Howl of the Heavens ch.09

    “This is just irritating”, exclaims Mike as he sits at the table talking with Jeff.

 

    “whets irritating?” asks Nick as he pours himself some cereal.

 

    “I have been here for three months now” says Mike, “It never takes this long, Werewolves always slip up or are reckless in some way, but this creature changes its hunting pattern. For a little bit it attacks livestock then is only seen by hikers and back packers, then only sparsely by a few hunters. Its like it is choosing random spots or trying to avoid people but it always returns to good hunting grounds but seems to start avoiding one if it’s spotted.”

 

      “Sounds like its reasoning to me.” Says Nick, “but didn’t you already say before this wasn’t a normal werewolf you were hunting there?”

 

     “Yes” answers Mike, “but I didn’t expect anything this clever.”

 

    Mike starts to say something else when the phone rings, Jeff picks up the receiver, “Hello, Jones’ residence.”

 

     He is answered by a voice that sounds familiar but Jeff can’t place where he knows that voice, the man on the line says, “yes is their a man by the name of Mike King their right now?”  

 

     “Maybe” says Jeff, “His name is Mike but I don’t know his last name.”

 

     Nick thinks, “You have this guy living here and you don’t even know his name?” just as Jeff asks Mike “Is your last name King?”

 

      Mike chokes for a moment on the coffee he was drinking and answers back, “yes, but who are you talking to that both knows my last name and that I am here?”

 

     Jeff asks the man on the line, “Could you tell me who is calling please.”

 

    The man on the line answers back, “sorry but no I can’t. Tell him, the golden cross must be bared on the backs of those who defend it.”

 

     Jeff thinks that odd but says to Mike, “he says to tell you the golden cross must be bared on the backs of those who defend it.”

 

    Mike immediately gets up and takes the phone, he tells Jeff and Nick, “would you please both leave the room for a little bit this is private.”

 

     Jeff says, “Okay, come along Nick.”

 

    Nick hesitantly leaves whispering to his grandfather, “why do we have to leave your kitchen for him, just because there is apparently something going on doesn’t mean he should be able to bark orders.”

 

     Jeff tells him, “Now whoever that was on the phone somehow found him and is apparently someone important to Mike, that sounded like a code sentence or something like out of a spy movie so this is probably secret stuff going on, maybe even something that can help stop whatever is taking livestock.”

 

    After a little while Mike calls Jeff and Nick back in and tells them, “That was my superiors; I will have to leave for awhile, I don’t know when I will be coming back but this might just be the break I was looking for.”

 

     “How’s that?” asked Nick.

 

    “I guess I can tell that much. I am part of a certain group that hunts down evil, my superiors have more resources than I do and might have something I can use to help take out this werewolfish demon.”

 

     Mike got his things together and loaded up his pick up then drove away wondering what his superiors really wanted. He had been sending them reports on his activities maybe they knew something he didn’t about this case, something he was missing.

 

    “Another footprint” says Samantha to her self.  

 

     She looks up to the noon sun. It’s still cold out but it is warming up a little in the middle of the day. She has been researching every sighting and combining that with the legend. She believes she knows the basic area in which the den might be if there is one. She looks down at the giant paw print wishing she had some molding with her. She figured that the hunting was being done away from the den and the legend placed them on the opposite side of a certain mountain.

 

     Now with people avoiding that area and if a member of what ever species was involved in the legend was still here then that area would be her best guess as to what would likely be its home. For three months she had been trying to narrow it down. She had found many caves and cave systems far more than she expected. She figures from the bones and such she has found in the various caves that they have been used at some point but finding one that is occupied will not be easy.

 

    As she is thinking about this she hears a low rumbling sound. Samantha follows the sound down from where she was looking.

 

     “That rumbling sound seems to be coming from below me some where further down the mountain.” She says to her self out loud.

 

    As she looks up she thinks, “Perhaps I should come back at night so I can get some better bearings on my exact location by the stars.”

 

      But she figures she can find her way back here. She had taken a lot of turns on game trails she could walk on through this rocky terrain but some of those near this cave network were very large so it shouldn’t be too hard to find later. She carefully approaches the sound which she guesses is snoring. She goes down a few steep rocks and suddenly slips and tumbles down a bit landing right in front of a large cave opening bigger than any of the other cave entrances.

 

    The rumbling is very loud inside. She walks up slowly to the entrance but stays to the side as she looks in, prepared to run if necessary. Inside she sees something that gives her the shock of her life, a giant animal is inside much bigger than anything she expected.

 

    She steps inside, “it must be hibernating” she says to herself.

 

    The large grey canine like animal opens its eyes slightly and tilts its head in her direction.

 

     “Oh shit” she thinks to herself, however it then lowers its head and shifts its weight slightly but its eyes remain open a little.

 

    “Better not try and get any closer” she says out loud.

 

     The large animal huffs seemingly in response to what she said.

 

    Samantha takes another step inside as her eyes adjust to the dark of the cave she realizes just how huge this animal is.

 

     She takes out her note pad and writes, “I have discovered what appears to be a new species of large carnivore. This specimen has shaggy grey fur, moderately sized legs for its body size which appears that if it stood up it might be about ten or eleven feet off the ground. Its body I estimate to be about fifteen feet in length with an unusually large head and long muzzle for its body which is perhaps five feet long in its self and a shorter than average neck length in relation to the body maybe only three feet.”

 

    She stops writing and looks at the animal again and writes, “It appears to have a very long tail, very unusual for large animals. The tail is curled up but appears to be at least as long as the body and head together.”

 

    She stops and looks at this large animal thinking, “This looks a lot like the creature in that legend but it doesn’t really look that much like a giant wolf, more of a fox really.”

 

   Her eyes open wide at this thought and excitedly she writes, “due to anatomical features I reason that this animal may be a species of fox, however this animal is much larger than any fox or any bear for that matter. In fact its sheer size would make it more than a match for an elephant.”  

 

     Samantha looks at this hibernating giant and realizes the amount of animals taken makes sense if this animal were involved but no one has yet to report something this big.

 

    She reasons to herself, “It’s possible even if someone saw something this big they might not report it as being this big because of how unbelievable it would be but this could definitely carry away a cow, so perhaps people are with holding all the details for fear of ridicule.”

 

      She then notices something strange; its side is bulging around its midsection. Her eyes pop open wide and as she says aloud, “My god it looks to be pregnant.”

 

    The animal shifts it weight again but it definitely looks pregnant.

 

    She writes, “The specimen found is female and pregnant which may add to the amount of livestock taken as it needs to feed, however it appears to be unable to move as it has barely re-acted to my presence. It may be too tired, however many reported sightings were during the day and all sightings have been of an animal of a different color. It may be possible that like a common fox its mate or oldest young are helping it while it is pregnant.”

 

    Samantha suddenly realizes that means at any time another one of these giants could show up that isn’t sleeping as she only sees one in the cave and the cave is large enough to support another animal of this size. She decides it is best to think about this all later from a much safer location, such as the lodge.

 

   She takes out her camera, “thankfully this kind of camera doesn’t need a flash” she says to her self, “I would hate to see this thing if I woke it up from its nap”

 

    She snaps a few pictures of its head and body but she can’t back up enough with out getting a glare from the sun to get its whole body in the shot.

 

    “Unless I walk over to its other side, but I would have to be stupid to try something like that, there is no way I am putting anything that big between me and an exit.” She thinks chuckling abit at the thought of actually attempting something like that.

 

      She puts her notes back in her bag with her camera and heads back across the mountain taking special note of how to get back to the den. She didn’t realize until after she finally got out of the woods and into her truck by the side of the road and released a big breath that she had been breathing shallow the whole three hours it took her to walk out of the woods. She hadn’t realized how scared she had been.

 

    As she drove back to the Brooksville Lodge she couldn’t help but think the same thought she had had while walking back all that way to her truck, “the whole time on the way in and out of the forest and all that time I was looking for the den there may have been one or more of those giant predators like that one in the cave or some smaller young from earlier years wondering in those same woods with me.”

 

   “But now I’m safe,” she to herself in a mock calming tone, “even though something that big probably has little to fear from vehicles.”

 

    With a deep sigh and a shake of her head she continued on her way back to the lodge.

 

     “Five deer not to bad for a midday snack” said Rhuen as he approached the cave. He walked in and sat the five deer down in front of Versa, who eagerly ate them up.

 

    Rhuen sniffed the air, “a human was here” he said,

 

    “yes” said Versa.

 

    “It was that Zoologist,” said Rhuen, “I believe she called her self Samantha.”

 

    “you know her?” asked Versa.

 

    “No, she was talking with some hunters I was spying on.”

 

    “Oh” said Versa with a yawn.

 

     “Did you see what she did while she was here” Rhuen asked.

 

     “Yes, she just wrote in a note pad, took some pictures; she was very quiet and stayed near the entrance.”

 

     Versa yawned then continued, “She was very sweet, she was afraid of disturbing my sleep.”

 

 

   With that Versa went back to sleep having finished off the deer.

 

    Rhuen headed back out “I will just have to grab some cattle and goats on the way back for easy prey because I need to deal with this first.”

 

    “Please do not hurt her” came a thought from Versa as he followed the human’s scent out of the forest.

 

    He followed her scent to the street; he would need to follow the road so he wrapped him self in shadows and changed into his human guise. Thus disguised he followed Samantha’s scent north.

 

        In side the Brooksville lodge Samantha looks over her notes in the well lit lobby. She will have to show this to Mayor O’Brian but now it’s getting too late. She looks at her watch, it’s already ten pm and there are only a few night birds in the lobby.

 

    She thinks to herself about what she saw, “I still can’t believe something this big has been around and no one has discovered it.”

 

    “Until now anyway” she said out loud while thinking, “Of course its likely there are only a small number of them; maybe an endangered species. Makes since; I guess people come in and start wiping out prey species and a predator no one had ever seen suffers for it.”

 

    She barely notices the stranger with the black trench coat walk into the lobby.

 

    “That’s odd” thinks Samantha, “If I didn’t know better I would say that guy was sniffing the air.”

 

   She shrugged her shoulders and went back to her notes and made sure to write down to have her film developed first thing tomorrow.

 

    Rhuen has tracked Samantha’s scent to a hotel of sorts.

 

    He stands out side and reads the name, “Brooksville Lodge, I thought names like that only went to ski resorts.” Rhuen said to himself.

 

 

     He followed Samantha’s scent inside, she was sitting right in the lobby, but he paid her no never mind the lobby was too public and stealth was his objective this day. He followed her scent up to her room on the third floor. He checked the door knob.

 

     “Unlocked?” he thought, “Very trusting, but I doubt she will leave it unlocked when she is actually in it.”

 

    Rhuen walked over to the window and looked out to the forest, “now I know which room she is in exactly.” He thought,

 

    he quickly left the room and closed the door. He walked back out the way he came, taking a quick turn into the nearby forest where he enveloped himself in shadows once more.

 

      An Hour later Samantha looked at her watch and decided it was time to turn in. She headed up to her room, as she put in the key she realized she had left her room unlocked

 

    “oops” she said to her self, “guess I left my door unlocked.”

 

    She checked around the room to make sure nothing was missing then put her camera down on the table next to her bed and stashed her notebook just under the bed as she felt more comfortable with it near her. She than undressed, turned out the light and went to sleep.

 

      “One A.M., damn it, I am going to have to take out an entire farm to make up for lost time.” Rhuen thought.

 

    From the bushes a very small form emerged, a small black fox with dark blue eyes. This small form was none other than Rhuen him self. He scurried over to the wall and with ease scampered up the logs, bricks and mortar to Samantha’s window. His eyes glowed a light blue with focus as he willed the latch open. With a quick look to make sure the human woman was asleep he hopped into the room and changed into his human like form. He silently searched the room for a note pad and the camera. Near the sleeping form’s head lay the camera, but he couldn’t find the note book in any of the drawers of the room’s dresser, so he checked high and low around the room, finally finding it under the bed.

 

   “This must be all of it” thought Rhuen.

 

    Rhuen looked down at Samantha’s sleeping form, “How easy it would be to end her life, yet it would only serve to attract more un-wanted attention and Versa asked that I not harm her, however there is one thing I can do to insure she doesn’t bother us again.” He thought to him self as he focused his mind into Samantha’s imposing his will upon her memories of that day altering the images of the paths she had taken and just how far it was to the cave. With out her photos, notes, or a clear memory she might just take long enough to re-find the cave as to no longer be a threat. With her camera and notes in hand he opened the window and leapt out into the woods where he hastily changed back into his fourteen foot form and incinerated the camera and notes in a flash of blue flames in the palm of his hand.