Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 4

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Several nights later, she awoke in the early hours of the morning to hear a commotion in the streets, and her father rushing out of the house. Kayla dashed outside to see him, and the rest of the militia, driving off in their trucks. One of the older farmers explained to her that the Jaysons had sent a desperate call for help. Something had killed their dogs, and now it was sniffing around outside their home, clawing at the doors and windows while they cowered in the basement.

Kayla waited in her garden, not caring about the chill. She hated not knowing what was happening to her neighbors and hated not being able to do anything. Painful energy burned through her nerves while time stretched on forever.

Dawn was breaking when the vehicles returned, and Kayla raced through a gathering crowd—most of whom wore sleepy expressions—to the village square. She stopped dead when she saw her father open the back of his truck and dump a bloody carcass onto the ground.

It was like no animal she had ever seen before; four-legged, like a wolf, but larger, and covered in spikes and some kind of armor. Instead of fur, the exposed parts of its body were scaly like a snake. Not even her imagination had made anything so terrifying, and her father had gone to chase it down. Tears ran down her cheeks as she thought about what might have happened to him.

Jack jumped out of another vehicle, glanced over at Kayla, and rushed to her side.

"What happened?" Kayla asked between sobs.

"It's okay, nobody was hurt," Jack said as he stroked her hair.

He quickly explained as startled villagers closed in. "We lined up in our trucks a decent distance from the property and put the high beams on the farm. When this thing darted out from a shed and charged us, everyone started shooting. It got really close before it went down. All that armor does a good job of keeping it protected."

"Did you see anything like that when you were on Misian?" asked one militiaman.

Jack smiled wryly. "Nope. All the monsters on Misian are human, unfortunately."

"Is it some kind of shaved wolf?" the man asked.

"It's not a wolf, it's more like a dinosaur," said Kayla's father.

"What's a dinosaur?" someone else asked.

"An old Earth animal," Jack explained as he led Kayla towards her father. "Much bigger than this, and scaly too."

"This has more armor than scales," a young man pointed out. "And what's with all the spikes? If these things mate, they must do it at a distance."

"You mean through a monitor, Deak, like you do?" someone in the crowd said.

Everyone laughed.

Kayla grabbed her father's hand and buried her face in his stomach. He patted her head, but moved her to one side while he closed his truck.

Kayla wiped her eyes and turned away from him to look at the carcass. She had seen many dead animals, but as she stared at the glazed eyes and ruptured flesh, she felt cold, and wrapped her arms around herself.

All around her, the villagers continued to speculate. Two old women in one corner of the square remained silent, wrapped in shawls, and peering out through messy grey hair. They carried big backpacks, and one was resting against a tall, thick staff. Kayla didn't recognize them, and supposed they must be refugees fleeing other attacks in the nearby villages.