by K MacBurn
Taylor felt exhausted. Turning on her heel, she headed back for the house.
An eerie creek gave her pause. With eyes closed, she turned back and peeked out between her lashes.
The metal security door swung in about six inches, and none of the alarms went off.
Confusion mixed with fear filled her. With her body tense, and bat gripped tight, she crept to the door and reached out a hand.
Self-preservation outweighed curiosity at this point. The teen snapped the door closed and ran back to the house. Taylor locked the open window and the front door, then bolted her upstairs bedroom.
Sleep after such a creepy event didn’t happen. Instead, she tossed and turned on her bed, trying to ignore that lingering smell on the air.
When morning came, she was tired but braver, and more determined in the sunlight.
Her new best friend, the baseball bat, was in her hand as she left the house to go out to the building. She studied everything before deciding it was safe to touch the door again.
As if it didn’t latch properly the night before, it swung in again. The alarm panel showed that it was still armed, and the door registered as secure and locked.
The only thing that would make sense was the security system had a glitch that wasn’t locking the door.
Still, wanting to make sure everything was all right, she flicked on the lights and took a walk around.
Awe replaced fear as she got to see some of Tex’s new discoveries for the first time.
These were all the items that had been seen from her bedroom several days ago. Now that she was closer, the fine details seemed to pop. Most shared a common theme of animal/human hybrids. A few had only humans.
The smooth carvings looked so fine, tool marks couldn’t even be seen.
The biggest piece was the archway that had almost crushed some workers. It was decorated in jade and gold, and was impressive.
Ignoring the no-touch rule that applied to such artifacts, Taylor ran her hand over the smooth stone. Her fingers found a slot, precision cut into the stone, about waist high. Someone had shaped the indentation like a six-sided star with notches coming out of each prong.
Intrigued, she studied it a moment longer, wondering what the mechanism did if she found the piece that would fit there. Perhaps it had connected to a larger structure at one point.
There were a few smaller boxes nearby, and Taylor figured she had already broken the golden rule of not going in these buildings, so she might as well sate her curiosity and look.
Lady Luck was with her; in one box she found a jade key with the carving of a man on the handle. Unlike the others, this was an actual man and not a hybrid.
The key fit in the allotted slot, and, even though it was old and weathered, it turned easily.
She waited a few moments before feeling a pang of disappointment. She didn’t know what to expect, but it was anticlimactic.
Satisfied there was nothing else to see, she was about to leave when a smell lifted to her nose, along with a subtle breeze.
She whipped around, looking for the plant that Tex must have in the building. As she searched, something odd caught her attention. In the arch's center there was a little light. A light like one might notice through a crack in a wall.
Akin to a moth drawn to the flame, she moved closer to get a better look, leaning the bat against the stone pillar.
Curiosity overtook her. She reached out.
It felt like a thousand hands grabbed her all at once, and she lurched forward. A gasp escaped her lips.
The jade key clattered to the floor and as the echoes faded leaving only the hum of the lights in the now vacant storage shed.
Chapter 3
Darkness sped by as Taylor tumbled. The only thing that showed the teen was falling at all and not just floating was the fact the little pinprick of light was now the size of a dinner plate, and getting larger.
Her stomach turned, and she closed her eyes in a near-futile attempt to stop herself from throwing up. When she opened them again, it was just in time to see the ground speeding towards her.
Pain exploded in her shoulder and hip as Taylor hit something solid, then rolled to a stop.
It took several moments for the throbbing in her head to ease off enough that she could pull herself up to look around.
The scene was so unexpected, she stared for the longest time.
Green canopy stretched out for miles in every direction, with a few mountains bursting through to the Northeast.
The sun broke through the thin clouds, warming the stone beneath her feet, and the air held the smell of damp earth and exotic flowers. A flock of colorful birds erupted from the trees to her right like swirling clouds, leaving her in awe.
It was a good thing the rugby captain was already kneeling, because as the realization sunk in that she was no longer safe in her home, her entire body became weak and her breath caught in her chest. It took several minutes for the anxiety attack to pass, but when it did, she did a quick assessment of her immediate surroundings.
Taylor was standing on top of an Aztec-looking pyramid, with a gate like the one back in Tex’s storage shed. Stone steps came up the center of all four sides of the structure, banked by steep, smooth walls that dropped a good hundred feet. At the base, someone cleared the trees back an additional thirty feet, with the clearing occupied by small mud huts.
“OK,” she told herself, trying to be logical, “I know Tex got that gate from Belize. Belize is in South America. Perhaps the gate is a teleportation device and I am in the rainforest.”
It seemed absurd to even say it out loud but seeing as this was not Tex’s mansion, something happened.
She racked her brain trying to think of anything she knew about Belize. It wasn’t much, maybe just some passing information from National Geographic, or something of the sort. But, like a cold wave washing over her, she realized that, if this was a different country, she was here without a passport, without explanation, and without money.
Taylor panicked again as she looked over at the gate.
If the gate brought her here, then it was only sound logic to the teen that this gate would bring her back. She hopped to her feet to get a better look.
Upon inspection, this gate was constructed from the same stone as the one at the mansion, decorated with jade and gold. It also had a key slot carved into the face.
Looking around she knew right away that the key had not come with her, though she doubted it would require the same key, anyway. It was also a reasonable thought if this gate had a key, they would keep it close, perhaps in the temple itself.
With clearer thoughts, panic subsided.
Something put entering the temple on hold as she caught sight of an oddity on the horizon.
A large bird was coming across the treetops. It was still far away, but at that distance the thing had to be massive. It was misshapen, with too much mass hanging below the wing span. Taylor squinted trying to make it out better. She was piecing it together when a growl spun her around.
So preoccupied with the bird she had not heard two large men walk onto the platform. Only when they had given a growling laugh was she alerted to their presence.
What she was saw confused the Rugby Captain. They might have been human; they had similar anatomy with two legs, and two arms, but there was something just wrong with how they looked.
First, they were massive, with thick muscled bodies, but even looking fit something hunched them over as if they could switch to all fours instead of just two. Their eyes were yellow, their mouths were bulbous and looked more like the maw of a beast, and their noses where flattened, with their nostrils looking more like just holes in their face.
Both had thick tawny hair, one had his pulled back in a simple ponytail while the other had a wild mass around his face that grew in every direction.
Taylor feared for her safety as one of them spoke she could see why his mouth protruded the way it did, each had an impressive set of canines t
hat could have suited a lion. In fact, that is what her mind labelled them before she could even think about it.
Whatever language they were speaking, Taylor didn’t know it. The male repeated himself and observed her.
He then took a step forward and Taylor tensed and backed away.
That seemed to tell them what they had wanted to know because they spoke to each other and grinned at her in such a predatory way she shivered.
They both came at her in a rush. They were so fast for their size that Taylor found herself frozen in shock for a moment.
Her survival instincts kicked in just in time as the first beast grabbed her arm. She rolled her wrist breaking his fingers grip while kicking out with the most basic self defense technique. Maybe he wasn’t human but he was male, and most any male would feel a kick to the groin.
The second one grabbed her shoulder from behind. Her first reaction was a spinning back elbow to his face, but he was fast enough to duck out of the way before grabbing her in a bear hug and using his weight to pin her to the ground.
She was struggling against his grip when a loud snarl made all three of them look up. Another form had come over the lip of the temple.
The newcomer was draped in a dark cloak, but even covered, it was still bigger than the two lion beasts. He was also more upright with a proper bipedal stance.
The lions snarled back and spoke. By their tone alone, Taylor knew they were telling him to get lost. Not only did he not listen, but he retorted with something that made the lion that was not holding her attack.
The cloaked form waited till the last possible second before sidestepping the attack and kicking the lion square in the back. The lion roared and spun taking a swipe at the intruder with claw tipped hands. It kept clawing at the air where his opponent was but every time, he came back empty.
Taylor couldn’t keep track of the fight because of the speed. One second the lion was attacking, the next the cloaked form was turning off him sending a spray of blood into the air.
The beast stood there for a moment, turned to his companion with a confused look before falling over dead. Blood still spraying from the artery in his neck where his throat had once been.
This new-comer was the bigger threat, so the lion released Taylor and got to his feet.
They circled each other feeling out the other’s rhythm.
It was again the lion who attacked first, but he didn’t rush right in like his former partner, and he didn’t give up his back either. He struck with various punches and slashes, the cloaked figure blocked with its forearms or by nothing because it had already moved.
The sight mesmerized Taylor. The cloaks movements were casual; it appeared as though he was taking a walk and shooing away an occasional pest. Only when the lion came close to hitting him did he seem to take it seriously and stuck out with his own blows.
He blocked the lions strike with his left forearm before coming across with his own claws slicing the lion across the face, he switched his momentum and came back with a left palm to the Lion’s nose followed by a front kick that planted in the lion’s chest and as he followed through sent the beast clear to the other side of the platform with a thud.
Live and let live didn’t appear to be the name of the game here though, because the cloak was on the lion fast for another kill.
From her angle, Taylor couldn’t tell what was going on, but she could see their hands were locked in a pushing match as they wrestled on the ground and she could see the cloaks head dip down as though to bite.
Next thing she knew the lion was still and there was more blood.
Taylor wasn’t sure if she should be thankful or even more scared. The two dead bodies were a first for her. Having never been this close to murder, it did not sit well in her stomach.
Occupied with throwing up, she missed the part where the cloak approached her and squatted only ten feet away. She also missed him wiping the blood off his chin with the back of his hand.
His voice startled her. She looked back at him terrified. He spoke again and held his hands out to each side in the universal sign of “I mean you no harm”.
He reached up and dragged back the hood of the cloak.
There was still something a little off about his appearance but not to the extreme it had been with the lions. His looked like a human, with a pronounced nose and full lips. His eyes were gold with a clear shine. He appeared younger than the others, with a smooth face, and black and orange hair shaved on the bottom half with the top was short and spiky.
The black and orange hair was a give away, but so were the darker stripes of skin that criss-crossed his body. If the first two were lions, then he was a tiger.
He was speaking again, and even though she didn’t know the words, it seemed urgent.
A commotion below the temple caught their attention. Taylor dared to peek over the edge, only to see a larger group of the lions heading towards their current location.
The teen looked back over to the Tiger. He was holding a hand out to her and staring at it then nodded to the back of the temple.
There was no way of knowing who she should trust, but, in this case, she figured the Tiger was the only one that hadn’t tried to harm her yet. He killed two people, there was that, but with more of them coming, her gut won out.
She took his hand.
In a swift motion he pulled his hood up and started for the rear of the temple at a dead sprint. Taylor tried to keep up but instead was drug more than running
He seemed to feel this as well because he grabbed her around the waist, whilst still running, and threw her onto his back.
Taylor was five foot eight, and this Tiger was at least another foot taller than her, and his solid frame under the cloak outweighed her by an easy hundred pounds, making her light cargo.
It was a short second to the edge, and a terrifying two as the Tiger jumped off. With perfect balance, he hit the smooth stone wall sideways like a surfer and rode it to the bottom.
Boots hit the ground running.
The back of the temple bordered the small village filled with little grass huts and mud pathways. The Tiger turned on to these while avoiding the villagers.
Taylor got a glimpse at the occupants and stunned to see antlers, tails, and hooves on many of them, though like the cats they too were walking upright.
The Tiger took a sharp right off the beaten path and into the dense woods.
There was no time to process anything, so Taylor allowed it to carry her away.
They weren’t out of sight of the village when the tiger baseball-slid to the ground below some thick ferns and laid flat. With a swift shrug, he dropped her on the ground and swept his cloak over them both. She tried to push him off, but he pinned her with his body and clamped a hand over her mouth. Scared, she bit him but to her surprise he didn’t so much as flinch.
Roars echoed through the trees and Taylor craned her neck enough she could see a sliver of the village. The lions were coming in from the temple side, they were pushing and hitting the villagers. They shoved one older deer to the ground and kicked him hard in the ribs.
Taylor stopped moving. She could feel the tiger’s even breaths against her and his gold eyes glowed under his hood as he watched the scene in front of him unfold.
Every time the lions hurt someone, his muscles would tense, but he still did not budge from on top of her.
One of the bigger lions positioned himself in the action's center. He was as big as the tiger and his face and posture were more man-like then the first two beasts. Metal armour encased his torso and arms, and he shouted out orders in a very demanding way.
The rest of the lions hauled villagers out one by one to him. He asked the same question again and again. Taylor couldn’t be sure, but she assumed he was looking for them. Each time the villagers would point in the same direction with earnest. A direction that would lead the lions away from where the tiger and her were hiding.
It felt like forever before the lions believ
ed them and left in a rush.
The tiger waited a few moments longer before easing to his feet. He was still on alert because she could see his pointed ears would twitch towards small sounds. They weren’t cat ears on the top of his head, but they looked more like an elf’s from a fantasy book.
He reached out for her hand, but gave a start as she batted it away. Taylor sat on the ground, looking up at him, scared, and shaking. Her mind was having a hard time wrapping around everything being seen.
He gave her what seemed to be a sympathetic look and knelt down, so he was closer to her level. Then pointed to himself and smiled.
“Tarak.” He repeated it a second time pointing again. Taylor understood, that was his name. He pointed at her and waited.
“Taylor.” Her voice was weaker than she would have liked.
“Taylor,” he said, then he bowed to her.
Instead of trying to speak he made hand gestures to help her understand.
He first pointed to the direction the lions went, then he motioned to both his eyes before pointing at her. It took a moment.
“They are looking for me,” she paused. “Why are they looking for me?!?”
He didn’t understand what she was saying either. Taylor looked over her shoulder at the poor villagers who were picking themselves up and continuing with their days.
“OK,” she breathed and took his hand. He smiled again. The smile was at least genuine and not like he had just cornered his next meal.
He led her away by the hand at a swift pace. Keeping it slow enough though, that she could keep up.
All those 6am runs and training sessions for rugby all of a sudden felt well worth it. They ran for quite a long time before Tarak slowed and stopped checking over his shoulder every few minutes.
They emerged from the woods into a small clearing a short time later. Tarak released her hand but still motioned for her to follow.
The heat in the woods was heavy, and Taylor could feel the moisture soaking her clothes, so it felt good to be in a more open space; the air itself seemed lighter.
