Choices (Part 4 - Creature of Selonova)

Danny, Maria, and Boris decided to stay in Selonova, not only to encounter the creature which was terrorizing the place but to catch it. They made a plan to catch it and informed all the villagers to stay inside their houses like they usually do. Because the creature roamed outside only at night, Boris and the Amestrians set up traps at the daylight with the help of the villagers. And when the sunset, all the residents went inside their homes, leaving the guests in the outside to act on their strategy.

It was a clear night, the moon was spreading its light on the village, while snowflakes were dropping from the sky. The road was white because of the snowflakes, and the moonlight was making it more beautiful. Boris was virtually the only one outside. He was sitting outside Viola's house, waiting for the monster to show up. To pass his time, he was making flowers on the ground with his knife.

Finally, his wait was over when he heard some footsteps. The sound of those footsteps was coming from a distance, straight ahead of Boris. When he lifted his head up to see what was that, he saw a big wolf, with a skinny body. It seemed like a dire wolf from the fairy tales has come to life, and it was hungry from many days because its last kill was more than a week ago. The creature was drooling and its eyes were fixed on Boris, after all, it was looking at a prey after many days.

Boris looked at the creature and stood up very calmly. "I guess you are the creature then, but I thought you would be a bit healthy and would be looking more like a human," Boris said.

"I will…e…eat…you alive," The creature bared its teeth and tightened its limbs to hunt.

"You can try," Boris smirked.

Then the creature ran toward Boris, but Boris was standing at his position, fully relaxed. He was not even pointing his knife toward the creature. When the creature was only some feet away from him, the pet bear of Boris, Toby rushed out of the shadows and attacked the creature. The creature fell on the ground, but it stood up quickly and ran toward Boris ignoring Toby. Its eyes were filled with bloodlust which shook Boris for a moment, but he managed to quickly dodge the attack and ran toward Toby. The creature got angrier and turned around to look at Boris, but this time it couldn't attack him directly because Toby was standing in front of him. Boris pulled out his other knife and started taunting the creature, and surprisingly it worked. The creature charged toward him, but Toby stood up on his hind legs and spreading his claws in order to protect his human father with all his might. It was very scary to see a 9 feet tall bear spreading his big claws and roaring, but still, the creature didn't stop. It leaped forward to attack Toby, and as expected, Toby hit it with his paws. The creature flew away to some distance and hit a wall. And soon after that, Toby charged toward it. Watching that, the creature stood up and dodged him, then it quickly ran toward Boris as soon as it got the opening. When it got near Boris, it jumped at him, but Boris again evaded the attack by rolling out of the way, and at the same time hurting one of the legs of the creature with his knives. Boris then quickly ran toward Toby and stood beside him to take shelter. The creature got angrier after receiving a blow from the bear and a cut from Boris. Blood from its leg was spilling on the snow, yet it wanted to kill Boris. Boris was standing, pointing his knife toward the creature and Toby was beside Boris baring his teeth.

"What a pathetic and ugly looking creature you are," Boris taunted.

The creature was already angry enough, but it understood that it was not going to win the fight in a direct encounter, so it turned around to go. But when it turned around, it saw a spark and within a matter of seconds, the creature got surrounded by fire. It panicked because of the extensive light as if it was blinded for a moment. On one side of the fire circle surrounding the creature, there were Boris and Toby, and on the other side, Maria and Danny were standing at some distance with their handguns.

Danny was nervous, yet he was pointing his gun at the creature. Maria was standing right beside him but she seemed more composed than him. "Are you sure that the chimera won't come toward us?" Danny gulped.

Maria was also afraid of the chance when the creature could attack them. So, she was focusing on the creature with lowered eyebrows and pointing her gun at the creature. "If we don't shoot then it might," She replied with composure.

Danny and Maria started shooting near the creature. There was fire surrounding the creature, and due to its nocturnal nature, the creature was unable to handle the sudden heavy light from the fire. It was unable to see clearly, but it could see the faint image of Boris and Toby in one direction and was able to hear the gunshots from other direction. There was one more way that the creature was able to see faintly, so it jumped out of the fire and ran in that direction. Just after running a few meters, it felt something below its feet and before it could do anything, it was trapped inside a net, hanging on a log that was placed on the roof of two houses.

Everyone jumped with excitement after successfully capturing the creature. Soon they extinguished the fire, and then they went to see the creature. They looked up at the creature, who was struggling inside the net and looking down at them with a pissed off face. It was trying to bite off the net, but it was clearly failing.

Danny looked at the creature and commented, "What a pain."

"Looks like it is really hungry," Boris said.

And then suddenly, they heard a gunshot and a bullet hit the log where the net was tied. Everyone was startled. "WHAT THE FUCK!" They shouted simultaneously.

They looked at the direction of the gunshot and saw an old man was holding a rifle. He was loading a bullet, while walking toward them.

"Where did he come from?" Danny exclaimed.

Boris angrily looked at the old man and yelled, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"At long last, I can finally take my revenge," The old man replied while pointing his gun at the creature.

"You can take your revenge, but first we need some answers from this thing," Boris tried to persuade.

But, the old man totally ignored Boris and again shot a bullet. And even the second bullet missed its mark. It hit the log instead.

Everyone was afraid that their effort might go to waste. So, everyone was trying to persuade the old man in their own way. "We can understand your pain Sir, but plea-," Maria said.

But, before she could complete, the old man interrupted her fiercely by saying, "No, you don't."

While he was again loading a bullet in his rifle, even Danny tried his luck. "This is our catch man, you can't just come and take it away from us," Danny said.

The old man ignored Danny like he ignored Boris and fired the bullet. Even this time also, the bullet hit the log, and within a few seconds, the log started breaking. The sound of cracking wood instantly filled the heart of everyone with fear.

"Did you guys hear that?" Maria asked to confirm if she was hearing voices. But, she got her answer when she looked up like Boris and Danny. They saw the log was breaking slowly.

"Fuck," Danny gulped.

In that intense situation, Maria was able to identify the most vulnerable thing which needed to be protected. "Stay on the way to the old man, the Chimera shouldn't reach him," She advised.

And just after a few seconds, the log broke and the net which contained the creature fell on the ground. The creature was free, but it was injured badly. It stood up slowly and looked at the team who were blocking the path between it and the old man. It was baring its teeth and drooling, and because its leg was wounded by Boris, it was bleeding over the snow. Its eyes were burning like raging fire, but it understood that it was outmatched by three humans and a big brown bear, so it turned around and ran toward the wilderness.

After the creature was gone, everyone took a sigh of relief. Then they turned around to look at the old man who was just standing with his rifle and acting like a kid after realizing his mistake.

"Hey old man, do you know...that because of you, our whole plan failed?" Danny roared.

"I just wanted my revenge. That monster, took my grandson yea-" The old man tried to explain.

"But, you failed to kill the monster, instead you… FREED THE MONSTER," Danny interrupted fiercely.

"Stop scolding him, Danny. What's done is done. Now we have to track down the chimera, and I think we can follow the blood trails on the ground for that, but it would have nice if we had a dog in this situation," Maria said.

"For your information Miss, a bear's smelling ability is even stronger than a dog's…I think you should be happy that we have a bear instead of a dog," Boris smirked.

A huge smile appeared on Maria's face. "Then let's catch the chimera," She said excitedly.

"I am also going with you," The old man proposed.

Hearing that, Danny quickly walked near the old man and glared. "No, you are not," He snatched the rifle from the old man's hand aggressively, and continued "I will be taking this."

The team then went into the wilderness to hunt the creature of Selonova, leaving the old man behind. They were lucky that they had a bear with them to track down the creature, and they were also aware that a wounded beast is more dangerous than a hungry beast. But, to get some answers they were willing to take the risk.