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Macy trudged on. Further from the cave seemed preferable to staying in place, and even if she couldn’t find where Mama had gone, she needed to find somewhere safe. Occasionally it felt like her life was on a loop. Was running through the woods her thing now?
What a thing to be known for.
Something moved up ahead, coming at her from the side. Macy moved quickly, ducking around the nearest towering tree and easily concealing herself behind its trunk. She waited until it seemed especially close, then slowed her breathing, taking as much time between each as she could without having to gasp for the next. She tried to analyze what she heard. The breaking twigs. The rustling leaves. The most likely threat would be Abby.
The pup chirped in her arms, loudly, followed by a prolonged chitter. She tried to quiet it, but the damage had already been done. The intruder moved closer. Macy frantically looked for a new hiding place, but then froze in her tracks at the sound of Mama’s rumbling, purr-like sound. Not Abby. Macy turned just as Mama’s massive head twisted around the tree, her head lowered to smell her baby. Macy held out her arms.
Mama nimbly took the baby into her teeth, with an impressively gentle touch. It seemed impossible that the cute little pup was going to grow up to be as big as its mother. It looked tiny in her jaws.
Mama turned and slithered off, moving slowly this time. Macy watched, wondering if she’d overstayed her welcome.
But then Mama turned and locked eyes with Macy. They stared at one another for a few seconds before Mama turned back, but didn’t move forward. When Macy didn’t move, Mama turned to look again.
Okay. So the giant otter was telling Macy to follow it. Not strange at all.
Macy took a step forward and Mama finally started moving, walking slowly enough that Macy had no trouble keeping pace. They walked and walked, Mama turning periodically to ensure Macy hadn’t fallen behind. Though this monster looked like an otter, Macy couldn’t shake the feeling that some of this behavior deviated from what an otter might do. She didn’t know that, of course, but Mama seemed smart. Like a dog. Maybe even smarter.
Hyenas looked like dogs, but were more closely related to cats. The animal kingdom was weird, man. Who knew what this thing might actually be, or where it might have evolved from. Maybe it’d even been mutated because of some sort of man-made invention.
Were there nuclear power plants in the area, or something? That was how popular culture usually explained mutations, anyway. And, of course, she couldn’t ignore the possibly of a science experiment gone wrong. She’d already dealt with that before.
Mama stopped, and Macy, lost in thought, almost barreled right into her backside. Ahead lay dense underbrush. A wall of greenery. Macy thought the forest dense before, but this took it to a whole new level. For as far as she could see left and right, she saw nothing but unnavigable vegetation. She looked up. If they were meant to climb this tangle of trees and plants, this would be the end of the line for her. She couldn’t even see the top.
But they weren’t going to go up, apparently. They were going through. Mama moved to her left, found a place that didn’t look like it would even come close to fitting her huge form, then pushed with her nose. The branches flexed and moved enough for her to squeeze ahead. Macy followed, easily crawling through the giant hole left by the devil.
After just a few feet, the underbrush opened to reveal a tree-formed grotto, lit by sun streaks through the canopy. Half the large space was filled with water that lapped against the far edge, going somewhere Macy couldn’t see.
It had to be connected to Misty Lake.
The larger pup was already there, splashing and dashing in the shallower water, when Mama sat down his brother. The two pups sniffed one another and immediately started playing, rolling around, in and out of the water, behind rocks, over tree branches. Whatever danger they’d been in, they didn’t seem to understand it.
For her part, Mama moved to one side of the drier land and circled in space before lying down, her body collapsing with a thud. She made a noise like a sigh.
“Me too, Mama. Me too.”
Macy sat on the ground, facing the water and watched the pups play. This grotto seemed so remote and so hard to get to that surely it would provide the safety they’d need. Places like this probably existed all over the forest surrounding Misty Lake. It was easy to see how these monsters had managed to stay hidden for so long. But these woods were the home of the devil, not the people, and already Macy had watched as humans flushed the devils out of one place after another. These mega-otters couldn’t be expected to survive their whole lives in grottos such as this.
Papa.
Her thoughts took a sharp turn to the larger of the two devils. Macy tried to remember how many gunshots she’d heard. Two, three, maybe. Would that be enough to kill him? She looked towards Mama, who hadn’t yet closed her eyes. Macy stared into those large dark orbs, and wondered whether Mama was wondering about Papa as well.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Macy said. Mama’s ears twitched as if she were listening, but otherwise she stayed still, sad eyes carefully watching the pups.
Macy felt the same way. Everything certainly wasn’t fine.
