The Creature

LO: To comprehend the narrative text.

The creature is an extract from ‘Knowledge of Angels’ by Jill Paton Walsh, and is set in medieval times on
a Mediterranean island.

It was warm in the shepherd’s cave. The promised lamb was roasting on a spit; the bread the nevados
had brought from the valley that morning was not yet rock hard. It felt like a holiday, but the old man
was afraid.

‘A large wolf’, Galceran insisted. He imagined himself felling it with a titanic blow from his snow spade
and being acclaimed as the hero of the hour.

‘Whoever heard of a wolf with spoor like that?’ Salvat asked. He pointed out the impression of the front
paw, divided into four pads, the mark of the claws behind, not in front of the footprint. ‘I am nearly
eighty, I have heard a lot, seen a lot. Never anything like this.’

‘We can track it to its lair now the snow is lying here, ‘said old Luis. ‘But we don’t know what it is. We
thought it best to get help.’

‘At first light its time has come,’ the nevados promised. ‘Whatever it is.’ They were strong men, and
numbered nearly a dozen. In the warmth of the night cave, the mysterious creature could not have been
too large for them, or too appalling. The hugest wolf that ever walked would have disappointed them.

In the morning the tracks were clear to see. The thing had taken another lamb in the night, as expected.
About every three days it was raiding the flocks; but the night before last, when it had bitten through
the net, it had left its prey behind. That it would be hungry was predictable. And though the shepherds
had searched for it in vain for nearly the whole of their two weeks in the high pastures, the snowfall had
entrapped the creature better than the net- it could be followed easily now.

The trail led up to the top of the hanging valley, climbing the stark rock-face, ribbed with clefts and
riddled with caves, where anything could hide. For the first half mile or more the trail was unreadable,
because the creature had been dragging its kill, obliterating its footprints as it made them. Then in a
snow-filled cranny made filthy with blood it had left the larger part of the lamb, dismembered and
horribly torn, taking the left hindquarter onwards. Now the trail has marked with a line of blood drops,
and the haunch had been carried in the creature’s teeth, leaving the strange trail clear.

There was a marked difference between its front paws and back paws- the back paws had long claw
marks in front of the paw mark, only the front footprints had the strange inverted claws. Like a hare it
left leg-marks as well as footprints from time to time, and now and then its bloody burden dangled low
enough to scrape and stain the sunlit purity of the ground.

‘Look’, said Old Luis, as they rested, nearly a thousand feet above the grazing grounds. ‘What kind of
creature has a gait like that?’ The leg-marks, long and narrow, extended behind the prints of the thing’s
front paws, and in front of its rear paws. They shook their heads and move on. In a few more minutes
they came round a rock bluff and saw the trail making straight across a level facet of rock, and into the
mouth of a cave. It was a small cave. The finely balanced mixture of excitement and fear which had
driven them urgently till that moment shifted suddenly towards fear.

They moved as quietly as they could, and they fanned out, in case it rushed out of the cave and escaped
them. They could hear it snarling and growling.

‘Perhaps it has young,’ said Salvat. ‘It is feeding its young…’

They closed in. Then, suddenly they could see into the hollow in the drift in front of the creature’s lair.
The melt-cave at the door of the rock cave was abominable with scraps of slaughtered things- with
blood and feathers and bones. Even on the nearly frozen air, a stench reached them. The thing held the
stolen haunch of meat between its front paws, and was worrying it, snarling like a dog as it ate. It had a
mantle of matted black fur over its head and shoulders, and bluish bald hindquarters. It did not hear or
smell them coming, for it did not cease to drag off strips of meat from the bone.

Galceran let out a bloodthirsty yell. He raised his snow-mattock high above his head and swung it
murderously. It was Jaime who stopped him. He jumped forward with a wall and, grabbling Glaceran’s
sleeve, deflected the blow. Then he lurched backwards, doubled over convulsively, and vomited. He had
seen, just in time, that the monster was a human child.

A child. It had hair matted into a thick pall that spread over its back and shoulders- that was what they
had taken as fur. Otherwise it was naked. The terrible fangs with which it had slaughtered lambs and cut
free from the entrapping net were only an old rusty knife. It held the knife between its teeth. It ran
away on all fours, zigzag in the space left by the line of men. It tried to run between both of them. But
they were armed with nets and poles and caught it easily. Holding it by the hair, they forced it to drop
the knife. They then bundled it up and carried it, it slung from the longest pole, and dumped it into a
sheep-pen made of wattles outside the shepherd’s cave. It fought them all the way.

‘How has it survived?’ another of the nevados asked.

‘A wolf has raised it,’ said old Luis, wiping his knife on a hunk of bread.

‘Is such a thing possible?’

‘It might be. There have always been stories.’

‘What are we going to do with it?’ Galceran asked.

‘Don’t ask me,’ said Luis. ‘To my mind your first thought was best.’

‘I would have killed it…..’

‘You should have done.’

‘It would have been merciful,’ said Luis. ‘But it’s too late now.
 1) Why is the word ‘nevados’ printed in italics?

-Nevados is printed in italics because it is:

Choose one.

a) used for emphasis

b) the title of a book
c) a foreign word
d) use for contrast
e) a type of wolf

2) Look at the paragraph two. Which phrase best describes Galceran?

-Galceran could be described as:

Choose one

a) a hero
b) an old man
c) a cruel man
d) a daydreamer
3) Look at the paragraph beginning: ‘ in the morning the tracks were clear to see.’

Label each of the following statements 1 to 4 to show the order in which they must have happened.

Statement

The men followed its trail easily.4

The creature got through the net.1

The first lamb disappeared.2

There was a snowfall.3

4) Look back to paragraph seven, beginning “The trail led up to the top of the hanging valley…” .

For the first mile or more the trail was unreadable….

What is the trail being compared to? Letters/script that is unreadable(mystery)

5) Which of these words is similar in meaning to ‘obliterating’ ?

Erasing

Tracking

Marking
Preserving

Positioning

6) Look back to paragraph beginning “There was a marked difference…”.

…..sunlit purity of the ground.

What is this phrase referring to ? the snow covered pure surface was stained by the creature’s violence.

______________________________

7) The men ‘….fanned out, in case it rushed out of the cave and escaped them.’

Which of these describes their movement?

Stepped back

Closed in

Moved apart

Turned around

8) Which of the shepherds first realizes what the creature is? ___________Jaime_______

9) Having caught the child, the shepherds had to put it in a sheep pen.

Give one word which shows that they treated it carelessly. _______ a sheep pen ______________

10) Why did the shepherds avert their eyes from the creature?

Choose two.

The shepherds are:

Angry because it had stolen their sheep.

Repulsed by its appearance.

Frightened by its aggression.

Sad because they were not allowed to kill it.

Ashamed because they had imprisoned it.

11) Why did the child reject the meat?

Choose one.

It hated Salvat more than the other shepherds.

It preferred eating bread to meat.

It had never experienced roast meat before.

The end of the knife might cut its tongue.

12) There have always been stories.

What kind of stories is Luis referring to?

Choose one.

Children living in the mountains.

Children being raised by wolves.

Children living on their own without parents.

Children starving and struggling to survive.

Shepherds making an unusual discovery.

Shepherds defending their sheep from wolves.

13) Luis said, ‘To my mind your first thought was best.’

What was Galceran’s first thought? _____To kill the child______________________________

14) Salvat, Galceran, Jaime and Luis have different feelings about the creature they have tracked to
its cave.

Complete the table matching each feeling with the most appropriate character.

Feeling Salvat Galceran Jaime Luis

Nurturing _Yes ___ _____ _ ____

Resentful ____ _____ _____ ___Yes

Violent ______ _yes_____ ______ _____

Appalled _____ ______ ___Yes __ _____