Hybrid Winged Things
entityVolucris tartarea—Not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards
A flock of unclassifiable, trained hybrid beasts that the cultists mount and ride into the underground galleries following the Yule-rite beneath Kingsport.
A horde of tame, trained hybrid creatures that flopped rhythmically out of the blackness beyond the ritual flame during the underground Yule-rite beneath Kingsport — things no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, resembling by turns crows, moles, buzzards, ants, vampire bats, and decomposed human beings, moving half on webbed feet and half on membranous wings.
The cowled celebrants seized and mounted the beasts to ride off along the unlighted underground river into further pits and galleries after the rite. Two of the creatures remained standing by, scratching restlessly at the lichens, after the old man refused to abandon the narrator.
Haunts
Sources
Every fact above traces back to the text.
“there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember”
The Festival (1925)
“They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings, but something I cannot and must not recall.”
The Festival (1925)
“I saw when I staggered to my feet that the amorphous flute-player had rolled out of sight, but that two of the beasts were patiently standing by.”
The Festival (1925)