His thoughts were murky, same as the algae filled water through which he waded at nose level. How far had he come now? Who could say? Words had lost all meaning to him by that point. Day followed night followed day just as it had before and always would. Anything else was pointlessly complicated and did nothing to satiate his immediate hunger.

Though empty of anything but the tiniest of morsels the waters were of great comfort to the creature. They were warm and welcoming, not like the icy depths from where he had come, an undersea prison to which he would never return. Images of drowned caves sent a chill down his spine, away from the bank and into the wider stream flowing toward the river.

In the forest before him the darkness fell before the night with pine trees obscuring the amber tainted rays stretched over the wilderness. No matter. He did not need to see to know that there was prey waiting: first that deer grazing silently ahead, then something more substantial later.

What was once a mind had degraded into a hollow shell whose insides had been scraped away by miles and miles of torment and battle. In their absence lay only need, a hunger, the burning scream of a belly aching to be filled.

The creature roared sending all who would hear him scattering for cover. It did not matter if they ran. Soon he would be picking clean the meat from their bones.

Soon… Soon…

* * * *

Elsewhere:

Sweet, sweet freedom!

Soaring past the usual sights I wanted to scream in joy. The shackles of suburbia had fallen away as the term of my sentence was finally up! Sure, it took hours of debate with my parents coupled with even longer hours of scrubbing plates, dusting banisters and catching up on homework, but in the end I’d managed to score myself a weekend pass.

I scanned the familiar sights as I streaked by: the Bonnie Frank Memorial Bridge, the Apex Towers shopping complex, Centenary Park, all that and more would have to get by without me for a while. For the next two days Milestone City was behind me, out of sight and out of mind. Goodbye friends, goodbye family, goodbye Kaira and Justin and all of your junk!

It felt good just to be alive. Even though I couldn’t taste it I took in the crisp spring air while spiraling through the clouds, stopping only once to wave to the passengers of the trans-continental airliner cruising comfortably at my side.

“You’re having fun,” a voice did say. It was weird hearing someone speak so clearly with the wind whipping at my ears, but maybe that was Noble. Like me he was anything but normal.

His glistening smile left me completely disarmed. In place of something clever I muttered a nervous “hi” and accelerated further toward the horizon, thus beginning again the game of cat and mouse to which we were accustomed.

“We’re doing this again, are we?” he laughed. Our game excited him as much as it did me and probably for the same reason. Sometimes it was good to be around another superhuman you didn’t have to try and beat up.

Every few hundred miles or so I looked back to see how much ground he’d taken, or at least that was my excuse. If only it were anything so complicated. I just wanted to see him and that black head of hair with the warm blue cape billowing behind him, and know that wherever I would lead he would still continue to give chase.

Suddenly I jerked to a halt. Noble, not having nearly the same flight control as I did, decelerated in a long curve to the horizon and flew back. We lingered together above the woods where we were finally able to hear the birds chirping as they ducked and weaved between us.

“Why’d we stop?” he asked.

“Because we’re here.”

“Really?” he queried. “I guess you’d know better than I would. I’ve never been here before. Heck, I don’t think I could have found this place even with a map.”

“You didn’t bring a map?” I laughed as we descended to a grassy clearing.

“What would be the point?” the wide shouldered hero shrugged. “I’m hopeless with them anyway. I think I’ll save that kind of thing for smart people like you.”

Were I able to blush in hard light mode I would have. He was always saying nice things and complimenting me though I never knew how to react. Thank him? I don’t know. All I knew was that he liked me despite not knowing a thing about me. It often left me to wonder if my crush on him was as genuine as it felt or the product of an inflated ego. Sometimes it was genuinely hard to tell.

The time had come once more for the Young Sentinels to have their monthly meeting. Sounds important, doesn’t it? A group of heroes gathering together, but it wasn’t exactly like that. Sure, we fight side by side now and then, but more than a team we were a social club and sometimes support group. The whole point of the Young Sentinels was to provide a haven for heroes under the age of twenty-one facing the unique issues that comes with masks and powers. On this particular occasion we’d agreed to a camping trip and I’d been looking forward to it all year.

No sooner had we touched down and I’d depowered than we were greeted by another of our brood, though without the mask he was not so familiar.

“I can’t believe you came in costume,” Wild Knight teased. Wearing a muscle shirt in place of his usual tights there was nothing to link him to the acrobatic urban warrior save the thick, red mane that he’d tied back into a messy ponytail.

Noble smiled and linked arms with his teammate. “Hey hey, WK!” the hero laughed as the two play wrestled together. Male bonding, huh?

Wild Knight smiled and leapt onto Noble’s back. “Nah, man. Just Brent while we’re out in the wilderness, remember?”

“True that,” Noble grinned then pulled his cowl down to reveal those gorgeous… I won’t go into detail. “Guess that makes me plain old Mark. What about you, GG?”

“GG is fine,” I told them.

You could see the confusion in Brent’s eyes. It was the kind of expression that was searching for a reason to not be mildly offended. “You serious? This is supposed to be our weekend away from the masks so we can just be ourselves.”

“I am being myself,” I laughed nervously. “Trust me, the last thing I need is to drag my secret identity out here. I just want to relax and have a good time just like you guys and leave all the complications back in Milestone. Fair enough?”

“That’s cool,” Noble… I mean Mark, smiled. Always the hero, straight to my rescue. Damn him for making me smitten.

Brent shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, let’s get back to camp. Jorge’s making vegetarian chili and I’m starving!”

The reluctance to let go of my mask made me feel a little guilty. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, per se: I mean they were Young Sentinels, teen heroes just like me and we were sworn to watch out for each other. Why wouldn’t I trust them? I guess when it really got down to it I just wanted to keep things simple, something the whole Kaira/Justin dichotomy definitely was not. Was it really so bad needing to be away from that for a while?

As the final crack of sun disappeared between the distant mountain peaks we made our way into the forest. The crickets were shyly silenced with every step but continued chirping again when we had safely passed.

“Are we the last ones here?” Mark asked.

“Yeah,” Brent said cheerily. “Jorge and Gabby have been setting up since early afternoon. Then Herculena showed up, then Ari and me…”

“Oh gods, Herculena is here?” I griped out loud.

“Well, yeah. I know she’s anti-social and all that, but she wouldn’t miss this. I think we’re the only friends she’s got this side of three thousand years.”

‘Anti-social’ was putting it mildly. The last I’d seen of the ancient Greek demi-goddess she’d put a man through a wall for daring to look into her eyes. Ironic really considering that he was too afraid to stare at her ample tan breasts.

“Where is Ari?” Mark asked. No sooner had he said that but the lanky young boy he’d asked about came panting and wheezing from between the trees. “Speak of the devil…”

“You’re way too used to that hover-board,” Brent teased.

Though it wasn’t Ari’s fault that he was left so far behind in the forest. Of all the team he was unquestioningly the most vulnerable, especially without his exo-suit and the machines which he relied upon so heavily. All that had been stripped away to a small handheld touch-screen while the rest of the Gadgeteer and his usual accomplice, Man-Droid, rested safely stored away in a laboratory or lair someplace.

“Sorry,” he wheezed genuinely embarrassed by his lack of endurance. “I’ve been… tracking you guys since… Illinois.”

“Not on foot,” Mark exclaimed, cracking away at Ari’s reserved demeanor and earning a grin from the shy young teen.

“With a whole satellite network at your disposal nothing gets past you, huh?” Brent grinned. Without another word he pulled Ari up onto his back the same way he would a little brother. “You should have stayed back at base camp. I could have gotten them myself.”

“And leave me alone with Herculena!?” he gasped. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

“Aren’t Gabby and Jorge back there too?” Mark interjected.

Ari nodded. “Yeah. How else do you think I got away? Last I saw Herculena was arguing with Gabby saying ‘neither man or woman live on beans and salad alone’. You’d think she could live without meat for one meal…”

Lingering quietly behind the pack I couldn’t help but smile. There was a time I couldn’t have dreamed of being part of a group like this where people laughed and messed around: and they were just like me, only playing at being normal but not caring in the end if they were or not.

Mark turned and shot me a semi-concerned look. “What are you doing all the way back here?” he asked with an open hand beckoning me to keep up.

“Just watching you boys in your natural habitat,” I poked. “I’m feeling a bit like Jane Goodall.”

The joke was mostly over his head, but he rolled with it anyway knowing that he should have been insulted. My acid wit, it seemed, had preceded me.

With a long suffering sigh he reached down and took my hand. I boggled as he pulled my glove off finger by finger and blushed as he wrapped his fingers in mine. With his other arm he gestured me down the path, welcoming me to the camp with an honest twinkle in his warm blue eyes.

“After you, Miss Goodall,” he said.

Yeah, ‘crush’ was understating it a tad.

* * * *

Not far away:

Their stench was unmistakable. Humans: those sweat covered, stink filled walking pigs whose claim to the planet was questionable at best. Even in the wilderness they came riding the backs of their archaic mechanical carriages to tear at the earth and spoil the air, why? For no other reason than their own sense of adventure.

The beast could hear them chatter and squeal inside the cabin like their simian relatives, singing along to empty grunts above dull bass. Something about this angered the monster, though he could not articulate why. Such empty music devoid of any pride and victory… a celebration of pointless human futility! Such things made him sick. Sick!

Soon the vehicle stopped by an embankment above the valley. Stupid human driver, he did not know where he was going. The woman argued with him and silenced the music so her voice could be heard. It was even more shrill, more ghastly…

To the creature their presence was becoming ever more unbearable. Humans had no place there! The forest belonged to him alone! Their cruelty, their violence and their jaded reason would be cast out with razor sharp hands! So said he, the mighty K…!

A word. No, more than that. A name? The beast considered it a moment knowing it meant something. If only he could think over the infernal human din.

“Face it, hon, we’re lost,” the human woman said. Strange last words: that is assuming you disregarded her helpless screams.

* * * *

Arriving at the campsite the scene was exactly what we’d expected.

“What sort of spoiled, decadent world is this where people consider themselves too good for meat!?” Herculena bellowed. “Has all of mankind lost its reason or do you also nibble ambrosia while sipping nectar from the navels of virgins like gods?”

“Look, I just don’t think some poor creature has to die in order to fill my stomach,” Gabby argued.

The demi-goddess frowned and leaned down on her weapon. It looked out of place being brandished so carelessly by a young woman in a t-shirt and denim cut-offs.

She continued. “Cows and sheep are docile even when you raise your sword to them. They expect death. For no other reason did Zeus place them on this earth but for our consumption. Why is that so hard for you to understand!?”

From where we’d emerged in the bushes we could only stare vacantly. Never before had I seen anyone argue so fervently over food. Even a fellow meat eater like myself couldn’t grasp it: did she really need it so bad that she would have to scream and yell like a bratty child to get it? Props to Gabby, at least. Our den mother was keeping a cool head through all of this.

“We totally should have brought popcorn,” Brent chuckled before fearlessly engaging the two with a loud “Yo!”

I was so caught up in the exchange that I completely forget that I was standing there with my hand locked in Nob… Mark’s. His fingertips seemed to throb between my digits, making me once more acutely aware of our touching. Slowly, but surely, I pulled nervously away.

“Maybe we should get out of costume,” he suggested.

Don’t think dirty thoughts. Don’t think dirty thoughts. “Together?” No! Not like that!

Stupid! Stupid! What was I thinking? Next time I would have to turn my brain on before letting my jaw loose.

He laughed, I didn’t. Instead I clung to my back pack and ran to the other side of the fire.

Whatever. I didn’t want to think about it. Instead I distracted myself with the continuing drama.

“Oh, it’s you,” Herculena chided as she finally gave us notice.

Brent smirked audibly. “Yeah, it’s me. You got a problem with that?”

“No,” she told him. “I was simply wondering how long it was going to take for you to fetch the others.”

Listening to them bicker I thought about the kind of group the Young Sentinels were. We were too casual with each other to be mere comrades, but at the same time they were too distant to be real friends. Sure, we had a good time and we shared a lot, but when the weekend was over we would go our separate ways and not think of each other until the next time we came together.

Maybe the point of this trip is to change all of that, I thought. With that idea came the prospect of spending more time with Mark and my gradual devolution into a drooling airhead cleaving to his arm. There were worse fates, weren’t there?

Yeah, right. Like anything like that was going to happen. I could dream but reality was more complicated. Guys like him didn’t have girlfriends who were transexual ever. If he knew he wouldn’t be interested, so why even think about it?

Brent laughed off Herculena’s insults while kneeling down to sit on a conveniently placed log. “Our, uh… GPS was broken.”

“It wasn’t broken,” Ari complained indignantly. “You just chose to race ahead and leave. It’s not my fault the only one of us with a tracking network doesn’t have the ninja stealth or the agility to keep up.”

“How long ‘til we get some grub?” Brent asked eagerly.

“As long as it takes for me to track, kill and skin a deer,” Herculena moaned. “I’ve not tried venison but I hear it is delicious.”

Once again Gabby started towards the fussy demi-god but decided better of it. “You’re not going to… oh, forget it. You can do what you want. Shame on me for thinking you could live without the taste of flesh for a night. And to answer your question, Brent, we eat when Jorge gets back. One of us was silly enough to leave the beans back in the jet.”

With an easy smile Mark reached into his backpack to play white knight again. From it he removed a conveniently stashed bag of beef jerky and offered it to the grumpy amazon. “Here,” he said teasingly, “don’t say I never did anything for you.”

She raised the corners of her mouth towards him, the closest thing she had resembling a smile. “Thank you. I am glad that someone around here knows to be adequately prepared.”

Leaning forward I warmed my bare hands over the fire. It was suddenly chilly, which was unusual given that it was supposed to be spring.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m nowhere remotely close to hungry,” I said.

Brent propped himself up and grinned at the shimmering black pool not far behind us. “I can think of one way to work up an appetite,” he suggested slyly.

I shuddered but tried to keep it to myself. It was just as I’d feared.

* * * *

Maybe I was just paranoid, but I couldn’t go into the water until I was sure, absolutely sure. While the others splashed I was stuck lingering in one of the tents inspecting my swimsuit for any mistakes. Gods, I would have killed for a mirror.

The black bikini top and board shorts seemed inconspicuous enough, but would they do the trick? Maybe it was the fact that I just wasn’t used to showing off so much skin that was making me nervous. Disguising things that might have been read as male is easy when there are layers of clothing involved. The minimalist approach sadly didn’t always work as well.

“What am I, stupid?” I groaned to myself. “Nobody’s going to know…”

“Hey, Glimmer Girl. Can I talk to you a second?”

I peeled the flap away to reveal our group den mother, Gabby, tilting her head down and smiling diplomatically. She worried about me just like she worried about all of the Young Sentinels and did it like it was her job. Overall she was one of the most generous people I had ever had the honor of meeting, and without her might have been just another solo teen hero having to work everything out on her own.

“Sure,” I said. “Come on in.”

She regarded my mask oddly as she sat cross-legged on the sleeping bag. “Still can’t bear to take it off, huh?”

I shrugged. “Guess I’m just not ready to share that part of myself with the group.”

“Yeah, I know, but remember nobody here will judge you,” she reminded me for the millionth time, “and even if they did they’d have Jorge screaming to high heaven in your defense.”

“I know.”

“It’s probably rude of me ask, but is it a secret identity thing or a trans thing that’s got you so bugged out right now?”

I was embarrassed to admit it. “Trans thing,” I said. “Definitely a trans thing.”

“Well then,” she continued, “nobody has to know that you’re trans. Mask or not nobody’s going to know unless you tell them. Okay?”

My lips frowned lazily. Gods, I hated thinking about trans stuff. It was like a whirling dervish of social carnage that affected everything it touched. It made life and identity into something political that people either agreed or disagreed with regardless of the feelings of the person experiencing it. Was it so bad that I wanted to leave that junk out of my hero life?

As usual Gabby was quick on the uptake. “I’m sorry. I didn’t say anything wrong, did I? I just thought…”

“No, you’re right,” I told her. “I guess I’m just having a hard time making a distinction between myself and… you know. It’s still scary and new. I’ve wanted to be Kaira all my life but it’s only just happening now and I’m still getting used to it, but when I’m Glimmer Girl…”

Suddenly she stood and threw her arms around me. It was a shock until I realized that I was crying. Funny, I didn’t even notice. The frighteningly maternal way she scratched the back of my head only made things worse. Gods, I was stupid. Why did I have to make a big deal about it? Why couldn’t I just let it go and live like an actual person?

“You know you don’t have to go out there if you don’t want to,” she told me. “I can understand if swimwear is difficult for you right now. If you want we can just stay up on the shore and talk.”

“Thanks,” I choked, “but I want to swim.”

“You sure?”

“Positive,” I lied. She could tell, of course, but at least made an effort to believe me.

Peeling back the tent flap I took my first tentative steps outside. Here goes nothing, I thought. Almost immediately I felt a shudder as the wind ran along patches of flesh that weren’t accustomed to that kind of exposure. It was frighteningly like reliving Kaira’s first night on the town all over again.

Brent was the first to notice and whistled in my direction. “Looking good, GG!” he called to the shore.

But it was Mark that I was worried about. He turned with a blank expression, pulled suddenly away from whatever game he was playing with the others. I lingered in that moment of uncertainty and was genuinely surprised when he smiled warmly in my direction. Could it be that a guy like him actually liked what he saw?

“Come on in,” he said. “The water’s fine!”

Racing into the water I flopped on top of him playfully. For the first time since arriving on the trip I was kind of a little bit able to relax. Maybe, I thought, things were going to be okay.

* * * *

For the moment humanity had been silenced with the heads of the two unsuspecting representatives smashed like the car radio they so fondly chattered along to. They were such weak prey that there was no satisfaction to be had from them. No, these were but mere children ignorant of the world’s cruelty, forever naïve of the ways of the hunter or warrior.

The monster cried to the moon. Their stench, their stench! It covered his claws and jowls, staining them with the sickly thick red that once filled the veins of his quarry. Running his hands thick and deep into the leaves and dirt, their corrupting mark would not come off his gleaming, silver scales.

Perhaps a drink was what he needed. The river from which he’d ascended was not far behind. It displeased him that not long had he come from the water that he needed to return and refresh himself: such was the sickness of humans.

Diving into the pale reflection of the moon the creature shook himself violently. Anything to be free of the ape’s distant cousin! In the water the redness drifted free in dark clouds being carried downstream. Driven by his disgust he propelled his body in the opposite direction.

The next few minutes were calm and serene. Generously he allowed the fish to swim by unharmed. There may have yet been a time when he would snatch them up, but not yet. As the monster sought out peace the lower animals were granted a temporary reprieve.

Suddenly he noticed a sound. It was that chattering again, the one that he could not escape. Humans! Stinking humans! They were everywhere, even in the wilds away from their precious cities!

With hate boiling inside the creature dared to bring himself closer. In the murky waters he could barely make out a pair of protruding limbs with five digits on each. Maybe if he were to snatch them away from their owner they would learn who was truly fit to rule.

Closer and closer, he could taste their sweat along the current. Hiding in the dark below the beast prepared to strike…

* * * *

TO BE CONTINUED…