Alp

Alp is a nocturnal fae-spirit recorded in Germanic field notes as a small, unseen weight that perches upon sleepers. It carries the cold tang of iron and old wool—sharp and faint, like a closed chest left in damp air. Sound is subtle: a rasping whisper, the click of a loose thread, or the soft creak of a spinning wheel heard through thick blankets. Temperature falls where it lingers; the skin takes on the pinprick chill of standing in a shadowed doorway. A naturalist would note its presence not by claws or teeth but by the oppressive, immovable pressure and the sudden heaviness of limbs and breath at the edge of sleep.