The Goats Knew

Thaonawyuthe

"Ok, I get it," Scott didn't sound like he got it. "But we decided to throw out all the BS. Right?"

Emily was sifting through the various printouts scattered over Scott's bed. "Right. But still, this creature was around before the colonies."

"Sure, but maybe not the same one. I mean, this could be a species we just don't know about." Scott was trying to stay logical about the whole thing, but logic wasn't really working for them.

"But that doesn't explain why the disappearances started so suddenly. And this thing is big! If there were more it seems like somebody would have seen one. I've never heard of anything like this before."

"Lots of people have seen Sasquatch, but we don't know anything about them." Scott was surprised that he was the one making this argument.

"Sure, but that's just it. Lots of people have seen BigFoot. It's easy to find stories, sightings. It's just that no scientific evidence is around that proves BigFoot is real. Where are all the stories about the Djieien? There aren't any. At least not in recent times."

Scott didn't want to accept where Emily was going with this. "So what are you saying? That this thing is immortal? That's back to the magic we've already agreed to throw out."

"I know, I know. But maybe not immortal, just long lived." She wasn't going to let this go without a fight. "Look at this."

Emily shuffled papers around the bed until she found the one she needed. She picked up the printout of the Smithsonian report and waved it in front of Scott's face.

"Look, it tells here how this Ot'hedge guy defeats the Djieien. He uses some kind of wasp-arrow." She was pointing to phrases in the text and gesturing in the air. "So maybe there's something to all of this."

"I don't know." Scott wasn't convinced. "But you're right about one thing anyway. This all seems to have started very suddenly." He went back to quietly musing over the puzzle.

"Yeah, kind of like it was asleep, hibernating or something." Emily returned to the scattered sheets and began sifting through them once again.

"Hang on," Scott blurted out as he suddenly perked up. "There was something in one of these."

He joined Emily in sifting through the papers. Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for.

"Here." He ran his finger down the page, looking for the right paragraph. "It says here that the Djieien buries its heart, and as long as the heart is kept safe, it can't die."

Emily reached out and snatched the paper from his hand. "That's it!" she exclaimed with considerable excitement. "That's what's been nagging at me all this time."

"What is it?" Scott's hand hung in the air where it had previously held the sheet. He looked at his empty hand quizzically, then pulled it back to his side.

"This Ot'hedge guy defeated the Djieien by first killing it's heart. So that's all we have to do. Kill the heart and we can kill the beast!"

"Ok," Scott sounded skeptical. "Sounds easy enough, but where do we find this buried heart?" He thought he had her stumped.

But Emily replied quickly, "We already know where it is."

"We do?" Scott was more puzzled than ever.

"Come on, keep up with me!" Emily's excitement couldn't be contained. "Olivia wanted to show us where something was buried. Cooper tried to dig something up and got killed for it. Olivia stopped you from trying to dig in the same spot. So what do you think is buried there?"