Tangling with a 20th Century Tengu

The Tengu are folkloric Japanese flying humanoids to which various forms of supernatural mischief were attributed, such as the causation of violent storms and kidnapping innocent victims in order to carry them high up into the sky before dropping them from a great height. There are even some accounts of ancient encounters with Tengu creatures which sound worryingly like modern alien abductions (which shall certainly be covered in the near future) - but these ancient stories can be contrasted with modern encounters with the Tengu - of which you'll be surprised to learn some actually exist...

## Aerial Abomination in Okubo

The moon was full in the sky over Camp Okubo - near to Kyoto, Japan - and Private Sinclair Taylor was on guard. The crisp moonlight allowed him to see the silhouette of Private Anthony Groves stood on the next post, which was apparently over 100 yards away. This is an important detail to note due to the high visibility it implies. Sinclair briefly paused his vigilant watch in order to light up a cigarette before suddenly becoming aware of a '*loud flapping noise*'. Looking upwards at the dark sky through the orangish glow of his cigarette - he caught sight of a truly massive winged shape descending from the moonlit heavens. Chills scuttled up and down his spine.

With a sudden flash of panic, Sinclair swung his carbine firearm from his shoulder, pulled off the safety and clicked a round into the chamber with expected military precision. The winged source of his hysteria floated closer - apparently moving quickly enough that Sinclair didn't have time to consider what it might be before his training kicked in and he pulled his gun up to his shoulder in preparation to fire on the aerial anomaly. Just as his finger was looming over the trigger, the flying fiend seemed to stop and hover - as if trying to decide where to land. Apparently some species of birds do this as well.

As it hovered, Sinclair could feel that it was watching him. He was able to see it more clearly now, and he was horrified by what he discerned. It was roughly 7ft tall, and had 'the body of a man' with a wingspan almost as tall as its height. Interestingly enough, this would obviously not biologically work - the wingspan would need to be much larger than the height of a biological animal to keep it aflight - and so could go to hint towards a supernatural nature for this creature.

The monster had once again started to descend to the ground, and Sinclair knew what to do. He had never seen anything like this before - and judging from how he describes his reaction, I doubt that he would ever like to again. He opened fire on the thing, having completely emptied his carbine by the time the creature should've landed. However, when he finally dared to look up again to check if his projectiles had hit their target - he was met with the realisation that the bird-man had somehow vanished.

Presumably after having heard the gunshots, Sinclair's sergeant quickly ran over to his position and asked him what had happened. Sinclair reluctantly told him - fully expecting derision - but he was apparently less skeptical than Sinclair had expected. His sergeant 'never even smiled', clearly taking it very seriously. He went to look around the area - likely to try and find the creature, but he seemingly failed, as he soon returned to Sinclair and told him that - although he admitted it was possible that he was being lied to - he thought that he was telling the truth due to the fact that another guard had reported seeing the same thing a year earlier.

## Source

'Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century' by Janet Bord & Colin Bord