The Found World by Navikov Hugo

Author:Navikov, Hugo [Navikov, Hugo]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

~~~

There was no more argument; they were going after the Ithaqua, which had to be the most cryptid of any Brett had hunted so far. It was practically mythical, not to one culture but to all, even though it was usually known as the Wendigo outside of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Of course, Brett didn’t know if this was what the ancient legends were referring to—Wendigos ate human flesh and stripped away souls and all of that, but Lovecraft’s version simply stalked off with its victims later to drop them from a great height. Brett enjoyed the senseless evil of Lovecraft’s monsters, and this was surely the purest pointlessly nasty creature in any of his work. Ithaqua didn’t do anything to its victims except kill them by letting them fall from hundreds of feet (Lovecraft’s Wendigo was impossibly tall; the thing they just saw must have stretched the outer limits of the cube-square rule limiting the size of terrestrial creatures and was probably one-tenth the height of Ithaqua.)

As if he could read Brett’s mind—something that kind of surprised Brett, since he didn’t feel confident the man could read at all—Crane asked point blank, “What the hell are those things?”

Brett didn’t get a chance to answer him, as Ravi rushed to share his own cryptid expertise with the group as they gathered themselves and their things to go after the monsters, Natasha, and Ellie: “They’re wendigos, Commander. The word comes from the Algonquin word wiindigoo, of course. They’re described in myths shared by everyone from the Ojibwe to the Naskapi as cannibalistic monsters or manifestations of an evil spirit, or both. They have aspects of humanity, but aren’t human, obviously, despite their walking upright and possession of hands with four fingers and an opposable thumb, so I suppose the term ‘cannibalistic’ isn’t strictly accurate. They also are known to be shapeshifters, but that might not be completely accurate.”

“That might not?” Popcorn echoed incredulously. “The whole thing is impossible.”

Brett smirked. “This coming from a man who fought the world’s largest dinosaur predator and now just watched a forty-foot ape-man kidnap two people.”

“Well, perhaps not impossible. But darn it, it’s still all pretty unbelievable.” He paused, looking over the four paramilitary mercenaries, the crocodile wrestler, and the operative of a murderous global cabal, and added, “Please excuse my language.”

Ravi went on: “There is a similar overtly mythical creature called the Wechuge, which is detailed through the oral tradition of the Athabaska from the Northwest Pacific. In any case, these creatures may seem humanlike in another aspect separate from their appearance: I’m thinking that perhaps they cook their food. That would explain why they took off with the agent and our show’s host.”

And the only person I’ve ever loved except my murdered wife and son. “Whatever it is, we have to travel south now, away from the mountains that are the most likely place for Merco to hide out. We need to get our people back. Apparently, Natasha is vital, and I can tell you Ellie is a lot more than that.

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