Rare Monsters

  The Delamere forest in Cheshire, England is known for a wide variety of strange phenomenons, from ghostly haunting, to time slips to various cryptid sightings. The one that interests me the most is a dragon that has supposedly survived into modern times. Back in Roman times a road was built through the Delamere forest, to bring salt from the deposits at Northwich to the city and fort at Chester. This was the first substantial intrusion into the forest. Previous to this the Celts had built a hill fort on the edge of the forest, but avoided going deep inside. During the construction there were reports of the labour crew being harassed and attacked by a large reptile. It started with animal carcasses being found in the forest that has been torn apart by a large predator, although this wasn’t that out of place as bears and wolves still existed in England at the time. This was followed by the sounds of roaring from deep in the forest, described like the roar of a lion. Then worke...

  The three tailed Baavlorous is a fearsome critter from lumberjack lore, primarily found in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This wacky creature had the head of a bird with a spiralling unicorn horn. It had the body of an ungulate with split hooved feet. Sources are divided on if this creature had no wings or tiny useless wings, but it couldn’t fly, in spite of its bird like qualities. Most unusual of all the three tailed baavalorous had three tailed, as the name suggests. Each tail was different. To one side was a tail that was either a spike for defending itself, or a shiny scale its used as a mirror. The middle tail was a thick, fat club that it would sit on, and the final tail had peacock like feathers. Either the peacock tail’s feathered had dazzling colours or the entire baavalorous had dazzling colours, either way it led to the creature sitting on its fat tail and admiring itself all day. The other animals would call it the “King of the lumberwood” and give the baavalorous...

  The shu hu is a mythical creature from China, mentioned in the Classic of Mountains And Seas. It was said to live on Mount Yanzhi, which was a good and plentiful place. There were red trees which bore giant fruit. The Ruo River originated from here, it was full of jade and turtles, and many wet stones for sharpening tools could be found on its banks. Here the shu hu could be found. The shu hu was a good and gentle creature. It had the head of a human, the body of a winged horse and the tail of a snake. They were intelligent and could pick up objects and use tools with their flexible snake tails. Shu hus were helpful creatures who would give rides to humans. In spite of being intelligent, shu hus lived on their own and were often lonely. Sources: https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Shu%20Hu/1414061 https://chinesemythology.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/%E5%AD%B0%E6%B9%96-shuhu/ https://www.chinafetching.com/mythical-animal-in-chinese-culture