The Snatchifaun

Time to write!


Disclaimer: I did not want to write this. I was extremely disturbed by it. But my roommate said I should do it. And I realized that sometimes stories just need to be disturbing. So here we are. 

It seems like every culture has some sort of monster that children hear about and learn to fear at a young age, only to learn it was all nothing but a story. In Russia Babushka Babayaga haunted the dreams of the young, and in Norway children believed that trolls were real. In the town of Whit Send, there were legends about a terrible creature called the Snatchifaun. The Snatchifaun was part witch, part goat, and part ogre. She was unreasonably large, had the legs of a goat, the arms of a man, a nose like a rotting banana, and a large sack in which she put the children she found on her nighttime walks. Once you were caught by the Snatchifaun, that was that. You were taken home to her hut in the forest where you were eaten, live, on a bed of leafy greens.

Trilda, Randy, Gibson, and Hobb were all afraid of the Snatchifaun, Trilda and Hobb most of all.
"If the Snatchifaun ever found us, Hobb would die of fright afore he ever got sprinkled on her ter'ble salad!" Gibson declared Thursday afternoon.
Even though Miss Reelis, their teacher, didn't approve, many of the children talked about the Snatchifaun during their lunch break. They'd take their aluminum pails outside and sit on the steps. Then they'd trade apples and sandwiches for homemade cookies and wedges of cheese and they would tell one another stories of the Snatchifaun.
"If the Snatchifaun ever found us, they'd eat Randy first!" Hobb replied, poking Randy in the tummy.Randy was the plumpest of the children, but with his head of white-blonde hair his weight merely made him seem cherubic, especially at only seven years of age.
"If the Snatchifaun ever comes," Trilda said with great deliberation, "She won't catch me. I won't let her eat me."
Trilda spent a great deal of time thinking about the Snatchifaun. Her older brothers, Horris, Dorran, and Reggie, had told her many stories of the Snatchifaun, so many that Trilda knew she would never let that dreaded beast get her. She was afraid, all right, but her fear motivated her to planning.