February 26th

The past 5 days nothing has happened, so I felt no need to record anything, but today was interesting. That blood that I found in the forest nearly a week ago, which I failed to find a source for, has appeared again, and this time in larger quantities. I have found what appears to be either a hotspot in the beast’s movement, or the location of a significant event. Perhaps it fought with another creature here, or maybe it has a den nearby. I will get Shadow and have her track it.

February 26th

Saying Shadow was angered by the smell of the blood would be an understatement. She was absolutely enraged by it. She was positively dragging me through the forest, following its trail until eventually led us to a large tree in the forest. It was at that point that I noticed, above a branch of the tree, the slow dripping of blood onto the ground. The source appeared to just be a small slash in the sky, like a floating twig or leaf maybe, but then Shadow barked and it moved. A whole area on the branch seemed to shift. It was as if the air there was shifting around it. I removed my crossbow from my back and quickly took aim, before firing at the strange creature. I call it a creature now, but at the time I had no clue what it was.

The arrow flew through the air and embedded itself into nothing, and then that nothing fell to the ground where Shadow latched onto a part of it with her powerful jaws. I got cut several times while tying rope around the monster, and I did not know what was cutting me, so we decided to drag it back towards the lake. The monster thing cut through the ropes several times while we were making that journey, but Shadow’s jaws were clamped around that beast like it was her favorite bone, so we were able to successfully take it to the lake.

We threw sand over the rippling mass and it was then that the shape of the monster was revealed. It had a large blade affixed to what would have been its right forearm, which we then tied down and I attempted to break. We could not break it with the rocks at the lakeshore though, so we moved onto examining the rest of it. I ultimately decided to kill it, as its transparent skin would be a major bane on any attempt to capture it. If it were to get free, we could have no way of knowing, nor of knowing where it went, so it would be best to just kill it now.

After we executed the monster, I returned to the manor to get a saw and we then broke off the blade of the arm. It is not very refined, certainly of a lower quality cutting ability than the weapons and tools that can be created in town, so repurposing it has no value. Instead, I think I will keep the blade as a trophy and put it up on the wall in my bedroom.

I briefly had the thought of taking the beast’s skin to turn into a cloak which could hide me from view, but stripping the smooth scales causes them to turn a dull black, losing their power. I find it rather strange that the scales possess their invisible properties while still connected to the dead body and lose it when disconnected, but I am not a monster biologist.

February 28th

Archibold’s maid came to the manor today weeping. She was inconsolable and it took many minutes before she calmed down enough to ask me to follow her back to his home. Griffin and I, suspecting something was wrong, brought Shadow with us, who has proven herself quite capable through the events of last Sunday.

When we arrived at Archibold’s house, we found him dead on the doorstep. I immediately noticed the cruel, twisted shape of his limbs, the broken door, and the bleeding eyes. His face was covered in marks, as if lightning had arced through his body, starting at his eyes and running down his neck.

The maid described to me how Archibold had opened the door to go for a walk when he began to scream. His screams of horror had turned to pain and then fallen silent. The maid had arrived from the kitchen in time to see him convulsing on the ground, his mouth frothing and his eyes literally burning out of their sockets.

She was traumatized, the poor girl, so I offered to let her stay at my manor while we found the source of his death. She packed up a few items then returned with Griffin to the manor while I stayed with Shadow to investigate Archibold’s death.

I am disgusted. This attack was obviously by a monster. Something much worse than anything I have seen so far. What a horrible way to die.

Looking for tracks had no results, nor was Shadow able to sniff out anything. The only smells in the air were charred flesh and broken wood. I was still looking for something, anything, when Griffin returned and gave me a small nugget of information: she thought she had heard something like a hiss earlier that day, but she could not be sure. After Griffin returned, we covered the body and began searching around the house. That was when we saw a wake of destruction extending along the ground and into the forest. All the plants were withering away or burned, killed or destroyed. We followed the trail of burnt and withered plants when we eventually found a little tortoise laying on its back near the path. Griffin flipped the tortoise over and we saw something very strange. Each section of the tortoise’s shell was something else. One was a patch of water, one was a rock. Most were simply views of the trees. It was like each section was a window to somewhere else. I reached out and touched the shell, expecting my hand to go through, but it did not. I was met with the familiar texture of turtle-shell. I put the creature in my bag and we continued on our way. Griffin and I followed the path for as long as we dared, not finding anything, until we eventually decided to turn back and try again tomorrow.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was one the way back that I noticed a rock that looked familiar. After stopping and thinking for a moment, I remembered that I had seen it on the tortoise’s shell. We then looked around for a while before we spotted another tortoise nearby. This one was similar to the first, with each section of its shell being a window to something else. I then put two and two together and figured out that the shell sections are connected somehow, and looking through one allows us to see out the other. A quick test confirmed this as well. I have named the creatures Scrying Tortoises and have them at the manor with me now. I should really be resting, preparing for the investigation tomorrow, but I am fascinated by these tortoises. I wonder if it is only light, or does sound go through the shells as well? No, I don't think so...

March 1st

I was examining that bizarre tortoise, looking into the different sections of shell, when one caught my eye. Most were simply reflections of the sky or trees, but one looked to be inside a nest. The interior of the earthen den was filled with bones and loose skin. As I watched, a huge snake came out of the darkness and struck whatever I was looking through. The shell section on the tortoise I was holding turned dark and green, but not before I was able to see one of the snake’s eyes. My eye erupted with pain as I leapt back from the shell of the tortoise. Stabbing pain radiated through my head, as if pierced by a thousand spikes. The pain descended down my body and I began to convulse as I fell to the ground. The world was distorting around me. I could feel my heart speeding up more and more, thudding in my chest. The creaking of the floorboards rose to a deafening cacophony. Lightning was arcing in my still open left eye. I know not what happened next, for my consciousness began to fade, overcome with pain and distortion, so I will now recount what Griffin told me.

Griffin was standing beside me rummaging through a drawer when I fell to the ground and began to violently shake. He told me my left hand was still extended in front of me, as if still holding the tortoise, while my right arm had curled into my side. He said I began to gurgle and shriek as I thrashed on the ground. Thinking quite quickly, he ran and retrieved from my jar of venoms the rarest sample I have. I do not even know what creature it came from, but it is a powerful, albeit temporary, neurotoxin. He poured it down my throat and its effects began to take hold, paralyzing my body and stilling the convulsions. He looked at my face and saw my left eye was wide open, with streaks running back and forth across its surface. He grabbed his canteen and dumped its contents on my eye. He then took bandages and began to extend my arm, which had become cruelly twisted at my side. He then rolled me onto my side and poked a hole into my neck with his knife.

He told me he was attempting to remove blood from my brain by doing this, and that doing so would slow my bodily functions, preventing whatever had come over me from taking effect. It certainly worked, as I am here now writing about it, but it seems a bizarre way of healing. I imagine that was the creature that killed Archibold. The manner of his death lines up quite well with what I experienced. I believe he saw the monster’s eyes with both of his own, whereas I only saw it with my left eye, and through a medium at that. This raises a truly horrifying question: how do I plan to kill it?

I must skip right past capture and go straight to killing as this creature is deadly simply on sight, so I will not be able to study it while it is alive. It must be something about the eyes that give it such deadly power, so I will need to kill it in a fashion that prevents me from looking at it.

March 3rd

It took two whole days for my eye to recover, but once it did, the recovery progressed rather quickly. While I have been out of commission, I have been thinking of ideas of how to kill the monster. The short answer is fire. If the monster is in its den, just rain fire down upon it. How to do that, I began to wonder? Well, with alcohol, of course! Highly flammable, add some pitch and tinder, put it inside of a container that can break apart, add a wick and all that is left is to light it and throw.

While I have been at home recovering, Griffin has been hard at work. He took care of the body, as well as cleaning up the scene of the death. My vision in my left eye, while it has recovered significantly, has not completely healed. My left eye is incredibly bloodshot right now. I can hardly see out of it because everything is blurry. I will get a monocle, but I do not know if that will solve the issue.

March 4th

My vision has mostly cleared! I will still need the monocle, likely for the rest of my life, but I believe I am ready to begin avenging Archibold’s death. Speaking of Archibold, his maid gave me a present today. She said it was a book that Archibold wanted me to have, but he could never bring himself to give it up. It is wrapped neatly in paper to protect it, and has a delicate bow wrapped around it. I told her that I will look at it later, I have too much work to do right now, preparing to slay the monster, so I put it in my desk drawer for safe keeping. Griffin and I will start preparing weapons and mixing the material for the fire bombs.

March 5th

It took a whole day to get ready, but we are finally ready to go on the attack.

March 5th

That horrible beast is dead. We killed it today. We followed the trail it had left behind for quite a while. Anticipating this, and considering the weight of all our equipment, we used horses. Shadow was able to keep up with the horses with relative ease and we eventually found places where several paths of destruction converged. It was not long after that when we located the monster’s den. It was a large chasm in the ground, littered with bones and debris from fights and feeding frenzies. I think the monster likely emerged from a sort of extended hibernation recently and that is why there have been no other attacks reported. Griffin and I then set up a few barriers to stay behind and then lit the wick on one of the bombs and tossed it in. The glass jar shattered near the mouth of the hole, dripping flaming fuel into the den. Griffin then lit more and more bottles while I tossed them into the hole. After what felt like hours, but was likely only a few minutes, we tossed a few grenades into the hole and then waited for the fires to die out. The grenades were old, but still worked, the fuses getting ignited by the fire inside the den and then exploding. After that, we buried the entry to the den with a mountain of dirt, which took a while to shovel, and then we returned home.

March 7th

We had the funeral today. First Father left, now Archibold is dead. I cannot believe he died barely a week after I talked to him. There was so much I wanted to ask him. I had so many questions about Father that I wanted to ask him after our conversation last month. His maid will be going back to her family. She is taking his cat with her. Archibold listed me as an heir in his will, I will need to take care of his estate. I'm running out of space in this journal, this will likely be the last entry. I feel… empty. I don’t know what to do now…