#LETSDRAWMONSTERS Prompt for September

Today's #LETSDRAWMONSTERS Challenge is a MYSTERY creature! This month, we are delving into PARANORMAL CRYPTOZOOLOGY. There are no photos of this creature, and barely any descriptions. This month, I am counting on you to help me visualize... a spirit!

THE PROMPT: The Possum Spirit

Very little is known about the elusive and mysterious Possum Spirit. What we do know is this: It is an ancient and otherworldly creature, that lives in mounds deep in the forest, and can go between our world, and the spirit world.  When it is seen, which is rare, it is described as vaguely humanoid, standing taller than a possum, but shorter than a man. It has a particularly long tail, which people speculate stretches from this world to the Otherworld. While it may not be a possum itself, it is intelligent, and has possum and snail emissaries, which bring it news, and do its bidding.  It is sometimes described as wearing clothes made of leaves, or leather. First-hand accounts describe it as having a lone bright, glittering eye, which is often all that witnesses can recall when describing the creature. 

Some believe that the possum spirit is one of "The Fair Folk", that watches over specific places in the forest. It is ancient, and expects offerings and for its forest or mound to be respected. When angered, this spirit is prone to evil and mischief.  In mythology, they are known to kidnap trespassers, replacing them with changelings...

Others believe that there is no such thing as fairies, and instead believe that the one-eyed phantom is instead the ghost of a deceased pirate, who in life had been cursed into the shape of a possum, and now haunts the forests on moonless nights.  

THE BACKSTORY: 

My own, actual encounter with the Possum Spirit: Our French Bulldog, affectionately known as "Bucketpuppy", has been meeting a strange visitor in the forest recently when I let her out into our yard at night. Some nights, when there is no moon, and we are walking along the edge of the forest, I hear crunchings and thumps and huffing sounds in the trees, very close. When I hear these noises, Bucketpuppy looks directly at them and her ears follow something in the darkness as it moves along, just outside of the light. It is something I cannot see, but she can. She doesn't ever bark or growl, and this is strange, because she barks at everything, cars, cats, dogs who are barking 7 miles away, and me often as not.  

One night, having been spooked by this phenomena, I brought a flashlight. Not a very good one, but good enough to catch the reflection in an animal's eyes. Bucketpuppy wandered into the forest, up to the fence I had built a few feet into the trees, and I started to hear the sounds again....  I shined my light, not sure what to expect, but there I saw, directly behind our puppy, in the darkness, a single great eye, staring fixedly down towards her. She was looking at it, then looked back at me, then back at the eye as it made its strange sounds. 

It stood much higher than a possum, but not as high as a man.  Its single glittering eye was green and blue, with flecks of bright, otherworldly gold in it. It huffed and breathed like something gigantic.   

We set out cameras each night after that, intent on catching it on film. Thus far we have caught many possums, but also sometimes, gigantic, furry shapes, and tails that went on in front of the camera seemingly forever.  

We used to offer food to the possums in past summers. They came and would clear our yard of ticks and pests. We felt like they blessed our little home.  But this year, we have forgotten them, and I fear that now, we have angered the spirit of my forest, who now plans now to steal our puppy, and replace it with a changeling...

Today on stream at 10AM EST, I will be reading and offering more backstory about the spirit, and we will be trying our best to work out what this creature might look like, based on clues from mythology, history, and found footage from our cameras.

As always, we will be checking out everyone's submissions on the discord and on Instagram under the hashtag #LETSDRAWMONSTERS and giving out the awards at the end of the 2 hour event! 

Our AWARDS this week are: 

• (Most Cute) - "The Animal Planet Award for Excellence in Paranormal Investigation"
• (Creepiest) - "The History Channel Award for Excellence in Cryptozoology"
• (Funniest) - "The Sci-Fi Channel Exclusive Award"

Good luck all! Hope to see you there.

https://twitch.tv/justingerardillustration