"NOAH'S RAVEN
Bezu and Anna Brasselay were returning home on a cold autumn’s eve after a long day selling cloisonné at the October Market in Mystic. As they started to cross the Hetman bridge, Bezu drew the horses to a halt. In the center of the bridge crouched something large and black. Anna thought it might be an injured bear or a man in a heavy coat. Then the thing rose to a height two heads taller than a man and turned to look at them. Both merchants cried out in fright as the red-glowing eyes- round and large as the full moon- fixed on them. The apparition remained motionless, skewering them to the spot with its gaze. Then it opened a set of wings so massive that the tips touched the railings of the bridge. It then rose straight up into the air, according to Bezu’s later report to the Grenhaven Gazette. “It did not crouch and leap as a bird would,” he said. “Nor did it flap its wings. No sir, it rose straight up with legs and wings held stiff as if it was a marionette lifted on strings.”
Such was the first known sighting of the strange flying being that would terrorize Grenhaven and surrounding farms for six months in the autumn and winter of 1887.
The beast was given many names in the beginning- Devil Bird, Devil Moth, Snollygost, Grey Scratch. But the moniker that ultimately stuck was Noah’s Raven. This unusual name has its origins in the famous dinosaur tracks that are abundant in the central valley of Connecticut. In 1802 Pliny Moody was plowing his fields in Hadley Massachusetts when he uncovered large, three-toed fossil footprints. Impressed by his find, Pliny installed the tracks as a step on his front porch and allowed the curious to come see them. Religious leaders declared that the tracks had come from the mythical raven that had been dispatched from Noah’s Ark to find land after the Flood.
Later, famed geologist Edward Hitchcock would identify the footprints as belonging to a giant prehistoric bird. Later researchers would correctly identify the prints as belonging to a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur called Eubrontes.
It’s not clear how the Eubrontes tracks came to be associated with Grenhaven’s “Devil Bird”, particularly since the city lies in the gneiss highlands far from the sedimentary sandstones of the Central Valley where the tracks are found. It’s thought that the comparison may have been made in jest when a set of tracks were installed in the Grenhaven Natural History Museum.
Regardless of the name’s origin, it’s doubtful that anyone seriously thought the Devil Moth was genuinely the bird from Noah’s Ark or that it had made the tracks. But the name still stuck.
After Bezu and Anna’s original sighting, the Raven made several appearances throughout town. Shopkeeper Hiram Levy repeatedly saw the creature crawling head-first down the Moonlight Tower that illuminated the center of town.
Farmer Jean Barré saw it gliding over his fields “stiff as a board without even a flap of its damned wings!”
Many witnesses reported being filled with dread upon seeing its red eyes. One man even claimed that it also had a glowing horn or carbuncle on its forehead.
Sightings of Noah’s Raven abruptly ended on March 7th. That night, a terrible fire swept through the city, destroying many homes and historical buildings. Several people have remarked on the fact that the Raven was no longer seen after the fire. Some believe it actually caused the conflagration. Others swore they saw it consumed in the flames. Still others have postulated that the being may have been a harbinger, it’s sudden disappearance prophesying the disaster.
There is an eerie addendum to this story. A few weeks after the fire, several people including Bezu and Anna were visited by an odd man who claimed to be a “census taker” and would ask mundane, seemingly random questions such as what someone had had for breakfast or how much paper they had in the house. He would typically end his interrogations by asking people if they had seen or heard of Noah’s Raven. If the interviewee responded yes, he would insist that what they had seen was a misidentified owl or crane, or even a case of hysteria-induced hallucination. If the person objected, Frost was said to repeat his assertions in an automatic way, as if reading from a script. Eventually he would simply end the conversation and abruptly leave.
Those who encountered this stranger remarked on his constant, unnerving smile which never wavered throughout the encounter and which led to people referring to him as the Grinning Man. Many also noted the unusual paleness of his skin and the way it seemed too thick and almost detached from the underlying muscle and bone. His clothes were said to be two sizes too small and thirty years out of fashion.
What connection, if any, the Grinning Man had to Noah’s Raven is unknown."
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