Day 1,038

They say it's good luck to have a black dog follow you 'round a graveyard as black dogs were always the first creatures to be buried on hallowed grounds. There's folk that reckon the black dogs are what make the grounds hallowed to begin with while others say anything buried first takes on the form of a black dog so it can best protect them that rest there.

Tis a well established fact that a black cat is bad luck and that to have one cross your path is to have death itself skim its fingers over your soul. There's no true source behind this thinking, only that cats are tricksy beggars at the best of times and known to flirt with the boundaries between this world and all the rest, where the shadows walk free from their objects and every breathing thing eats naught but meat.

Now to see a back mule in a field otherwise barren of all living thing, not even birdsong to lift the air that grows heavier with each breath you take, with each thoughtful and deliberately slow step the mule takes towards you, is something far worse than anything a cat could ever hope to bring.

The lone black mule means the borders between this world and the others is next to nothing. It acts as a harbinger, so to speak, a beacon to warn that there's far worse nearby, worse that might be closer to you than you'd care to think.