No matter how fierce or hideous, these ensorcelled creatures can always be uncursed by love. Lucky for them, in the tidy fashion of once-upon-a-time, redemption is possible. So it was with the Beast, the Green Serpent, the Frog Prince, the Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh-changlings all, mastering lessons in scale and fur they failed to learn in skin. Who the real victims are under such circumstances is open to debate-after all, why should humans be the only species allowed to be fruitful and multiply or stand their ground? Sure, Jack was poor, but that doesn’t justify stealing from the Giant and his wife, and, amongst humans, home invasion is frowned upon even if you are a golden-tressed ingénue. Many are devoted to family and clan, and are simply doing their best to live in a dangerous world. The truth of these creatures is more complex, of course. When we do, these creatures demand feats of reckless-if well-rewarded-bravado, as knights and woodsmen flock to rescue their hapless victims. With the exception of the Bears Goldilocks encountered, we imagine these beings living off on their own-in small bands at most-hostile misanthropes with voracious appetites, just waiting for us to put a step wrong. They populate woods and ponds and closet shadows, the threat of their lethal clutches keeping unruly children on the beaten path. Natural monsters are a wonderfully diverse lot: dragons, trolls, kelpies, bunyips, and big, bad wolves. An outgrowth of our mythic past, faërie-tales and fables boast two basic monster types: natural creatures out to pounce on the errant, foolish, and unsuspecting, and errant, foolish, unsuspecting humans who have been enchanted. As a writer, I find myself particularly drawn to the macabre and lonely conjurings of the creative mind, from fable to genre tome.

Dragon keeper 2 dragon lamp