CAZADO: BOOK ONE (WATTYS 2023)

Chapter 14

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of my friends eating a breakfast of eggs, water and some beef fried in dough. I was surprised. I did not know they would have anything other than fish. Unless these foods came from another village. I rinsed out my mouth with a cleanser pack and water that I had stored in my knapsack, where my machine normally lay dormant and I began to eat with my friends. The meal was filling but lacked any flavor. Luckily, we still had some of the dry seasoning Maverick had given us when we had met at my house. They were three separate bottles. A red one, green one and black one. We were told to only use the black one on seafood and soups and the red one was only if you desired to eat your food spicy. I tried the green which accentuated the flavor of the meal I was eating. It was perfect - I was able to thoroughly enjoy the fullness of the flavors in each bite.

Once we were all finished with our meal, we began to pack up our things and headed out. The little boy and his two grandparents stood outside the barn, waiting for us with some extra provisions that we took and placed in our own knapsacks. I looked away from the village and down the hill towards a wharf by the ocean. There was a small village there close to what looked like a city; newly built. Strange, I thought. There was smoke coming up from a large distance away. A large ship seemed to be coming towards the wharf and by my calculations it would be there much later in the day. It was going at a terribly slow pace. I had not seen boats coming from that direction at any point in time, so I wondered what the purpose of it was. No matter. We needed to find these children and specifically the grandparents' daughter. We set out towards the wharf and it turned out to be a short journey. Once we neared the destination, 4536 also showed up. Supposedly he was able to find me specifically because of my own DNA signature.

He had a moose-skin sack with him that carried some shoes that helped us walk on the snow instead of in it. It distributed our weight evenly so that we did not sink waist deep, which made the journey much easier and faster for us. The tricky part was pulling us out of the snow and onto the topmost layer so that we could put the shoes on while 4536 used his flight capabilities to keep our bodies hovering over the snow. It did not seem like he struggled much as he lifted us which was to our benefit. I just wish he would have brought these snow shoes earlier. By the time we got into the small fishing city, the people seemed to be getting up and heading to work. Most of them were fishermen and women. I noticed a few people in business attire, but they were most likely Pariah that had created businesses out of the humans' misfortune. That is how I felt anyway. I knew them as the Behemoths Oscuros. My father did not know much about them. Neither did the village as they were never around or rarely seen only for a moment. But most people considered them a myth. It was interesting that there were so many of them and only today.

"Who are they?" I overheard a child say to their mother.

"Stay away from them, Cherise. Stay away from the heart men!" the mother responded.

"Heart men?" I whispered.

"Hey you! Are you four officials? Where are your Behemoth Jackets?" A man walked up to us, demanding answers.

"We are only students. We just came here on our way back to our school to buy some fish." I replied.

"Why do you want to know, human?" Shaki asked.

"Ha. Sorry. Thought you were here for something else. I will leave you alone then," He replied nervously and ducked away.

"What was that about?" Maverick asked.

"Not sure, Maverick. But I have a bad feeling about this," Carlos replied.

"The Behemoths," Shaki growled.