Forest Guardians Chronicles: A Matter of Humanity by Beth Roose (smart ebook reader TXT) 📗

Human Hybrids - and incredibly dangerous consequences that could follow if you are not careful.  Thank goodness for the Pukwudgie and their flaming poison arrows that were able to destroy all but four of these creatures.” Eyes wide and alert now, Mr. Garman continued. “Morgan, these human hybrids continue to be an awful threat to the creatures of the Forest, the Park, and our community. We must make this right, Morgan. I made a mistake giving you the information to splice DNA and combine it with the DNA of another to make stronger creatures. I never dreamed you would use the information to create a harmful killer like the Hornet Queen and her minion drones. Worst of all, you combined their DNA with human DNA. They have killed hundreds of creatures and humans, Morgan.” The old man, while successfully showing a considerable amount of disappointment and anger towards the subject, was failing to hide his exhaustion as the hours ticked wee into the night. “Do you understand there will be consequences for your actions?”

Morgan, who remained very calm and somewhat quiet up until this point, began sobbing uncontrollably and apologizing profusely. Looking into the old scientist’s sparkling eyes, Morgan pleaded, “I am sorry, so sorry...I want to fix this, but I do not know how. Can you please help me Mr. Garman? I want to make this right. Can you forgive me?”

Mr. Garman, stunned by the grown man crying like a baby in his kitchen, moved his chair close to Morgan and put his arm around him. They embraced for what seemed like an eternity until Morgan calmed his tears and settled himself.  He consoled Morgan for over an hour in his bright yellow kitchen, if only the mood were as bright as the walls. Mr. Garman never was one to handle tears well.

As Morgan’s guilt and pain continued to be extinguished, Marsha, Mr. Garman’s sweet and curious daughter, strolled  into the room with an inquisitive expression upon her face. Shyly, the girl spoke. “Dad, what is going on here? What is wrong with Mr. Morgan?” Quickly wiping away his tears and with a sniffle of his nose, Morgan turned and looked the other way, embarrassed by the tear streaks upon his face.

Mr. Garman turned his body to face his daughter and placed a caring hand upon her shoulder. “Morgan and I need to work through a solution to a mistake that I am partially responsible for, honey. We will be here awhile Marsha, go on to bed. I love you, little one.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the last “little one” comment her father made, Marsha seemed overall sympathetic to the situation at hand. “G’night Dad, I’ll see you in the morning. Best of luck to you both. Goodnight Mr. Morgan.” Shuffling her feet down the hallway, Marsha made her way to bed, leaving the two conflicted men at the kitchen table.

After what seemed like an eternity of attempting to gain control over his emotions, Morgan finally got control of himself and was prepared to solve the issue at hand, well, at least he was going to attempt to. How is one supposed to fix a problem affecting what seemed like all of humanity? Morgan kept thinking to himself and getting lost down a spiral of thoughts that were not overly helpful. After a bit, Mr. Garman told Morgan to go to the bathroom and wash his face and gather his thoughts. The old man promised he would be there for him when he came back to the kitchen, and upon return, Morgan was shocked to see that Mr. Garman had kept his promise. After all, Morgan had committed quite the atrocity. “Alright, Morgan. Come sit back down. Are you feeling better now? Can I get you a glass of water?” Morgan sniffled and looked into Mr. Garman’s sparkly blue eyes and thought he saw a glimmer of determination and compassion hinted beneath the crystal blue iris. “Mr. Garman, I am ready to work on a solution to fix this mess I have made,” Morgan admitted with just as much guilt as defeat. The old man looked across the exhausted face of the young man sitting next to him and began to speak. “Morgan, you just took the first step by acknowledging you did wrong. It is important to recognize that you were able to admit that to yourself. That truly shows that you care about humanity and those around you. Now, let’s work through this together because, after all, we are better together, right? Now, we must be methodical with each step, no matter how hard. Agreed?” With an urgent and dramatic nod, Morgan agreed to Mr. Garman’s simple and generic terms. The men went to work on the plan, sitting around the wobbly kitchen table, brainstorming until an ungodly hour of the night.

Mr. Garman took the lead with the plan, after all, he is the most experienced of the bunch. “First, I need to see all of your notes and essays you released about the park. We will need to know how you combined the creature DNA with the human DNA and what formulas were used. You did document all of it. Right?”

Morgan nodded quickly and gave a reassuring answer to Mr. Garman’s question. “Of course. Yes, Mr. Garman. Only an irresponsible scientist would not take notes on the subject or subjects he is studying.” Morgan made a mental note to retrieve his most prized documents about the DNA splicing from underneath the loose floorboard in his room.

“How long will it take us to go through the documentation Morgan?” inquired Mr. Garman curiously.

“Oh, should just take a couple of days, I suppose,” said Morgan.

The old scientist Mr. Garman continued. “Every detail must be documented so we can reverse the process on the Hornet Queen and her remaining drones. The DNA has to be separated in order to make them less powerful and mortal again. Morally, they need to be returned to their original species, whatever