SWP: Origins Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A gentle breeze swept through the field, letting off a powerful scent in the air around the hound as he ran after the large orange butterfly. The scent was sweet and tickled his nose; the butterfly seemed to enjoy floating around in the pleasant aroma as well, taking off in spurts in various directions with no discernible destination. As the hound continued his nonchalant chase, he heard a low grumbling in the distance. There was an appealing rhythm to the sound, and as he ran, the rhythm intensified. The butterfly flew into the treetops which suddenly appeared above them, but the hound hardly noticed as he continued running towards the source of the music. There were voices now, and he could almost make out what they were saying. There was a phrase repeating over and over again, he just could not make it out. It sounded like the voices were trying to tell him something. If he got a little closer he might be able to understand.

He picked up his pace.

It was clear now that the voices were talking to him, but the bass in the music was drowning the voices out.

He ran until he could'nt feel his paws touching the ground. The voices were becoming clearer now.

“Pro….” A little closer.

“Protehh...” Almost there.

“Protect…” 

The hound slowed his pace. He was now deep in a forest, the trees above blocking out all light. The voices were surrounding him, echoing off the tall trees. It was clear now what they wanted him to do. “Protect…” As he perked his ears to listen to what must be his destiny, the orange butterfly floated past his nose, carrying the scent of the field they just ran through. The hound watched the butterfly circle the air in front of him, then flutter away. He gave a depressed sigh as the butterfly flew into the canopy and out of his sight.

The music. As he was focusing on the butterfly, he lost what the voices were trying to tell him. What did they want him to protect? The deep bass could be heard in the distance, but as he tried to focus on the sound, everything around him faded to black. He felt a sensation of slowly falling, and as he tried to steady himself, his eyes flittered open and his head quickly jerked up, ears at full attention.

There was no field, and no trees giving refuge to orange butterflies; instead, the hound was inside a dark cave with light reflecting off the brown wall in the distance. The smell of the field remained, however. He could hear the music but the source, and the message, was still unclear. He looked around as his eyes adjusted to his dim surroundings. He was lying on a small cot with a heavy blanket over his lower half. There was no sign of anyone else in the cave.

There was no sign of the kittens.

He tried to jump off the cot, but a sharp, searing pain shot up from his hindquarters all the way to his neck. He howled loudly and lay down on the hay serving as a pillow. The pain was unlike anything he had felt before.

A figure emerged out of the shadows. The shape was surrounded by a cloud of smoke and moved slowly, gently, to the rhythm of the bass.

The figure moved closer. The hound could see the outline of a face through the thick cloud of smoke, but the pain shooting through his body refused to let him focus.

He closed his eyes and tried to envision the butterfly as the pain washed over him, whisking him away into a deep, dreamless slumber.

End Chapter 3

I Love You All...Class Dismissed.

SWP: Origins Chapter 2

So, as the title of this post subtly implies, this is Chapter 2 of SWP: Origins. It is a work in progress. Feel free to share, comment, critique, bash, revere, or simply enjoy.

Chapter 2

The two men stood outside of the door, looking down at the floor. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, one man reached his hand upwards and knocked gently on the glass panel of the door.

There was no answer. He knocked again, slightly harder.

Nothing. The men looked at each other with a look of confusion and panic.

Just as the man reached to knock for a third time, a voice from within the office called out, “Open the door and come in.”

They looked at each other and opened the door. Inside was a large, open office with one oversized desk at the far wall. Sitting at the desk was a white haired man in a dark suit. There was a large, black phone on his desk and an ipad, which he was staring at intently. He did not look up as he addressed the men.

“Well?”

The two men looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to speak, but knew what would happen if they made their boss repeat himself.

They began at the same time, “Sir, we think…”

“One at a time, morons. I can barely understand you cretins as it is.”

They apologized and stood silently for a few seconds before the one who knocked on the door finally spoke up.

“Sir, we think we found the wreckage.”

“The wreckage? What the hell do I need with wreckage?”

“Well, it could lead us to...”

“Are you kidding me? This is a joke right? You guys are playing the jesters because you know I’m in a bad mood.” He stood up from behind his desk and walked slowly toward the two men, still looking at his ipad. “That’s the only explanation I have. Because why would you come in here telling me some shit that doesn’t help me one bit? Some shit that I already know because I keep up with goddamn technology!”  As he spoke the last word, he quickly swung his hand holding the ipad forward. The unfortunate bearer of bad news dropped to his knees as blood gushed from his nose.

The white haired man turned to his second visitor and stared at him intently.

“Now, unless you two dumb fucks have something to tell me that I didn’t already know, get the hell out of my sight. And from now on, if you have something to say to me, send a goddamn email. I don’t want to see your crooked eyes and this bastard’s busted nose ever again. It makes me depressed. Lock the door on your way out."

He walked back to his desk, wiping the blood off his ipad on to his pant leg. As he sat down, the black telephone started ringing. He picked it up on the first ring.

“Give me something.”

The voice on the other line was almost drowned out by static.

“Sir, there are three teams spread out over a 5 mile radius. There’s no sign of any life out here. And it’s below zero. If anything did survive, it didn’t last long.”

“Did you find what I asked you to find?”

“Well…sir…no, but...”

“So you’re making an assumption. You called me to tell me your assumptions, is that what I’m hearing?”

“Sir…it’s just that…”

“It’s just that you want to get out of the cold. You didn’t find shit, and you don’t want to freeze your tiny little nuts off, is that it?”

“No, it’s just…”

“Shut up. Shut up now. If you didn’t find them, they are not there. And if they are not there, he has them. And if he has them, then you need to find him and kill him so I can get what’s rightfully mine.”

He reached to put the phone back into the receiver but stopped. He put the phone back to his mouth and shouted, “And kill that fucking dog, too!” then slammed the phone down.

Back on the mountain, the man with the cell phone turned and addressed the 7 other guys waiting for orders in the tent.

“Well, gentlemen. Looks like we’re here for the long haul. Boss says they’re alive and that you-know-who’s got them.”

The men started mumbling and shaking their heads in disbelief.

“I know, I know. But you try telling that to the boss. Thousands of miles away and he still swears he knows exactly what’s going on. Well, it’s no use sitting here talking about it. Let’s start walking and find these fucking things.”

The men zipped up their jackets, put on their gloves and masks, and headed out into the cold. Each one of them believed their efforts were in vain, but they knew arguing would be even more pointless. As they left the tent, the man with the cell phone stopped and turned to address the other men.

“Oh, and we have to kill the dog now, too.”

After several hours of a silent, unproductive search through the snow-covered mountain pass, one of the men shouted, “Hey, Santos. Come check this out!”

A long, thin, wooden rod lay half-buried in the snow next to a boulder at the foot of the mountain. The rod was covered in blood and fur, and there was a large circle of dark snow spread out underneath it. Several footprints were visible under a small dusting of fresh powder.

“I’ll be damned,” the man identified as Santos said, picking up what was left of the arrow. “The boss was right. That motherfucker was here. And I guarantee he’s got the hound and those damn pussies with him.”

They started back towards their tent to call for back-up and more ammunition.

End Chapter 2

SWP: Origins

Chapter 1

The small plane sputtered, veering right and left as it lost altitude in the oxygen-depleted air over the Himalayas.

“We’re not gonna make it,” said the man in the co-pilot seat.

“Oh, we’ll make it,” said the man attempting to steady the dilapidated plane. “We better make it. You know what we got in back. And you know who it belongs to.”

In the back of the Cessna, one large cage sat at the tail end of the plane, bolted down. Lying on the floor of the cage was a hound dog, seemingly undisturbed by the chaos happening just outside the metal bars around him. His eyes remained wide open, not with fear, but with acute awareness. He had no concern for his own safety; his only concern was the safety of the two small creatures burrowing themselves under his belly.

Despite a valiant effort by the pilot, the man in the co-pilot seat turned out to be right. They did not make it. The sudden storm that had caused the plane so many problems had finally passed and the midday sun shone down on the metal parts scattered all over the mountain pass. There was no sound or movement from the cockpit.

There was no movement in the back of the plane, either.  The cage remained bolted down, but the door had swung open. The cage was empty.

The sun shined bright, but the wind was biting. The cold was unlike anything the young hound had ever felt before. It didn’t matter. He needed to find some food and a safe place away from any predators. He stopped to get a better grip on his two companions. He hoped he wasn’t hurting them with his strong jaws, but it was the only way he knew to transport them. They were too fragile to walk on their own, and it was his duty to protect them.

The mountain that had seemed so distant from the wrecked plane was finally getting closer. He’d try to find some hikers who might take pity on him.

The sun was starting to slip behind the mountain peak. The sun would be completely out of sight soon and the temperature would drop another 50 degrees. His companions were still in shock from the crash and wouldn’t last very long if left exposed to the harsh weather. He had to find sanctuary.

The sun barely peeked over the mountain top. The hound limped closer to the base of the mountain. There were no humans in sight. The wind was picking up and beginning to toss around wet snow and strange sounds. He couldn’t be sure if it was the wind itself moaning or something in the mountains, watching them. The hair on his back stood straight up and his fellow travelers squirmed and wiggled anxiously. He needed to rest, but he knew he couldn’t. Unfortunately, his body didn’t agree. He walked a few more strides before falling to his side. He loosened his grip on the kittens. They lay next to him, rubbing their noses on his head and pawing him gently in an attempt to move him. After a few minutes, they gave up and burrowed themselves into their favorite hiding spot under his belly.

The leopard saw its opportunity. There was nothing stopping it from getting to the warm meat lying in a heap at the foot of the mountain. It took one more look around and sped towards the exhausted dog.

The leopard never felt the arrow that struck its temple and shattered its skull.

The hound felt himself moving and groggily opened his eyes. He was slowly being dragged up the mountain on a small sled. He yelped once frantically, not seeing his companions, but he then felt their warm bodies on his back, kneading his fur with their tiny paws. He sighed and looked towards the shape that was pulling his sled. He saw nothing but a dark, human-like mass with a rope tied around the waist connected to the sled. The moving mass heard the yelp and stopped. It turned slowly; everything moved slowly in this cold. Underneath a dark hood, two fierce, bright eyes looked intensely upon the animals. The hound was transfixed by the gaze. It felt calming, reassuring. He had a sense that he and his companions had reached their sanctuary; in fact, he felt as if this was where they were meant to be all along. He closed his eyes and drifted off.

End Chapter 1

I Love You All...Class Dismissed.