The Greegrol
In the back of your garden there is an apple tree so weighed down with ripening fruit that the branches nearly touch the ground. It’s hard to cut the grass without bumping the tree, so you leave that patch of grass to grow long. Daisies poke their noses out from under the dandelions and lush tendrils of grass show off their emerald green by
swaying in the wind, a sweet smelling finger enticing you to come closer.
If you lie down, close to the ground so that the grass tickles your face and the damp from the earth cools your skin and look beneath the gnarled branches of the apple tree you might catch a glimpse of the Greegrol.
Keep your eye fixed upon it, don’t blink even once, as the Greegrol can be a terrifying creature made of nightmares, reaching for you as your attention wavers. Take in its feline appearance, but don’t let that fool you. Look harder through the flowers and red apples and see the creature perking up as you stretch your hand forward and
beckon.
The Greegrol has coal black fur, matted and dull over painful lumps and growths. Yellow eyes glow back at you from within the shadows, their colour sickly and anaemic. You become more watchful as the creature stretches and grows before your eyes. Too big, the cat pads silently through the grass, your hand still outstretched.
Don’t worry too much as the Greegrol meanders past.Now the size of a Labrador, it stinks of rot and decay. You can see now how thin its fur is as it hangs from the bony body like a badly fitted coat. The Greegrol has no interest in you, but keep note of where it wonders as it clings to the edge of the shadows. Watch your infants, don’t leave
them alone in the breeze that carries the first scent of winter, for the Greegrol is hungry and will soon need to eat.