Old Habits

10 - Humanity

Abaye was the first to bring news of the wolf.

He had asked Tam to report any news to him, but in the end it was the Abbot doing the reporting. He’d heard the gossip in town. It had been hard not to.

Over the last week, Lydelia had been terrorised. The beast had ravaged homes, eaten pets, urinated in public. Some were calling it a werewolf. Many were calling for its head.

Kaida was the first to bring news of the vampire.

A gigantic, hairy creature, with leathery wings and sharp claws. True, it was a giant bat, not a man in evening dress, but legends have to start somewhere. Breaking into a young woman’s room, sucking her blood… well, she’d assumed it was a man, hadn’t she?

It probably still was. Bat or human, this was still typical male behaviour, and she wasn’t going to stand for it. 

Berith was the first to bring news of the demon.

A dark shadow had swept over the city. A punishment for its sin. Berith wasn’t sure which sin, exactly, having barely left the monastery for decades. Nevertheless, he was pretty sure there had to be one.

Ger was the first to bring news of the dragon.

At least, that’s what they thought he had said. He’d been very agitated, and very eager to warn of the danger. This had been news in itself. Usually so sullen and reserved, Brother Ger had been terrified by the rumours he had overheard, and he seemed to have heard everything. Sitting in silence in the background, Ger was often privy to the conversations of others. When a man does not speak, you forget that he can listen.

After this outburst, though, nobody would make that mistake again. He spoke with a voice which was empty. Either fear had robbed his throat of its presence, or it had fled. Ger spoke of a dark, violent monster, which had destroyed Aldenia in times gone by. He had heard stories, passed down by his grandparents and their grandparents before them. This beast was the nightmare of his childhood. It had come to find him.

Whatever his previous feelings towards the monks, this made them irrelevant. They may have been intolerant, they may have been infidels, but they were human. He needed that, now.

Tam was the first to put it all together. 

The rumours he’d heard were of a banshee; a creature which screamed if somebody was about to die. Alone, this was unremarkable; Tam felt that, if he himself witnessed a murderer in action, he would have to stifle his own screams.

This creature, however, was something much more sinister. It was linked to the deaths. In the past few days it had flown through the city, screeching from rooftops, and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

His first reaction was sceptical. As a monk, he was expected to believe some pretty strange things, but monsters? In his city? This was the sort of story he could handle in his history books, where the myth would be explainable. In Lydelia, though, it just seemed wrong.

Then again, if ancient myths of banshees needed an explanation, why not this? Five mythical creatures, all at once, was impossible. Perhaps that’s why Tam had been so incredulous at first; with all of the reports flying in, it seemed that his pig was the only animal that hadn’t been seen.

One mythical creature, though, could just about be believed. One wild animal, a large, flying mammal, could just about explain them all.

It seemed intelligent, and unlike any common wolf, yet what else could it be, all grey fur and teeth? Hence, the myth of the werewolf was born.

Years later, it would climb into the houses of another civilisation, and they would call it a vampire.

All it needed to do was knock over a candle, and the leathery wings would give rise to legends of dragons, which were shared throughout all known cultures.