1 Prologue
"But perhaps the monsters needed to look out for each other every now and then."
-Sarah J. Mass, "Queen of Shadows"
Humans are not supposed to pass through and live to tell the tale. Those pale, pathetic creatures are only good for the words that come out of their mouths. They're weak, fragile, and careless of the world that surrounds them. Their strength is that of plankton. Their fears amount to a number of things ranging from dust to elephants to the space galaxy. Humans only think of themselves and don't see how the world works as long as their world is perfect.
If you're a human and are reading this, I'm sorry...wait. Scratch that. I'm not sorry. It's true. Maybe you'll read this and pass it on. Maybe you'll read this and understand that there isn't just the ordinary and normal, but also the extraordinary and unbelievable. You'll learn that there are not just humans, animals, plants, and insects. But Aatxe, Xelhua, Xindhi, La-bar-tu, and Laelaps. Maybe you'll soon realize that you're not just affecting your world with your pollution, but ours as well!
It isn't like us creatures beyond the Gate to look twice at a mortal being. It isn't like us to spare someone's life just because of one look that could be interpreted in thousands of ways. It isn't like us to befriend the enemy and protect it from one of our own. We may be ugly, cruel, despicable, gruesome, and unclean, but we do not go against each other—not for a human that is.
It used to be that the beings beyond the Gate were going extinct and we needed some way of protecting ourselves from the overpopulating species of the Human race. We needed sanctuary from the misunderstanding minds of those pale pathetic lot. Somewhere we could find peace and happiness – of some kind with our different species – and have the ability to run wild and be who we are. The Each-uisge needs to have open lands and vast waters to live. It must have a way of being able to disguise itself on land and change form in the water to carry its victim to their deaths. We need the freedom to survive...considering quite a few of us have lived on this planet much, much longer than any human.
This – as some in the human world might call it – horror-filled fantasy is of how one girl made half our kind turn against each other in a kind of extraordinary civil war: her being the leader of one side while the other side was led by the most fearsome creature of them all.
How did it start out, you may ask?
It started with the fear of monsters under the bed...
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Qiqirn
Definition: Dog spirit. Looks like it lost in a fight. Looks vicious, but is fearful of living dogs and men.
