The Monster Scarer’s Son

Once upon a moon, there lived a boy called Peko. More than his whole world,
Peko wanted to be a monster scarer. Unfortunately, Peko was too young.
According to Moktok, the Witch Doctor of his village, only the bravest, most
daring grown-ups ever became a monster scarer.

There certainly weren’t any in his village, not since his father died. Most of
those who tried to become a monster scarer failed the test. These few would
return home jellified (a word meaning a shivering, jibbering wreck). Others
would never return home at all.

Peko didn’t know what all the fuss was about. He was already a brave and daring
adventurer. Why did he have to wait to become a grown-up? But whenever he
spoke about it, the grown-ups would just pat him on the head and smile
irritatingly, saying, “Maybe one day, little one,” or, “Why don’t you go chase
some piglets around the forest instead?”

This made Peko incredibly angry. He would run into the forest, but not to chase
puny, pestering piglets. No, instead he would imagine he was on his way to
Shadowland, where the scariest monsters lurked. In particular, Peko imagined
he was headed to the Tomb of Boo! to overcome the Three Scarings and face
the Horrid Tommy-knocker, a being said to know your greatest fear.

He knew all this because of the stories Moktok had told him throughout his
childhood. He loved to hear Moktok’s captivating tales, but most of all he loved
the tale of Shadowland, because, as Moktok would say, “To face the Horrid
Tommy-knocker and return without becoming jellified, is how you become a
monster scarer.”

“Wow,” Peko would say. “I can’t wait to go to Shadowland!”

But Moktok would frown a dark, furrowed frown, and say, “You would not say
that if you had been there, dear child. Do not rush to go to Shadowland, and
hope you never do, for it is a place where nothing kind lives.”

“Okay, Moktok. I’ll stay near the village.”

This was a monster-sized lie, of course! Moktok’s warning only made Peko want
to go even more, and he would spend all his days adventuring through the
forest, looking for Shadowland. Sadly, no matter where he looked; in spooky
caves, up the tallest trees, behind waterfalls and under bushes, he could never
find the way. That was, until the night the bad things came.

---

One special night every year, on the Night of the Jade Moon, all the grown-ups
would leave the village and travel to Totem Rock. This was a deep cave, where
they believed the spirits of their ancestors lived. On this special night, just
for a few moments, the moon would glow an intense shade of green.

No one knew why this happened, but the magical light would shine through a
deep hole, down into the cave. It was said to illuminate the pitch-black cave in
a brilliant blanket of jade light. At this moment, the spirits of the ancestors
would reveal themselves, and the grown-ups could thank them for protecting
the village from monsters, and ask for their protection in the year ahead.

Sadly, something went wrong this year, the year when the bad things came.
Peko never saw them, but he could feel them scuttling and scurrying through
the forest, and when the screams echoed in the night air, he knew something
was wrong.

All the children huddled together with the elderly folk by the village fire.
Eventually, some of the grown-ups returned, but they were shivering and
wobbling, with eyes as grey as ash. They had been jellified!

“Tonight is the night,” said Moktok, placing a comforting arm around Peko’s
shoulder.

“You mean, the night?” replied Peko.

“Yes, the night you journey to Shadowland.”

“But I’m too young!”

“No, you are the oldest child here, and the elders are too weak. Tonight, you
become a monster scarer.”
Peko’s stomach swished like a sea storm. All his life he’d waited for this
moment, but now it had come, he felt terrified. “Okay,” he said, gulping. “How
do I get there?”

---

Just as the jade-coloured moon returned to its usual white, Peko arrived at
Totem Rock. Moktok had said that this place, as well as being a Holy place for
the villagers, was also the gateway to Shadowland.

He fumbled his way into the darkness, further and further, until he reached
the place where the moonlight shone through the gap in the ceiling. This was
the exact place where Moktok had directed him.

Peko couldn’t believe what he was about to do, but he trusted in Moktok, so he
reached into his pocket and took out the item bestowed upon him by the
witchdoctor; the Blade of Blackness. The blade’s face was a perfect black
mirror, reflecting Peko’s face in a way which seemed to show his very soul. It
was quite astonishing. And strangely, the moonlight seemed to bend around the
blade, as if terrified of its mysterious power. This made Peko tremble.

“Be calm,” Motkok had said. “Let your mind clear, and the blade will open the
way.”

Peko reached into the moonlight, and although he felt frightened, he let
Moktok’s words wash over his mind like a calming breeze. All of a sudden, he
felt an irresistible force pull his hand forwards and gently downwards.
Strangely, it felt like pushing a knife into a watermelon. Then, as quickly as it
had arrived, the force disappeared, but what remained was the hole.

Darker than the cave itself, the hole hung there like an open pocket. Peko
gasped. He had cut a way into Shadowland! And so, one foot after the other,
he slipped his way in.

Here, the air swayed and rolled across his skin, and the smell of burning ash
crept into his nostrils. There were odd-looking objects all around. Maybe they
were plants, or possibly buildings, but they were too dark to see properly, and
besides, they too rippled and wavered like liquid.
Behind him, the pocket zipped-up shut. It was at just this moment, Peko
decided he didn’t want to visit Shadowland after all. Maybe he would turn back.
All he had to do was make another hole in the air.

Peko reached for the blade. Felt its cool handle on his skin. He began to
unsheathe it, but hesitated, shook his head, and put it back.

A deep sigh escaped him…

…the first of the Three Scarings pounced!

A snake-like creature slithered from the shadows. “Turn back now, little
flesshling!” it hissed. “Run away, while you sstill can!”

Peko felt its tongue flickering on his face. His heart pounded. He wanted to
run away, but he thought of his jellified family, and stayed put.

“No!” shouted Peko. “You will not stop me!”

“How amusing flesshling. If you insist on sstaying, I sshall have to eat you for
my ssupper.”

With that, Peko grabbed the slithering tongue and yanked it as hard as he
could. The snake-like being winced, startled, just for a split-second, but it was
enough for Peko to rush past. Incensed snarls and exasperated snaps chased
him into the darkness.

He seemed to run forever. The snake-like sounds eventually died off, but he
was too terrified to stop. He kept going until...

...he ran into a wall.

“Yeouch!”

“‘Yeouch’ indeed!” replied a deep, groany voice.

“Who said that?” said Peko.

All of a sudden, two giant eyelids, which had looked just like bricks, opened to
reveal a huge, grey pair of eyes, and then larger bricks below the eyes
separated to reveal an enormous mouth.
Peko nearly screamed, and as he did, the eyes in the wall glinted, hungrily, but
he but stopped himself just before the sound could escape his lips. He must
not be scared, he reminded himself. He must not become jellified like the
villagers.

“I need to get past.” He said, “Please will you help me find a way?”

“Childling,” said the Face in the Wall, “There is no way around my wall, or under
or over it. I go on forever, you see!”

“But I must get through, there has to be a way!”

“No, there is no way through. Your journey is hopeless. Poor childling, you look
so tired. Why don’t you stay here and take a nap. I will watch over you, you can
trust me.”

Peko did feel exhausted. Maybe he would have just a little sleep. The Face in
the Wall held his gaze in a strange way, a calming, soft way, and Peko felt
intensely relaxed. He watched transfixed as its great stony eyelids shut slowly
together, and felt his own eyelids become heavy pillows. He was slipping into a
dark and deadly slumber, when from the shadows came the slithering sound of
the snake-like beast. This startled Peko.

“Close your eyes, childling. No harm will come to you. I prooomiiise.”

The Face in the Wall yawned an enormous yawn. Peko found it irresistible. He
began to yawn as well. He nearly slipped into sleep, but the slithering sound was
close now. He had to resist!

Just as his eyelids touched together, the Face in the Wall yawned once more.
Maybe Peko was dreaming, maybe not, but he glimpsed a light deep inside the
huge stony mouth, and as that familiar, flickering tongue darted across his
neck, Peko made the bravest, craziest choice of his life.

He jumped into the Face in the Wall’s mouth.

Peko landed inside a dark tunnel. A quick glance back reassured him the Face in
the Wall and the snake-like being had gone. However, the blackness which now
occupied the space where they had been, held an evil inkiness of its own. He
couldn’t quite explain it, but he could feel it watching him, like a spider waiting
to pounce. Best to go forwards then!

The tunnel was illuminated by candles hung every ten steps or so. In the
distance ahead of him, Peko heard a high pitched cackle. A terrible sound it
was, but he knew he had to face the last of the Three Scarings. As he headed
further into the tunnel, the cackles became louder and louder. The closer he
came, the more terrified he felt, and he wanted to run away.

All of a sudden, a chill wind blew behind him. As he turned, he saw a candle
blow out, and then another, and another. The darkness wanted to devour him,
he could feel it. A fourth candle snuffed out. Three more and the darkness
would envelop him, so he sprinted, headlong toward the howling laughter.

Whoosh! Whhhooosh!! WHHOOSHH!

Closer and closer blew the wind, chilling the back of his neck, each gust
extinguishing another candle. The faster he ran, the louder the cackling and
more hysterical the sound ahead. Peko wished for nothing more than to turn
the other way. Surely it would be better to give in? Let the darkness take him.

But no, that was what it wanted. He would stop and it would swallow him whole,
and all of this would have been for nothing, and his tribe would be forever
jellified.

He could not let that happen. He had to be brave. So he sprinted as hard as he

could.

Three more candles. Horrible howls! Two more. Crippling cackles! One.

Silence.

At the precise moment the final candle blew out, the laughing stopped, the
terrible wind abated, and Peko was left alone in the dark once more.
Thankfully, he was at last past the Three Scarings, but his heart still thwomp-
a-domped, because he knew he had to face the Horrid Tommy-knocker.

“Whatever you do,” Moktok had warned. “Do not look into its eyes!”

“Why not?” asked Peko.

“It will try to trick you. But you cannot let that happen, for if you look into its
eyes, it will show you your greatest fear, and you will become jellified, for
ever!”

“How will I defeat it then?”

“You must show it its own greatest fear, before it can show you yours.”

“How will I do that?”

“That is something I cannot say. Only a true monster scarer will find the way.”

Remembering those words made Peko shiver all over, but he soon forgot them
at the sound of the crying woman.

“Hello? Is somebody there?”

Nobody replied, but the crying drifted closer. He would follow it. It must be
one of the villagers. Lost. He would rescue them. So he ran toward the sound.

Soon, he saw the figure, huddled on the floor with her face hidden. She was
sobbing inconsolably. The poor woman.

“Hello Mufana, is that you? Or Tumula? Kico?”

The figure only sobbed and sobbed. Peko crouched beside her. “Everything’s
going to be okay. You’re safe now, I’m here to rescue you.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder, and the figure turned to face him. Curious to
see which villager it was, he nearly peeked into her eyes, but the figure gripped
his hand in a death-like grip, and he knew it was not a villager. It was the
Horrid Tommy-knocker!

Just as the glimmer of its eyes could be seen, Peko reacted like lightning. His
hand snapped into his pocket and snatched out the Blade of Blackness. He held
it in front of him, and instead of the Horrid Tommy-knocker’s face, his own was
reflected back to him.

That’s when the most horrific scream escaped into the air.

“How could you?” it bellowed. “My fears! My greatest fears reflected back at
me! This is torture!”
It grasped at his wrists, trying to shake the blade free, but Peko held on as if…
no… because his life and the lives of everyone he loved depended on it. The
beast screamed and wailed and howled and yelled, until eventually it vanished
into nothingness, and its ragged clothes dropped to the floor.

It worked! The Horrid Tommy-knocker’s greatest fear was its own soul!

Peko trembled as if he’d been swimming in Lake Tuhu in winter, but he had
finally won. He was now a monster scarer!

---

As Peko stepped through the hole in the air, into the cave below Totem Rock,
Shadowland zipped shut behind him. This time, he did not hesitate. Not for a
second.

With his new powers, he raced through the forest chasing all the monsters and
scaring them away with their own reflections, and soon there were no more.

With the help of the other children from the village, Peko rounded up the
jellified grown-ups and returned them safely home. It took Moktok a whole
evening, and all of his witchdoctor powers to heal them, but one-by-one the
grown-ups returned to full health.

His village was soon back to its old self, except that now of course, it had a
monster scarer to protect it as well!

A week later, once everything had returned to normal, and Peko had thought
everyone had forgotten what had happened, a surprise party was thrown in his
honour.

“To the Monster Scarer!” they all shouted, as they threw him into the air and
caught him, only to throw him up again.

It was the greatest day of his life. He only wished his father could have been
there too.

But, as he looked to the stars, he saw the spirit of his father, the greatest
monster scarer the village had ever known, smiling proudly upon him.