Warren wouldn’t let it go though, and before the evening was over he sat in one of the great chairs with the thick, leather-bound book on his lap flipping through the pages.
“Look here Dad,” he said holding the book open and showing a picture to Alex,
“This looks like the rabbit I saw with horns. Says here it’s a Jackalope, doesn’t like people much, a bit mean. Sounds right, it did jump at me.”
Alex looked and shook his head, “You’re just imagining things mate. If these things in your grandad’s book were real don’t you think there’d be proof in the world? Real proof, not just the ramblings of an old man in an old book?”
Warren went quiet, flipping through the pages of the book some more. Alex could see he hurt his son’s feelings with his short reply, so he tried to apologize.
“Look, I’m sorry...”
Warren cut him off, “No, you’re right Dad, it’s fake. It’s a good job too though, look at this one.”
Alex took the book and sat on the arm of Warren’s chair, gazing down at a picture of a large creature. It was covered in moss, and had what looked like branches sticking out of its body seemingly at random. The blazing, yellow eyes seemed to stare right through Alex, and his stomach grew tight as he read through the text.
The Wendigo:
I have only encountered this Fae once in all my time studying the criptoids of this forest, for this I am grateful. Large and powerful, with an all-encompassing need to feed on raw flesh of living things. I saw it burst from the trees and chase down a deer as easily as though the poor creature was standing still, lifting it from the ground and ripping it clean in half before gorging on the flesh that once held so much life.
Alex coughed deeply, his throat tightening slightly, “Fucking Hell,” he whispered.
Warren looked shocked, and couldn’t help smiling up at his dad.
“Don’t tell your mum I swore.” Alex ruffled Warren’s hair and handed the book back, “Pictures are good though, I’ll give you that.”
As the sun set the bird song they had heard drifting in through the open windows faded away. It was replaced by a chill in the air and the hum of insects, along with an odd, high-pitched shriek that broke through the other sounds on occasion. It made Alex’s spine tingle. As he went around shutting the windows to keep out the chill evening air he joked that, whatever that bird was, it had probably kicked out of the dawn chorus for its bad vocals.
Once finished with the windows he got a fire burning in the old fireplace, then he made his way to the fridge for a beer. He paused at the cupboard with his hand on the glass. The day had been perfect, and Warren had hardly looked at his phone all day. The trip had been a success so far. Taking down an extra glass he filled it a quarter of the way with beer and topped it up with lemonade.
“Here you are son, made with real beer. To celebrate a successful day.”
Warren looked amazed at the offering, “Really? Real beer?”
“Just one more thing not to tell your mum, but yeah.”
Smiling, Alex sat down opposite his son and got comfortable in front of the fire, beer in hand. “Now, tell me all about this girl.”
They talked until well after dark. Alex had another beer, but despite Warrens pleas he wouldn’t let him have more. Alex made him stick to just lemonade, with the promise of ‘maybe tomorrow’ floating in the air to soften the blow. They were disturbed from their conversation by a loud bang on the window that shook the glass, making the both of them jump. They stood up and walked to the origin of the sound, peering out with their hands cupped to the glass. Alex shrugged, not seeing anything,
“Maybe a bird flew into it?”
“Yeah, there’s not much else out here. Let’s lock up and go to bed anyway. I’ve got some good plans for tomorrow.”
The night was cold in the cabin, so Alex loaded up the fire and closed the damper to allow it to burn steadily for as long as possible. They huddled under extra blankets and lay down to sleep, but soon they were woken by another loud bang at a window. This time the bang was shortly followed by a crash, then the tinkle of broken glass hitting the floor.
Alex was groggy from the beers, and from being disturbed during R.E.M sleep, but when Warren screamed he was up in a flash. Parental instincts took over, flushing all the grogginess from his system. Bursting through the door to Warren’s room he felt prepared for anything, but what he saw stopped him in his tracks. Alex stood, open mouthed at the sight of his son.
A small being was on Warren’s face, its feet against his chin and hands wrapped around one of his teeth. It was pulling, and as it pulled at the tooth Warren screamed in pain. Alex shook the shock out of his system and dashed over. Grabbing the fairy round the waist he yanked it off his son’s face.
The tooth came with it, blood arcing through the air. Both of Warren’s hands came up to cover his mouth, and he sobbed in pain. The fairy in Alex’s hand made the same high-pitched shriek they had heard before, bashing down onto Alex’s hand with the tooth. The tiny thing stabbed the tooth into the flesh between Alex’s thumb and finger on the hand holding it, so by reflex Alex released his grip. The fairy flew out of the broken window, toting its prize.
“He was right?”
Alex stumbled against the door, and as his legs gave way he sank to the floor. The sound of Warren’s moans brought some strength back to him, and he
