The Exchange

“Who? Who?” the cacophonous question of an old barn owl rang out above the sound absorbing snow. The silence of the snow had been so deafening that it had drank up the struggles of a woman with her sled passing under the creature. The woman’s soul had launched through her skin at the piercing chime, the only sound she had heard all night.

She looked through the naked trees at the sky. Snow drifted like a stealthy assassin blanketing the land in thick swaths that smothered any traveler’s egress. Past the trees the woman could not see the moon through the snow clouds, but she knew their pink glow resulted from the full moon’s light behind them. She was running out of time. If that moon gave way to dawn, she would miss her window; and any chance she had to get her child back would be lost. She grunted harder straining every muscle as she pulled through a particularly deep drift.

The sled was laden with the head and heart of Nian. The heart of the immortal beast still beat through the cloth she had wrapped it in, and she was sure the beast’s face still made sneers at her from under its coverings. The sled sunk with every tug forward making her toils all the more laborious. She gritted her teeth and dug in her heals for a mighty pull.

An uneven ice patch hidden by the snow made her lose traction. The snow, well past her knees made a suction that stuck her legs in place even as her body above teetered. She felt her bones threaten to break under the stress, so she bent at the waist onto the sled to steady herself. It would have been catastrophic for her to break her leg then.

The covered head sensed her almost doom and laughed. Panic and fear the woman had been harboring erupted into anger. It surged through her, giving her the strength to lift her snow filled boot and kick the monster. “Shut up!” she managed through her teeth as she fell on her rump.

The laugh boomed louder. Tears pricked her eyes and formed new sickles in her eyelashes, but she had no time to give into her frustrations. She picked up the rope at the front of the sled and continued to trek on. When she had made this journey, she had been terrified. She had not wanted to die. However, knowing the grief over a lost child would consume her just as hungrily as the wendigo would, she opted to exchange her life for her child’s.

The woman had been shocked when the Wendigo offered her a third option. Wendigos had never been known as clever creatures let alone bargainers; yet this one had propositioned her all the same. “Bring me the head and heart of the Nian, and I will give you back your child unharmed,” it wheezed through the vocal cords of one of its prey.

Its rasps had sent chills down the woman’s spine and the flecks of drool it spat at her made her all too aware of its passionate appetite for violence. The monster was taller than the trees and its limbs just as spindly. All Wendigos were crazed with unending hunger which made her wonder how long he would keep this bargain.

It sensed her question and burbled through another vocal cord, “I will give you a year,” he looked up at the clear night sky. The moon was full then and cast a blue glow over the snow. Then he reached bony fingers down to the woman's daughter on the ground. His fingers fit around the girl like arms and held her from escape. He picked up the girl and was turning away. Over his shoulder he called, “Be back here by the next full crow moon or she will make a tasty treat.” The monsters laugh drowned out the daughters screams as it melted into the night.

She had been shocked and confused at first. She had never heard of such a creature as Nian nor could she fathom where to find one. But find one, she did. Dismantling it had been another story, but that she had done, too. Now, all she needed was make the exchange. That, too, she would do.

The owl hooted a warning and flew away. Never before had someone's heart jumped in jubilation for a meeting with a monster, especially a hungry Wendigo. The woman was no longer afraid, though, and longed to have her child back.

Her travels and trails had fortified her and bolstered her confidence in herself. She stood in the appointed clearing on the appointed night; and without a quiver in her voice, she called out, “Wendigo, give me back my child!”

Boom, Boom, Boom! The earth trembled under the Wendigos gait. Trees creaked and groaned as they were parted by the largest Wendigo ever to live. It would be impossible for a whole village to take down such a large beast. However, the woman held her ground.

“And my prize?!” the wicked beast bellowed. It had bent so that its sour breath warmed her face with each syllable.

She stood her ground, pointing with a wave of her hand toward the sled just steps away. At that, the monster bent and placed something on the ground. The woman went to inspect what had been laid before her. Wrapped in a deer skin blanket was a girl with matted black hair and dirt smeared skin. She lay with her eyes closed, her breathing low.

The woman shook the girl, recognizing in her heart this was her daughter. The girl's eyes slowly opened and adjusted. When they had focused on her mother she sprung up and threw herself into her mother’s arms, weeping with relief and a little apprehension. She warned, “He will use what you brought him against us!”

The woman pulled her daughter behind her. Not one to keep company with monsters, she was quick to begin her retreat. She had already mounted her daughter on her back and began trudging through the snow while the beast was still inspecting his prize.

The monster laughed a wicked howling cackle and called to the woman, “With the power of this beast, I shall be immortal and devore the earth. Enjoy what little time you have left with your daughter.”

The woman stopped. That is not what she had done this all for. She did not go through all of this to just have her daughter's life cut short or made miserable. She put her daughter down and trudged back to the beast. She looked up at the massive monster.

The Nian had been massive and immortal. It had been a devouring beast that been a plague upon humanity. Nian and the Wendigo were not so different and so she said, “I bested the immortal enemy you could not best. Do not make an enemy out of me!” She returned to her daughter and dissolved into the night.

The Wendigo, considering the woman’s feat, heeded her warning. From time to time she would hear its great rumblings, but it never graced her with its presence again. Nor did any of her prodigy have to deal with such terror, for her ghost was enough to shield them all for eternity.