Ravens Cove is a town steeped in natural splendor and supernatural turbulence. On its surface, the Cove is an ordinary town edged by majestic mountains on one side and the Cook Inlet on the other. It is also flanked by the supernatural; a place where mythical creatures live. One of these creatures, the Kumrande, made its first appearance a few years ago. Those that have read the account in Ingress may remember how they were described by Ken Melbourne in that book. For those of you who haven’t read the novel, here is the excerpt that describes these nasty legends-come-to-life:
“Ken stared into the dark gold liquid before picking it up and taking a hesitant sip. The bourbon burned his throat. Not the highest quality but palatable. This evening had turned mighty ugly in every way. He muscles still ached from the battle in Old Town. Their bullets were useless against those horrid creatures.
“Gnomes.” He said into the brown liquid.
“Pardon?”
Ken looked up at the bartender. “Nothing.”
“Want another?”
“Sure.”
Those yellow eyes filled his mind. Large, intelligent ones. He and Bart had circled, back to back. That’s when something happened. The little monsters were coming in for the kill. Gun chamber empty, Ken swung the firearm and missed. Small hands grabbed his calf and he fell to one knee, face to face with the stinking beak nose of the creature. He could have believed he was imagining all of this except the hot and strong breath issuing from its mouth made it clear he was in a fight for his life. He swung again and caught the creature in the neck. It shrieked, fell backward and flew back at him. The gun was ripped from his hand. Somehow, he managed to grab the flashlight from his belt. He flipped it around to use it as a club and hit the on button in the process. When he raised his
right arm the light hit one of the creature’s eyes. It screamed and covered its face.
“You see that?”
“You bet I did.” Bart threw down the gun and grabbed his flashlight. He turned it on and swung the flashlight so the beam caught the other two square in the eyes. They shrieked and ran for the darkness of the trees.
The remaining four came at Ken. They followed their comrades when the blue light struck.
Bart and Ken stayed back to back, circling the area with the flashlights. They kept them up as they separated and backed out of the clearing and out of the courtyard toward the street. Once there, they both turned, jogged to the truck, slammed the doors and locked them in unison.
“Okay, we’re fighting a myth again.” Bart turned to Ken.
“I’m darn tired of fighting things that don’t exist but do exist.”
Until Next Time,
Kat
