It was still weeping.
“Are you crying because you had to kill the Dwayyos?”
It nodded, pointed at the pups, and moaned that odd owlish sound.
Eli found a wipe in his gobag and tore it open, giving it to the grindy. The kitten-like killer took the wipe in its odd little hands and finished cleaning its claws before re-sheathing them.
While it cleaned itself, Eli pinned the location. He sent another text to Alex for a cleanup team and burial and informed his brother he’d be back at the helo rendezvous site at the first GPS pin, and would have a signal fire ready to light if needed.
GPS was iffy in the mountains, and the lack of a good cell signal made his coordinates unreliable.
He got a,Roger that, back from his brother.
The grindy extended the filthy wet wipe back to Eli, and he tucked it into his gobag for burial with the Dwayyo’s. The grindylow lifted its arms up to him.
Eli went still as a statue. It looked as if the tiny killer wanted to be lifted. Like a baby.
It had just taken out a full-grown, insane Dwayyo and two pups. With claws.
And it wanted to be carried. Like a kid.
Itwasa kid. He’d seen its mother, a toad-like, leathery thing the size of a small adult human.
Eli cursed under his breath. Already today he’d cussed more than he usually did in a week. Being around Jane had tempered his mouth in ways that weren’t always comfortable.
He considered the little hands, the tear-wet face. Cursed again, which made him feel moderately better.
He lifted the baby grindylow were-killer into his arms. It grabbed on to his shirt and crawled up to sit on his shoulder, holding on to his ear and his collar.
“Easy on the ear. I’m not Brute.”
It released his ear and took the edge of the weapon-strap instead, and chittered what sounded like thanks.
“You kill me or pee on my shoulder, and I’ll be pissed.”
The grindy laughed.
Eli texted Jane Yellowrock to call in a favor from Gee DiMercy, to heal his friend.
She texted back,Done.
Eli chuckled. “If only all of life was so easy.”
From far away, a shotgun boomed and echoed.
Eli turned and raced back up the mountain.
Liz
Liz saw the wolf,reddish coat, the hairs tipped with black, black socks, feet, and face. Pretty as a fox. Drooling. Staggering. The stench was horrible.
Brute growled deep in his chest. His body was quivering.
She braced the shotgun hard against the tree just below her shoulder. Aimed like Eli had shown her. Squeezed the trigger.
The boom deafened her.
The recoil nearly kicked her off the tree.
