Page 3 of Savage Giant

Savage. Beast. Monster. Soulless.

Those were the names my own people sometimes called me behind my back, oblivious to the fact that I could hear their whispers. Oblivious to the fact that I could sense their emotions and their true feelings regarding me. I tried not to let it bother me.

Let them think I’ve lost my mind. Let them think I’ve murdered humans without cause. Let them gawk when they notice dried blood on my fur.

All that mattered was that I guarded the borders of the Starblessed territory and kept our lands safe. I wouldn’t let a similar tragedy befall my people while I breathed.

The yellow-haired man was easy to catch. I lunged from the trees and knocked him over. My growls reverberated through the forest as I watched him search for the knife I’d just knocked from his hand. Triumph gleamed in his eyes once he finally found it and pointed the blade in my direction.

“Get the hell away from me, Bigfoot!” he screamed. “I’ll gut you if you come any closer!”

I crouched a short distance away and gave him a dark look. “I invite you to try, human scum. Stab me. Try it.” I patted my fingers over my heart. “Stick me right here.”

His hand shook so hard he almost dropped the knife. His grip was weak and he paled further, his eyes comically wide. He smelled like fear and sweat. The forest creatures would enjoy feasting upon his corpse as he rotted into the soil. He would become nothing but gnawed bones, his existence forgotten.

While his comrade had begged for mercy, this man took the angry route. He cursed, threatened, and kept promising to gut me. His threats fueled my bloodlust, and as I stared at him, I imagined he was one of the human males who’d crashed in our territory, igniting the blaze that had stolen Sashona from me. My skin tingled hot with the memory of the flames.

“Your eyes are glowing!” he shouted. “Why are your eyes glowing? Are you a demon?”

While I didn’t know what a demon was—I was mostly fluent in the English language, though some words confounded me—I surmised being a demon was a bad thing. That demons werefrightful creatures. So, I smiled darkly and said, “Yes, I am ademon. A demon who craves your blood.”

His eyes went wider, and his knife thudded to the ground. As he tried to retrieve the blade, I reached out and snapped the lower half of his left leg, twisting so hard his bone protruded and created a bloody mess on the forest floor. His howls of pain echoed through the trees.

I watched, savoring his cries along with the scent of his impending death. He found his knife but didn’t manage to lift his arm.

More curse words fell from his lips. He shot me an enraged look. “I swear I will kill you, Sasquatch demon!”

“How will you manage that withtwobroken legs?” I asked tauntingly before I gave his right leg the same brutal treatment, snapping the lower half until his flesh tore and the bone stuck out. It was perhaps the most vicious thing I’d ever done to a human male, and I half-wondered if I were broken inside, if I were truly soulless, for I felt nothing but dark pleasure over harming the trespasser.

Chief Brutus, as well as our middle-born brother, Mastorr, would never take such dark delight in torturing a human. I doubted any other males from our tribe would either.

Savage. Beast. Monster. Soulless.

The whispers echoed in my head.

During the second break, no sound had issued from the yellow-haired man’s throat, though he gasped repeatedly and struggled to take in air, and his color was fading fast. He fell backward on the ground, his eyes shutting as the knife tumbled from his hand. His breaths came shallow and slow. He’d fainted. I searched his pockets, found a phone, then smashed it with my fist.

I stood and surveyed his mangled legs. Satisfied with the knowledge that he wouldn’t make it off the mountain, nor wouldhe be able to call for help, I left him on the ground with his broken bones protruding from his flesh.

A bear or a wolf might find him. Or a wildcat. Maybe he would bleed or starve to death, or perhaps freeze in the night.

I supposed his final cause of death didn’t matter, though I hoped he suffered greatly in the end. He deserved to know the same fear and hopelessness as the innocent man he’d planned to kill.

To my surprise, I found the elderly man in the clearing where I’d left him, an expectant look on his face, as though he’d been waiting for me. How strange. I couldn’t fathom why he hadn’t run away. I’d anticipated having to chase him.

Adding to my surprise, a broad grin spread across his face when our eyes met. “You’re even bigger than I thought you’d be.” He sighed and shook his head. “I can’t believe it. Finally. After all these years of hearing stories and going hunting in these mountains, I finally get to see a Sasquatch with my own two eyes.” He chuckled. “I know you can’t understand a word I’m saying, but I hope you know I mean you no harm, and I want to thank you for chasing those lowlifes away.”

I leaned against a nearby tree. “I can understand you perfectly,” I said. “Tell me why the other men wanted to kill you.”

His eyes grew larger. “You speak English? Am I dreaming?” He lifted his bound hands, then lowered them and pinched his leg. “Damn. Guess I’m awake. Martha is never going to believe this. She’ll think I’ve gone senile.” He attempted to stand but had difficulty without the use of his hands to propel himself upward.

Kneeling next to him, I reached for the rope and tore it from his wrists. I stepped back and waited for him to answer my question. I supposed it didn’t matter why the other humans had wished to kill him, but I was curious. I also reasoned that the more my people learned about humans and their ways, the better we might protect ourselves from them.

The elderly man shot me a grateful look and finally rose to his feet. “Are they…dead?” he asked with a glance at my bloodied hands.

“Yes. Now, tell me why they wished to kill you.”

“Well, they worked in my hardware store, and I recently found out they’ve been stealing from me for over two years now. Not a small amount either but thousands of galactic credits. I confronted them and said if they returned the stolen money, I wouldn’t report them to the authorities. Then they attacked me, tied me up, and fled town in my truck that’s parked a bit farther down the mountain.”

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