The Batty
on my head stayed motionless, its face still inches away from Jill. Jill was a
pre-teen, but Junior got the feeling, he said, that if anything else came out
of Jill’s mouth, it would have bit her.
They heard
another growl, sounding like only ten feet away. They could hear it breathing.
Will and I
walked about two miles heading where the beasts had come from. Finally, we saw
the orchard. Another half mile and we were there, picking the fruit off the
tops of the trees. These fruit were green. We tasted a couple making sure they
were ripe. They were the best of all the orchards. They tasted sweet.
Filling
our bags, we head off back towards the lake. We still had a couple eels to
catch, if we could. They could be all full, not tracking us. Maybe they
wouldn't be there when we had the hook we left in our hands.
Hurrying,
we made it back to the lake in an hour, then another hour back to where the
lake fed the creek that flowed past Home. There was scant evidence of a herd of
beasts that we knew we were following, the grass covering the evidence quickly.
We took a
brake there, once we had the hidden eel hook in hand, and waited for signs of
returning eels. It was a long wait.
Still
naked, Junior and Jill hid behind the fallen tree, waiting for the breathing
they heard in the distance to go away.
The
Batties waited with them, this time there was no replacement coming.
From the
crest of the little hill that divided the two valleys, thy herd their names
called.
"Jill?
Junior? Where are you? Jill?
It was
Jill’s father and he sounded worried. His daughter had never been away this
long.
The
monster in the Black forest let out a huff, then Junior heard it shuffling back
into the blackness.
The
Batties didn't move, so neither did Junior or Jill. After moments, Junior got a
little bolder, and found a branch he could peek around to view the Forest. He
heard the huffing but saw nothing, thinking maybe this thing they now knew was
there was invisible.
Jill could
see the opposite direction as her father Hans continued to call for her. She
saw him looking around, towards the pyramid, up the stream, finally at the
Black Forest.
He stared
for a minute, looking at the expanse of the Forest. From where he stood, he
could see over a mile of Black Forest perimeter. There was a lot to see. He
yelled his daughters name again.
Junior was
looking at the forest when Hans yelled out "Jill."
The
monster appeared from the darkened forest, advanced to the perimeter with a
speed that surprised Junior, causing him to gasp. The Batty next to him gave
him a glance that said, "Be quiet."
The
monster was smaller then Junior assumed, even hunched over it stood about five
feet. It had a wolf face, snout with teeth sticking out even when its mouth was
closed. It had horns that curled back, and it slobbered and drooled as it
stared out.
It arms
hung long, almost to its knees, the feet were hooves. It stood there naked, spotty
hair covering most of its body. It was a male.
Junior
realized then that he could smell the monster. It smelled like death.
He also
realized the monster had bad eyesight. It was looking around for where Jill's father’s
voice was coming from.
Jill’s
father, Hans, was still standing on the slight hilltop, now looking only at the
Forest. Something got his attention, so he walked to the left towards the
stream. It was a quarter mile when he came upon Junior and Jill’s cloths,
neatly laid out on the rock. He was now about fifty yards from the Forest edge.
He picked
up Jill's shorts, looked around looking pissed. What were Junior and his
daughter doing? They were naked and together somewhere, maybe doing something
they should not be doing.
xxxxxx, Jill’s
mother crested the hill. "You find her," she yelled?
Junior was
still looking at the monster, noticing it now was focusing more on where Hans
had walked too, which was in its visual range. Between focusing, then raising
its nose and sniffing, it was very animated. A couple times
No comments:
Post a Comment