IV – Ambush?

I know I’ve been dwelling on Mister Stinky’s smell a bit much, but there’s a reason for that.

It has to do with what happened the next day. Next morning I, reluctantly, went to check on the smelly corpse. When I got there I knew things weren’t the same as the day before. Something was missing.

Then the obvious fact hit me square in my nose. The godsawful odor was gone! Not lessened or tolerable; gone! The perfume smell was still there, but even it had died down quite a bit.

Now I was really confused. What the hades had happened during the night!?

Well, I ran the length of the palace to grab Caesar and give him the news. He looked at me as though I’d cracked, but got the group together along with a couple of physicians to check things out.

So, before long, there we were, the whole mob scratching our heads and trying to explain the impossible. Or at least highly unlikely. It was one of the doctors who came up with a plausible answer.

“Defense!”

I looked confused.

“What?”

The doc tried again while giving me a look usually reserved for your average moron.

“The strong odor is a defensive weapon used to chase away other predators! What I can’t understand is why it went off after the thing was dead.”

The other doctor’s face went through mental contortions, ending in a look of horror.

“That thing wasn’t dead! What I mean is that there was probably a spark of life left in it when you found it.”

Every head in that room swung toward the speaker. I was getting the cold willies up and down my spine. Not dead? Hoo boy!
“That means that when me and my boys found it . . .”

Doc nodded his head.

“It was most likely still breathing but too cut up to do anything to you. Still, you took an awful chance.”

“When do you think it finally croaked?”

“Sometime during the night or early morning. Whenever the defensive odor stopped. Hard to tell as I’ve never dealt with a creature like this before. In my book, it shouldn’t even exist.”

My cold spine got worse as I pulled my sword and turned toward that fanged and clawed unknown. All I could think of at that moment was ohboyohboyohboy! I don’t usually panic easily, but this whole monster dead or alive thing was really starting to creep me out.

Against my own better judgement but born out of necessity, I got up real close and personal with that thing. Then I asked the dumbest question of my entire life.

“‘scuse me, but are you really dead?”

It didn’t move. The whole room full of people, Caesar included, looked at me like I’d lost my mind. What I said next almost equaled my last dumb question.

“Look, I hadda ask! Wanted to make sure it wasn’t faking. It’s definitely dead. I think.”

In my own defense, I was rattled the worst I’d been in my entire life. I never had a nightmare come true before.

Chapter V

Advertisement