Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled his resolve for a long, hard fight. He silently crouched behind the massive stone, just as his father had taught him to do when practicing martial arts. The wind seemed to be more fierce here, and with it, the scent of sulfur permeated the air, giving it an ugly, unpleasant smell. Quiggly knew this smell well; it was the smell of evil. Just as the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, he saw the most horrible sight ever. Out of the abyss appeared a creature so horrible, so ugly, that the monster dwarfed any thing in his imagination. His eyes could barely stand to look at the thing. This creature possessed the body of a man but had the head of an animal. There were no ears, so it could not hear. Its face was a combination of man and bear, with a small, short snout and wide, deep brown eyes. The nose was crooked and covered in black hair. The mouth was not a mouth, but more like a hole, as if someone had reached in and pulled out its teeth. The creature walked on all fours like a bear. "How frighteningly ugly!" Quiggly said to himself. Quiggly decided the best course of action was to try and attack it from the front. He did not have any weapons, so he would have to just try and scare the thing away. Quiggly, very quietly and carefully, made his way up to the creature, keeping behind a large rock. Quiggly felt his face getting red with fear. "There is no point in being afraid, Quiggly, this creature is dead," he told himself. "Dead creatures cannot harm you." Quiggly took a deep breath to steady himself as he got close enough to the monster. Quiggly stood there staring at the beast for a moment and then decided to yell out at the top of his lungs, "You ugly, horrid thing, please leave this land!" The monster stood up on its hind legs, and its head slowly turned in Quiggly's direction. It leaned its face toward him and looked directly at him, glaring with its terrible eyes. Quiggly was too terrified to move. He just stood there trembling from fear, his mouth gaped open, and his stomach churned. It was a long while before the monster spoke, and when it did, it sounded almost like the voice of a man. "Stay away from me or I will make you my dinner. I will tear you into tiny pieces and eat you alive," it growled, its voice sounding like something that would curl your toes and make your skin crawl. This was an evil creature, Quiggly knew. It had been sent by Lucifer, a servant of Satan. He and the beast faced off, staring at each other for a while. The monster slowly reached out and grabbed Quiggly, pulling him out of hiding. Quiggly screamed. Quiggly screamed, and then his mouth fell open. Then he saw what the monster held in its hand. The creature had in its hand Quiggly's own special blanket. Quiggly recognized it as the one he had fallen asleep with when he was a baby. This terrible creature held it in its hands, as if Quiggly's blanket were the most precious thing in the world. Quiggly screamed even louder. "I am going to do something terrible," Quiggly thought to himself. "I am going to throw this blanket on the fire and burn it all to a crisp. Then, no one will ever have to suffer the sight of me or my blanket again!" Quiggly turned and ran. He did not stop running for a very long time. He ran all the way back to his little house in the mountains, where he collapsed on the doorstep. Quiggly spent most of the night crying. Quiggly grew up to be a fine strong man. He loved the mountains and was well liked by the children and young men. Every year, he climbed the mountain and walked to the top to watch the sun set and to feel the cool breeze blow over him. A few years later, after visiting the mountains again, Quiggly noticed something different. As he walked along the stream, he looked at the moon and saw a small green spot on it. There was a strange patch of color. At first it looked like a patch of mold, but Quiggly knew it was something more. He took a piece of cloth and wrapped it around his finger. Quiggly scooped up a few of the small green stones that covered the stream bank, and when he returned home, he looked at the cloth. The next day, when he was walking up to the mountain, his father found him and told him to follow him back to the house. When they got to the house, Quiggly's father took him inside and put him to bed. He asked Quiggly, "Are you tired? Do you want to go to sleep? Do you want me to bring you a drink?" "You always get me a drink when I do something wrong," said Quiggly, smiling. "Well, I want to know why I should get you a drink. Why are you smiling?" his father replied. Quiggly looked at his father for a minute and then he said, "You know the big piece of granite you're always working on? The big chunk I always climb up and sit on?" "Well, yes," replied Quiggly's father. Quiggly jumped out of his bed and picked up a large axe. "I'm going to chop it in two," he said as he headed for the door, his eyes locked on the axe. "Don't, son," said his father, the fear evident in his voice. "It's a beautiful piece of granite and I've been working on it for years." "I don't care!" Quiggly shouted. "I just want it done." As his father watched, Quiggly split the big chunk of granite, cutting it in two. Quiggly's father grabbed Quiggly and held him as he sobbed. Quiggly was too ashamed to tell anyone, so he lived his life alone. There was a small piece of the granite with a strange green spot on it, but when Quiggly looked closely, it disappeared. The moon has been bright and green ever since. ### **_What Kind of Monster Can You Be?_** The first time I found out that my uncle had a child, it was a total shock to me. I had no clue, and I never imagined he would get married. I had known him for years and always considered him to be my dad's best friend. At that time, I was only 12. The problem was that the young man he had fallen in love with and married was younger than me. The guy's name was Jason, and I must admit, he was actually kind of handsome. When my uncle told me the news, I was shocked because I had always thought I would be my father's only child. My dad is very happy with my mom and his two other daughters, and I really wanted him to remain happy, so I accepted the fact that Jason would be my uncle's son. Jason turned out to be very different than my uncle. I've always found him to be very annoying. He was more interested in sports and video games than he was in helping anyone out around the house, so I became a little lonely for awhile. I didn't feel like hanging out with my aunt and uncle anymore and it made me feel like I couldn't talk to my dad without feeling guilty. Jason still had a hard time to make friends. One day, when I was around 13, we decided to try to get him a pet. "Hey, Unc, you want a cat?" "A cat? No, I don't think so. I prefer dogs." I was thinking, "Hey, Unc, it's not that easy," but I knew he would say something like that. I made up my mind that if Jason wanted a cat, then I was going to give him one. A few days later, I came home from school and looked at my uncle. He was putting a cat in the bathtub. It looked sad and lonely. It must be a female cat, because the way the cat looked it was probably about eight or nine years old. Jason had tied a piece of yarn to the cat's neck and let the cat in the house. "Unc, what are you doing? That's the cat that was in the window at the pet store. How did you ever find that cat?" He looked at me and said, "It's called a lucky charm. I was walking around with that cat in my pocket. As I was walking through the pet store, the cat just walked out of my pocket and started rubbing on my leg. I just put it in the bathtub and called the pet store. They said they would keep it for me, but only until today." "So you want to get rid of it?" I asked. "Oh, no, they said I was only supposed to keep it as long as the cat was touching me, but they said this cat has been in the same tub