Jack Templar Monster Hunter

by Jeff Gunhus

  Slowly, the creature climbed back to its feet and shook its head. It spotted me again, stood up tall, pawed the air like a grizzly bear, and roared at me.

  That’s when I remembered. I wasn’t fourteen yet. I was off limits.

  I took a careful step toward the mole, sizing up whether I was really safe or not. Satisfied that he wasn’t going anywhere, I started getting a little cocky. “You can’t touch me, can you?” The mole screamed at me. “Yeah, go ahead and roar, you ugly pug!” I yelled back.

  The mole-creature spun around, lowered back to all fours, and ran straight toward Eva.

  “Oh no,” I said. “Eva, watch out!”

  Eva was on her feet but I could tell that she was a little unsteady from her fall. She was slow to react and the mole-creature smashed into her and sent her flying into the long grass.

  Then everything seemed to move in slow motion.

  I spotted Eva’s sword sticking out of the ground just a short distance from me. I ran toward it, reached out and wrapped my fingers around the hilt. The sword felt hot to the touch, but I ignored it and pulled it out of the ground.

  As I did, I heard a cracking sound as if something had broken open. Then a buzzing filled my ears, the roaring of the mole-creature suddenly distant.

  I spun and saw the mole bearing down on Eva, its massive clawed hands ready to rip into her body.

  I ran as hard as I could, carrying the sword at my side.

  As I closed the gap to the mole-creature, I grasped the sword with both hands and raised it over my head. I heard a cry split the air, barely registering that the sound was coming from my own mouth.

  Eva stood, the grass up to her waist. She reached out toward me. “ No!” she screamed, her voice barely audible over the buzzing in my ears. “Stop!”

  But it was too late. I knew that unless I stopped the mole-creature, it was going to kill Eva. I knew what I had to do.

  At the last second, the mole-creature turned toward me and raised a clawed hand to defend itself. I swung the sword as hard as I could and lopped the hand off at the wrist. The mole-creature screamed…but only for a second…because I stuck the sword right through its neck.

  It slumped to its knees, staring at me. Then it laughed. A deep, taunting laugh that unnerved me more than any roar ever could.

  Eva walked up to me and snatched back the sword angrily. With one fast swipe, she decapitated the mole-creature and it fell over on the ground with a thump.

  Eva walked back and forth anxiously. “ Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Eva demanded.

  “You mean besides save your life?” I said.

  “We had time to practice,” Eva said. “The other hunters arrive tomorrow to help protect you. Now what are we going to do? This was exactly what they wanted. Of all the stupid, stupid—”

  “Hey, easy there,” I said. “I don’t know why you’re getting so mad. No-one got hurt. Well, except for the mole here.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Eva said. “You’re only protected by Quattuordecim as long as you’re a non-combatant. The second you swung that sword, your protection was gone.”

  “You mean…”

  “I mean get ready,” Eva said, “because every kind of monster you can imagine is on its way here right now, every one of them excited at the prospect of being the one who gets to kill you.”

  “Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I was just trying to help.”

  Eva grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me roughly to her. “There’s more at stake here than you know. More than just your miserable, little life. You got that?”

  “Got it,” I said.

  “Good,” she said. She threw me her sword and I caught it by the hilt. “Take this. Believe me, you’re about to need it.”

  “Look alive,” Eva said. “The next attack could come from any direction.”

  I looked around the tree line surrounding the meadow. Every shadow took on a menacing appearance. Every crack of a tree limb made me flinch.

  “What now?” I asked.

  Eva pulled an odd-looking dagger from a sheath. Instead of a handle, it had a screw at its end. She twisted the hook off her wrist and placed it in a pouch at her side then screwed the dagger in. She pulled a longer dagger from another sheath hidden under her clothes. She flipped it and it extended out into a full sword.

  “Now we run,” Eva said. “We run as fast as we can.”

  Chapter Six

  I could hardly breathe. Every muscle in my body ached from running so hard on the uneven ground of the forest. To make matters worse, as the sun went down, it got more and more difficult to pick my way over the fallen logs and rocks that littered the forest floor. Eva didn’t seem to have the same problem. She moved like a wraith through the forest, as if she barely touched the ground.

  Eva had led us to the Savage River and followed the twists and turns of its banks. This was the same river that flowed through town. Only there, with its manicured banks, the fast-moving river was deceptively calm. Out here in the woods, the river turned into a frothy series of rapids with walls of water slamming against sharp boulders.

  A thin fog rose off the water and swirled through the tall trees, giving the whole place a ghostly appearance.

  “Wait!” I called out to Eva. “Let me catch my breath.”

  Even with my newfound strength, Eva ran effortlessly ahead of me. She stopped and jogged back, barely breathing hard.

  “We can’t stop,” she said. “I told you when we first met, that’s how they find you.”

  I sucked down gulps of air, my pride a little hurt that I was getting shown up by a girl. I pushed off the tree that I had been leaning against and stumbled forward.

  “This isn’t the fastest way back to my house,” I said.

  “I know, but it’s the safest,” she said. “We need the river in case we get overwhelmed. I’m not familiar with the area, so I don’t know what I’m going to face.”

  I held up my sword. “You mean we. I can fight.”

  She pushed the tip of the sword down. “I’m more worried about you stabbing yourself by accident. Or worse, stabbing me. Just do what I tell you and we might make it through the night.”

  “And then what? I thought you were going to feed me to the monsters tomorrow, anyway. What difference does a day make?”

  “I told you, there are things going on here bigger than you. Bigger than either of us,” Eva said angrily. “There was a plan in place. We’ve been waiting for this chance for years and now…never mind…it doesn’t matter.”

  “Wait. What plan? What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.

  “I said it doesn’t matter anymore, all right?” Eva snapped. “Now, let’s keep moving. Or are you too much of a little kid to keep up?”

  That last comment made me steaming mad, and I had a zinger of a comeback ready too…but I never had a chance to use it.

  A loud squawking cry erupted right above me.

  Seconds later, I was airborne and Eva was twenty feet below me.

  I looked up and saw that a grotesque bird-like creature had me in its clutches, talons grasping the back of my jacket. The body was double the size of the largest eagle I’d ever seen. It was covered with mottled feathers that looked dirty and decayed, most sticking out in odd directions.

  The creature arched its head down to look at me. From the neck up, it had red skin, blistered and cracked open. The eyes were large and looked human, except they were also blood-red. But it was the mouth that freaked me out the most.

  It also looked human, with pencil-thin lips pulled back over rotting teeth. But what was really weird was that the mouth was sewn shut with a heavy black string, loose enough so that it could open its mouth to breathe and probably get small bits of food in, but tight enough so that it couldn’t do much else. As I looked at it, the creature screamed at me, the sound coming from deep in its throat. I found out later that these creatures are called harpies. If you ever come across one, just run, because they are just nast
y little buggers.

  I looked down and saw Eva being attacked by five or six other harpies. She held her ground against them, sword glistening as she carved the air in front of her, but there were too many of them. I had to get free to help her.

  The harpy that had me zigzagged between the trees. I reached out and tried to grab onto branches as they flew past me, but it was going too fast. I tried to strike at the harpy, but from the way it held me by the back, it was out of reach.

  The harpy beat its powerful wings and we broke through the trees. The forest stretched as far as I could see toward the setting sun. In the other direction was the small town of Sunnyvale.

  Far below, I heard Eva scream.

  The harpy shifted its hold on me and I felt my jacket loosen. This was my chance. I looked down. We were at least twenty feet above the forest now. And the trees were at least another forty feet tall.

  “This is gonna hurt,” I said to no-one in particular. The harpy snapped its head in my direction at the sound. “Thanks for the ride, you demented chicken.”

  I wiggled my arms, pulled them over my head, and slid out of the jacket.

  The harpy screamed above me. But that was the least of my problems.

  I tumbled through the air, spinning out of control. I hit the canopy of trees, but instead of branches breaking my fall and slowly lowering me to the ground like I had counted on, I hit an open space between two trees. I hardly slowed at all. I kept hurtling down at full speed.

  I cried out as the forest floor rushed up at me, certain that I was about to die. Or at least break every bone in my body. I squeezed my eyes shut.

  BAM! - I hit the ground.

  Feet first.

  But the pain didn’t come.

  I slowly opened my eyes and realized the impossible had happened. I had stuck the landing. I mean, my feet had hit the ground and somehow my legs just absorbed the impact.

  I looked around. I was crouched down, fingertips on the ground in front of me. Feet in small craters from the impact in the soft ground. I carefully stood up, then looked above me at the enormous distance I had fallen. A smile spread across my face.

  “That was totally, freaking, unbelievably AWESOME!” I yelled.

  But my excitement was short-lived. First, Eva’s scream tore through the forest. She was still under attack. And second, the harpy that I had just escaped came barreling down at me from the treetops.

  I dodged the harpy and it hit a tree hard enough to stun it for a second. I took off, running in the direction of Eva’s cries. I jumped over fallen trees, sliding down leafcovered embankments. I heard the harpy smash through the forest behind me, screeching in anger.

  The sound of the harpy joined the chorus of screeching coming from the ones attacking Eva. Amid their cries, I heard the clang of metal. Eva was still putting up a fight.

  I reached the clearing next to the river where I spotted Eva. She stood with her back to a massive oak tree to protect her blind side. Two harpies lay on the ground near-by. Her sword and the dagger on her left wrist glistened red with their blood.

  Three others circled the air over her, dive-bombing in coordinated attacks. She favored her shoulder. Even from where I stood, I could see her garments on that side of her body were shredded from the harpies’ talons. Eva held her ground but it was only a matter of time until they wore her down. It only took one mistake and they would have her. I needed my sword. Bad.

  The harpy behind me burst through the tree cover and flew right at my head. I jumped to the side and dodged the attack. Even though the light was fading fast and the fog from the river had grown thicker, I spotted my sword lying half-covered with leaves under a bush farther out in the clearing.

  I made a run for it. As soon as I broke cover, the harpies attacking Eva left her and flew at me.

  “Oh crap,” I said.

  I sprinted for my sword. A screech erupted behind me and I dove forward onto the ground. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as a harpy’s talons clawed into my skin. But I had dodged the worst of it and the harpy sailed over my head.

  “Watch out!” Eva cried. I looked up and saw the three other harpies bearing down on me.

  I scrambled on hands and knees and reached the bush where I had seen my sword.

  It was gone.

  I pushed the leaves around, thinking that I might have covered it up by accident. Nothing.

  I looked up and saw a harpy sitting on a fallen tree near-by, looking at me with a cocked head. In its talons, it held my sword.

  Up until that point, I’m not ashamed to admit to you that I’d been a little scared. OK, I’d been scared enough that I was just lucky I hadn’t peed my pants.

  But seeing that creature sitting there with my sword, mocking me with its little cocky expression, made all the fear go away. Suddenly, I was just plain angry.

  The other three harpies reached me. I grabbed two large rocks from the ground and held them in my hands like they were boxing gloves. I smashed the first harpy in the face and the others attacked. I delivered blow after blow with my rocks. Shocked by the fight they were getting, they backed off to regroup. The second they did, I threw down the rocks and sprinted at the harpy with my sword.

  I moved faster than I ever had before. I barely felt my feet touch the ground as I bore down on the harpy. It saw me coming and lifted off the ground, awkward from carrying the sword.

  I jumped, hit the log with my right foot, pushed off and reached for the low-flying harpy. I grabbed it by the leg, back in the position where I was before. Only this time, I was the attacker.

  I grabbed the sword but the harpy had too strong of a grip on it. We wrestled back and forth. The other harpies chased right behind us, pecking at me as we flew. The harpy carrying me bashed into trees and tore through branches, trying to force me off.

  But the strategy worked against it when one of the heavy thumps loosened its grip for a second. It was all I needed. I pulled the sword out and slashed at the harpy flying below me. It tumbled out of the sky. I looked up at the harpy carrying me and made short work of the creature.

  The dead harpy and I fell from the sky and landed hard on the forest floor. Eva was near-by and ran to me.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  I stood up, covered with harpy blood that stank as bad as anything I’d ever smelled before. I grinned. “Never better. And you?”

  Eva shook her head and readied herself as the two remaining harpies formed up for an attack. In the darkening forest, they looked like no more than shadows flying between the trees.

  “Stand back and let me do this,” she said.

  Ignoring her, I took a position behind her so that we stood back-to-back.

  The harpies split up, one at each end of the clearing. On cue, they flew straight at us, one from either direction, talons extended out, screaming.

  I tried to stay focused. When it reached me, I dropped to a knee and went for the neckline. It flew past me and I thought I had missed, but it crumpled up in a ball of feathers and hit the ground, skidding to a stop. Dead.

  The harpy that had attacked Eva flew past and stood at the end of the clearing.

  I turned to Eva. “Uh, I think maybe you missed yours.”

  Eva wiped her blade clean and put it back in its sheath.

  I looked back at the remaining harpy. Its head rolled to one side and fell to the ground.

  The emotion of everything I had just been through bubbled up in me. After feeling like I was going to die several times over in the last fifteen minutes, it finally looked like we were safe. We had won!

  “Yeah!” I cried out. “We did it.”

  I turned to Eva, half-expecting a high-five, or at least a smile. Nope. She was staring at me like I was a turd that she had just found floating in her Cheerios.

  “The Creach takes joy in their killing; we do not. It’s what separates us from them.”

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I thought—”

  Eva stepped closer. Even in the
dark forest, her eyes caught the little bit of moonlight that filtered down through the leaves. I expected them to be blazing with anger, but instead, I was surprised to find only deep sadness in them. “We kill only because we have to. Because there is no other way. Do you understand?”

  I wanted to say something. Anything to make that terrible sadness disappear from her eyes, but no words came. So I just nodded.

  She seemed to accept the gesture. “ Good, now we must leave town immediately. Get you to a hunter safe house where we can plan the next move.”

  “What?” I said. “I can’t just leave. I’ve got school. My friends.”

  “Don’t you understand?” Eva said, all the bitterness back in her voice. “Your life has changed forever. Everything you were before, every dream you thought you had, all of that is gone. And you can never go back. Ever.”

  I rocked back, stunned by the outburst.

  Eva caught herself and took a deep breath. “ I’m sorry, Jack,” she said softly, “ but that’s the way it is. That’s the way it is for all of us, I’m afraid.”

  “OK,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I can do this.”

  “Good,” said Eva. “I think it’s best if we stay on side roads until—”

  “But I have to go see my Aunt Sophie first. Tell her what’s going on.”

  “We don’t...”

  “I’m going with or without you,” I said.

  Eva weighed the options, then finally nodded. “Quickly, though, five minutes, then we’re out. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  She turned and walked up the path. I followed close behind.

  “What were those things?” I asked.

  “Harpies,” Eva said. “You find them in all the old books. Mostly the Greek fables. Brains the size of thimbles, they only get like that if someone trains them.”

  “Who would do that?”

  “Many of the Creach Lords keep harpies. They are useful for a variety of things.”

  We reached the river again. Eva crouched down and we listened to the forest for a full minute. Finally, she seemed satisfied and we stood and continued down the path.