THE SANTER

This creature is one of the few marauding beasts said to dwell south of the Mason–Dixon line, most often reported in western North Carolina. While it seldom threatens people directly, it has a grim reputation as a predator of livestock.

Its body is long and shaggy with reddish hair, while the head is large, round, and bare of fur. It stands on long legs with heavy feet, and its small eyes glint with a hard, unfriendly look. Most striking of all is its tail, nearly the length of its body and knotted into eight hard lumps that resemble a string of beads. This strange weapon can be swung with such force and accuracy that a single blow is enough to kill a cow or hog outright. Though it is more than capable of fighting with its tail, the creature rarely needs to, for it can outrun nearly anything that gives chase.

It favors the wooded swamps near small villages, close to where cattle and hogs are kept. Swift and elusive, it is almost never seen, but its eerie cry—a shrill wail like that of an infant—can sometimes be heard echoing through the night. Even hounds, brave as they may be, seldom dare to pursue it.

One infamous case near Statesville tells of a calf found dead, its body marked by eight distinct bruises—seven across its flanks and one along a shattered foreleg. The hair around each mark was singed as though scorched, proof enough that the creature had struck with its terrible beaded tail.