The Jewel of Nirune (The Sword of Time Book 1)

by William Smart

  The strange hissing growl sounded again as he stumbled and fell, his heart was racing as he struggled to his feet and tried to run. Again stumbling into the ditch. He imagined he heard the sound of rocks and stones being knocked out of place the sounds of claws digging into the dirt. And there was a smell, a stink on the air. He was terrified.

  He cried out as something flashed past him in the night, snarling and growling! He stood up tripped and fell again, crying out in surprise, as he tried to scurry away from those sounds. But he still couldn't see and tripped over something again.

  He scrambled in the dirt as he heard weird yelping sounds behind. Finally, on his feet, he tried to run away from the sound of a vicious battle going on in the darkness behind him. There was snarling and yipping and strange a deeper, darker sound. He was scared to death as he stumbled again.

  All of sudden a light flashed up ahead. Billy scrambled to his feet and leaped toward it. He hadn't realized the light was moving toward him as well till he collided with something big that said, "Oaf!" as he ran into it. Like the sound, someone makes when they have had the wind knocked out. Followed by a, "What the…?" as the light flashed into his eyes blinding him again.

  "Now what are you doing out here Billy?" a familiar voice said, from out of the darkness.

  "Your mom just called to see if you were here yet." It was Gary’s older brother Sam.

  "Now I wonder what all that commotion is," Sam said, as he whistled to call off the dog who was sounding furious at something in the darkness. There was a good deal of yelping out there. His flashlight flicked across a movement that disappeared into the darkness again.

  “Boy!” he said with a laugh, “Old Duke has got something cornered out there.”

  “Duke you get back here!” he shouted, as more yelping and growling sounds from a short distance away. His flashlight couldn’t seem to quite locate the cause of the sound.

  Billy, who was shaking like a leaf moved around behind Sam. He wasn't at all sure he wanted to be here. He was really scared now but didn't want the older boy to know it. The sounds of battle continued for a moment certainly there were dogs involved, but something else was there, he was sure of it, a hissing like a giant snake or something.

  All around them was deep darkness. He starred off into the night trying to see if there was anything around them in their little pool of light. He realized that he was shaking even though the night was far from cold, he had a strange knot in his belly and a strange feeling like something was trying to get to him, calling to him, he thought he would be sick as the knot grew tighter in his gut! Then it was gone. Silence! In the near distance he could make out a dim glow that must be Gary’s house and he wanted to bolt for it.

  Duke all of a sudden came out of the darkness into the flashlight beam. Usually, the dog would jump all over him, but today it was different he came with his head down looking at Billy.

  “Are you ok boy?” He said as he put his hand on the dog’s head. It gave out a short growl. “Did you just save me?” he asked.

  The dog sidled up to him and gave him a shove toward the house with his nose, almost as if he wanted to get to safety.

  Duke always loved a good scratch, but not today. He shoved Billy toward the house with a slight growl, trying to make him move and there was something hanging from his teeth. It looked like the old dog had a bad cut on its leg. But there were other differences as well, he had a weird harness on his chest looked almost like some kind of armor.

  “Hey Sam look at this,” he said. “Is this new?” Actually Billy had noticed the odd leather strapping around the dogs body when the dog had visited him earlier. “Come to think of it weren’t you just at my haouse, what did you follow me? But then you just came dashing past me from Garys house right? Huh! Weird.” Billy said scratching his own head.

  Sam didn't even seem to notice, as he guided Billy up the road, but in the distance, he thought he saw a faint green glow in the direction of the old bridge.

  "Now you go call your Mom so she doesn't think we let the wolves get you," as he gave Billy a friendly shove toward the house.

  “But, but!”

  "I have to see to the sheep. I’ve been having some problems lately," as he wandered off into the darkness. “Something just hasn’t been right lately.”

  There was enough light coming from the old broken down house that Billy could see his way to the door. He had a firm grip on the dog’s harness as they approached the house. His vision had finally adjusted to the gloom, but he felt eyes watching him.

  He slowly turned to look for the source of the strange feeling. Again from the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something move. A glow in the darkness, there was a soft growl coming from Duke.

  He knelt to check the wound in the light. It wasn't too deep but there was a sort of slime around it that gave off a terrible odor. He took his hanky out of his pocket and wiped the wound clean it wasn't as bad as he had thought. He pulled the odd piece of flesh from the dog's teeth.

  "What the heck is this?" He said. It was slimy, but had the feel of snakeskin there was a strange rotten smell coming from the matted wiry hair growing from it.

  “What were you fighting out there?”

  Something seemed different, now that he could see in the light from the house. The fur wasn't as matted as usual and for a second there was an odd intelligence in the eyes.

  “Duke?” He was uncertain, there was definitely something different. He reached out to pet him, but the dog gave a low warning growl. Billy was surprised and stepped back.

  “What's up with you?” He said.

  Just then the door opened and Mrs. Brown shuffled out all concerned and hustled him into the house. All fear was forgotten as Gary came out. They wrestled for a moment as they usually did when they said hello. Food was on the table and all was forgotten as Billy told about his trip and they all laughed when he said how scared he had been. Gary gave him an odd look.

  After dinner, they went to Gary's room and he could overhear Gary's parents talking in hushed tones about something.

  "Well?" Billy said, as they sat down on his friends’ bed to play some cards “What’s up?"

  "I can't talk about it much." Gary said "But something has been killing our sheep lately and... Well, it's weird."

  "Weird?" Billy said, "How weird?”

  Gary hesitated for a moment. "Well, there no real tracks… nothing big enough to carry off a sheep. We've lost about four.”

  "What do you mean? You said killing right? No tracks? I don't understand."

  "Well, Sam said, if a wolf was killing the sheep and then dragging them off, there would be all kinds of tracks. Like from the hooves dragging’ in the dirt and the extra weight on the wolves’ feet would’ve been all kinds o’ tracks and a blood trail. So the tracks we found weren’t like anything anyone had ever seen and they seem to just disappear."

  "So maybe it was an eagle," Billy said, enthusiastically. He loved eagles and birds of prey were his favorite animal.

  "Well, that would explain it, but the forest ranger was up here today and he said it would take a bird as big as Duke with a 20-foot wingspan to carry off a sheep," Gary said.

  "Wait a minute!" Billy said, "What do you mean carried off? If the sheep is missing, maybe someone just stole it or it wandered off you know how stupid they are."

  Gary was silent again for a second "Well, because we found what was left of a sheep down by the riverside but there were no real tracks like I said."

  “What?!” Billy said, in surprise, when?"

  "Today"

  "And you didn't call and warn me"

  "I… I forgot you were coming," Gary said apologetically.

  "My Best friend!" Billy blurted out. "Do you know I was chased up the hill to your house?"

  "Yeah, you told us at supper."

  "And nobody said nothing'! You all just laughed!"

  "Sorry. I'm not supposed to talk about this, as the ranger said it might cause some kind of panic.
He said he never saw anything like it. Doesn’t want to get anyone scared," Gary said. “I’m really, really sorry!"

  Billy was just debating if he should punch his best friend in the nose when the door opened and Sam told them to get to sleep. He thought about it as he prepared for bed. There were always rumors of some wild animal roaming the countryside, but that could be anything, rogue bear or a wildcat gone astray. A few months ago, they heard a terrible screaming from back in their forest. It had sounded like a woman being murdered or something. It went on for several days. Turned out it was a mountain lion in heat, whatever that meant. Something to do with sex maybe. He thought.

  He wondered if it was a mountain lion tracking him. He had seen a mountain lion cross the road, from the safety of his father's car one time. It was bigger than their neighbors' dog and that was a full grown German Sheppard. Sometimes sheep went missing and so did dogs and cats cause of wildcats but no tracks? That was impossible.

  Considering the number of animals wandering around the forests, there were surprisingly few attacks on humans. Just last summer his brother Steve had headed out into the bush to retrieve a pitchfork, he had left at the edge of the field. As he approached the edge of the forest that surrounded the farm two bear cubs came tumbling out of the woods and ran right past him. Moments later the mother bear came sauntering out of the bush and Steve found himself in the one position that everyone warns about.

  “Never! Never! Never! Ever! Get between a bear and her cubs!”

  Billy and Keith, just happened to be in the hay-loft in the top of the barn waiting for Steve to go get the errant tool so they had a fine view of what looked to be the certain death of their middle brother. They watched breathlessly as Steve, who seemed not to notice the mother bear, reached the tool, picked it up and without even a glance at the bear turned and quietly walked back to the barn.

  Billy and Keith were having fits the whole time!

  The bear as well seemed not to have noticed the young boy crossing her path and continued quietly on her way.

  Steve claimed he was too scared to do anything but keep on walking and act like nothing was wrong. Dad had always said animals can smell fear, so best to act like you aren't crapping your pants. So maybe there was something to it.

  Of course, the adults didn't believe a word of it, but such was the nature of adults, but Billy had seen it, he knew anything was possible.

  He thought for a moment, then looked at Gary very seriously, and said, “Maybe it was monkeys.”

  “Monkeys?”

  “Sure! Why not?!”He said, trying to look as serious as he could.

  “Monkeys in Canada? Killing sheep?” Gary said, incredulously.

  "Of course!" Billy said. "Some rogue monkey escaped from the circus and is out there swinging' from tree to tree, killing sheep… and scaring the bejeebers out of little farm boys at night."

  Gary burst out laughing. “A monkey in Canada? Killing sheep? Ha! Ha! Ha!”

  “Seriously!” Billy could never let go of a good joke. “Seriously!” He grabbed Gary’s shoulder and gave him a playful shake. !”

  “There’s a chimpanzee out there somewhere jumping from tree to tree, in full circus garb… little red hat and everything, trying to find some bananas, but all he can find is sheep. So he peels them and then tosses them away in the forest ‘because everyone knows Monkeys don’t eat meat. Hey, and the other animals are on the forest floor following him and gobbling up everyone the monkey throws away. It’s perfect. Explains why no tracks and no sign of a struggle. The sheep are too much in shock to even go, BLAAA! Because, you know, they expect to be eaten by a wolf or an eagle or something. Not some deranged monkey. It’s perfect!”

  “Ha! Ha! Ha! Stop! Please, stop, you are so crazy! Gary was at this point rolling around on the floor in laughter. When he could catch his breath, he managed to blurt out.

  “But what about the sheep’s skin? What’s ah, ah, deranged monkey gonna’ do with a sheep’s skin!?”

  Billy thought for a moment, then said" Well, it has been kinda cold lately. Maybe we're looking' for a murderous monkey, in a sheepskin jacket." With that, they both broke into peals of laughter

  “Man oh man!” Gary said, when he could finally catch his breath, and they had calmed down a bit. “You are one crazy guy.”

  “Well, thank you,” Billy said, with a very large yawn. “I like you too. Ha! Ha!”

  With that they both climbed into bed faded off to sleep, not hearing the faint scratching outside the little house.

  2 It begins

  I

  t was several weeks later that Billy found himself back at the bridge. This time, however, it was early afternoon and he was surrounded by other children his own age. There was a giant splash behind him as someone did a cannonball off the bridge and a wall of water came splashing over him. He lost his breath for a moment, but the water was shallow in many places and warm in the early summer heat and it was welcome.

  He gave a whoop and jumped into the water sideways trying to splash the kids already in the river. There were shouts of glee from all sides and the mystery of the missing sheep was all but forgotten. Some adults were working on the Smiths new farm doing a good old-fashioned barn-raising.

  They said the house was almost finished and Marcy and her family would move in today. He hadn't gone up there it was out of sight of the river, but all of this was the reason for all the kids being here at one time. Some of the children had disappeared behind the wall of water that was the falls. No one was paying much attention as he slid under the water to try to sneak up on one of the girls.

  He wasn't much good at seeing underwater so he mostly fumbled around trying to catch someone by surprise. Nothing more fun than making a girl scream. Something bumped up against him and he tried to catch hold of a leg, but the something slid through his fingers that didn't feel anything like human flesh. It felt like something he had felt before, but he couldn’t think what. He came up out of the water sputtering.

  “What was that?”

  Tommy, who was one of his best friends looked at him, then at the water.

  “What was what?”

  “There was something in the water!”

  “I didn’t see anything.”

  "Well, there was. I felt it," Billy exclaimed.

  “No. I was standing right here looking into the water looking for fish. If there had been something there I would’ve seen it”

  “Yeah, but it was there I felt it!”

  “But you didn’t see it, so maybe it was some water grass or something.”

  “No, it was something alive, I tell you.”

  “Awe!" Come on!” Tommy said. “Gee Billy. You’re always trying to scare everyone.

  There’s nothing there. You’re just making it up. Like that story about you being chased off the bridge by a monster, or something last week.”

  “I was! There was something following me. If it hadn’t been for Sam and old Duke I would be dead! You can ask Gary.”

  Tommy gave a howl of laughter and fell back in the water.

  “All I heard from Gary was some crazy talk about chimpanzees, eating’ sheep or some such crazy nonsense. Have you ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? Come on Billy, give it a rest will Ya'? What a guy!" Tommy said as he swam away

  Just then someone started splashing water in Billy's face. He jumped in the water, kicking and splashing, trying to see who was splashing him. It was Marcy and she was out-splashing him too!

  He could barely catch a breath so he dived trying to get away. Once again, something banged against his leg and this time he caught a glimpse of something in the water as he went under. Whatever it was, it was big, but how come no one else saw it?

  He came out of the water, gasping and trying to clear his eyes. In his hurry to escape, he accidentally climbed half way up Marcy Smith.

  "Get off me, you creep!" she yelled, as he tried to catch his breath.

  "Something in the water," he gasped, a
s multiple hands slapped at him.

  Someone shoved him really hard, and he slipped off the rock and went under the water again, this time he had his eyes open and unfortunately his mouth as well. He swallowed a big gulp of water into his lungs and now was trying desperately to get away from the girls who were still slapping at him and pushing him, thinking he was trying some kind of trick. He managed to stumble to his feet and climb up on some rocks.

  He could hear Marcy scream somewhat half-heartedly.

  "Mom! Billy tried to grab my booby!" but he was watching the water and hardly noticed.

  Something was in there he was sure of it. Just then something flew past his shoulder and he jumped in surprise, almost falling off his perch on the rocks as something else flew past his head. It took a moment for him to realize, Marcy was throwing sticks at him.

  "What the heck are you doing?" he shouted in protest, as another stick whizzed past his head.

  "You tried to grab me!" she shouted as she held a stick threateningly.

  "I did not!" Billy protested, trying to scramble away.

  "Something was in the water and I was just trying to get out, that’s all,” he said, as the stick flew just past his head. She had another at the ready.

  "I swear!" he shouted, as she took aim again.

  "Honest Injun!" he yelled. “I was in the water, but there was something in there and I tried to get out. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to grab you. I was scared, that’s all."

  Marcy glared at him for a long moment still holding the stick. A bunch of other girls had gathered and were glaring at him as well. He knew he didn’t stand a chance. He had played tricks on all of them at one time or another.

  She looked at the water, then back at him. An accusing look on her face.

  "I don’t believe you!" she said, still menacing him with the stick. There’s nothing in there or someone would have seen it. You are such a liar, but if you ever grab me again, you better be just about dead because if you’re not!" she said, shaking the stick at him.