It Has No Name

A long time ago in a faraway land, there lived a family in the woods just outside of town. There was the father Jack, the mother Roselyn, and their two children Tobias and Carella. Together they lived in a cabin the father built by the town lake, where they would fish and log and set animal traps in the woods. The father was a master hunter, and the mother was a master gardener, so they ate very well, and their land was rich with lustrous grass & beautiful flowers. But their most prized accomplishment was their animals, including their 7 shining steeds, which were known throughout the town for their beauty and intelligence.

One morning, the son Tobias went to check the traps in the woods, as he did every morning for his father:

High & low, and far & wide,

he searched but saw no beast nor hide.

But while he searched, he saw a thing

that his two eyes had never seen.

Something red out in the lake,

his curiosity would take.

He went to shore for a closer look,

then stared once more and saw a book!

Tobias waited patiently by the shore as the book floated closer, and once he could safely grab it, he did just that. Soon the young boy could see this was unlike anything he had ever read. It was big—almost too big for him to carry—and it was bound in a beautiful red leather, with strange pictures on the cover. What’s even stranger, when he opened it, the pages were still dry! Sadly, Tobias could not read what was on the pages, but he was very young and still learning to read, as was his twin sister Carella. So, he decided he would put the book in his pack and take it to his father, who could read very well.

When he finished his search of the traps, Tobias would go home to find his father Jack, who was smithing a new hunting knife. “Did you find anything in the traps, my son?” his father asked. “I did not find any animals, Father,” Tobias replied, “but I did find a book! Would you read it to me?”

The father shook his head and said,

“maybe when it’s time for bed.

For now, I need your help in here,

smithing tools, for winter is near.”

So the boy helped his father in the barn until sundown, and when the mother Roselyn called them for supper, they were starving, for they worked very hard that day. Once they had finished eating, they were so tired that neither could stay awake to read the book. Because they were spent, his father told him:

“We shall read tomorrow, son,

when all work for the day is done.”

And so Tobias prepared for bed, and did not pull the book out of his pack. He also did not tell his mother Roselyn nor his sister Carella about the book, for he wanted it to be a surprise.

The next day, the son Tobias went to check the traps in the woods, as he did the day before:

High & low, and far & wide,

he searched but saw no beast nor hide.

But while he searched, his eyes befell

upon someone who seemed unwell.

A white-haired woman by the lake,

his curiosity would take.

He went to shore to say hello,

and saw her skin was white as snow.

Tobias calmly approached the old woman, and once he was close enough to speak with her, he did just that. “Hello, dear stranger,” he said to her, “are you lost?” When she looked at him, he could see she was unlike any woman he had ever met. She was old—much older than he could imagine a person being—and she was dressed in elegant black garbs that hung off her body. Her eyes were a strange colour that he had never seen. What’s even stranger, when she talked, her mouth did not move! Sadly, Tobias, could not understand what she said to him, but he was very young and still learning to speak, as was his sister Carella. So, he decided he would go back home and tell his mother, who could speak very well.

“Do not worry,” Tobias told the old woman. “I will come back and bring help for you.” And without finishing his search of the traps, Tobias would go home to find his mother Roselyn, who was cooking a wonderful stew. “Did you find any deer for the stew, my son?” his mother asked. “I did not find any deer, Mother,” Tobias said, “but I did find an old woman! Would you speak to her for me?”

His mother shook her head and said,

“I need to cook, so we are fed.

For now, I need your help in here

with supper, since we have no deer.”

So the boy helped his mother in the kitchen until sundown, and when his father came back from working in the fields supper was prepared. They all were starving, for they worked very hard that day. Once they had finished eating, it was too dark to safely venture out in the woods. Because it was dark, his mother told him:

“We will look tomorrow, son,

before our chores have yet begun.”

And so Tobias prepared for bed, and did not go searching for the old woman. He also did not tell his father Jack nor his sister Carella about the old woman, for it was his night to feed the 7 shining steeds, and all would be asleep when he was finished. This also meant he could not ask his father to read the red book, until the next day.

The third morning, before the son Tobias went to check the traps in the woods, he went to the lake with his mother:

High & low, and far & wide,

they searched but saw no woman of white.

But while they searched, their ears both heard

the raven’s caw, a scavenging bird.

The cawing birds were in the wood,

clearly, they found something good.

The mother stroked Tobias’s hair,

and said, “My son, go see what’s there.”

Tobias calmly approached the forest, and once he was close enough to observe from a safe distance, he did just that. Indeed, the ravens had found something…an animal, a very large one. Tobias realized that it must have been caught in the trap yesterday and somehow died then, for ravens rarely attacked a beast that was alive and his traps did not kill. The young boy was armed with a hunter’s bow, so he pulled an arrow from his quiver and fired it into a nearby tree, so the scavenging birds might scatter. When they did scatter, he could see this was unlike any animal he had ever caught.

It was black—blacker than a starless night under a new moon—and it had teeth, so many teeth. Its blood was a strange green slime that he had never seen any animal bleed. What’s even stranger, its throat had been cut! “Perhaps the old woman has done this,” Tobias pondered, “but why? And where did she go?” Sadly, Tobias did not know what this animal was, but he was very young and still learning about animals…however, his sister Carella knew animals very well. So, he decided he would carry it home to show his beloved sister, who could tell him what it was.

Once he finished his search of the traps, Tobias set out to bring the animal to Carella, who was tending to their 7 shining steeds. But the strange beast was so heavy that dragging it home took most of the day, so when he finally arrived the sun was almost down. His sister was still in the stables, so he brought the animal there. “What is that thing, my brother?” Carella asked. “I had hoped you would know the answer, Sister,” Tobias said. “I found it in our traps this morning, while Mother and I were searching for an old woman I found yesterday, near the spot where I found a red book two days ago.”

Carella’s eyes grew wide with glee,

“Will you show this book to me?

Reading is our favorite thing,

what joy each page to us will bring!

So the boy helped his twin sister in the stable until sundown, but before supper was prepared, they went to their room, where they could read by candlelight. And once Tobias pulled the book out of his pack, he showed its pages to Carella. “Do you see, my sister? Sadly, we cannot read this,” he told her. “Father has never taught us these words before.”

“I can read them,” Carella said. “Shall I read to you, Brother?”

“This tome has knowledge held to view,

for Sculpting of Diviners true.

Where Kass’ah’s kingdom towers high,

its people, they shall never die.

“Fires hot in blackest night,

read this under candlelight.

Then on the floor, you Sculpt this shape,

to split the layers, to spark the gate.”

Now, while Carella could read these words, she did not understand what they meant…but while her brother Tobias could not make sense of the instructions the book gave, she could. So Carella grabbed her ink that was for school, and she drew the shape exactly how the book explained…and as she drew, her brother stared in awe of his sister and the beautiful patterns she made onto their floor. He did not recognize most of the forms she drew, and even after her hand had left the ink to dry, the drawing moved like it was alive.

“There, Brother!” Carella exclaimed, a smile on her face. “It is finished.”

Then, darkness fell upon them.

A sound formed in their ears…a whistling sound that was quiet at first, but it grew in volume until it was so deafening that they could no longer bear it. The two children began to scream, and as they screamed, the shape glowed an odd color, one that neither of them had known. This color became a beam of light, and the shape was swallowed by this light. Another shape appeared in the beam, one that moved. This second shape left the light, while the children screamed and cried and rolled upon the ground. In her tortured fit, Carella’s foot brushed across the beam of light—onto the ink of the shape she had drawn—after which the light disappeared, and the terrible sound was no more.

Once the light vanished and the screaming stopped, what remained was a creature unlike any they had ever seen. It floated, it wailed, and its tongue was very long. Its bones were slimy, its gaze was hollow, its horns were many as its teeth. It also bore a deep red glow, one that threw itself on the oaken walls like blood from a killer’s axe. And as it moved, the air around its form bent & contorted, in the most unnatural ways.

It moved past the two children, towards the wall of their bedroom. But instead of stopping, it walked straight through like a ghost. And as it did, the oaken wall it touched became something else…something yellow and wriggling with life. And they could see the path the creature traveled on the floor, for it had also become this new yellow thing. The children began to scream again, and their parents burst through the door. “What happened here?!” their father shouted. “What’s become of your bedroom wall?!” their mother cried. “It came from the book,” Tobias gasped through his tears. “We did not mean this to happen,” Carella wailed. “Please forgive us, Mother & Father. Tobias and I did not know.”

The children told their parents of the creature—how it came from the shape on the floor, how its terrible aura glowed, and how it changed everything it touched. The parents knew nothing of the creature’s ilk, and this filled them with terror.

“We must hunt it down,” the father said. “It seems to be very dangerous.”

“Yes, then we must return it to where it came from,” the mother said. “Perhaps the answer is in this book.”

Because Carella was too afraid to read more from the book, she went with the father Jack to find the creature. And because Tobias was too afraid to lay eyes on that terrible beast once more, he stayed with the mother Roselyn to find a way to send it back.

When the father and daughter went outside, they saw that the creature had crossed their field, and was going toward the stable, where their 7 shining steeds were kept. “You will not touch our steeds!” Carella screamed, and because she had no fear, she grabbed her father’s hunting knife and charged toward the beast. “You must not touch that monster, Carella!” her father cried after her, and he gave chase to his daughter, but she was much quicker than him. She leaped in the air to attack the creature, but rather than land on its back, she instead passed through it, and tumbled onto a rock in the fields, while the creature continued toward the stable.

The father ran to his daughter, and in the night he could see that his hunting knife was now glowing with red. “My daughter,” he cried out, “are you alright?”

But Carella had changed. Her eyes glowed, her tears were like metal, and her teeth a bloodied iron. And her skull bled a black slime where it had been cracked, for she had landed on her head when she fell. Her father screamed in terror, and as he screamed Carella screamed, but hers was not of fear, nor was it Carella’s voice. The father Jack then heard their 7 shining steeds neigh and nicker, but soon their cries became strange as well, no longer those of a horse. Without thinking, he grabbed the glowing hunting knife and stormed for the stable, determined to slay the beast that mutilated his daughter. When he burst into the stable, what he saw was inexplicable.

One of the seven shining steeds lay dead at his feet, cleanly cut in half. The other six were no longer steeds, each becoming a different creature that he did not understand. And at the end of the stable, he could see a path of decay, where the creature had ambled through the final steed. Overcome with anger, the father Jack left the stable to find this creature and kill it.

Meanwhile, when the mother and son examined the tome, the mother Roselyn could understand the pages like Carella could, and explained what they said to her son. “This book details weird magics & sorceries,” she told him, “and you must never read from it again. That creature comes from a different world, one that exists in the same space as us but also never touches us. It was never meant to see our world, but with this book’s help, we can return it.”

Together they leafed through the book, and they found a page that could help. The page detailed a shape that could form a new gate to pull the creature inside, removing it from their world. They did not finish their reading however, because they soon would hear the screams of the father Jack and the strange bellows of multiple creatures, all from nearby the stable. They ran outside, but when they arrived, the father and the daughter were not there, and the only shining steed that remained was bisected, and quite dead. Where the other six steeds had once rested, there were now paths carved through the thickets—some small, some big, and one bigger than any beast they could imagine. Tobias also noticed that the creature he’d dragged from the woods—the beast with a slit throat—was nowhere to be found. Lastly, they saw a path of decay, and followed it into the woods, where the monster had ambled through the thickets as well, and transformed many plants.

When the mother Roselyn laid eyes on the creature, she began drawing the shape on the ground with her finger and recited these words:

Bound by ash and driest dirt,

are the creatures of this earth.

Pull forth any matter lain,

that does not rest upon this plane.

As she recited these words, Tobias saw his father, who was holding a glowing knife. He then saw his father leap toward the creature, but while the blade plunged into the beast, his father fell through it onto the ground. Tobias heard his mother cry out, “Jack!” and in her fear, she rushed toward him, but the shape she drew already had begun to glow. She trotted through the path the creature had created, and the plants in the ground wrapped themselves around her, sticking into her flesh and ensnaring her. It did not matter though, for when the father Jack turned toward them, they could see there was no arm on his right side, nor life in his eyes.

Soon that awful sound returned, and a beam of light like the one before shot into the sky. All that was strange was pulled toward the light, including the creature who emerged from the first shape. Unfortunately, because the plants were fused into the mother’s skin, when they were drawn to the portal, so was she. And Tobias could only watch as the monster and all that it touched—including his mother and father—were drawn into the beam. They disappeared into the strange light, and Tobias screamed. He went to jump after them, but as he did, the beam of light vanished, and there was no more of the shape his mother drew. Instead, in front of him stood the old woman in black—the one he had seen by the lake.

Again she tried to speak to him, but Tobias did not understand, nor did he care to understand. “You must bring back my parents!” he screamed, “and you must help me find my sister!” He showed her the red book, the horrible red book that brought him so much terror. The boy begged her, “please, do something!” and when the old woman saw the book, and she did take it. But after saying something else that the boy did not understand, she simply walked into the woods…though rather than follow her, Tobias went to search for his twin sister Carella, who he had not seen since the creature first emerged.

Three days the boy searched, and three days he did not find his sister. He also did not find the animal from the trap in the woods, nor the other six shining steeds that had disappeared into the woodlands. When Tobias returned home, Carella was still not there, and so he was left all alone. He realized he no longer had a father to help him hunt for food, nor a mother to help him maintain the lands, nor a sister to be his best friend. And so the boy grew very sad, and because he was left without any other options, he made the journey into town, where he hoped to find Carella and perhaps get help from the townspeople.

But when he completed his journey, he saw the town too, had changed. The buildings were destroyed, the wagons smashed, their people gone. There were things he saw with his eyes that would not fit in his brain. There were bodies that did not stay still, and fires that did not go out, but tried as he might, Tobias did not find his sister.

And just when he was set to leave,

something snatched him by the sleeve.

Dragged him like a doll of straw,

towards its awful, open maw.

Its arms were long, its face was bright,

a creature that was not quite right.

Its teeth were fear, its eyes were pain,

this beast that appeared, it has no name.