The Bone Collectors
Or
The Mystery of a Most Macabre and Elusive Beast
By Rajaad
Among the isles of Masalla is one called Lotarn, the ‘lonely hills’. That isle, and the smaller isles that lie around it, are perhaps the world’s most fertile grounds for mysterious tales and horrific disappearances. Still, portions of the isle could almost be called civilized, for it is the favored hunting grounds of Masallan nobility, and the princes and barons have built numerous large, fortified hunting lodges where they keep servants living year-round.
They come hunting the usual game – deer, boar, stag, fox – but they come hunting stranger beasts as well – unicorns and chimera, nymphs and dire wolves, trolls and gryphons – and beyond that, even odder beasts.
Many tales are told around the nighttime fires, but one of the most persistent legends is that of finding ‘bone piles.’
I came across my first one when I was eight. It was my second year hunting with my father on the isle, and we spied something strange and pale down in a dark hollow. My father sent the huntsmen ahead to assure our safety, and when they signaled that all was well, we went down among the cedars.
What I saw brought nightmares to the next five years of my life – nightmares where I would wake up with my eyes wide and fixed, foam at the edges of my mouth. For each night I would see it again – that unearthly pile of bones, dirtied with spent sinew and dried muscle. And the skulls – bear, fox, deer – even the sharp, rare skull of a forest dragon. I had always wanted one – a dragon skull – but some evil aura about the place stayed my hand from taking it from its place among the other bones of the pile.
Only in the twilight world of dreams could I imagine the creature that could have made such an abode – sometimes half human, sometimes huge and furred. But always the creature would drag me back and tack me up among the other bones, where I knew, in time, my flesh would fall away until I was only stark and pale white, indistinguishable from the others.
From the journal of Huntsman Saria of Masalla
That was written two hundred years ago, and stands as the first account of the bone piles of Lotarn. Since then, literally hundreds of accounts have been recorded, most telling of the same thing – huge piles of bones, many from large predators, all woven together into a sort of hollow nest. They are intricately woven so that many have claimed to see a sort of pattern to the weaving, and strong enough for a man to stand upon. Tall enough, as well, for a man to squat or stand in, though the inside often is composed of various sections or ‘dens’.
The answers to the mysteries of the bone piles have proven elusive. Invariably they are unoccupied when they are found, and fresh kills are never discovered. The bones all have a similar appearance, being cleaned of everything but tightly clinging flesh and sinew, and oddly pitted with a fine texture, as if they had been forcefully rolled in a bed of tiny spikes or etched with a spattering of acid.
And what makes us most interested in this macabre mystery is the fact that human bones are often found among the others in the piles.
From the shape of the structure, it is clear that it is used as a den or abode by . . . something. The question is – what?
As perhaps the world’s most enigmatic beast, that’s a difficult question to answer. Though nothing has ever been seen living within the piles, strange sightings are often had close by. Huntsmen approaching the piles have reported seeing such strange and disparate creatures as fur-clad humans, large serpents, gatherings of ravens or crows, and huge, spindly spiders.
Whether such tales are truths or fabrications of fear-addled minds is difficult to say, but the last suggestion is held to be true by at least one authority.
His name is Kuras, an astrologer and inventor for the Masallan royalty. Among his myriad interests are odd beasts, and the ‘Bone Collectors’ have long captured his attention.
"There is something odd surrounding them," he says. "Something beyond the haunt of legends and fearfully told tales. For many years I was sure that these were not natural beasts, but instead some emergence from old magics, perhaps some MorDuraan monster that eluded its bonds and slipped away into the wild lands. What creature could so avoid being seen? My only supposition was that it must hold some magic that made it appear or disappear at its own will. A fae creature, to be sure, which would neatly account for the diverse sightings near the bone-piles. A shape-shifter, some relative of the kava, some mad race of trolls. But now, I think I know what the truth is, and the answer lies in darkness."
At first, I did not understand his words. But he went on.
"Three years ago a huntsman brought me to see a creature he had found dead in the deep of the forest. A great storm had moved over Lotarn, and a swath of trees had been torn down by the winds. Under one of these was the remains of a creature, crushed under the unimaginable weight. I had his men chop the tree apart and remove it from the beast.
"At first, I thought that never before had I encountered such an animal. It was almost like a large, thick-legged spider, with lustrous fur and oddly-made, spine-tipped feet. Among the ruins of its body I searched, piecing together what I could – the head had been largely crushed, but I thought that among the mass of crushed fur and liquid flesh, I could make out some gelatin I took to be eyes. The body of the thing, though, was still intact, and it was this that interested me most.
"The legs, you see, were structured so that their natural course of motion allowed them to lift something up toward the bottom of the creature’s abdomen, where an strange sort of maw was fixed. It opened to reveal a crevice lined with thin, sharp spines, and oozing with a liquid that reddened my flesh when I touched it. The crevice, on this specimen, might have been large enough to encase a wolf or a small human.
"For some time I studied it, but it was not until the next day that it struck me – here was the answer to the bone-piles. For this creature seemed to take its prey into its body and digest it there -- later, perhaps, to extract the flesh-cleaned bones and arrange them into a den. The small spines, even, explained the strange pitted markings upon the bones. Still, so many questions were unanswered. Why was the creature never seen? How could it be so elusive? I had only a conjecture to base my theories upon.
"But, you recall, I had said that the answer lay in darkness. And such is true, for I had yet another piece of evidence still unveiled. For I knew, from explorations of caves, that an peculiar sort of spider dwelled in the dark places of Lotarn, a hand-sized beast with thick legs and an odd coat of fur. Most called it a ‘bear spider’. And this spider (if such I could call it) was well known for killing small mice and bats, and collecting tiny piles of bones that it hid among the cave-walls. Why had I not thought of it before? The sizes had been too different, to begin with, and the environments too diverse, for the one creature was found in dark places, while the other was a dweller in the forestlands. The mystery, at last, had been solved."
For many, Kuras’ discovery and deduction have served as an answer to an old mystery. But others point out that his theory has only created more questions. For is there not some in-between stage ‘twixt the small cave dwellers and the huge bone collectors of the forest, who have been known to kill bear? And how does a creature who seems to lack the cunning and glamour of faerie creatures manage to so effectively elude our sight? For the bear spiders of Lotarn caves seem no different than others of their brethren, save for their thick, furred appearance.
And others are quick to mention that two creatures may have similar looking dens, but that does not make them the same animal. After all, how many of us can tell the den of a fox from the burrow of a groundhog? And the home of a squirrel closely resembles the scouting huts of Northern men. But men and squirrels are very different creatures indeed.
Whatever it is that gathers the piles of bones and makes them into such horrifying abodes, perhaps it is better that they avoid our sight. After all, since no one has ever reported an encounter with such a beast, the huntsmen of Lotarn can rest assured that if they do meet it, they will be spared having any memory of the incident, since they are sure to swiftly join the other victims of the creature, and take their place among the walls or roof of a most haunting and terrible home.