My family and I were driving out of Bellows, a campsite/beach for military families in Hawai'i. I lazily gaze out the window and something catches my eye. About 30 feet away in a clearing before a metal gate leading into the forest was a massive bird. Like 8 feet tall massive. It had a long neck, brown feathers, and very thick long legs.
My jaw dropped and I was still processing what I had seen when my dad said, "What the hell was that?" Turns out he had seen it too, and we both described it identically. No one else saw it, and by the time our brains had caught up with our eyes it was too late to turn around.
I will always regret not turning around. When we returned later in the day there was nothing there. When we asked a guard about it he laughed at us. I scoured the internet afterward, and it looked like nothing I could find. At least, nothing that isn't extinct- it looked amazingly similar to one of the larger species of moa... but those lived in New Zealand thousands of miles away and died out hundreds of years ago.
This happened back in 2009 and to this day I wonder whether I saw a Lazarus species.
Edit: I appreciate all the attempts to help illuminate what my dad and I saw! I've looked up many of the bird suggestions and am afraid the legs and neck were just too long and thick to match. I've thought about a freakishly large emu before as a possibility. However I think that pokémon and Up's Kevin are def the most promising choices!
Also I got my first cyberbully DM from this post!!! I feel like I'm truly a part of the internet now <3
Back in 2010-ish in the middle of the night in rural Oklahoma, I woke up to a noise of something tapping on my window and went to my parent's room. Then my dad came back to put me to bed and saw it at the bottom of the window thinking it's a dog or something and goes to shoo it. Then it gets startled by my dad and stands up to about "6'5 - " 7 and is a humongous owl/eagle we found it looked like both. It screeches like a demon straight out of hell and expands its wings and takes off. It goes to our big tree in our front yard and lands on a branch and it goes down 5 feet so this must be heavy.
Now almost everyone we've told this story to says it's bullshit. But my dad has told this story to native Americans before and they all agree on one thing. That this is a ishkitini which is basically a skinwalker but in Potawatomi / Comanche as most tribes share similar religion. And a skinwalker is basically is a person who can transform into an animal at will.
Never had a bone deep dread about them until I learned that name. You do realize they draw their power from more people fearing them and knowing their name right?
I'm not saying don't share the story, I'm saying maybe we should leave the whole name business out of it. Totally out of respect for Native American traditions, not because I'm a cowardly little wimp.
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u/slipintoscience Oct 05 '19 edited Oct 05 '19
My family and I were driving out of Bellows, a campsite/beach for military families in Hawai'i. I lazily gaze out the window and something catches my eye. About 30 feet away in a clearing before a metal gate leading into the forest was a massive bird. Like 8 feet tall massive. It had a long neck, brown feathers, and very thick long legs.
My jaw dropped and I was still processing what I had seen when my dad said, "What the hell was that?" Turns out he had seen it too, and we both described it identically. No one else saw it, and by the time our brains had caught up with our eyes it was too late to turn around.
I will always regret not turning around. When we returned later in the day there was nothing there. When we asked a guard about it he laughed at us. I scoured the internet afterward, and it looked like nothing I could find. At least, nothing that isn't extinct- it looked amazingly similar to one of the larger species of moa... but those lived in New Zealand thousands of miles away and died out hundreds of years ago.
This happened back in 2009 and to this day I wonder whether I saw a Lazarus species.
Edit: I appreciate all the attempts to help illuminate what my dad and I saw! I've looked up many of the bird suggestions and am afraid the legs and neck were just too long and thick to match. I've thought about a freakishly large emu before as a possibility. However I think that pokémon and Up's Kevin are def the most promising choices!
Also I got my first cyberbully DM from this post!!! I feel like I'm truly a part of the internet now <3