A/N: Hello again! This story is a collaboration with Erwin Rommel98. We are alternating writing chapters, and editing each other's work, so you should see some influence from each of our writing styles in every chapter. This chapter was written by Erwin and is meant to lay some of the groundwork for the story. Next chapter focuses on our favorite duo!
This story is going to be very horror-esque, as it was originally going to be a quick Halloween special, but we decided that it should be its own full story.
Anyways, enjoy!
...
It was December 1619, and it was a very, very cold winter. In Easton, a small town four hundred miles north of where Zootopia stands today, a polar bear was getting ready to go to bed. He had just finished stoking the fire and adding more wood, trying to avoid hypothermia. He had been eating less than usual recently, the unusually cold winter having caused a minor famine.
His name was Haines, and he was a solitary creature. He lived in a largish one-room shack just outside his small town of Easton. His backyard was thick forest, still uncut by the loggers who passed this way in the summer to head further north. His front yard was a little more open but was still shrouded by trees. Folks usually had a hard time finding his place, even though it was only a ten or so minute walk from the town square.
He had finished his supper not even an hour ago, yet he was already hungry. He got into bed and laid there, curled up under the covers. He was hoping that sleep would come and take away the hunger for a while, but sleep would not come. Haines sat and listened as the rumblings of his stomach bemoaned the small meal he had eaten. It felt like someone had put a pointy stick in his stomach, and he turned every which way, trying to appease the sharp pain. But in Haines' mind, it wasn't the amount of food he was eating that caused this, it was the type of food. He was sure of it. He was lacking proper food.
Haines was a mighty polar bear. He should be dining on meat every night, not on hard wheat biscuits and ersatz tea, as he did most every night. Granted, he should also be hibernating, but some things had changed. Not, however, his appetite. He needed red meat. He was destined for it.
Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he was brought back to his senses by a scratching at the door to his shack.
Scritch, scritch, scratch
over and over again.
Scritch, scritch, scratch
At first, he thought he was imagining it, but it was persistent. Haines grew worried. There was only one way to find out who was at his door.
Grudgingly, he got out of his warm bed and walked over to the fireplace to grab a long iron poker. Best be armed just in case, he thought. Cautiously, he approached the door. The scratching continued. Slowly he reached out and unlocked it, grasping at the latch and counting to five. At five he yanked the door open and yelled.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
But there was nothing there. Just darkness and cold wind that promised snow.
So, he had been imagining it. Haines quickly closed the door, shutting out the cold that caused his fire to nearly die. He turned around and, without thinking, lashed out with the poker at a tall, gangly creature covered in red scales who was standing just in front of him. The creature gave a high pitched mocking laugh, and in the time it took for the poker to follow through with its swing, it had popped up on the other side of the room, out of his reach.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Haines roared, walking to the creature, still holding the poker. He was ready to knock its ugly, pointed head right off. He stopped a few feet away from it, and the creature laughed again.
"Hah! As if I had a name… foolish mortal," the creature said in a dark, raspy voice. "No name can encompass what I am."
"Well if you aren't telling me who you are, then tell me what the hell you want," Haines said, more irritated that the privacy of his home had been invaded than he was angry or frightened.
"Let's start off with a story, shall we?" it responded deviously. That was not the answer Haines had been expecting. A story? This thing waltzes into his home in the middle of the night after pulling him from his warm bed just so it could tell him a story?
"This had better be a good story," said Haines. "Or I'll see to it that you never tell any more!"
"So feisty… Just my type of mammal. This story is about a stag named Christopher. Christopher lived hundreds of years ago, and for a while, he was king of Fallworth. You know of Fallworth, don't you?"
"I've heard this story! save me some time here and-"
"Ah ah ah! You most certainly did not hear this side of the story. Now as I was saying, Fallworth, as you know, was quite powerful. It, however, did not gain its wealth through conventional means. You see, long ago there were 5 dragons. Each wished to be great and powerful. The best way to do so at the time was to be a king, however, our dragons had some limitations.
"Not one of our dragons could build, nor did they have any sort of followable personality. So, since they couldn't found their own cities to build wealth, they used their power to create a sort of tax. The cities in the region would pay them in gold and jewels, in exchange for not being utterly destroyed," the creature continued, walking around the room, poking about Haines' possessions.
Haines was about to tell the creature to stop meddling with his property but was cut off just as he drew in a breath.
"Ah ah ah, Haines. No more interruptions. Now, where was I? Ah yes, our dear Christopher. Christopher was the king of Fallworth. Before its rise to power, Fallworth used to be a small town, so small that it did not have to pay tribute but once every five years. Christopher, though, wanted more. He wanted to be the largest and richest city-state of the land. I could feel his desire for riches and power, so, I decided to stop by one day.
"I gave him an offer. I would grant King Christopher power over the dragons. But there was a price, you could say. In order for Christopher to maintain power over the dragons, he had to make blood sacrifices to me. One hundred mammals per year was the quota, and thankfully for me, he had no trouble slaying innocent mammals for his own desires. He really was something…" The creature said, drifting off, remembering what a specimen Christopher was. Haines cleared his throat.
"Oh, yes! Anyways, Christopher agreed, and over five years, he had collected the payments from other cities that were supposed to be going to the dragons. Fallworth became the most powerful city-state on the continent, not only in terms of wealth and population, but military might as well. Christopher loved calling on the dragons in battle... I never regretted the decision to give him dragons, he put them to good use… They were so powerful. Such sources of destruction and pain...
"I digress. The point is, due to his wealth, he became extremely prideful. So much so that, one year, he decided to not pay me, as the killing of 100 mammals in ritual sacrifice was apparently too time-consuming. He would rather spend his time doing various, foolish mortal things apparently," the creature said, rolling his eyes.
"So, since he decided not to pay me, the dragons were free. Now, poor Christopher had not treated the dragons all that well, and on top of that, he had completely robbed them of all their riches. And I think you know how a dragon will guard its hoard... you understand how mad it will get when someone tries to steal it...
"Needless to say, when Christopher came out of his castle and into the large courtyard to call upon the dragons, he found them already there, waiting for him. And he was roasted. Literally. The dragons systematically destroyed Fallworth, until it was nothing more than piles of stone in vaguely building like shapes. Nothing flammable survived.
"Then, the dragons took all their riches back and they lived happily ever after, The End… Now, the ending of that story is, well, less than satisfactory, wouldn't you say?" The creature said, pausing in wait of a response.
"Sounds like the guy got what he deserved to me…" Haines said, a pained expression shooting across the beasts face.
"Oh, Haines! Oh dear, dearest Haines. Don't you see? Christopher could have had it all! But he threw it away…" The creature said. Haines still wasn't getting it.
"Alright, well, that was a nice story, too bad, Chris died, now would you let me get some sleep?" Haines said, still irritated by the creature. He didn't care if it was some kind of god or devil, it was irritating, that's what it was.
"How could you invite a guest into your home just to ask them to leave! You are hard to read."
"Really, I invited you? And how is that?" Haines asked, feigning perplexity.
"I think you know how." the creature replied with venom, finally growing irritated with the polar bear. He walked over to the fireplace and picked up an ash trowel.
"You want to eat red meat, correct?" he asked, giving the fire a poke with the shovel, causing sparks to shoot up into the chimney. The creature's scales shimmered in the heat, moving with the flow of the hot air, absorbing its energy.
"Yes. I do, I'm sick of bread, and fish, and crickets, and all of the other nonsense we're forced to eat," Haines said. The creature continued to poke the fire and make his scales glow.
"Why is it that we predators have to make accommodations for the prey?!" Haines continued, starting to pace back and forth.
"Weren't we once on top of the food chain? Now what are we? Equal? Why equal?" he shouted the last words at the wall, spittal flying. The creature simply stayed by the fire, seemingly taking in its energy.
"But now you're here!" Haines said after a short pause, whipping around and pointing the poker at the creature. Now the demon had to play his cards right. While he could influence people's emotions, he still couldn't control someone, not with this little energy at least. He knew that the longer he let Haines rant, the more likely he would be to accept his proposition.
"Yes, I'm glad you can see that," he said sarcastically. "I'm here to make a proposition."
"A proposition?"
"Yes, you know, a deal, a..."
"I know what it is!" Haines said angrily, stepping closer and waving the poker.
"Ah, well, in that case, hear me out," the creature said, putting the shovel back on the rack beside the hearth.
"I will grant you the ability to eat prey mammals…"
"I already can!" Haines interrupted.
"Will you let me finish? You impatient oaf. And put down that poker will you? It's getting annoying having you wave it around all the time. It's like you're trying to conduct an insubordinate orchestra..."
Haines looked at him incredulously, but slowly lowered the poker, walking over to the dining table and sitting down.
The creature watched him quietly, then picked the shovel back up and poked the fire again, his scales shimmering just as before. He then went over to the half depleted woodpile, picking up another split log and placing it on the fire. He put the shovel back down and stared into the flames.
The creature continued. "I was going to say the ability to eat prey mammals without any sort of repercussions... Now, I don't quite have the power to make it so that nobody will notice that mammals are going missing, but I can make it where they will never suspect you. Or anyone who wishes to follow in your footsteps."
Haines thought for a moment. He knew, or at least he thought he knew, that this individual was some kind of god. He knew that this wouldn't make his life any easier, but nothing worth getting was easy to get.
"I have to admit, I'm interested… in turn for what though?" Haines asked. The creature continued looking into the fire.
"Well, you see, the very nature of what you desire is payment enough for me… It's a symbiotic relationship. You do things that benefit me, and I do things that benefit you. Unlike our friend Christopher, your payment will be that which I grant you the means to carry out. So, if you continue doing what you're doing, I get stronger and therefore so do you. And if you wish to stop, you simply stop and nobody will be any the wiser… So, what do you say?" He said, waiting on Haines' response. Haines paused again, weighing his decision. It was a fairly easy one.
"As long as you are true to your word, we have a deal."
"Wonderful. The next time you feel the urge to eat red meat, don't worry about giving in-" he said, pausing to pull a small book out from behind his back. Where did that come from? Haines thought "-These are some instructions, so to speak" the creature continued. "You will find procedures with which you can summon me, or others where you simply ask for something and give me power in exchange. This is not the complete list, there are some rituals that I will not give you as I don't think you are ready yet.
"And one more thing; you will come across others, others who wish for the same thing as you do. Befriend them, and if they too can consume, I will deliver."
Before Haines could say another word, the creature walked straight through his closed front door, and was gone. A few seconds later there was a knock at the door.
Is this creature really going to be like this? Haines thought as he opened the door. Yet again, he didn't see anyone at first, but a sniffle told him to look down. Standing there was a young rabbit doe, trembling from the cold. She was wrapped in a heavy shawl and had a neat little hat on.
"I'm sorry mister," She said nervously. "I'm not from here, I'm looking for some family's house. Could you tell me where Brook street is?" She said, sniffling. Haines knew this was a sign.
"Why, you look terribly cold. Come inside, warm up a bit. Brook Street is quite a ways away," he said, his demeanor betraying his intentions. The rabbit smiled hesitantly, but the warmth that flowed out of the door was so inviting that, despite her better judgment, she stepped across the threshold.