Painted Blue

He was back on patrol, and he was anticipating Hunters. Since his fight alongside Lindia against the last group, he was more cautious and had packed more supplies with a few more knives and medical supplies; his transformation could aid him better, but he didn't want to call more attention, so he decided to keep it as a last resort. He chose a different outfit, this time with a hood, and went out.

This time, he avoided the river where his last crux was set up, and headed to the mountains. Already, he could feel the air cool down despite the time being summer.

It was only after pushing for what felt like an hour that he realized how far he was, how alone he felt. He considered turning back, but he knew that it was his obligation to not only protect, but provide for his community, meaning resources from food and wood to even potential mines. Perhaps, somewhere near the mountains, he could find something that his people could use...

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh..."

It was faint, yet distinct. And it wasn't from anyone he knew from the community.

Tholan turned to the supposed direction of the howl. An animal? He hunted moose, elk, reindeer, and even predators like bears and wolves (though he wondered if eating a wolf was wrong, considering his community's transformation). This sounded like none of them, and there was something even unnatural about the howl. He pushed forward...

His neck hair stood up. Someone was standing in his path.

The person was wearing the exact same clothing that he had on, and stood about thirty feet from him. This double, though, didn't have a bag, but he was dragging something behind him. Before he could recognize it, the being dropped its belonging and walked towards Tholan. It's size was growing with the distance it was covering, but Tholan noticed that the being was not just growing taller, but thinner. At twenty feet away, it was double his height and looked like a young sapling. At ten feet, it towered over him at about eighteen feet, and its limbs looked like rope, or even bridge cables.

It then stopped, leering over him as he froze. Two glowing white dots stared down upon him, and the thing's smile seemed to shine past the dark exterior of its hood. It leaned closer, opening its maw, and one rope-like arm reached up and pulled off the hood, revealing a deer-like skull with two branch-like horns growing from either side of its temples. With its other hand, it reached for Tholan, the maw opening further and revealing a dark and cold hole where the throat should be-

Tholan woke up. First light again, he thought, and looked upon Lindia as she curled herself upon him, gripping his body like a vine around a fence. He stroked her face, which woke her up. Smiling, she leaned closer to him and licked his cheek. He licked her back-

A heavy banging fell upon the door.

Lindia yelped and hid under the covers. This was typical when she knew who was knocking on the door. Tholan, sighing heavily, got up and walked over, opening up to Garrold the Grey.

"Tholan, get dressed! You, too, Lindia!"

Tholan shook the sleep from his eyes. "Garrold, it's too early."

Garrold looked past Tholan, then met the young man's eyes. "Not for an emergency. I need you, you're my best fighter. And you, too, Lindia, you're the best at scents."

Lindia, in turn, turned to look at Garrold after failing to sneak past both men, the blanket wrapped around her in a form that appeared wraithlike. She stopped, looked at Garrold, and then rushed to the bathroom, saying, "Yes, and hi, Dad."

Garrold turned to leave, but Tholan's curiosity called him back; "Wait, what's going on? If it's about that surviving bowman, I already explained-"

"The bowman's not our concern," interrupted Garrold, "and we're ready for him if he should return with backup. Look, you got home safe, you brought Lindia home safe, our community hasn't been found and remains safe, and you did set up another crux near the river even though you didn't need to, but this is vastly different." When Tholan didn't respond, Garrold approached closer and whispered, "We found a body a couple miles from our deep-forest boundary. A frozen body."

Summer heat. After the equinox, the heat sets in like someone turned up the room temperature instantly. The community was in a forest, miles from the mountains, and it would still feel the heat, especially at night. Recently, though, the night air was much cooler than the years previously to the contrary. Even a few days were less humid than usual, and the residents resorted back to wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts, albeit stockpiling such for their obvious reasons.

This was even farther than his last patrol, and though Tholan would be able to find his way back home blindfolded, the crowded trees and the growing darkness still made him uncomfortable. It was nothing more than a feeling of enclosure, and it shocked him when a clearing seemed to come out of nowhere as he and the group of eight, including Lindia, pushed forward.

The freezing cold was the second thing to shock him, even before he saw the body. Or, more precisely, what was left of it.

Tholan recalled the scarecrows that the nearby villas of Hunters used in their fields of grain and patches. What he saw was, at best, a macabre mockery of such a construct. There was a long piece of wood, probably a young tree uprooted and then replanted here, and yet all but two branches were ripped off; each arm of the corpse was nailed to a branch. The head itself was laid back between the joint of the branches, with the jaw wide open.

Two grave details struck Tholan besides the unusual cold: one was that this body, whoever it was, appeared like an animal shredded it before devouring what it could; the other was that, whatever meat was left on the bones, had turned blue. Determining the time of death would be harder than before, but Tholan felt that the body should not be approached, much less touched.

He turned to Lindia. "Anything?"

Lindia had paced around the scene, sniffing the air. "Death," she remarked. "Death, ice, the faint aroma of blood, ash..."

She stopped on that word as she looked down. "Over here!" she cried out. Immediately, the group left the ice-blue cadaver and crowded around Lindia. In front of her were dark marks slashed upon the ground, dotting the terrain like lines of burnt worms. Tholan looked closer, ignoring the faint stench of ash, and noticed that the lines weren't actually lines. They were feet. Clawed feet.

None of this was adding up. He addressed Garrold, "I got nothing. We have ice, yet something burned itself to and from this spot. We have what I assume was a human being attacked and eaten, yet set up as...a marker? A warning?"

Garrold shook his head. "A trophy."

Tholan stared at Garrold quizzically, and the community's leader finally turned and explained: "Three decades ago, something similar happened near our home, but with livestock. Back then, this prompted the Hunters to push into the woods in full force, bringing all manner of weaponry coated with silver. Some died, some disappeared, but there were some who described a creature straight out of a horror story; a thin and tall humanoid monster, one that not only killed Hunters, but it also consumed their flesh along with the wildlife and the farm animals. Eventually, one of the Hunters managed to hit the being with a silver bullet despite it moving so fast that it actually scorched the ground. It was never seen again."

Before anyone asked, Garrold answered, "Yes, I saw it. From a distance and under cover, when I was out on patrol because of the sudden Hunter activity. I saw it lure a Hunter by mimicking the sound of his horse, which he thought was stolen. I witness it kill that same Hunter almost instantly, and then start consuming his flesh. I...I could still feel a great chill in that area."

He shivered, but then continued: "When it was done, it took the body, pulled a couple ribs from it, and nailed the corpse onto a nearby tree. Then, it patted the cheekbone and left, presumably to kill again. By then, whatever flesh remained had turned blue because of the extreme cold. I surmised that it did not want anyone to take away or even touch the body, given how high up it placed its prey and how deep those ribs were nailed in." Garrold signaled the group back home. "We will need to set up new defensive perimeters. Our current cruxes won't be enough; we'll need dry brush and some metal!"

That night, Tholan had the dream again, but this time, he tried running from the tall entity. He ran into the woods, trying to find his home, but all he saw were trees, and he could feel the cold breath of the creature not far behind. Suddenly, he dropped. Not tumbled, but dropped.

He shook himself and got back on his feet. He looked around for the creature, but saw nothing except...

The blue carcass was there, still nailed to the "tree", and surrounded by the ash footprints. The jaw, which was barely hanging onto the lolled head, slowly closed shut as the skull pulled itself forward, the once-iced sockets now staring at him with that empty, vacant darkness...

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh..."

Tholan's eyes popped open. That howl!

He was already out the door, the night air now cooler than before. Already, the others were coming out of their houses. Garrold himself was charging across the ground, a knife in one hand and a flintstone in the other. Reaching the outside of the community, he struck the flintstone several times. Immediately, a fire was lit and started circling the community. The thought then hit Tholan; that was what the dry brush was for! The flaming barrier was set, and just about everyone was pouring out of their homes, some immediately transforming while others readied themselves with different weapons. As the fire continued raging, something outside moved.

There was a scream like a frustrated predator trying to get its quarry but barred from such, and whatever this thing was, it moved quickly from one end of the town to another, being denied entry by the blazing gate set before it. Tholan tried to peer out at the creature, but all he could see beyond the orange inferno was a pale blur, running back and forth. It screamed again, although more out of defiance than frustration, and it swiped at the brush. Immediately, a cry came forth, and then the cry started ebbing as if the creature was running back into the forest.

Tholan looked to Lindia, who stated, "I smell burnt flesh." This was the chance; that creature had to be killed!

His pack was near the bed, barely touched since his last patrol. The rubbing alcohol, the matches, and his own knife were still in it. He scooped it up, running out the door towards the still-burning barrier. Garrold was the closest one to it, looking in the direction the creature seemingly went. Tholan noticed the knife in the elder's hand, a familiar silver edge gleaming in the fire's glow. Quickly, he snatched it and, with a great squat, leapt over the burning bush to the outside world. Despite Garrold's calling him back, he knew what must be done; the creature had their community in its sight, and he would make it let his people go.

The ash footprint-trail from the thing's burning feet was all the indication that he needed, and he transformed to go faster. Immediately, the cold attacked his heightened senses, but it could not cover up the freshly darkened burn marks, for which he thanked his patron deity as he now hunted this abomination literally haunting his nightmares.

Just as he suspected, he was back at the spot where the blue corpse trophy was displayed, now more frozen looking than before. This time, his fur would sustain his body heat, but he couldn't worry about that. In fact, he was more furious than worried, as the blackened trail stopped right here. He looked around, anticipating an attack, but only silence greeted him. He closed his eyes and roared out a challenging bellow. He would get its attention, even by tearing down its trophy if he had to, and he actually turned to face the blue body.

His nightmare came to mind; in a flashback, the blue corpse appeared to come to life, its gruesome visage smiling at him. Meanwhile, the being from his dream...

A crash was heard, and he turned to face his foe. There it was, the abomination in the flesh! Or, rather, what looked like flesh stretched out over a thin frame taller than a house. And there was the deer-like skull, staring back at him with large sharp teeth in the front and large flat teeth in the back, both sides of its temples adorned with deer-like antlers as long as the branches where the blue man lied.

It was clutching its left arm with a clawed hand, but it bared its maw at him and crouched. Alerted, Tholan moved as the being blurred past him, a swoosh of air hitting where he stood almost a second ago. It moved again, and he got clipped and was sent backwards onto the cold ground. He stood back up and jumped as the thing dived at him, the smell of scorched earth assailing his nostrils. He pulled out his personal knife and, with Garrold's silver blade in his other hand, he drew closer to the monster. It, in turn, seemed to sense his drawing near, and it jumped!

Tholan leapt after, but the thing turned and backhanded him, sending him crashing at the feet of the blue man. His head swimming, he struggled to concentrate. He remembered the pack he was wearing, and he pulled out the rubbing alcohol and the matchbox. He was starting to unscrew the cap when he felt the long fingers of the creature envelop his abdomen, and the icy touch nearly made him yelp. His body slowly left the ground, and he was face-to-what-is-left-of-face with the deer-faced monster. It grinned at him, and another flashback of his nightmare saw him facing the entity leering over him, with teeth getting closer and closer...

There was no time; he ripped off the top of the bottle with his own fangs and threw the contents at the creature. The acidic liquid splashed over the being's face, even getting inside its mouth. Despite this, it didn't let him go, and he went for a match in the matchbox in his other hand. Grabbing one between claws, he managed to strike and light it in one go; at once, he dropped it in the box, lighting up more matches.

The flaming box caught the creature's attention, and it released Tholan who, in reaction, released the box. On instinct, he grabbed the creature's long fingers and kicked the box, sending the flaming contents into the thing's face. Direct hit! Its mouth, inside and out, lit up and drove it into a wild panic, flinging Tholan away from it. Turning in the air, Tholan landed on his feet. As the monster swayed and blindly swatted the area, he located Garrold's knife, grabbed it, and rushed forward. Dodging a heavy yet quick swipe, he flew at the monster's chest and stabbed at its ribcage.

A painful scream blasted from the thing's mouth, and it shoved him away, still gripping the knife in his hand. The creature, in turn, started whacking its head upon the ground in an attempt to put out the fire while clutching its chest with an unburned hand. A few seconds later, it turned toward the mountains and ran, knocking over its blue trophy and moving faster and faster until it was swallowed up by the surrounding forest. Tholan watched and waited for it to return, but a minute or two had passed, and he relaxed. Gathering what was left of his materials, he stopped and looked upon the corpse. It didn't appear to be a show of terror and torture, but now it looked at peace. He felt that it should be buried but decided to leave it; the body had gone through enough.

The morning saw him return to his community, naked and roughed up, but alive. The brush was burned to a crisp, and the people waved to him as he walked back to them. Lindia ran over to him, checking him up and down, and hugged him tightly. "What were you thinking?!" she scolded, digging her nails into him. "Don't do that again, you scared me!"

He hugged her back, while Garrold approached them. Lindia released him, and he offered the leader's knife back. Retrieving it, Garrold asked, "Dead?"

Tholan shook his head. "It ran back to the mountains."

Garrold nodded and said, "Then it might come back." He then turned to look at the mountains in question, continuing; "Like a child burned from a candle, it will remember the silver. But it is as obsessed as it is patient. Its return could be in one year. Maybe another thirty years."