***
Boelik woke in darkness. He held still to listen for whatever had awakened him, and he heard a ticking noise like claws on wood. He strained his ears more and heard a snuffling sound and realized that something must have smelled the deer meat. Beginning to move, he noticed that Ryan was awake and holding his breath in fear. Boelik put his furred hand on Ryan’s side behind him in reassurance, and he heard the boy breathe out quietly. Boelik let his eyes adjust to the dim light as he stared out at the source of the noise.
In the slight moonlight filtering through the solitary window and the door frame, Boelik could make out the dim form of the creature. It seemed like a big cat, with an even larger tail. He tapped the wooden floor next to the bed, making it whip its head around. The muzzle was longer than a normal cat’s, though just as square.
The creature turned away from the meat and began stalking towards the two. As its form passed through the doorway, the moonlight fully illuminated its silhouette. That made it clear why its muzzle was so large: it had four canine teeth protruding like tusks from its jaws.
It came over to the bed, tail swishing back and forth. Its tongue crept out of its mouth to lick its lips as it lowered itself into a pouncing position. Ryan was holding his breath again, and Boelik thought he felt him trembling. “I don’t think so,” he said to the cat, shooting up and darting for a spot near it.
On all fours now, he shot forward to get beneath it, twisting onto his back and trying to put his claws under its chin. However, it had already begun to look down at him and open its jaws, so instead he found his hand in its mouth.
The beast saw its chance and took it, clamping its jaws on Boelik’s hand. “Son of a…!” Boelik shouted before pulling himself back together. “Die already!” He used his other hand to punch the beast between the eyes. It had little effect, and the beast just clamped harder, making him cry out.
“Boelik!” Ryan cried.
“Ryan, stay ba—agh!” Boelik cried out again as the beast stepped forward and put one of its paws on his chest, the claws digging into his skin, pressing its weight onto him. He thought he could hear something crack. “Get off of me, you stupid beast!”
Boelik kicked out and up, hitting the cat in the forehead. It snarled at his retreating boot, and Boelik managed to pull his hand out of its mouth and close to his chest. As it snapped back and tried to catch his face, he grabbed a tusk-like tooth with his uninjured hand and used it to redirect the jaws again and again.
With a sudden shriek, it broke away from Boelik. He noticed then that Ryan was watching the cat from the other side, near the door, his eyes wide and his body shaking. The beast roared and lifted its paw off of Boelik’s chest as it began to go after him.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Boelik growled, grabbing the beast’s foreleg. It whipped its head back around to snarl at him. Boelik took his chance then.
His injured hand shot out and found the soft tissue underneath the cat’s jaw and tore into it. The beast made a gurgling growl at him as its blood dripped onto the floor and out of its mouth. Boelik didn’t move as his hand was soaked except to stab deeper. It did not take long for the cat to collapse. Getting up and removing his claws from the carcass, Boelik saw one of the metal rods in the creature’s back between its shoulder blades. He pointed at it and asked Ryan, “Did you do that?”
Ryan blinked back from his own world where he’d been staring at the body with wide eyes, and looked to where Boelik was pointing. “Uh? Oh, uh…uh-huh.”
“Good work. Thank you.”
Ryan continued to stare at Boelik, and responded rather blankly. “Uh…uh-huh.”
Boelik gave a little laugh, a sympathetic smile crawling onto his face. “You really aren’t used to this, are you?”
Ryan seemed to come back to his senses, shaking his head. “Uh…no. Not really.” Boelik laughed again, his laughter turning into ‘ows’ as he folded over and clutched his injured hand and rib cage.
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked, stepping around the cat’s body and coming close to Boelik, hand outstretched. He was as tall as Boelik now.
Boelik mused as he noticed he could look straight into the boy’s eyes, now that he was hunched over in pain. “I’m fine,” he replied, sucking air in between his teeth as his ribcage throbbed. “But that reminds me…take off those bandages on your shoulder.” Ryan looked confused but did as he was told.
“Oh,” he said, seeing that his wound was healed. Boelik nodded at the result.
“Good. You heal quickly as well. Less to worry about. Now, hand me those strips, please.”
“But…” Ryan said, glancing down at the bloodied strips of cloth, “they’re dirty.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I just need to staunch the bleeding right now,” Boelik replied calmly, holding his hand where he had been bitten across the knuckles. Ryan reluctantly handed him the strips, and Boelik wrapped them around the wound.
After his hand was wrapped, Boelik sank to the floor. He felt his rib cage and quickly determined it was just bruised. “Well, that was exciting,” he sighed.
“Terrifying’s closer,” Ryan muttered, staring at the creature. Boelik looked at the cat and over at the empty doorway. He noted that the wood moving was probably the reason he woke up upon the cat’s entrance.
“I take it these aren’t normal?”
Ryan shook his head. “No big cats in Ireland.”
“It’s a demon, then. I thought as much.”
Ryan’s form, outlined by the moonlight, moved closer to Boelik again and sat on the floor next to him. “What do we do with it?”
Boelik stared at the carcass and remembered Dayo’s instructions, not for the first time in his many years of solitude. “We burn it.”
“In the house?”
“Are you ready to move?”
Ryan shrugged, nonchalant. “Well, I don’t have much here in the first place.”
“Then, yes. In the morning we’ll gather the food, money, and whatever else we think we’ll need and head off.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere with trees. Hopefully with a decent town not too close but not too far. And a stream. I’m sick of being in the open like this.”
“All right,” Ryan said.
Boelik sighed in contentment. “I’m glad you’re mellow,” he muttered to himself.
“What?” Ryan asked, blinking at him.
“I’m exhausted,” Boelik exhaled. Ryan sighed as well and they both got up and flopped back into bed.
The two rose with the sun and began packing things. They emptied out the potato sacks and put the deer meat into one, some wood into another, and various tools that they managed to find by and under the workbench in another. Finding a pot, Boelik faced Ryan. “You didn’t tell me there was a pot in here,” he accused, waving it in front of Ryan’s face.
“That’s because you didn’t ask,” Ryan argued, stuffing the rest of the deer into the potato sack.
“I could have made stew instead,” Boelik grumbled, putting it in the sack. The two remained in good humor, teasing the other about little things like the pot or dropping something. The cat still lay in the middle of the floor.
Once everything was packed, Boelik changed into his new pants and sighed in relief. He shoved his old pair into another sack as spare material. Then, checking that he and Ryan had grabbed all of their things, he set the place on fire, demon and all. The two headed north, the little cottage crackling at their backs in a fiery farewell, the fire’s glow muted by the daylight. They walked for two days with moderate breaks and shared peaceful conversations all the while. Boelik’s hand healed in the meantime, though his bones would take a while to reset, and he got over his bruised ribs.
Evening of the second day was approaching on the quiet plains when Boelik caught a familiar scent on the wind. He and Ryan were on a break, sitting on the bank of a stream, when Boelik stood and began to sniff like a hound on a scent. “What?” Ryan asked.
“Sme
lls like a forest is close,” Boelik said, his eyes glistening.
“Smells?”
“What? You don’t take in the scent of your home? You should, you know—it’s far more convenient when you can’t see.”
“I can see better than I can do anything else,” Ryan countered.
“But what happens if you lose that eye? If you get dirt in your eyes and can’t see? You have to think ahead, Ryan. All of your senses are there to benefit you,” Boelik said, looking hard at Ryan. “Use them. It will make you far more productive.”
Ryan stayed silent for a moment. “So, are we going?”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready enough.”
“Then let’s move.” Boelik dashed out towards the scent of trees, his steps light and his heart pounding.
“Hey, slow down a little!” Ryan protested, sprinting to catch up.
“Hurry up a little, or you’ll be left eating my dust!” Boelik called back, a smile creeping up on him.