“Silence, please.”
Green leaned in to watch.
She clicked the switch. A distant crackle like tearing linen purred from the speaker.
There was a smell like a freshly tilled field.
Valentina pointed to the sugar cube in Green’s hand, then to the floor.
At the thin gap where the library floor met the trunk of the great oak, near where the cord disappeared below the deck, a hedge of trumpet-shaped mushrooms were rising like a city skyline in miniature, towers as soft and pale as salamander bellies. The fungal thicket leaned toward a central point, became a column, a platform, an open palm sprouting long, curving fingers. The fingers opened. The hand looked both too human and not human enough, a fruiting body from the uncanny valley.
He placed his offering on the palm. The sugar cube sank beneath the yielding flesh and the hand divided back into fungal shapes that quickly receded beneath the floorboards, leaving only a pale dusting of spores in their wake.
Valentina spoke to the box.
“This is Valentina Blackwood transmitting on cryptonaturalist frequency 11-58-1. I have taken on a new apprentice at my camp in the Catskill Mountains. He is an absolute novice, yet he has made a number of discoveries that are worth your attention.
“Firstly, for the past seventy-two hours I have possessed the corpse of a rag moth obtained near the shores of Lake Michigan. Last night, my apprentice observed the spontaneous decay of the corpse. The decay coincided with the emergence of no fewer than one hundred caterpillars.”
She continued to relay the details of Green’s observations, then shifted subjects.
“Unlikely as it may sound, this is the second noteworthy discovery my apprentice has made in as many nights. The night before last, he spotted the glass fawn here near my camp.
“This was his first sighting of cryptonature and a local resident advised him to seek me out as a result.”
Green squirmed at “first sighting of cryptonature.” He stuffed a hand in his pocket and said nothing.
Valentina continued.
“His description of the fawn matches the known records. Translucent body. Visible organs. Pale bioluminescence.”
He knew what was coming next and he didn’t want to hear it.
“Additionally, he saw something new. A large lupine creature with black, viscous, dynamic flesh that shifted to reveal the skeletal structure beneath. This cryptid appeared to be pursuing the fawn.”
And my throat.
“It was approximately the size of a large black bear with the morphology of an uncommonly stocky wolf, with a posterior curving S-shaped horn on its muzzle. The creature shattered my apprentice’s windshield as he sat motionless in his car. It thoroughly investigated his person and caused several minor injuries. He also experienced nonverbal communication with the creature.”
Sure. The way a kick to the groin is “communication” with the kicker’s foot.
Valentina looked to Green and motioned him closer.
“As the discoverer of this new organism, the naming falls to my apprentice. He calls it…”
Valentina pointed at the device and looked to Green.
They hadn’t discussed the name.
Descriptions stampeded through his head.
Murder wolf. Nightmare wolf. Devil wolf.
He looked around at the shelves full of wonders and knew those names wouldn’t do. Green’s pulse raced, but he leaned in and spoke as steadily as he could manage.
“The horned wolf.”
If you wanted creativity, you should have given me some notice.
