For some reason, we believe that biological life must certainly exist in the Universe, very similar to ours. However, even on Earth, you can find monsters that have adapted to a different environment, for example, thanks to the harsh temperatures of Antarctica. And such animals feel very at ease in the midst of severe frosts, since they have a completely different, non-biological nature of origin.
Journalists dubbed these terrible creatures of Antarctica the Horvitsa monsters, since it was this explorer of the coldest continent of our planet who first encountered them in 1960, and then he also had a chance to see them again. However, these predatory creatures of the icy cold have another name - kryons.
First encounter with cryons
In 1960, Isaac Horwitz was part of a group of researchers that, in the warmest month for Antarctica (it was only minus 40 degrees Celsius), departed from Amundsen-Scott station to the South Pole of the Earth, located about fifty kilometers from the Soviet scientific station " East". Scientists moved slowly, making numerous stops as they took all sorts of measurements. And before starting from the next parking lot, the group missed the magnetologist Stoppard, who was constantly moving away from the expedition in order to collect reliable data, because the working all-terrain vehicles interfered with this.
The magnetologist's traces led to a crack into which he fell: in its depths, on a natural ice cornice, his figure was darkened. Isaac Horwitz came down behind his friend's body. As the descent into the ice crack continued, the scientist noted that it became colder and colder. At a depth of about one hundred and forty meters, he reached the ice cornice, on which the magnetologist fell, but the body was no longer there - only some traces of it. Who or what could have dragged the corpse of a person in this cold (the temperature here was about minus 70 degrees Celsius). And the light penetrated here already rather badly …
Examining the cornice more closely, Isaac discovered not only frozen blood and Stoppard's fur glove, but also strange tracks, very similar to those of a rat, but so huge that such a "rat" must be the size of a wolf, or even larger. Shining a lantern down, Horwitz for a moment caught two glowing eyes of the monster, in the mouth of which the scientist noticed the body of the unfortunate magnetologist. The monster darted away from the beam of the lantern and disappeared from sight. Isaac did not see anyone again, no matter how light was and no matter how hard he tried to see something else. Descending below he simply did not have the necessary equipment.
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A little later, the equipment was dropped from the plane, and the researchers managed to descend into the ice crack already 550 meters, carefully examining it, but the magnetologist's body was never found. By the way, Gorwitz himself did not tell anyone about his meeting with the monster of this icy world, because he was afraid that he could simply be written off from the expedition due to illness (they say, he suffers from hallucinations).
Second encounter with the cryones
At that time, the polar explorers never reached the South Pole, because the weather turned bad and they had to return to the station, where the temperature soon dropped to minus seventy degrees, the wind rose, which made any sortie deadly. Nevertheless, Kenneth Millar and Art Short left the station at that time, who did not return in time, and the attendant also fell asleep, so they realized about the missing members of the expedition too late.
Only on the third day, when the weather calmed down a little, the dead bodies of the missing researchers were found two miles from the station. Many things turned out to be strange: how they got here, and even more so what was left of the polar explorers. It was the clothes and flesh of people - without a single bone …
Isaac Horwitz, mindful of his meeting with the monster in the ice crack, suggested that Kenneth Millar and Art Short saw something that made them move away from the station, and then the bad weather simply blocked their way back. And when people froze, the monster of Antarctica did its job - and he needed only bones. And although many then thought it too fantastic, the researchers had no choice but to accept Horwitz's assumption as a working hypothesis.
Isaac himself soon had another chance to encounter this terrible predator. On that day, he and a friend worked in the magnetic pavilion. Going outside, Horvits suddenly noticed in the light of the moon that a huge white bat was approaching them. The scientist used a revolver given to him by the station master. Having shot all the cartridges, he drove the creature away from the pavilion and even wounded this monster. His comrade, who was inside the pavilion at that time, did not see the flying bat. Having studied later the remnants of the "blood" of the wounded predator, scientists came to the conclusion that it is similar to antifreeze, and therefore does not freeze even in centigrade frost.
It turns out that in the depths of Antarctica live polar cryons - Kryonis Polaris. These are creatures of the ammonia-carbonic type, for which the optimum temperature is minus 70-100 degrees Celsius. That is why they are concentrated around the South Pole, where the lowest temperatures are, and when the sunny, warmer time comes, they, most likely, simply hibernate, hiding deep under the ice. The best time for them is the polar night, the heat is destructive for them, so they avoid settlements, but they do not mind to profit at the expense of humans. They don't need flesh and blood, that is, proteins and fats, but bones are an excellent source of minerals.
Isaac Horwitz no longer encountered cryons, however, talking with other researchers in Antarctica, for example, with Soviet polar explorers at the Vostok station, he learned that he was not the only person who saw these monsters. So, the Russians scare off these flying creatures with rocket launchers, equipping them with thermite cartridges. True, such charges are very dangerous for buildings, it was from them that a fire broke out on Vostok on April 12, 1982, when one of the polar explorers, firing at cryones, accidentally hit one of the station's buildings. True, then all this was attributed to other causes of the fire, because if the polar explorers had told the whole truth about cryons and how they protect themselves from them, scientists would have simply been written off to the mainland due to illness …