Quarantine Monster Short: Yule Cat

The night of Christmas Eve was the dominion of Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat. The massive shadow cat would travel village to village, devouring any child who had not received new clothes for Christmas, a sure sign they were naughty throughout the year.

Picture by PBS, found on Bored Panda

This year was a little different. Because of the sickness spreading through the human world, nobody was going out. They were spending all of their time home in their most comfortable clothes so there was no need to buy new ones.

By the eighth village, Jóla, the Yule Cat, could barely move. It had eaten so many children that it had completely lost the taste for them. The thought of even seeing another child made it nauseated. It didn’t want to come near another one until next Yule, and it wasn’t even sure if that was far enough away.

Disheartened, Jóla laid down in the grass on the side of the road, unwilling to even enter the next town to wreak its traditional punishment on the children who had been naughty. Jóla was just falling into a doze when one of the Yule Lads raced by, causing a ruckus. Jóla opened one eye to glare at him and he stopped.

“Jóla! Why are you sleeping in the grass? You are supposed to be eating all of the children who were naughty and did not get new clothes. Christmas Eve is for the Yule Cat!”

Jóla grimaced at his loud voice and jovial laugh. It just wanted to sleep until it wasn’t so full.

“Jóla!”

The Yule Cat’s ears flattened as it opened both eyes to glare at the Lad. “I am too full to move. I cannot eat any more children. They will have to go unpunished this year.”

The Yule Lad rubbed his chin, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “There are other ways to punish children.”

Jóla raised its head. “What do you mean?”

The Yule Lad grinned. “You can play tricks on them like my brothers and I do! Come, help me. I will play tricks on the adults and you can punish the naughty children!”

Jóla was beginning to like the sound of tricks. It sat up and gave the Lad its full attention. “What kind of tricks?”

The Yule Lad shrugged. “Lots of things. I like hiding their possessions, putting potatoes in shoes, tying their sheets into knots, opening their paddock gates so their animals escape, things like that.”

Jóla’s head drooped a little. “I can’t do any of that. I don’t have hands.”

The Yule Lad shook his head. “You can do other things! Like knock stuff over, push things under their beds, nudge windows open.”

Jóla jumped to its feet. “I will do it! Let us go!”

The Yule Lad took off running for the next town, Jóla jogging along behind him.

The Yule Cat was the size of a house so while the Yule Lad could creep in through windows and doors, Jóla had to use magic to enter without tearing down the whole building.

At the first house, Jóla put its head through the wall to look around for something it could do. It knocked over a glass of water and nudged a single shoe under the bed. In the next house, it ripped up the curtains with its claws and pushed a bunch of things off a table.

It chewed on books, shredded newspapers, scratched furniture, shed on the rugs, yowled loudly, and knocked over anything it could find.

Jóla began to enjoy itself. It wondered why it had not thought of playing tricks centuries ago. It still ate one or two children in each village to keep its reputation, but it spent most of the night thinking of better and different tricks to play.

In one especially naughty child’s bedroom, Jóla managed to cough up a hairball the size of a grown adult. That would surely keep the child in line in the coming year.

At the last house before dawn on Christmas morning, Jóla tried to think of something new to do. It was a large town and it had done most of its tricks two or three times already and wanted to do something special.

“Hurry, Jóla! The sun is rising!” The Yule Lad yelled as he skipped out of town.

Jóla thought for a few more seconds, then its face split into a giant grin. It carefully nudged the bed with the sleeping child around so it was against the opposite wall, then disappeared into the fading darkness.

The Yule Cat could not wait for next Christmas Eve.