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The Bunyip

And How It Came To Be

By Emily KittyPublished 2 years ago 15 min read
2

Many eons ago, there was a man in a mob, just like many before him. But this man was a curious sort. Death and violence fascinated him, and he showed very little empathy. His apathy did not go unnoticed for long, and his people, aware that something was a little…off, would find themselves keeping a distance from him where possible.

He was an avid meat eater and an incredibly talented hunter, however often kept more for himself than he should have, often going out at night while everyone slept, so he might hunt once more. He loved the rush that came from the hunt, and the satisfaction that came from eating what once had been living. As years went on, however, a new curiosity begun to plague him. Night and day, he started wondering what human flesh might taste like, what it might taste like – meat, or something new? However, he had been raised well enough to understand that doing so was against the laws of nature. But then after he had finished reminding himself that, he would then wonder… ‘Does it taste like animal flesh?’.

One day he found himself wondering what his own toenail might taste like, and if flesh would taste like animal meat. Knowing the rules, he snuck off to a quiet swamp area, and asked himself “Why not start with a toenail? Surely that would be overlooked, should I be discovered.” Excitement rushed through his veins as he used the tip of his knife to wiggle under his toenail as deep as he could go, embracing the agonizing pain like an old friend, and lifting his toenail up and away from the nail bed, allowing him to get a good grip on his nail with his fingers and rip. Fingers shaking, he lifted the bloodied nail to his mouth and ate. Blood filled his taste buds like a heady wine, filling him with a rush of power like no other, allowing him to feel unstoppable, powerful.

Unbeknownst to the man – or, perhaps forgotten about in the heat of the moment, were the ever-watchful eyes of the mighty Rainbow Serpent, an incredibly powerful being of whom was both benevolent and yet wrathful when necessary – a force of nature of whom one didn’t want to cross, and so all were taught to respect and listen to all words uttered by it. The Rainbow Serpent watched on, seeing the man for who he truly was and destined to become, should he continue down this path. The Rainbow Serpent saw his doomed fate, and decided to intervene, to enforce the laws of nature.

Later that night, when the mob had gathered around their fire for the night, the lake they sat by began to rumble. Clouds swirled together, forming out of nothingness, lightning rumbling and striking nearby. All nearby water, whether it be drops of moisture on the leaves around them to the water in the clouds, began to rise, lifting towards the swirling mass of water that towered over them until the shimmering, sparkling form of the Rainbow Serpent itself appeared, created and summoned by the water around them.

Immediately, it set its golden eyes on the man who, by now was starting to feel somewhat concerned, the burning pain in his foot reminding him of the glorious sin he knew he’d committed. “You have broken a law of nature. By eating your toenail, you have revealed your true intentions. I see you for what you will become, maneater.”

The Rainbow Serpent moved its glimmering body so that it might address the entire mob now. Every time it spoke, its voice echoed and rumbled a deep, thundering sound one might imagine might accompany the emptying of the ocean itself onto the land. “Let this be a lesson and warning to all. Eating a part of your body is the same as if you ate human flesh itself. This act is so against the laws of nature that it will change you forever.” Turning once more to address the man, the Rainbow Serpent spoke once more, the rumble chilling him to his bones. “This cannot go unpunished. The laws must be upheld. From this moment on, I curse you. You are banished, never to be allowed to live with humans again. But more than that, you will now only ever be seen as who you truly are on the inside, not the outside.” Once more the Rainbow Serpent addressed everyone, the water slowly starting to dissipate now. “Let the maneater be seen for who he truly is by all. This is the fate one will suffer, should they choose to go down this path.”

A boom echoed as the Rainbow Serpent disappeared as quickly as it arrived. Agonizing pain like no other filled his body and soul, able to feel every bone break and reshape, his skin hardening and changing colours, all before his very eyes, before he no longer looked human. In horror and disgust, the mobsmen looked upon this new monster, with glowing crimson red eyes, and brandished their weapons. Yelling filled the air, telling him to leave, leave now or they will hurt him, kill him. One man spat on him and cut him with the tip of his spear, snapping him out of his shocked daze and began to run away, tripping over his new, uncoordinated body as he did so. He could not block out the words being muttered underneath the shouts…that he was an evil spirit, a bunyip.

Left to fend for himself, his first decade or so were spent relearning how to survive in his new body. He discovered that if he fully consumed the animals he ate, he would take on some of those aspects. His new hunger consumed him, and he learned very quickly that his hunger was incredibly difficult to satiate, enough that often he found himself having run out of animals to eat, so then would be forced to move on to a new location, still teeming with life.

As time went on, he ran out of new animals to fully consume – finding only ones he had already eaten before. There was also a rather notable side effect to the taking on the aspects of so many animals – every new animal consumed had brought along the mind of that predator, how that predator thought and behaved. Due to his ugly exterior, he had little luck luring prey out with appearance alone, and so he got creative, hiding in the swamps and lakes, mimicking sounds that would lure the animals close enough for him to strike. Of course, the longer he spent in the water, the more his water aspects took over, and he found he would deteriorate faster out of water, and that the longer he stayed out of it, the harder it would be for him to breath, move, and eat. Yet he was always being forced to move on, since no matter how much he ate, he was always hungry for more.

Another decade passed on, and by now he was finding that he was starting to forget who he’d been before he changed. He was thinking less and acting on instinct more. Very rarely did he spend time thinking, only interested in the next feed, the next kill. Stories had started to be told of the Bunyip, he who ate their animals, and was rumoured that he hungered for human flesh.

Upon his wanderings in search for water and food, he found himself settling into a swamp ripe with animals. Now, this swamp did feel oddly familiar, but he had little care to stop and think like he once might have. He had himself a feast, glorying in the hunt of the kill and how good it felt, but still he was left unsatisfied, starved for more. It was this moment that he heard human footsteps approaching. He had not come across humans in decades.

He could feel his stomach twisting with hunger, aching for more despite his feast, and he sunk deeper into the water, out of sight, watching and waiting. He had yet to eat a human, despite how often he dreamed of doing just that. It didn’t take long before they appeared within eyesight, and he saw a wrinkled old man and a younger girl, the spitting image of him. He felt his dwindling human mind nudge him with foggy memories. He knew this old man, had been spat on, chased out.

The man and the Bunyip merged, humanity gone, and a dark rush of anticipation filled him. He knew he could lure them closer, but he’d learned some new tricks, and he wanted to play with his food this time.

He started rising out of the water, whilst simultaneously beginning to emanate a sound like no other – it started out as an animalistic rumbling roar, but one single, deep note remained after the roar ended, like a beautiful theta wave, mesmerising any who heard. He locked eyes onto the old man and saw his eyes widened in fear and horror, weapon brandished before him in a foolish attempt to protect. He stood on his hind legs, showing off his height - still in the water, but only barely.

He could no longer speak or communicate the way in any way resembling a human, however there was an aspect he had discovered from his mesmerising tone but had yet to truly explore, as it required a human mind to test it on. ‘I remember you’ he said simply, the words said inside the mans’ mind.

The man yelped and spat on the ground in disgust, his eyes now burning with remembrance, fear, and fury. “Bunyip, you are not welcome here! You have been banished!”

The Bunyip laughed and smiled, his large mouth and sharp teeth causing a rather horrifying sight. The laughter echoed throughout the man’s mind, and his face drained of blood at the sound and sights. Movement caught his eye, and he saw the young girl, further away now and trying to escape subtly, slowly. He extended his mesmerising range so that it affected her, too and then he had them both under his control. ‘I see what you fear most. Well, now it is time for you to be silent and still. I want you to watch.’

The man trembled as he tried to fight the control, barely even twitching a finger, and his eyes were wide in absolute terror, begging for this to not happen. But he did not speak, and he did not move. Not even as the Bunyip turned his attention towards the girl, and cooed at her gently in her mind, whispering ‘Come closer, come closer. Come to me, embrace me.’ A single tear escaped her as her eyes glazed over and step by step, moved closer towards him, almost as if she were walking down the aisle.

She reached him and put her arms around his hybrid, reptilian body, embracing him. He put his limbs and tail around her, embracing her, holding her, constricting her. The Bunyip watched the old man, felt his anguish in his mind, as he crushed her. He let go of her now dead body, and in front of the still frozen old man, opened his giant jaws and began to eat her, tearing at her flesh with his razor-sharp teeth, leaving nothing behind. The taste was like nothing he had ever experienced before, filling him with such power, such strength and for once, satiating him to a degree. He forgot about everything and reveled in his kill, and in that moment the old man took back enough control to run closer and throw his spear at the Bunyip. The spear didn’t pierce his hardened skin easily, and so it merely grazed him, but the graze was enough of a shock to rip him out of his blissful kill and set off his animal instincts. He roared in fury, the sound rumbling through the land, silencing everything in a moment of terror. Nearby animals skittered and hid, and the nearby tribe were suddenly up on their feet and looking around with fear, weapons in hand.

The Bunyip moved quickly out of the water towards the old man, swiping at him with his long, sharp claws and hitting him with his oversized platypus-style tail, sending him flying across the marsh. The old man landed far away, and immediately ran away as fast as he could. Bunyip was unsure what to do next, as he wanted to go back to his water and heal, for he was strongest there. But his fury was strong, and the urge to hunt, to chase, was even stronger.

Wait. Think. The intelligence that came from once being human had, apparently, not been completely lost. The old man would return to his mob, tell them of the encounter, and return all with weapons. He would be outnumbered. If the old man didn’t die of his wounds, old age would eventually take him. If the Bunyip wanted to survive, it was time to play the long game. Move on, move far, don’t let them catch you. If he survives, then he can perfect his hunt. His abilities. He could learn to play with his food better, draw it out longer. Feed. Because he wasn’t going to stop, oh no. He would never stop. Not now, not ever.

Centuries passed, and stories of him never truly ever…died. Many humans claimed he was a myth, nothing but a made up being in place of another sort of natural animal. Every new animal that migrated to his lands, he devoured, gained more abilities. The only abilities he gained off humans was pure power and strength, a rush and a high like no other, an addiction. But that only spurred him on, feeding his darkness, his thrill of the hunt, the kill. He had a particular fondness for the taste of children, as well as women – especially when they were menstruating or with child. They were the best, the richest of flavours that tasted so divine he couldn’t help but want and must have it. When travelling across countries became a more regular thing, he found out that the different cultural foods effect the subtle flavours in the body of the humans he ate, so as travel grew, it became a fun game to him, finding those who have travelled from different countries, cooked different cuisines at home, and slowly hunting them.

Of course, he didn’t always succeed in going unnoticed – there were always those aware of the spirits, of creatures like himself and had things they could do about it. Several times he was chased off by a witch or a wise person, forcibly sent away and banished, unable to return for at least a decade or so. Those, he watched out for, kept an eye on…just in case. He enjoyed watching them, and would lie in wait for them to slip up in their wording when doing spirit work, make the tiniest mistake, and then he would slip through the crack, taking it as an invitation. His hatred of them, of what they could do to him, was so strong that his love for hunting them was just as strong, seeing it as a challenge. Who is the stronger one? The witch or the Bunyip? Sometimes, the Bunyip won, and he revelled in those wins so headily that he wouldn’t need to eat for days, and simply bask in how powerful, and simply tastier they were. It also helped strengthen and enhance his own abilities, something that had not gone unnoticed by him. However, other times the human won, the witch with their spells and their barriers and banishments. Few tried to kill him, but none had succeeded. He was immortal. Unkillable.

Modern society worked in his favour, for the most part. He was nearly forgotten outside of a mythical creature, so no one knew what warnings to beware of. What signs to look out for.

Have you ever had that feeling that someone, or something might be watching you? You know when you walk past a marshy swamp, and something about it just feels…off? Wrong? A sick feeling settles in your stomach, and you find yourself just ever so slightly trembling with nerves, but you don’t know why? You just know, don’t go in there. Get away now. Have you ever looked out your window at night, and thought you could see dark red eyes glowing right back at you?

If you haven’t, you should always keep an eye out for bodies of water and what you’re near, and…maybe don’t spend too much time there in the dark, because he has night vision, and we don’t.

If you have? Well…definitely don’t think his name at night. Or near the water. Don’t even look his way. Don’t get his attention any more than you already have, but chances are, he’s been hunting you for awhile. You have been marked. Even if you are one of the lucky ones, and do manage to banish him, you will have made an enemy for life. He will listen for you for the rest of your life, keep an eye out for you, and strike the moment he gets an opportunity. He never forgets.

Being hunted by the Bunyip isn’t the kind of story where the bad guy dies, for how do you kill something that cannot die?

This isn’t a story with a happy ending, so if you’ve been marked, if I were you, I’d either:

Get some protection and go banish him if that’s something you can do.

Otherwise…run. Never let your guard down, or he will strike. Maybe you’ll get lucky, and he won’t catch you.

But chances are…you’re dead.

Good luck.

monster
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About the Creator

Emily Kitty

Writer, sometimes photographer, avid crafter. Total dreamer! Writes to tell a story, or to express my own inner struggles, both past and present.

Lover of fantasy - with a side of horror. Currently working on a fantasy book series!

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