Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 79: Wendigo

The roar echoed across the somewhat deserted road. Although the house Malene lived in was fairly new, it was made as a part of a development and other houses haven't been build yet. As such, the road was pretty much empty of cars, houses and therefore, people.

"That would be it," Malene commented.

"Yeah, but what is it? It doesn't sound much like a bear," Laz pondered.

"That's just what it looked like kid. It also had horns and was kind of skinny and walked on two legs. But other than that, it looked liked a bear." Aqua commented.

"How is that anything like a bear? It has horns? Like... a bull? Or like a dear or a goat? What kind of horns are we talking about here?" Laz asked, feeling worse and worse about this whole thing.

"I don't really know? I was a bit scared and decided to get out of there when I saw it," Aqua replied, not the least bit ashamed.

"Alright. You know what? Fine. Stay here or go into the house for a bit. I'm going to go check this thing out," Laz said.

"Take Vivi with you too. It's better for her not to go." Laz reached down and scooped up the little wolf before handing her over to Malene. Although she struggled a bit, she had heard what Laz said and didn't want to disobey.

As they made their way towards the house, Laz crosses the road and spread out his sense. Due to how loud the roar was, he really had no idea where this thing was, but he got the strange feeling that it was going to come and find him.

Despite having spent some time in the woods around Bill's place, this woods was a bit different. It was much less traveled and therefore there were few trails and ways to go through it. Laz wasn't a hunter by any stretch of the imagination. Using his sense though, he was able to find some clues to follow pretty quickly.

There was no sign of the beast being close, but there were signs of it being around. It left a strange energy trail in it's wake and the trail was rather dense. For Laz, it was pretty easy to figure out a direction, although going in that direction wasn't the easiest.

Still, since this thing seemed to be quite large, it also left a bit of a trail as well. Still, with the way the brush was laid down by it, Laz couldn't help but wonder how long it's legs were exactly.

It didn't take long before he found the answer.

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In a small clearing where the energy was the most dense, Laz saw a massive figured laying on it's side and chewing on a dead deer. The thing had been ripped in half with what looked like a shocked expression sill on it's face.

'The roar must have come from when it attacked the deer,' Laz thought to himself. He couldn't see it clearly, but he could tell the thing was massive. Based on his estimation, it must have been almost five meters tall, standing up. The horns on it's head looked like massive deer antlers and its entire body was rather sticky and covered in fur. Spreading his sense over it, Laz could make out it's general figure from the front. It had arms that looked almost three meters long that ended in massive claws, each almost 2 feet long. It's muzzle contained a nightmarish set of razor sharp teeth that were able to break up the deer's bones just as easily as it could tear apart the creatures flesh.

Laz was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them. Despite that, this thing made him very, very afraid.

Laz ran through many thoughts in his head, but he didn't really have any good ideas. He didn't know how to make a trap like they did in movies. At least, not something that could be done quick. Sure, he could dig a pit and put spikes of wood at the bottom of it, but how much would that really help? And how deep would the pit have to be for this thing? That is assuming he could even find a shovel and not alert the monster to where he was. Due to these problems, Laz just sat there near by and watch the monster eat its meal silently.

Luckily, due to Laz's sense, he could observe some things about this creature despite not being able to see it well. Despite its hunched formed, he could tell that its body is really strong and that it would be a lot faster than him at running. He was glad now for bringing the gun along as he could tell there was no way in hell he could have fought the thing barehanded.

Just as Laz was thinking about getting into a better position with which he could fire off a few shots before the beast could figure out where he was, he heard an incredibly small movement happen in the bushes near his feet. Looking down, he saw Vivi walk over and stand next to him while looking in the direction of the monster.

"Why are you here?" Laz asked in the quietest voice he could muster.

In response, Vivi just looked at him and with a very human like gesture, brought her paw up and put one of her little claws to her mouth, as though telling him to be quiet.

Laz was rather astonished at this little girl who was clearly a wolf, but had the intelligence of a human. Since he had no clue if she could see anything from down there, he bent over and picked her up gently before laying her on his shoulder. This way, he head was at the same level as his head and she could see what he could see.

They both looked for a while longer before a bit more rustling startled them. Looking over, Laz noticed that Malene and Aqua had joined them as well. This time, Laz didn't say anything but gave a some what questioning glare at Malene. All she did was shrug before using hand gestures to explained that Vivi had gotten loose and took of before she could stop her. Since they couldn't yell after her, they just followed quietly by using Aqua to track her energy trail, much in the same way Laz tracked the monster.

Both of them were looking over at the creature as soon as they figured out where it was. Although Laz didn't know it, they were also exchanging words about what it could be. Finally, Malene took out here phone and searched something up before showing it to Aqua. Both nodded their heads when they came to an agreement before Malene reached forward and got Laz's attention. She then showed him the phone.

'Wendigo.'

Reading more underneath it, Laz couldn't help but marvel at how the picture was very close to what they were looking at.

'Was this thing really some sort of mythical creature though? Am in really going to possibly run into big foot one day now?' Laz had many thoughts on how crazy this whole thing seemed, but how it also seemed completely legit since the evidence was right in front of him.

'What the hell? It likes to eat humans? Well, that explains why Malene felt like it might be stalking her."

Almost as soon as he read that part, he noticed the beast had raised it's head and was sniffing the air.

'Don't tell me...'

Laz sniffed a bit as well while Vivi did the same, trying to figure out what it was smelling. Almost at the same time, they turned and looked at Malene who had a confused look on her face.

She smelled like perfume. It was incredibly subtle and you wouldn't normally notice, but out here in the woods, it was hard to miss.

'Shit."

Without a moments hesitation, Laz grabbed Malene's hand with one hand and held Vivi in place with the other while making a quick escape in the direction they had come from.

Before they got more than a couple feet though, another earth shaking roar echoed through the forest. Without turning around, Laz let go of Malene's hand and picked her up by the waist before running at top speed towards her house. Even if it didn't do them any good, they had a better chance of surviving by getting out of the woods ASAP.

Laz didn't make any fancy zig zag moves and instead just ran as fast as he could. Due to the abnormal strength of his body, he was practically flying through the dense foliage without looking back. He was directing his sense behind him the whole way and could tell that the Wendigo had picked up on their trail and was coming after them.

With every step he took, Laz knew the creature was getting closer and based on his estimation, it was going to catch up to them as soon as they cleared the tree line.

As soon as they hit the edge of the forest, Laz threw Malene and Vivi to the side and jumped back, leveling off Last Rites to take aim before pulling the trigger.

"Die."

Boom!

Knowing right where the creature would be, the shot was on the mark but the creature veered at the last moment and it hit it's oversized arm instead. The hit from the bullet caused the forearm of the creature to practically explode in a cloud of blood as it screamed out.

Even Laz was briefly stunned by the resulting sound wave that made aiming another shot quickly impossible. Just as his ears stopped ringing, Laz realized the creature was almost on top of him. It shot out its whole arm and reached it's claw forward, attempting to stab it through Laz's head before he could recover.

Just as the claws were about to go through his face, Malene screamed and a Laz just saw a large black shadow jump forward and bite down on the oversized arm, yanking it off.

Backing up while thanking whatever god was listening, Laz took a closer look at this black shadow and noticed it was a pitch black colored fur.

The monster roared again in pain and backed up while the black furred animal walked up next to Laz and growled at it. Laz took the time too look closer at the animal that had saved him. It was almost two meters tall and three meters long with massive fangs and a fluffy tail. The animal then turned it's head to look at Laz who looked back. Laz could see his face mirrored in the animals icy blue eyes before he came to a shocking understanding.

"Vivi?"