The Staircase Shaped Door

Chapter 11: The Reign Down in Africa

Chapter 11

The Reign Down in Africa

The beast dragged its claw across a cave wall painting of bowmen, looking down at a herd of curled horn bison. The bison were drinking from a small body of water. The charcoal black figures with colorful head dresses had their bows drawn and aimed at the bright brown and dull white bellied animals. The creature dragged its claw back over the painting several more times, destroying the piece of art. It repeated the process with its other claw and let out a double screech, "eerrrack-ack" Getting the other beasts' attention. The Daulper faced the now deformed cave drawing and scraped its left claw. "Grind," after the grind it would open and close its claws making a loud "click, click" and bellow out "Eerrrack." The screech was a piercing pins and needles sound. Then it would repeat the procedure after grinding the other claw on the cave wall. The technique created a war song:

Grind, click, click―eerrack. Grind, click, click―eerrack. Grind, click, click―eerrack.

The other Daulpers joined in following the beasts lead. Grind―click, click, eerrack. Grind, click, click―eerrack.

They continued the pattern, creating an: adrenalin, rushing, nightmare melody―that got faster and louder after each screech:

Grind―click, click, eerrack. Grind, click, click, eerrack. Grind―click, click, eerrack. Grind, click, click, eerrack―grind, click, click, eerrack. Grind―click, click, eerrack―grind, click, click, eerrack.

A boy practicing his sling shot near the cave heard the Melody and quickly ran back to his tribe to alert them of the scary song coming from the cave. When he got to his village, some women were flattening corn over a large boulder with rocks that fit their hands. Another group was teaching each other beading techniques for their hair. The men were roasting this morning's hunt over a crackling fire. A different group was creating: head, leg and arm dresses for the tribe's dance ritual. The boy alerted the women flattening corn. They just waved him off towards the men. The boy hurried to tell the men and the whole village ended up hearing the final screech before the Daulpers emerged from their nest.

The grass was overshadowed with the scales of the Daulpers as they marched from the cave. They immediately starting tearing though the land attacking trees, grass and anything that was in their way. A few leaped on a giraffe, leading with their legs first. It looked like something out of the professional wrestling world. Two of them pined it down using their legs and the other two used their claws to skin it. They tore into the exposed meat―the screams of the animal were muffled though the victory screeches of the Daulpers burning through the air. The villagers started to run in panic. The Daulpers took this as a game and started running immediately after them. The front line spewed acid that landed on some of the villagers, melting their flesh and bones. The sizzling liquid remains, bubbled on top of the earth killing the very ground it sat on. The unholy creatures slurped up the remains of the melted flesh and bones like the disturbing eating habits of a fly. Others preferred just tearing the flesh off its prey and devouring the meat. Hunters started shooting their arrows at the enemy. The shots pierced the skin of the Daulpers until they started using their claws to cut them down mid-flight. The other weapons of the tribes: blow guns tipped with poison and sling shots did not faze them. The village was quickly over-run and wiped out of existence.

The Daulpers were now able to roam free, instead of occasionally coming out of hiding to bring back animals and bushes to eat. A group already started to work on the towering hives they lived in on their home-planet. Others started to mate―now was the time to do so, since they would need a bigger army for their next victims. A Daulper's litter consists of six to ten pups surviving and the incubation periods of the eggs were eight days. The land they just took over will be desolate at that time and the Daulpers will need to expand their reign of terror.

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