Sentry Box, though it is not accessible to people anymore.
Now, if you look at it online and even look for merch and such, you'll actually find that the sentry box in question is not the one that commonly appears. I drew in this illustration the real one, but you'll find some that have a ball at the top, those are the common ones. Not "the" sentry box of the legend.
What makes this one unique isn't just the architecture of it, but also its location. It is not actually part of the castle itself. It's lonesome, and you have to walk down very close to the actual ocean. Here's a picture for you to see because like, I don't think explaining it actually does any justice to how REMOTE this post is by comparison to the rest.
The legend goes that soldiers would be stationed at these boxes and during the night, they would roll call to each other one after the other. But one day, the soldier stationed at this one did not call back.
By morning, the other soldiers went to check and saw the man's rifle and clothes, but no soldier in sight. So, they said what they thought was logical: the devil took him.
After this day, other soldiers said they could hear the soldier's guitar being played, a demonic laugh, or the smell of sulfur. While others simply claim that the energy feels heavy and oppressive, like something malicious is staring at you.
However, the legend doesn't stop there. Because there is another interpretation.
Where the soldier was in a forbidden love with a woman. And one day, that fateful day, she came with civilian clothes for him to change into and they ran away to be together—somewhere far away from disapproval and the responsabilities of a soldier.
With this in mind, I decided to marry the legends together. Where she is the devil luring him deeper into the sentry box. The light denotating that they will transport somewhere they can be together.
You might notice that I added orange trees to the illustration—with oranges on the ground, flowers in her hair and flowers embroidered on the back of his shirt. And you might wonder... where the hell I came up with that.
The soldier's last name is Sánchez, however, according to legend, he was referred to as "Flor de Azahar," or, in English, "Orange Blossom." I thought that was an interesting detail that could add to the visuals.
izzy806
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
titsay
origamiaround
gummygunk
dailybridgerton