The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (e reader txt) 📕

finding berries. When she had plenty of nuts, we moved on. We headed further into the forest. The temperature slowly climbed. The humidity rose.

Odd calls went back and forth through the trees, their sources unseen. The bushes shifted from needlelike leaves, to wide, vibrant leaves. The shrubs thickened.

The trees even changed from the thin white trees to thick, ancient behemoths. Nearly smooth bark twisted from individual roots into a single trunk that stretched up to the clouds.

We had to cut our own path out through the thicket of vines and bushes. It was a natural wall separating the two forests and possibly any wildlife with them.

Finally, we saw animals. A peculiar creature with four long arms, and two stubby legs perched on a branch just out of my reach. Saucer shaped ears faced me and big pink eyes watched me. Its tail draped down behind it. It chirped, analyzing me just as I analyzed it.

A tinier one clambered down from a vine above and clung onto its shoulder. It reached out towards me with one of its tiny hands.

I almost reached back, but its mother pulled it away and climbed up higher.

There was a lot of little life like that here. Just tucked away and out of sight. Not afraid, but curious.

The dirt turned to mud the closer we got to a river. A series of stones peeked out of the rushing water giving a slippery surface to walk across.

We found more fruits and nuts that were edible. All of them piled into bags and pouches.

We let our guard down. Nothing here was much of a threat. We heard no snarls, or roars in the distance. I assumed Fenris scared them all off. How long would they stay away without his presence? Could it have been a respect thing among the animals? One stuck claim to territory and the others stayed away for fear of their own lives.

I didn't know much about animals. Never needed to. We didn't have many animals, but cats and dogs on Mars and that was just about as far as my knowledge went.

My foot sunk a little far into the mud and I stopped to make sure I could get it out. When I continued to walk, Yaaranam shouted.

"Wait!" She said. "Look out for--"

Some sort of frog fish creature leaped out of the mud right in front of me. A wide open mouth that could swallow me whole lined with tiny, sharp teeth. It was a fairly flat creature with stubby forelimbs and powerful spring loaded hind legs.

I must have stepped right into its trap. It launched out from under the mud right for me.

Luckily, I was able to catch it and stumbled off to one side. It flew right past me. Hit the bank of the river and turned on the spot. Its dozen or so beady, black eyes looked all three of us over. With a croak, it turned and jumped into the river to swim away.

"What the fuck was that?!" I said, sitting there on the ground. I was covered in mud from the waist down.

"Hell if I know!" Yaaranam held a hand out to help me up.

I completely ignored the gesture and got myself up.

"Looks like an ambush predator." Nostra said. "Good thing it missed you. I'm not sure we would have been able to catch it."

"That's reassuring." I scanned over the mud.

"I saw those creepy eyes sticking out." Yaaranam said.

"Keep an eye out for more. Looks like we have other things to worry about than just eos."

"I wonder if there's something big we could take down."

"I hope. The bigger the catch the more it'll feed."

"At least we won't return empty handed!" Nostra displayed a smiling face.

Something hanging off a bush caught my attention. A wet rag. I picked it up. Definitely wasn’t a rag. It was hairy. Fine, sharp hairs matted together in some sort of liquid. The underside was soaked in some tacky, black liquid. It still dripped.

“An eos?” Yaaranam asked, looking at it.

“Maybe?” A sharp stab to my stomach. A little voice in the back of my mind said it was Fenris’. It looked like a piece of his cloak, or maybe that fur around his neck.

“May I?” Nostradamus reached towards the patch of fur.

“Go for it.” I dropped it in his hand. He took it into one of his compartments.

We crossed a small stream and headed uphill. Up here we found a blue, spiky fruit growing from a bushel of sharp leaves spread out like a star. It was about the size of my head. With a quick scan of it, Nostra determined it was edible once the skin was removed. I put it in my bag for safekeeping and made note of others growing nearby. They liked the shade of the larger trees and moist soil.

A whale’s song echoed right out of sight. We froze in place. It sang another note, sounding much closer than before. We looked for the source. Right past a couple of trees was one recently broken at the base of the trunk.

A massive metallic face rested upon the tree, moving slowly. A smooshed in face with a crest down the middle of its head. Its teeth resembled a dual saw blade, each fitting perfectly against one another. It sang again, its head moving to the side at the sight of us.

I stepped out into the clearing slowly, rifle at the ready. Yaaranam followed right next to me, watching our surroundings.

That head, as big as I was, was attached to a neck that stretched into the shade of the trees. I could barely make out the rest of it, several meters away. It had been laying on its side.

“Is it...hurt?” Yaaranam asked.

“I can’t tell. Its body just goes on forever. It might be a snake.” I answered, getting closer to the head.

Its body jerked against the shadows. It sung again, lifting its head up a few meters before dropping back down against the tree.

“There’s more of that oil here.” Nostradamus pointed to