Ijirait

Ijirait is a Fae shapeshifter of the Arctic—an elusive, predatory spirit that slips between human guise and the blank of tundra. Smell: a sudden, sour tang of brine and wet peat, as if tide and thawed earth exhale together. Sound: faint children's cries or pleading voices folded over the hiss of wind; at moments the landscape goes unnervingly mute. Temperature: an immediate, bone-cold drop where frost beads on breath and the snow seems to seize the foot. Field naturalist note: it moves like low fog along ridgelines and river mouths, leaving impressions that look almost human until the last step.