Greeq Hornwhisk's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Greeq Hornwhisk knelt in the mud, cradling a curling page against his chest. The damp swamp air was eating his collection alive. Years of cryptid history, gathered from hidden corners and whispered sources, were warping at the edges. He needed shelter for these texts, or the record would rot before anyone else could read it. He hurried back to his mossy little burrow, the small earthen home he had claimed as his study. Inside, stacks of fragile tomes leaned against the walls. Greeq paced, muttering. The burrow was too small, too humid. He needed something outside, something tall and dry. He got to work at dawn. Greeq dragged reclaimed wood from the swamp's edge and lashed the planks against a hollow old trunk. He built shelves high above the wet ground and wove ivy through the seams to seal out moisture. Above it all, he planted a wide, star-printed umbrella, its dark canopy blocking the drizzle. One by one, he carried his tomes out and slid them onto the shelves. By dusk, the texts stood safe and dry inside his new tome haven. Greeq smiled, brushing dirt from his hands. But as he stepped back, a snapped twig made him freeze. Someone, or something, had been watching him build.