Humanimal Halloween Stories

The Halloween Hunter

In Paradise Valley there is a legend of a mysterious human hunter who comes every October thus he is called the Halloween Hunter. Indeed it is said that during the month of October that the seasons thunder and lightning are actually the sounds of his gunshots and the sparks thereof. Every year he is blamed for the mysterious disappearances of Humanimal Cubs...Taken they say by the Humanimal Hunter looking for pelts, trophies or he simply hates Humanimals and wants their destruction. One year...One Brave Cub, decided he would do something about the Halloween Hunter once and for all…

“You’re not really serious are you Travis?” Asked Tina a Green Fire Dragon asked her Older Brother as she saw him packing a backpack with food and provisions.

“I’m totally serious.” Travis said

“But Travis...” Tina said “...You’ll have to leave the Valley...No Humanimal has ever been brave...Or bone-headed enough to leave the safety of the Valley!”

“The Halloween Hunter kills Cubs every year!” Travis said as he zipped up his backpack “Someone really ought to do something! Aren’t we Dragons the strongest, most powerful Animals...The only ones who can breathe fire? Who else could kill the Halloween Hunter?”

“Travis the Halloween Hunter is just a story!” Tina said “The tales of cubs being killed by him are just Halloween ghost stories, they aren’t real! And if the Halloween Hunter was real he’d blow your head off!”

“No way Tina!” Travis boated as he tossed his green scaly head, “My head doesn’t know the meaning of blown off!”

“What about the rest of you?” Tina asked

“I’ll ask them later.” Travis replied “Now, if you’ll excuse me, the sun is already starting to set, I need to get moving...” He turned and walked through the bedroom door…

“This wouldn’t be about Aaron and Jason’s taunting you about your wings is it?” Tina asked

Travis stopped...Unlike Tina, Travis had hatched out of his egg with deformed wings, they would always be stubby and underdeveloped, poking out of his back like the cardboard or plastic wings of child’s fairy or angel costume...He would never be able to fly with them...Tina knew he hated that.

Travis turned his head and glared at his sister “This doesn’t have anything to do with my wings!” He said “I mean it when I say I’m gonna kill the Halloween Hunter!” And with that he stomped out with black smoke coming out of his nostrils.

It wasn’t too hard to getaway from everyone else before they noticed where he was headed. His house was at the very edge of Paradise Valley as his Dad was one of the Town Guards...But tonight for Halloween, he was participating in the Halloween Play for the evening so his Folks were occupied at the moment and they had no idea what he had been planning for the whole month...Travis followed the well-worn trail that new Humanimals who has escaped slavery took to come to Paradise Valley...The Trail that navigated the safest path down the crater’s steep walls...Travis slowly walked the trail as he did he thought about his mission, the truth was...He was doing this to prove to those who taunted him for his deformity that he was every bit as capable as the Dragons who could fly...And to prove it, he would bring back the Halloween Hunter’s head for show and tell the next day.

Before he knew it he was out of the Valley and into the mysterious wilderness above...Only newcomers seeking Paradise Valley would be here...And lately new arrivals had been few and far between...The city Council was worried about the Future of Paradise Valley’s gene pool.

Feeling tired and hungry after that long walk out of the Valley, Travis sat down. (If he had been human he might have wanted a tarp to sit on instead of the wet ground, but as a Green Fire Dragon who frequently inhabited swamps, wet ground didn’t bug him) He reached into his backpack and pulled out a hunk of jerky. (It was really fancy jerky, real nice and tender as it was made from pig meat, and it was seasoned with sweet spices as well)

As Travis ate, he took a moment to admire the stars...The Legends say that the Great Humanimals of the Past look down on their descendants from those stars...Travis hoped he would be among those Great Humanimals when his time finally came…

Finally finishing his snack, Travis resumed his journey...He didn’t notice above the trees, that clouds were starting to cover the starry sky...Soon everything was much darker...And although Dragons have such good eyesight they can see on night with only the faintest light...The fact the night was getting colder caused Travis to think about lighting a torch with his fiery breath to keep himself warm...He stopped...He wanted to save his fiery breath for when he met the Halloween Hunter...The amount of fiery breaths a Dragon can breathe is limited they can only refuel by eating rocks like limestone or metals like platinum...Both of which he wouldn’t find easily in this forest.

But as he was standing there thinking about what he should do...He heard a twig snap...He knew that hadn’t been him, for he had been standing still. “Um...” He said “...Is anyone there?” This was not good, he had intended to sneak up on the Hunter, not for the Hunter to sneak up on him! Travis really hoped it wasn’t the Halloween Hunter...He heard another twig snap...He turned around…

Behind him was a face unlike any he had ever seen before!

The head was bald and pale...The eyes were pure white with no pupils...And the mouth! The mouth wasn’t like a Human Mouth...It was much too large and had these long, thin needle like teeth...The mouth of a Viperfish!

The Hunter opened that mouth and Travis screamed in terror!

The Hunter then began to raise his gun, and Travis knew he had only a short time to run, he started bounding away through the underbrush (Pretty impressive speed, as Travis was a bit fat)

He heard one BOOM! And Travis felt the bullet whiz over his head (Good thing he was running on all fours) He heard another BOOM! And he heard the sound of some tree bark shatter...He ran and ran and did not stop until he was back in Paradise Valley, at that point he collapsed on the smooth grass...And woke up later in his own bed with his family standing over him.

He told the whole story to everyone the next day...The School Cubs were impressed, even Aaron and Jason...He may not have killed the Halloween Hunter, but he was the only Cub who had seen the Hunter’s face and lived to tell the tale!