by Chris Fox
there are important things discuss."
"Again, very wise," the mayor replied, still searching for words, watching the images on the digital picture frame change slowly. Najima simply relaxed and let him collect his thoughts. He spoke after a brief silence, "Have you ever seen such a creature before?"
"Not of that variety."
"Do you know what it was?" the mayor questioned.
"A wolf, it seems."
The mayor nodded with a sigh, "Yes, and so we thought, too. But no normal wolf, as you can tell. We have our wolves on Sahlam. But none grow so large, and few are as violent as these."
"So it's a pack problem?" questioned Najima.
"You could say that. Five or so. All highly violent. Before we had not worried. Although they would attack traders on the roads to the west, they would normally stay in the woods. But now they've taken to coming into town."
"Have they attacked any townspeople before?"
"Yes. They arrived in our forests maybe three months ago. And since then, their violence toward us has only escalated. It went from approaching our town borders, to wandering our streets at night. And the young man you saved was the first attack we've ever seen in daylight. We're becoming terrified to leave our homes..."
The mayor sighed away a tangible wave of stress and concern. "I understand you are simply passing through. We are thankful that you saved the boy. It seems he is going to survive his injuries. And I know I cannot even begin to ask more of you. But as the mayor of this town, it is my duty to make a request of you. I would wish that you go to the council seat of Sahlam, at a spacestation two planets away, and tell them of the trouble we're experiencing. Times have become too dire, and I cannot leave my people while these menaces roam our town."
Najima quietly listened, still with a respectful smile on her face, as the mayor spoke on. "You have done so much for us today. But please, if you will, when you leave the planet, travel on our behalf. Your service will not go unrewarded, I assure you."
"I'm afraid I cannot," Najima returned simply, without hesitation.
The mayor was somehow shocked, and a note of anger tinged his voice, "You cannot?"
"No saar. Because I must request another day or two of the bedroom you have provided me with." The mayor was both puzzled and annoyed by Najima's comments, so she did not let him speak. "You see, I'll need a place to rest after I enter the forest tomorrow."
The mayor's anger faded into what seemed to be a state of shock. "Excuse me?"
"I'm going to enter the woods. I intend to find this pack at their source, and root them out." The mayor's shock turned to panic, and he began to stammer incoherently in a halfhearted attempt to reply. "All I ask in return is room and board for the next couple days, and some information for my Multiscope so I can better travel the land. I promise not to take up too much of your time and that your aid will be greatly appreciated. Now if you excuse me, I must get my rest, because I'm going to be setting off quite early." Najima rose and crossed the room.
The automatic door opened as the mayor's voice rose, "Excuse me, matam, but are you insane?" Najima was unable to detect whether the voice was filled with rage or fear, and let the door slide shut as the mayor continued in shock. "I don't think you understand the severity of this, Matam Dezetoiles. These creatures have antagonized us for months. They have killed people, matam. When the violence began to escalate last month, the government provided us with weaponry. Some of the townspeople gathered to do just as you suggest. Would you like to know how many returned?"
The mayor waited for a response, although Najima remained silent, knowing the question was rhetorical. "One. One returned, only to die the following morning from his wounds. We ventured into the forest when we thought it safe to look for the bodies of the deceased. We found nothing but their guns. They were devoured whole!" the mayor exclaimed. "These wolves... These things... You can't do this. I do not want to hold another funeral for anyone in this town."
"You are wrong, saar," Najima politely replied. "I can do this. And I intend to. You cannot stop me. This is something that cannot happen. Now, if you'll excuse me."
"And if I choose not to aid you?"
"Then I enter the woods without your help, and I will thank you for what hospitality you have already provided."
Najima turned to the door once again as the mayor brought his fists upon his desk. The room fell silent, and Najima once more looked at the man who stood, exasperated with anger. After a short silence, he simply asked, "Who do you think you are? You travel through space alone, on a small raft, under your own supervision. You are so young... you could be my daughter! Yet you fight beasts without an instant's hesitation; you wield knives, and a gun." Najima smiled, impressed the mayor had noticed her weapon, as she often took great care to hide when she placed it on her jacket’s holster.
The mayor rubbed his temple, and then looked to Najima once more. "Who are you?"
"My name is Najima Dezetoiles, and I'm going to help you."
∞∞∞
As Najima had promised, she set off early the next morning, walking down the stone street as townspeople watched from small windows, cramped sidewalks, and tight doorways. Many of the younger children ran to her, following her just as they had when she first entered town. She simply said she was going away, thanking them for their profuse warnings that monsters were outside of town. She left the road and crossed the high grasses she had defended the boy in the day before, a large portion still singed from her dagger. Past the field, she entered the treeline, and in no time at all, her world was a thick shade of green and brown, with the town far from sight.
“That was no wolf,” Najima thought aloud to herself as she climbed fallen tree limbs and kicked the leaves at her feet, shaking the strong scent of early summer pollens native to the planet from her nose. “No wolf grows that large - any zoology course can teach you that. And if an animal is native to the region, it would have long since been studied. Its actions were clearly excessive in violence, and its appearance too unnatural.”
A ridge of rock blocked Najima's path. Using a nearby tree, she slowly scaled the piece of nature, and pushed off the great plant to the top of the ridge before continuing up a hilled section of the forest. “That was a hybrid if I've ever seen one.”
The terrain was increasingly inclined, leveling out for stretches only to continue rising in shorter increments, with several more sheer ridges similar to what Najima encountered before. "But why?" she pondered as she continued her long hike, taking only short breaks for water and to analyze her Multiscope to make sure she was heading westward. "Gene splicing has been outlawed since the war days. If these creatures are as new as the mayor says, there's no way they survived that long. These people don't seem to know much about 'brids anyway, so they probably haven't seen them, even during the war. No, these things are new."
After an over hour of walking, Najima took a longer rest to eat a late breakfast of local fruit and bread she was given before she left. She cursed herself for burning the loaf of bread while trying to heat it over her plasma dagger, and frustratingly munched on the crunchy, charred toast. After her break, she brought up her Multiscope once more. Fashioned to resemble ancient telescopes, except with digitally optical lens and an interactive HUD display builti-in, she analyzed her surroundings for landmarks on the planetary topography, which she received from the mayor this morning. Seeing nothing of interest on the present data mode, she switched between the other modes offered by the Multiscope. She was almost prepared to reconsider her journey until she turned on the energy monitor.
"Well, what do we have here?" Najima’s Multiscope showed an area of high energy resonance two kilometres to the north. Najima aimed her Multiscope back toward town to make sure it was working properly; sure enough, the readings were correct. She began to travel north, where she encountered two more ridges, the elevation quickly rising, becoming craggier, although with no less trees, which grew sturdy and strong all around. By noon, after a very tiresome cl
imb, the trees began to thin, and Najima found herself at the top of an escarpment, looking into a valley of green.
"Well... what do we have here?" Najima questioned. Beyond the cliff, an area of the forest had been cleared for a collection of buildings. They were generally small in terms of height, but wide and cubic, spreading over the land. At first glance, they appeared to be white warehouses; however, Najima concluded that it was some sort of pre-war powerplant, judging by the architecture - which was distinctly Imperial, given the white of the outer walls - and the large solar generators that dotted the complex's buildings, along with a few half-constructed turbines on the opposing escarpment of the valley. One feature, however, stood out farm more prominently: soldiers in white uniforms, with brassards that bore the insignia of the Dravidian Empire, a red seven-pointed star overlapping a red circle on a white background.
Najima located a path and began easing her way down the escarpment by climbing the rocky face until she found a tree which was tall and sturdy enough to support her. Removing her jacket while carefully hugging the cliff, Najima jumped away from the cliffside, using the jacket to catch herself on a branch before slowly easing her way to the ground one branch at a time. Once at ground level, she set her bearings toward the structures beyond the
