Lore of the Underlings: Kid of Lore (2 page)

“Battle stations!”

A big car with tail fins rolled down the
hill. It drove slowly. This one
had
to stop. The kids hoped
and prayed…

But their prayers weren’t answered. The
Caddy cruised on heading south toward town.

Eastie and Oakes cursed the bright red tail
lights. Rusty sent Hank out to check the bait.

“Hold it — we won’t get a bite at this rate
boys. Yo! Cappy! Set up a roadblock.”

Hank scooped the bag up and dumped it dead
center, right in the middle of the street. Rusty blinked his
Ray-O-Vac flashlight. He seemed to be satisfied. Hank raced
back.

A new pair of high-beams came over the rise.
A station wagon followed them. The vehicle suddenly veered toward
the shoulder and fishtailed, skidding in the dirt.

But then it backed up for a look at the
object. A woman got out of the passenger side. There were words.
She grabbed it and got back in.

The wagon got moving again, into
Hopewood.

Six kids and a pit bull spilled out of the
woods and onto the road. Like it was Christmas. They watched the
car going, their eyes all aglow. Rusty grinned Grinch-style and
started a countdown.

“Five. Four. Three. Two…”

Almost on cue it hit the brakes. A door flew
open. The bag flew out.

The Country Squire took off like a
rocket.

Rusty mimicked a blast. “Kaboom!”

“Sweet!”

“That was wicked!”

“Arooo!” Killer howled.

The boys high-fived and whooped it up. Even
Johnny.

Haylee just looked confused.

Rusty aimed his flashlight down the hill.
“Go get it. Reset the trap.”

Eastie, Oakes, and Hank all went. They
fished the bag from a sea of poison ivy. Whew. It was still
intact.

They flashed three thumbs up and were back
in no time, hoisting the thing like the Stanley Cup.

Rusty kept score on the ground with his
sneaker. “Us one, cars nothing…

“Let’s do it again!”

Hooo…

Haylee jumped.

“It’s just an owl,” said Johnny.

She crouched behind the wall.

“Sis — what’s the matter? You scared or
something?”

“Kinda. I got a bad feeling inside.”

“About what?”

She shivered. “Dunno, but I’m cold.”

Johnny promised. “Just one more car.”

Hoo hooo…

Rusty heard it too. He cussed from somewhere
in the darkness. “Jeez-louise, Johnny Owl Eyes! Shut up!” He seemed
to be only half joking.

Johnny ignored him but Haylee called back.
“Who-who needs you?!”

They held their breath and they
listened…

Crickets.

“Lucky he missed that. You never wanna get
Rusty mad.”

“I thought he was
always
mad,” yawned
Haylee, rubbing her hazel eyes. They’d turned stone gray in the
late spring night light.

Right then something dawned on Johnny.
“Guess we gotta get you home. Let’s go Sis. That’s enough trick for
today…”

Suddenly Eastie the lookout shouted, “Heads
up! Sucker at eight o’clock!”

That froze the Cap kids in their tracks.
They ducked and covered. They waited for it. But then they saw the
light. It was blue.

“Cops!”

“Cripes!”

“Run!”

All heck broke loose.

Johnny heard car doors. A radio. “Ten-four.”
Angry voices.

He grabbed Haylee’s hand.

“We gotta get outta here Sis! Come on!”

They stepped toward the street, but just as
a spotlight lit it up. They turned around. Someone was right behind
them now.

“Halt! Who goes there?! Show yourself!”

Johnny could see only one way out.

“The woods!”

He ran and ran and ran.

No fifth grader had ever gone faster. He
plowed through branches and bushes that scratched his arms and
poked him everywhere. He fought off shadows and spider webs. They
plotted, leading him on and on.

Finally Johnny had to stop. He doubled over
out of breath and sputtered, “Hey… you okay… Sis?

“Sis?”

She didn’t answer him.

“Haylee?!”

There was no sign of her. Anywhere.

Grrrrrr…

Something growled at Johnny. He nearly
jumped out of his skin. The creature charged him.

It was too dark to see.

Johnny staggered then fell back and over the
edge of a cliff just waiting for him. “Aaaaaah…” He rolled down its
steep mossy slope, bumping and bouncing his way to the bottom — a
deep swampy bog of thick black mud.

Thud. Thump. Splat. “Mmmph!”

He came to rest in a patch of skunk cabbage.
Dazed and confused. Face down in the muck.

It stunk.

He felt something… watching him.

Chapter 2 ~ Out of the Blue

Johnny tried hard to lift his head up, out
of the goo. It wasn’t easy. The muck was sticky and sucked him
in.

“Unh!” He tried again.

Slurrrp.

That did it. He spit out a mouthful of ooze
and blinked, though he was afraid to look… The mud in his eye made
it all a blur. But the color was clear. It glowed cold blue.

“Uh-oh.”

It looked like the jig was up.

Johnny wiped the slime away and pushed back
his mop of dirty blond hair. He was sore just getting to his knees.
His shirt was torn. His pants were wet.

But he did his best to shake off the cobwebs
and make out the shape in front of him. It was tall. Something
looming. With arms. And legs.

Pretty human.

Johnny cleared his throat.

“S-s-sorry Mister Officer sir…” he
stuttered.

Dead silence.

“We… It was a joke.”

The figure drew nearer, a stone’s throw from
Johnny, and stopped in the dead center of the swamp. Then it
whispered. Or made a hiss. Or something.

Johnny squinted and shivered a little.
“Officer?” He tried standing up. He put one foot on an island of
sawgrass and deadwood. Squish. He balanced on it.

Then, still glassy eyed, he remembered
Haylee. “Have you seen a little girl? My dumb kid sister, sir —
she’s missing…

“Hair down to here? Like nine years
old?”

Johnny’s gestures were ignored. But there
was a sound like humming coming from out of the blue. He finally
focused.

And that’s when he knew. This was no
cop.

It hovered above the bog like a ghost.

“Who… what are you?” he shuddered. His whole
body shook. His sneakers seemed stuck in cement.

It answered by rising into the air and lit
up bright as a midnight sun. It blinded him. Johnny’s blue eyes
watered. He tried to shield them with his hand.

Then it dimmed, revealing an oval bubble. A
pool. Just under its ripples, a woman…

A very young woman or older girl. She was
tall and narrow and beautiful. And Johnny had never seen anything
like her.

“Wow…”

Her face was a pale gray shadow.

Johnny watched her drift back down to earth,
more awestruck than afraid. But he jumped when the bubble suddenly
burst and the Shadow Girl surfaced a few feet away.

Funny thing was, she seemed more scared than
him.

“
K’doon oon soosee! Nu keer na
plesh…
” She brought her long, thin hands together.

“
Veev’uul! Nu meer na plesh! Na
plesh…
” She pressed her palms like she was praying. Or pleading
for something.

Johnny shrugged.

“I’d like to help you out but… I don’t
understand, miss… any of this…”

“
Ee’d ee na poom Vaam. Na plesh!
”

The Shadow Girl glanced back over her
shoulder. Her wide silver eyes had a haunted look. Desperately she
tried some kind of sign language. Johnny was mesmerized but didn’t
get it.

All he could do was stare at her.

She seemed to be from another time and
place, somewhere foreign to him, even alien — like in science
fiction. Her skin was the first clue, a sort of dead giveaway. It
had an almost vampire pallor. The color of twilight. Slightly
bluish. But flawless, super natural. And her face… it could launch
a thousand spaceships.

Her sleek black hair was pulled back and
braided in three long tails that spilled down her spine. A thick
one and one on either side. Each tail was woven a different way,
though they all looked like silk against the leathery second skin
she was wrapped up in. In fact it was closer to armor than clothing
— a suit of weathered strips of hide that fit her body like a
glove. It covered her from below the knees to her neck, around
which she wore a pendant.

Johnny watched the Shadow Girl touch it,
checking the rough cord where it hung.

He also noticed that something was wound
around her leg, right over the thigh. Something living… at least
pretty fleshy. Johnny could not quite make it out but he guessed,
just like her, it was out of this world.

Her clear voice woke him from his daydream.
“
Oo’d oo na poom?
” She pointed right at him. “
Oo’d oo na
poom?!
” She pointed again.

“Me?”

“
Na poom.
”

He understood. “You want to know my name…
It’s Johnny…
Johnny
…”

She frowned and listened harder.

“JOHN-NY…”

The third time was the charm.

“
J’on nee.
” She smiled at him, waving
her hand. “
J’on neeee
,” she giggled. Then they both
laughed.

But it wasn’t a laughing matter for
long…

Grrrrrr-OWWW!

The beast was back again. And this time it
was with a vengeance.

Grrrrrrrrr…

Poor Johnny looked scared to death. Whatever
it was it was circling, stalking him.
Hisss…
He could hear
its raspy breath.

“Since when are there monsters in
Massachusetts?”

The kid spun his head all around like an
owl, looking for any way out… an escape route… Nothing. And no
place to hide.

The predator was closing in.

He turned his desperate eyes to the Shadow
Girl. She looked strangely back at him. Then she tapped the top of
her long right leg.

Johnny’s jaw dropped at what happened
next.

The skinny thing wrapping the young woman’s
hamstrings started to twitch, to undulate. Then it rolled out into
a great big wing and hung there flapping in the air. It listened as
she ordered something, answered “Awk awk!”, and took off like a
shot. If not a bat out of you-know-where. Up it soared.

The thing was on a mission.

Johnny could hardly believe his eyes. “Miss,
you sure are full of surprises…”

He watched the black wing wheel in the
moonlight. Once. Twice. Three times it turned around and found its
target below. Bingo.

It made like a Zero and went kamikaze.

Whoosh…

Rrr-OW!

It dive-bombed the night stalker, catching
the creature cold, off guard. The beast unleashed a blood-chilling
cry… the sound of fur flying… and then just a whimper.

Yelp!

It limped off into the darkness. They
listened and heard a distant howl.

Johnny exhaled. He turned to the Shadow
Girl. “Thanks.” His voice and legs were weak. She saw he was shaky
and nodded knowingly, “
Plesh…
” then gently touched her
heart.

“I didn’t know these woods were so wild,”
Johnny sort of apologized. “Good thing for us you brought your…
pet…” He flapped his arms. “Or whatever that was.”

She scanned the sky for it, calling out,
“
Og d’og…
”

Then all of a sudden something startled her.
Something out of the blue behind her. Over her shoulder. A face. A
whisper.

There was terror in her eyes.

Johnny tried to ask, “What’s wrong?” The
Shadow Girl had no time for talking.

She held up three fingers. “
Ee v’oo J’on
nee…
” Then she simply disappeared.

Johnny did a double take. He looked kinda
dizzy. A little sick. Sorta seasick from the wake of her time warp.
The bend in the moonbeams where she’d been.

He called out. “Miss?!” But she was missing
in action. Or maybe worse than that.

The last trace of blue faded into black.

Then out of the blackness he heard a faraway
cry.

“Haylee… Hold on Sis! I’m coming…”

Chapter 3 ~ Fall Guys