The Game Plan

Emily plodded along behind Haywood. It was their first day in the field, and after a coin flip, these two were heading east to the river crossing. Haywood had brought with him an insect net, and given Emily an aquatic net, so that they could sample some of the invertebrates to estimate water quality. They expected that the water quality would be high, but they were unsure. Ivy argued that the scale to evaluate water quality may not be suitable for the island, as presumably, a different and more primitive assemblage of invertebrates would inhabit the river bed. Haywood, in contrast, had argued that the small boat expeditions that occurred on Kir'nu most likely introduced the "normal" flora and fauna of the mainland, and they should be well established. They would see who was right.

The morning sun peeked through the canopy, but mostly, they were in shade. Emily was grateful for her long sleeved hiking shirt, but had a feeling that later, it would warm up, and she would have to change. Whenever Haywood saw an insect, he immediately scooped it up with the net and deposited it into one of many small containers he had brought with him. If he didn't recognize it as a familiar species, he kept it, otherwise, he let it go. The ones he kept were placed in a special killing jar for a few minutes, to preserve the specimen quality. Brutal, yes, but necessary to help identify and quantify the types of insects on the island.

Haywood was a plant biologist by trade, but an entomologist at heart. He had gotten into science through entomology, through keeping crickets and grasshoppers and walking sticks, and the occasional praying mantis (although never together) in his childhood cages and terrariums. He was in his element, between all of the plants and animals he was seeing, and the fascination of Emily, who supplied him with a constant stream of inquisitive comments and outright questions.

They reached the riverbed after only an hour and a half of hiking. The map had made it seem farther away, but sure enough, they were there. Across the river, they saw some hikers lounging around, splashing on the eastern side of the river. There was a small footbridge that spanned the river, but it was battered with age, and Haywood wasn't too concerned with the hikers. They were more concerned with what was off trail.

Haywood slipped his pack off of his shoulders and set it gently on the ground, digging through it to find his wader boots, folded up neatly at the bottom of his pack. They would be adventuring into the wild depths of the river. Okay, so it wasn't that deep, and it was a warm day, probably warm enough to go without the waders, but Haywood didn't want to take any chances on slipping and landing on something sharp. Emily, following Haywood's lead, also removed hers.

"Having fun yet?" Haywood asked with a smile as he sat on the ground to put his waders on. She nodded, smiling. Her brow was lightly seasoned with sweat, and she joined him on the ground to wrangle herself into her waders.

"Are you sure that these things will keep me dry?" She asked him, and he laughed.

"They've always worked for me. Unless you fall, that is. Then, you'll be kinda screwed. You have a change of clothes?"

"No." She said sheepishly.

"Then I wouldn't fall." Haywood offered helpfully. She laughed. Haywood grabbed the sapling he had sat nearby to help himself up off the ground, then offered a hand to Emily, who was sliding the last few inches of the waders up her legs. She took his hand and struggled up.

"So, we're going to do a two person thing out there. Basically, one of us is going to stand upstream and start scuffing with our feet," Haywood scuffed the trail with his feet, kicking up a small amount of dust. "And hopefully, this will dislodge some of the invertebrates. The other one of us will be standing downstream a few feet with the net, catching all of the fun things that come our way."

"I'll hold the net." She said, smiling. "That way, I won't fall."

"So much for taking one for the team!" Haywood grumbled at her, agreeing. "I suppose I do have more scuffing experience than you. Though you'll have to learn. So yes, let's wade out about six feet and we'll give it a try."

"My mom would shit bricks if she saw this." Emily said to him as they waded out, deeper and deeper. The water was thigh high by the time that they reached their desired distance into the river. "Excuse my language."

"Why's that?" Haywood asked.

"Single mom, only child. She was -- is -- very protective."

"Ah. My parents let us do just about anything, when we were growing up. Different times, though. And there were way more of us. I had a ton of siblings. We were expendable."

"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't that bad." Emily laughed at Haywood. He shrugged.

"Felt like it sometimes. But, we had fun, and that's all that matters, in the end. You ready?" Haywood moved upstream and she nodded when he turned, laughing as he almost fell right then and there.

"Ok, get the net ready!" He announced, and began scuffing towards her, upturning rocks and creating a swirl of mud and sediment that began flowing towards her at an accelerated rate.

After a few minutes, he directed her to lift up the net. As she did, she was amazed at how heavy it was. She soon found out why: pebbles littered the bottom of the net, and in between the stones weaved alien like creatures. The prized invertebrates. Haywood finished his waddle back over to her and cradled the bottom of the net with one hand.

"Oooh, looks like we got a good catch!" He proclaimed, then with her, they moved back to shore to empty it into a tray and sort their prizes.

#

Ivy and Terrance had flipped the coin, and with it, gotten the "west" direction from their great overlord, sir Haywood Walton. It was a cool morning, not so cold as to require anything more than a t-shirt, but Ivy loved it. She and Terrance were walking down the well beaten trail with their small day packs. Each pack contained a field journal, several field guides to mainland flora and fauna, as well as a small key, designed by the rangers, for the endemic island species.

They had all day to do what Ivy loved: explore. And she was going to savor every moment of it. As they moved over the terrain, it seemed like every ten feet, Ivy was pausing to stare at the plants. She had a little more -- okay, way more -- botanical experience than Terrance and was trying to identify the herbaceous ground cover to family, if nothing else. Terrance, meanwhile, was simply shell shocked, and trying his best not to show the shock on his face. Never had he been anywhere so green in his whole life.

Not even when he had gone camping with his friends over the summer. The campground they had gone to was well used, and as a result, the most wildlife they saw were skunks and groundhogs, badgering them for food. The campground had been all dirt, pine needles, and poison ivy. The trails had been nice, but even they were covered in signs of human inhabitants. Leftover snack backs, discarded drink containers, and the like. Apparently the park he had gone to wasn't into the habit of cleaning itself up. Nor were its patrons.

But this place... this place was like a jungle. The trees towered over them, blocking out most of the filtered sunlight. The trail was not so wide as to cause a break in the canopy, and he felt completely enclosed, enveloped, and loved by the trees. The feeling scared him a little, but mostly, it made him excited for the summer. What sort of critters would they see out here?

He patiently paused behind Ivy as she made another stop, bending over this time and picking one of the leaves off to examine it more closely. She discarded the leaf and motioned to Terrance to follow her again.

"What was that?" Terrance asked, and Ivy shrugged.

"I thought it might have been an invasive plant, but when I looked closer, it wasn't."

"Aren't you afraid that you're going to pick up one of these leaves and end up with a rash?" Terrance asked her.

"Yes and no." She answered. "If I have no idea what it is, or if its oozing, I tend to be more cautious. But the big poisonous ones -- poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac -- are all easily identifiable, and I'm not touching those. Generally, as long as you don't put anything in your mouth when you don't know what it is, you should be just fine. Thought if you followed Haywood around, you'd think he could live out here, the way he puts things in his mouth."

"What if like... a deer peed on the leaf, though?"

"Gross. I guess Haywood doesn't really consider that."

"I guess it'd be hard for a deer to pee on a tree leaf." Terrance murmured, and Ivy laughed. Yes, yes it would be hard for a deer to pee on a tree leaf.

"You think we'll find anything interesting?" Terrance asked her after a moment.

Ivy shrugged in front of him. "I'm not sure. Well. Actually, yes. I am sure. We will find something amazing out here, Terrance. Just you wait. We'll become rich and famous..."

"I thought scientists never became rich. Just famous."

"Some do. Just not ecologists." Ivy said. "But we can dream, right?"

"Plus." Ivy said after a moment. "Our end destination today is the Red Rock Caves. We can't go down into them, but we can check out some of the plants that grow along the rocky edges."

#

"Ho, travelers." Haywood smiled as Ivy and Terrance walked through the door. Haywood was lounging in the rocking chair, settled into something on his laptop.

"Hey." Ivy acknowledged, dropping her pack at the door and taking off her shoes.

They were both covered in a fine red dust, and Haywood asked about it. Ivy looked down, confused, and then realized that they were indeed covered.

"Oh, wow. Um, we weren't even in the caves. Just along the perimeter. We found some pretty sweet plant species. I took some pictures. I'll upload them to the cloud for you, later. Mostly small ones, like expected."

"Cool. Why not clean up, and we'll have our meeting for the day? We did some invertebrate sampling in the river bed, obviously. Turns out that it's a pretty pristine habitat. Some pretty good dragonfly larvae."

"Sweet." Terrance had already left the room to go change and shower, and now Ivy did the same. Emily emerged from the women's quarters as Ivy entered and they greeted each other as they passed.

Emily, laptop in hand, chose the couch in the furnished living area and booted up.

"What're you doing?" She asked Haywood, and he shrugged.

"Looking through a manuscript that I have to edit by the time we get back." He said. "I figured I may as well, since the internet here is less than ideal."

"True."

"You?" He asked her, and she shrugged.

"I was going to play some solitaire. I heard you say something about the daily meeting?"

"Yeah, once they're all cleaned up from their day."

"Should I go through the kitchen and see what we need?"

"If you want. We can do it all together, too, obviously, but if you want to take the lead and get the basics, feel free."

"Sure thing. It's better than playing solitaire."

Emily left her laptop on the couch and moved over to the kitchenette to rifle through the drawers, and cupboards, and fridge. The Rangers had brought them pizza for the night, and one of them had kindly stocked the fridge with meats, cheese, veggies, and the cupboards with some bread for sandwiches. There were donated packets of fast food condiments like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. A gallon of filtered water, although the island water was safe to drink.

"I think we need some breakfast food. Like bagels. And peanut butter."

"You got a pen and paper to write it all down?" Haywood asked her without looking up from his laptop.

"Yup! There was a notepad hanging on the fridge."

"Cool." Haywood answered. "Add some granola bars to your list. We'll figure out what kinds everyone likes when we all get together."

Terrance was, predictably, the first one out of the shower and dressed. He came out to rummage through the cabinets for food, disappointed with his selection. He made himself a roast beef and cheese sandwich and sat down to devour it at the small kitchen table that sat on the brightly tinted linoleum.

"This is delicious." He intoned through bites and Haywood laughed.

"Food always is more delicious when you spend a day out doing work."

"We'll need more food soon." He said, and Emily agreed with him.

"I'm making a shopping list right now. Any requests?"

"Just more meat." Terrance said. "I like it all. What're we having tonight for dinner?"

"All we have. Sandwiches. We'll shoot out to the grocery store either tomorrow or the next day."

"Could be worse." Terrance said as he devoured the last bite of his double decker sandwich. "Could be vegetarian."

#

Alex heard the demon long before he smelled its presence. Its maniacal laughter echoed across the otherwise silent landscape, and in human form, it chilled Alex to his core. Stripping -- the demon sounded far away -- Alex changed into wolf and trotted towards the north, where he had heard the noise originate. It worried him, as the portal was south, which meant that this demon had been out and about awhile, but not yet causing trouble. That indicated intelligence, which in turn, indicated the start of a very, very long night.

Wolf-Alex roamed north, all of his senses heightened. He wondered if it was a demon that would invade his mind. The more sophisticated demons often did, filling his mind with awful images, or outright speech. Every demon that came out of that portal knew eventually that wolf-Alex was more than just a wolf. And if this demon had been roaming for long, he knew what he was in for, and was probably well prepared. This was not just a battle. This was war.

He heard the laughter again, this time much closer, and a voice seemed to whisper in his wolf-ear, "I am Ek'aub. You will die tonight, wolfman."

Wolf-Alex turned, but there was no one there. Of course. His ears were very sensitive, and in the clearing, the demon could have simply thrown his voice and made the wolf hear him. Or, it could've been straight up mind-magic. He wasn't sure, and he didn't want to find out. He unleashed a deep, throaty growl, searching for the demon. Ek'aub would be dead in an hour. Of that, wolf-Alex was sure. Wolf-Alex had yet to lose to a demon, and he wasn't about to start now. Man-Alex had almost lost a few times, but wolf-Alex had had his claim on Kir'nu for hundreds of years. He had seen demons come and go like rats on pirate ships: there one day, gone the next.

There it was. He spotted movement in the darkness and let another deep growl blossom from his throat. Suddenly, the demon stood before wolf-Alex. Shit. That was a fast demon. Wolf-Alex swallowed his fear and lunged. He, of course, missed, but landed on his feet and turned just in time to avoid the swing of the demon's thick, baseball bat arm.

How long had it been since he'd seen a named demon? Years, he thought. Years. This was not good. Not good at all. The demon swung again, and this time, he connected, sending the wolf's body flying backwards tens of feet into a giant tree. Nothing cracked, but wolf-Alex knew that man-Alex would be upset with the bruising tomorrow.

Wolf-Alex struggled to get up as the demon approached. If the demon wasn't going to play nice, then neither was the wolf. As Ek'aub approached, cackling, the wolf positioned himself into a crouching posture, still feigning weakness. He even let a little whimper escape his throat, although he thought that it may have been overkill. The demon lunged and so did the wold, trying to attach himself to the monstrous demon's neck. His teeth connected, and even sunk in, but wolf-Alex could taste no blood. If a wolf could've frowned, he would've. This demon apparently had four inch thick leather for skin. How was he supposed to take down something that he couldn't make bleed?

Wolf-Alex relinquished his hold and bounded away from the growling demon, his mind racing. If he could not kill it with his teeth, he must disable it somehow. The wolf ducked as a monstrous arm swung again at his head. For a named demon, this one wasn't very good at fighting; although his near-impenetrable skin and large size still made him a worthy opponent. Perhaps he could disable the arms with some creative maneuvers.

The wolf bounded behind a tree. He assumed that the demon would follow him around the trunk, however, when there was no evidence of pursuit, he glanced to his left and right. Nothing. The wolf turned again to face forward and was met with an astonishing sight. The demon had his arms wrapped around the tree. Surely this monster could not... And he did. Ek'aub ripped the tree from the ground in one fell swoop, and suddenly, wolf-Alex was running away as a tree came falling towards him.

Scary, scary crap. Alas, he could not leave this lumbering giant to his own devices, and so, Alex returned to the fallen tree and witnessed a second astounding sight: The demon had forgotten to move his monstrous hands quite... quick enough. And was currently struggling under the weight of the tree.

Unfortunately for Ek'aub, the strength of his physical form's legs, and back, which he had used to uproot the tree, were no longer available to him. It was only his wrists trapped, and his legs were flailing like a three year old boy in the middle of a temper tantrum. Wolf-Alex approached, making sure that it was not a trap, and then jumped on the demon's back. It would not be ideal, but he would get this done.

The wolf latched onto the back of the demon's neck and began to chew. Low screams echoed from the demon's mouth, and his profanities and threats turned to begging soon enough as the wolf's teeth drew closer and closer to his precious prize: the sweet taste of demon life blood. The demon was contorting its body in all different ways, trying desperately to save itself from its inevitable fate. A kick landed on the wolf's ankle and he yelped, loosening his grip momentarily. That may have done some damage. Gingerly, he released his prize and shifted upside down, so that his balls were dangling on the back of the demon's head as he once again began chewing through the leathery skin for his prize. It would be a long, long night.

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