Hideous Creatures by S.E. Lister

Author:S.E. Lister [S. E. Lister]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908699572
Publisher: Old Street Publishing
Published: 2014-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Arthur and Shelo sat side by side against the wagon as darkness fell. They piled dead wood upon their cooking fire and lit the blue lamp. Arthur grew increasingly tense as the night thickened, convinced that every shadow and snapping twig was a wolf or bear, or perhaps one of Barber’s men closing in upon them.

“Will they come after us?” he asked.

The black of Shelo’s eyes did not reflect the firelight. He pulled Flora’s gun from his belt, and to Arthur’s alarm, held it out. “Do you shoot, Arthur?”

Long ago, an ocean away, he had stood in the grounds of Harcourt Hall with a hunting pistol in his hands. His brother Edward on one side of him, Lucas on the other, he had fired wide each time, sending alarmed pheasants screeching into the air.

“Not well.”

Shelo pressed the gun into his palm. “Her father may send men. If he cares for her, he will come himself.”

Deeply discomforted, Arthur pocketed it. “Shelo,” he began, uncertain whether he truly wanted an answer, “for what purpose…?”

“You heard Barber. She knows the roads of this land as well as any of them. It is many years since I passed through the southern country, before the place I seek was even built.”

Come the morning, Shelo set her loose. To Arthur’s surprise she did not run, but instead returned from out of the trees after going to relieve herself. She lingered, sniffing the air as Shelo stirred a pan of leftover broth upon the fire. When he held out a bowl to her, wordless, she moved near to snatch it away. She ate on her feet, ignoring the spoon and gnawing greedily at scraps of meat. Liquid splashed down her shirt. Her eyes flickered between the two of them, watchful and untrusting above the rim.

“You gonna kill me?” she asked, at length. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and handed the empty bowl back to Shelo.

He raised the corner of his lip to show the tips of his teeth, but did not reply. Done with licking out her bowl, Flora looked over her shoulder, taking in the smallness of their wagon before the expanse of tall pines, the sharp rising of the rocks beyond.

“There’s bears in this high country,” she said fretfully. “An’ they do much mischief. My daddy told me, that when a bear catches a cow, he bites a hole into the hide, and blows with all his power into it ’til the animal swells ex-cessively.” She turned her lantern eyes back upon them. “Then it dies, the air expandin’ greatly between the flesh and the hide.”

“Any such creature would smell me out,” said Shelo, “and flee.”

Flora continued to look at him, and apparently finding nothing here to disagree with, gave a nod. She moved a step closer to their fire, but the whole of her body remained tense. To Arthur it seemed that she was ready to flee at the smallest sudden sound.

Shelo pulled the soft meat from a rabbit leg at the bottom of the pot, shredding it between his teeth.

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