Beast Hunter

Chapter Six

"...Bigfoot?"

The name hung in the air for a moment, the pure strangeness and seriousness of it demanding a pause from everyone in the car.

"Yes," Sky said. "Though I prefer Sasquatch to Bigfoot. It just sounds better."

"That's what the Native Americans called it, right?"

"Yes, well, sort off. Most people believe that the word Sasquatch is an ancient Native American term meaning hairy giant. This is a popular misconception. It was actually coined in the 1920's by a man named J.W. Burns. Burns was a teacher who taught at a school for Chehalis Indians. He took several words that they used in their language and combined them into this one."

"So ancient Indian tribes never actually called it a Sasquatch?"

"No. It's an Indian sounding word that uses Indian root words as its base, but it was never actually used by ancient tribes. They had their own names for it, though. The Yakamas called it Qah-lin-me, the devourer. The Hupas called it Omah, the demon of the wilderness. I still prefer Sasquatch. Regardless of its origins, I still think that it carries a certain mystique with it."

Stu kept quiet as he drove. If he was skeptical about any of this, he was doing a good job keeping it to himself. I knew that he wasn't one to dispute another person's theories, regardless of how wild and strange they sounded. He lived in that glass house and wasn't about to start throwing stones.

I, on the other hand, had no reason to be silent.

"I thought Sasquatch was just a myth?"

I was little worried that my instance on playing devil's advocate might put her off. But Sky seemed unscathed by my skepticism, something I'm sure she dealt with on a regular basis.

"Sure, it's a myth," she said. "Until it's been proven scientifically it will always be a myth. That's the nature of cryptozoology. Hidden species. They will continue to be myths until they're no longer hidden."

"But how can you investigate something that may not exist?"

Sky smiled. "That's what separates the believers from the skeptics. Evidence of the existence of Sasquatch already exists, it has for years. You just have to be willing to look at it with an open mind. Sightings have been recorded for decades. Most sightings come out of the northwest part of the country. They usually happen at night along lonely roads. There are over a dozen sightings in that region every year, and many more likely go unreported because the witness fears being ridiculed."

I was impressed with Sky's apparent mastery of the subject. She had done her homework and appeared to have a strong command of her subject matter. But rather than just blindly accepting her theories, I was determined to pick her brain further and make her work to win me over to her way of thinking.

"Isn't it possible, and likely, that most of those sightings are hoaxes? People look for attention, or money, or both?"

"Of course. I'm sure many of them are. I'm not disputing that. Hoaxes are a common occurrence in this game. But if we review the different accounts, we find that they contain many similar details that are hard to ignore. For instance, almost every account of a sighting comes from someone who just happened to stumble across the creature accidentally. These are people who weren't looking for anything and therefore have nothing to gain by lying about it. Nearly all say that the creature travels alone and that it runs and hides whenever it sees a human. Also, most witnesses say that the creature smells bad, that it gives off an unpleasant odor sort of like a skunk mixed with garbage. These reports are too random and come from too diverse a population to be staged. It's not likely that a bunch of strangers are going to get together and make up a detail like that."