Ever wonder what is in the earth? Most would think of the worms and bugs that crawl around in the soil. Others would think of the many dead, man or not, that took their last breath before coming part of the earth again. Some would imagine the burrows made by animals like rabbits or badgers to provide shelter. A few would think of the hot rock deep below, ever so churning. For me, the earth below us is a place for something else entirely. I shudder to remember all of my experience but I had to so that it is out there, as a warning to others if they were to experience a similar situation.
For most of my life, I have lived in a hamlet in Saskatchewan. I will not tell its name as I do not want anyone to experience what I had experienced, but I will try to put context so that it makes sense to anyone who would be in a similar situation to mine. The hamlet was at one time a town, relying on the railway to provide for its residents and businesses. It was that way until a fire in the early 1920’s that destroyed half the town. I do not know how many people died in the fire, however, what is known is that the hamlet never got to its former glory. The only people who lived there were either the religious Mennonites or people who wanted a simpler life.
I was part of those who wanted a simpler life, of which I grew up here since I was still an infant since my parents moved from the city of Saskatoon. While I do have a few fond memories, all that I did is do chores and watch TV, while also going to school in another town a few miles from here. We don’t farm, unlike those outside of the hamlet, we are more like one of those people whose parents had work somewhere else. Overall, in this hamlet, almost everyone knew who everybody was, except for me. During my free time, I would read a few non-fiction books and draw maps that would pop out in my antisocial teenage head. In summer, I would go outside and explore the natural world and the hamlet itself.
The weird thing I should mention is that our house is the only one of two surviving structures that survived the fire, which is an achievement in itself. The other is an abandoned brick three-story schoolhouse a block away to the south. It is built in the mid-1910’s and abandoned sometime in the 70’s, maybe because of a lack of funding to keep operations going. It was bought out by many owners, people like us but wanted their life to be a little more grandiose, but every time, they would either move out or disappear without a trace. We always assumed the ones gone likely moved out without any of us knowing, I was no different.
I used to think that the reason they moved out is because it is difficult to maintain, at least cost wise. I have heard that water, heating and plumbing, are the main problems, at least what I thought. I would occasionally hear, at least, the bells going off from the schoolhouse, most times when it was supposedly unoccupied. I thought it was the Mennonite kids sneaking into the building to cause a bit of grief upon the town. How wrong I was.
It all began during a snowstorm, of which I was sleeping in my bedroom. It was very cold, as we had been struggling with water heating at the time, so I tried to stay warm using hand warmers, which I am not supposed to use under this circumstance but there is really no other way. I was in a shallow sleep until I heard something amongst the howls of the wind. At first, I thought it was just the wind until I strained my ears to listen closer. I could recognize a scream, not the one you would find in horror movies when someone is being killed, but rather an animal in agony, like a cow or something. Usually, if this was the case, coyotes would be yapping around, attacking the animal and sound off their victory cries. Instead, there was nothing else other than those sounds and the near deafening wind. I think it lasted for a few minutes before it stopped.
The next morning, there was no school, but that was the least of my concerns. One of our farmer friends, Bob, called my mother to say he was missing a few cattle from his pasture, which is on the other side of my house, across the gravel road. He did come over and asked us, along with our buddies, to try and look for the cattle, dead or not. The fresh snow, however, would make this task difficult as the remains of the cattle would be buried in the big snow drifts formed from last night. Eventually, we did find one of the cattle. The dead cow itself was found in one of those islands of trees that pop along the emptiness of the snowy plains, protected from the wind so snow does not accumulate much. The mere sight of it made me feel so weak I wanted to just fall and, as far as I could recall, one or two of the others fell sick once they saw the sight of the carnage.
The thing that bothers me about the snow-covered carcass is that it looked so unrecognisable that you would think that it was a long abandoned deer carcass, with flesh being ripped from the bones and a leg a far distance away. The only way Bob could’ve known that it was one of his cows was a tag, still attached to the head that is a good distance away from the body. When we found it, it was positioned perfectly on a stump, as if somebody placed it on the stump to relay some strange warning. It also seemingly had its eyes gouged out and tongue ripped out, like the head that was violently torn from the body. We were disturbed by the sight of such ruin. We assumed only a poacher could do this.
The sight left us with many questions and any known evidence we could’ve find would be buried in snow and we still have a few missing cattle to find. Bob reported to the police, which they arrived there a while later. Even they were baffled by the sight of it when it led to it, but they chalked it up to some wild animal attack, explaining a bear could do this. Bob wasn’t happy with the explanation, pointing to the perfectly placed head on the stump as a counterpoint that a poacher killed the cow, rather than some bear. Either way, the police did warn us to look out for any dangerous animals in the area and Bob cleaned up the remains. Me and my mother returned home only to talk about the sight we saw.
I did not sleep well after that. I always felt watched while I slept, as if there was a presence looking at me through the window. Everytime I looked, there was nothing there at the window. At the same time, I would also hear sounds coming from the roof of our house, but I chalked it up to be the few feral cats that usually climb the trees and live on the roof. Over the next few days, I noticed a decreasing number of cats. At first, I wouldn’t notice since we usually feed the cats outdoors and any cats missing would reappear. It seems those we do not see, stay unseen. We worry something might be happening to them, like a pack of coyotes or even someone feeding them windshield fluid, but we do not see the bodies. I counted at least six of them gone, likely more.
That was until five days after the cow killing when something came up. In between our house and the schoolhouse is the villa, or a place where the old go to be taken care of. The reason for the villa to be there is, at least what I thought, simply down to the fact the elders wanted a simpler life, like the rest of us, Mennonite or not, for the rest of their days. Today, however, things are getting more complicated than anyone could handle. As far as I heard, on that morning, one of the people there walked down the driveway at the villa and saw something red around the tree. He went closer and realised that there are objects around the tree within the red-stained snow. The man noticed something terribly wrong with what he is seeing.
What he was seeing is seven poorly severed heads of cats within blood-stained snow and he looked up to see their torn bodies hanging in the bare tree branches. He turned to call out the others on this grisly sceptical and more people surrounded the tree. Even the neighbouring Mennonites went to see the sight, only to recoil at the mere sight of it. The police eventually arrived and this time they cleaned up the scene, leaving behind a tree surrounded by blood-stained snow.
This was told to me by Barney, one of our neighbours who went to the scene. He stated that he thinks somebody is killing the animals for the fun of it, while also thinking this is somehow connected to the missing cows. I was struggling to comprehend who or what is doing this or the actual reason behind this.
I went outside to look at the blood-soaked snow that moats around the tree. As I looked from the entrance to the villa, I started to think the cats weren’t killed by the tree as there was seemingly no sign of a struggle in the snow. It looked like the cats were placed there, as there were no splashes around the pool. I tried to look for tracks, but what would be left of it seems to be trampled by the many footsteps of those who visited.
As I was walking back to my house, I heard someone yell out something from a distance away. I turned to see a middle-aged man, dressed in jeans and a plaid button shirt with a coat, walking sternly towards me in the road. I recognised as one of the neighbours, but he looked like he was mad or something. I was looking on in a confused stance as he walked up to me, grabbed me by my sweater and angrily told something in his angry twain that the Devil has come to town. I was held up for a few seconds until Bob broke it up and argued with the guy. Eventually, he walked away and Bob assured me everything is going to be okay.
That is not where it ends. Strange remains of animals are still being reported and each more bizarre. In another area nearby, at another of those tree islands, somebody found a sight of a pile of dismembered coyote corpses. To the north, there was also a report of three dead horses, whose bodies are torn up. The heads were missing until they were found nearby in a triangle configuration, disturbing those who saw the sight. Ever since that, more animals in the area disappeared. It even got so bad people won’t let their pets alone in fear they may go missing. Police began to think that a few sick individuals are involved, however, the only proof is the crime done. By this point, no one knew who the suspects are.
That was until one night. When I was trying to sleep in my room, I heard a tapping through the window that is facing towards the pasture. I thought it was a branch, tapping on the window, so I looked up. At first, I confirmed by belief that it was a branch. That was, until it moved in a way a branch wouldn’t and what seems to be more of those branches appeared. The branches are fingers. Fingers long and emaciated, ending in long claws. The fingers followed up to a hand that looked almost human. Imagine holding out your hand and try to make your index finger do the same function as the thumb. The only way to do that is to put the index finger nearer to the thumb itself. That is the hand I saw. The size of the palm took roughly less than a quarter of the two foot by two foot window. As the hand reached down, I could see it was connected to an arm that is in similar condition to the fingers. After a few moments, the hand suddenly shot up in a split second and the banging of the roof began, only to last a mere few seconds.
After that, my mother rushed down the stairs to shut the door open, asking if I was okay. By this point, I was frozen in place in shock. She asked if I heard the noises from the roof, all I could muster is a nod. The next day, I evaluated my experience and asked my mother what it was she heard, knowing the answer. Instead, she explained to me that, when she was trying to sleep in her room upstairs. When she looked through her window, she swore she saw an eye. It wasn’t human but rather like a goat’s and what was its hairless face taking over half of her similarly sized window. She stayed still for a few moments until it seemed to see light coming from the north and was gone in a split second. During this movement, she thought she caught sight of its bunny-like ears and the noises began but gone as they began.
I then told her about my experience and we were in agreement that we saw the same creature. We also agreed to not tell anyone about the experience, as telling anyone this seemingly ridiculous story would make us look crazy.
The animal disappearances continued but declined a little, maybe because more people are keeping their pets inside. Eventually, they stopped once spring came along and we all thought it was the end of it. People are letting their dogs and cats out, not giving a worry about them. The farmers no longer had to monitor the cattle as, not only they had to worry about the events happening, but there were less predators at the time. There was a period of relief, until it got worse.
It happened sometime in the late part of spring. As far as I heard, one of our farmer friends, Nathan, came over to another of his buddy’s place, Howard, both lived nearby. He knocked on the door of the house, expecting a welcome from him as usual. Instead, there is no answer at the door. He kept knocking, assuming he was asleep or something. He eventually called him and heard his phone from inside. He was hoping for a response, there was none. Nathan became concerned, assumed that he had a heart attack or he was dead, so he tried to find a way in. He looked around the house, crowbar in hand, trying to look for a window low enough to open. He found none, so he got through the door and went in. As he walked up the stairs and into the first floor, he saw there was nothing wrong.
Everything seems to be in place until he went to the bedroom where Howard is supposed to be. When he opened the door, the place was a mess. Bedsheets were everywhere, drawers have fallen down, broken glass and, oddly enough, the bed that is upside down near a broken window. He could see the phone near the bed, broken but working. He called the police to report this and they did an investigation once they arrived.
That is at least what I was told, either way, Howard was missing. Howard wasn’t the only one missing, however. He was the start of a series of odd disappearances that continued all the way through summer. It ranges from the usual, like a hiker going missing, to the bizarre, an entire family disappearing from a home without any reason. I think I counted at least fifteen missing throughout. What makes this more unusual is the supposed perpetrators seemed to never leave a trace, other than the damage they leave behind, from broken windows to smashed-in doors.
The police were confused, trying to find every suspect possible. To some, it seems like the same people who killed the cats and took their pets are starting to take the people. Others find it really unexplainable and scary, so they took the effort to not go alone outside at night, fearing they may become missing. It went so far as to hunting parties looking for the group responsible and, still, they happened. Animals began disappearing again, albeit at a lesser rate. People still kept their pets inside and farmers began to monitor their cattle again.
It was a risky time, nothing is safe once the sun goes down. All that was my summer break was staying inside most of the time, playing games with my mother and drawing fictionalised maps. I then remembered the night that I saw the hand and I at least thought it was connected to the disappearances. I then looked on the internet for anything that described the creature. The closest thing I found to the description of this thing is the Wendigo, who you all know, with the Skinwalker a close second. Wendigo, however, are still somewhat human and don’t have bunny ears, nor does a skinwalker turn into a hairless abomination we saw on that night. I looked harder, finding no luck on it.
Until I found something unexpected. I can’t remember the site, but it had to do something with Cree legends in the area, of which included the Wendigo, just under Whitiko. What I read was different from the story of the Wendigo. It had to do with the mythology of the Moon Rabbit, who wished to ride it one day and asked Crane to take him to the Moon. Along the way, his hand is somehow bleeding and marked it on Crane’s head, explaining the red mark on every cranes head today. What it did not tell, at least according to the site, is that the Moon Rabbit had a brother.
As the story goes, they wanted to ride the Moon together and they asked Crane to carry them up there, but Crane could only carry one at the time. The Moon Rabbit was being carried by Crane when his brother jumped and tried to grab upon his paws, only to scratch them and fall back down. Stuck on the ground, he could only watch as his sibling went up towards the Moon. The winter air came and he went into his borrow to sleep. He woke up early, figuring the snow would be gone. The snow is gone, but the plants haven’t turned green, so he tried to start a fire. The fire then spread, forcing him into his burrow and waiting until it died itself off. When he came out, there was no food in sight and so he starved, thinning each day and losing his hair.
One day, a deer arrived and, in sheer desperation, killed the deer to savour his hunger. On and on, every animal he saw he killed and ate, but he wasn’t satisfied. Even when the grass returned, he was still accustomed to eating the flesh of others, only hunting at night to see his brother, riding the Moon and hoping to come. Man then arrived and, unlike him, only killed when they needed to. The hungry rabbit contorted himself to be more man-like to be with man, only for them to be revolted by its horrific stature. Angry, he killed the whole tribe and ate them. The other tribes, hearing of this, descended upon the land he resided, burning the land so there was nothing for him. This did not stop it, going as far to kill the tribes who set fire to its land. The tribes who remained were forced to offer their own to satisfy the beast.
Wesakechak, trickster hero to the Cree, saw this and thought out a plan to stop it. One night, while the beast was hunting, he turned into the Moon Rabbit and spoke to him. Surprised, the hungry thing told him how sorry he was for scratching his paw and asked him if he could go to the Moon with him. Wesakechak, in the Moon Rabbit form, told him he couldn’t go as he killed others to only satisfy himself. The beast then noticed that he did not have any scratches on his paw, so it called out Wesakechak and chased him, falling into his own burrow in the process. The other tribesmen then put a heavy rock over the burrow, trapping it. It is unknown whether the beast starved to death or was just sleeping, but one thing is certain - the rock should remain sealed.
Now, I do not know if this was a real Cree myth, as other websites never mentioned this mythology, but it shares some similarities with the creature I saw. The contorted human-like rabbit form, the disappearances, matched in my mind. I still have one more question left to answer, as to where the burrow of the creature is. I began to research the reports of missing animals and people. What I have found is a trend. The disappearances themselves tend to increase in frequency once it is at least during the appearance of the half moon phase, at its greatest frequency during the full moon phase, and goes silent once the other half moon phase passes. As for the “killings”, they only seemed to occur during a full moon.
As for the distribution of these occurrences, the furthest one out is about some 18 miles from here at some park near a lake. From there, they seem to get more frequent the nearer they are to my hamlet. It seems whatever is responsible for the occurrences is somewhere at the hamlet. The question is where in the hamlet would it be?
That is another time. For then on, the occurrences continued, until early fall when things changed. During one night, on a nearly full moon only covered by clouds, a couple were driving down the single-laned highway that provides access to my hamlet. They were talking until they narrowly hit a deer that was running from the hamlet side. They stopped in shock as a herd of deer ran across the road. As the last deer began to cross the road, something snatched it from view. All they could hear is the screaming agony of the deer until, like a switch, silence took over again. For a few moments, it was simply silence, until they heard some sort of voice coming from where the deer was snatched.
The voice sounded as if something was trying to make words but missing a lot of the stresses that make a proper human speech possible, resulting in a gargling mess of sounds. As they were hearing the voices, they got closer until they spotted what seems to be a tube of some kind hitting the road. Based on their accounts, this tube that had some sort of appendages at the bottom, was about 8 feet tall, thick as a tree trunk, was all they could see in their headlights. They said it was possible the tube was connected to something out of view of the light.
All the sudden, they heard a thump on the roof and the voices turned into a deep, primal crackling of whatever creature had such legs. They then sped around the tube, which they figured by now a leg of the threatening creature that made those sounds. They went a few miles away until they felt safe from the thing. They eventually got out, only to find blood on their roof.
They later called the police, of which the police suspected the couple made the story up to cover the fact they hit the deer. When the police went to where they reported the incident, they saw no sign of the dead deer. They charged the couple and went on their way. At least, this is what I heard by word of the others I managed to piece together. The odd thing is the only damage to the vehicle is the roof, where they supposedly heard the thumping sound.
This has taken over me, of course, but I had to find a way to stop, to find its lair. I had tried to look for the location of where it could be, I guess I was frantic. It affected my life at school, with grades lowering and not handing in schoolwork on time. I was distracted by this point. As classmates would talk about theories of Wendigoes or Skinwalkers, I was more interested in the location of the supposed creature.
Some time in the middle of fall, during a clear, cold night, I was in bed, sleeping until I heard something in the distance outside. I sat up in bed and I wasn’t sure what it was at first. The longer I listened, the more I am convinced the bells are ringing at the schoolhouse. I found it unusual that someone would ring the bell in the night. Investigating this, I carefully grabbed my shoes and my sweater and came outside, to the middle of the road. Walking towards the schoolhouse, the sound grew louder and louder, constantly ringing until it slowly stopped. I was confused, looking towards the schoolhouse in stark confusion. I had a feeling in my gut that I was being stalked by something, a haunting feeling I still remember to this day. All of a sudden, something hit my head and all went black.
I then woke up in a slightly lit area, immediately noticing something wrong with my vision. Touching the area where my right eye should’ve been, I was instead met with a hollow and it was becoming apparent as it began to hurt. I reached out to the front of my left eye and noticed blood on my finger. As much as it scares me about a missing eye, that was the least of my concerns as I was looking around to see the area. Where I am at, it is a large cavern, minus the stalactites, basking in a warm light coming from my right and smells of rotting meat. When I looked down, I was shocked in horror as I saw the wretched bodies of many animals.
It is hard to remember this, the trauma it had caused me was permanent, but I’ll try to describe what I did to get out of there. I was looking around, frozen like a deer in headlights, at the many corpses that lay in this cave. I then shook it out, remembering that I had to escape this hell. I carefully moved over the corpses, trying not to step on them and aware something could still be in the cave. Eventually moving to a clear enough path, I moved to where the light came from. I noticed that the orange light flickers. Getting closer, I realised it was a fire going, a relatively large one. Missing an eye puts me at a disadvantage, as anything to my right would be blocked by my nose. Also, it was bleeding, feeling the streams coming down my face.
I needed to get something to cover my wound very quickly. Looking around the fire, I noticed a large pile of clothes at the other side of the fire. Being cautious, I very slowly walked around the fire, still looking around the darkness in an endless, paralysing fear. Eventually, I got there but the clothes themselves were mostly dirty and blood covered. I dug through the clothes, recognising that they once belonged to somebody. I eventually found a sleeve of a white sweatshirt, so I wrapped it around my head to cover my bleeding socket.
I then heard something within the cave, in the distance. It prompted me to hide in the clothes, stinking of sweat and mold while seeing through my left eye to an opening. It sounded like scratching and footsteps, getting closer and louder to the fire where I am staring. The scratching then stopped and the footsteps continued, assuming it was in the cave already. Looking behind the fire, I could see a hairless, pale, small-bodied figure walking around on thin legs and carrying something in its thin arms. As it walked into darkness, I thought I saw its bunny-like ears upon the head of the creature.
All of a sudden, it produced a sound that sounded like an angry bull but higher pitched, almost like a blood-curdling scream of a woman about to die in the horror movies. The thing came out of the darkness. The sight of it will haunt me in my dreams as I saw its face for the first time. It looked like a combination of a rabbit and a human, with a somewhat human-like mouth, a rabbit’s nose and eyes that are in proportion when compared to a human. I could tell the eyes are dilated, with large pupils taking up half of its eyes. I could see what seemed to be blood around its mouth as it opened them. The teeth looked like broken glass placed haphazardly all over the inside of its mouth as it gaped unusually wide, nearly reaching to the base of the neck, as it produced that same scream.
It seems to be looking all over the place for something, going under the bodies and turning over the bones and screaming. It seems to be angry that I am gone from the body pile it had made. It then went around the fire to crouch down in front of the clothes pile, blocking the light and my view as it reached out with those familiar large hands towards me.
The creature then hesitated as there are noises coming from the entrance where it came from. The noises themselves sounded like shouting, but the creature screamed, filtering out the voices. The creature quickly walked towards the same entrance, clawing through the entrance until its sounds were gone. I could hear gunfire coming from the entrance as more footsteps are coming, but more human this time.
I then saw Bob and a few other men with flashlights and shotguns running into my view, also searching for me but for an entirely different reason. As one of the men got close enough to the clothes pile, I reached out my left hand and the man noticed. He then called out the rest of the men to come to me. Bob looked at me shocked and he picked me up, carrying me while surrounded by the others.
As we got to the entrance, the men turned around, shining their flashlights, only for the creature to pop out. The men began shooting it, with some shells hitting the creature and the others at the cave walls. It is affected by them, adding to the collective of bullet holes already in it. This did not slow it down, as it proceeded to grab one of the men and bite off his head, only to toss it aside as it swiped at another of them, throwing him across the cavern. We went between its legs, narrowly escaping the thing as the others are still shooting the thing, with some shells zooming past us.
Bob ran and ran through the cave for ten minutes until we met with the other men. There, a rope ladder is there, going up about a hundred feet. A rope then came down as the screams of the creature got closer and closer. Bob proceeded to put me down on a board and wrapped the rope around me at the belly, eventually tying me down to the board. I was then pulled up as the others began to shoot down the entrance, towards the hellish thing coming. Some of the men began to climb the ladder and, for a few minutes, I could hear shooting and screaming coming from below. Eventually, I was being dragged out of the entrance by a few others and that is when I began to be in and out of the blackness. Eventually, the darkness took over and I thought I was dead at the time.
I woke up in a hospital bed, within the blue sheets and still missing vision from the right eye, but less blood. I looked around in the white sheet walls, when I saw a hand poking out. The curtains opened to reveal my mother. She was crying and came at me for a hug, telling me that she is worried about me. The nurse came in to tell me that, other than the missing eye, I’ll recover. They stayed around for a few minutes, while we chatted about life at home. Eventually, my mother said her goodbyes and the nurse said she’ll return to check on me. After they left, Bob came out, walking towards me to give me a hug. I asked what happened and he was hesitant, telling me if I am sure that I wanted to hear this. I shook my head in agreement.
He told me slowly that he heard of my taking by one of the elders at the villa. The person claimed the creature went to the schoolhouse and somehow squeezed through the windows of the schoolhouse. The elder eventually called Bob to tell him about it. Bob did not believe this at first, but the elder is adamant about it, swearing to God even. He drove to the schoolhouse to find it empty at first.
He kicked down the doors of the building and gained access. At first, the room seems perfectly normal, only to notice a hole in the wall. He walked down the stairs behind the busted wall to a stone basement. Within the basement, he saw what seemed to be some kind of stone altar. In front of this stone altar is a big hole, roughly about ten or twenty feet in diameter. The moment he thought something is wrong was when he saw pools of blood near the entrance.
He exited the building to call up his buddies, of which he told them to get flashlights and shotguns. He waited a few minutes until, apparently, a whole army of Mennonites showed up before his buddies, also told by the old man about the creature. They also came with guns and flashlights and even told him he will help him find his friend’s daughter and kill the hellish beast. His friends eventually arrived, at first arguing with the Mennonites until they heard the creature’s hellish scream. Some became reluctant, but eventually willing to do as there is an army of men there to help, no matter what. As the Mennonites prayed to God for help and the rest prepared, Bob and some of his buddies came down to the basement to figure out a plan.
One of them luckily came with the ladder and hooked it up to the altar. They were worried that the ladder may never reach whatever floor lays down the entrance. To their luck, the ladder had enough length to reach the floor and fastened the ropes to the altar. They told the rest that they are ready and they all loaded up their guns. Their plan is that some of the men would be at the floor of the drop-off while the rest stay up at the surface. A group, led by Bob, would go through the cave to find me. The police were called in the case things got worse.
You get what happened next in the cave, but the surface is different. The police did arrive, but they were telling everyone to leave. They even threatened to arrest anyone who don’t do what they said. The group were reluctant, as the plan is already set in motion and did not want the plan to go wrong. A confrontation ensued and they argued, until the screams came again from the schoolhouse, along with gunfire. That was the moment the police figured out the situation and decided to join them.
When I blacked out, the creature killed a few more men, with Bob and others escaping luckily. The Mennonites then threw their home-made molotovs towards the creature, setting it on fire, with it retreating into the cave. The schoolhouse is eventually burned down to block the entrance, trapping the creature down in the cave.
I asked him whether he’ll tell anyone about it. He explained that everyone knew about it, but that he, along with the people involved, wouldn’t tell a soul as it’ll get people curious and go to the place, potentially releasing it again. He was also relieved that I somehow survived the whole ordeal, and I have thought about it since.
Years later, I am still pondering about that thought. The fire burning in that cavern would’ve filled it with carbon monoxide, even potentially killing the thing. For some reason, it didn’t, either it was just recently lit, or that the system is much bigger than I could imagine. If it is the latter, who knows how many more of those things are underground, waiting to get out onto the surface.