When a person sleeps, they shed their skin. That dead skin forms into new hide, gaining sentience as it leaves the body behind. There is reluctance there, a trace of old consciousness, a remembrance, a pain that never leaves, the agony, a scream, brought on by the ripping and tearing, not really like shedding at all. This new skin, these living hides, became known as the Klarns.

It is widely believed they were so named by an ancient tribe of spirits, the Jarnas, who, fearing bad fortune, would catch the Klarns in their giant nets and convey the struggling, ill-equipped, creatures, across continents to help them along on their migratory journey.

The Jarnas were dark, featureless, beings who possessed great long legs and tall thin torsos with spiny necks and tiny heads.  They would walk the earth, scavenging for carcasses or any other form of waste that an animal might leave behind, fur, bark, excrement or fear. From Humans, they gathered many other things besides; misbelief, curiosity and despair. The Jarnas would hold these vaporous essences up to their nostrils, barely wider than pinpricks, and in this way, they could take the measure of a being’s nature.

 While most of the Jarnas were very placid, some could be aggressive and would steal the spoils so carefully gathered from the nets of their kin. Those spirits were usually widely shunned by their fellows and were often seen wandering and scavenging alone.

Long after the Jarnas had disappeared from the world, the Klarns still made their pilgrimage.

Now they preyed upon wandering ghosts, trapped between worlds, who had cloaked themselves in the enchanted skin to give themselves new form.

Little did the ghosts know, that if they chose to wear the hide, they would be swiftly adopted as the Klarn’s host, with air being forced into lung and having blood injected into vein once again. Soon, the creature controlled its host’s every move, searching for a new element to reside in, Sea, Desert, Forest, or Cave.

The more life the Klarn injected into its host, the less the tortured ghost remembered, and soon it could no longer make the distinction that it had ever had a life to lose.

By the time, the Klarn reached its new home, the host had become a dry and brittle husk and was easily discarded as the being either slipped into dark water or buried itself under sand or earth, as it waited for its next chance to migrate.

You might think of the Klarn as a parasitical species seeking only to gain further advantage for itself, but it is said, those who manage to cross the path of the Klarn’s hidden lair and remain uncaptured, shall know great prosperity. Perhaps you only need to listen for the whispers of the ancient Jarnas and let them guide you to safety.   

By Robyn Hunt (c) 2020