Where Monsters Live

The tale is as old as the most ancient of trees. A warning to all children about the dangers of the wild. Some hear it a bedtime story to send them to sleep with morals, others are chastised about it when they don't heed its message.

The tale has been told throughout the world, almost every culture having their own version. But the themes and directed moral are pervasive in all telling. A child travels out into the woods without supervision or permission then the child and their family die to some monster. Aspects can be added, such as why the child goes to the wilderness for or what they do while there. Aspects can be changed, such as what form the monster takes, if the child is eaten before the return home or after, and so on. But they all include the basic plots structure and the message that "children should not go out into the wild on their own."

The most well-known version of this story is by Aldr Fetzh-kyuru in his collection of fairy tales "Splendiferous Life and the Monsters They Coddle." This is his retelling of a version by the people of Thwiuhnde called "All That Remains".

She has been told over and over again by her mother to avoid the woods, and to not leave their home at night. The little girl did not listen, too curious about the mysteries that lied just beyond her small village. One night, she wandered out while her mother slept and wandered into the woods. The trees blocked the moonlight, shrouding the forest floor in blackness. Creatures she could not see chirped and hooted at her. She found that nothing came to harm her, not even the presence of anything that would eat her as her mother said. That was until she heard a twig snap. She turned to see an enormous shadow of a hideous monster, its growl shaking her to her core. She screams and runs back to her home, to her mother's open arms.

The beast followed her, its shadowy body waiting at the forests edge. Her father came out to protect them. The monster came with an endless jaw snapping her father down its vile throat. It then ripped the mother away, catching her on claws dripping read. She too was eaten. The girl screamed, terrified at what she had brought. The monster left her, gnarls of black fur screeching through the night.

Upon the sunrise, the village laid still.