People to talk about the creatures from folklore that they believe are actually real (or were real at one time, at least).

The Fair Folk-They’re not exactly fairies; they’re…different? Meaner. You don’t f**k with them, basically, and if something’s going horribly wrong in your life, it’s probably because you f**ked with them or you made them angry. And you have to be careful how you talk about them, too — kind of like with skinwalkers, you don’t name them. You just call them the Fair Folk or the Folk. They mostly hang out and try to get you to owe them a favor. You don’t take anything from the Folk, or you owe them one, and you don’t want to be in that position. There are lots of different types that do lots of different things, though. I don’t wanna come off as that weirdo who believes in what is essentially fairies, but I grew up with the stories, and I have a healthy level of skepticism about this. I’m not saying they’re real, but I’m also not about to step into a fairy circle any time soon. Especially not at dusk.

MOTHMAN-It’s not that I inherently believe there is scientific evidence corroborating its existence, but I just really really really want Mothman to exist.

Terrifying Sea Creatures-Anything from the sea really sounds plausible to me considering how little we have explored it. Sea serpents and the Kraken are major examples of something that could realistically be hiding in the depths and only come up to the surface on rare occasions.

Mokele/Mbembe-I love the Mokele-Mbembe legend. Supposedly some sort of dinosaur-like creature living in the swamps in Cameroon or thereabouts. Its name means “the one who stops the flow of rivers.” Legend has it that this enormous beast has a long neck, and is bigger than an elephant. It supposedly walks along the riverbeds and swamplands most submerged, and has been thought to kill large predators like crocodiles, but then not eat them. There is a story about a small village that killed one of these creatures and ate it, and a short time later, everyone who had eaten its flesh became sick or died. The main reason it’s so compelling is that the jungle and swamplands where it supposedly lives are so dense and impassable for people that it could have conceivably lived in the relatively unchanged climate for thousands upon thousands of years. Humans would have never encountered it, or even been able to venture into its habitat with any reasonable effort.

Unicorns-The earliest written accounts of unicorns describe them more akin to deer in looks. There’s also an abnormality they can have with their antlers where they curl together into what looks like a single pointed horn instead of two twisting antlers. It makes sense that they could be changed into myth.

The Bunyip-The Bunyip is almost certainly an evolution of a real (possibly late ice age) creature that was recorded in aboriginal oral history. Probably the oral history of it was preserved even after the animal went extinct so that it was later misinterpreted to still exist, and eventually shifted into the realm of folklore.

Aralez-Mythological dog angels from Armenian culture. With the widespread stories of dogs saving people’s lives, providing companionship, and giving their very lives for people, I can only believe that the Armenian tales recount tales of dogs in prehistory. Before we could understand the depth of their emotions and mental lives fully.

Jackalopes-Jackelopes definitely exist. Only they’re not some weird rabbit antelope hybrid. They’re just some poor rabbits infected with the Shope Papilloma Virus which causes strange horn-like growths.

Sasquatch-Some form of yeti or Sasquatch, aka “Bigfoot” most likely did exist at one point in time. It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to me, albeit the real thing was probably less exciting.

ALIENS-I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that they’ve visited Earth, or abducted people, but somewhere out there? Yeah, I definitely think so. The universe is so mind-bogglingly massive that the odds of us being the only life in the universe are basically nil.

DRAGONS-I have no basis for this, but I like to imagine that dragons were just a mistaken case of identity when some strange dinosaur skull or bones were unearthed way back when.

Chupacabra-To be 100 percent candid, when I would work closing shifts during college and had to walk home at 3 am, I got pepper spray because I was afraid of el chupacabra. In retrospect, I was more likely to be attacked by a mountain lion or some unsavory character. But still.

GHOSTS-I wish I could find proof of or personally experience a ghost. It would be some kind of proof of the afterlife, which would be neat.

The Lochness Monster or Sea Serpents-Maybe there’s not a giant beast in that lake, but I think it’s totally possible that there’s a giant water creature from prehistoric times still roaming the seas. It’s so rare and elusive that we haven’t seen it.

The Wendigo-So picture the Wendigo. A huge, towering spirit that walked the bush. Its power was so great, that it knocked down trees as it moved. It came to life every winter, especially after the drought. When the People could not store enough food in spring, summer, and fall for winter. When the communities crops had failed. When the forest had been dry as tinder, and no berries and roots could grow. When the fishing had been poor because the fish were not running in the streams. When the hunting was poor because animals starved. Because animal-mothers could not eat enough and they did not produce milk for their babies, and the babies died, and the mothers starved. When even the beavers the Land left because the streams dried up and because the birch trees withered. That was when the Wendigo came to the Land to torment the People. It followed them through the bush as they searched for food until they could go no further. The Wendigo then ran down the People. Possessed the People. Made them mad with hunger and lust for food of any kind. Made them so evil and mad that they would eat the dead. The Elders. The children. And if the Wendigo entered you, you also became a Wendigo. You could then possess others to become Eaters of the Dead as well.

The Death Worm/Basilisk-It’s a legless creature that lives in sandy deserts, has some kind of crest or antennae, and can apparently electrocute people. The Basilisk is another legless creature that lives in sandy deserts, had a crest on its head, and was so venomous that if a man on a horse speared one, the “venom” would travel up the spear and kill both him and his horse. Considering how good of a conductor sand is, and that multiple kinds of fish can generate electricity, it seems kind of plausible that some other animal might exist that has that kind of defense mechanism. In ancient Greek times, people weren’t all that familiar with electricity, and nobody had ever heard of an electric eel, so if somebody just dropped dead after spearing a weird snakey-looking animal, an electric shock probably wouldn’t have been the first explanation they thought of.

The Beast of Bodmin Moor-I could easily believe that the Beast of Bodmin Moor was real at some point. I think it was most likely an escaped illegal exotic pet that escaped its aristocratic owner’s estate and roamed around the moors until it eventually died. The chances of it still being alive are pretty minimal if it did exist, though.

Mermaids-Given how much of the ocean is unexplored I fully believe in mermaids. I just don’t think they’re going to look like Ariel.

And finally...I can’t say it or talk about it because it will come. That’s how you call it. I swear, it does exist.