She stroked her pet’s white head and clicked her tongue twice. Her protector perked up tall. “That’s a good boy.”
Having trained her eagle to warn her of any unusual creatures, Hoot felt confident Slasher would find her nemesis.
She squinted at her companion. “Want to hunt?” The curious raptor cocked its head, acknowledging its readiness.
With her eyes wide open, she stared at her precious pet. “Search!”
Leaping from her arm, the avian predator flapped its magnificent wings and ascended through an opening in the canopy.
A few minutes later, a distant screech pierced the air. Caru’s eyes lit up. “Slasher has found something.”
Hoot ran in the direction of her protector’s cry. “Come on!”
CHAPTER THREE
Facing Your Demon
Minutes Later
With the polar bears on her heels, Hoot and her friends followed Slasher’s lead as the eagle circled high over Wolverine Forest. The deeper they sped into the woods, the more Hoot thought about what they were doing.
She was a bit surprised her friends agreed to hunt the vicious demon that haunted her dreams. Maybe her burning desire to put an end to her nightmares went too far? She’d never forgive herself if any of her companions got hurt.
Too late now. If she even hinted at ending the chase, they’d label her a chicken. Can’t let that happen.
The eagle’s cries quieted as its circles grew wider. Disappointed, Hoot slowed to a walk and glanced at her friends. “Slasher must have lost the trail but don’t worry, he’ll find the monster. I’m sure of it.”
As they continued along a path, smothered with fallen leaves of the cooler season, she looked at Caru’s twin. Teli’s glazed, brown eyes revealed his preoccupation.
Never had she known anybody his age so fixated on reading books and studying science. How could a young man in his mid-20s be so fascinated with all that boring stuff? He lacked any motivation to pursue more thrilling things like hunting and adventure. It made no sense at all.
She nudged him. “What’s on your mind? Have you or Queasy heard of any muclones lately?”
“No, not really. In fact, we haven’t seen anything on that front for eons, not for at least 10 years. I must admit, I’m not thrilled that we’re out here looking for trouble. Chasing killer monsters isn’t what I’d prefer doing with my spare time.”
“Oh, quit your bellyaching. It may turn out more exciting than you think.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid….”
Snapping Hoot’s attention, Slasher’s screeches grew louder and more frequent. She stopped and turned toward her buddies. “He must have found it! Be alert!”
Rustling perked her ears. “Ya hear that?”
The commotion grew louder. Tall grass and brush shook not more than 40 yards away.
She reached for her bow. Is this it?
The hair on the bears’ napes bristled as their throats rumbled. The eagle blared a terrifying screech.
A strange, grotesque beast leapt into the clearing ahead. Proto rushed to the front and stared at the six-legged creature while the bears rose to their hind legs and growled.
Within seconds, Proto clutched his head and screamed. “Aah! It hurts!” As he fell to his knees, Ice galloped to her master’s fore to shield him from the unexplained onslaught.
Hoot stood in disbelief. What in the world?
While scrambling her thoughts, the monster charged. She wanted to use her powers to blast the beast to Hell, but things were moving too fast. A frosty chill coursed through her body as she instinctively snatched a reaper.
Diving from above, Slasher extended his talons toward the attacker. The creature darted to the left and raced toward a thicket at an amazing clip with the eagle in hot pursuit.
Hoot nocked the arrow and let it fly. Focusing her mind on its trajectory, she tried to curve it toward her target but too late. The monster disappeared into the woods.
Her heart tripped. “Proto! Are you okay?” She and Teerha hurried to his side.
Teli gasped. “What was that thing? You could see its innards.”
Offering her arm to help Proto, Hoot sucked a quick breath. “It’s the monster that’s been scaring me to death!”
Her stout friend slowly rose but stumbled. “Where am I?”
She looked at his wife. “He’s pretty groggy. Keep an eye on him. I’ve gotta go after that thing!”
Teerha grabbed her husband by the shoulders and helped him rise again. “We’ll catch up. Ice will protect us.”
Caru glanced at her pet. “Chili, you’re with us.”
Pivoting and chasing after her nightmare, Hoot yelled. “Come on! Let’s kill that thing!”
Teli screamed. “You’re crazy!”
Several minutes later, something thrashed within a cluster of sumacs. Screeching, Slasher shot from the brush and climb high in the air as if startled.
Hoot squinted and searched the area. It must be that monster!
As she approached, silence filled the air except the drumming within her chest. Where did it go?
Teli’s holler startled her. “Look! Over here!” He pointed at the ground.
She joined him and bent over. Copper-tainted fluid splattered the dense blades of grass. “Probably from that creature? The colors of the beast’s insides were pretty strange.”
Panting, Caru put her arm around her brother. “Could it be injured?”
Hoot shrugged. “Maybe, but it wasn’t my reaper. It missed by a mile.”
Looking none too happy, Teli shook his head. “That’s the weirdest blood I’ve ever seen; and if it is injured, I don’t want to get anywhere near that ugly beast.”
“Nonsense.” Hoot stood tall and furrowed her brow. “I’ve got to kill this stupid thing to get it out of my head. If you’re afraid, stay to the rear, but I’m going on.”
It bugged her that Teli always seemed to avoid danger. “Come on, Chicken. We won’t let anything happen to you.” His eyes rolled as he huffed and inched closer to Chili.
As Proto and Teerha joined the team from behind, Hoot glanced at them. “Are the rest of you with me?”
Caru looked at Teerha and tentatively replied. “Yeah, but we need to be careful.”
She glanced at Proto. “Keep back a bit.”
Walking gingerly, he nodded. “I’m feeling better. We’ll be okay.”
After Hoot and her companions proceeded along the path through the forest for a few minutes, she pointed to the ground. “Brutish, these tracks are wicked. Its front paws are different than the hind four.”
She marched forward. Within a few minutes, all signs of the creature’s existence vanished: no trampled weeds or bent branches — not even a trace of its peculiar blood.
Hoot scanned the area. Where did it go?
She scrutinized every leaf, twig, and blade of grass for any clues, but she still found nothing. This was the strangest thing she’d ever faced — scarier than her nightmares.
Lifting her arm, she hollered. “Slasher!”
Her protector swooped and landed awkwardly on her vambrace. The eagle’s head jerked from side to side.
Hoot peered into her pet’s bulging eyes. He’s scared out of his wits! She softly smoothed Slasher’s dark brown feathers along his back.
Perplexed but determined as ever, she looked at the others. “We’ve got to figure out what that beast is. Let’s retrace its path and find out where that freakish thing came from and how it got hurt.”
She lifted her arm, and Slasher soared toward the sky once again. Racing in the direction from where she first spotted the monster, Hoot waved her friends onward. “Let’s go!”
CHAPTER FOUR
Probing the Mind
Nearly 30 Minutes Later
Hoot ran as if her life depended on it. When she and her friends broke into a clearing at the edge of Wolverine Forest, she froze in her tracks. “What on Earth?” Blood covered the closest portion of Bartuk’s pas
ture.
Teli shrieked. “See what I mean? We could have been slaughtered by that monster!”
He pointed toward the fence. “There’s Queasy. He’s with Bartuk.”
Hunched over, the two men appeared to be investigating one of many mutilated carcasses. Their hands and pants were smeared with mud and blood. Queasy poked a gory corpse with a pen.
Hoot ran toward the older inspectors. “What happened? Was it that six-legged devil?”
Bartuk whirled toward her. “How’d you know? Did you find it? I shot it in the chest with an arrow.”
As Hoot’s friends settled in around her. Caru mumbled. “We found it but didn’t see any arrow. It was running too fast.”
Pausing a second, she spoke louder. “I’ve never seen anything move so quickly!”
Teli scratched his head and squeezed between the others. “Now it’s starting to make more sense. We saw some gooey, copper-colored fluid along its trail — weird stuff. It must have been from its wound.”
While they stood in a circle, Slasher swooshed down and landed on a wooden post next to Hoot. She looked at her protector. “You okay?”
The eagle softly chirped and turned its head toward one of the mutilated corpses. Hoot stared at him. “Seriously? Now?”
When the carnivore whimpered again, she retrieved a little hood and placed it over the raptor’s head. “Calm down. You can have some later.”
Caru glanced at her. “What does Slasher want?”
Hoot cocked her head toward one of the dead cows. “Fresh meat. He likes the eyeballs.”
“Eeew.” Teerha covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She slowly spun and surveyed the area. “What a bloody mess!”
Several mutilated carcasses were strewn across the trampled, crimson-soaked field. She lifted her hand from her face. “That one monster did all of this?”
Bartuk slowly nodded. “As far as I could see, there was a single set of tracks.”
Proto’s shook his head. “It’s all so crazy. I’ve never seen such a destructive muclone.”
Caru peered into his eyes. “What happened to you back there? Seems like you were really hurting.”
“That’s for sure. I was trying to communicate with the thing, but as soon as I made a connection, it started probing my mind. Before I knew it, a searing pain shot through my head. I thought it was gonna explode.”
The burly, young man placed his palms on his temple. “Never have I been so scared. That’s the worse experience I’ve had since that acid-spitting cat, several years back.”
One side of his face crinkled as he closed his eyes. “That stupid cat was crazed, but this thing was different. It’s like it knew exactly what it was doing.”
He wobbled. “Wicked. Still not feeling right.”
Catching his arm, Caru steadied him. “Hey, Big Boy. I think Teerha and I ought to get you Doc’s place.”
“Good idea. It must have screwed up my brain.”
She waved. “Chili, come here.”
Caru and the others helped Proto onto the bear’s back. While the husky rider clutched her fur and sat up with a little aid from Teerha, Chili lumbered along the trail toward Ukkiville.
Hoot shook her head. “This whole thing keeps getting weirder. How could a creature have such strange blood or a body where you can see its innards?”
Queasy spoke with his usual scratchy voice, a grating noise that could tweak the calmest of nerves. “I’m not sure, but after so many years, the Skalags could be experimenting with different muclones by matching more complicated insects, plants, and animals that could result in different-colored blood or body structures humans have never seen.”
Teli’s brow rose. “You’re right. They could be breaking new horizons. From what I’ve read, it’s possible they could be tampering with strands of DNA that aren’t tied to organisms of any lifeforms on Earth. Just like humans and other creatures who only use a fraction of their brain’s true potential, Earth’s current organisms only crack a portion of the available DNA strands. After this long, it’s not a stretch to think those scumbags could be meddling with the unknown.”
Queasy extended his pen toward his pupil of many years. “You may be onto something. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them. It’s scary to think how it messed up Proto’s mind like that.”
Hoot nodded. “If Zo’s still alive, he probably hates us enough to do something like that after his mother was killed in our last battle. We better tell Thoruk.”
Bartuk straightened up. “You’re right. He needs to know right away.”
The middle-aged scientist looked at Teli. “It wouldn’t hurt to discuss this with our Texas friends in our morning chat. Maybe they’ve heard of something like this?”
Teli shoved his hands in the pockets of his tawny calfskin pants. “Good idea. Hey, Bartuk, where’s Tradulka? I would have thought your buddy would be out here helping.”
“He left early this morning to track a buck he’s had his eye on. He’ll be mad when he finds out his prize bull was among the first killed.”
“That’s for sure. I don’t envy you having to share that news.” Teli motioned toward the fence. “I’m going to walk around and see if I can find more clues.” If there was one thing he was a stickler about, it was determining the facts.
Seconds Later
Teli scanned the bloody soil. We know so little about this crazy monster. If it ain’t Zo’s doing, it must have escaped from Hell!
Hoot pointed toward a corner of the pasture. “Let me help. I’ll start over there.”
He smiled. “Great. Search for fluids or anything peculiar that may help us identify the origins of the monster. While you do that, I’ll help investigate some of these other carcasses.”
Queasy looked up from the mutilated heap of flesh and peered over his wire-rimmed spectacles. “Be careful where you walk. Don’t mess up any evidence.”
A few minutes later, Hoot yelled. “I found something — more of that gooey, copper slime.” She extended her finger toward the peculiar fluid.”
Teli hollered. “Don’t touch it! We have no idea what it is. Here, take this and put a sample in the petri dish.”
He handed her one of a few small containers he always kept in his deep pockets for such occasions. “Make sure you scoop some of the soil below the surface as well. It will help to determine if there’s any chemical reaction with that weird stuff.”
Teli returned to examining the cranium of a carcass. Mmm, what’s this?
He spread the hair on the back of the cow’s neck. One large, reddened puncture pierced the hide just below the skull.
Springing to his feet, he ran to the next closest corpse and checked its neckline. Same thing!
After inspecting another carcass, he hurried to Queasy’s side. “Have you found punctures on any of the other dead cows?”
His mentor twisted toward him. “As a matter of fact, each one I’ve checked had a puncture on the back of the neck.”
Teli rubbed his chin. “It seems that monster did the same thing to each of them.” A myriad of reasons raced through his mind, but none stuck.
He peered into his teacher’s eyes. “Why would it do that?”
“Not sure, but it’s very consistent — probably deliberate — maybe to extract spinal fluid? We’ll know more when we take one of these cows back to my place and study it further.”
The wily professor stared at Teli. “Did you notice anything else?”
“What do you mean? I was focused on the punctures.”
“Well, if you examine each body closer, you’ll find that the primary organs are gone. The heart, liver, kidney, and the spleen. This beast, whatever it is, was very methodical. It’s like nothing I’ve ever witnessed.”
Appearing stunned, Bartuk sighed. “Seems I was the lucky one. That thing could have gone after me instead of my herd.”
Teli gulped. Where on Earth did that blasted monster go?
CHAPTER FIVE
Heinous Mutations
The Next Morning on October 18
Queasy’s Cabin
Queasy flipped a page of his notes from his prior evening’s investigation. Too much of what he learned made little sense: the massacred cows’ missing organs and the killer’s translucent hide and strange blood.
While he savored his morning’s brew of chicksoy, a ground mix of chicory and soybean used as a substitute for more expensive coffee beans, he looked at his pupil. “Have you finished the chemical analysis of that creature’s fluid yet?”
Teli stared at his hand-held device. “Less than five minutes to go.” He poked at the screen.
Tapping a pen on his desk, Queasy loved his student like a son he wished to have some day. Though the young man was sharp and quick on his feet, he pushed his understudy to the limits, hoping to make him smarter and stronger. “Hurry it up. We’re supposed to talk with the Texans at nine.”
“I know. It’ll be ready. You’re always such a worry-toad. Hey, what did your wife say about Proto?”
“He’ll be okay. Aluki said Doc thinks it’s a case of short-term amnesia. He’s lucky it wasn’t worse and should take it easy for a while. Speaking of my wife, you have your eye on anyone lately?”
Teli squirmed in his chair. “Too complicated — weird might be a better term. Whenever I get close to a girl I like, I start getting nervous. When Caru had feelings for Zo before the battle, I knew something was going on. I didn’t quite know what, but when I got older, I figured it was her feelings for Zo at that time.”
The young man blushed. “Well, I realize that Caru will sense those same feelings when I get serious with a girl.”
Queasy raised a finger. “Ah, you’ve got that twin thing going on. It’s so blazing strong between you two.”
He winked. “You’ve got to find a way to put it out of your head. You can’t let something like that keep you from having a relationship. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t be with Aluki. She’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The New World: Crimson Winter Page 2
