The Waking Deep

 The current assignment is to make general posts on the blog for the next three weeks. While working as a substitute and dealing with horrible high schoolers, I've had trouble thinking of what to do since I didn't want to do just another cryptid breakdown till a friend made a suggestion tonight. Why not find some stories from others from the places they're from or their hometowns. I have several friends from around the world, so surely there are a couple of creepy urban legends they've either experienced or heard from their grandpa on his third glass of whiskey at the kitchen table while the mother who forbid it is off in another room doing laundry and this is his one drunken chance to freak out his grandkid.  Now it's too late in the night to go interviewing for stories and there's only an hour and a half left on this deadline. So, with the help of my own alcoholic energy, I'm going to recount one from when I was little about my aunt's basement and the ...

  One prevalent creature popping up in pop culture memes is the skin-walker. A creature that takes on the forms of animals to get close to its prey (Typically you). This meme is usually in reference to dogs or deer.   The origins of the American Skin-walker seem to come from Navajo folktales. They describe that of a terrible witch that transforms into animals and imitates them. The native tongue for them is "Yee naaldlooshii" which means "By means of it, it goes on all fours". The legends the Navajo told weren't as particularly gruesome as what's used now as in legend, Skinwalkers can also possess people and the legend depicts a struggle of who wins out in keeping the body. Today, they're depicted as murderous and ravenous monsters that hunt you in whatever form helps them most be it a 'peaceful' animal, the family pet, or a family member. But mostly the meme is made on deer and there's a potential reason for why the focus shifted towards dee...

  Here is a remix of a selection of cryptids that reside in North America. The image includes the Pope Lick Monster (Louiseville, Kentucky), the Wendigo (Plains and Great Lake Natives), the Rougarou (Louisiana), the Ogopogo (British Columbia, Canada), the Jersey Devil (New Jersey) and others. As this blog is going to be more about horror stories, sci-fi, and cryptids, this felt relevant especially after my previous post on Mothman.  Images sourced from... Rougarou https://pinebarrensinstitute.com/cryptids/2018/8/18/quick-cryptid-snippet-rougarou Sasquatch https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.20696 Squonk SQUONK by Richard Svensson from "fearsome critters!" 2008 Ogopogo https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ogopogo Skinwalker https://www.legendsofamerica.com/navajo-skinwalkers/ Jersey Devil The Jersey Devil, Philadelphia Bulletin , January 1909 The Pope Lick Monster monstrumathenaeum.org Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp Image by David Ro...