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After firing the shot, and giving the woman enough time to escape the clutches of death, Miriam tucked the pistol into the back of her pants and took off. Kim didn’t move.
“Wait!”
Miriam rounded back. “What? We have to hurry. It’s going to kill that lady.”
“That lady was trying to kill it. Maybe she deserves what she gets.”
Harsh. Miriam didn’t expect that from happy-go-lucky Kim at all.
“We don’t know that for sure. Maybe she was out here hunting something else.”
Kim shook her head. “You didn’t see the gunshot wounds?”
Miriam had seen the gunshot wounds, but that didn’t prove Kim’s point. Every person had a right to defend themselves, and if a grizzly-sized otter attacked her, Miriam would certainly pull the trigger. Now, more than ever, Miriam had a hard time seeing a way out of this that didn’t involve hurting the dobhar-chú, no matter how rare it might be. She certainly wasn’t going to let someone die.
“Besides,” Kim continued. “Maybe she’s the one who forced Macy into the woods. Or took our cars.”
Miriam surged forward. Kim finally started to follow.
“Well, if she knows where Macy is, that’s all the more reason to save her.”
With no further protest, Miriam moved quickly through the forest, easily spotting the path taken by the dobhar-chú. Apparently, when it moved fast, it left more of a wake behind it. The path took them further from camp than they’d ventured yet, eventually leading to a clearing with an empty cave. From there, Miriam couldn’t quite tell where to go next.
“Great, we’ve lost it.”
When Miriam turned, Kim wasn’t looking in her direction. She was looking across the clearing, at the edge of the forest on the other side of a fallen log. And beyond that, the dobhar-chú, its head down. Miriam’s heart sank. They were too late.
“Kawa,” Kim yelled. “Stop it!”
Kawa? Who the hell...
The dobhar-chú lifted its head to look at Kim. Its fearsome facade melted, though the blood smeared across the white furred chin still made it a terrifying sight. The air hung silent and tense. Miriam reached around behind her and wrapped her hand around the handle of the pistol. It wouldn’t kill this thing. She knew it wouldn’t, not without a one in a million shot. But she might be able to use it to scare the creature away—if they were lucky.
The dobhar-chú stepped one foot up on the log and... smiled? Miriam realized she was personifying the behavior, but it looked like a dog whose owner had just come home.
It charged towards them. Miriam’s grip tightened on the butt of her pistol. Kim put a hand across Miriam’s chest, as if she was stopping short in a car and Miriam was her passenger. Kim had been, at the very least, a bit obtuse. She’d obviously lied about the dobhar-chú, even more than she’d already revealed.
Against every instinct in her bones, Miriam loosened her grip and dropped her hand to her side.
The dobhar-chú came to a halt just in front of them and ducked its head down to Kim’s chest. Kim pulled her hands up and scratched behind its ears.
“Miriam,” Kim said as she continued petting it. “This is Kawa.”
“You named it?”
“No. He told me his name.”
Miriam couldn’t tell if Kim was telling the truth. Perhaps this girl was completely off her rocker.
Kim’s face broke out in her signature smile as she giggled. “Of course I named him, dummy. Animals can’t talk. As an expert in animals, I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”
Miriam didn’t even know what to say. She just watched as Kim ran her hands across the otter’s fur as if it wasn’t a giant, mythical creature from another country. As if she’d just found a stray cat who needed attention. Miriam had so many questions.
Before she could ask them, though, she heard moaning. Lost in the moment, she’d forgotten about the lady that had been attacked. Or, perhaps, Miriam had already decided that the hunter must be dead. Leaving Kim to tend to the dobhar-chú, Miriam rushed over, deftly hopped over the log and knelt beside the woman.
She wasn’t dead. If anything, she looked only a bit banged up. She had a gash on her arm, and her clothes looked snagged and torn in places. But her guts were still inside of her body, and Miriam saw no signs of worrisome bleeding. Broken bones, on the other hand, might have been a possibility, but none were in such bad shape that they sat at funny angles. That seemed promising.
Miriam put her hand on the lady’s shoulder and looked down at her. “Are you okay?”
What a dumb question. Of course she wasn’t okay.
The lady moved slowly, but managed to lock eyes with Miriam. She moved her lips as if to speak, but no words came out. Miriam wouldn’t be able to carry this woman, not even with Kim’s help. She was stout, with impressively tight muscles and a dense build. They’d have to get help into the forest for her.
Miriam started to stand, but a hand gripped her wrist.
“Is it gone?” the lady asked.
Unsure how to answer, Miriam looked over at the dobhar-chú and Kim, contently hanging out together as if Kim’s pet hadn’t just almost killed this woman.
“You’re safe now.” Not an answer. Not a lie. As inexplicable as it seemed, Kim somehow had control of this thing.
The hunter tried to get up, lifting to her elbows before stopping. “You’re Miriam, right?”
Miriam couldn’t hide the shock on her face, confused as to how this random hunter could possibly know her. The idea that maybe she’d garnered a few fans crossed her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. Not many people became fans of cryptozoologists. Most people didn’t even know the word existed. There had to be another explanation.
Actually, Miriam found only one.
“So you met Macy.”
The lady nodded. “Feisty.”
“You have no idea,” Miriam said. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She ran off.”
“Why did she go with you? She was supposed to stay in the van. And now the van is gone.”
The lady pushed to a full sitting position before not giving an answer. “I’m Abby.”
The fact that Abby had changed the subject wasn’t lost on Miriam. There was more to this story.
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
“Why was she with you then?”
“We were looking for you.”
“Why?”
A pause. Miriam couldn’t tell if Abby was searching for answers, or making them up.
“We have an aligned interest.”
So not just a random hunter who had an unfortunate run-in with the devil of Misty Lake. Abby had come to find it.
“What do you want with the dobhar-chú?” Miriam asked.
“The dobhar what?” Abby asked rhetorically. “I was hired to find the devil.”
“By who?”
“Does it matter?”
Of course it mattered. Abby was being cagey, but regardless of her motives, she needed help.
Giving up on the interrogation for now, Miriam asked, “Can you walk?”
Abby stretched her legs, bent her knees, then tried to flex her ankles which caused her to cry out in pain. No matter what Abby was lying about, she wasn’t lying about that. Miriam could see the agony on Abby’s face.
“Your arm looks pretty bad, too.”
It was hard to tell for sure how bad. Abby’s entire left arm was covered in blood. Under it were surely cuts, but Miriam had no way of knowing exactly how deep they might be. Likely a bite from the dobhar-chú. It was entirely possible that the saliva of the creature might contain bacteria that could prove deadly if the wound wasn’t properly cleaned. Miriam hadn’t brought her pack. Just the gun.
She stood. “Hey, Kim. You got a first aid kit?”
Miriam got the answer without Kim’s reply. Kim had already taken out the first aid kit and was using it to tend to Kawa’s wounds, making it quite clear where her loyalties stood. Miriam had been taught to always prefer people over animals, no matter how exotic or special. She didn’t want Kawa to die exactly, but if resources were limited, there was only one logical choice of where to spend them.
“There’s enough,” Kim said, almost as if she could sense Miriam’s concern.
Miriam hopped over the log again, gathered up some basic supplies, and returned to Abby.
“This is gonna hurt.”
She didn’t wait for Abby to reply before pouring alcohol over where she guessed the wound to be. Abby hissed, but didn’t scream. The bite looked bad. It needed medical attention beyond what Miriam could provide with her limited first aid skills. She did her best. Abby remained impressively stoic until her arm was wrapped in gauze. Miriam could already see blood seeping through.
“We’re gonna have to get you some help.”
“No.”
“I can’t carry you, and you can’t walk.”
Abby glanced at the ground. “I have a guy. If you can get to him, he’ll make sure I’m taken care of.”
“Are you sure?” Miriam asked. “We should probably call an ambulance, or—“
“I’m sure.”
Abby interrupted so emphatically that Miriam didn’t even try to press the issue. She just sighed.
Pulling out her phone, Miriam voiced the new plan. “I’m marking the location here, and of Abby’s contact on my phone. We’ll go and get him, then come back.”
“I’m not leaving her out here alone,” Kim said. “I don’t trust her. She wants to kill them.”
Miriam couldn’t argue with that. Though she didn’t have all the facts, evidence did suggest that perhaps Abby meant to kill it. Or perhaps, she’d just been studying it and it attacked, giving her no choice but to fire.
“Well, she can’t walk. We have to get her help.”
Kim finally stopped tending to Kawa and stood up. She approached Miriam, then held out her palm.
“I’ll stay here,” Kim said. “Kawa can keep me safe. Just leave me the gun.”
That seemed like a monumentally bad idea. Miriam’s flowchart provided a dozen reasons that could go wrong, and only one narrow path of actual success. As much as Kim had grown on her, Miriam wasn’t even sure that Kim wouldn’t just shoot Abby, given the chance.
No. That was preposterous. Kim loved these dobhar-chús, but she wasn’t a murderer.
“I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
“Well, she’s not leaving my sight,” Kim replied, about as defiant as Miriam had seen her thus far. “So you can figure out how to carry her, or I can stay here and guard her.”
It briefly occurred to Miriam that she could somehow use Kawa to transport the body. Given his size, it would be trivial for him to support Abby’s weight. Nothing felt real anymore. Miriam had killed a kraken, fought off a cult, stopped a genetically mutated killing machine. But she’d never been in this situation. Kim’s relationship with these things seemed impossible, yet here they were, Kawa comfortably stretched out on the ground. Miriam realized for the first time that she’d even started to refer to it as Kawa in her head. She wondered about the pups, the inevitable mate, and the names Kim undoubtedly had given them, but figuring that out didn’t seem to be the highest concern of the moment.
Miriam sighed and pulled the pistol from her waistband, offering it to Kim. “Fine. But I’ve got questions when I get back. A lot of them.”
“Once she’s no longer a threat, I’ll answer them.” Kim paused and fixed her black eyes on Miriam’s, drawing out something personal and honest. “I promise.”
Miriam regretted not bringing Tanner. They would have finished this job by now. People were unpredictable, and Miriam had no control over what they did. So irksome.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
Kim nodded and headed back towards Kawa, while Miriam used Kim’s phone to mark her location. Luckily (and impressively), Abby knew the coordinates of her contact by memory. Whatever gear she’d had, including her gun, was now strewn about the forest.
“Okay. I’ll let your guy know and then I’ll be back.”
Abby nodded and winced as she used her good arm to drag her closer to the log until she could lean up against it, making it easier to keep upright. The two shared a look, and Miriam turned to leave.
“Miriam,” Abby said. “Thank you.”
Miriam turned and nodded, then struck out. It might have been a bad idea to leave two strangers and a mythical creature together in the woods, but now Miriam was committed to this path, and all she could do was move down it as quickly as she could.
