Beyor Towers
Page 3
case. Eldon turned to Earl and said with a smile, “time to view, time to renew?”
“Ha! No. I say if you got time to explore, you got time to restore.” A few minutes later Earl’s radio sounded. He was called to another tower. “I have to go to lower tower 2 for a few. Hang in here and do walls then ceiling, Eldon. We still have to slam on this night shift. Call me if you find any skeletons.”
“Okay Earl. I won’t need to call you.”
This was Eldon’s first time working alone in the towers for any length of time. He was confident in his ability now. He sang old Earth songs to himself as he worked. Then he heard the howl. It was the same as the other nights but earlier. After a while Eldon heard something else. He stopped his D-R generator in time to hear the end of it. It sounded like footsteps. But then he thought maybe it was rocks falling. Then, every time he used his machine, he thought he was hearing something in the background. He put his machine down and walked over to the back part of the room where there was a door with a corridor leading outside. With his small hand light he could see that the corridor ended at a tall open archway. As he approached it he could see that a path led from it into the mountain. Also there was some rocks that lay on the path. Eldon wanted to explore, but he thought it better to go back and restore. When Eldon got to the inside door where the corridor began, he tried to close the door but it crackled and then fell to the floor. He did not like the unsecured room the way it was, being open to an unknown area. But Earl would be back soon and then he would tell him about it. Eldon picked up his generator and turned it on. Within 3 seconds there was the howl again! It was louder, much closer and the growl at the end was a piercing warning to its prey that was designed to paralyze with fear. Eldon switched off his D-R machine but kept it in hand. He slowly walked toward the back door. He heard a panting and sort of whining sound. It must be a wild animal he thought. Then in the corridor he caught sight of it. It was a dark figure apparently not humanlike. Two yellow-orange glowing eyes were looking at him. It stood about the height of a man. Eldon and the creature stood still and looked at each other for a long moment. Then the sound of an anti-grav lift came nearer and the light it was shining on the outside of the tower could be seen. The creature now dropped to its four leg position. It jumped to the archway, briefly pausing to look out at the lift passing by. The light from the lift revealed the details of the creature’s appearance as rays came through holes in the corridor wall. Suddenly it let out sort of a scream and ran down the path and then climbed the mountain side extremely fast.
Eldon was able to retain a vivid memory of what he had seen. Its head was like that of a cat but with a longer nose. The front legs were small with paws more like hands that feet. The hind legs were large and possibly had four toes on each hind foot. The tail was short but moving wildly. It seemed to be multicolored with very short fur.
It took a minute or so for Eldon to regain his composure after this frightening sight. Was this a meercat that Earl had mentioned before? But it did not look like any that Eldon had seen in pictures. However, he now knew the source of that terrible howling.
There were a few more sightings of the Beyor Howler after that. The Singsords explained to the people of Beyori-del Province what the creature was and that it was not an evil phantom. So it was decided that the land around Beyor Towers, especially the mountains, be a protected area for the howler and any like it. Of course the wildlife could not enter the towers like the creature had done in the past. But there were caves and other refuge for them now. And so the people and the mountain creatures lived side by side in peace without fear or harm.
With the restoration of Beyor Towers and the rebuilding of the Hi Light Lenses in the towers, a new era of peace and prosperity began. New applications to the lenses meant they could achieve a glory even greater than the past. With the addition of satellites the benefits of the Hi Lights could be felt planetwide. Eventually Norrinyorii came to be known around the galaxy as the place of the Hi Lights. Eldon learned many lessons for future life there and will never forget it.