Disclaimer: I do not own Over the Garden wall. Ownership is just an illusion anyway. Thanks for clicking, and enjoy!
The word was slow to spread, as no one dared to speak of it. But the event was understood, it was found, it became an unspoken truth.
The Beast was dead.
There was no tale of how it happened, not one that anybody quite believed, at least. There was no documentation of the killing, no hero, and no one willing to come forth and say "I killed it."
No, the proof that the Beast was dead was much more gruesome. It was the trees.
Before, when the beast had lived, the foul spirit lured the lost into the woods, there the lost would become trees. The woodsman had chopped the trees down. The oil from the trees lit the lantern. It wasn't the happiest thing to happen, but it was the way of life. The lost souls would leave the unknown in the worst way possible. But they still left. The only remainder of their past lives being stumps, deep in the forest where no one could see.
But, now the lost souls had no where to go. Only the lucky few were able to leave and return to the world they left. The rest of the wanderers would aimlessly trek through the forest. Once they lost hope, there would be no guiding voice singing the souls to their grave. Instead the lost would collapse. They would die. The edelwood trees would grow around them slowly, than the trees would tower as they continued to grow. They stood as warnings, they stood as snapshot images of each residents future, they stood as taunting, growing, corpses. They were no longer something the residents of the Unknown could avoid, now they were ever present, ever growing, ever there. They were now depairing, wild, evil, things.
They were also definitive proof. The beast was dead.
However, it wasn't long before some of the residents decided that the Beast dying had destroyed the order and balance of the unknown. It wasn't long before a new person stood to become the beast, the lulling figure of despair which kept the woods moving, alive, fighting, and grounded.
It wasn't long before a new woodsman emerged to cut the symbols of death, to keep the woods clean, to roam and chop and warn the dying to stay alive.
It wasn't long before the Unknown righted itself and returned to its natural order.
After all, for a soul to survive the Unknown, it needs a calling. What better calling is there than controlling death?
A/N
This is just a random babble I jotted down about the possible fallout of the series. I probably won't do much with it, but I am batting around a few ideas about who the new Beast may be. I also have a pretty good idea for a story revolving around that concept. I may or may not use this as a short preface to an actual story, but for now, I think this works as a fun little one shot.
Thanks for reading! Love; MisguidedGhostWriter