The rest of the day was quite peaceful, and when the night came, Lory took me to quite a hidden place. She had set up a small space with a radio that played love songs. And a dance floor. I smiled at her, “I miss my tuxedo.”
She took my hand, and we started to shuffle to the beat of the current love song. The moonlight shone upon us. Lory grabbed something out of her pocket. “I remember when you gave me this jade necklace. It still means a lot to me, it even matches my wedding ring. Now, I have something for you.” She put it in my hand.
When I looked at it, it was a small piece of her tail on a string. “What is this Lory?”
She smiled, “This means, that whatever is going to happen, if we get split apart, I am always there with you. If you ever feel like you are losing control, think of me when you look at this necklace.” She put it around my neck.
“Thank you, Lory, I don’t know what to say, except for, I am grateful for this.”
Lory pulled a rope near the radio and blankets fell around us, covering the outside space, except for a few spots in the ceiling, letting moonlight shine on the dance floor. Lory came over, and we kissed while we continued shuffling on the beat. “This necklace means a lot to me. We will get the others back.”
Lory nodded, “We just need to trudge on.”
“Lory?”
“Yes?”
“You are perfect, I need you, and I want you.”
She smiled at me, “I feel the same. Giving a piece of my tail, it is only done when a wolf person truly feels from the bottom of his or her heart, this is a relationship that will last forever.”
I nodded, “Even after death.” “We will always find each other. And forgive the other one's living sins of moving on until we meet again.”
She kissed me gently, then she pushed me on the ground, “Just shut up, Steve.”
In the middle of the night, I woke up with Lory in my arms. The music still played, but something woke me up. I whispered, “Lory?”
She mumbled a bit, “What?”
“There is something out there.”
She slowly got up, “What?”
“I think there is a monster out there.”
She blinked a couple of times, “That must be the livestock.”
“Lory?”
“Yes?”
“Something is growling at the sheep.” She used her ears like antennas and looked at me. I got up and looked at where the sheep were eating grass. Some kind of, monster is prowling the lands. “Lory, come over here.”
She got up and looked at the creature. It seemed to walk on two legs, I could not see it properly in the dark, and trying to assess what it was with my energy did not work. Lory and I looked at how it picked up a sheep and devoured it, gruesomely, by biting off its head, and it started licking up the blood. Then it ripped the limb body open like a piñata to eat the candy inside.
“Lory?”
“Yes?”
“Pick up my gun.” She gave it to me. “Follow me.”
“But Steve?”
“Yes?”
“We are naked.”
I looked at her, “That thing is going to eat all the sheep, it is not going to care that we are naked.”
Lory nodded and with my gun ready, I saw Lory gathering energy in her hands. As we came closer, the creature looked at us. Without hesitation, I aimed my gun and started firing. It dropped the sheep that had been torn apart, only a few bits of it remained. Lory started firing energy beams at the creature. It started to run away. Lory looked at me, “What do we do?”
“We chase it! Maybe we can find its den, then we can set a proper trap and kill it.”
Lory nodded, and we continued running, I had hit it alright. Dark oozing blood lay on the ground, next to the red blood of the very dead sheep. It seemed to be leaving a trail that led to the bushes. We charged into the bushes, where we saw the creature holding his wound. I aimed and fired a bullet through its head. It fell down on the ground. Lory sighed, “I think you got it.” Then it stood up and ran away. Lory looked at me, “Or maybe not.”
We continued the chase, whatever it was, started running even faster. We could barely keep up with it. Then I saw it run into some kind of hole in the ground. Without even thinking about it, I jumped in, and I heard Lory follow me as she screamed. “Holy fuck, it has a room.”
I nodded and took a look around me, I saw consoles, a television, just a snug little room with a bed, even a kitchen. Lory looked around, “What is this place?”
Suddenly, I saw a massive beam of silver energy hit the creature and it evaporated. Abby walked in from a side path, she had no clothes on. She bent forward, “What in god’s name was that?”
“Abby?”
“Yes?”
“What are you doing here?”
“This is my hideout, I chill here, then this thing comes in and murders the shit out of me before leaving. I just came back alive, and there it is again, I blasted it into pieces.”
Lory covered herself, quickly I spawned a blanket for her, and I. Then I threw one towards Abby. She looked at us, “And why are you naked?”
I sighed, “We were camping outside when we saw the creature that killed you eat a sheep, we gave chase. It must have thought your hideout was safe since it killed you.”
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Lory nodded, “And then it got ambushed by you.”
Abby sat down, “I see, that explains everything.”
Abby pointed somewhere, “That is a secret stairway, it leads out of this place. Whatever was going on, it is over now. You guys herded it into my home, and I finished it off. There is no need to tell anyone about this, or my hideout.”
I scratched the back of my head with my gun, problems of having one arm, “What if they ask, why the sheep is dead?”
Abby sighed, “Just tell them something killed it, and you killed it. Please go, I need to regenerate from coming back alive.”
“Alright, we are leaving.” Lory and I left Abby’s hideout.
When we were in clear distance, Lory looked at me. “Something is up with her. She seemed to be in a very cranky mood.”
I sighed, “Maybe dying does that to you?”
Lory shook her head, “When she died in Goldia, it made her happy and ecstatic.”
I nodded, “That is true. She did not seem to care much about telling people the truth, or the sheep that died. We should return to our little spot and sleep the rest of the night.”
Lory giggled, “That was super awkward though, us three standing there naked.”
I hung my head, “Imagine someone else walking into that situation, like Alice.”
Lory laughed, “Oh, god’s no!”
The next morning, I got dressed, after Lory had dressed as well. We packed up our romantic getaway spot. Lory smiled at me, “That was a wild evening, romance, and danger.”
I smiled, “We combine those two very well.”
Lory nodded, “I am going to check on Haley, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll play detective and find Funk for some answers.”
Lory nodded, “Alright, good luck darling.” She gave me a kiss, then she walked away.
After looking around Brickton for a while, I found Funk. “Hey Funk!?”
He walked over to me, “Yes?”
“I need to ask you something.”
He nodded, “Go ahead.”
“In the past three weeks that Lory and I were missing, have there been sheep that disappeared?”
Funk looked at me with a strange look on his face. “Yes, why do you ask?”
I sighed, “look, Abby does not want me to talk about this but, I saw the creature that did it last night.”
Funk smiled, “Good, then we can find and kill it.”
I smiled, “We already took care of that, which brings me to my second question.”
Funk nodded, “Yes?”
“Did you know, Abby has a secret hideout?”
He shook his head, “No, not at all. Where is this hideout, Steve?”
“If you go north from the sheep, you will find it, just don’t tell her you got it from me.”
Funk nodded, “We might be able to check it out together.”
I held up my hand, “Before we go, is Abby seeing anyone?”
Funk shook his head, “I think she and Alice had some flings, but I think they stopped their flings a few weeks ago. Why do you ask?”
I sighed, “When I was there last night, she had the other room set up with candles, two plates, wine, the whole shebang.”
Funk chuckled, “Maybe she wanted to get lucky?”
I nodded, “It might explain her cranky mood.”
Funk laughed, “It would make anyone cranky if a romantic date gets interrupted. Now show me where her hideout is.” I nodded, and we started walking, we also walked past Abby’s house, but she was not there.
We made our way to the hole, and we lay on the floor and listened to see if Abby might speak up. And indeed, eventually we heard yawning. Abby spoke up, “Good morning, last night was quite the ordeal.”
Someone, in a manly voice, replied, “Yes, I had not expected your ex to be standing naked in your room, or chase me.”
Funk looked at me, I mouthed, “It is complicated.”
The male voice spoke up, “You did well, Abby, your improvisation was good. I totally panicked, you are the beauty and the brains, and I can be the brute force.”
We heard Abby giggle, “Don’t keep giving me all those compliments, we still had a fun, wild night once things cooled down after Steve and Lory left. Is that bullet wound healed properly?”
“Yes, it is just, I did not expect a gun to hit us when we were enjoying our meal.”
Abby sighed, “Look, I know, I promised you a sheep, and we were going to enjoy it together, I did not know we would be getting interrupted.”
I silently gasped. Funk just stared at me.
We heard kissing sounds. We crawled away and got up, quickly going back to Brickton. Funk looked at me, “Abby is behind the sheep killings!?”
“No, she is eating the sheep, with whomever she has holed up there.”
Funk scratched his head, “And you shot that creature? Are you sure it was not a human?”
“Funk?”
“Yes?”
“It had huge sharp teeth with dripping saliva, purple skin with considerable veins that pumped something black through it, and it could turn into a blob. That was not a human, and Abby is hiding it in her secret hole.”
Funk nodded, “I believe you, and you and Lory chased it yesterday?”
I nodded, “Abby killed, or pretended to kill it. The reason she was naked is that she wanted to enjoy the sheep dinner and get funky after that, or at least. Have some intimate kissing time.”
Funk sighed, “Never, and I mean, never, ever use my name like that again. But, this is a serious problem, we need to confront her. Without scaring the crap out of her.”