Copyright © 2008 Debbie Mumford
All rights reserved, Wild Child Publishing.
The creature appeared on my watch, just before dawn. The sky glowed with burgeoning color. Not enough light to see properly, but a hint to promise the sun's reappearance. I must've been out on my feet, because I'd swear I heard the rush of air past gigantic wings. I scanned the brightening sky but couldn't pick anything out. Glancing back toward the center of the valley, I saw it—a vast, indistinct darkness rising from the ground about a hundred yards in front of me.
I raised my rifle, the last remnant of my hoped-for Olympic glory, and aimed at the center of the hulking darkness. "Identify yourself," I yelled. "I'm armed and I'm a crack shot."
The mass stopped, and the sky lightened. My friends stirred behind me, and I strained my eyes, trying to force the darkness to resolve into a distinguishable shape.
Time stretched, an elastic bubble doomed to burst.Jake took his place beside me, baseball bat gripped firmly in locked fists.
The darkness loomed larger for a moment before the strengthening light revealed a blanket being thrown back from the head and shoulders of a stately woman.
"My name is Winona ,"she said, her voice clear and strong in the early morning silence, "and you are on my land. Will you shoot an unarmed woma