Every star in the night sky shone, every animal asleep besides the creatures of the hunt. Yet amongst every critter and beast was an apex of murderer who stood amongst them. Unafraid and determined, it waited for the perfect opportunity to swoop down and feast on the blood of its prey. Perched on a tree overlooking a field where cattle slept, was a monster born from the energies of the Cascade.
Its skin was a dark brown, and its fur was a pattern of greys and blacks. Its ears were large and bat-like, allowing it to hear the heartbeat of any animal from great distances. The eyes on the side of its head were that of a common housefly, providing it with perfect 360 vision. It had four metallic fangs that moved independently from one another with a long thin tongue that freely moved around in front of it. Yet what was striking about the creature was its winged arms that were leathery to the touch with a wingspan of 6 metres. The perfect hunter, one that could’ve controlled sky and land if there were no competition.
Yet while it sat alone, the creature struggled to understand its conception. It knew it came into the world with skills on how to move, fly, and feed itself. As well as having the knowledge about the world it was suddenly taken to, and what the creature was made for. It couldn’t understand why, but it knew what its purpose was, how it was birthed into a world that desired that it became a hunter that would feast on the blood of its destined prey. It also knew that they are the only one of its species and that it would be the progenitor of a new monstrous species.
But to grow and to become the creature it was destined to be, it would have to harm humans. That it couldn’t understand why it had to do that, why it would have to ensure that humanity would need to suffer just for it to become powerful. There was no point, no rhyme or reason; it was ingrained into its very soul that humananity must suffer and die. Even if humanity was far more than it initially thought. So, it chose to go against its instincts and chose to leave humanity alone. While it needed blood to survive, it decided that the blood of livestock would surface. It could tell that the blood of anything that wasn’t human tasted awful to the palate, but it couldn’t care less. To it, it believed it was the better option that would ensure its survival and perhaps try to understand the world it inherited.
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Near the bank of the Loire River were a young couple resting on the trunk of their four-wheel drive 300 metres from the creature. Besides observing its prey that grazed the fields. It would watch and listen to the young couple cuddling together. Their idle chatter, their oversharing and seeing what the future could hold for them made the heart of the creature flutter. At that moment, it wanted to be with them. To live amongst humanity to further understand a species that was totally alien to them.
It hopped from tree to tree, getting closer and closer to the humans until it stopped near them. The tree shook as it landed which startled the young couple. ‘What on earth is that!?’ A young man said as he jumped off his four-wheel-drive and looked around in a panic. Seeing this, the creature wanted to soothe their worries and announce their presence by making a light chirping noise.
The young man reached for his phone, turned on the flashlight and shined it directly at the creature. The young man froze in horror, his eyes widened in shock as he looked directly at the horrendous creature. ‘What’s wrong?’ His partner said before she too was frozen in terror at the sight of the monster looking down at them. She pulled out her phone and began recording their encounter with the monster.
Sensing their fear, the creature waved at them with a calm gesture. However, its act of friendliness was not interpreted as such. Frightened, the man screamed as he fell on his bum at the slightest movement of the monster and ran to the driver seat with his partner making her way to the passenger side, not before slipping off the trunk and falling face-first into the muddy ground.
As the car sped away, the creature felt horrible and confused as to why the humans were terrified of them. It wondered why they were afraid and came to the conclusion that it was because of its unusual appearance. From that day forward the creature vowed to try to build a connection with humanity by constantly revealing itself to them and showing that it was not a threat to them. But before the creature would spend time finding the fleeing humans, it needed to eat.