Monster War

Chapter 9

We landed in a clearing in the plains, not a single human around. We let Reta guide us; wherever we went was where she went. Sometimes we got back in the plane and took off to another area.

"How much more of Paraguay is left?" I asked after the fifth day of searching.

"Enough to occupy our time for a month," responded my father, who revealed a day ago his first name is Jorcues, making him Jorcues Coreswell. Weird name, but I shouldn't be talking.

I groaned and leaned back in my seat. Reta scooted herself over and sat on top of my thighs sidesaddle so she could lean her shoulder against me. She looked up at me with those adorable eyes and I smiled at me, earning another of her cute smiles. My father saw this and made an aweing noise which I found annoying.

A few hours later I was asleep, dreaming of when I was with The High and if Reta hadn't rescued me and my father. Would I have been subjected to torture? Would have I been imprisoned? What kind of information would they want from me? Would they have experimented on me? All these questions sprung up in my head and more, so much that when I awoke hours later I felt I hadn't slept at all.

We touched down on the edge of a rainforest. It was late at night and sleep had been scarce for my father. We initially set down to rest but barely a minute after going outside Reta exclaimed, "This is it!" Then she took off into the forest. Groaning with exhaustion, me and my father followed her. We ran as fast as we could for a good half-hour before stopping behind her and nearly collapsing, our bodies aching with bruises and sores from the branches and vines we ran into. I leaned against a tree and took long, deep breaths as Reta looked around.

"They must be around here," she muttered to herself.

I asked her, "How can you tell this is the place?"

"Because it smells different," she said.

"It smells the same to me."

She looked at me. "It smells like you."

"...Is that a good thing?"

"It's the smell of home, so I would think so."

I chuckled and shook my head at the ground. I pushed myself off the tree and looked at her. "Can you smell your family? Track them or something?"

She sighed. "I could but it'll take some time."

My father, with his hands on his knees, took a break from his heaving to ask, "How will we...know they... won't attack us?"

"You won't," she answered.

"Oh...that's refreshing." He groaned and pulled himself up. We started to take a few steps then a yellow blur zipped from one tree to another in front of us. We stopped and looked around the treetops and ground. I reached for a combat knife I found in the car we stole back in Florida but Reta grabbed my wrist, saying "No." She looked everywhere then called out, "Mom? Dad?"

Then two jaguar monsters shot out from the shrubbery and pushed Reta down on the ground. A male and female glared at me and my father, growling at us. I furrowed my eyebrows and opened my mouth, unleashing an ear-splitting roar at them. Their growls stopped, replaced by primordial fear. I felt my fingernails growing longer and sharper, my teeth lengthening, my monster DNA manifesting itself. I could see every detail of my surroundings, sense the flies hovering around us and the snakes slithering through the dirt a few yards away. I saw every muscle in the attackers' bodies tense and relax as they prepared to strike. Before they could, I lunged at the male faster than should've been possible for me. The surprise was to my advantage as I sank my claws into his skin and tackled him onto the ground with a loud thud. I turned on the female, her fur and face similar to Reta's. I took little notice of this as I swung my legs at her feet knocking her on the ground, then I lifted my leg up and brought my heel down on her stomach hard. She screamed in pain and curled into a ball as I rolled away. I crawled on the ground over Reta, a knee and hand on the ground to her left with my left hand pressed against the ground above her head like a cat protecting it's prize. I felt nothing but a fierce desire to protect the mate from the attackers, to kill those who posed a danger.