Chapter 3.5 – The Expedition

So originally I was planning on posting the letter detailing the expedition along with the other 1630 letters, but there was a limit on the number of words. I have posted it now.

From the Memoir of Minister Benjamin Chase: December 7th, 1630

Our quest was a success, but I am confused as to whether or not that is a good thing.

For the past few weeks, Mahalia has refused to convert, but she has learned to speak as we speak. She was adamant, as Jaralath was that there were beasts in the woods unlike the animals we’d hunt. And for months now, we have prepared a new expedition. It took time to find willing and abled bodied men, willing to follow Mahlia into the territory of what she calls the forest people.

She and Jaralath have grown close, and he insisted on joining our caravan. The two were nigh inseparable since she joined our colony, he was one who taught her to speak in Gaelic. They would share stories of their experiences in the woods, and Jaralath was always eager to talk about the so called monsters, as well as his friend the small wolf. She would never share these stories with us, but Jaralath was the only one who’d believe her. Seeing them bond, I fear the influence they may have on eachother, for Mahalia has not converted as her other people have, and may lure him away from the flock.

Jaralath, I do not believe his faith is strong, and he could hinder our attempts to convert her. I allow him to join the caravan, but I kept my eyes the two of them of course, so neither would give into the flesh, and to protect the twenty seven men acompanying us from taking any temptations out on her.

We have given Mahalia one of our bear fur coats for the winter months. It was about the only time we got out of that bird dress. So she’s dressed differently and now speaking more languages other than the unfamiliar one.

Erik Müller insisted on traveling with us, but I advised against it. He had confessed in September to deflowering Anya Pavel, and as penance, he has married her in front of God and the Colony.

I specifically advised him not to join for Anya was with child, but he adamant that he was convicted by the Holy Spirit to do so.

His father and my former traveling companion Oskar also insisted on joining us. Once again I tried to refuse him as age, the demon drink, and years of sloth, did quite the a number on his body. To his credit, he mellowed considerably and cut down his drinking, not at my counseling, but at the news he was going to be a grandfather.

Oskar still didn’t trust Mahalia, still claimed she was tempting and luring us to death, but I knew he was concerned about his son.

It was during our travel, Mahalia led our Caravan untouched by our parties; we never hunted there, farmed there. No other colonies nor tribes settled there, and there was no sign of human civilization. We have surely strayed from our usual paths when we past the south of the mountain. The very mountain that Angelica’s sister Edith was laid to rest forever.

Oskar and I had unsettling memories about the mountain, but the men among us were not there so they could not understand.

We must have traveled forty miles into this untouched territory before we made camp. We settled in this unfamiliar land, built our tents, our fire and waited for the night to take us. When the night came, we were all to tired to sleep. So instead we talked.

As I tried to start a sermon, I noticed Mahalia’s disinterest. As I continued my efforts to reach out to Jaralath, I realized I never spoken extensively to him about what he believes. So I ask him, what he makes from the Bible after reading it for five years. He told me he doesn’t see them as any different than the stories his family told him growing up, and that he doesn’t hold them in any more reverence. Same as the stories Mahalia told. I ask him to humour us, and gave Mahalia the “sermon”.

This is what Mahlia, told us albeit in broken English with Jaralath helping her; “The Forest People are like us. They can be good. Be bad. They eat berries, nuts, mushrooms. They eat animals.”

“You mean to tell me they are humans ?” Erik asks.

“I call them people. Humans are a different kind of people. Some are like animals. There is the Gugwe, the Bear Men, the Face Eaters.” She makes a hand gesture around her face “Like forest people, but with bear mouth. There is the Genoskwa; they are also like the Forest People, but they have bigger teeth, claws, they are stronger, and they eat only flesh. They can’t be killed, their hide are hard, arrows will do nothing.” Mahalia explains.

“Just as my mother described them.” Jaralath adds “The Stone Giants she called them. What they do is, they cover their fur in-.” He starts before he is interrupted.

“You truly believe what she is telling you ?” Oskar questions.

“I believe what my eyes see Mr. Müller. You put your faith in a man and the words he tells you. So how about opening your mind and shutting your mouth, and let the lady speak.” Jaralath snips at Oskar.

Oskar quiets down and I nod at Mahlia to continue

“As long as I known of them, no one has been able to kill a Genoskwa. When I was turning into a woman, one smelled my blood, so my Forest Family hid me. I could smell it, so I ran. One of my forest brothers followed me for protection. We saw a hunter, who thought he was attacking me, so he shot at him, and tried to lead me away. The Genoskwa found us, ripped the hunters head off and started eating him.” Mahalia says using hand motions, mimicking something being twisted and pulled “I ran again, up a river until I reached the waterfall. I hid again.” She shook a bit as she said it “It found me, but the others found it, and chased it off.”

“These Forest People ? They never hurt you ?” I hear Erik ask.

“You can’t possibly believe her!” Oskar interrupts. Before he is shushed by the other men. Clearly they where intrigued by the new stories she was telling.

“Not my family. They feed me, protect me, watch me. They always watch me, like they always watch your village. There is the Dog Men.” As she says this I see Jaralath tense “They always hunt, always fight with my family and others. They are like the Gugwe. They are like a Genoskwa; always vicious, always killing what is not themselves.”

“And how are your, as you put it, family, any different ?” I finally speak up.

“They can be sometimes. The Forest People are like humans. They have families, they have tribes. And they have war. And they are always fighting. That is when the giants come out. They look more like people, but still like animals. They have red fur, bigger teeth, use weapons and clothes, like our tribes. They are bigger than us, bigger than them, and they are bullies. When the smaller people fight on their land, they start to kill them. Sometimes they eat them. I’ve been told stories, of how the humans of the tribes and the forest people came together to fight the giants. Just like the bigger child who bullies the smaller children, he isn’t so brave in strong when outnumbered.” As she says the last part she has a smile and tone of amusement.

Several of the men laugh at this, I one of them. “Two armies coming together against a common enemy. A true David and Goliath.” I’ll admit my attempts at humor are not the best, I am a Minister not a court jester, but my remark caused her bemused expression flattened.

“But even then, there was a beast that strikes fear even in the hearts of the giants. It is more than just a beast, but a spirit which” before she can finish, Oskar interrupts.

“So you trust the word of a damned heathen ?”

“More than I trust the wisdom of a drunk.” Jaralath quips.

“So you’ve seen them ?”

“From a distance, as I’ve been telling you for years. What have you seen your whole life ? Besides the bottom of a bottle ? And frankly, I think you’re scared of being taken out of your cozy box. You didn’t have to go on this expedition, so if you are so afraid, why don’t you just turn around and walk back home ? It’ll be the most work I’ve seen you do in the five years since I’ve known you.” Jaralath angrily speaks up.

“Are you men really blind ?” Oskar shouts out, looking over the men and pointing towards Mahlia, who remained considerably sober “You follow the word of a heathen girl and a feral boy, who will only lead us to destruction! This is not the path of God and this is not the path I want my son, grandchild and colony to walk down!”

“I believe them father.” I hear Erik interrupt Oskar, to he elder Müller’s shock. Erik told the camp of his hunting trip with my son. He told them the same story he told to convince me t take up the request for this expedition “I went hunting with Greeshaw, and he told me he believes in them. He believes they are of God’s creation, and they sit in judgment of us. They have always been watching our colony, and we must consider them as part of the creators plan for us.”

Oskar looked aghast at this but said nothing. He just sat back down and took his drink “So these creatures, are they watching us ?”

“Always. Even if you haven’t seen them, they have seen you.” Mahalia says stoically.

“Then why haven’t they revealed themselves ?” Oskar questions.

“Because they are afraid of people. That’s why they avoid us, and war when they don’t. We have to earn their trust. They trust me. Not you.”

Shortly there after, it was time to rest flames and rest. We packed some hunting supplies in case we found something and needed to defend ourselves, and Mahalia slept several yards from the rest of us.

I knew that neither Jaralath or Mahalia knew nor understood the terror we experienced years ago, when we first discovered the colony. That it was Oskar who discovered my sister-in-law half eaten by her own sister, or the large half eaten bodies that looked hardly human, on a winter such as this. I do not think even Erik knows the truth about Edith.

I know Oskar may never be strong, ready or brave enough to tell the truth of the matter, so I believe it will fall upon me. I knew for sure that it had after what happened that night.

We awoke, I do not know when, but it was still near pitch black. We could hear Mahalia scream. Several men were up and ready, including myself, Erik and Jaralath, and we followed her screams and a trail of footprints in the snow from her tent, and across a frozen small stream, and down steep hills.

The moon and lanterns was our only light, and even then barley so with the blowing winds and near blinding snow, but I believe Jaralath’s years hunting, and nightly trips into the forest, may have improved his eye sight, because he knew where to run before we did, and was the first to run into pitch black darkness before we could make out what was before us. For most of the chase, we were following him until we reached a clearing.

We didn’t need eyes to see at first, for we heard Oskar’s voice calling out in the darkness.

“Come on out! Come and claim your own! Come and take this heathen wench you savage beasts” I apologize, but the expletives he shouted should never come from a holy man. Jaralath ran into the clearing, and we finally saw Oskar; having laid Mahalia down onto the ground, binded her by her wrists and ankles, with a rifle at her head, when he wasn’t waving it around into the trees.

While Oskar was yelling and pointing his gun at nothing, Jaralath taken him by surprise and struck him to the ground.Oskar and Jaralath came to blows. Jaralath’s youth, and hunting experience had advantage over Oskar’s partially drunken, aged and out of worked body. As quickly as their fight started, Jaralath has beaten Oskar into the ground with the savagery of an angry animal.

In the struggle, Oskar dropped his rifle, but he attempted to reach for it when Jaralath held him down by the neck. Jaralath spotted him, took a hold of Oskar’s arm and pulled until we heard a pop as we made our advancement. As the rest of us reached the clearing, Jaralath picked up his rifle and aimed it down at my old friend.

“Stand down!” I command, catching Jaralath’s attention. When Erik aimed his own gun at him, Jaralath threw the rifle aside, as one of our men went to collect it. Erik lowered his gun as he and Jaralath attended to Mahalia, and undo her binds.

“Explain yourself Oskar!” I demand of him.

“I was saving us!” He tried to justify himself.

“She was our guide father, you could have put us in danger!” Erik calls out as Jaralath tried to pull Mahalia from the snow, and she staggered to stand.

“She was leading us down the path of destruction boy! Don’t you see ? There is an evil in these woods! We are to follow the ways of the lord, and yet you trust your lives, your souls, with a heathen ?” Oskar looks at me “How could you be so blind ? I would think a man of God would have greater wisdom.”

I stared at this man, once a drunkard turned away from his church, a man I saved from an early death. A man who was my friend and follower of my ministry for fourteen years of persecution of Europe, and was there from the beginning of our Colony. Now he has just tried to murder a woman I was trying to save, after years of sloth and drunkenness. But I was no less stern.

“Mercy. That is the way of the Lord.” I reprimand Oskar, but offered him repentance “We are to go home from this expedition. You are going to serve in the mines or my sons missionary industry, a penance of your choice.”

It took effort on his part, but Oskar got from he’s knees “Are you truly blind, that you do not see the devil at your very door ?”

Just as he asked that, we heard the noises. Not the howling of the wind, but a low droning noise. They where the sounds of beasts.

“Don’t you see ? Don’t you see ? This witch summoned these beasts to destroy us!” He tried to point at Mahalia.

“I did not bring them here! This is their land, and I was keeping us at a safe distance. You dragged us into their fighting ground!” She starts before she turns to me “We must run now, we have a short time before the worst of it comes.”

Before I could give any order, before the men could gather themselves, we heard the noises from the woods themselves. They not in the distance, they where just beyond the light of our lanterns. I could barely see what had to be glowing eyes in the snowy blizzards.

“No time to run.” I warn her and then address the others “Hold out, and have faith! You are some of the colonies best hunters, and you have the Holy Spirit on your side!”

We stood in a circle, keeping Mahalia behind us in the centre. Erik stood by his father, who couldn’t fight or protect himself. “Your better run boy, for your wife and child’s sake. It’s too late for us.” Oskar warns his son, but Erik shook his head.

“You will see your grandchild, and I will see your penance father.”

As the blizzard began to overtake us, we could make out vague shapes emerging from the darkness. We opened fire, but we were firing blind. The creatures that beset us where swift. Three of our men collapsed into the snow as something rushed them. I had to dodge something big and lumbering swing its arm down at me, and out the corner of my eye, I saw Jaralath pulling Mahalia out of the way, while Erik tried to shield his father with his own body. I heard two men scream behind me, and someone or something knocked me into the snow.

I felt a clawed hand press down into my back, and something was sniffing up and down my back. I then heard the fire of a rifle as the creature was blown off of me. One of my men pulled me to my feet, but before I could comprehend what was happening or what attacked me, something else took my rescuer from the side and tackled him into the snow. Once again my vision was obscured by the blizzard.

On instinct, I took my rifle, aimed at an advancing figure in my sights and fired. It collapsed and I took aim at another and fired again, and again and again. And as if by a miracle of God, the blizzard ceased.

By the lights of our lanterns, I wished I never saw what they are. There where two kinds of creatures, one was wolf like in appearance, but had human like bodies. No doubt these are the dog men Mahalia and Jaralath spoke of, and they mostly been crawling on all fours, only standing up to strike. The others must have been the Bear Men. They looked manlike, but larger, covered in hair and sporting a fierce snout. But thinking back their faces where less like a bear, more akin to a baboon, a type of monkey Roman Gladiators would fight when lions didn’t suffice.

Both creatures shown the viciousness and aggression one would expect from such wild animals. Biting, clawing and striking whatever living thing was not in their immediate grasp. What truly struck me with terror was exactly what they where doing. They where not attack just me and my caravan, of which very little stood, but they where attacking eachother. Fighting to show their strength, and pride, and fighting over the scraps of their food, which was the very people I led into these woods; the people who trusted me with their salvation.

All but eight of my men had been reduced to pieces of meat for the beasts to fight over. Ones who where still alive where being back into a corner, but now had the advantage of knowing what they where aiming at. I did not know what my son believed, but these were not creations of God, but demons made flesh.

I look at the edge of the clearing, and see Oskar still trying to lead Erik away, but Erik still struggling. I could hear them arguing about leaving us behind. I wish Erik had the sense to listen to his father, when one of the wolf creatures ran up to them, bit Erik on the leg and tried to drag him back into the fight. Oskar tried to pursue but collapsed into the snow.

Mahalia was watching over Jaralath, who was bludgeoned and clawed across the face. At his feet lied two Face Eaters, and one dead wolf-man. I could hardly tell if Jaralath was alive or conscious before Erik’s screams roused him. Mahalia appeared to be chanting something, but I couldn’t hear over the wind, or the ringing of my ear. Jaralath barely found his feet and re-entered the fight, despite Mahalia’s attempts to pull him back.

Jaralath picked up a discarded rifle aimed at the wolf creature dragging Erik, but nothing fired. He continued his advance towards them, using the butt of his gun to strike one of the Bear-Men that had it’s back turned. Said creature turned it’s attention to Jaralath, but was gunned down by the cornered shooters. Jaralath charged the distracted wolf-man and stuck it’s head with the butt of the gun, and kicked it away from Erik.

As Jaralath kept beating the creature, using his rifle like a club, he spotted the advancing Face-Eater at the last second, and rolled out of it’s way, in time for a ball of snow to hit it on the muzzle. Erik, still holding his lantern swung it up at the creature. The oil and fire doused it’s fur in flames. It’s roar echoed above all other noise.

In the midst of the chaos, I stare at the middle of the clearing; two creatures engaged in battle, they looked a little bigger, older and scarred than either of the others, and seemed to prioritize eachother over any potential meals. Every tribe must have as leader, every lion pride has an alpha male. What should make these creatures any different ?

And as if a great hush came over us, both sets of creatures stopped their fighting to the sound of other whoops and hollers coming from the trees. I turn my attention to see Mahalia shouting that strange unrecognizable language into the trees, and these inhuman voices responding in kind in that same language.

Out from the trees we watched as these dark shapes emerged from the trees. There had to be seventeen of them. As they emerged into the light, they resembled the Bear Men, but had more human like attributes in their faces. Just about everything was still. On instinct, I and two others aimed our guns towards the beasts, but Mahalia stood between us, waved her hands “Do not shoot. Do not fight.”

Two of these creatures circled Mahalia, in an almost protective manner. The others circled us, in a more aggressive manner. They where whooping, snarling at us, and the creatures that just moments ago were threatening us. The three different creatures where snarling at eachother, specifically a larger one with dark grey fur seemed to be addressing the two similarly colored ones previously locked in combat. By the looks of it, there where six Bear-Men, and seven Dog-Men still living, against the seventeen other creatures now entering the clearing.

“We should leave this place. Now.” She insisted. But none of us could move. Even as I see it with my own eyes, I could scarcely believe what was happening. We were near deaf to Mahalia’s pleas, I was trying to collect my thoughts, the sound of the trees clashing together and once again a silence befallen us as from the trees emerged another creature.

This one was the most human like in appearance, if only barely. It was covered in red hair, but not as thick as the others. It had two large teeth, emerging out from it’s lower lips. It wore what had to be a crude clothing, made from animal hide, and was carrying a large tree branch, resembling a spear or club. But most of all, it stood seventeen feet tall.

It looked over every person and creature and sneered, it had a look of disdain and sniffed the air before it too made noise. I had no doubt in my mind, it was trying to communicate with us. It turned towards the creature and after a few “words”, it slammed the branch down onto the ground. With that the wolf creatures scurried off into the darkness. It slamed it’s branch down again, this time yelling, and the Bear Men lumbered into the darkness as well, but not before a few of them gave us hateful looks.

As for the other creatures, the one with dark grey fur began making noises towards the red giant. As they where “exchanging words”, a gunshot fired. It was from Oskar. The larger creature glared down at him and in a few strides, swung its branch down onto him.

It pulled me from my silence, and both Erik and I scream. The giant had impaled my still living friend – Erik’s father – and lifted him to it’s face. It muttered a few words and opened it’s mouth before it notice Erik aiming his own rifle at it. It tossed Oskar aside and made a few more strides towards Erik when Mahalia stood between them, addressing it in her language.

After the two also “spoke” Mahalia pointed towards me. She then told me “Get down on your knees.” Barely able to comprehend what was happening, I did so. The creature vocalized towards me, it’s voice reeking of hubris. It said a few more words to the dark grey creature before turning around, and lumbering back into the trees.

I turn towards Erik, crawling down towards his fathers body. I see Mahalia communicating with the other creatures, especially the grey furred one; I see my six surviving men, out of the twenty seven I brought onto this expedition, where trying to collect themselves; Jaralath sat beside me, his face pale and his face mortified. I finally broke my silence. “You saw these creatures before ?”

“Not this close,” he answers “Or in action.”

Mahalia told me what was happening. According to her, we overstepped our bounds. We are to return to the colony and never return to this territory, and if we ae caught in the forest again, our entire “clan” will pay the price.

We returned to the Colony this morning. I know not what others are saying, but I write this testimony as a waring. According to Mahalia, there are things worse than bears or wolves in these woods. Things that cannot be of God’s creation, and yet Mahalia was right about them. Even worse, Greeshawn is planning more expeditions. I will do what I can to warn him from that path, God willing I reach him. What else are the Heathens right about ? There is a spirit these her which makes even these demons, even the giants tremble. It is the spirit that touched our land and blessed our Colony.

Is my faith well founded ? Is this truly the land and spirit of God ?