Chasing Sparks

Chapter 9.1

Celie turned her attention to the large footprints leading from the house to the spot where her sister had died. Skree footprints.

Skree were about three or four times the weight of a Forester, perhaps a couple of feet taller when they stood on their hind legs and a couple of feet wider too. And they were definitely a lot stronger and faster. Mara had had no chance.

Looking at the footprints, the Skree had been calculating. They had set fire to the house, then waited outside for anything to flee. They had chased her sister while she was running from the flames and smashed the back of her head in with a club. Celie felt her teeth grinding together.

With her jaw clamped shut, she headed to the burnt out ruin of her house to see what she could salvage and make preparations for the hunt. She knew she would never come back here. This wasn’t her home anymore.

The moon was bright and full when Celie set off in pursuit of the Skree. She reasoned they had about a half day head start on her. She would close that distance quickly. Skree were easy to follow, difficult to kill, but not difficult to follow.

...

The sun was high in the sky as Celie counted the number of tracks leading away from the latest burning building. Five.

She had tracked the Skree throughout the night and this was the fourth home she had come across in that time, all burned the same way hers had been. Any bodies she found lying nearby, she had buried. This slowed her pursuit a little but Celie could be very patient where these Skree were concerned.

There had been six sets of tracks leading up to the farm where she stood now but the owners of this farm had put up some kind of fight and managed to kill one of the huge beasts before being overpowered and killed themselves. Celie had found and buried eight Terron bodies in and around this farm, including two children.

The single Skree body she had found, she had left. Even if she had wanted to bury it, moving the heavy carcass would have been next to impossible for her alone, but the thought never crossed her mind.

The Skree were a truly barbaric race. They possessed a rudimentary level of intelligence that allowed them to communicate with each other in their own tongue. But despite the fact their intelligence raised them above mere animals, it was their animalistic strength and tendencies that made them fierce and dangerous foes. They fought like frenzied animals when angered.

They had light brown fur on their arms and legs and shaggy mops of hair on their heads. Their chests, on the other hand, were free of hair and a dark greyish colour. They wore clothes, if you could call the rags around their waist, clothes. They could walk on their short stocky legs but more often than not they would use their thick long arms to propel themselves forward. And when they did this, they could move at incredible speeds.

They sometimes carried a club or other basic weapon in their hand but as often as not they didn’t bother. Weapons interfered with their ability to move quickly and many Skree just swung their big heavy fists as weapons.

The still burning building told Celie she was about an hour behind the Skree now. She was closing in but didn’t want to come across them too early. She wanted to hit them at dusk. This would be when they were most vulnerable. The twilight period of half-light, before their innate nightvision took effect.

It was only midday now and another beautiful sunny day, but Celie saw no beauty in it. The air was quiet and still. No breeze rustled the leaves. No wind rippled the pond where she now washed her hands. It was as if the weather itself was holding its breath and waiting.

She removed her hands from the water and watched the ripples settle back down. As her reflection began to crystallise, she could see her big dark brown eyes staring back at her, with her thin lips slightly apart as usual, showing her front teeth.