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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/abiroadwrites on 2024-11-23 06:54:25+00:00.
A few nights ago I went camping with my cousin Theo, and our friend Leilani. The three of us are all travel bloggers or journalists (I freelance, Theo and Leilani work for the same magazine), and a lot of what we do is just going to various locations together, then writing about whatever aspect of it our readers are interested in. Theo does all nature stuff (hiking, camping, survivalist stuff, remind me to tell you about our trip through Appalachia last year, yikes).
Anyway, Theo wanted to branch out of the mountains and try an excursion in the desert, near Navajo territory. We found a remote camping spot, set up tents, and started a campfire.
Leilani has been reading a lot about protective rituals (we run into a lot of weird stuff, what can I say) and felt really confident about some advice she got. So as we set up camp she burned some white sage and palo santo in the fire, then mixed the ashes with salt and spread it out in a rough circle around our campsite.
The three of us laughed about it as she did, not really believing it would do much, (except Leilani) but willing to waste the time if nothing else. It was well after dark when I offered to run back to the car to grab the food we had brought for dinner. The car was parked a ways off from our campsite, and I left Theo and Leilani chatting and laughing by the fire, feeling comfortable in the warm desert night.
Just as I locked the car and started making my way back to the fire, I heard Theo shouting my name from somewhere off in the desert. I yelled back, asking what he wanted and heard him respond, this time his voice coming from the direction of our campfire, "Don't say anything else, get back to the fire as fast as you can."
From behind me, closer to the car, I heard Leilani's voice calling softly for me to come back. I felt cold dripping down my spine and broke into a run. I got to the fire just in time to hear my own voice calling out for Theo and Leilani to join me in the desert on the opposite side of the fire.
I yelled out that it wasn't me, and for them to stay where they were, and jumped across the threshold of salt and ash. Just as I did, I heard my own name being called again. I'm still cold thinking about it; my own name being said in my own voice, followed by deep throaty laughter.
Theo, Leilani, and I stared at each other in horror and huddled closer to the fire as Theo threw more sage onto the fire, scooping white ash onto his wood chopping ax.
The voice hissed derisively from the darkness as a pale face came into view. It was clearly human but looked all wrong. The face was stretched and thin in all the wrong places, while wrinkled and leathery as if it had been stretched out and pressed back into place over and over. The body was covered in different animal furs and skins, as well as more than one variety of leather, most of which looked disturbingly human.
The creature smiled, and crouched a few feet away from the ring of ash. It grabbed a stick and leaned forward, an amused look in its eyes as if about to tell a joke, then pushed the ash with the stick and said "Oh. Oh no, your border is broken, friends."
Its voice was amused and light, as though simply making a joke amongst friends. I looked at Theo and Leilani who were both as deadly pale as I felt. Theo stepped forward and brandished the ash covered ax, the creature grimaced and dropped the stick, putting its hands up in surrender and sitting back on its haunches.
I grabbed more ash and salt and redrew the boundary line. The four of us stood there in a silent standoff, Theo, Leilani, and I silent and horrified while the creature sat cross legged and smiled as if it was spending a relaxing night with friends.
It gestured to the cooler bag full of food, and said "aren't you going to eat? Please, don't allow me to impose."
I looked back at Theo and Leilani again and cleared my throat, "What are you?"
The creature laughed, and spoke back first in what I assume must be its own voice, changing slowly between its voice, my own voice, Theo's, and Leilani's as it talked.
"Oh child, I am older than the trees growing around your camp. Older than the sage in your fire, I am sharper than the blade of your ax and stronger than the ironwood trees you burn in your fire. I am only one of my kind, but I was one of the first and expect I will be one of the last."
Leilani took the bag from my hands and opened it, moving purposefully as if the creature wasn't watching us intently, and began pulling out food to heat over the fire. Theo leaned down and handed me my sketchbook, nodding for me to sit by the fire with a silent message: draw while you can, and keep the sage at hand. I sat down, trying not to shake as I slowly began to sketch, while Theo knelt across from the thing, ax still clutched firmly in hand.
It leaned forward, letting the firelight dance across its face and glow in its eyes, but maintaining a respectful distance from our boundary lines. "Ah, it's been a long time since my portrait was taken. What a lovely group for me to find myself in company with."
Leilani glanced over, looking at the thing as if it were simply an unwelcome guest overstaying his welcome, and gestured at it absently with a kebab. "What do you want?"
The creature smiled again, reminding me jarringly of my grandfather. Not that my grandfather was a nightmarish voice stealing creature, but something about it seemed almost paternal, as if he really was just chilling by the fire with his grandkids. "Not your food if that's what you're asking me. I find far better nourishment in other ways."
I looked up from my sketch, trying to keep a casual expression, and looked at Theo and Leilani out of the corner of my eyes to see their stony expressions. None of us asked for clarification and the creature offered none, instead watching the three of us silently. As Leilani finished cooking it sighed, and stood up like it was stretching, and walked slow circles around our campsite.
"Pay no mind to me. I had no intention of ruining your night. I merely like to listen."
We sat in silence for a while, then slowly resumed a stilted conversation, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. Discussing the day, our plans for the next leg of our journey, and finally choosing to talk about the scenery.
Occasionally one of our voices would chime in from the darkness with a comment or a suggestion that we all go for a walk, and we would sit in silence as the ancient being would chuckle at its own jokes. We spent the entire night that way. The three of us awake and on edge, a shifting voice in the darkness beyond our campsite beckoning for us to join it.
Late in the night, it rejoined the firelight with a friendly smile that made my blood run cold.
It said, "Don't young people like to tell stories anymore? Whatever happened to the old legends of the stars and gods?"
Theo, his specialty being storytelling, perked up at this, but a warning hand on his arm from Leilani kept him silent.
I spoke up instead, "I'm sure you have stories of your own, don't you? You must know more about the old legends than any of us."
It smiled, like I had said something wonderful, and gestured to the three of us. "How about this? Each of you tells a story, a legend of any kind. If you entertain me, I'll tell my own story then I'll leave you in the morning. But, on the sole condition that you never return here again. These are my lands, and while the company has been pleasant this evening, I rarely find myself in such a generous mood."
We stared at each other, and finally Leilani spoke. "You just want to hear campfire stories? That's all we have to do for you to guarantee we leave here alive?"
The creature nodded, skin pulling back from its face in a wide smile and waited. The three of us silently agreed, and Theo nodded for me to take the lead. I looked down at the sketchbook in my hand and smiled.
"Would you like to hear an illustrated story?" The creature looked hungrily at my sketchbook, and I opened it with a shiver. Going through the pages one by one and telling the stories of the things we’ve encountered. Theo and Leilani chimed in occasionally, and we relaxed into the stories as though simply recounting our adventures to a curious stranger. I found myself enjoying the stories more than I had expected, while he was terrifying the creature was also a surprisingly good listener.
He would nod and laugh, ask questions with genuine curiosity, and sat back with a smile when I closed the book. "Oh yes, I chose the right fire tonight."
It turned expectant eyes on Theo and Leilani, and Theo leaped into his favorite legend about the marriage of the Norse goddess Freya. He had always loved the Nordic legends, since we were kids, and he told it the same way he had told me stories as children. Every character had a voice of their own (which seemed to delight the creature to no end), and he waved his hands in the air with animated excitement. The creature listened intently, chuckling occasionally and repeating sentences back in Theo's voice when it found them particularly amusing. It especially seemed to enjoy mimicking the strange voices Theo would do for each character.
I felt a shiver watching them interact, in another world I could imagine this being one of Theo’s friends.It was hard to see the thing in front of us as anything other than a monster, but the story telling seemed to be bringing out its human sid...
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