.•IT CAN'T BE REAL•.

Chapter Nine: .•the monster•.

   Jason kept on glancing at Ansley then to the photo. "Did you see it?" Jason asked Ansley. "No. But I felt a cold rush of air. Do you think it had something to do with the monster?" Ansley replied. Jason shrugged, then shut up. They continued walking. "What's that?" Ansley tapped Jason, pointing to a large indent in the ground. There were two more, widely separated from the original. "Something big." Jason mumbled. "Seriously. What did it." Ansley's voice went harsh. "I don't know, idiot!" Jason growled, his fur bristling. Ansley took a step back. "I'm sorry." Jason told her, calming down a bit. Jason walked over to the print, bending down and feeling it. A cool breeze passed him. "There's hook like things." Jason looked at her, concerned. "Let's go to the library. Maybe we can research to find out what did this." Jason declared. Ansley nodded as they ran to the local library.

   Jason banged his head on the wooden table. "Dang it!" he muttered, "The only three-legged animal I could find was a dumb fish." "Then what could've done it?" Ansley wondered. "Maybe something science hasn't discovered." Jason shrugged. Ansley looked at him, her eyes wide. "That's genius." Ansley said. Jason looked at her. "Let's go somewhere private." Jason told her. They ran into an alley. "Give me the photo." Jason demanded. Ansley pulled the photo out, Jason yanking from her grasp. He examined it. "There. This thing did it." Jason pressed his paw onto the shadowy figure above the trees. "If you look closely you can see the three limbs." Jason told her. "Ohhh, yeah! You're right!" Ansley smiled, "Now we need to find the monster and analyze it!" Jason pricked his ears,  "Wait! I remember saw something that looked similar to it!" They rushed back into the building. Jason took a notepad out of his pocket, flipping through it. "There." Jason pointed to a note. "The War of the Worlds" was written. "Look for information on this." Jason told her. Ansley nodded, coming back with a large book. "Here." Jason flipped through the pages. "The Fighting Machine. Also known as Tripods. Machines used by the martians." There was a page with a sketch of a tall, three legged monster. "It reaches up to 100 feet tall, and it has two weapons, a heat-ray and..." he scanned the page, "this gun-thing that shoots canisters of poisonous black smoke that kills living things." He then pointed to a paragraph.

And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand... Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me.

"And how do we know it's a..." Ansley muttered. "A Tripod, and we don't. It's a theory, and the closest resemblance to whatever this thing is." Jason corrected her. Ansley set the photo down beside the sketch. "I guess you're right." Ansley told him. "Listen. Meet me on the train tracks tonight at midnight exactly. Not a minute late or a minute early." Jason declared, "See you tonight." He grabbed his notepad, shoving it in his pocket. Jason left, flicking his tail. Ansley looked from the sketch to the photo again. She put the photo in her pocket and went to check out the book. If it helps Lee find Logan, I'll read this entire dang book if I have to.