An Uncanny night in the Hills

The clock struck twelve, as Jim buried himself under the cozy covers of his sleeping bag, shielding himself from the harsh cold atmosphere of his tent (although he could easily agree that the temperatures outside were much chillier). After a tiresome evening of trekking to the campsite and collecting wooden sticks to make a fire, he went out cold immediately upon entering the thick layers of his sleeping bag. Therefore, it would be safe to say that Jim enjoyed a warm and comfortable sleep that night. That was until he heard a loud bang coming from a gunshot about two hundred metres away from their place of stay. He woke up with a jolt, sweat trickling down his forehead as he craned his neck forward and glanced out of the window in hope of finding the source of the loud noise. He then looked to his right, only to notice his elder brother, Tim, up and awake, equally frightened as he was. The zip enclosing the wall of the tent suddenly opened up, revealing a dark figure standing outside.

It was Dad.

"Boys, did you hear that?", he whispered.

Both responded with a synchronised nod. The father slowly began walking away from the tent, gesturing his sons to follow him. The three guys were joined by Mom, who held a torchlight to lead the way. The family ventured into the darkness of the forest, looking anxiously from side to side in hope of finding an explanation to the ear piercing BANG that had just disturbed them. The chirping of the owls, the rustling of the leaves and the cool chilly breeze that pricked their faces by blowing against them was all that accompanied them throughout their expedition. For the first twenty minutes, they failed to find anything. No animals, no people, no bullets. Absolutely nothing that would relate to the deafening sound of a gunshot.

Dad sighed as he kneeled down in exhaustion from the long walk that proved to be utterly pointless. "Let's head back, we'll contact the authorities tomorrow", suggested Mom, patting him on the shoulder. Dad nodded in agreement, as he got up and began walking in the direction that they had come from. The parents were followed by Tim and lastly Jim, who quickly tied his shoelaces in preparation for another long and tedious trek ahead. He was beginning to get up, taking the support of the trees nearby, when his ears managed to catch a faint sound in the air. The sound, although barely perceivable to the human ear, had a strange tone that made it peculiarly distinguishable.

"Mom, dad..." he whispered.

The couple instantaneously responded by looking back at their puzzled son.

"Now what, Jim?", snapped Tim, clearly irritated by the wasted journey.

"Can you hear it...?"

The family intently listened to the queer sound with equal curiosity and surprise as the boy. Could it be related to the ear-splitting bang of the gunshot that they had recently heard? And so, the family extended their trip solely for the sake of curiosity. Finally, after about ten minutes, they gave up, taking the support of their knees as they breathed heavily. Tim looked up, his face reflecting irritation due to the extension of what was supposed to be a fruitless journey.

"See? I told you that it was going to be pointless, but you only seemed to want to search more. All for-"

The eldest son was interrupted by a loud hoot of the wind. The trees swayed in the wind and a flash of lightning lit up the entire forest. Suddenly, in a pool of light a strange creature with silver wings emerged. "Please .. help...me....", the creature uttered, before dropping dead on the uneven forest floor.

The family cautiously approached it, unsure of whether it was alive or dead. Jim observed the creature that now lay completely motionless amongst the rocks and dirt. It resembled something of a horse. Except that it had silver wings. Jim's eyes followed the outline of the creature to its underside, which seemed to be stained with fresh blood. The parents gasped at the gruesome sight of the wound. The father, who was an experienced doctor, kneeled down near the belly of the strange creature in order to take a closer look at the injury.

"Now we know why we heard a gunshot..." he said after several moments of uncomfortable silence.

*****

The next morning was quite a busy one. Jim leaned against the trunk of an oak tree as he uneasily witnessed the poor animal being stuffed into an airtight sealed bag and carried away from its place of death. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer, Rod Hang scratched his chin as his eyes followed the odd creature that was being taken away to the headquarters for further inspection. The monotonous chatter of the Forest Service officers and volunteers was broken by the buzz of Hang's mobile phone, which he promptly answered. It was the Forest Service Chief.

"Um...hello? Ah, yes sir, we have taken the animal into custody. Er...yes sir, it's definitely poaching...um yeah, will inform you of any further updates to the case...yes, thank you..."

Upon finishing the call, he walked up to the family, which seemed noticeably disturbed and sleep-deprived by the entire experience.

"Anything that they've found out about the case yet?", questioned mom as soon as the officer approached them.

"Uh, yeah, so our team believes that the creature is a product of a biological mutation", explained Hang, "but it could be the work of scientists working without the possession of legal authorisation from the government because it is unlike anything that we've come across so far...but then again, you never know."

At mid-morning, the family finally decided to begin their journey back home, leaving the matter to the hands of the Forest Service. The organisation had luckily decided to drive them back to their car, cutting their three-hour long down-hill trek to twenty minutes flat. They finally began their road trip at about one-thirty in the afternoon.

The atmosphere in the car was not a very talkative one, as the journey was filled with a monotony of uncomfortable silence. And although peace and quiet are often considered a luxury in a world full of noise and chatter, Jim was, at that point, beginning to realise that silence was capable of being painful, too.

"Does nobody else find it weird?", he said, finally breaking the silence at a point where his ears were unable to tolerate the lack of sound in the environment.

"Sorry, what?", asked Tim, removing the pair of earphones lodged in his ears.

"Isn't it weird? That the creature...spoke to us?"

The mother and father worriedly looked at each other. Tim blinked in surprise.

"I'm sorry, did you say 'spoke to us?'"

"Yeah. Remember, it said 'please...help...me...' to us? Right before it collapsed?", reminded Jim.

"Um...honey", said the mother after a few moments, "the animal didn't...speak. Nobody spoke."