Bewitching Monsters

Shadow Creature

It was such a lovely spring morning, all grey and lightly rainy with a hint of thunder in the distance. I sipped my tea and pulled some divination cards. Caera danced around the house in her ghostly form-the rain giving her enough energy to take a visual shape. My focus drifted from my reading to her to the far side of the room. I could see the shadow creature's eyes shining under the chaise lounge like a cat. They were docile today.

"Gonna hide all day?" I absently said. The shadow shifted, darkening into an inky void. I hummed dismissively and turned back to my cards.

While divination and oracle cards weren't my forte, I still dabbled. The bit of message I was receiving from them right now was... less than grand. There was struggle and a sudden departure; echoes of family were coming through, along with secrets and a child. While this reading was supposed to give me insight on the shadow creature, it had enough parallels to my own life to be unsettling.

Dark wisps licked at the cards and my fingers. I looked up, finding the shadow creature in a small ball on the table. They looked like a pitch-black raccoon. "Yes?" I asked.

For the first time since I helped Vael rescue the creature from a mundane home, I could understand what they signed. "I need food. You don't dream."

"Sorry," I sheepishly replied. If I had known it needed dreams, I wouldn't have offered to keep them with me. "You're a dreameater?"

The creature recoiled in surprise. Hesitating. Processing. "You learned CSL?"

"No." If I had known they were speaking CSL this entire time, I wouldn't have needed to bother with the fae court. I rested my chin on my palm, this fact like lemon juice in the back of my thoughts. "But I recently obtained a new enchantment. I can't sign, but I can understand. Good thing you can still understand spoken Common."

"Well... To your question, yes. I eat dreams."

"Do you have a name? Or preferred way I address you? I know I need to figure out your food situation, but I'd like to be able to talk to you properly."

"Qiriol."

"Alright, Qiriol," I said, hopefully not butchering the pronunciation. "Can you eat any dreams?"

"Only from those who are mostly human. Magical essence doesn't matter-it's just flavoring." The shadow shrugged, or I assumed that was a shrug. My new eye made their hands more distinct to interpret their signing, but the rest of them was still an indistinguishable inky mass. "Children have the best ones."

"Is that why you haunted that family? To eat their kid's dreams?"

"I didn't choose them! They invaded my home," they harshly said. Their form flared huge before quickly reverting to a small orb. Their strength clearly waning. "I was waiting... but they were the ones who returned."

The subtle tremor in Qiriol's gestures squeezed my heart. There was so much backstory here that I didn't know. So much hurt-or were the tremor from weakness? Where was the balance between not poking old scars and digging for useful knowledge with this? It wouldn't be difficult to find them a new home, but I had the feeling there had been someone special that they were close with. If I could find them-if they still lived...

I cautiously asked, "There was someone important to you before, wasn't there?"

After a pause, Qiriol divulged their story:

Before the family that had called Vael and me in to exorcise Qiriol, there was a kinder family. The young daughter had troubling health. She was mostly fine, but every so often her body lost all its strength, keeping her to her bed. On these sickly nights she'd have the worst nightmares-but they were perfect for a dreameater. On the third of such nights, Qiriol discovered a note left by the child. Thank you for taking the nightmares away, it said. They had never been thanked before. Kindness wasn't given to shadows. After feasting on her nightmares, they took the note with them into the darkness in the wardrobe where they rested. Days later, Qiriol had a moment of bravery and crept out before the child had fallen asleep. A quizzical interaction later, and it was the beginning of a dear friendship. She taught Qiriol to sign and gave them their name; they ate away her dreams, leaving her with restful sleep.