Home for Horny Monsters - Book Five

Conflicted

The snow crunched beneath Mike's feet as he walked through the forests of Oregon. In front of him, Yuki walked on top of the snow carrying her shield, leaving no trace of her passage. Up above, Abella circled.

The Nirumbi, in their haste, had made no effort to hide their tracks. The ones who had survived the slaughter at the cabin had gathered into a larger group and headed north. Though his tracking skills were only slightly better than the average person, the thirty-foot wide path made of tiny footprints and discarded spears made his job easy.

"Anything up ahead?" he asked, then looked up. Abella held up both fists, which was the signal for NO. He adjusted the strap on the rifle Velvet had loaned him.

"Then we keep going," Yuki said. They had spent the night in the cabin, and were now trying to track the Nirumbi. The plan was to find where they were hiding in the woods, and then figure out what to do with them. The internet had been no help—in fact, his phone had been unable to acquire any kind of signal since their arrival.

With Bigfoot still sleeping off his poison, they would have to wait for him to wake up before they could leave. Quetzalli and Dana had stayed behind with Velvet in case of another attack. Not only could Quetzalli shock any attackers, but the away team would hear the resulting thunder and be able to send Abella back to assist.

"Here's another one," Yuki declared as she knelt down in the snow. Mike joined her and frowned.

The Nirumbi had been quick to carve up their own at the cabin before being forced to run. While fleeing, some had obviously fallen due to injuries and had received similar treatments. This one had been hastily hacked apart and was missing both legs and an arm.

"Why the fuck do they do this?" Mike asked.

"Don't know," Yuki replied. "Quetzalli had some ideas, but her information is rumors from hundreds of years ago. Her best guess was that it was a way to honor the dead or the act has some kind of religious implications."

"Thou shalt eat thy dead?" He looked away from the little man on the ground. "Would hate to see the other nine commandments."

"It's not really for us to judge," Yuki said as she summoned a blanket of snow to cover the body. "To them, the act of eating their own is no different than you brushing your teeth after meals."

"That serves an actual purpose, though," he objected.

"And you think this doesn't? At a bare minimum, their bodies become food for others. You only find it detestable because you were raised with the idea that you don't eat grandma when she dies."

"Maybe that started because grandma is too chewy," he said. "Not a lot of great meat on an elderly woman."

Yuki snorted. "Maybe humans don't eat grandma for the same reason that Nirumbi eat each other—as a sign of respect."

Mike nodded. Though cannibalism didn't make complete sense to him, his own lifestyle could be seen as immoral and confusing to others.

They continued onward for a few more minutes before the path narrowed, leading them down into a small ravine surrounded by majestic trees and thick bushes blanketed in snow. If not for the footprints, they would have missed the narrow path that ran beneath a trio of very large pine trees.

Yuki crouched down and went ahead of him. He knelt to follow, but paused when he heard Abella thump into the ground behind him.

"Nowhere to land inside," she told him. "It's completely surrounded by trees."

"Great," he muttered, then followed Yuki in. When he emerged from under the tree, he stared in awe at the large stone overhang above them. They were surrounded by trees on every side, and the overhang itself formed the entrance to a large cave.