The Tatzelwurm – a free online Story

Eddie Baird must capture the legendary Tatzelwurm for his grandfather’s cryptid sanctuary.

But two things could stop him.

Gabi, the remarkable Swiss girl who has befriended the acid-spitting creature.

And an evil presence in the alps…

Read FREE online. Part 1 and  Part 2 Warning: This story gets quite  gets dark in places. Not for kids or the faint-hearted.

If you enjoy The Taztzelwurm, please ‘like’ to shoot the story up the lists in the Tapas community. Thank you.

The Tatzelwurm is dedicated to Gabi Bachofen.

A big shout out to Danny Richards and his cryptid series, Monstrous – Cryptozoological Tales, part of Adrenaline Shots comics. I’m proud to join the line up of great authors being published in this venue.

Background

I was recently commissioned to write short story about a legendary creature for the Monstrous online anthology. Having lived in Switzerland, guess what I chose?

Yes, there is a legendary alpine dragon, the Tatzelwurm.

The Tatzelwurm is a legendary creature with a cat-like head, two clawed front limbs and a serpentine body.

It was first reported in the Swiss Alps in 1779 by Hans Fuchs, who saw two of them and died of a heat attack shortly after describing the beasts. Many more Swiss have seen it since. However, there have been no confirmed modern sightings, leading to conjecture that the animal is extinct or never existed. See an interesting Tatzelwurm video here.

Note: I took a few liberties, so my Tatzelwurm may have wings!

Location

Although Tatzelwurm sightings were reported in various places in Switzerland and Austria, I decided to set my story on the Speer, an alp in St Gallen.

Speer – from the Ebnat-Kappel side. The story is set in the alpine meadows just beyond the grass, but in summer when there’s no snow around.

When I first travelled to Switzerland, my friends Gabi, Marco and Polo took me up the Speer. We drove up from Ebnat-Kappel, and then walked part of the way up to have goat’s cheese and fine bread with Ferdi, the Alper (the man who took care of the cows on the alp for summer).

On another ocassion, Gabi, her sister, Sandra, and I climbed from the other side of the alp, up a treacherous slope.

Speer, from the side I climbed up. We scaled the face on the left end of the alp.

Someone climbing the Speer – not me, although I did, back when I lived in Switzerland!

Nowadays people wear helmets and take climbing gear. Back then, we scaled the cliff in shorts and T-shirts, with only a steel cable in hand, and didn’t dare look down the dizzying drop until we got to the top!

The final scene of the story is set on the steep slope of the sunlit left end.

Thanks again to Danny Richards for giving me an opportunity to relive a fantastic phase of my life and venture into the Swiss Alps again, via this story. I hope you enjoy The Tatzelwurm. Please like the post on Tapas (log in via Facebook to like).

Content – Dark Themes

Please be aware that although the overall tone  of this story is quite upbeat, there is a dark scene near the end. Be warned that I do like happy endings, though.

If you’d like to read all the episodes on Monstrous – Cryptozoological Tales, a couple of my favourites are Lee Murray’s Baird’s Legacy and A J Ponder’s The Forgotten World. The others are great too, but some are written by horror writers, so read at your own risk! (If you love horror, you’ll be in your element). You can access them all from the left sidebar, near my story. Use the slider to select a story. Happy reading.