Monster Hunters

Monster Hunters

by Maxine Hlavaty

Chapter 1

Emma woke up in the big gnarled oak tree she had been sleeping in for three days now. She had just moved to a new tree for the summer. The branches were close together so that it felt sturdy and supported her. The leaves overhead created a protective canopy for when it rained, and there were little nooks and crevices where she could put things she found and wanted to keep.

Emma picked up the baby blanket she always used for a pillow. It was all she had left of her parents and she cherished it. Emma sighed. She wished she could live in a nice comfy house with her parents but sadly, that was impossible. Her parents died when she was five and she was forced to live in an orphanage. The kids there were very nasty to her so she ran away.

Emma reluctantly picked her way down the tree. All she wanted to do was crawl into ‘bed’ and sleep. In the three days she had been there, she hadn’t gone exploring far from the tree, but this was the day, because if she waited one more day she’d burst from curiosity. She didn’t really need anything. After all, one of the reasons she had chosen this tree was because there were plenty of berry bushes surrounding it. She knew enough about plantlife to know that they weren’t the poisonous kind. There was also a river very near by for water. Emma picked some berries, gathered some water in a bottle she had found on the forest floor, and picked up her sword just in case there was any wildlife she could catch for dinner. Emma’s sword had been a gift from her father. It was meant to be given to her when she was twelve, but when the orphanage people came to take her, Emma quickly grabbed the sword as something to have of her parents.

When Emma looked at her reflection in the water, she saw her matted brown hair and brown eyes, the sprinkle of freckles dotting her nose, and the scar on her cheek she had earned from learning how to use her sword. Emma had learned at age eight when she ran away from the orphanage and had just started living in the woods. She had taught herself and it was hard work but eventually she became good at it.

Emma gathered up her courage and set off into the woods.

Chapter 2

After about thirty minutes with no luck finding anything except for some mushrooms, she sat down and ate her breakfast of berries and a couple of the mushrooms.

Emma continued in the direction she was going and came to a river. This was probably the same river that was near her tree because rivers weren’t very common in the forest. Except this water appeared to be swarming with fish. They were flapping their tails and before they could scatter, she grabbed her sword and speared two of them. Emma was famished so she made a quick fire using a rock and flint and cooked them. Emma ate one fish, leaving one for dinner. She wrapped the fish in leaves to protect it from insects.

Emma decided to return to her tree. It was a long walk so she shortened it by running. The run back was silent and uneventful.

Emma sat down at her tree just about to eat her dinner when suddenly she heard a scream. Without thinking Emma ran straight at the sound and was horrified by what she saw. It was a bear. The bear was huge and its mouth was bloody. Emma gave out a loud yelp, then realized she was standing there in front of the beast just looking at it. The beast lunged and all she could think was two things the first, I am going to die. The second, What if these monsters had something to do with her parents death? Suddenly she was shoved to the side, the beast sailed right past her, hit a tree with a loud thump, and fell to the ground.

When Emma got to her feet, a boy stared at her with a puzzled look.

“Who are you?” asked the boy.

“Well who are you?”

“My name’s Jeremy.”

“My name’s Emma.”

“You know that wasn’t the last of the monsters right?” asked Jeremy, suddenly very serious.

“No. I didn’t even know they existed.”

“Well now you know. There’s a lot of them. And I could really use a good fighting partner,” said Jeremy

“Oh. Well. This all so sudden.” Emma was taken aback by his straightforwardness

“Oh come on. I’m not asking you to marry me.”

“Well, you did just save my life. Alright. Fine. I’ll be your partner,” said Emma

“Fantastic. So do you have a plan?” asked Jeremy

“For what?” asked Emma, puzzled.

“What we’re going to do about all these monsters.”

“We could just try to kill them.”

“All of them?” he asked looking shocked

“Well I guess it’s worth a shot. But first we need to kill this,” said Emma jutting her thumb towards the bear. Jeremy walked over to it and plunged his sword into it.

Jeremy followed her back to the tree and she gave him a spare blanket and he climbed up a tree near hers.

“Jeremy?”

“Yes, Emma?”

“How did you end up in the woods? I was in an orphanage and ran away but what about

you?”

“Our town was very poor and we had to steal to make a living. Whenever my father was displeased with my earnings he would beat me. He became a drunkard when my mother died giving birth to me. He hated the sight of me because he thinks it was my fault she died. Eventually I was in so much pain, I ran away.”

“Oh, Jeremy that’s awful.”

“What about you?” asked Jeremy. “How did you end up in an orphanage?”

“My parents died when I was five.”

They were both uncomfortable with the subject so without a word, Emma climbed up her tree and laid down on her back, but Emma couldn’t suppress her thoughts anymore. She knew deep down that these monsters had killed her parents. She had known that her parents went out to hunt and then never came back. People went looking and found their bodies near a pond. One of them was mauled by a bear and the other one strangled by a snake. No one could explain it. Emma had cried for days. If they had killed her parents, then she wanted revenge.

Emma’s last thought before she drifted off to sleep was, Those monsters don’t stand a chance.

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Chapter 3

In the morning, they suited up for battle, which was basically their normal clothes and Emma and Jeremy’s swords. They wanted to get an early start, and they set off for monster hunting.

The first one they found was a white, gelatinous blob.

The blob had beady black eyes that were hard to look away from. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jeremy drop his weapon and stumble blindly towards the blob.

“Jeremy no!”

But Jeremy was still moving towards the monster.

Quickly Emma shoved Jeremy to the side. Just like that, he snapped out of his trance.

But it was too late for Emma, the blob enveloped her.

Chapter 4

Jeremy had quick reflexes because as soon as it came crashing down on top of Emma, he was on his feet. Emma could see the concentration in his eyes that made him stab the blob carefully, so he didn’t accidentally stab her instead. Once it was dead, she got up.

“Thanks,” Emma said breathlessly.

“No thank you! If it weren’t for you I would have been inside the blob instead of you.”

A couple hours passed and they had only killed around twenty monsters. As they took a lunch break Emma started worrying.

“This isn’t going to work. I mean the whole world could be infested with monsters and they just keep coming and coming. In a couple hours we only killed 20 monsters. That’s not enough to solve this problem. We could keep doing this forever and get nowhere.”

“I know. But we don’t really have any better ideas so this is the best plan we’ve got,” said Jeremy.

“Then let’s brainstorm.”

“Well if we’re going to brainstorm we should fight while doing it. I know it won’t do anything but at least we won’t be sitting around doing nothing.”

“Alright fine.”

.Chapter 5

Jeremy was an excellent tracker. He found all kinds of tracks in the woods. When he found human footprints, they decided to follow them. They led to a woman.

Emma yelled out “Hey!” Startled the woman turned around.

“Who are you?” she asked with curiosity and worry in her voice.

“I’m Emma and this is Jeremy.”

“You’re not trying to attack the village, right?” asked the woman.

“Oh no, of course not.”

“Well you definitely don’t want to come to this village, we have a monster infestation”

“But that’s why we’re here,” said Jeremy. “We want to kill the monsters.”

“Oh then by all means please come in!”

The woman led them to a village with lots of buildings. “My name’s Amanda,” said the woman.

“I’ll show you around.” Amanda showed them the different buildings, and who lived in which house. When they got to her house, Amanda screamed.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jeremy.

“Monster!” she screamed. “There’s a monster in my house!”

They stepped inside. Sure enough, inside on the floor was a greenish yellowish giant

snake. They walked over to it, but it was fast. Its head reeled back, preparing to strike. Before they had time to react, the snake lunged at Jeremy and made a deep gash in his chest. While the beast rejoiced in its successful strike, Emma walked over to it and sliced its head off.

“Let’s get him to the infirmary,” said Amanda, and they helped Jeremy stop the bleeding.

While Jeremy was in the infirmary, Emma had time to stroll around and explore her surroundings. When she really looked at the familiar houses and families, she realized something. She had grown up in this village.

Emma was so shocked she nearly fell over. Seeing this place made memories come flooding back of when she was a kid. Suddenly she felt very compelled to protect the village. Emma decided not to tell Jeremy about her discovery, and walked back to the infirmary.

When he came out about an half an hour later, he had a bandage covering the gash and he looked a lot better.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I am too.”

When they got to Amanda’s house she was glad Jeremy was better too.

“I thought you should know, since you’re hunting monsters that the mountain in front of the village is said to be the source of the monsters. People also say that once you kill the source all the monsters will be gone,” said Amanda.

“Thank you for the information,” said Emma. “And Jeremy, I think we just found our next plan.”

.Chapter 6

Amanda had thanked Emma and Jeremy and asked if there was anything she could do for them.

“Well it would be nice if we could stay here,” said Jeremy

“Of course! You saved my life,” said Amanda

“Well that’s great, but all my stuff is somewhere else and it’d take a day to walk there and back,” said Emma, worried that she would have to leave her blanket behind. She didn’t think she could bring herself to do that.

“No worries. We can get them now if you want.”

“Yeah that would be great.”

When they got back to the village it was peaceful. No monster attacks. Emma began to wonder if anything really was in the mountain. Jeremy got his stitches out, and they planned to attack the mountain quietly.

“You know I hate to be rude. But what happened to your parents?” asked Jeremy

Thankfully they were alone.

“One day they went out hunting and never returned. I suspect now that the monsters got them. That’s why I hate monsters so much,” said Emma.

They spent a while thinking about the mountain and preparing for the worst.

By the time they were done, they had tough armor Amanda had given them, their swords had been sharpened to deadly razor points, and their bronze shields could withstand a lot.

“Amanda are you coming with us?” asked Jeremy.

“Oh no I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I can’t fight.”

“Alright. Well if we don’t return I just want to say thank you,” said Jeremy

Satisfied with their armor and weapons, they walked off towards the mountain to face the mountain and the source.

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Chapter 7

At the foot of the mountain was a door. It was huge and made of gold. They tried pushing on it, but had no luck. Jeremy suggested picking the lock.

“I can do it. You know how I stole things? Well that meant I had to be good at picking locks.”

Emma wasn’t very fond of stealing but she understood that when you were on your own you had to do what was necessary.

“Well okay, I guess it’s worth a shot.”

“Do you have a hairpin or something like that?’

“Actually, I do have a hairpin,” said Emma and handed him one. Jeremy worked on the lock, and just like that, the door was open.

“Wow, you really are good.” Emma was impressed.

They stepped into the dark hallway. Everything was either metallic or shimmering. So the monsters liked shiny things, Emma hoped they could use that to their advantage.

The mountain was a maze of twisting corridors and rooms but finally they saw a big room up ahead. That must be the heart of the mountain!

“Jeremy look,” said Emma, pointing to the large cavern..

“I know. Get to the side of the wall so the monsters don’t see us.” They moved over to the wall and started inching down it. When they got to the heart of the mountain they calmly stepped inside. What they saw was so terrifying, Emma almost turned around and ran.

Once they stepped into the room, every single monster turned and swiveled their heads towards them.

Including the source.

The source was a giant mother monster that kept creating smaller monsters. She was ruby red with huge black eyes and scaly skin. She had dozens of slimy tentacles coming out of her that Emma could smell all the way across the room. They smelled like a garbage disposal with only the worst garbage.

The mother shrieked, and her monster children ran straight at them.

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Chapter 8

As the monsters attacked, Emma and Jeremy were cutting them down one by one but the source just kept making more.

Their plan was Emma would try to surprise attack the mother and Jeremy would distract her and anything else that got in their way.

“Jeremy just remember, they like shiny things.”

And then they both started mowing down monsters left and right. Some of them only took one hit to kill, but others took five or more. Emma covered Jeremy and Jeremy covered Emma. Slowly they made progress towards the mother.

Suddenly out of the corner her eye, Emma saw a bracelet with a big fat diamond in the middle. The monsters must have been too busy fighting to notice. Emma quickly grabbed it and as soon as it was in her hand, every head except Jeremy’s turned to her. The mother was looking at only Emma and appeared to be licking her lips. Emma quickly tied the bracelet to her sword.

“You want it?!” Emma shouted at the beast. “Fetch!”

And then her sword was sailing through the air and it impaled itself right in the mother’s forehead. Emma pulled out her spare daggers.

The monsters were more angry now than ever. Quickly, while they were getting ready to strike, Emma ran up to the beast. The mother’s eyes were on Emma and Emma’s eyes were on her. The mother seemed big and slow. Emma bolted up behind her and started climbing up her skin. It was very unpleasant with the slimy tentacles and horrible smell.

The mother was shrieking and suddenly one of the tentacles wrapped around her leg and flung her right in front of the mother’s mouth.

“Jeremy help!” she screamed desperately, trying to claw her way out of the tentacle’s tight grip. Jeremy looked at her and then he was there, in front of the mother and swinging his sword so that it cut the tentacle clean off.

Emma thudded to the floor.

The monster made a second attempt.

“Jeremy come here! Help me with the mother!”

Jeremy darted over to where she was and then Emma once again climbed the monster’s back, up to her head, only this time accompanied by Jeremy. They both stood over the mother’s head and brought their weapons down.

When she didn’t die, they pulled them out and brought them back down again. Now she was thrashing wildly with blood everywhere and screeching like a harpy.

They held on to her slimy skin for dear life.

Finally after a long time, the mother had stopped shrieking and moving. One last time they pulled their weapons out, and brought them back down. The monster’s body disappeared, and as soon as hers did, all the monsters poofed out of existence.

.Chapter 9

When they got back to the village everyone was cheering for them, clapping, and laughing but all Emma could think was, I miss my parents so much.

As if Jeremy read her mind he looked at her and said “Hey. They’d be proud of you.” And then Emma realized. She did have a family. A family with Jeremy.

The End