"The Moody Creek Incident"
May. 13th, 2022 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"The Moody Creek Incident"
3/27/2021
I.
Parking the leased Subaru Outback by the edge of the water, Demrak Jin hopped out and turned slowly around to take in the area. Not more than five feet tall, slim and wiry, the Gelydra was wearing black jeans and a lightweight windbreaker over a plain white T-shirt. A stranger would wonder why her laced-up hiking boots were comically oversized but in fact her feet had lengthened to the extent normal for her amphibious Race.
Jin was not pretty by conventional standards, with a flat face and cloudy blue eyes under a shock of stiff white hair. But she had charisma. She moved with quick, abrupt motion that hinted at enormous nervous energy barely under control. People who met her cool, steady gaze invariably became uncomfortable.
Moody Creek! Site of folklore and legends. More than a hundred yards across, fast-running and turbulent after all the snowmelt further up in the Catskills, the Creek lay between two steep slopes with only a few houses on either side. To reach here, Jin had driven along a two-lane road in serious disrepair. The nearest town, Cowling, was fifteen miles behind her. She had driven for three hours to get up from Manhattan.
Four people missing in the past year from the area, she thought. Three men, one woman. A child ten years old found drowned on the banks. And the local had taken to make sure their dogs and cats did not wander off, because so many pets had been let out and no returned. She stared down at the turgid water roaring past. It was good that Sable had sent her to investigate. This was a mission meant for Demrak Jin to handle.
A car coming up the road caught her attention. Jin scowled, but then that was her default expression. Her bone-bladed knife was stowed in the rear of the rented car, along with her sharkhide outfit, and she had no weapons on her. No matter. Her confidence in her capabilities was well earned.
The black and white town police car slowed and the officer in the front passenger seat rolled down his window. "You all right, miss?"
"I have no problems," she replied. Her weird unplaceable accent had finally faded after all these years among the surface people and now she sounded like a typical New Yorker.
"This area may not be safe. I'd advise you to move along."
"Do not worry about me." Seeing the tense expression on the cop's face, Jin strode over toward the car. "I'm getting a look at the area. It's broad daylight, I'm safe."
"All right. Still, I wouldn't hang around here if I were you."
The Gelydra did not respond for a long moment, trying to find a correct reply. She knew her manners would never be quite right after growing up in feudal Ulgor, but there was no reason to alarm or antagonize the police. Finally, she said, "Thank you for your concern."
The cop was openly staring at her but he started winding up his window again. "Just trying to help. Best to avoid trouble." The car rolled off down the road as she watched until it was gone from sight.
"I came here looking for trouble," she said out loud. No traffic was in sight. Jin left the rear door open as she dropped down to the seat with her legs staying outside. The sigh of relief as she unlaced her boots and drew them off was heartfelt. Like all adults of her Race, Jin's feet were several inches longer than the Human norm. The webbing between her toes was noticeable even with her feet unsplayed.
Quickly, the Gelydra stripped down to white bra and panties, revealing remarkably wiry muscles in her slim arms and legs. She drew on her long-sleeved tunic and pants of rough grey sharkhide with the abrasive denticles facing out, lacing the garments up snugly. Strapping the bone-bladed long knife across her back in its walrus bone sheath, she finally buckled on a belt with two watertight pouches. In one went her Link communicator and sensor, in the other her keys.
Turning toward Moody Creek, Demrak Jin gave in and called Galvan back in New York City to see how their two year old son was doing. The welcome deep voice reassured her that little Pol was fine, taking a well-deserved nap after an active morning. Jin promised to return as soon as possible, then reported to her KDF captain Sable of her whereabouts.
Ready at last to hit the water, she thought. Standing on the banks, the Gelydra leaped straight up to head height from a standing start, jackknifed and dove cleanly down into the creek. As soon as she submerged, a flap closed over to seal her lungs and the gills on either side of her neck opened.
II.
The water was frigid and turbulent enough to kill a normal Human within a few minutes/ Jin loved it. Her people had been modified ages ago by Darthan magick to thrive in Arctic waters. For more than ten minutes, she simply swam excitedly about before heading down toward the bottom. She could see perfectly well; Gelydran eyes worked further into the blue end of the spectrum than Human eyes and needed less light as their pupils worked differently. The drawback to this was that their sense of color was limited and they were nearly blind in bright direct sunlight.
How long had it been since she was in her element? Ages. If not for Galvan and little Pol, she would be tempted to simply swim drownstream to where Moody Creek joined the Hudson and perhaps go out into the Atlantic again. But no, she couldn't do that. And of course, she had sworn on her clan's name to be a loyal member of the KDF. So she began searching the bottom. After a few miles, she did a backwards somersault and swam upstream toward her starting point. The current was strong enough to make this difficult even for her. She enjoyed the exertion.
Returning to where she had entered the water, Jin finally found something. There, caught in a submerged tree trunk, was a boot with the foot still in it. The Gelydra crouched low and examined the gruesome relic. The foot had not separated from its leg through decomposition, because savage bite marks were clearly visible. She didn't recognize the marks at all.
Should she tug the body part free and give it to police? Well, legally yes. But that would mean having to identify herself and why she was here, not to mention the difficulty of explaining how she had retrieved it when she had no diving equipment or wetsuit. Demrak Jin thought for a second, waving her arms back and forth to keep from swept away.
She would bring the foot to the police when this was all over, she decided. That was best. This way she could operate freely for the time being. Jin swam over to the shore, found a protruding rock ledge ten feet below the surface and kicked up from it to leap completely out of the water and nimbly land standing on the ground. As a Gelydra, her dense body was stronger pound for pound than a Human twice her size.
But to her dismay, there was a witness. A young man in a denim jacket and jeans was standing right next to where she landed. as she shot up out of the water like a missile, he yelped and fell onto his back, not even trying to catch himself.
"What are YOU doing here?" she yelled.
"Huh? What? Where did you come from? Did you get thrown out of the creek by a catapult or something?"
Hurrying back to her car, Jin turned away from the stranger and hurriedly pulled her boots back on. The last thing she wanted at the moment was for this outsider to get a good look at her feet. "Of course not! What do you want here?"
"Is that a machete on your back!?" he replied instead, getting back up. Standing, he was a foot taller than the petite Gelydra, a slightly bland-looking man in his early twenties. He had unremarkable features, short dark brown hair and would have been difficult to describe. The only distinctive trait on his face was a feeble attempt at a mustache that looked like it was doomed to go nowhere.
Jin also stood up after lacing her boots. "That's no answer!" she spat back at him. "Are you spying on me? Who do you work for?"
"Who do I...? Whoa. Listen, please, let's ratchet this back a little. Why are we yelling at each other? I don't work for anyone. My name is Mark, Mark Castellano. This is my town, I've lived here all my life and naturally I want to find out what happened with the people disappearing. That's all." He held up his hands at chest level, palms out. "I don't see why we'd be at each other's throats."
"Oh." With great effort, Jin unclenched her fists. She had been told many times to watch her temper and to adjust her manners from the warrior culture of Ulgor, but without great success. She took a deep shuddering breath and tried to make her voice sound less threatening. "I am sorry. Yes, sorry. My name is Jin, I'm an investigator for the Kenneth Dred Foundation. In New York City. We are a research group looking into unsolved mysteries and strange crimes, so I have been sent here. I guess I am doing the same as you are, Mark Castellano."
Visibly relieved, Castellano tugged down his jacket where it had ridden up. "Not to get it starting again, but you're soaking wet. You were swimming in Moody Creek, this time of year? That water must be freezing."
"It doesn't bother me," she said absently. "Tell me what you know about the missing people. Um, please."
"Oh, I haven't found out anything that isn't public knowledge. I had met one of them a few times at the supermarket, I recognized his face in the papers, but I didn't really KNOW any of them. Local folks. As far as anyone can tell, all three were out along the creek at night, walking a dog or running along the shore. Their disappearances were months apart and there's no obvious connection."
"Very well. I will go now." Jin reached into the pouch at her belt and drew out her keys but she made no move to unstrap the bone knife from her back. Her stance hinted she was still half-expecting a fight with this man, whether he seemed threatening or not.
"Really. Wait a second, okay? Have you checked where the drowned girl was found? It's a couple miles back toward town."
"No. I do not know the exact location," she said, still watching him with no attempt to hide suspicion.
"I'll show you. Come on, it'll get me closer to my boarding house anyway, it's a little cold to walk all the way back."
Demrak Jin was silent. Taking a long time to respond in conversation was one of her habits which greatly annoyed people, but she was delayed by translating her Gelydran customs with those of the surface world. "Yes. I can do that. You do not seem to be a threat, Castellano."
"Aw, call me Mark," the young man said, finally smiling. "And I'd appreciate it. We can help each other out."
Moving slowly, the Gelydra unfastened her long knife and secured it behind the front seat. She picked up an oversized blue and white flannel shirt and tugged it on but left it unbuttoned. Rolling up the sleeves to her biceps, she said, "Let's go."
"Great."
Without a further word, Jin slid in behind the steering wheel as he ran around to the passenger side. She started up the car, swung it around and sped off down the road faster than was really necessary.
Reaching toward her forearm, her passenger said, "Can I ask what kinda material that is? I never saw anything like it."
"Don't touch my suit," she snapped. "Rub it the wrong way and it will take your skin off."
"What? Really?"
"It is the hide of a young mako I killed. This is a tradition among my people," she said as casually as if discussing where to stop for lunch. "If any enemy attempts to seize me, he is at a great disadvantage."
"Well, I bet he would be! Cripes. You're full of surprises, Jin."
She turned her eyes toward him for an instant, still wary and appraising. "What is your task among your people?"
"You mean my job? I was a driver for the pizza place, Angelina's. Got laid off awhile back, I'm surviving on unemployment." He was not doing well at hiding how fascinated he was by her stiff white hair and odd facial features. "What's this Foundation you work for?"
"The KDF. We research unsolved mysteries, reports of the supernatural, anything inexplicable," she said, slowing as they approached the edge of town. To their left was a junkyard with some rusted shells of old cars and farm equipment half hidden under dead grass. On their right was a brick building with a huge sign WE BUY SCRAP METAL, ALL KINDS. After that, isolated houses began to appear.
Jin noticed the young man's mesmerized stare and exhaled sharply. "I think I should be blunt and to the point, Mark. Have you ever heard of the Midnight War?"
"Actually, yeah," he said with rising excitement. "I went through a real occult and witchcraft phase as a teenager. I read about a lot of rare old books. The Midnight War, the real mystic phenomena behind everything that normal people know about... oh my God. You're a Gelydra!"
"Yes. Remain calm. I am from Ulgor. I am amphibious, I have gills and can live underwater. I was raised as a warrior, born at the same time as a shark, and have slain over a hundred opponents in fair combat. Now I work with my teammaes in the KDF. You must find all that hard to believe?"
"No, not at all," Castellano replied. "I mean, I saw you pop up out of that freezing creek, perfectly comfortable. I noticed your hair was completely dry in a few seconds. So I figured I had finally found a real inhabitant of the Midnight War."
Turning toward him at a stop sign, Demrak Jin smiled with her mouth but her dark blue eyes remained serious and the effect was sinister. "Just so you know, you are sitting next to one of the deadliest individuals you will ever meet."
III.
Dusk was slowly settling in when Castellano told her to pull over on the banks. This close to the town, a low metal guard rail had been set up to prevent cars from accidentally plunging into the water. Jin finally took off the sunglasses as it was getting dark enough for her to be comfortable.
They both got out, stepped over the guard rail and stood right by the water's edge. After a few minutes, the Gelydra went back to her car and retrieved the bone knife. She shrugged off the flannel shirt and strapped the weapon across her back with the hilt up behind her left shoulder. The blade was short enough that she could draw it easily from that position.
Dropping down to sit on the loose rocky shore, Jin unlaced her boots with relief and hopped lightly back up again. "I am not one of your Human detectives who are subtle and clever, I am a mere fighter. But I have been thinking about what has been carrying off stray people."
"Oh? Like what?"
"You know about shape-shifters. Even the average civilian has heard of werewolves. But almost any animal can become a totem. A bat, a tiger, a bear. Years ago, my team fought a man who changed into a Pterodactyl. And I am increasingly sure that the menace here is a Human who takes the form of some large predatory beast. A crocodile, perhaps?"
Castellano nodded. "You know more about these things than I do, that's for sure. It makes sense though. Police divers went looking at the bottom for a week and they had motorboats patrolling too. They didn't find anything. But maybe the monster was standing here watching them, looking completely ordinary."
"Looking like you," she said, whipping out her long knife with a hissing sound. "The Midnight War is not common knowledge, young man. Few have even heard the words. Yet you know about it and you recognized my Race instantly. You found me so soon after I arrived here. All very suspicious."
"Whoa, whoa, ease up with that machete, Jin." Castellano stepped awkwardly back with his open hands held up at chest level. "Let's stay cool. I'm no threat to you."
Even in the gloom, her teeth flashed in a wicked smile. "No. You're not. But to unsuspecting Humans, I think..." With her attention fully focused on the alarmed man, Demrak Jin was taken entirely off guard. Something with a grip like iron clamps seized her ankles and yanked her so she crashed face down on the rocks with the long knife spinning out of her grip, then it hauled her back down into the water, all in a single blink.
Even as they submerged, Jin kicked free and swung around to face her attacker. It was a creature she had never seen before. Slightly bigger than a human being, with smooth sleek hide, it had two thick arms ending in three fingers and a thumb, all armed with talons. There were no hind legs, the body ended in a wide flat tail that had horizontal flukes. The face glaring at her was more froglike than humanoid with staring google-eyes at the top of the skull, a lipless mouth and no nose or ears.
All this she saw in a flash, even as she attacked. Jin seized one of the creature's wrists in each hand, locking her fingers so they could not be opened without breaking her bones and she kicked with both powerful legs. The monster struggled and almost got back up to the surface. They seemed evenly matched as far as muscular power went. But her fierce determination outweighed the creature's bloodlust and she forced him down to the rough slimy stone of the creek bed.
Great air bubbles big as a man's head escaped from that wide batrachian mouth and rose up through the water. The monster grew more frenzied in its attempts to escape but Demrak Jin was implacable. Her fury was fully raging at this point and it would have taken a dozen men to pull her away from her prey. One last air bubble freed itself before the creature convulsed and went limp. Even so, the Gelydra knelt on the body for another long minute before being satisfied.
What was this beast? She had no idea. But then new and unknown beings surfaced often in the Midnight War, and she would haul the corpse up to drag it into her car and take it back to KDF headquarters. Probably Sable would go through their files and identify the monster quickly enough. What was important was that she had immediately saw that it had no gills and would almost certainly an air-breather. If it had been some sort of fish or amphibian that could breathe underwater, the struggle would have been more prolonged and might not have gone so well for her.
Stroking back up to the surface, Demrak Jin leaped out of the water exactly where she had been standing where she had been seized. Her bone-blade still lay there and she claimed it as Castellano gave a start that almost made him fall down again.
"You're alive! You're okay! What happened?"
Sheathing her weapon, the Gelydra started to retort sharply but caught herself. "I.. I believe I need to apologize. I was wrong. There was some unknown acquatic creature behind the deaths, but it will not be harming anyone else."
"Really? I caught a glimpse but it all happened so fast." He drew back as Jin approached him. "Oh no, stay where you are."
"I have admitted my mistake. I have offered apology," she said.
"Yeah, well that's not enough, lady. You threatened me with that damn blade. You were getting ready to slice me up without any evidence at all." He wheeled around and took off at a full run toward the lights of the town.
Watching him disappear into the distance, Jin did not know exactly what to feel. All the years among the surface folk and she still did not understand them.
5/23/2021
3/27/2021
I.
Parking the leased Subaru Outback by the edge of the water, Demrak Jin hopped out and turned slowly around to take in the area. Not more than five feet tall, slim and wiry, the Gelydra was wearing black jeans and a lightweight windbreaker over a plain white T-shirt. A stranger would wonder why her laced-up hiking boots were comically oversized but in fact her feet had lengthened to the extent normal for her amphibious Race.
Jin was not pretty by conventional standards, with a flat face and cloudy blue eyes under a shock of stiff white hair. But she had charisma. She moved with quick, abrupt motion that hinted at enormous nervous energy barely under control. People who met her cool, steady gaze invariably became uncomfortable.
Moody Creek! Site of folklore and legends. More than a hundred yards across, fast-running and turbulent after all the snowmelt further up in the Catskills, the Creek lay between two steep slopes with only a few houses on either side. To reach here, Jin had driven along a two-lane road in serious disrepair. The nearest town, Cowling, was fifteen miles behind her. She had driven for three hours to get up from Manhattan.
Four people missing in the past year from the area, she thought. Three men, one woman. A child ten years old found drowned on the banks. And the local had taken to make sure their dogs and cats did not wander off, because so many pets had been let out and no returned. She stared down at the turgid water roaring past. It was good that Sable had sent her to investigate. This was a mission meant for Demrak Jin to handle.
A car coming up the road caught her attention. Jin scowled, but then that was her default expression. Her bone-bladed knife was stowed in the rear of the rented car, along with her sharkhide outfit, and she had no weapons on her. No matter. Her confidence in her capabilities was well earned.
The black and white town police car slowed and the officer in the front passenger seat rolled down his window. "You all right, miss?"
"I have no problems," she replied. Her weird unplaceable accent had finally faded after all these years among the surface people and now she sounded like a typical New Yorker.
"This area may not be safe. I'd advise you to move along."
"Do not worry about me." Seeing the tense expression on the cop's face, Jin strode over toward the car. "I'm getting a look at the area. It's broad daylight, I'm safe."
"All right. Still, I wouldn't hang around here if I were you."
The Gelydra did not respond for a long moment, trying to find a correct reply. She knew her manners would never be quite right after growing up in feudal Ulgor, but there was no reason to alarm or antagonize the police. Finally, she said, "Thank you for your concern."
The cop was openly staring at her but he started winding up his window again. "Just trying to help. Best to avoid trouble." The car rolled off down the road as she watched until it was gone from sight.
"I came here looking for trouble," she said out loud. No traffic was in sight. Jin left the rear door open as she dropped down to the seat with her legs staying outside. The sigh of relief as she unlaced her boots and drew them off was heartfelt. Like all adults of her Race, Jin's feet were several inches longer than the Human norm. The webbing between her toes was noticeable even with her feet unsplayed.
Quickly, the Gelydra stripped down to white bra and panties, revealing remarkably wiry muscles in her slim arms and legs. She drew on her long-sleeved tunic and pants of rough grey sharkhide with the abrasive denticles facing out, lacing the garments up snugly. Strapping the bone-bladed long knife across her back in its walrus bone sheath, she finally buckled on a belt with two watertight pouches. In one went her Link communicator and sensor, in the other her keys.
Turning toward Moody Creek, Demrak Jin gave in and called Galvan back in New York City to see how their two year old son was doing. The welcome deep voice reassured her that little Pol was fine, taking a well-deserved nap after an active morning. Jin promised to return as soon as possible, then reported to her KDF captain Sable of her whereabouts.
Ready at last to hit the water, she thought. Standing on the banks, the Gelydra leaped straight up to head height from a standing start, jackknifed and dove cleanly down into the creek. As soon as she submerged, a flap closed over to seal her lungs and the gills on either side of her neck opened.
II.
The water was frigid and turbulent enough to kill a normal Human within a few minutes/ Jin loved it. Her people had been modified ages ago by Darthan magick to thrive in Arctic waters. For more than ten minutes, she simply swam excitedly about before heading down toward the bottom. She could see perfectly well; Gelydran eyes worked further into the blue end of the spectrum than Human eyes and needed less light as their pupils worked differently. The drawback to this was that their sense of color was limited and they were nearly blind in bright direct sunlight.
How long had it been since she was in her element? Ages. If not for Galvan and little Pol, she would be tempted to simply swim drownstream to where Moody Creek joined the Hudson and perhaps go out into the Atlantic again. But no, she couldn't do that. And of course, she had sworn on her clan's name to be a loyal member of the KDF. So she began searching the bottom. After a few miles, she did a backwards somersault and swam upstream toward her starting point. The current was strong enough to make this difficult even for her. She enjoyed the exertion.
Returning to where she had entered the water, Jin finally found something. There, caught in a submerged tree trunk, was a boot with the foot still in it. The Gelydra crouched low and examined the gruesome relic. The foot had not separated from its leg through decomposition, because savage bite marks were clearly visible. She didn't recognize the marks at all.
Should she tug the body part free and give it to police? Well, legally yes. But that would mean having to identify herself and why she was here, not to mention the difficulty of explaining how she had retrieved it when she had no diving equipment or wetsuit. Demrak Jin thought for a second, waving her arms back and forth to keep from swept away.
She would bring the foot to the police when this was all over, she decided. That was best. This way she could operate freely for the time being. Jin swam over to the shore, found a protruding rock ledge ten feet below the surface and kicked up from it to leap completely out of the water and nimbly land standing on the ground. As a Gelydra, her dense body was stronger pound for pound than a Human twice her size.
But to her dismay, there was a witness. A young man in a denim jacket and jeans was standing right next to where she landed. as she shot up out of the water like a missile, he yelped and fell onto his back, not even trying to catch himself.
"What are YOU doing here?" she yelled.
"Huh? What? Where did you come from? Did you get thrown out of the creek by a catapult or something?"
Hurrying back to her car, Jin turned away from the stranger and hurriedly pulled her boots back on. The last thing she wanted at the moment was for this outsider to get a good look at her feet. "Of course not! What do you want here?"
"Is that a machete on your back!?" he replied instead, getting back up. Standing, he was a foot taller than the petite Gelydra, a slightly bland-looking man in his early twenties. He had unremarkable features, short dark brown hair and would have been difficult to describe. The only distinctive trait on his face was a feeble attempt at a mustache that looked like it was doomed to go nowhere.
Jin also stood up after lacing her boots. "That's no answer!" she spat back at him. "Are you spying on me? Who do you work for?"
"Who do I...? Whoa. Listen, please, let's ratchet this back a little. Why are we yelling at each other? I don't work for anyone. My name is Mark, Mark Castellano. This is my town, I've lived here all my life and naturally I want to find out what happened with the people disappearing. That's all." He held up his hands at chest level, palms out. "I don't see why we'd be at each other's throats."
"Oh." With great effort, Jin unclenched her fists. She had been told many times to watch her temper and to adjust her manners from the warrior culture of Ulgor, but without great success. She took a deep shuddering breath and tried to make her voice sound less threatening. "I am sorry. Yes, sorry. My name is Jin, I'm an investigator for the Kenneth Dred Foundation. In New York City. We are a research group looking into unsolved mysteries and strange crimes, so I have been sent here. I guess I am doing the same as you are, Mark Castellano."
Visibly relieved, Castellano tugged down his jacket where it had ridden up. "Not to get it starting again, but you're soaking wet. You were swimming in Moody Creek, this time of year? That water must be freezing."
"It doesn't bother me," she said absently. "Tell me what you know about the missing people. Um, please."
"Oh, I haven't found out anything that isn't public knowledge. I had met one of them a few times at the supermarket, I recognized his face in the papers, but I didn't really KNOW any of them. Local folks. As far as anyone can tell, all three were out along the creek at night, walking a dog or running along the shore. Their disappearances were months apart and there's no obvious connection."
"Very well. I will go now." Jin reached into the pouch at her belt and drew out her keys but she made no move to unstrap the bone knife from her back. Her stance hinted she was still half-expecting a fight with this man, whether he seemed threatening or not.
"Really. Wait a second, okay? Have you checked where the drowned girl was found? It's a couple miles back toward town."
"No. I do not know the exact location," she said, still watching him with no attempt to hide suspicion.
"I'll show you. Come on, it'll get me closer to my boarding house anyway, it's a little cold to walk all the way back."
Demrak Jin was silent. Taking a long time to respond in conversation was one of her habits which greatly annoyed people, but she was delayed by translating her Gelydran customs with those of the surface world. "Yes. I can do that. You do not seem to be a threat, Castellano."
"Aw, call me Mark," the young man said, finally smiling. "And I'd appreciate it. We can help each other out."
Moving slowly, the Gelydra unfastened her long knife and secured it behind the front seat. She picked up an oversized blue and white flannel shirt and tugged it on but left it unbuttoned. Rolling up the sleeves to her biceps, she said, "Let's go."
"Great."
Without a further word, Jin slid in behind the steering wheel as he ran around to the passenger side. She started up the car, swung it around and sped off down the road faster than was really necessary.
Reaching toward her forearm, her passenger said, "Can I ask what kinda material that is? I never saw anything like it."
"Don't touch my suit," she snapped. "Rub it the wrong way and it will take your skin off."
"What? Really?"
"It is the hide of a young mako I killed. This is a tradition among my people," she said as casually as if discussing where to stop for lunch. "If any enemy attempts to seize me, he is at a great disadvantage."
"Well, I bet he would be! Cripes. You're full of surprises, Jin."
She turned her eyes toward him for an instant, still wary and appraising. "What is your task among your people?"
"You mean my job? I was a driver for the pizza place, Angelina's. Got laid off awhile back, I'm surviving on unemployment." He was not doing well at hiding how fascinated he was by her stiff white hair and odd facial features. "What's this Foundation you work for?"
"The KDF. We research unsolved mysteries, reports of the supernatural, anything inexplicable," she said, slowing as they approached the edge of town. To their left was a junkyard with some rusted shells of old cars and farm equipment half hidden under dead grass. On their right was a brick building with a huge sign WE BUY SCRAP METAL, ALL KINDS. After that, isolated houses began to appear.
Jin noticed the young man's mesmerized stare and exhaled sharply. "I think I should be blunt and to the point, Mark. Have you ever heard of the Midnight War?"
"Actually, yeah," he said with rising excitement. "I went through a real occult and witchcraft phase as a teenager. I read about a lot of rare old books. The Midnight War, the real mystic phenomena behind everything that normal people know about... oh my God. You're a Gelydra!"
"Yes. Remain calm. I am from Ulgor. I am amphibious, I have gills and can live underwater. I was raised as a warrior, born at the same time as a shark, and have slain over a hundred opponents in fair combat. Now I work with my teammaes in the KDF. You must find all that hard to believe?"
"No, not at all," Castellano replied. "I mean, I saw you pop up out of that freezing creek, perfectly comfortable. I noticed your hair was completely dry in a few seconds. So I figured I had finally found a real inhabitant of the Midnight War."
Turning toward him at a stop sign, Demrak Jin smiled with her mouth but her dark blue eyes remained serious and the effect was sinister. "Just so you know, you are sitting next to one of the deadliest individuals you will ever meet."
III.
Dusk was slowly settling in when Castellano told her to pull over on the banks. This close to the town, a low metal guard rail had been set up to prevent cars from accidentally plunging into the water. Jin finally took off the sunglasses as it was getting dark enough for her to be comfortable.
They both got out, stepped over the guard rail and stood right by the water's edge. After a few minutes, the Gelydra went back to her car and retrieved the bone knife. She shrugged off the flannel shirt and strapped the weapon across her back with the hilt up behind her left shoulder. The blade was short enough that she could draw it easily from that position.
Dropping down to sit on the loose rocky shore, Jin unlaced her boots with relief and hopped lightly back up again. "I am not one of your Human detectives who are subtle and clever, I am a mere fighter. But I have been thinking about what has been carrying off stray people."
"Oh? Like what?"
"You know about shape-shifters. Even the average civilian has heard of werewolves. But almost any animal can become a totem. A bat, a tiger, a bear. Years ago, my team fought a man who changed into a Pterodactyl. And I am increasingly sure that the menace here is a Human who takes the form of some large predatory beast. A crocodile, perhaps?"
Castellano nodded. "You know more about these things than I do, that's for sure. It makes sense though. Police divers went looking at the bottom for a week and they had motorboats patrolling too. They didn't find anything. But maybe the monster was standing here watching them, looking completely ordinary."
"Looking like you," she said, whipping out her long knife with a hissing sound. "The Midnight War is not common knowledge, young man. Few have even heard the words. Yet you know about it and you recognized my Race instantly. You found me so soon after I arrived here. All very suspicious."
"Whoa, whoa, ease up with that machete, Jin." Castellano stepped awkwardly back with his open hands held up at chest level. "Let's stay cool. I'm no threat to you."
Even in the gloom, her teeth flashed in a wicked smile. "No. You're not. But to unsuspecting Humans, I think..." With her attention fully focused on the alarmed man, Demrak Jin was taken entirely off guard. Something with a grip like iron clamps seized her ankles and yanked her so she crashed face down on the rocks with the long knife spinning out of her grip, then it hauled her back down into the water, all in a single blink.
Even as they submerged, Jin kicked free and swung around to face her attacker. It was a creature she had never seen before. Slightly bigger than a human being, with smooth sleek hide, it had two thick arms ending in three fingers and a thumb, all armed with talons. There were no hind legs, the body ended in a wide flat tail that had horizontal flukes. The face glaring at her was more froglike than humanoid with staring google-eyes at the top of the skull, a lipless mouth and no nose or ears.
All this she saw in a flash, even as she attacked. Jin seized one of the creature's wrists in each hand, locking her fingers so they could not be opened without breaking her bones and she kicked with both powerful legs. The monster struggled and almost got back up to the surface. They seemed evenly matched as far as muscular power went. But her fierce determination outweighed the creature's bloodlust and she forced him down to the rough slimy stone of the creek bed.
Great air bubbles big as a man's head escaped from that wide batrachian mouth and rose up through the water. The monster grew more frenzied in its attempts to escape but Demrak Jin was implacable. Her fury was fully raging at this point and it would have taken a dozen men to pull her away from her prey. One last air bubble freed itself before the creature convulsed and went limp. Even so, the Gelydra knelt on the body for another long minute before being satisfied.
What was this beast? She had no idea. But then new and unknown beings surfaced often in the Midnight War, and she would haul the corpse up to drag it into her car and take it back to KDF headquarters. Probably Sable would go through their files and identify the monster quickly enough. What was important was that she had immediately saw that it had no gills and would almost certainly an air-breather. If it had been some sort of fish or amphibian that could breathe underwater, the struggle would have been more prolonged and might not have gone so well for her.
Stroking back up to the surface, Demrak Jin leaped out of the water exactly where she had been standing where she had been seized. Her bone-blade still lay there and she claimed it as Castellano gave a start that almost made him fall down again.
"You're alive! You're okay! What happened?"
Sheathing her weapon, the Gelydra started to retort sharply but caught herself. "I.. I believe I need to apologize. I was wrong. There was some unknown acquatic creature behind the deaths, but it will not be harming anyone else."
"Really? I caught a glimpse but it all happened so fast." He drew back as Jin approached him. "Oh no, stay where you are."
"I have admitted my mistake. I have offered apology," she said.
"Yeah, well that's not enough, lady. You threatened me with that damn blade. You were getting ready to slice me up without any evidence at all." He wheeled around and took off at a full run toward the lights of the town.
Watching him disappear into the distance, Jin did not know exactly what to feel. All the years among the surface folk and she still did not understand them.
5/23/2021
