Skinwalker

28. Skinwalker

A skin-walker is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal. The term is never used for healers. Animals associated with witchcraft usually include tricksters such as the coyote, but can include other creatures, usually those associated with death or bad omens. They might also possess living animals or people and walk around in their bodies by locking eyes with them. Skin-walkers may be male or female. Skin-walker stories told among Navajo children may be complete life and death struggles that end in either skin-walker or Navajo killing the other, or partial encounter stories that end in a stalemate. Encounter stories may be composed as Navajo victory stories, with the skin-walkers approaching a hogan and being scared away. Non-Native interpretations of skin-walker stories typically take the form of partial encounter stories on the road, where the protagonist is temporarily vulnerable, but then escapes from the skin-walker in a way not traditionally seen in Navajo stories that take place away from home. Sometimes Navajo children take European folk stories and substitute skin-walkers for generic killers like The Hook.

Power and Abilities

• Enhanced Strength - Their strength seems to be greater than the average human's, they are able to kill humans. Their strength appears to increase with rank (much like vampires), as the Pack Leader was able to beat the normal skinwalkers around with no difficulties. It seems that it's only in their canine form that they possess their strength.

• Super Speed - Skinwalkers, in their animal form, can run and move faster than humans.

• Accelerated healing - They appear to be able to heal themselves much faster than humans. A skinwalker was hit by a minivan, but when he returned to his human form he appeared to have no physical harm. The same skinwalker was shot with a bullet later, but the wound healed extremely quickly.

• Invulnerability - Like many other shapeshifters, skinwalkers can only be killed by silver bullets to the heart or head. They can, however, be injured.

• Super Senses - They can smell far better than humans, in either form. Using this ability, they can tell if they are being followed or if someone is in the vicinity, within an approximate range of 100 yards or more. Also, a skinwalker's hearing is comparable to that of a dog.

• Infectious Bite - Like Werewolves, skinwalkers possess a venomous bite; if someone is bitten by a skinwalker, he or she will also become a skinwalker.

• Shapeshifting - Like werewolves, skinwalkers possess the ability to transform into canines. Unlike werewolves, however, skinwalkers transform completely into an animal rather than a hybrid man/wolf creature. Skinwalkers can change from their human to animal forms anytime without a full moon.

Weaknesses

• Silver - Like all other shapeshifters, skinwalkers are vulnerable to and can only be killed by weapons made of silver. Either a silver bullet or knife in its heart or head will kill it.

Characteristics

Skinwalkers are considered by hunters to be werewolf cousins because they have similar characteristics. They shape shift into an animal, they are killed by silver weapons, they infect people with a single bite, and they feed on human hearts. Unlike werewolves, skinwalkers' transformation into a canine is complete and they are not limited by the phases of the moon. Skinwalkers can change into their animal form at any time, day or night. Skinwalkers also mostly change into canines instead of a wolf-human hybrid like werewolves. Like other creatures such as vampires, and real canines, they seem to have a pack mentality, as they are led by a pack leader, who in turn answers to the Alpha Skinwalker. Other common features similar to werewolves is the fact that they always eat the heart of their victim and they have an infectious bite, they can turn humans into skinwalkers simply by biting them and passing on the infection to the person. Silver has been shown to be the only thing that can kill a skinwalker. Whenever a skinwalker is killed by a silver bullet or knife in its animal form, it reverts to its human form.