When the students came in, they found a
handout beside the sign-in sheet. Also there were a number of books on various myths and legends and fairy tales and oral traditions piled on a desk near the front of the room.
John waited until everyone was seated then began.
"Since this is the last class before Thanksgiving break, I'm going to keep it short today. I'm going to talk briefly and then you'll get an assignment that will be due in two weeks. After that you can use the rest of the class to get a start on your assignment or you can leave early and start your time off.
"We've covered most of the more common supernatural categories -- aside from demons, which will be our final unit. But there's always going to be things that don't fall into any of those categories.
"What do you do when you do when you encounter something like that is research, research, research. Talk to as many people as you can, gather every bit of information on what it looks like, sounds like, smells or feels like. What it does, who it hurts and who it leaves alone and how it hurts them. When you've found out all that you can, you go looking for something that matches the facts. Where do you look? Old fairy tales, legends, myths. Oral traditions." John looked around the room. "There's nothing new in the world, and whatever you're dealing with almost certainly has been dealt with before. The stories and details get retold over and over, until the fact that it was real gets lost and it's treated as nothing more than a fiction. Fairy tales can sometimes be a hunter's greatest resource.
"As a hunter, one of the things you want to do is keep track of what you've ran into and how to deal with it. It also doesn't hurt to do some pre-emptive research and keep a journal or database with information on things that you might possibly run into and what their vulnerabilities are. And that's your assignment this week. I want you to pick something out of an old story or legend or myth and write up what it looks like, what it does, how to identify it, and how to deal with it. Make it the sort of thing that if another hunter was looking for information on your subject, your paper would give him everything he needed to know. Then handout you got has a list of some possible suggestions for subject, but if you have another you want to research, feel free."
John smiled. "And that's it for today's class. You can start work on your assignments, using the books provided here, and if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them. But if you do want to leave early, you're free to do so." He paused. "Happy Thanksgiving."
[ooc: Sorry for the lateness. My brain just wasn't in a hunting class sorta place today. Wait for OCD is up!]