On Bak-Shah, The Child Eater

There are many dangers a traveler in Ramhknal would be well advised to avoid: mountebanks, muggers, the docks in their entirety. But one that looms large in the public imagination is Bak-Shah the tiger, and it would be negligent of me, your humble guide, to gloss over the topic entirely. Make of this entry what you will.

The known facts are these: Bak-Shah is a man eater. He skulks into Ramhknal under the cover of stars and hides in abandoned buildings. Then on moonlit nights he wanders our fair city, into our houses1, and abducts children. This he does by gently biting their entire head. This process silences their screams entirely, allowing him to carry the child away to his lair, where he may eat them at his leisure.

A dozen such lairs have been discovered. The first of these was found nearly thirty years back, and the most recent was discovered in the year of this writing. They are fetid holes, filled with the skeletons of children2, their skulls indented with fang marks. One year an expert on tigers was invited into the city. Upon seeing the number of skeletons the pit contained, he concluded that the tiger had lived within that charnel house for at least eight months.

A dozen tiger hunts have been launched. They start within the city; abandoned buildings are searched and occasionally put to the flame3. When this process inevitably fails to locate the beast, these hunts spread out into the jungles. Rough men come back with dozens of tiger pelts, and hundreds of stories: surely, the public thinks, one of these must be the dreaded Bak-Shah himself. A particularly large specimen, nearly ten feet long, was killed this year; perhaps it was the fell beast himself. But always, so far, the tiger has come back, so this humble author remains doubtful.

Now we enter into the realm of speculation. These theories cover the full spectrum of improbability, from the merely unlikely to the utterly impossible. Many accuse the tiger of possessing a strange and terrible form. For one, his size is in question. Some speculate that the tiger is enormous, standing shoulder to shoulder to a man and weighing nearly one thousand pounds4.  But another theory holds that the tiger is in fact a runt, diminutive in stature: this has made him incapable of hunting regular prey, and is why he targets children5. One popular theory asserts that Bak-Shah's coat is reversed: he is a black tiger with orange stripes. This is how he blends into the night and so far avoided detection. A few men claim to be survivors of the beast's attacks, and these witnesses claim that the tiger was serpentine in aspect, elongated and possessing dozens of paws, as if someone had stitched twelve tigers together. But surely these 'witnesses' are drunks and madmen, for the gods would not suffer such an abomination to live.

Other theories concern themselves with the tiger's origin. Some claim him to be a shape shifter, who takes on the form of a man to hide himself. Others believe him a sorcerer scorned, now enacting his terrible revenge against the city for some dimly remembered crime. Perhaps the tiger is a ghost who enters homes like a chill wind, immaterial except for his teeth. Still more theories abound: Bak-Shah is a curse, Bak-Shah is a demon, Bak-Shah is a machine constructed by the church of the Iron God. And some believe him to be merely a man, a depraved killer with a strange method to deflect suspicion. If so, he has managed to fool us all.

I will allow the esteemed reader to judge these theories upon their own merits, choosing what he will and discarding the rest. Regardless of what you choose to believe, I offer you this caveat: do not roam the streets at night, and lock your doors and windows.

1. Bak-Shah has been known to attack even in houses with locked doors. It is thought he jumps inside through open windows.
2. The occasional adult as well. Presumably these are unfortunate late night wanderers.
3. In several unfortunate incidents, with their occupants still inside.
4. How then, one wonders, does he fit through windows, or for that matter, doors?
5. But why do the pits contain adult skeletons then? And why are his visits so infrequent?