It was dark. The moon was hiding her glory from the world. You could hear the thunder from a mile away and see the lightning dance across the sky. The electricity in the air causes every hair on your body to stand on end. Or. Was it something else?

You steer your horse around a fallen limb and head off toward the prairie. Try as you might you can't shake the feeling of being followed. I who, besides you, would be out in this weather? You hear a wolf howl and look over your shoulder. Just a little further and you'll be home.

You make it to your shack. You see smoke coming from the chimney. You hadn't been home since morning. You put your horse in the barn and grab your shot gun and go to enter the house.

The door creaks when you enter and you prepare yourself to confront your intruder. But there's no one there.

You look around your single room shack, but you see nothing. But there is food on the table, and judging from the steam coming off it, it's been cooked recently. Who could have been in your house?

You walk outside and look around the barn. You see traces of human life, but you see no one. You hear nothing.

Lightning strikes a tree near by and you hear a scream. You run over to burning tree to look for the source of that sound.

You see nothing except burning branches and scurrying animals. Who could have screamed? You turn to walk away when you see a shadow pass in front of the shack.

"Who's there?" You shout.

You hear no one answer.

Causally you make your way back to your shack. You decide to look around it one more time to make sure you didn't miss anything.

Once you're inside you see a woman's dress lying on the floor. Who's it that? And how did it get there?

You hear the sound of a fork and knife scraping a plate. You quickly turn around in hoping to see someone. But you see nothing there but an empty chair and still warm food. What's going on?

Confused and exhausted you sit down on your bed. Suddenly you notice the sheets hanging to form a separate room.

Grabbing a knife off the table you walk over to the makeshift room. Pulling back the curtains you see that a small cot lay in it. You notice a strange lump lying in the bed. Who or what is that? You sneak up hind trying to get a better look. You reach out to handed it stirs. Rolling over you can now see it's face.

It looks like nothing you've seen before. This creature had the main of a lion, beard and head of a buffalo, eyes of a human, tusks of a wild bore, body for bear, and the feel and tale of a wolf.

Never before had you seen a creature so horrifying. Hands shaking you raise the knife. You had a clear shot to its heart. You're about to plunge the knife deep into the heart when it opened its eyes.

Scared you stumble back. The creature stands up. Looking at you with a confused and saddened expression. Does this creature expect you to let it live? How could he comprehends outs and feeling it's nothing more than an animal.

You continue to back up towards your bed. Hoping to get to your gun before the creature attacks. It walks toward you. You can smell it's wretched breath and it sends chills down your spine.

"What are you?" You ask shakily.

It doesn't respond and moves suddenly.

You finally have your gun in hand. You raise it up and pull the trigger not even bothering to aim.

The bullet rips of the creatures face. It drops dead. You move to examine the creature in hopes of figuring out what it was.

The creature looks different now. Smaller, more feminine. It's an ankle length white nightgown with petite feet. The creature has human feet now. How could that be?

You continue to move up the body into you get to its face. Where horns, a main, and tusks should have been there instead was the mangled face of a girl with brown hair.

Your daughter.