The Ancient Breed

by David Brookover

  “Don’t give me the third degree, Mister FBI Man,” she huffed.

  “Sorry. It’s just that it’s bugging the hell out of me.”

  She softened a bit. “Okay. My private library is on the other side.”

  “In the next dimension?” he ventured.

  “Bingo, you win the prize, Nick Bellamy. Now, can we get on with this?”

  He nodded. “I’m all ears.”

  She cleared a large frog from her throat. “I went and fetched this book because my memory ain’t what it used to be. I can’t leave anything out. It’s too important to our survival.”

  “Sounds like I’m in over my head in this.”

  “Not for long. But after you have all the facts, it’ll be up to you what you do with them.”

  “Me? I thought you were calling the shots on this. After all, it’s your plan.”

  “I’m glad you’ve been paying attention, Nick, because you’re the key element in that plan.

  He stared intently at her. “I thought Neo was.”

  “Well, you thought wrong.”

  “So how do I fit into all this?”

  “You’re the demon slayer.”

  His brows arched. “You’re kidding!”

  “No. Now pay attention.”

  Glenna held her right palm above the cover symbol that resembled four wide, vertical bars inside a double-lined trapezoid. The trapezoid suddenly glowed and rose from the leather until it made contact with her hand; then, it promptly disappeared. Glenna opened the mysterious tome to the first page.

  She noticed Nick’s amazement. “It’s a magical lock so that no unauthorized beings can read its contents. If someone tries to force the book open, it simply disintegrates. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I store it in my ‘other’ library,” she explained.

  “So what’s in the book?”

  “This volume charts our history from the first days of our crossing over to Earth’s dimension. I heard that Gabriella described the meteor shower and our earliest days on Earth to you already.”

  “You might want to cover it one more time to make sure she didn’t leave anything out.”

  “I can do that. Then I’ll tell you about the incidents that relate to our current problems.”

  “Thanks.” Nick planned to pay close attention to the historical narrative, since Glenna arbitrarily drafted him to slay a few demons. At the moment, he had no idea how he was going to accomplish that supernatural feat.

  “Well then, let’s get started. Over a hundred thousand years ago, a meteor shower struck Kundze and tore the dimensional fabric separating us and Earth’s dimension. Thousands of our ancestors were swept into this dimension and trapped here. Most survived the change of climate, but others died of disease or froze to death. Much of Earth was covered by ice at the time.

  “After adapting to their new environment, the survivors went out exploring. They discovered the Neanderthal race that ruled your dimension, but they were light years behind our evolution. Our ancestors tried to live peacefully with them, but the Neanderthals considered us a threat and fought with the Kundzean survivors. It’s recorded that more males than females survived the climate change throughout the years, so some of the Kundzean males bred with Neanderthal women. That was the beginning of the half-breeds – your modern Homo sapiens race. Those survivors who decided to maintain their genetic integrity were called purebloods. After many generations, our genes displaced the Neanderthal genes in the half-breeds, and that’s why today’s scientists can’t find the genetic connection between Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals.”

  Glenna conjured two glasses of ice tea; she quickly gulped hers, while Nick politely sipped his. He was too engrossed in her history lesson to worry about thirst.

  She set the sweating glass down and picked up her story.

  “I’m sure Gabriella told you that it was many generations later before we learned the rogue meteors that ripped through the energy barrier into this dimension gave purebloods certain abilities. The Neanderthals referred to these abilities as magic in their primitive tongue.

  “Among other things, one of their new powers enabled them to cross the energy fabric into their home dimension, but unfortunately, none of them could remain there very long before dying. Of course, if a half-breed, or any other earthbound creature, for that matter, somehow managed to cross the barrier, he or it would die instantly.” She inexplicably emphasized the word it.

  Nick stiffened. “Then what about Gabriella? She’s been back home for a year!” he asked, alarm quickening his speech.

  “Don’t fret about, Gabriella,” she replied with a surreptitious grin. “I ‘spect she’ll be just fine, Nick. The elders back home know what they’re doing. Her offense didn’t warrant a death sentence, that’s for sure.”

  His body relaxed some. “I hope so.”

  She chuckled. “Nick, you’ve got to learn to trust your Aunty Glenna.”

  “Right.” Nick smiled to mask his concern. He wasn’t totally sold on Gabriella’s safety. Just the notion that she’d die alone there sickened him.

  “Now, back to history. Pertinent history.”

  Nick found it tough to regain his prior focus when Gabriella was the subject of his thoughts.

  Glenna carefully turned the ancient pages past the center sections, stopped, read it silently, and then glanced at Nick.

  “About thirty-thousand years ago, a group of pureblood explorers discovered a large, metallic cylinder half-buried in a valley in what we now call Germany. It was about a quarter-mile long and, let’s see, about three hundred feet wide. They observed the object for several weeks from a distance before attempting an investigation. When they finally decided it was safe to venture into the valley, an enormous beast emerged from a camouflaged entrance at the visible end of the cylinder. It was the most savage hunter they had ever experienced.”

  Nick leaned so far across the table that his breath fogged the crystal ball. “Did they describe that creature?”

  Glenna shook her head at his impatience. “Of course they did! May I continue?”

  He fell back into his seat, folded his arms across his chest, and waited.

  She cleared a smaller frog from her throat this time. “According to their records, the beast was fifteen feet tall. Thick gray, armored plates protected its massive chest, torso, and legs, which they compared to the legs of the extinct Tyrannosaurus rex.”“Jesus!”

  Her eyes drifted back to the pages. “The toes were thick and splayed, and ended with . . . scimitar-shaped claws.” She glanced up. “Remember, I’m translating this for you the best I can in modern English.”

  “I’ll remember. Please, go on.”

  She read more from the ancient text. “Its eyes were elliptical green ice with black pupils, radiating death from its bony sockets. A heavy fold of creased flesh hung between them, giving the beast an even more menacing appearance. Atop its short neck sat an elongated skull, with a pair of brief, pointed horns protruding from a spiny crown. Its nostrils were flat, ears curved to a point, and the jaws were enormous. The mouth was wide and filled with two rows of black, spiky teeth, similar to . . . picket fences.”

  Nick started at the mention of the monster’s black teeth. He recalled the Walkingman creature’s teeth. Could the two species be related?

  “Its chest and shoulders were massive, the muscular torso narrowed to its broad hips, and the arms were exceptionally long and sinewy, with tripod digits tipped with razor talons.” Glenna paused, massaged her eyes, and continued. “The Neanderthals referred to it as a Cumalodin in their primitive language. Loosely translated, according to our ancestors, it means Devil.”

  “Sounds like one,” Nick said, trying to imagine the fierce, two-legged horror.

  She turned a few more pages and read again. “Now, it says that dozens of small, hairless creatures scrambled from the cylinder’s opening and danced and hopped around the beast, but it did nothing to deter their antics.

  “They watched t
he creatures for days. The purebloods learned that each time the little creatures emerged from the cylinder, they would run ahead, locate a Neanderthal encampment, and slaughter the males. The beast would follow and feast on the meatier women and children. After watching the devil horde exterminate three Neanderthal tribes, the purebloods decided to act.”

  Nick envisioned the carnage, and anger flushed his cheeks.

  “Using their magic, and they aren’t specific here, they eliminated the vile beast and the small hunters. Nothing more is noted here about the deaths, except that only one pureblood wizard was killed in the battle. They sealed all the corpses inside the cylinder and then explored it. After a thorough search, they discovered that the cylinder was an intergalactic spaceship, and that the inhabitants who had built and piloted the vessel had died upon impact. They also determined that it had been some kind of transport ship with a cargo area lined with cages and corpses of the most bizarre life-forms they had ever laid eyes on.

  “Only one of the specimens had survived the crash – the Cumalodin. Its cage door appeared to have sprung open upon impact, releasing the beast. However, they couldn’t locate the cage for the smaller specimens. After sealing the ship, they used their collective magic powers to move it offshore from what is now Portugal and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean. Now, further on in the book . . . ,” Glenna’s voice trailed off as she thumbed to the back of the text for her next reading.

  Nick wondered why the ancient purebloods hadn’t revealed how they eliminated the Cumalodin. It was possible they had considered the matter closed, because they had slain the beast and had sent it to the bottom of the ocean.

  “Here!” she announced triumphantly and started to read. “Just before the half-breeds’ recorded history . . .”

  “Humans, please,” Nick corrected her.

  She nodded agreeably. “All right, then. Just before the humans’ recorded history, a little over four thousand years ago, four powerful destroyers formed a pact – which was highly unusual, since they didn’t usually trust anyone - to reclaim this dimension for the purebloods and destroyers by exterminating the half . . . humans. Sort of an insane dimension cleansing, you might say. Anyway, by then, one of their pureblood scientists created an elixir that would preserve both their youth and accumulated knowledge indefinitely. It seemed to be a very logical solution to the problem of a new generation repeating the mistakes of the previous one.”

  “Does the book say who invented the elixir?”

  She didn’t need to glance at the pages. “Alick Tobhor.”

  Nick froze. If his hunch about the fountain of youth elixir was correct, then the scientist-sorcerer might still be alive and kicking at four thousand years of age!

  57

  “U

  nbelievable!” Nick exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “I can’t believe my remote viewing episode took me back four thousand year!?”

  Glenna shot him a sharp glance. “What remote viewing experience?”

  Nick was mildly surprised that the all-knowing, all-seeing Glenna Guttentag wasn’t aware of his excursion into the past. He summarized his experience, concluding with Alick Tobhor’s terrified expression.

  “Oh dear,” she said, clearly agitated.

  He leaned over the table again. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s . . . it’s just that after all these millenniums, none of us actually knew what happened to the poor soul.”

  Nick drew a blank. Could the description of his remote viewing episode have solved the disappearance of Alick Tobhor? Until now, he wasn’t even aware that Alick Tobhor had mysteriously disappeared back then. This was all news to him.

  “So what happened to Alick?” Nick asked.

  “It’s perfectly obvious now. The dear is still alive and trapped in his Florida fortress.”

  “We didn’t see anybody but the demon guardian.”

  “The who?”

  “Not a who – a what. A monster that protects the fortress from intruders.”

  Glenna laughed. “You mean the Zyloux. Alick was one smart cookie. He must’ve conjured him from the other dimension to protect him and the elixir.”

  “Right. Zyloux. So where’s Alick?”

  “He was a crafty one.”

  “I’m happy to hear that, Glenna, but I still don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t you see, he is the fortress! The fountain of youth is what keeps him alive. It’s his life’s blood. He sealed the elixir and himself away from the world. That way, no one could force him to reveal his secret recipe for your fountain of youth.”

  “That’s incredible! But down in Florida, where the elixir was recently stolen . . .”

  “He was in bad shape after the elixir was taken, I’m sure of that. It’s sorta like throwing a plastic bag over someone’s head and expecting them to breath.”

  “So that’s why the stones darkened,” he recalled.

  “Sounds reasonable.” Glenna paused. “From everything I’ve read about Alick’s genius, I certainly would have expected him to have a backup plan,” Glenna said. “After all, he must have the means of producing the elixir inside.”

  “I didn’t see anything like that.”

  “Nick, dear, you don’t know what to look for.”

  He had to agree with her. “So who was trying to kill Alick and steal his elixir?”

  “That gets us back to your history lesson,” she said solemnly. “The four destroyers stole some of Alick’s elixir in hopes of reviving the beast.”

  “I thought it was sealed in the spaceship at the bottom of the Atlantic.”

  She sighed. “I’m getting to that.”

  “Right.”

  She lowered her eyes to the book once more. “It seems that the prevailing ocean currents had carried it all the way to a North American peninsula.”

  “Florida!”

  “Uh huh. They were the only ones who knew its location. The purebloods later learned that the destroyers infused the beast with the elixir, and it returned to life. Those four discovered a way to control it, and when they returned to Europe, they began destroying the coastal towns. Twenty-three towns and villages were wiped out before the pureblood elders heard about it. They acted quickly. They sent Gabriella’s father, Grand Wizard Xavier Yorick Wolfe, to kill the demon beast and the destroyers.

  “He was the most powerful wizard of them all, and all the destroyers feared him. But the battle odds were four against one, and the destroyers were confident they could defeat him. They figured wrong. During the defense of their coastal encampment, the destroyers fought savagely, combining their magic powers to kill him. Even then, they were no match for Xavier. When the outcome was apparent, three of the destroyers retreated. The remaining destroyer and Xavier waged a fierce battle for weeks, using all the magic weapons at their disposal.”

  “During my remote viewing episode, I witnessed their power. We think our modern weapons are sophisticated, but they wouldn’t hold a candle to their magic,” Nick stated. “Their lightning bolts alone could level most cities.”

  “Interesting,” she muttered thoughtfully and then returned to her history lesson. “Anyway, Xavier wore down the destroyer and finally got close enough to kill him with a Duneden Dirk. Then came the savage beast. It had grown much taller than ten feet by the time it had consumed most of the coastal tribes while Xavier fought the destroyers. The historians estimated that its height eclipsed twenty feet. Its physical strength and steely armor were bad enough, but now it radiated some kind of protective force field that repelled Xavier’s attacks. In the process, the beast seriously wounded the grand wizard.

  “Finally, when Xavier became too weak to continue the fight, pureblood and human armies converged on the beast. They tried to drive it into the sea.” She dabbed the welling tears in her eyes. “They were all slaughtered. My great-grandfather was one of the many generals who died.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nick said softly.

  “Th
ank you.” She sniffed, gathered her composure, and continued. “Just when it looked like the beast was invulnerable, it suddenly showed signs of rapid aging. The remaining soldiers backed off and watched. Gradually, the great beast shriveled amid its deafening roars until, hours later, it crumbled into dust.

  “With their stolen elixir depleted, the three remaining destroyers kidnapped poor Alick and took him to Florida. From the little information my ancestors were able to gather, they forced Alick to adjust the elixir to a longer-lasting potency,” she read, “and demanded that he make it toxic to humans.”

  “Alick could have added DNA from the small creatures that accompanied the Cumalodin on its hunts,” Nick speculated. “That would explain why humans are transformed into the little killers when the elixir reaches their bloodstreams.”

  “There’s nothing mentioned about that in this book, but from what you’ve told me, I’d say your idea holds water.”

  “So, when Alick got the chance, he built a magic fortress that would effectively prevent anyone from ever using his elixir again.” He closed his eyes and attempted to sort through all the facts.

  “It also says here that several early Florida tribes reported seeing a great god that fit the description of the Cumalodin. It supposedly devoured every animal and human it found in the local jungles. According to tribal folklore, this god sank into a lake one day and was never seen again.”

  “Is there any more information on the three destroyers?” he asked.

  “Nothing, other than that their whereabouts are still unknown today - if they’re still alive, of course.”

  “Why didn’t one of your scientists duplicate Alick’s elixir formula?”

  “Believe me, they tried. If they had succeeded, I wouldn’t look like . . . this,” she lamented. “Only Alick new the secret process, and while we did have some success replicating the formula, its effects were fleeting,” she replied. She peered at him musingly. “I know what you’re thinking, Nick. You’re wondering if the three destroyers could’ve duplicated the formula and still be alive today.”