Back to the Black Bog

"Back to the Black Bog" is a short story which blends Lovecraftian horror with A. A. Milne's beloved children's character Winnie-the-Pooh. Written by American author Lee Clark Zumpe, it was published in the April Moon Books anthology The Call of Poohthulhu in May 2022.
==Synopsis==
When a strange meteor crashes to earth in Hundred Acre Woods, nihilistic donkey Eeyore attempts to hide it from the other inhabitants, fearing that it contains something evil. Unfortunately though, his efforts are in vain, and Christopher Robin and Owl discover the artefact, dragging it back to their laboratory. Before long, the meteor has corrupted all of the plants and animals for miles, turning the once-harmless creatures of the forest into ravening monsters.
Although Eeyore eventually manages to return the rock to its landing site, somehow undoing the evil it wrought, the outside world has been changed, darkened. The poor donkey slowly comes to realise that although the worst might have been averted for Hundred Acre Woods, things may not be exactly as they seem…
== Behind the Mythos ==
The transformative properties of the meteorite can be compared to those effected by the titular creature in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space", although the entity in "Back to the Black Bog" is depicted as being actively malevolent in nature, a characteristic not implied in Lovecraft's story.
==Trivia==
*A brief reference to an encounter Eeyore had with "a curiously well-dressed toad", a mole, and a badger, would appear to be a reference to another British children's book of the early 1900s, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.
Category:Lee Clark Zumpe works
Category:Mythos-Inspired Works