Tomda 6] Take my bag. Please

It looked more like a baboon than a monkey, but I could see as it lowered its upper body in preparation to leap at me how the long whip like tail lashing back and forth behind it would make you think monkey.

They were cops, after all, not Zoologists.

Its body seemed to be covered in thick patches of peeling pinkish white skin over deeper layers of blood red hairless skin, and its dog like face had a mouth full of teeth that were too long and crooked to stay inside its mouth.

All of them sharp looking as hell.

There was some drool action going on there as well.

A cluster of thick quill like growths hung to either side of its mouth just below the pointed ears and I could see that its eyes were a bright orange.

At least for the brief moment that I saw them before it clenched it’s eye tightly shut as it leaped away into the side of a sheet metal fence, screaming after I pumped a squirt of cayenne pepper infused water right into its face.

“Ahhhhagge!”

Surprisingly, that sound was me screaming after I hastily tried, and failed to stuff the bottle back into the hoodie pocket, only to let it fall to the ground somewhere as I tottered forward and lifted the hard cased wheeled discount store luggage up over my head, and swung it down on the things head as it clawed at its eyes.

This thing... was wrong. Foul. It didn’t belong in my world.

“Die! Fucking die!”

The second swing shattered the case open along the crack in it and sent my two cold packs flying away. It also sent me so off balance that I fell sideways into the corrugated metal fence hard enough to hurt my shoulder.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

My second scream was more of pain than anger as something moved the wrong way in my shoulder joint. In a future joint replacement kind of wrong way.

Trying to pull myself to my feet with the remaining frame of the luggage, I almost went over as it rolled away from under my hand and I slipped down onto my bad hip. Well, one of my bad hips. Leaving me down on the ground right next to the orange blood smeared evil monkey demon thing.

On a positive note… at least the wheels still work.

Sitting or at least crumpled on the ground, side by side with the monster. The thing looked me in the eyes with its orange bloodshot ones, and it weakly hissed at me.

The chuck of cement I had found with my good arm smashed into the side of its head, once, twice, and then a third time as I rolled over to get a good angle on its head as it sagged over limp.

I stopped swinging as a gray box appeared.

[ You have killed a Level 1 Lasher Imp ]

[ You are awarded 1 Advancement point ]

[ You have 1 out of 5 Advancement points needed for level 2 Hermit ]

My shoulder hurt. More importantly, my chest hurt.

I pressed my hand up against it and agreed to channel Life into myself.

The pain in my chest slowly faded away as my heart stopped racing. Behind me I could hear a stirring, then the mother Coyote cried out in pain after trying, and failing, to get to her feet.

“Fuck.” That was me, not her.

Slowly I made my way to my feet and tottered over to where she lay there in a pool of her entirely normal red colored blood, growling at me.

A quick slap upside her head with my good arm and stern “No!” made her laid back and made a sad whimpering sound.

Pushing the growling pup aside, I rested my weight on one hand and held the other one over the three cuts in her side, and after a moment of hesitation, pressed my hand down into the hot gooey mess.

[ Do you wish to channel Life into Coyote ]

[ Yes / No ]

“Yeah, fix her.”

Several minutes later, I felt something wet on my hand and looked down to see the Coyote mom looking up at me with something more in her blue eyes than I would have expected from an animal as she gave my hand another lick.

Lifting my hand away, I could see some painfully red looking but intact patches of hairless skin when she had been bleeding out.

Then I fell back against the fence.

We sat there for a while, as I pressed my hand up against my shoulder, and she nursed the remaining pup.

“Guess it got the other pups girl. I would go check, but, I don’t think I got a lot left in the tank.”

She gave me a direct look, then struggled her way up onto her paws. The pup gave her a whine of complaint as she pulled her teats out of its reach.

After giving me a last look, she slowly made her way back along the blood trail, pausing only to look at the corpse of the Lasher Imp and give it a snort of disdain.

At least that’s what it sounded like.

Alone again. I looked at what was left of my luggage. “Maybe if I bungee corded a milk crate to the frame?”

I shook my head after a moment. It was a complete loss.

“Three bucks and I barely got six years out of it. Fucking Imp."