Not so long ago, a boy called Falk was walking through the forest near his home, looking for mushrooms, when he heard an almighty roaring in a glade up ahead. ‘Whatever could be making that noise?’ he wondered and approached cautiously.
Falk’s father and older brothers made furs for lords and ladies. Foxes, beavers or bears, they turned them into the finest hats and coats. They had dug a deep pit in the glade and baited it with fish to capture a bear so a king could have a fine cloak for a cold winter day.
A creature was stuck in the bear-pit but it didn’t sound like a bear. ‘I’ll eat the man alive that dug this hole,’ it raged.
The boy crept up to the edge of the pit and looked inside. At the bottom was a creature, like a man but with skin so grey and rough he could have been made of clay. His ears were like sails and his eyes were like two black buttons. Out of his cheeks sprang two small tusks, like a baby elephant’s and out of his mouth came a tirade of curses.
Falk backed away quickly but the creature heard him with those big flapping ears. ‘Who is that?’ it yelled. ‘Come back here or I will grind your bones into paste and eat your liver for dinner!’
Falk was a brave boy and where many would have run back to their homes, he crept forward again and said tentatively, ‘Hello?’
The creature looked at him with his beady eyes and said angrily, ‘Did you dig this hole?’
‘No sir,’ he replied truthfully, for he had been at school when it was made.
‘Do you know who did?’
‘Men from the village,’ Falk said, deciding not to mention his father or brothers. ‘They wanted to catch a bear.’
‘I’m no bear – any fool can see that.’
‘No,’ Falk agreed. ‘But if I might ask, sir, what are you?’
‘I am a Chuprassy,’ it said proudly. ‘I am a warrior.’
Falk had never heard of a ‘choo-prassy’ but he was too polite to say so. ‘Do you live nearby?’
But the creature’s patience was exhausted and he started shouting again, ‘Don’t just stand there - get me out of here!’
‘I don’t have a ladder.’
‘Then go and get one!’
‘It’s a long way to my house and I’m not strong enough to carry it back.’
‘Then find your father, boy, and tell him to fetch it here.’
‘My father has gone to the market and my brothers have gone with him.’
The creature kicked the wall of his earthen prison with frustration. ‘When will they be back?’ he said.
‘Not until this evening sir…’
He kicked the wall again and roared, ‘I don’t have time to be sitting in a pit – I have to get out of here - now!’
The boy looked around the glade. It had been cleared the previous winter to supply wood for the stove but there were still logs and branches scattered in the long grass. ‘I could try rolling some logs into the pit,’ he said. ‘And you could use them to build steps…?’
The creature grumbled but admitted it was worth a try. So Falk started to roll logs to the pit, tumbling them over the edge while the Chuprassy waited below. It was hot work – some of the logs were nearly as big as he was. After watching the fifth fall onto the floor of the pit, Falk paused for a moment.
He noticed the creature was wearing an iron breastplate on his chest and there was a helmet too, shaped like the head of an elephant. He wore thick gloves and his boots were like two buckets on his feet. There was a great spear leaning against the wall of the pit, too big for a man to carry.
‘May I ask how you came to be in our forest?’ he asked the Chuprassy as he sat on the edge of the pit to get his breath back.
‘I was hunting with my herd but I wandered further than I should have.’
‘What were you hunting?’
‘A great bird with wings like fire and a beak as sharp as a reaper’s hook – have you seen such a creature?’
‘Never,’ admitted Falk. ‘Does it have a name?’
‘They call it ‘Pater Junopta’ and it is a monster without pity or remorse. If you should hear its terrible cry, run boy, run away as fast as you can.’
Despite the hot sun falling on his back, Falk shivered. ‘How do you know there’s one of these creatures in our forest?’
‘We have been following it for days, watching and waiting for it to come down to the earth to feed.’
‘Where has it come from?’
‘A land far from here…’
‘What does it eat?’
The Chuprassy looked up at Falk and grinned unpleasantly, ‘Small boys,’ it said, showing his great yellow teeth. ‘Now fetch more logs so I can find this monster before it eats you too.’
Falk did as he was told; rolling the logs quicker than he had before and with many glances up at the sky in case Pater Junopta should appear. In almost no time at all, the Chuprassy stacked the logs into a passable stair. Picking up his helmet and spear, he climbed out of the pit and stood beside Falk in the glade.
He was the most enormous man Falk had ever seen, a giant, standing seven feet tall at least. Fortunately, now he was out of the bear-pit, he seemed to be a better mood. He looked down at the boy and said, ‘I never forget a face; I will remember you.’
Before he could reply, they heard a terrible scream in the sky above them. ‘Is that the monster?’ said Falk, feeling his insides turn up-side down and his legs begin to shake.
‘Get into the trees; hide and when you think it’s safe to go home, keep watching the sky. Don’t stand in the open or Pater Junopta will come down and snatch you away.’
Falk nodded, unable to speak. He could almost feel the sharp beak and claws of the monster snapping at his head.
Then they heard a horn being blown in the distance. ‘My brothers are calling me,’ said the Chuprassy, gripping his spear tightly. ‘Remember what I told you, boy, run and hide; leave the monster to us.’ And with that he ran, his footsteps like thunder, in the direction the sound of the horn was coming from.
Alone in the glade, Falk could barely move he was so frightened. His legs felt like the logs he had rolled into the pit, heavy and clumsy. He heard the horn again and then the scream of the monster. He began to run, faster and faster; faster than he had ever run before until he was under the thickest trees in the forest. His heart beat so fast he thought it would explode out of his chest.
A great shadow passed over, blotting out the light of the sun for a brief moment. Pater Junopta, with a scream like souls being tortured, flapped its great wings and made the tree-tops shake. Dead leaves tumbled through the branches and Falk covered his ears to shut out the sound.
Many hours later, after Falk had heard no horns or screams from the monster for a long while, he crept out from his hiding place and began to walk home. The sun was beginning to set and giant birds were not the only monsters in the forest. He wanted to run but his legs were too weak. For a while, he thought he might have to spend the night among the trees and wondered if he ought to find a place to sleep, high up among the branches where animals couldn’t hurt him. Then, to his great relief, he heard voices calling out his name; his father and brothers had come to find him.
Some years later, when Falk had grown into a young man, Pater Junopta returned to torment the people in the forest. It snatched children while they were playing and even attacked grown men, slashing them with its beak and claws. It carried away goats and pigs, cows and horses. It pulled the thatch from the cottages and knocked down their walls. Just the rumour of its passing made the people afraid to leave the cellars of their homes.
Falk had not forgotten the sound of its scream or the Chuprassy’s description of the beast: a great bird with wings like fire and a beak as sharp as a reaper’s hook. But though he had witnessed the terrible shadow pass over-head, he had never seen the creature itself.
Hearing that the monster was approaching their part of the forest, Falk’s father and his brothers, determined to hunt it down and turn its fine feathers into a cloak for a king. Falk tried to stop them, ‘If the Chuprassy couldn’t kill the creature with his great spear, what chance do we have?’ he said.
But his brothers laughed, ‘A spear?’ they said. ‘We have guns and nets and we’ll bring the monster down. Stay here if you’re frightened of this little sparrow.’
Despite his misgivings, Falk went with his father and brothers into the forest to search for Pater Junopta. He knew in his heart the monster wouldn’t be brought down by their bullets or trapped in their nets. He knew they were not facing a tiny sparrow but a creature that made even a giant Chuprassy, in all his armour, pause.
They chose a clearing and baited it with a goat, tying up the wretched creature in the centre while they waited with their guns and nets under the eaves of the trees. They waited all day and all night and were beginning to think the monster was a myth after all, when they heard the flapping of its wings. The tops of the trees shook and dead leaves and dust blew in their faces as the great bird descended on the goat.
Pater Junopta was as terrible as the Chuprassy had described. Like an eagle or a harpy but ten times the size, its wings spanned the clearing. Its feathers seemed to burn like the flames of a forest fire. Its legs and feet were like the bark of an oak, gnarled and with talons longer than a man. Its beak shone like polished steel and its eyes blazed fury when it saw the men with their guns and nets hiding under the trees.
The monster screamed and Falk remembered the Chuprassy telling him he should run away as fast as he could. But then he heard his father shout, ‘Now!’ and they cast their nets and threw their ropes, hoping to entangle the creature’s wings and stop it from escaping.
But Pater Junopta was not like an ordinary bird. It wasn’t scared of men and had no thought of trying to get away. It snapped its great beak and cut the ropes as easily as snipping cotton threads. It brushed the nets aside and looked hungrily at the men.
Realising their mistake, Falk’s father shouted, ‘Shoot it! Shoot it before it strikes!’
Falk and his brothers opened fire with their rifles and shot-guns but it was like throwing peas at a lion. Pater Junopta seemed to laugh at them; it threw its head back and screamed at the sky. Then it lunged forward and took Falk’s father in a single snap of its beak, throwing its head back again to swallow him whole. Then it took one of Falk’s brothers and another and another until only Falk was left.
All this time, Falk had been shooting and shooting; hoping to hit the creature’s heart. Too late did he realise he was alone in the clearing. His father and brothers were gone. With tears in his eyes and no bullets left, he turned his rifle around to use it as a club. As the great beak snapped at him, he struck it with all his strength, breaking off the very tip.
The great bird reared back, shocked that something so puny and insignificant could damage its beautiful beak. It screamed and reached out with its talons to crush Falk to death when suddenly it heard footsteps like thunder rushing into the clearing. Before it could meet this new threat, Falk saw the Chuprassy throw his spear, piercing Pater Junopta through the neck and killing it dead.
The great bird flapped its wings for the last time and rolled onto its back, lifeless. As the dust settled, Falk felt a big hand pull him to his feet. He looked up at the Chuprassy who, taking off his helmet, said, ‘I remember your face – you were the boy that helped me out of the pit.’
‘You saved my life,’ said Falk. ‘But the bird took my father and brothers…’
‘Quickly,’ said the Chuprassy. ‘Take your knife and help me to open the creature up. We might save them yet.’
The bird’s skin was thick and difficult to cut but Falk and the Chuprassy managed to slice their way through to the monster’s gullet. Inside, they found Falk’s father and brothers, grievously wounded but alive.
The Chuprassy picked up the tip of the bird’s beak and gave it to Falk. ‘You were very brave,’ he said. ‘Even though you didn’t listen to my warning and didn’t run away as I told you to, I am pleased you survived.’
‘And I’m pleased I helped you out of the pit,’ said Falk.
Afterwards, Falk’s father and brothers turned Pater Junopta’s feathers into many cloaks fit for a whole court of kings and presented one to the Chuprassy for saving their lives. And to this day, whenever the scream of a bird is heard in the forest, the people call for the Chuprassy to help them out of danger.
All rights reserved © Philip Hamm 2015
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