Qallupilluit

Qallupilluit is a hostile Fae — a cold sea spirit of Arctic shorelines known in Inuit tradition for slipping beneath ice and water to claim the unwary, most often small children. Smell: a briny, kelp-stained tang with an underlying mineral note like old ice. Sound: a thin, wet clicking and the uncanny, distant wail or mimicry of a child that seems to come from beneath the floe. Temperature: the air around its presence chills to a bone-numbing cold, frosting breath and numbing exposed skin. Field notes record a patient, underwater stillness punctuated by sudden, slick disturbances at the ice edge; witnesses describe glimpses of green-streaked hair, trailing kelp, or a pale, wet face between ice hummocks rather than a solid, steady form.