"Monster"

By Afalstein:

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow.

-T.S. Eliot

And they were full, both the man and the woman, and did not hunger. They lived in the forest under the protection of the Ancient One and followed his ways in happiness and peace. Food there was to satisfy them and still more. They suffered from neither hunger nor thirst.

It was the woman who first found the creature in the bush. She gave it peaches and pomegranates to eat, and brought it to her husband, and he too fed it. The creature grew larger, and got fat. The man and the woman brought it to their home and fed it more. It grew again, and grew large.

When the Ancient One came to visit he was not pleased. "This creature is not good for you to have." He warned them. "It will eat and eat until you have given it all you have and then it will eat you."

"But the monster is so small!" Said the woman.

"That is why you must kill him now." Said the Ancient One. "When he is large you will no longer be able to."

When the Ancient One left the man and the woman met to talk. They dared not disobey the Ancient One, but neither one wished to kill the monster. And yet they simply could not continue to keep it there.

"We will not feed the monster," said her husband. "And if it does not leave, it will die from lack of food."

And so they did, at first. But the woman found that during the day, the creature would come into the kitchen and lick the crumbs that littered the floor. She scolded it, and swept the floor diligently, but somehow it always seemed to find something. Finally she reflected that the creature was at least cleaning the floor, and could not be all bad.

The husband, too, found, that while he was in the barn feeding the horses, the creature would come in and try to snap at the food meant for the horses. At first he chased it away, but as time went on and the creature began to pine, his resolve melted, and he let it have its way in the trough. Often it ate three times as much as the horses

Time went on, and though the monster got but indifferent meals, it continued to grow in size and strength. The Ancient One came again in the spring, and was distressed to see the creature's progress. "You must kill it." He admonished them. "It will only grow stronger as you continue to feed it."

"But we do not feed it." Said the husband. "Only he eats what he can find around the house."

"He does so because you allow him to roam free." Said the Ancient One. "You must kill him before he can do any more damage."

"We shall, we shall." The wife assured him. "We will kill it tomorrow."

The Ancient One went on his way sorely displeased.

So on the next day the husband sharpened the axe in the hut and tied up the creature in the barn. But he found that that disturbed the animals, so he once again took the creature into the house for his wife to guard. She watched it diligently for a while, but it seemed so harmless, that she forgot, and the creature soon chewed through the rope. It did not leave, however, but seemed content to remain in the house. So the wife concluded it could be no harm to let the creature move about.

The husband did not kill the creature that day. By the time the axe was sharp, he realized that he had yet to feed the cattle, and pasture the horses, and several other tasks, and by the time they were done, it was far too late to kill the creature. So he and his wife went to bed. "I will kill it in the morning." He said.

But when the husband arose in the morning, he forgot and left to go to the fields. So it fell to the wife to kill the creature. She took it out to the barn and tied it up. Seizing the axe with both hands, she raised it high into the air, and glanced one final time at the monster. It stared up at her with a melancholy expression, pleading with her to spare his life. Her heart melted and she dropped on one knee next to it to take it in her arms one last time. The creature's long tongue came out and caressed her.

When the husband came home, the wife told him she could not kill the creature. The husband vowed to do so himself, after supper.

Supper came, and went, and the creature licked the crumbs under the table, and the man sat in the barn and carved a new yoke, and yet did nothing. And finally night came on, and the next day dawned.

The Ancient One came again, and his brow was dark with displeasure. "Now it can no longer be killed by you." He said. "Indeed, I wonder if it ever could have been. You must let me kill it, before it grows too large."

"No, no, Ancient One!" said the man. "I shall kill it, indeed I shall!" And he took up his axe and struck the creature, so that a great gash opened in its belly.

"You cannot kill it." The Ancient One frowned. "You must let me."

"No, look, Ancient One, indeed it is dead already!" said the wife, running to her husband's side. "We have no need of you." She smiled.

The Ancient One raised his eyebrows. "We shall see." He said, and left them.

The next day the creature was sniffing at their door, snapping at the mosquito's that swarmed in the hot air. The man tried to kill it several times, but to no avail, and finally he just decided to let it be. "I will have the Ancient One kill it the next time he comes." He said. "Till then there is no use trying."

"Maybe we should call for him." Said the wife, who had begun to notice there were no longer so many creatures in the wood.

"No, he shall come to us." Said the man, and they said no more. Yet the woman began to fear. For the creature had grown big and large, and now slept in the barn. Sometimes it wandered out at night, and in the morning they found bones and blood in the place where it slept. So she watched, and waited, but made no move, for the creature seemed kind, and still looked at her with a pleading expression when she filled it's trough, as if it wanted more.

Surely it will not harm us, who have fed it. She said to herself, It is ours, and will obey us, for without us it could not live.

Then one day the man came back from the barn and said one of the cows was missing. He searched for it all day and could not find it. The next day another cow was missing, and the next day another, and a horse too. The man went out to search for them all, but could not find them.

The next day the man left early in the morning to search for the lost animals, and vowed not to return until he had found them. The woman got up slightly later and went about her work slowly, for she had begun to take things easier lately.

At noon she went to feed the creature, and again noticed how much larger it had gotten, indeed it was now twice the size of a horse. It smiled at her and whined plaintively as she poured its food into the through. She looked at it and thought, After all, it is an awfully small amount of food for such a large creature. So she took the oats and the hay, which should have gone to the cows and the horse, and gave them to the creature. And the creature ate, and still looked at her as if it hungered. So she left and went in the house and brought back some tomatoes for it to eat, which she had thought to give the man when he returned. And the creature ate those and looked at her as if it were starving, so she gave it her own meal also, and that too it ate, and looked at her.

"I am sorry." Said the woman. "But there is no more food that I can give you."

And the creature growled.

"There is no more." The woman repeated. "I have nothing left to give you. Please, be satisfied, and go seek more food in the forest." But it occurred to the woman that she had heard no beast or bird all day.

The creature growled again, and the woman looked up to see the hunger in its eyes. The hunger that now gleamed there was ten times stronger then when she began, and a hundred times stronger then the day she found it in the bush. And now it looked at her.

The woman took a step back, and then stopped. For in the creature's pen she saw a cloak lying in the mud, tattered and torn. She looked at it, and knew it to be her husband's.

Fear overtook the woman. She turned and fled, and heard the monster breaking the barn about her. Wood, straw, hay, and oats it ate, and its hunger grew.

The woman fled to the house, and shut the latch. But the creature's teeth tore through the wood, and cracked the metal. It smashed into the house, eating all in its path. The woman fled through the house, running from room to room, crying Ancient One! Ancient One! but her words were drowned in the destruction of the home.

The house fell about her, falling in ruin, into the creature's maw. She tried to run, but tripped and fell. The creature stood above her, now swollen to twice the size of the house itself. Many teeth it had that she had not noticed before, and its eye was large and red.

The woman looked up with a plaintive expression at the monster.

The monster looked at her, and its long tongue came out, and the woman then knew her doom. For it split open to reveal yet another mouth within the mouth, a vast swirling void lined with teeth.

Ancient One! cried the woman, as the tongue came forward and dragged her back to the mouth. Ancient One, help us!

She descended into blackness.

But the Ancient One heard, and came forward and killed the monster, and raised back the husband and his wife. And as they stood amidst the ruin of the home, the husband bowed to the Ancient One.

"Thank you for killing the monster." Said the husband. "I see now the danger."

"The creature is not dead." Said the Ancient One. "He ate you, and now there is a part of him in you. I cannot kill that which is inside you without killing you, so I cannot kill the creature."

The ancient one bowed his head. "You must leave, I fear, for I cannot have the creature here in my valley anymore. Many birds and animals have suffered. Yet do not fear, for I will accompany you, and help you to kill the monster when he comes again."

And the Ancient One gave the husband and his wife food, and water for their journey, and told them that when they hungered again, they had only to call, and he would give them food.

So the husband and the wife left the valley, and wandered among the earth. And they hungered, and could not be filled.