Cryptids - Chapter Seven

                                                                      Chapter Seven





      The foliage was thick around them and they made little noise as they moved through the woods. It took no time at all with Hugh to reach the same place Dean had been attacked. This time they weren’t searching for something, she was with someone who knew exactly where he was going. With this thought came the thought that she had thousands of questions and was with someone she at least somewhat knew and trusted that could answer those questions. The first real question was where to start. One question after another swept through her mind when she finally asked, “Hugh, I had some questions. Erica said that she had known her whole life what she was. How can she have already shifted? Khepera told me that we don’t shift until we begin a second life after first dying.”

Hugh stopped and turned to face her as she spoke, but after hearing her question he turned and began leading the way again. Without turning to look at her again, he responded, “Erica should be the one to tell you the whole story, but she did die her first death. I think she was around fourteen at the time.”

Taken aback, she stopped following him and just stood there a moment before jogging to catch up and saying, “How could she have died and I didn’t know about it? We practically grew up together. I mean it just isn’t possible.”

        He stopped again and sighed before turning to her. “We were very careful. I believe it was a sudden vacation or trip. We are only gone for a night, and then we are reborn. She probably had to stay away like a week to learn some control over her beast.” He slipped his pack off his back and rolled his shoulders to relieve them from the tightness and sat leaning against a tree. “Grab a seat and let’s rest a minute while you grill me.” He said with a grin as he reached for a water bottle.

      The silence that surrounded them was broken only by the subtle sounds of the animals that remained hidden from them. Kyleigh followed Hugh by dropping her own pack to the ground, sitting beside him Indian style and taking a chug from her own water bottle. The heat was nearly enough to steal the breath right out of you. She allowed the quiet to permeate until she thought of what question she wanted to ask next. “Why are the shifters at war with the lamias? I mean you’re both supernatural beings.”

Hugh smiled at her then said, “You don’t include yourself when you say that. Do you still doubt what you are, that you are a weres rekhyt? Even after how you healed me?”

      “No, I guess I just haven’t gotten used to the idea. I mean it’s quite a lot to take. Just answer the question.”

      He made her wait a few minutes while he dug through his pack and pulled out some granola bars. He offered her one and when she shook her head he opened one and bit into it. Then replied, “It’s been so long I’m not sure anyone knows the whole story, but I could tell you the basics. Apparently, we are somehow responsible for them existing. Not long after the tenth pharaoh was changed, he saw a woman he thought was incredibly beautiful. The woman was rumored to be the daughter of a priestess and the god Horus. She was promised in marriage to a wealthy man that was supposed to possess some type of magic. Anyway, when she met the pharaoh her intended was completely forgotten, and they had a raunchy night of it. Regardless of their night together, the next morning the pharaoh went back to his wife and the girl was cursed by her jilted groom. She was the first of the lamias.”

    She looked at him a moment skeptically before saying, “We’ve been at war with them that long? Are you kidding?”

    “Well… not really. That’s where the animosity started, but the war was something a bit more recent. It kind of all started up again because…” He chewed his bottom lip while he contemplated his next words.              “Well… because you were born…kind of.”

      She pushed herself up using the tree for balance and just looked down at him. Bewilderment spread clearly across her face. “How the hell is it my fault?”

      “I didn’t say it was your fault. I said it was because you were born. But actually that’s not exactly right either. Look, this is how it is…Your mother was this amazing person but she was something kind of different among us too. Anyway, she was promised to our leader, but she fell in love with a damn lamia and…she got pregnant by him before our leader… well he thought he was rescuing her, but he didn’t realize that she hadn’t been forced or he didn’t want to. She married our leader but never loved him and she raised you, but when the lamia found out that he had a child being raised by another he asked for you. That’s when things began, but they didn’t get bad until your mother got between the two of them. They both blamed the other for her death and you were taken away from our kind.”

      Kyleigh picked up her water bottle and took a chug from it wishing it were other things. “Well, that actually answers quite a few of my questions. I was going to ask next why I had to have the truth hidden for me. So is my real father still trying to find me?”

    “Yeah.” Hugh sighed, shook his head and said, “That’s why that lamia came to see you at the bar.”

Her eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Xavier was a lamia?! Does that mean he’s the one that took Erica?”

Hugh stood, threw his pack on his back and began walking again. Over his shoulder he responded, “No, he’s like the king of the lamias now. He came to meet his fiancée.”