Aleu & Scarlett: Terror in Alaska

Chapter 3: What Lies Inside Is Dangerous

That night, Aleu couldn't get to sleep at all as she would slowly start to drift off only to wake up again. To her major frustration, not even laying on Alexander's bed could make her fall asleep. The mixed thoughts in her head of the cave and ground cracks she had seen with Dusty during the day prior, and she believed that the constant thoughts were keeping her awake. Eventually, Aleu couldn't take the sleeplessness anymore and decided to attempt taking a walk around the town in the night to wear her strength out enough to make her pass out. After squeezing herself out of the door hatch, she slowly walked down the dimly-lit road through the small town, with only the lights of candle lanterns and a few scattered street lights illuminating her path. Along the way, she saw the clock on the outside of the post office through her half-closed eyes and strained to see the time. "Ughhhhh.....2:46 AM....just great", she mumbled to herself after finally figuring out the time through her blurred vision. It had been quite a while since Aleu had fallen victim to a sleepless night, and she wasn't keen on staying up for the whole night. When she wasn't sculking around for something to eat or someone to play with or talk to, she was rather lethargic and laid around a lot. Now that she had left the wolf pack, she was free to do more of that. However, she still hated the idea of staying up for an entire night. She eventually took a seat in the middle of the dark road and tried to process the thoughts surging in her canine brain. All the possibilities that she was thinking of were firing through the folds like crazy and it was driving her mad at this point. "Why am I letting all these thoughts about this stuff keep me up all night?!? Just let me sleep, brain!!", Aleu screamed to herself as she wrecked the ground around her by digging her sharp wolf claws into the dirt and throwing clumps of soil in all directions. After her brief rage had disappeared, she collapsed on the ground and covered her tear-filled eyes with her front legs, crossing them over each other on her muzzle. After laying in the darkness for what felt like hours she heard footsteps behind her and looked up to see Kodi standing nearby, with a concerned look on his face. Aleu slowly rose to a sitting position but still had her back turned to her brother. "Let me guess. You can't sleep either?", she asked as she started to silently bawl. "Actually no, I heard you screaming from my place so I came out to see what you were carrying on about", Kodi responded as he sat next to his sister and nuzzled her with his own snout. Aleu just looked the other way and didn't answer for a moment, but perked up when she felt something touch her shoulders. She turned her head back around to see Kodi with his front right paw on her back, almost seeming to comfort her. "Aleu, you know I'm here if you need to let your feelings out. You're my favorite sibling by far", he whispered to calm his younger sibling. Aleu breathed in and out before bearing a smile, knowing she could trust him. "Did Dusty tell you that we found a rock pile in the valley yesterday, with all the cracks in the ground going right to it?", she asked. Kodi responded with a nod, as he had been the first one she told upon returning to the town. Aleu, being the wild wolf she was, had told her father first, who in turn told Jenna. "I honestly believe you that there could be a monster behind this after seeing that", Kodi reassured his sister. "But we need to be careful in case it breaks out. We don't know how large it is or what its true intentions are", Kodi remarked as he stroked Aleu's back with his own paw. "Now for my own question. How come you came out here in the middle of the night? It's not like you to do that", he asked as Aleu closed her eyes as her stress released. "I came out here to see if I could wear myself out and get sleepy", she responded as some of her fur slowly began to stand on end from getting chills. Kodi snickered when she said this, as he had done it himself during a sleepless period he was having back in 1929. "What I do when I can't sleep is curl up beside my human owner, so I feel safe and sound", he stated to his sister, who looked at him with slight bewilderment. "That's all I have to do?", she asked. Kodi nodded in response, before offering to walk her home. As they slowly made their way to Aleu's house, they both heard a sound off in the distance that made their bodies shiver in fear. It was the sound......of a roar. But it didn't sound like a bear or any other normal creature. It was a roar that had a distinct sound to it, almost like a "Skreonk!!!" sound. It sounded muffled in the distance, but it came from the same direction the rockslide was in. "Ok, now I DEFINITELY believe you!!", Kodi exclaimed as he heard the sound and his fur stuck straight up. Aleu's blood ran cold and her tail quickly tucked between her two back legs, along with her ears pinning back. They quickly upped their pace and reached her house within moments, and Aleu bolted through the hatch while Kodi ran back to his house in fright. Aleu ran to Alexander's room, jumped on the bed and cuddled close to him for protection, now fully believing there was a creature out there where those rocks were. 

The next morning, Alexander woke up in his bed to find Aleu was curled up in a ball beside him and sleeping peacefully. He carefully reached out and placed his hand on her back, petting her as she slept. "I'll let her sleep for now, I have to go over to the post office anyway", he thought to himself as he slowly got up from his bed, being careful not to wake the sleeping pup. After successfully completing that, he got dressed and left the house to head to the post office. Shortly after that, Aleu stirred and woke up before producing the biggest dog yawn ever. "Man did I sleep well. I ought to thank Kodi for that tip later", the canine thought to herself. After stretching both her front and back legs, Aleu made her way to the door and crawled through the hatch and ran off down the street to meet up with the others. The memory of that roar from last night hadn't left her head, but she wasn't about to let that stop her from having fun. However, she had no way of knowing that whatever was behind those rocks was now starting to bash them away in an attempt to escape into the outside world. But everyone was oblivious to this as they played a game of hide and seek in the same area where the quake had happened, which had opened up new hiding spots. "Sorry I'm late guys, seems like Alexander let me sleep in", Aleu told the group as she arrived at the woods. "So, who's seeking first?", she asked. Balto, who was participating again, pointed to Muk, who was standing by a tree. "Alright then, let's do this everyone!", she said before taking off running into the forest. Muk turned to the tree and began to count as everyone ran into the woods to hide. Aleu wanted to hide between the two boulders from before, but since one had been broken in the quake she couldn't hide there anymore. She looked up at a large pine tree and had a sneaky idea, which was to climb up the tree and hide in its branches. She also knew that Muk usually never looked up into the trees when he was seeking, so she had an advantage by hiding in one. As time went by, she heard the sounds of Kodi, Ralph and Balto being found, then looked down to see Dusty run past her hiding spot and dive into a small burrow beneath a nearby rock. "Hey Dusty, up here. I'm in the tree", Aleu whispered as Dusty curled up in the burrow. Dusty waved to her best friend, but they both went silent as they heard Muk coming through the brush. "I know you came this way Dusty, come out come out wherever you are", the little polar bear said in an attempt to coax Dusty out. However, the pale purple sled dog wasn't going to fall for his trick. She wasn't that dumb, and Aleu knew that all too well. Muk surveyed the area, and Aleu literally held her breath hoping he wouldn't find her. However, nature was not going to go easy on her, as a fly landed on her snout and began to make her fur itch. She managed to swat it away, but the tickle from the bug on her fur caused her to give a huge sneeze. Muk instantly looked up into the tree and spotted Aleu trying to hide out of sight. "I see you up there Aleu, don't try to hide!", Muk laughed as Aleu growled in frustration and dropped out of the tree in anger. "The number one reason I hate insects!!!!", Aleu squealed before swatting at the air with her two front legs. All of a sudden, the ground shook again just like last week, but among the shaking the same "Skreonk!" roar could be heard coming from the valley, but in a much angrier sounding tone than before. Aleu, Muk and Dusty all froze in complete terror at the sound, as it sounded so intimidating to them. No roar that they had ever heard in their whole life, not even a bear's roar, was as scary as this. It actually SOUNDED like a monster in this case. Moments later, the others came up to the same spot and questioned the second shake and the roar sound. After Aleu explained that Kodi and herself had heard the same sound the night before, everyone made a run for the valley to see the cave. To their horror, part of the rockslide that was on the cliff face had collapsed and lay in a heap on the ground below. Something was definitely trying to get out, and Aleu and Kodi knew what it was. Then, they all saw something that made them shudder. Through an opening in the rocks, they could see a single glowing red and blue eye about the size of a car staring out at them from inside the cavern. It kept eye contact with them for what felt like an eternity, but it was in reality only a few moments. The eye then disappeared from sight back into the cave. "That monster you were talking about the other day......it's real!!", Ralph bellowed as he stepped back from the edge of the hill, not daring to get any closer to whatever this thing was. "We need to warn the town about this thing now!", Balto instructed as they all turned to run back to Nome, with Aleu glancing back to see the cave one last time, just barely seeing its glowing eye. As the team ran back toward the town, the continuous roaring sound kept going off and echoing in their ears. Nobody doubted Aleu now, as what they had just heard and seen coming from that cave was something beyond their wildest imaginations. A creature that was supposed to have gone extinct millennia ago was still on Earth, even if this thing was the absolute last of its kind. Alexander had been right about these creatures the whole time. They did still exist, and one of them was in plain sight of the group now. After making it back to the warehouse in Nome, everyone took a breath and sat down, now believing Aleu completely on the thought there was a beast out there. "So Aleu was right, there is a monster out there in that cave!", Jenna screamed when she heard the news of the sighting. Aleu was pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, deep in thought. After a few moments, Aleu looked up and turned in a full circle to see everyone. "It's probably best we stay out of the forest for now, everyone. If that creature is trying to break out of there, then that's a major problem. We can't risk anybody else seeing the creature", she stated to everyone gathered there. Everyone nodded in agreement, and looked at each other with nervous facial expressions. Suddenly, Muk broke the silence and rose his hand. "But what can we call this being besides just 'the creature'?", he asked quietly as everyone began to murmur. Aleu took on a thoughtful face for a moment, then remembered something she saw in the creature when it could be seen by the team. It was staring out at them with a blue eye that had a blood red pupil, like scarlet velvet. Seeing that eye gave Aleu the perfect name for this beast. She put a paw down on the floor and looked at everyone in the room with a serious tone. 

"We will call this monster.............Scarlett."