SHAPESHIFTER

In ancient times, it was common for families to live in the wilderness on their own, and little did a Hmong family of three know that their lives were in grave danger from a shape-shifting tiger. The shapeshifter had been watching this family for quite some time. It knew the mother stayed up late, hunched over her sewing by candlelight, and that the father and young son left each morning before sunrise with their hunting and farming tools.

One evening, as the mother was sewing by candlelight in the living room, the shapeshifter transformed into its tiger form and snuck into the bedroom to quickly devour the father and son in their sleep. The vile creature took a severed hand from each victim—one from the father, one from the son—and hung them on the woven basket of wooden spoons by the stove. Then, it silently slipped out of the house and began to sing an eerie riddle in a low, haunting voice, “Beauty creates flowers in the day, and in the night she sews while her husband and son die in bed with their hands hanging from a basket of spoons and woes.”

Upon hearing the chilling riddle, the mother turned slowly toward the stove. There, dangling from the woven basket of spoons, were two torn hands—dripping blood and hung like grotesque ornaments. Frighten, she ran into the bedroom where she discovered the bones of her family on their bloody beds, but the thought of fleeing was too late as heavy breathing from a monstrous creature entered the bedroom door behind her.

Art by Bao Xiong