Chapter 6
ON OCCASSION, Gurchukk toyed with Trevor like he was a doll. Over the next few days the Sasquatch treated the humans like they were funny little elves. Did he look at them like they were an intelligent, sophisticated race? No, certainly not. He could only see them as silly little people who had some very strange ways.
They watched as the baby learned how to walk up-right. As it developed, it became all the more used to the presence of the two humans. Though they rarely left the cave, they never ran out of things to do.
The girl was very protective and cared a great deal for the Sasquatch cub. She fed it its favorite of berries. The mother supplied it with milk. The strength of the Sasquatch toddler was astounding. Able to pick up a four inch thick tree trunk, it twisted it apart.
With each day they grew closer as a family. Trevor became a member of the Sasquatch family like a second pet and they watched their pets closely. Neither of them were allowed to leave the cave unattended.
Trevor found himself caring for the creatures who had recently scared him so. Unable to acquire a greater tolerance for the odor that followed them it never occurred to Trevor that he began to smell just as bad.
Experiencing, first hand, how affectionate and caring the Sasquatch were, in a clan, he developed a greater sense of respect for family. He even came to know and befriend the Sasquatch infant. Through the time and care he spent with the infant, he was fortunate to witness how it learned to walk. This miracle was shared by everyone. It not only brought Trevor closer to the Sasquatch, but it led to a friendship between him and the young native girl.
Watching the Sasquatch, Trevor observed their behavior. He discovered that these were very content creatures. Their survival was hinged to their sense of contentment. When Trevor would ponder and think, the Sasquatch would do quite the opposite.
They had a care-free way of life. They dealt with each moment as it came with very little preparation for what might happen next.
Always analyzing and working his mind, Trevor couldn’t stop trying to get somewhere other than where he was.
The Sasquatch, on the other hand, depended on itself and its self-sufficient ways. They didn’t stress their minds with complicated thoughts as people do. They were peaceful creatures, for the most part, and they were good at losing interest in things. The items of Trevor’s pack didn’t hold the interest of the Sasquatch for long. ‘Perhaps,’ Trevor thought, ‘the Sasquatch suffered from a short term memory disorder.’
After a long night of listening to Gurchukk screaming and howling at the mouth of the cave, Trevor awoke early in the morning, to the surprise of three Sasquatch visitors. From what little Trevor could understand from them, it was clear the other Sasquatch were asked to come over to look at Gurchukk’s newest pet, Trevor.
The three visitors were not nearly as tall as Gurchukk. One of them was shorter and built like Gurchukk’s mate. Trevor assumed it was also a female though it was difficult to distinguish any breasts due to both the lack of light in the cave and the matted layers of hair. She had a similar kind of fluffy hair on her body with the same cat-like features to her face as Gurchukk’s mate. She was far more relaxed than the two visiting Sasquatch and Trevor decided to refer to her as Coolcat.
The other two were young males, but it wasn’t clear how they were related to one another. They may have been brothers with their sister, or the two young males may have been in a sort of competition to win the females affections. Trevor could only speculate.
Each of the males had beards, standing to a height of eight feet. They also had long hair on their heads, fore-arms, upper backs and shins. One of them had a rusty colored hair all over his body so Trevor referred to him as Rusty. Rusty also had an almost bare chest.
The other male had midnight black hair that covered his chest fully. It wouldn’t matter because his skin was just as black as his coat. Trevor felt very uneasy with this one because he always wore such a grouchy face, so Trevor called this one Grouchy.
None of them wanted to get too close to Trevor. They avoided Trevor like he had a disease or like he would bite them. Gurchukk moved in close to Trevor. Side-stepping with the support of one arm to the ground, Gurchukk poked Trevor with his other arm and grunted.
Trevor had no clue what Gurchukk wanted from him. When Trevor stood up, the three visiting Sasquatch took a gasp in amazement. Gurchukk moved his arms like chicken wings and laughed like he had when Trevor danced. Reluctantly, Trevor understood. It was time to show-off and entertain.
Trevor began to dance as he had for Gurchukk.
Sitting back, Gurchukk chuckled with a big grin on his face. Obviously, this was exactly what the big guy wanted.
It wasn’t long before the visitors became board with Trevor, so Gurchukk shuffled his way deeper into the cave where he plucked up the native girl and carried her to Trevor. He set her down next to Trevor and they were both observed until the interest in the humans dropped off.
At that moment the three visitors found a new interest in both Gurchukk’s mate and the infant. As they chattered with them, they ate some of the elk meat that hung over the fire. While the group of Sasquatch chattered and hooted together, they didn’t seem to notice that they had left Gurchukk alone with the humans.
Trevor wondered if Gurchukk would regard the native girl and himself differently if the other Sasquatch didn’t find them interesting. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case at all. Gurchukk gathered the humans together and herded them near the fire pit. There Gurchukk began to tell a compelling story, though Trevor couldn’t understand a word of it.
After Gurchukk had finished his story, Grouchy and Rusty began to get into a story of their own. They told a story of a rock that came down out of the sky to the ground. Rusty held a stone very high and settled it to the ground carefully, his eyes intense, remained fixed on it. Using whistling noises as the rock gently lowered like a leaf falling from a tree. Trevor watched intensely as they used many strange hand gestures. At times they stood up and tried telling their story with body language.
The more they told of their story, the more excited they became about what they were trying to convey.
Suddenly, Gurchukk stood up and roared. He picked up a large bone and began to club the ground with it. Becoming so wound up in his strange tantrum, he began to hit the fire pit.
His mate, holding the infant turned away to protect him. Sparks sprayed wildly into the air.
Everyone backed away from the fire at once.
Gurchukk began to calm down on his own breathing heavily. Finally, Gurchukk tossed the bone away and dropped down to a sitting position at the fire. He seemed exhausted, continuing to breathe with quick deep breaths. Starring into the flames, Gurchukk seemed to need a moment to himself. Everyone in the cave respected him and let him take all the time he wanted.
The tantrum over the fire pit frightened Trevor, but he also found it fascinating. ‘What did Rusty and Grouchy say to cause such an outburst from Gurchukk?’ Trevor mused.
While everything was quiet, the mood became depressed and awkward.
The two males used a rib bone to draw shapes in the ash near the edge of the fire pit.
Coolcat tended to the infant along with Gurchukk’s mate.
Shortly, the three Sasquatch visitors stood up and lumbered out of the cave. No one made an effort to bid them some form of fare well.
After a time, Trevor made his way to the fire and looked at the markings that the visitors left there. To his mystery and amazement, Trevor saw a depiction of what he interpreted to be the face of a strange little devil.
It had a large tear drop shaped head with a large fore head and eyes in addition to a little nose and chin. ‘Is it supposed to be a human?’ Trevor wondered, ‘Or is it supposed to be something else?’
The candles burned down to stumpy nubs, but Trevor used them to make a flashlight by placing the little candle inside the remains of a misshapen bean can.
One night Gurchukk led both of
the humans, his mate and their son out of the cave. They climbed to a pinnacle rock ledge where they had a magnificent view of the valley below. There, they sat on a rock ledge together. Looking out over the moonlit land, the stars were clear and bright. The crisp fresh-air was exhilarating since Trevor felt like he had been breathing the intolerable smell of the cave for too long.
Trevor imagined gravity working in reverse where he could almost feel himself floating out into space.
Then Gurchukk noticed some lights from a distant paddlewheel boat that was docked at the Harbor of Seton Lake far below.
Using the flashlight, Trevor attempted to contact the boat. For a long while nothing happened, but he knew the light would be seen, being such a dark and clear night, as it was. Finally, he did receive a reply from the paddlewheel boat. Trevor used his skills at Morse Code to send a distress message; it was an urgent message of help.
Gurchukk and the mother were tense and on edge.
Bending forward, Trevor strained to see what upset them. Looking over the edge, they saw some bright lights flash within the woods far below. The lights were quite bright; brighter than the lights of Seton. These brighter lights were coming from a remote, thickly forested area, about thirty miles east of the town. Trevor had never been to this area. He didn’t believe a road went that way.
The big Sasquatch focused on the lights for a moment. Then Gurchukk filled his lungs to capacity and bent forward using one hand to support his weight on a large rock. Arching his back, he opened his mouth and shouted an ear shattering scream. The native girl and Trevor clapped their hands over their ears instantly as the mountain wailed. The, terrifying sound shot through Trevor’s body like a bolt of electricity.
Gurchukk sounded like he was in pain if not for the way he howled at the moon.
The female Sasquatch joined Gurchukk in at his side a spine rattling duet. Stopping at the same time their bodies appeared to be frozen in time.
While they waited for a reply, Trevor cautiously slid his hands down from his ears. He expected the screaming to start again, without warning.
Leaning forward slightly, Trevor noticed the wind blow long strands of the Sasquatch’s hair across its gnarly face. Nothing distracted its focus, but Trevor was shaken by the way the light of the moon made the creature’s facial features more menacing than usual. Even the distant lights could be seen reflected in Gurchukk’s nocturnal eyes. Bright red glowing eyes made him look like a demon from Hell.
If not for the time Trevor spent with the creatures, he would’ve thought the Sasquatch were pure evil. In the uncomfortable stillness, they continued to listen for a reply to their call. Sure enough, a reply came. Distant screams moaned in return over the breath of the mountain. The distant screaming continued for a few minutes longer before the communication ceased.
Gurchukk and the mother suddenly gathered everyone together and herded them back to the cave. Trevor tried in desperation to finish his Morse Code message, while Gurchukk was distracted by the lights. By the end of it Trevor was able, to send a very detailed message. He thought, ‘Even if Gurchukk and the mother saw what I was doing, they would never conceive of my ability to send a message like Morse Code.’
Once everyone was safely back in the cave, Gurchukk went out again to investigate the strange flashing lights on his own. The moon rode high with a slight breeze through the trees.
Crashing down the steep slope of stone, the huge hairy behemoth descended, fueled by a sense to protect its territory with tempered rage. Sending boulders down ahead of it that smashed the trees aside, his heavy arms mimicked the same destruction.
The oversized feet of the great silver tipped Sasquatch bounded through the forest with locomotive speed. Pounding the ground and breaking wood, nothing slowed his momentum.
For a brief moment, he paused to observe his mysterious prospect. Throughout the fallen dusk, a quiet stillness pervaded the valley. The fading red glow of the setting sun was a distant memory in the western sky. As he drew near to the location of the lights, he was distracted upon finding a yellow glowing eye floating silently through the trees. This strange object was a lifeless machine. It moved by remote control and had the ability to defy gravity.
The Sasquatch had never seen such a device before, (nor had many man.) It moved slow and ominous, yet it seemed to have the ability to observe like a glowing eye. The device was just as curious to observe as Gurchukk was. The single floating eye blinked as it moved in silence. Avoiding to be seen by the eye, Gurchukk used his surroundings.
Passing beyond the area that was being probed, he soon found the source of the mysterious flashing lights. They belonged to a round beveled craft, not of earthly origin. The craft was in the shape of a deflated football. The size of it was roughly the equivalent of two large fishing boats. Next to a flowing creek, the strange craft was perched upon a large area of river rock with a tripod of legs.
Three unearthly beings were seen walking around the outside of the ship. With an inhuman ability to see clearly in the dark, the nocturnal Sasquatch noticed a hairy lump on the ground at the center of the little gangly beings. Gurchukk recognized the hairy lump to be the dead body of one of his own kind. All at once, the aliens stopped what they were doing and looked directly at Gurchukk with their large black, penetrating eyes. With a thunderous bellow, Gurchukk roared a contemptuous warning at the aliens.
The alien creatures responded by screeching at Gurchukk. The sound they made felt like the creatures had pierced his mind with fangs.
A sharp poke to the back of his neck signaled that the Sasquatch had been tagged. Gurchukk turned to flee but the yellow glowing eye was floating directly behind him and it was staring right into the creature’s soul.
The probe followed after him and kept pace. Gurchukk finally scooped his hand around the eye and though it burned his hand to touch, he catapulted it at the craft.
The alien creatures were boarding their craft with quick little steps. As the ramp of the portal was retracting, the yellow glowing probe hurtled at them like a missile.
One of the aliens, who was still running to the craft, was struck at the back of his head. He was knocked face down to the ground. The other two who were ahead and made their way through the portal were hit the hardest. These two aliens were stuffed into the craft with a bone chilling crunch. Then the door closed sealing them inside. The oddly shaped craft teetered over on its thin tripod before it rose. The legs flattened some small trees. The base of the tree trunks shattered like glass under the weight of the craft. Then the sound of the craft’s power source cycled up from a low hum to a great blast of heat and energy. A second or two passed before the craft streaked off into space. Gurchukk arose to find an unconscious alien remained. It was lying, face down on the ground in the distance.
Crossing the creek, Gurchukk approached the area where the strange craft was. He lightly kicked the alien creature with his toe, but it was lifeless. Gurchukk turned his attention to the Sasquatch who lay near the creek.
Rolling it over, he found it was dead. Some kind of powerful heat blast had singed its skin and hair. The wounds were too deep. The face; so drastically disfigured from the burns, he couldn’t recognize it.
After Gurchukk spent some time burying the body in a remote area from the landing site, he returned to the body of the little alien. Taking up the little grey body, he lumbered off into the forest with it.
When Gurchukk returned to the cave, he was crying. Still holding the body of the alien, he set it down on the ground next to the fire. It looked dead. Trevor was amazed and wondered where Gurchukk found such a creature.
When Trevor looked again at the picture drawn in the ash by Rusty and Grouchy, it was clear the creature had an eerie resemblance. The way the flickering flame casted dark shadows over the picture’s details gave chilling life to the face.
Trevor realized the story that the Sasquatch visitors told at the fire was of alien creatures from another world who came to earth in a craft that looked l
ike the shape of a river stone. ‘This was what had upset Gurchukk so much.’ Trevor recalled. ‘But there must be more. Why did the Sasquatch hate the aliens so?’
Gurchukk was still crying when Trevor noticed a burn on Gurchukk’s hand. With snow and icicles, Trevor took care of Gurchukk’s burn quieting him down. The two quietly looked at Trevor’s hand. The missing finger and burned flesh still had a lot of mending to do. Even the flaming swelling had subsided quite a bit. Gurchukk smiled down at Trevor.
Like a beaten dog, Trevor sheepishly smiled back at Gurchukk.
Trevor tried to take care of the strange little creature. It wasn’t dead.
The mother and the native girl tended to the infant who was having another one of its tantrums.
The alien creature stirred in Trevor’s hands. It coughed like a child. It placed its long slender small hands to its head. When it turned over to try to get up, everyone watched in absolute silence. The alien was amazing to watch. It had strange slow movements to its thinly framed body. Such a large head; unproportional to the rest of its body, was difficult for it to lift. Naturally, it placed its hand to its small bump of a nose in response to the stifling, repulsive odor of the cave. When it blinked its eyes to see, it settled its gaze on the crackling fire. Looking around at all of the faces that were observing it, the alien began to shake nervously. Studying its surroundings with quick, alert reflexes, it was obviously worried for its life. The alien looked up at the dead animals and fish hanging in the cave like it was living a waking nightmare.
Its expression of stark terror, worried if it would be hanging from the branch next. Gurchukk had an alluring face, like he had when he played with the baby. To him the little alien was very cute.
Fearlessly, Gurchukk tried to reach out to the alien.
The alien backed away from him defensively.
Gurchukk lunged forward, reaching to grab the little fellow. The alien struck Gurchukk’s hand with such ferociousness that he drew his big hairy hand into his chest and cradled it with his other hand.
Surprised and infuriated by this, Gurchukk stood up straight and tall with a roar like thunder, before he beat his chest.
Scared, the native girl and Trevor figured the demise of the little fell’a would come next.
With one great step, Gurchukk moved in on the little guy. Sweeping his great hand down on the alien, he missed; the alien proved to be far too fast.
Leaping at Gurchukk, it struck him in the chest. Crawling over the Sasquatch’s body, striking him again and again, the alien knocked the goliath backwards. Gurchukk came crashing down like a tall tree. The mother howled with concern for Gurchukk. Setting the baby down, she stood up and approached the alien lifting a large rock in one hand. Gurchukk sat up and crawled with the purpose of having his revenge.
Defensively, the alien put its long open palms to the side of its head, like someone would do when shouting. Motioning its hands like it was throwing mind waves at the two Sasquatch, the alien opened its little mouth as wide as it could and screamed a strange resonating sound. The sound penetrated the minds of all who heard it. Everyone put their hands to their ears, but the mind controlling influence of the alien was too powerful. Everyone obeyed the command to slide their hands down from their ears to wrap them around their own throats. Then each one began to squeeze.
Gurchukk’s neck was so thick; it didn’t look like he had a throat. Even the baby Sasquatch obeyed the alien’s will. Like a nightmare, the victims choked. The cracking sound of the mother’s throat giving out was heard, and she dropped to the cave’s floor, dead.
Everyone else blacked out and fell to the floor also. When the alien’s breath ran out, it turned and darted to the mouth of the cave. With a leap, it managed to jump clear of the snow bank.
It landed outside and toppled forward under the surface of the powdery snow. Pouncing like a deer, the skinny little fellow made his way down the mountain, all the while, screaming out its strange telepathic thought waves. The alien’s cries were messages of distress to be received by its own kind in orbit. The sound echoed from the mountain to the heavens for its kind to come down and save it.
Opening his drowsy eyes, Trevor returned to consciousness. His neck hurt real bad and his head still felt tingly. Moaning, Trevor joined the others as they all awoke too. Something significant had changed. He could feel it deep down inside, like finding food in your belly without any memory of eating. Trevor had memories in his head that didn’t get there naturally.
Opening his new memories was a very strange experience. Everything was kind of fuzzy because the new thoughts were jumbled together and not in any fashion he was used to. He also had a mixture of everyone else’s thoughts too.
For a short time during the telepathic experience, everyone’s thoughts were one. Trevor knew that the others would’ve likely acquired some of his memories too.
Gurchukk; the first to rise up, put his hand to his head and chattered something in his Sasquatch language like he had many times before, but wonder of wonders, Trevor could understand him. For him it was as clear as any other conversation he had heard. The far off sound of the alien’s cries were barely audible in the distance.
Sitting up, Trevor rubbed his neck and focused on the thoughts that troubled him. As Trevor looked from one face to the next, he realized he knew their names. The great silver tipped Sasquatch was, Gurchukk. His mate’s name was, Nuxie. The infant was, Tunoka and the native girl’s name, Tiarrow. Besides the memories of hunting and daily survival for Gurchukk, Nuxie and Tiarrow; Trevor found a certain memory quite intriguing indeed.
He learned, Gurchukk was a very old and wise Sasquatch. He had lived in several Sasquatch clans throughout his long life. Migrating from place to place, he traveled great distances and had seen much of the world. From time to time, he had encounters with humans and other creatures. Likewise, Gurchukk had previous experiences with alien creatures like the little fellow who escaped the cave. Apparently, the grey aliens had made frequent visits to our planet. Trevor was aware of a rivalry linked to a long history between the Sasquatch and the grey aliens.
Though Gurchukk didn’t know why the Sasquatch hated them so, the clans agreed that they were evil. Gurchukk’s reasons for hating the little aliens were very personal and his grudge ran deep. One thing that each of the two species shared was a prime evil nature to overpower and belittle any creature that wasn’t like them. The methods between the two were similar. They terrorized whoever fell victim to their web of dominance. Then they’d force them into a place of utter despair and hopelessness. Ironically, at that moment, Trevor found Gurchukk to be the one in despair.
“No, no!” Gurchukk said as he went to his mate. While the others stirred, he lifted the female’s head in his hand. He bobbed the head up and down, but there was no sign of life. “Nuxie, wake-up.” Trevor could hear Gurchukk say; only Gurchukk wasn’t speaking English. Nevertheless, Trevor understood.
Trevor went to Gurchukk who was openly weeping. “What did that thing do to you?” Gurchukk softly asked his mate, though she made no response.
Trevor gently put his hand on Gurchukk’s hairy arm and spoke in plain English, “She’s dead, Gurchukk.”
Tunoka and Tiarrow understood what Trevor said. They all shared the experience of having one mind. Crawling to Nuxie, they cuddled in beside her. Tiarrow was on one side of Nuxie and Tunoka was on the other.
Trevor assumed the strange telepathic communication was imparted to them due to the distant telepathic cries of the alien creature.
Gurchukk stood up; bold, straight and tall. Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for what he had to do. He then spoke from his chest, “Kootch vent sloagumba, cha kanabenth.” This meant, ‘I will return. Wait here for me.’
Trevor understood this meaning perfectly.
As the telepathic screams of the alien faded out into the distance, the telepathy amongst those in the cave drew to a close.
Gurchukk exploded from the mouth of the cave, heaving
snow and stones a great distance. His angry demeanor; laced with vengeance, exhausted from his flaming eyes and gnarly breath. Like a powerful steam engine charging out of control, Gurchukk plowed his way down the steep slope through the powdery snow.
It was easy to track his quarry with such fresh tracks in the white powder. The Sasquatch caught up with the alien creature through a narrow pass between high walls of stone. Both the Sasquatch and the alien were capable of running incredibly fast.
As the Sasquatch bore down on the alien, he lost sight of it for a moment when it scampered over a large protrusion of rock. As the Sasquatch came bounding overhead, he was amazed at the cunning trickery. It seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Gurchukk searched the area thoroughly but as time slipped by, he knew he might have to accept reality. The nuisance could get away with murdering his mate. It might also escape his wrath.
Gurchukk, in fact was very close to revealing where the alien hid numerous times. It was tunneling under the deep snow without disturbing the surface.
Then, in a fit of rage and frustration, Gurchukk roared exposing his inner beast. The mighty roar reverberated from every stone cleft. The rage filled the valley and echoed all the way to the snowy plateau.
The snow tunnel of the alien collapsed, exposing the channel he had dug. Poking its head up out of the snow, the alien expressed dumbfounded fear.
Gurchukk took a menacing step toward the fearful little alien, but it looked past the Sasquatch and beheld a new, much greater threat. The roar of the beast had dislodged a significant amount of the collective snow at the mountain’s peak. A great snow slide threatened to wipe them out as it thundered their way.
Gurchukk turned and his fears were confirmed at a quick glance. With the Sasquatch distracted by the mountain’s thunder, the alien bolted further down the slope. Taking off down the mountain behind the alien. Gurchukk almost lost his footing once or twice. They raced to stay ahead of the avalanche. It was a plunder of snow, ice and stone falling and crashing, racing to crush them.
To Gurchukk, it was another relentless challenge to test the authority of the king of the mountain.