The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (100 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

in. Some were scared off. When the one carrying the Captain wasn't under attack, they fired on it.

It took multiple shots to bring the bird down. It crashed in a spiral, beak first into the dirt.

Reaper cried out, lying beneath the creature. He tried to push it off, but could barely move its oversized head.

Mjolnir dragged the bird off him, another soldier helping him up.

"Trying to feed the birds, Captain?" Mjolnir laughed.

"Yeah," he exhaled, "thought I'd try a new tactic; leave the food in my pockets."

He kicked the bird's head.

The creature sparked to life, snapping at his foot.

It was shot a few more times and fell limp.

"Son of a bitch!" Reaper stared at it. "Is it dead this time?"

"What is it? A bird?" One of the soldiers asked.

"Birds have feathers. That thing don't have feathers." Another said.

"Captain, we should get you back to a medic. You're pretty fucked up." Mjolnir touched his shoulder.

"Just some scratches, but all right. Let's bring that thing back, too. It...looks like an eos."

It looked just like that other creature they had. Its head was as long as Reaper was tall with the beak and crest curving upwards. Its face brightly colored in blue and white. Eyes black as the night still wide open. Its body barely matched that size, with pathetic little hind limbs. The wings on the other hand were massive. A skin membrane, thin enough to see the black veins within tripled its size.

Mjolnir grabbed the creature by a wing and dragged it across the ground.

"What were you up there doing anyway?"

"I was using the drone. Figured it would do well to spot anything nearby."

"Did you see anything?"

"No...just plants. It’s weird…"

"The lack of animals?"

"No, I mean, there's a lot of planets out there with fauna but no animals, or intelligent life. What the doctor said at Avant-Garde is bugging me."

"Ah. I see. She said the eos will eat entire planets, yet this one still has life."

"Yeah. What good would it do anything to destroy their own home? That would kill them off, too."

"Do you believe this planet could be recently inhabited?"

"Maybe...that would explain why there's so few…" Reaper took a breath. "It doesn't add up though. Fenris said they come in large numbers. He's shown me how many."

"How so? The same way he can show Jackal?"

"No. Arena of Warfare, that strategy game. He figured out how to make custom units and actually built up different armies of eos. He even made a small army of valkyries and showed me how they battle. We should be swarmed right now, yet they've stayed away."

"Perhaps the World Eater is their priority. They may be a lot smarter than we think."

"They have to be...Reynolds was saying that the tumor on the ship is an eos. It's a living, breathing creature. It’s eating the electricity the ship is producing. It landed the ship. It didn't destroy it because it wouldn't have a food source."

"How did it get into space and survive? Did they launch it?"

"They can't be smart enough to have that tech, could they?"

"They are machines. Who's to say what kind of technology they have? If they are anything like our dear wolf friend, then they have evolved in a way unlike any other creature.”

“I guess yo---”

A shriek came from the ship. Reaper and Mjolnir rushed back with the other two soldiers.

THIRTY-NINE

A woman was standing at the cargo bay, surrounded by a handful of soldiers. Face in her hands, she cried out for help.

"Please, you have to go after him!" She pleaded.

"What happened?" Reaper skidded to a halt just behind the soldiers.

"My baby must have gotten scared when those bats attacked! He ran away to hide, but I think he went that way!" She pointed towards the forest.

"Ma'am, he must have run inside." One of the soldiers said.

"Mjolnir, why don't you have some of them look through the ship?" Reaper suggested.

"Yes, sir." He agreed.

"Ianisse, Ruby, come with me." Reaper called. "We're gonna check the woods. He couldn't have gotten far."

"His name's Johnny, after his father!" The mother said.

Reaper met Ianisse and Ruby at the edge of the camp. Together they carried on with barely anything at all to point them in the right direction.

It was a time like this Reaper wished Spectre was with him. Her tracking skills would end this incident in minutes. Instead, he was left with only what she tried to teach him. Ianisse, being a fleebeeron, had probably never hunted before. Ruby...well, Ruby had a comfy life away from pastimes.

Reaper tried to recall what Spectre showed him. Easy to miss imprints in soft soil. Broken twigs. Bent stems and leaves. How much damage could a small boy do when running away in fear?

Apparently none.

Reaper saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then again, what was ordinary on this planet? The air here was thicker. The ground denser. Untouched by the destructive hands of mankind and its distant cousins. This was nothing like Earth. Humans had not been kind to their own planet, their own birth place. They took it for granted, abused it, poisoned it. As humanity advanced, their care for the environment lessened. Wars were waged without any care.

“See anything?” Ruby asked.

“No…” Reaper sighed. He got up from the dirt and continued on.

“He couldn’t have gotten far.” Ianisse followed, looking around.

A child’s scream caught their attention. They ran towards the sound. It led them into the jungle, where they had to cut their way through a wall of thick vines hanging from the branches above.

All they had was a small pocket knife that Ruby used to saw through the vines. Reaper tried to pull on them, only to be met with one coming to life within his hands.

The leaves flared up and the vine coiled around his wrists. He tried to let go, but it cinched down tight enough to make him feel like his hands were about to pop off.

“Whoa, what the fuck?!” Reaper pulled back to no avail.

Ruby hurried to him and grabbed the other end