Something Crossed my Path: A Crypto-Fiction Short Story

It was sometime after 3 PM. I had gone to the shopping centre just a kilometre from my house to pick something up. No more then under 10 minutes from my house, I expected the walk back home to just that: a short quick stroll that wasn’t anything special, forgotten as soon as it happened.

It wasn’t.

Now the quickest route was just to go along Burnhamthorpe on the walkway by it, but though it was a straight line to the intersection to get home to, I found it excruciating to get to. The cars going by did not help, maybe the exhaust and the noise were the primary reason, or maybe seeing the light go green to red and back as you approached it does a number in you, hoping you can get there in time but always failing and you had to wait precious more minutes while you’re stuck with the cars’ crap.

So it was then I went into the woods. Riverwood Park is next to the road, a lush green diamond between the Credit River on one side, the Railway on another, and the highway on its north. It wasn’t much compared to other parks in the GTA, but every time I went there for daily walks I always enjoyed it. The woodlands currently in front of me seemed to help make time go by the way the route curves above the supposedly shorter route and back down to it, and I looked forward to to the detour.

Past the eternally open wooden gates, the path, befittingly labelled the Green Trail, would go from concrete to compacted dirt, and the trees surrounded me. It was much more easy to go through the trail then the walkway, barely touched so drastically by noisy lifeless creations of capitalism even just a hundred metres from it. It was so nice that day, I decided to go a little bit further then usual then go back they way I came to the parking lot and down Riverwood Lane, which led back to the intersection and down the Credit Woodlands to home. It would just be as few minutes extra back and forth, and get some more exercise while at it.

But then just as I was close to the part where the other branched to the left to the park’s parking lot, I noticed an opening along the path branching from it. Either I never noticed it before, or it was a newly formed one created by people disobeying the rule to stay on the marked path (a rule I usually obey myself). I looked down the path, which was covered in shadow with only a few shafts of light to illuminate it. It didn’t seem like most people’s idea of a welcoming place to enter.

But I did indeed enter, with only a few seconds of thinking. I stepped forth to see what was down there.

This section of forest was one I had never been in it. It felt… different. It felt deeper and wilder then the normal ones. Hikers didn't come here much if at all, giving nature a chance to grow uncontrolled, the floor carpeted in plants I knew not the name of, even on the path itself. The path itself sometimes had the tracks of all sorts of creatures, from birds to mammals. And the tree canopy was thick. So thick, the sun barely peaked through and the air had a slightly chilly feel, like spring or fall. I was certain this place was just right next to the train tracks and the busy Creditview Road, yet I could not hear cars very well if at all. The trees were that dense, and they seemed to go on forever, as if urban sprawl had ceased to exist. I could not even see any indication of the concrete world where I came from. For the moment, seemed to be entirely alone in this forest. 

Or at least I thought I was. Two noticeable crashing and rustling noises against vegetation and dirt was all it took to turn my head to see… something walking in the forest. I only saw a vague brown shape with a big visible arm disappear in the trees. I stood there for a few minutes wondering what I just saw, and that was before I noticed a handful of tracks that looked like the curving tracks of a cow directly in front of me. Was it Bigfoot? Were the tracks made by an escaped cow or some bison, or were they some weird deer track that got all distorted? I thought these two questions over as I continued to walk through this forest - though of course, I was a sceptic of Bigfoot, let alone any cryptozoological creature, so the former was but a joke to amuse myself with a chuckling smile, and the latter was the more serious one I legitimately pondered, especially as I saw other animal tracks, discarded feathers, and other traces of wildlife on and just off the path.

I then came to an overview of a gully where a creek flowed at the bottom. The sides were not as deep as Chappell Creek, but the water was far more plentiful, no drying mud anywhere but the riverbanks, and some kind of fish splashed about in it. It was quite the beautiful sight, and I stopped to look up and down the gulley. It was a soothing sight, and ( felt like I could stay forever and watch it.

Suddenly, I noticed something cross my path.

Something four-legged and with a long tail.

It was a cougar. I was astounded by the sight. Hadn’t they all been wiped out in Ontario for centuries? Sure I had heard of those reports online, but I had never believed them. Now I’m certain it was a normal-sized cougar, coloured tawny and not bigger then up to my hip, but its not out of the question my memory turned it huge, as big as a lion. The excitement at seeing such a rare species in the wild.

I took my phone out and took pictures of the cougar as it walked into the forest. Halfway it stopped. Did it realise I was there? I was still transfixed at the sight, a creature so close to home I would never imagine. But leave it did, vanishing into the forest without a sound.

I continued to walk and enjoy the forest, but after what felt like ten minutes I suddenly felt a bit tired, like I couldn’t walk any further. I wasn’t sure how long it had been, and I did tell my parents I would be back soon. I decided to turn back and head the way I came. It would also give me an opportunity to re-soak in what I had seen to keep the memory stronger.

By the time I returned to the point where I was where the cougar crossed my path, I noticed another branching trail. This one was a rounded depression leading down to the creek, green with grass taller then my ankles and the occasional brown patch of mud and sand, with another gully at the other end of it leading elsewhere.

It was then I noticed movement from the corner of my eye. The cougar was down there, in the shade of a drop, sleeping and looking around. And the cougar had something else with it, just a metre from it.

There looked to be a corpse of a bison, of all things. Even from a distance, the shaggy brown fur, huge curving horns, and humped back were what gave it away. Those tracks were starting to make a whole lot more sense. And I smelled a strange scent - fresh blood. I presume the cougar had managed to kill the creature while I had passed it. It must have been quite a feat, given other predators already struggle with felling even a small bison, and I wish I was around to see how it did so. And of course, just the idea of a wild bison in southern Ontario these days astounded me. Sure cougars were native to the region and sightings persisted across eastern NA, but never once did I hear of bison cryptids, and I haven't heard of escaped bison anywhere.

Naturally, I took out my phone and began photographing both creatures away. It was during this moment I noticed there were a couple injuries on the cougar. That wasn't surprising at all when you consider well, it’s pretty difficult to fell a bison alone. The cougar itself noticed me after a bit, looing at me with annoyance in its eyes. I was hoping it didn’t charge or attack me, and I was on edge, the hairs on my neck standing up. I even tried reaching for my water bottle I case I had to defend myself.

Then something came up from behind on the path. The sound was slight, but it startled the heck out of me, knocking me off balance and dropping my phone in the dirt and screaming loudly. I turned myself to see what it was.

Wolves. A whole pack was coming down the path, seven by my count. Once more I was astounded. While I was pretty sure there were wolves in Ontario, most of them were up north from where I was, not in the south and not certainly within the cities of the Golden Horseshoe area. Even being regular grey (or were they eastern? I didn’t know the difference when I wrote this) ones, they took my breath away, left speechless even more then I already was.

Some of the wolves took notice of me, in particular the one closest to me, close enough to reach you and stroke its fur (though I didn’t try to). Or perhaps they already did know of my presence even before I was in the middle of their path? They looked at me with bemusement at my presence, some even sniffing my water bottle sticking out from my bag, and one snarled a warning to stay back, but otherwise didn't act aggressive to me at all. They began approaching the cougar. They were trying to take the carcass for themself by driving the cat off.

I took hold of my camera from the ground and started recording a video of the skirmish.

The cougar itself had already leapt back onto it's feet as it saw the wolves approach, and was evidently in defence mode. It snarled a warning at the wolves, even mock charging at them however weakly. It was not going to give up its kill so easily. The cougar pawed at ones of the wolves but missed, and the wolf in turn lunged at the cougar’s bloody flank, and made contact. The cougar recoiled as another ran in to do a very similar thing to  its sides, then twice more with slight variations. The cougar was already growing tired, and didn’t want to fight or waste energy doing so, and so it fled away.

The three predators proceeded to run off down the riverbank and into the gully and beyond my view, still barking and growling at each other, and the packmates following. As soon as the fight begun it was over. Now I was alone with only the carcass and its foul odour, as well as any possible flies arriving for the corpse.

I decided to look at the bison carcass up close, before either came back, and then go back the way I came to go home. But even before I was just a few metres from it, I got the feeling this was not a bison at all. No bovid I knew had fingers instead of hooves, sticking out from the rest of the body… and exactly like the arm I saw at the start of my forest walk. And the whole shape was off. The way the body seemed to be built, it was not suited to walk on all fours... but rather just two.

It was already weird enough as it was, my mind transfixed on trying to find every detail about the creature, but then what I thought was the carcass twitched its finger. I didn;t realise it at first, but then I did, right as I started to notice there were no signs of serious injury to its hide.

But then the creature breathed a deep inhalation that made me froze, and started to stand up. 

It was alive all along. Perhaps the cougar had only manage to knock whatever it was unconscious and was making sure it didn’t get away while it rested before tucking in. But of course, that was hardly on my mind as I looked dead set at it and scanned the details of its anatomy in astoundment and horror, as it pushed itself up with its other arm.

The creature’s body was not that of a normal one: its body even through its shaggy hair was muscular like one of my species, or perhaps another great ape. And it’s legs. Their were only two, wider then a normal bison’s with fat, muscle, and fur, yet still beared the zig-zag shape of hooved legs. The arms the fingers were attached to flexed like a bodybuilder’s as they reached up to rub the scars on its neck and shoulders. And it’s eyes? Despite having the dark eyes and squared pupils of of a bovid, they flickered with comprehension and intelligence, just like primates on there’s. I didn’t see them at first, as it had its back turned to me as it clutched its wounds on its body, but with deep sharp sniffs and twitches of its ears, it turned slowly but powerfully, and tensed up even further, and it bellowed at the sight of me and staggered back. Was this the first time it had seen a human? It was terrified out of its mind.

And so was I. I had good reason to. It was an impossible creature that seemed to break so much of I knew about nature and ecology, a being that seemed to have come directly out of human myth, unable to exist and could not exist for long, most certainly not in my own backyard so close to home. But it did now. The only word to describe it as I saw it unfold was Minotaur, the beast that was born of an unholy union between human and beast and should never have existed.

First I was backing off slowly. Only after a few minutes more did I run as fast as I can, stuff still in my bag, running up the hill, down the trail and all the while screaming like I had never screamed before. I didn’t look back, and hoped that the Minotaur was not following me, yet I swear I could hear its bellows and hoofbeats against the forest floor. Yet I had to pause to see where to go back. It was tense as hell, especially when I tripped. I swear I was dragging myself by my arms along the ground, and constantly glancing over my shoulder to make sure the Minotaur wasn’t anywhere near. By the time I finally saw the entrance I think my heart was about to explode from all the adrenaline in my veins. I pushed myself back onto my feet and into the light.

I was back where I started, on the green trail. The same spot where the train station and the condo by it were almost visible through the trees, the parking lot was close by, and the sound of cars were clear in the air.

I looked around for any sign of that minotaur following me or even any of the creatures I saw were nearby. But there weren’t any. Indeed, when I turned to the opening, it was no longer there, just a solid treeline. Then what was I just in, I wondered? Was it a daydream? Some weird interdimensional happening? Some fairy realm that sent me into the future by being in it? Okay, the last bit was just a joke, but still, one can’t help but wonder after what I just saw.

I then remembered I took photos and videos of my cryptid encounters, and whipped my phone out in the hopes maybe I could share them, while at it checking the time. The time, by the way, was just 3:22 PM, a timespan longer then the 20 or maybe even 60 minutes seemingly compressed into under that.

The photos meanwhile were not very good, even accounting for how poor the quality usually was on my phone. The finer details could not be made out on anything but the basic shapes of the three creatures I saw, and they could easily be mistaken for other things they weren’t. Might my hands have been so excited they trembled so hard? It’s a thing I had struggled with before.

No matter. The memories of what creature I saw would undoubtedly stay in my head for the rest of my life and recall fondly. It was that kind of thing that happened to you and every detail stays with you and never forget. The elegant stride of the cougar. The coordination of the wolves. Even in hindsight I am no longer scared of the Minotaur, a fascinating form I insist is truly real and would love to see again, preferably in a better state of mind and from far away. I told myself to remember the next time I went on my daily walks in the Credit River Valley would keep a close eye out for any evidence or the creatures themselves, or even try and see if that patch of forest off the path was still there.

I then headed onto Riverwood Park Lane and went home.

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This short story was loosely based off a dream I had from August, where I read on signage that the Credit River Valley, just a 100 metres from my house, was home to cryptozoological sightings, specifically that of eastern cougars, wolves, and a minotaur, all of whom provided the basis for the story's events; the same dream involved my uncle in there, but I forgot about him and didn't want to write him in anyway. It's actually one of the few I've completed in my life, let alone got published.

Did you enjoy this story? It's the start of a new blog where I write about unknown creatures of mythology and history. I was inspired by Truth is Scarier then Fiction, who following on Twitter and elsewhere reignited my love of cryptids and monsters, to the point I fear it may overtake my love of palaeontology. Now I don't intend this to overtake my Mesozoic Mind blog (nor will I let it), so most blog poats here will be sparse, but will be worth each of the waits.

All art and images here belong to their respective owners, except for the photo of the path at the start, for I took it myself.