The hunter's prey

The hunter’s prey

He was staring at the carcass ahead of him, the national parks ranger standing next to him was wiping the sweat of his brow, lifting the hat ever so slightly to achieve it. They stood near a line of trees close to the edge of a ridge and the area was quite lovely, down by the river below he could see a hiking trail and there were some cabins further up the valley. This was an area very popular among hikers and nature lovers and it was very famous. The park sported some interesting geology, some steep and very imposing cliffs which were drawing in climbers from all over the world and then of course there was the wildlife, it was wonderfully diverse and was being watched constantly by a whole army of rangers.

This one was a guy in his early twenties, a rather calm and quiet type of guy and he hadn’t really said much during the hike up there. The path they had followed was quite steep and had some nasty stretches where they had to trust their balance and some ropes to cross a very deep canyon and getting up there wasn’t for everybody, that was for darn sure. He bowed down, sniffed the air discretely. The carcass was starting to smell but it wasn’t too bad yet, the stench would get more rancid soon enough. The sight was a sad one, it made him feel almost depressed. A huge gorgeous stag, in his prime. Now he laid there dead and the one who shot him hadn’t even bothered bleeding the animal, no, all they had done was to cut off the top of the head to get the antlers. It wasn’t right, and it made his blood boil with rage. The ranger sighed. “He was the largest buck here, would have sired a lot of nice calves come the rut. “

Celegorm got up, stretched and his eyes were cold, the park had sent him a mail about a problem they had since someone he had worked with before had recommended him to them. He hadn’t hesitated, the problem was just the type his master hated and he knew that he would do good if he managed to help them. The problem was poachers, there had been three incidents already and the rangers were helpless. They just couldn’t do much at all.

He sighed and straightened his hat, the sun was intense and the soil baked hard by the heat, no chance of a footprint. Of anything really. “Well, I can tell you one thing for sure”

The ranger blinked. “Really?”

Celegorm nodded. “The one who did this is an excellent shot, one bullet one kill. No need for an extra shot. The buck was dead in an instant, didn’t have time to run even a few feet”

The ranger swallowed hard. “Makes sense, if the animal has time to run it may be discovered”

Celegorm tilted his head. “He was rather close too, see the exit wound? And he used a high calibre rifle, maybe with a night scope. If he had come up here in daytime someone would have seen him for sure”

The ranger frowned. “Then he must have come from behind the ridge?”

Celegorm nodded. “Yes, there is a road about ten miles to the east yes? He have hiked inn from there, probably hiding his vehicle somewhere and used the cover of night”

The ranger took a deep breath. “Sounds like some special ops soldier if you ask me”

Celegorm smiled but the smile was very narrow. “Yes, probably. Well trained, very disciplined and also very determined”

The ranger nodded. “Yeah, that first case, I mean, you have got to really want it and want it bad to carry the head of a freakin’ bison. It is bloody heavy man”

Celegorm grunted, he tried to see if he could see anything there but it was impossible, the ground too hard. “I say you leave the carcass where it is, the meat is spoiled and the bears and cats need food too”

The ranger closed his eyes. “Yeah, you are right, but it feels so…undignified if you see what I mean? He wasn’t supposed to die like this, everybody loved the buck, the photographers were mad about him”

Celegorm sighed. “And that made someone just as mad about his antlers unfortunately. I think this was an ordered hit, there could be several culprits”

He put on his sunglasses, adjusted the belt in which he carried his gun and frowned. He was rather sure that there were many people involved, just one man couldn’t have done this much mischief.

They walked back down, rather quietly. Celegorm was thinking hard. “Know what, send out an alert to your Sherriff, make him check every local taxidermist and shops which sells souvenirs. Ask the staff if somebody has noticed odd people, people who doesn’t belong”

The ranger scoffed. “Doesn’t belong? Heck, I would say that nine out of ten here doesn’t belong, the tourists man…some of them have rocks for brains I am sure”

Celegorm was aware of the problem. “You are right, look for people who belong instead, but just a tad too much if you catch my drift?”

The ranger nodded. “Hunters”

Celegorm smirked. “Yes, anyone carrying camouflage, driving strong 4 wheelers, having dogs. “

The ranger grinned and his eyes got a bit of the enthusiasm back. “I will see if anyone has seen anything”

They had reached the cabins and the main office by now and the young man scooted off, Celegorm walked over to the office and sighed. The leader there was an elderly woman who couldn’t be fully five feet, she was stocky and lean and tough as flintstones. The uniform she wore was old and almost worn through and the thick short hair grey at the roots. He had a feeling that he’d rather try to wrestle a wild boar than this formidable female. She was at the desk when he entered and she snorted and looked up, deep blue eyes staring at him sternly. “Now, did you find anything?”

The tall hunter sighed. “Well. The culprit is using a rather special rifle, probably made for snipers. He is careful and he isn’t afraid of hiking for a long time to get what he wants. I am starting to think that he is working for others”

The woman closed her eyes and sighed, looked tired. “Oh feckin’ shite, I was afraid of that. There have been rumours…”

Celegorm frowned. “Rumours?”

She nodded. “Yes, from the east coast. Some say that several museums have been robbed, the thieves took the horns of rhinos, elephant tusks and stuffed out animals.”

He sat down, kept his hat on. “You think this could be the same people?”

She leaned back, the chair was creaking badly. “Yep, could be. Such trophies are rare, and expensive. Only those who have more money than brains can afford it.”

She stared out of the window. “Fucking cowards, bastards! I hate trophy hunters, like the plague”

Celegorm nodded. “Ditto Mrs Sandstrom”

She shook her head and got up, started wandering about the room like a restless slightly overgrown dwarrowdam. Celegorm wondered if the dwarves had somehow made it into the ages after the third, and somehow mingled with the humans. She had the broad features of a dwarf. “What must we do now? To protect our park against such…horrors”

Celegorm took a deep breath. “Arm the rangers well, place surveillance by every exit gate and every road but discretely, and never in the obvious positions. Make sure that every person who go through the gates carry a sign that they were registered, like a…club stamp or something”

She grunted and tilted her head. “Yeah, that ought to work. But at night?”

He shrugged. “Ron said that one of the workers here has a drone with heat sensitive cameras?”

She nodded and turned towards him. “He does? Good, I will ask him to fly it around then”

Celegorm smiled. “Remember that those things have a limited range”

She rolled her eyes. “Do not be such a kill joy, Mr Fell said you were the best hunter he had ever met, do you think you can hunt this very elusive prey?”

He nodded. “Yes, I am sure I can”

She took a deep breath. “Then start with old silly won’t you? The loss of that sow was a hard experience for us all”

He had seen the images, the headless and footless bear, and the two orphaned cubs who had been discovered as they desperately tried to wake up their murdered mother. He hadn’t felt such rage in a very long time. He got up and tipped his hat politely. “I better get going, I think I am gonna start doing some research right away”

She stared at the window again. “Yes, good luck. It is odd, we are here to protect the wildlife from the tourists and the tourists from themselves but something like this…I cannot really imagine it, no, not really”

Celegorm made a grimace. “The true ruler of this world is money, sad but true”

She scoffed. “True words my friend.”

He exited and walked to the truck, he had parked the trailer just outside of the park and Lomiel was waiting for him by it. She had her own things to do and he was rather proud of her. She had spent over a year getting used to the modern world but she had adapted rather well and she had developed a sort of cunning insight which stunned him at times. She saw straight through people and she was rather active online. Several modelling agencies had contacted her almost begging her to work for them but she had declined. She had many followers online though, she was tearing the beauty industry a new one almost each day and she was very busy advocating for things like animal rescue groups, environmental preservation and simple basic scientific understanding. As she said, the people of this day and age were often more stupid than an orc.

They had grown very close over this year, and their relationship had become one of deep trust and love. Oh they were both temperamental and sparks would fly rather often but in a good way. Celegorm had become more relaxed, more in harmony with himself, he wasn’t ashamed to admit it and she was of course the joy of his existence. The trailer had been switched for an even larger one, a special made one this time. They had the horses and his dogs but one morning as they got up they heard barking and as they exited Celegorm realized that she too was to be blessed with an extra pair of companions. But it was an odd pair, not what he had expected. There stood a massive black dog which had to be at least 50% wolf, probably a lot more, the size of a small horse or so it seemed. And next to it, perched on a fallen tree was a massive bird. It was some sort of eagle but he had never seen one that large, and of course pitch black. Lomiel was staring. “That is not real, there are no black eagles?”

Celegorm wetted his lips. “I think there are, now!”

She walked forth and the dog came up to her, sniffing her and staring at Celegorm with a odd sort of knowing gaze, the eyes were golden and eerily similar to those of the eagle. Lomiel gasped. “Maiar, you are maiar”

The two animals nodded and Celegorm heard their voices. “We are Moriraca and Phoron, we are here to aid you”

Lomiel bowed her head gracefully and welcomed them and the wolf trotted inside as if it had lived there with them forever. The eagle jumped down and walked into the horse part of the trailer where it found a nice perch on top of the saddle rack. Celegorm didn’t really know what to think anymore, two such powerful beings, acting like animals.

As he pulled up next to the trailer Lomiel exited, the black wolf laid in the shade and he had no idea where the eagle was. He sighed and she saw his expression, put down the laptop she had been carrying. “Bad?”

He nodded, rubbed his eyes a bit. “Very bad, a bison, a bear and now a stag, all murdered”

She bit her teeth together. “Did you see anything?”

He shook his shoulders, feeling a bit defeated. “Nothing useful, but I think we have to be clever this time, the animals were not randomly killed, someone wanted those specific trophies, and ordered them”

She hissed. “Like take away?”

He nodded. “Yeah, a grotesque comparison but a fitting one”

Lomiel sat down, her eyes were a bit distant. “Who does something like that?”

Celegorm sighed and grasped the lap top. “People with so much money they don’t have to care anymore, about anyone or anything. People with just too much ego”

She leaned against him, the long silky black hair tickled his cheek. “I want to check the news, for any reports of theft, trophies, animals, anything really”

She watched as he opened the browser and started typing. The laptop was a rather ordinary one and not very fancy but it was good enough for him. The miracles of this modern world never seized to amaze him. He started a search and it wasn’t long before he got a hit, and it was a rather unexpected one. It was a newspaper headline, from the east coast. Someone had killed a tiger in a zoo, and skinned the animal. It was a very rare tiger since it has melanism and was rather dark, almost black. The entire zoo was in shock and mourning and the culprit hadn’t left a single trace the police could use.

He kept searching, more cases like that, spread out over a couple of years, all rather nasty and few had reached the national headlines since it after all were animals which were murdered, not people. Lomiel was staring over his shoulder and she was cussing to herself in Sindarin. Celegorm found a notebook and started to make notes, it seemed as if the incidents were speeding up, coming closer together. And there was something odd about it, there were never two cases of the same species being killed, only one of each. He grunted. “A collector”

Lomiel wetted her lips. “Yes, it must be. “

Celegorm stared at the list. “Well, there aren’t that many species left of large predators if he wants to finish a collection”

Lomiel nodded. “But he must have hired someone yes? A person who is used to hunting”

Celegorm made a grimace. “Probably a special force soldier, used to getting around in the wilderness and used to hunting down anything really”

She pouted. “Well, people tend to brag don’t they? To others like them? Maybe we can find the one behind this that way?”

Celegorm shrugged. “That will be like finding a needle in a haystack, such people use safe networks, and the dark web”

Lomiel stared at him. “Didn’t you mention some guy you worked with who worked with such cases?”

Celegorm closed his eyes. “Yes, Kieran McConnor, he is a hacker and yes, I worked with him some years ago, finding some lost kids. But…”

She nudged him in the ribs. “Contact him, I bet he can help us”

Celegorm frowned. “Lomiel dear, it has been years”

She tilted her head. “And?”

He rolled his eyes. “And who do you think looks exactly the same as back then?”

She just scoffed. “You don’t need to meet him, just…email him, whatever it is you do. Contact him”

Celegorm took a deep breath. “Right, fine, I will send him an email, but I cannot make any promises”

He found the right address and hoped that Kieran still had it, then he sent a rather short mail, he would probably be ignored.

They went to grab something to eat and he went over the notes again, it was rather clear that the person behind it all truly were a collector for he soon saw that every animal which had been killed had been something out of the ordinary. The dead black bear had a very unique set of white markings, the bison had a white blaze which covered most of the face, the stag had antlers with a very unique and impressive shape. He started to organize the cases they had found and it was fourteen in all, some cases were not interesting, it was just ordinary poaching but fourteen animal, all killed because they were special. And then the break inns, the museums which had been robbed, there had also been such cases regarding private collections and he started to believe that this was the same culprit, just working for someone else, maybe even practicing.

He felt the rage rising again, the one ordering these murders hadn’t even had the guts to go out there and do it themselves, no, he had hired somebody to do it for him. that was absolutely outrageous and he felt a need to wring that somebody’s neck, really hard.

The pling when he received an email almost made him jump, they were having a meal and the black wolf was begging shamelessly by the table. He was so large he could almost carry it off on his back and Lomiel laughed and petted him. She had gotten used to the two but Celegorm still felt a wee bit of nervousness around them, after all, they were maiar.

He opened the laptop and it was in fact a mail from Kieran, he was more than willing to help if they just sent him the details. Celegorm explained the case in the answer and also the things he had seen, they could just hope that Kieran would understand. Lomiel was an optimist, she always were and Celegorm not so much so. But he had hopes. As they were waiting the news spoke of some incident down south, it was the pet of a very famous movie star, a black panther which had been killed and taken and people were truly upset since this was an animal many knew about and admired. And it had been taken from someone who had excellent security. That told Celegorm that the people behind this had resources too, and were ruthless enough to do just about anything to get what they wanted.

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It took several days, then Kieran mailed them back, there had been other cases they hadn’t found because the victims hadn’t been land animals but sea creatures. An orca in a water park had been poisoned and the teeth extracted. A great white in an aquarium had suffered the same fate. Celegorm was stunned, this was almost on the verge of some sort of obsession. But Kieran had also found something else, and it could perhaps be a lead, several museums had received offers to buy certain dinosaur skeletons, this had also happened to collectors and some palaeontologists who were working in the fields. Whoever it was who did the bidding, the person had to be filthy rich and also desperate. Celegorm had a hunch and it was a strong one, this was the same person.

Kieran suggested that he was to see if he could discover who the bidder was, it had probably gone through several different people but it ought to be possible to backtrack the bids to the original bidder. Celegorm agreed and now the game was on. But were there any chance at finding the elusive person? He and Kieran kept mailing back and forth, the hacker was good, he had worked for the government and had access to some methods most people didn’t even know existed and before long he was deep inside of a network which according to Kieran gave him the heebie jeebies. Celegorm wasn’t surprised at all, the level of human depravity could no longer shock him.

But Kieran sent over some links and they made Celegorm tense up, it was obvious that this person was part of a sort of club, which competed in having the most impressive trophies and now there was a sort of challenge going on. There was to be a hunt, and Lomiel went pale as she read the description. She stared at Celegorm with huge eyes. “They cannot be serious?”

Celegorm felt his throat go dry. “I am sorry love, but I fear that they are. There are plenty of people out there nobody will miss”

He grasped the laptop, started a frantic search for missing people and asked Kieran to do the same. The hacker didn’t use long, within half an hour they had an answer, there had in fact been a surge in the amount of missing homeless people, all male and most former military or navy. The news made Lomiel shudder. Celegorm swore. “The ultimate prey, the human type”

He took a deep breath. “And they are to have another hunt soon, we have to do something, before even more innocent people have to die”

Lomiel bit her lower lip. “Can we find out where they are to do this?”

Celegorm frowned, “I think so, it has to be somewhere far from any city or town, where they cannot be detected. And somewhere where nobody will find the bodies.”

Lomiel blinked. “Do you think Kieran can find that place?”

He shrugged. “I suppose so, it has to be some private land, probably owned by one or more of the people involved. I bet most of the club members are very rich indeed. The bastard who ordered those animals killed is one of the members for sure.”

He sent a new mail and then they waited, it was a good thing they had this connection to someone who knew the modern inventions and how to use them. Celegorm felt a sort of energy surge through him, if those bastards indeed had raised the stakes to the level of man hunt he wasn’t going to let this go unpunished. He was a hunter too, and maybe these so called hunters could benefit of learning what that truly meant. Kieran answered, the area was probably a huge ranch owned by one of the club members, just as Celegorm had anticipated. It was very secluded and it had a fence around it too, and the terrain was very diverse. A perfect hunting ground.

Kieran sent a picture and some information, he wasn’t sure of what to do with the information, the police ought to be warned but Celegorm asked him not to do that, not until he sent a new mail. He was gonna deal with this, his own way. Kieran wasn’t too sure about this since he probably believed that Celegorm was a human being, he had never seen what a first age elf could do, and had no clue at all about what a maia was.

Celegorm told him to lay low, erase any trace of having entered the network and just wait, and not to worry. He said he had help but he didn’t specify it. Lomiel stared at him. “What are we to do?”

Celegorm sent her a smile, it was full of teeth, not in the nice way. “We go there, the hunt is scheduled to be in five days, we can manage it”

Lomiel frowned. “I don’t like this, I bet those are terrible people”

Celegorm growled. “They haven’t met terrible, they have no clue about what terrible truly is. Compared to Sauron those humans are mere amateurs. No, I do not fear them, at all. They will however learn how to fear before this is over”

He nodded at the black wolf which sat beside them and the dogs. “And you guys will have to do you part of the job”

Wagging tails and excited woofs were the answer to that. Lomiel tilted her head. “And me? What am I to do?”

He petted her on the back. “I think you are to save the poor bastards picked out to be prey, you are a female, they are more likely to trust you”

Lomiel rolled her eyes. “Once again I am glad I have become my true self, I don’t think they would have followed the lord of the house of the mole”

Celegorm had to laugh. “No, that would take a lot I guess”

He got up. “Right, pack up, we leave at first light tomorrow. I have to check maps and satellite photos tonight, we need a plan”

Lomiel just nodded. She knew him by now, he was already making a plan in his head, and he was not one who forgot even a small detail.

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The next morning they were ready to go and Celegorm opened the door and was about to exit the trailer when he saw a figure out by the trees at the edge of the parking space, it was a very tall person, covered by the dark shades of the trees and he tensed up and grasped for his gun. Lomiel stared out over his shoulder and she made a sound, a sort of yelp and her eyes got huge. The person entered the light and Celegorm had to gasp too, it was another elf. A very tall elf, broad of shoulders and muscular, with a handsome and yet odd face, as if there was something feral about him, something slightly unhinged. The hair was very long and braided back, held by leather strips and he was rather dark of skin, but the eyes…they were golden, piercing, the eyes of a predator. Lomiel squeaked again. “Lord Rog?!”

Celegorm had to blink. Rog? He had met Rog, in Aman, before they all went insane and followed his father to middle earth, back then the huge noldo had been a smiths apprentice and a very calm and down to earth person. Now this? Rog walked towards them, he grinned, the body moved with the wiry elegance of a huge beast and Celegorm remembered what he had heard of this elf. The name Rog was no coincidence, the orcs had tried to break and form him into a nightmare, a terror to his own people but the ones feeling the terror would be themselves. They had created something not even they could have foreseen. “Greetings, so, I see that the rumours are true. The lord of the mole was truly a lady”

Lomiel blushed and looked down, Rog had a very deep voice, it was rather rough and had some grit to it, it was probably rather unpleasant when he was angry. Celegorm wetted his lips. “Why are you here, why now?”

Rog grinned, he was in fact extremely attractive, a sort of dangerous beauty, drawing you inn like the pull of an abyss. He was even taller than Celegorm and probably a heck of a lot stronger. “The valar sent me, they decided that you will need help with this one”

Lomiel gaped. “They know?”

Rog nodded. The jeans and shirt he wore looked rather odd but then again what else could he wear. “Yes, your master alerted them and they are enraged. The people behind this are to be stopped”

Celegorm grinned. “Yeah, we are onto that idea”

Rog smiled. “The bastards have some tools in their arsenal which can become dangerous even to you, so they sent me. I can handle a lot, and I know evil better than most”

Lomiel nodded. “Yeah, I…remember”

Rog tilted his head. “I have some stuff over there, let me get it, then we better get going”

He walked back into the shade and came back with a backpack and a long suitcase, the type people use to carry guns. Celegorm frowned and Rog grinned. “Do not worry my friends, I haven’t gone all modern”

He opened the box and Celegorm gaped, in it was two war hammers, they looked rather vicious and had to be very heavy and also, absolutely deadly. The heads were flat on one side and had a terrible spike on the other and the handles were long. The craftsmanship was excellent, black steel with inlays of gold and bronze and the pattern was one Lomiel recognized. It was Rog’s old insignia and she had to grin. She remembered him, just as terrifying as the balrogs in his wrath, and the orcs had fled before him. No wonder, those hammers were the most terrible weapon you could face on a battle fields. Swords and axes left clean wounds, a war hammer on the other hand crushed, it was internal bleedings, pulverized joints and organs, cracked skulls and armour was little protection. Rog lifted the hammers. “I made these myself, Aüle was kind enough to let me borrow his forge, I have named them Wrath and Fury”

Celegorm felt an absurd need to giggle, why had had no idea. “Yeah, that sounds about right…that is…fitting”

Lomiel looked a bit nervous. “But the bastards out there have guns, you have seen what those weapons can do?”

Rog nodded. “Yes, but worry not little princess, I will be safe. The hunters will become prey this time”

He got into the truck, sat down and grinned. “So, let’s go then. We have some surveillance to do, and plans to make”

It was a whole two and a half day drive to get to the area where the ranch was placed and they parked the trailer and the truck inside of an abandoned barn. There had been a farm there once but the main house had burned down and the other buildings had sort of collapsed. The barn stood though and it was rather large and still not leaking. It was a good place to hide a vehicle. Celegorm mailed Kieran again, he needed more details about the security of the place. Rog helped preparing their own security, and Lomiel made some food. They got an answer from Kieran as they ate, he had found that the owner of the ranch had surveillance cameras just about everywhere and also, he had dogs running around the perimeter and security guards with drones. The black wolf sort of grinned and Celegorm knew his role now, and that of the eagle. The drones would be toast soon enough. They had found a map of the property and it was rather detailed too, Kieran had even managed to find some photos. They were not new and probably taken when the property was out for sale some years ago but the satellite images were new and they didn’t show any great changes.

Celegorm stared at the images, he pointed to a spot some distance away from the buildings. “See this? This image was taken one month before the next, there is a definite change”

Rog nodded. “They have been digging”

Lomiel swallowed hard. “Yeah, do you think?”

Celegorm sighed. “Yes, if Kieran isn’t wrong that was done not long after the last hunt of theirs. Those are graves”

Rog growled and almost caressed the hilt of the hunting knife he carried. “Mass graves, I doubt they would give their victims any dignity, even in death”

Lomiel stared at the two males, her eyes were narrow. “So, how are we to do this?”

Celegorm took a deep breath. “They get their electricity from the power lines over that ridge, it ought to be possible to do something about those?”

Rog nodded. “Yeah, those things tend to have an emergency switch yes?”

Celegorm smiled. “Indeed, in case the line men has to do some repairs without having to switch off the entire grid. I think we can cut the electricity without much problems, and the generator of theirs will have an accident I think, a rather violent one”

Lomiel tilted her head. “But they have people there already I guess? Or will they be brought inn later?”

Celegorm took a deep breath. “Later, probably the evening before the hunt starts. They cannot risk that anybody has the time to escape. “

He pointed at the photos. “See? Those are rooms made as storage units, solid and with heavy doors. I bet that is where they keep their captives.”

Rog grunted. “It makes sense yes, but one question. You said that the one person who was behind the animal killings wanted trophies, what sort of trophy can you get from a dead person?”

Lomiel made a grimace, she was not thinking about anything pleasant for sure but Celegorm just nodded. “I see the dilemma, but these are ex military people, they have kept their dog tags I bet”

Lomiel spat. “That is still disgusting, and disturbing”

Rog smiled at her. “Agreed. But let us keep planning, the electricity goes out, everything is dark and…?”

Celegorm petted the black wolf. “This guy here goes out and starts killing their dogs, that ought to catch their attention. And the sight of a giant black wolf ought to trigger their hunting lust shouldn’t it?”

The maia made a small woof and nodded and Lomiel looked at the eagle which had settled on one of the beams holding the roof. “And he takes care of the drones?”

Celegorm smiled. “Yes, that is being done many places now, and if need be, well, he is a maia. I bet he can do some tricks”

The eagle shrieked and spread its wings, the eyes were glowing slightly. Lomiel smiled. “And the people they have captured?”

Celegorm pointed at the map. “They are kept behind the main buildings, I think we can get them out of there, we cannot risk their safety. Kieran thinks that the owner of the place has at least twenty goons who work for him, and they are probably not exactly choir boys so we have to be ready to get our hands bloody, right away.”

Lomiel frowned. “And me, I thought I was the one to get the captives out of there?”

Celegorm swallowed. “How brave are you?”

She scoffed. “Duh, I fought in battles, in the first age. I am brave”

Rog grinned widely. “Oh I know, you were a good and capable warrior, even if you were…a bit off”

She rolled her eyes. “Blame my dad, the creep”

Celegorm waited, then he continued. “The info Kieran sent me told me a few things about this club of theirs, hunting isn’t all they do, they do also party and they party hard. There is booze and food and of course women too. They bring in escorts from the cities”

Lomiel looked shocked. “They don’t harm the girls?”

Celegorm shook his head. “No, not more than one can expect. They probably know naught of the hunting which takes place, they probably think that the men go out to hunt deer or something like that. But when the shit hits the fan they may use the girls as human shields, you will need to get them out of there, also, the booze, if you can put a little something into the drinks then we have fewer enemies to handle”

Lomiel stared at him. “You are asking me to pose as a prostitute and drug the bad guys?”

He nodded, she started to giggle. “Right, now that can become a challenge, how are we to achieve that?”

Celegorm grinned. “By courtesy of our friend Kieran, he knows the name of the business they rent the escorts from and also the names of all the girls. You will replace a girl named Siren, she looks a bit like you and is new, nobody has met her yet. The real Siren has been given an extra amount of money just to go into hiding for a while.”

Lomiel smiled, it was a sort of devilish grin. “Oh I bet I can play the role, but what if they start to… you know?”

Celegorm smiled. “We have thought of that, they rarely go all the way with the partying the first night, it is more civilized since they need to be sober the day after, but if someone of them starts to be too clingy you have my permission to knock them out. Just don’t leave any marks on them.”

Lomiel tilted her head, “I know just the dress to wear too, but I can be armed right?”

Rog nodded and handed her something. It looked like a piece of a broom handle in metal, flat in both ends and the length of a hands width. She frowned. “What is that?”

He snickered. “Go into the middle of the room and press hard at the ends, once”

She did and the small piece of rod suddenly transformed into a rod of at least five and a half foot. She gasped. “That is some weapon!”

Rog nodded. “Yes, and behold”

He pulled something from his bag, it was a belt, rather avant garde when it came to design with several pieces of metal attached. It looked like the work from a mad designer and the rod fitted perfectly into one of the slots when it was pushed back together again. “See? Think of it as a long sword, only that it won’t cut”

She giggled. “No, but it can cause a heck of a headache”

Celegorm nodded. “So, we have the details down. I will go online and rent a car for you Lomiel, one which fits your role. We can communicate with Osanwe and me and Rog will take care of the people chosen to be prey, then we will hunt the hunters”

Lomiel just shrugged. “Let us hope that there won’t be any snags in the plan.”

Rog shrugged. “Everything can happen, but relax, we have maiar on our side, and I don’t think the valar want these guys to continue the way they have”

Lomiel bit her lower lip. “Do we just wait here until it is time or?”

Rog shook his head. “No, we have to do some further surveillance, and I have asked Kieran to come up with the info on these so called hunters. I would very much like to know who they are, and what sorts of resources they have”

Rog grinned. “Know thy enemy and all that?”

Celegorm smiled back. “Exactly”

They sent Phoron out to scout and since he could fly even in darkness nobody saw that giant eagle. Moriraca was also out there and the fence was no challenge for the maia, he jumped it as if it wasn’t even there. When they returned they transformed, neither of them had done that before but their more humanoid forms were terrifying. Both were still pitch black and had golden eyes and they were very similar in shape, lean and muscular and both had hands with claws and moved with an eerie elegance. It was Phoron who spoke first. “You are right, the disturbance outside of the ranch were graves, fresh ones. I think at least twenty people are buried there, judging by the smell. “

Celegorm cringed and Rog growled deep in his throat. Moriraca continued. “There are fifteen men there, but the hunters will bring their own lifeguards too when they arrive. We talk at least thirty armed men when all are here. The owner of the ranch is already here, he is a paranoid person who doesn’t even trust his friends, neither of them does.”

Phoron made an odd sound. “The area is huge, and they hunt the men from small four wheeled vehicles, even if the prey is given a head start of a few hours they don’t have time to get far. Some of them are in fact hindered in certain ways”

Rog frowned. “Hindered, how?”

The former eagle squeaked. “Chained feet, chained arms”

Celegorm swore. “Fucking bastards”

The black skinned maia nodded. “I overheard two of the guards, they spoke about something special this time, a surprise. I think they have somebody who has worked for them, as a sort of extra treat”

Celegorm wetted his lips. “Oh fucking bastards, I should have thought so!”

Lomiel frowned. “Thought what?”

He took a deep breath. “The guy who shot the animals, they have to silence him right? He cannot be allowed to tell anyone about what he has done”

Rog looked truly pissed off, it was not a pretty sight. “Yeah, makes perfect sense”

Celegorm hissed. “The guy who hired him has probably offered him up to the others, as an extra challenge”

Lomiel shook her head. “I will never understand humans, no way”

Celegorm made a grimace, then he opened the laptop. “And now, let’s take a peek at the challenge shall we? Who are these bastards, really”

--------

The group spent the next day going over the files Kieran had sent and work on the details of the plan. The area was carefully mapped and the photos taken when the farm was for sale was a great help too. They could figure out where the guards would stay.

The day arrived, Celegorm drove Lomiel to the nearest city in the very early hours of the morning. She brought a bag of clothes and stuff and Celegorm found the car rental service and she was a bit shocked by the car he had chosen. It was a very small sports car, rather fancy in a very vibrant colour of pearlescent blue. It was not at all discrete and also very pricey. Celegorm hugged her. “Remember, arrive around half past four, and also, you are a very high standard escort, not a street girl. Expect to be treated as luxury goods, and act the part.”

She blew him a kiss. “Most certainly”

Celegorm returned to the barn and Rog, they were gearing up. The modern days had come up with stuff much better than what they had had, so they had gotten hold of black tactical gear from an army sale. It wasn’t top notch but useable and not too heavy. They had brought some guns but would rely mostly on Rog’s hammers and Celegorm’s bow. And knives, long knives the type the silvan had favoured. Celegorm set out early, he found the electrical lines and followed them to a rather narrow spot between two cliffs, there he climbed up and found the emergency switch. He cut the power and then he made sure that the switch couldn’t be turned back on safely. He ran back to Rog and now it was Moriraca’s turn to act. The black wolf had the ability to change its size and not just its shape and it shrunk itself to the size of a normal wolf. It was over the fence like a ghost and Rog and Celegorm knew that the fence was electric and also wired with alarms so they dug their way inn under it next to some large rocks. They pulled their gear through and moved forth slowly. There were dangers everywhere now and they couldn’t be discovered too early.

The cars with the participants had arrived already, it was limos and expensive sports cars and they stopped and let the passengers out, the guards parked the cars afterwards. There were quite a number of army vehicles there by now and as the two found a hidden position within some bushes they knew that the number of people there were greater than they had anticipated. Rog grunted and Celegorm bit his lower lip. “Damn it, it is a small army”

They waited, the blue sports car was let inn through the gate and they saw that Lomiel exited it, some other women had already arrived and she was probably gonna outshine them all. She had chosen a white dress, knee high and covered with sparkly pieces of crystal. It was rather skin tight and she wore the strange belt which on this dress looked just fancy and not odd at all. She blew a kiss to the guard who came to park the car and Celegorm knew that she would turn the heads of every man in there. She had put her hair up into a very complicated do which hid her ears and she was probably wearing a perfume which was so strong it would make it easy to find her if they had to enter the building in the dark.

Celegorm waited, they had seen the dogs which had been sent out to guard the area, huge animals, probably bred from mastiffs and maybe pit bulls and they were mean looking and probably trained to kill. Moriraca would wait, he knew exactly when to strike. The evening was perfect, the skies were not clear this night, a rather low cloud cover made the area very dark and there was no moon. It was ideal really. A bus arrived, it was dark and the windows covered, it looked more like a prison transport than anything else and several men were more or less hauled out of it and into the storage rooms on the backside of the buildings. Celegorm was counting. “Seven, and they were drugged”

Rog pointed. “See? That room wasn’t used, I bet that is where that special challenge is being kept”

Celegorm nodded with a grunt. “Yeah, it is locked, and that guard checked in on something there a while ago.”

The generator was humming, the fact that the electricity was out didn’t bother these people at all, since this was so far from everywhere it couldn’t be that unusual that the lines fell down in storms or due to some other force of nature. It was about time, Celegorm gathered himself, tried to focus.

The dogs were roaming a rather large area, and when they caught the scent of something new they were onto it right away. Their instincts won over their training and they followed this new track, eagerly. There were cameras in many places and Moriraca was smart, he allowed the cameras to see him, he stopped by a bush, sniffed it, raised his backleg, did what you would expect a wolf to do. The dogs were hot on his tail now and he ran, pretended to be chased off. Soon the people would react, the guards watching the cameras would surely let this be known, a black wolf, now that is a rare trophy.

Inside the club members had gathered, smoking sigars and drinking expensive scotch. The mood was a good one and several very pretty women were walking around among them, making sure their glasses were full all the time. There were eleven club members and they were all above their best age, most were not exactly in shape and yet they pretended to be at the height of their strength and power. Lomiel walked around, her smile very professional and also very fake. The men stared at her, she was prettier than the other girls there combined and she knew that they all wondered how much she would cost them. Not that money was a problem for any of these men, at all. The bragging and self assuredness made her want to gag but she stayed in her role.

She wore a bracelet, it was made from many tiny pearls and some of them were not pearls at all but pills, the type which dissolve immediately and the drug one which makes you very relaxed and sleepy too. She had enough to drug the entire party if need be. She was flirting a bit with one of the men when there was a shout from the guards room. “Guys, guys, come and see this, it is a freakin’ black wolf”

The men got up, staring. “What?”

The guard was grinning. “Seriously, it is a black wolf. A huge one, must be a wanderer”

The men got up, raced towards the guard room and Lomiel aka Siren got up too, seemingly curious. The other girls there were nervous, she could sense it. They were probably used to being treated rather roughly later on when the men had had their fill of killing and were high on power and blood lust. She walked around, gathered the empty glasses and dropped a little something into the new ones, very discretely. The men started shouting and before long an exodus took place, they would all be the one to get that wolf and the guards were a bit nervous, and shocked. They weren’t used to their masters acting like this, and was it safe?

They followed the men outside and Lomiel could hear that the ATV’s were started. But Celegorm was right, the temptation was too great, they all left. She smiled and saw that the guards which were left there were slightly confused, this was a breach of the routine. Lomiel waited a bit, the guards came and sat down, chatting a bit between themselves, discussing their employers and it was rather clear that neither respected their masters at all.

They grasped for the fresh drinks left and Lomiel just snickered to herself. The girls looked relieved too, they gathered in a small group and that was when the generator suddenly made some strange and not very electrical sounds and died.

Rog had slid down the hill and inn behind the buildings, the wires for the surveillance cameras were there and he grinned to himself as he swing Wrath and crushed the controls to the generator. Then he swung it once more and ruined the machine utterly. Valinorean steel is almost indestructible and terribly hard and the generator never stood a chance. No electrician was going to get this up and running again.

He cut the wires elegantly with his knife, then he slid back to their hiding place, Celegorm sent him a wry wink, it was well done.

Out among the cliffs and bushes the men were racing forth, they all sat behind the driver and carried rifles and machine guns, the drive to kill strong in them all. The tracks of the dogs and the wolf were very visible and neither of them was thinking very far, they were getting further and further away from the farm now, and there was no cell phone service or internet connection at all. The drones some of the men were using to keep an eye on the prey were suddenly dead, they couldn’t contact them at all and got a bit pissed but then again, the ATVs had headlights and the drones could simply be out of electricity, the truth was that Phoron already had picked them out of the air and demolished them all.

Moriraca was playing with the dogs, teasing them, going in circles and making the animals rather tired. This was fun and he wanted to enjoy it fully. Above him Phoron was sailing, invisible against the black skies, he would dive into the game when the time was right, taking care of the drones had been just a warm up. The men had to get far enough from the farm for Celegorm and Rog to do their thing before he could start killing the dogs.

------

The house went black, completely black and the girls shrieked and seemed very scared all of a sudden, the guards got up, cussing and swearing and raced outside and Lomiel found a flash light and the other women gathered around her, out of sheer instinct. She didn’t seem to be in a panic at all. The men soon returned, rather confused for the generator looked as if a freakin’ meteorite had struck it, huge dents. But the men felt strange, oddly happy in fact. It wasn’t that odd thinking about it, the scotch was great and the bosses were gone, what wasn’t enjoyable about that? And the girls, free for the taking. But why bother yet, the bosses would be gone for hours now. The drinks were so nice and that gorgeous tall beauty were serving them even more. It was their day, candle light and pretty girls and good booze, before long they were singing drinking songs and acting like a group of college lads on a day off.

-------------

Rog and Celegorm were sneaking forth, they didn’t have much time and had to work fast. The storage units had padlocks and luckily there was a tool shed right by with bolt cutters and other stuff they would need. The doors came up easily enough and on the inside several faces stared at them, rather shocked and terrified. Both Rog and Celegorm wore balaklavas now and had tied up their hair, they looked like huge men this way, that they were elves was not very visible at all. Celegorm whispered. “Guys, we are here to save you, please, not a sound and follow me!”

The men stared, then the first one got up, he was shaking ever so slightly but awake and visibly scared. “What the fuck is going on here? Where are we, and why?”

Celegorm hissed, “Be quiet, you have been kidnapped, to serve as prey in an rather inhumane hunt.”

One of the men got pale. “Oh Jesus, Roger, he disappeared some weeks ago, never saw him again and…”

Celegorm raised a hand, the man fell silent. “Yes, he is probably dead and so will you be if you do not follow orders, got it?”

The men nodded, they all looked terrible, unkempt and thin, these were indeed men nobody would miss. Celegorm nodded. “If you try to run away from here they will find you, there is no way your tracks won’t be found, but there is a different approach.”

He made sure they were moving, slowly but steadily towards one of the other buildings there. “This is an old building used as a bakery, there is a basement in here, it is dark and not very cosy but you can hide here. We will put a padlock on the door and make it appear as if it is locked but it won’t be”

The man who had spoken stared at Celegorm, he looked a bit shocked still. “Why are you helping us, can we trust you?”

Celegorm nodded. “We hate to see good people killed just for the heck of it, and yes, you can trust me”

The men followed the first one into the old building, Celegorm gave them some flashlights and two rifles, then he closed the doors behind them and made it look as if they hadn’t been opened at all. They would let the men out when it was safe. They headed for the last storage room, opened it. There was one man on the inside, beaten rather badly. He was bloody and one eye was shut and completely black, his fingers were broken and his left knee probably dislocated. Celegorm swore when he saw the guy and the man tried to see who this was. “What now ya bastards? Are you gonna finish the job?”

Celegorm sighed. “We are not your tormentors, we are here to let you out, it is up to you if you want to live or die now.”

The man got up, he was shivering. “Who the fuck are you? Why are you helping me? I do not deserve it.”

Celegorm nodded. “No, you do not deserve it, but you don’t deserve being chased like a beast either. “

The man swallowed. “I was gonna be their final challenge man, since I am skilled, since I know the hunt. I was the final boss man, like in a computer game. “

Rog grunted. “I see, it gives more satisfaction to kill an actually dangerous prey”

The man moaned. “Yeah, those other guys? They cannot fight, most can barely run, I knew I was serving some nasty people but not that nasty, not the murder people type of nasty”

Celegorm sighed. “You found out and they have to silence you right?”

The man nodded slowly. “Yes, I know too much, bloody hell, when that Omar guy hired me to go trophy hunting I thought he meant real hunting, but nope. And I had already agreed and it was too late to pull out, I was his, blood and bones”

Celegorm laid a hand on his shoulder. “Can you still use a rifle?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I am pissed and then the pain doesn’t matter”

Celegorm smiled, a rather nasty smile. “Good, very good. You may get your chance at revenge then, see that garage?”

The guy nodded, and Celegorm gave him a rifle and some ammo, neatly nicked from the guards shed. “Place yourself there, behind the roof. If any of the big bosses return alive you nail them alright? Do not hesitate, just do it. There are women in there and we don’t want to risk their safety”

The guy managed to smile, his good eye was shining. “Understood, and I am Buck by the way”

Celegorm just nodded. “Good, find your position, we are to go out there and do some hunting of our own”

Buck swallowed. “Then good hunting, these guys, they are monsters man, I thought I was bad, but they are…real beasts”

Rog growled and Buck stared at him with real fear. “I have seen worse beasts, believe me. But good luck kid, remember to stay low”

The man nodded and staggered over to the garage, he climbed up and disappeared. It had to be incredibly painful with his injuries but he didn’t stop nor did he hesitate. Celegorm was sad that he had ended up in such a situation, Buck had to have been a very honourable man once upon a time.

Rog sent Celegorm a wild grin. “Hunting time?”

Celegorm grinned back. “Hunting time!”

They ran off, without any sounds and using the shadows and the darkness for all it was worth.

Out on the plains the black wolf had reached the area it had been heading for, a veritable maze of cliffs and canyons, boulders and sudden drops. It was a nightmare to navigate in the darkness and the men wouldn’t cut the lights on the ATV’s, this would blind them. The dogs were chasing him, barking and baying and now he changed again, grew to a truly massive size. The dogs came chasing, and Moriraca got busy. He was three times the size of the dogs now and way more intelligent, besides, as a maia he had abilities no animal has. The dogs didn’t stand a chance, he killed them all swiftly and messily, one bite and one crushed skull and one dog was out of the game.

The more careful dogs tried to flee but they found that they were trapped, and Moriraca didn’t stop until they all were dead. He ran forth, knew that the men would find the bodies soon enough. And above him Phoron was hovering, ready to do his part. The men were racing forth, not really thinking about their own safety for they all wanted to be the one to get that wolf. Their competitive instincts so strong they forgot about being careful. The drivers were afraid of losing their jobs so they floored it and the vehicles were made for rough terrain but this wasn’t exactly that, it was hellish terrain and before long one had flipped over, trapping both the driver and the man behind him. Nobody cared about them, the roaring engines drowned out the shouts and it just meant one less rival. The tracks were visible in the sand and the drivers pushed the engines mercilessly to be the first through the narrow gaps.

The ATV which had tipped over was rather heavy and the two men were pinned by their left legs, no attempt at getting out was efficient and the driver was a former soldier so he wasn’t complaining too much, he tried to pry them lose. The boss on the other hand was howling like a hungry infant, his leg hurt and he had also hit his chest and was bleeding from his nose. To him this was horrible, he wasn’t used to pain and he wasn’t used to things not going his way. He was like a spoiled toddler and he ran his multi million business the way a feudal lord would run his fiefdom, with an iron hand, unable to understand that others too have feelings and needs. Making money was all that mattered and some would perhaps call the guy a sociopath. The machine was very heavy, two people had no chance of lifting it even if they weren’t pinned and they weren’t even cooperating.

The driver knew that nobody would help them yet so he accepted that, rather grudgingly but still. The boss on the other hand was shrieking like a wraith and tried to reach his phone which had fallen from the jacket he wore when they flipped. He could just as well try to reach the moon using a broomstick.

The other men were shouting at each other, encouraging the chase and they forgot that the racket they made normally would make it impossible to find any sort of wildlife, it would be chased off. They reached a small open area among the rocks and the first one stopped, so suddenly the others almost hit the vehicle. They stared at the scene, dead dogs everywhere, torn to shreds. The men gaped, what wolf could do anything like that? To such massive dogs? There was a sound of laughter, a deep hoarse and not at all pleasant laughter and they looked up, on the cliff they saw a dark figure, way larger than any normal canine and it had glowing red eyes and it was grinning, sparks seemed to fly over the dark fur and the drivers cussed and grasped for their guns. But the demon wolf was gone, as if it hadn’t even been there and the men stared at each other, pale faces. “That wasn’t real, that couldn’t have been real, goddamn it”

The guards were tough men but they were also capable of understanding danger and this was danger. A danger they didn’t know anything about and their instinct was to go back and regroup and find better weapons. The bosses on the other hand were frozen, they were tough when they were the ones in charge but they were just ordinary men, none of them had any army background, none of them had seen combat and they had others do the dirty work for them when it was needed. The guards tried to get the machines started again but they refused to react, the guards swore but nothing happened, the batteries were all of a sudden completely and utterly dead.

The bosses got nervous, something was off, they could sense it. These were blunt people, who never used their instincts but pushed forth no matter what, still they had some instincts left and right now they were screaming. The guards acted as they had been trained to do. They gathered their employers in the middle of a group and walked forth, following their own tracks towards the farm. The bosses had gotten over the first shock and now they were angry more than afraid, they wanted that goddamn wolf, it had to be an optical illusion that it was so large, and glowing. They wanted to go back and the guards had a hard time convincing them to give it up, the wolf wasn’t worth it.

Then the tracks disappeared, as if they had never been there, just untouched sand everywhere and the guards stopped, confused and now they realized that something truly was off. This was no longer a hunt, but an attempt at getting back to the safety of the farm. The rich men complained, they had little understanding of the dangers of the wild, when they had been out hunting they had servants and life guards and others helping with every little thing and this was new to them. The guards carried their guns high, ready for an attack and they were nervous. Then one of them fell, suddenly and with a audible thud, the man laid there lifeless with a rather large rock next to him. It had hit him in the head and they weren’t wearing helmets. The bosses looked up, confused and the other guards weren’t less confused, a rock? And it weighed several pounds, where had it come from.

They flinched when they heard the sound of a bird of prey, screeching. It sounded very large and for a second they saw black wings against the dark night skies, enormous wings, way larger than any ordinary bird. One of the guards swore. “There are no birds that big, not anymore. That has to be a fucking thunderbird or something”

Another of the men nodded. “Yeah, or a pterodactyl or whatever they are called”

The bosses suddenly got exited again, what if they could get that bird? The guards were rolling their eyes, they had just about had enough now, the bosses were morons. The men spread out a bit, keeping the rich men in the middle of the group still and moving forth in a strategic pattern. They were far from the ranch but they had no idea of just how far and they couldn’t remember where they had driven, their sole focus on the target ahead.

Back in the ranch house the remaining guards were drowsy and feeling very relaxed, they just sat there, feeling as if they were in paradise and Lomiel was making sure that their glasses were full all the time. She knew that Celegorm and Rog were out there and they were probably well into their hunt now. These men were almost harmless by now but just only, she had one last trick to deploy. She knew that there were several bedrooms in the back of the house and she had already managed to get the other girls aware of the fact that this was a dangerous situation and that they had to do what she said to protect themselves. One by one the men were coaxed into a bedroom by one of the girls, there they were chained to the beds with handcuffs and since the drug now had reached a rather potent amount they simply passed out, and would be out of it for quite a while. Lomiel gathered the girls and they looked at her with some shock. “Listen, you are not safe here, this place is worse than you know, the men you were hired by don’t hunt deer or coyotes or whatever, they hunt human beings and there are mass graves here.”

The girls went pale and one of them shivered. “I overheard some of the men the last time I was here, they spoke of…prey, and it sounded as if it was a person but I was sure I had misheard it for who…Oh God”

Lomiel nodded. “Yeah, you heard it right, they hunted homeless veterans. But the bosses are out there now and some may return, you cannot be here when they do. It will be too dangerous, they may use you as human shields”

She went over to the guards room. “There are cars here, can you drive?”

The girls shrieked. “Take the cars? But..”

The first girl who had spoken was a rather tall brunette and she seemed to have some cleverness. “The limos, they are bullet proof. I can drive one of those”

Lomiel grinned. “Excellent. Take the largest one, and get all of the others into it, drive straight to the city and stop for nobody. If you are caught by these men you too will end up in a ditch in the sand I fear. They cannot allow anyone to expose them”

The girls seemed to shrink but the brunette straightened herself, she seemed to be made from a more solid material than the others. “Damn it, I should have known, the guys here, they were bastards in more ways than one, rather perverted too. I am used to much but they were almost too much even for me”

Lomiel flung the car keys to her. “Here, get out of here and like I said, stop for nothing. The limo is heavy so don’t worry about other vehicles, the ATVs cannot stop you even if they should try. “

The brunette caught the keys and grinned. “Know what, I have always wanted to drive one of those things, beats driving a tractor back home at the farm”

Lomiel just snickered, the girl was a farm girl, that explained the toughness. “Get out now, I am to prepare the building a bit”

The brunette stared at her. “Will you be okay?”

Lomiel just grinned. “I will be fine, worry not. I have backup. Go!”

The girl rushed outside and the brunette got the largest limo running, the other girls all managed to fit into it and then she took off, pushing down the gate as she floored it. The engine was very strong, originally from a large Mack truck so there were horsepower and it was armoured like a tank too.

Lomiel grinned, she didn’t envy the rich men now, not at all. But the house had to be ready, the police would arrive sooner or later and there would be evidence, yes, there would be a true abundance of evidence. Celegorm and Rog had been very busy and she walked out to her own car and removed a few crates from the baggage room, she wanted to laugh as she carried them into the building. The cops would get the shock of a lifetime for sure.

-----------------

The guards were rather confident in spite of what they had seen, after all, most had seen combat and they had faced rather tough adversaries before. They knew what to do, in every situation, it had been drilled into their very bones. They moved forth, rifles ready, steadily, checking corners, staying on each other’s six, not even once letting their employers be without cover. They had started to think that maybe it had been the excitement which made them see things which weren’t real, and maybe even the booze and food had been bad, yeah, food poisoning could make you hallucinate right? But the fact that they all saw the same thing was a bit harder to explain, anyhow, they were gonna get back to the Ranch and get the really good guns and the dead ATVs, well, that too probably had a very good explanation. After all, there were powerlines there and some said that this area had a lot of UFO activity too. Maybe that wolf had been some alien monster, like a Chupacabra or something of the like.

They rounded a cliff, moving as one, the bosses were not as quiet and complained about the sand which got into their expensive shoes and it being too hot and too dark and too just about anything really. A couple of the guards didn’t like their own boss even a bit, but a job was a job and if they had been paid to off the dude they would in a heartbeat. They stopped to survey the landscape ahead and they all blinked, staring in disbelief. The bosses, they were gone. They had vanished into thin air and the men blinked again, there were no footprints, not even the slightest sign they had been there at all. What the fuck?!

They didn’t know that a certain flying maia had been very busy creating two separate illusions, now the rich men were somewhere in the mace of cliffs, all alone where they until just seconds ago had been surrounded by tough ex soldiers. The guards stared at each other, a cold feeling creeping down their backs. “Guys, what if this place is like that ranch on the TV show, Skinwalker Ranch or whatever it is called?”

The oldest of the men shook his head. “Nah, that would be…but they just disappeared”

The guards looked nervous now. “I say we keep going, screw those bastards. We have to take care of ourselves”

One of the men nodded vigorously. “Exactly, ain’t no alien gonna probe my ass”

He petted his automatic rifle and the others mumbled in agreement. The oldest guy sighed “Right guys, we move out, battle formation, keep your eyes open and do not use your flashlights, we need our night vision”

They kept moving forth, but now they were nervous, their own minds working against them. They had moved perhaps fifty meters when they heard screams in the distance, horrible terrified screams from what had to be two people, then it was suddenly silent, very silent. The men broke formation, instinct took over for training, it was each man for himself now, they ran into the darkness, panic overtaking their very souls. No loyalty was left, no matter how big the paycheck was.

---------------

Rog and Celegorm had made a quick job out of the two pinned men, neither were worth saving and they had no scruples killing them, they were a way to scare the others and served a purpose that way. By now both Ellyn had removed their balaklavas, instead they had put on some avarin war paint and that didn’t exactly make them look less terrifying. The two men had seen them and had time to scream just once before the guard got Fury firmly planted in his skull and the rich guy got his throat slit very elegantly.

Now it was the other of the club members which were their priority. The guards would use hours getting back to the ranch, Phoron would make sure they kept walking in circles, and Moriraca would pick them off, one by one.

The rich guys were the target of Celegorm and Rog though, and the two moved forth silently, the men were exhausted since they weren’t used to moving much and the darkness confused them. In their zeal they hadn’t thought about switching to appropriate clothes and by now many of them had blisters and sores on their feet. They kept going for daybreak was still many hours away and it was cold there. The feeling of unease grew, they were being watched and a couple of them had a gun, smaller handguns which weren’t really that much at all, if they were attacked by a coyote they could be efficient but not against anything larger.

The owner of the ranch didn’t know the land that well, he thought he knew where they were but not in detail and he was looking for a watering hole which ought to be there somewhere. He was leading them and felt nervous for they were suddenly his responsibility and even though he didn’t like a single one of them they were his equals and it was a question of honour. One of the men shouted and pointed. “There, it was a tall man, by those rocks”

The others just scoffed. “Bullshit, there is nobody here”

The man who shouted was the leader of a huge firm which sold army equipment, he was trembling. “I know what I saw goddamnit. It was a giant, with black hair, maybe some Indian”

The others looked a bit confused. “This ain’t no ancient burial ground Bob?”

The owner shook his head. “No, heck no. they would have told me wouldn’t they, when I bought the property?”

The others started looking at him with suspicion. He almost growled. “I am telling you, it is the truth!”

They shook their heads, moved forth, shivering in the cold. But then the guy at the back fell with a scream, an arrow had pierced his torso, right underneath the sternum. It wasn’t an injury which was immediately fatal, no, this would lead to a slow and very agonizing death and he laid there screaming as the others scrambled together in a heap, staring into the darkness with sheer panic in their eyes. Nobody tried to help, and there would be little point in it for none of them were surgeons. They realized it now, they were no longer the hunters but prey and it wasn’t a situation they liked at all. They moved forth, leaving their quickly weakening buddy behind, there were no honour among these men.

The two elves were in their right habitat now, Rog had lived in Angband, his eyes had gotten used to darkness and Celegorm was after all one of Oromë’s favourites. They had no problems moving around. The men tried to stay together, tried to stay calm and collected and it was impossible for every now and then an arrow would come out of the dark and hit one of them, not fatally, oh no, but a leg, or an arm, or it would embed itself in a beer belly or a fat thigh. Celegorm had found the one who had ordered the murder of all the animals, it was a man who was among the youngest of them, he was originally from some country in the middle east where he was related to royalty and he was so spoiled he had no idea of what life was like for other people. And entitled, he was in short a disgusting person and Celegorm had ordered Rog to spare him for last, he was to suffer, and regret his deeds.

The men finally panicked so badly they had to run, they scattered like a herd of stampede rabbits and now they were easy to chase. Shouts and odd howls were heard and in the distance they heard gun shots and screams. It seemed as if Moriraca was having some real fun with the soldiers. The two men who had guns were firing off into the darkness without even aiming at anything, to them a gun gave the upper hand no matter what, too bad that nobody had told them that they had to aim to actually hit anything. Now they wasted the little ammo they had on nothing.

The club members started to understand, some yelled and offered money to be left alone, others started to pray and some lost it completely and screamed for the enemy to reveal himself. Nothing worked, bleeding and confused they staggered forth through the darkness, colliding with rocks, tearing their expensive suits on bushes, one even had a very nasty and intimate encounter with a cactus and came out of it looking more or less like a Christmas tree, minus the jolly decorations.

Rog revealed a talent Celegorm never would have anticipated from him, he was an expert at mimicking animal sounds, the calls of all sorts of creatures were heard between the cliffs and the men knew now that they were being punished for their crimes. Nobody heard their pleas, nobody listened to their claims of regret, now they were as worthless to the hunters as their own prey had been to them. When one of the men fell and was dragged off, only for his head to reappear being held high in the hand of a dark shadowy figure screams of fear replaced the anger and the confusion.

They ran, mindless and forgotten was their money and their influence, the handguns were tossed away, out of ammo and the manicured fingers bloody and torn from climbing over rocks and cliffs. It was each man for himself, like rats fleeing a sinking ship they were desperately pushing and pulling, trying to get away, to push through the narrow gaps between the cliffs. The darkness became their doom, Bob wasn’t capable of thinking and he no longer had any clue as to where they were. He knew there were sheer drops on his ranch but not where they were and now that proved to be their downfall, quite literally.

The guy who had collided with the cactus could only see out of one eye and he ran ahead, mad with pain and fear, the others followed simply out of instinct, and when he disappeared they didn’t slow down at all. There was a hole there, a deep hole, an old remnant of the time when a river had run across these plains and dug deeply into the bedrock. It was like an elevator shaft, straight down, probably more than a hundred and fifty feet deep and it ended in a flat rock surface. The boulder which had formed it had been ground to dust ages ago, this was all that remained. They fell, few had time to scream before they hit the bottom and the owner of the ranch was the last to go over the edge. He saw the dark hole but couldn’t stop, he wasn’t very athletic and couldn’t find his balance, he fell with a shriek.

Celegorm had chased the trophy hunter off to another direction with subtle methods, he wanted that guy to suffer longer, the others got off easily, a sudden stop and a sudden death. The man he and Rog were chasing now had long legs and since he wasn’t that old he had some strength left after all. He wasn’t in too bad a shape and Celegorm grinned, now this was real hunting. The man was panting and running and having some real trouble staying on his legs since he probably had blisters the size of a car tire by now. He was swearing and grunting and didn’t seem to worry about his buddies at all, he was a true bastard, a human leech. Rog was ahead of him, and swung Wrath with some amazing finesse, the sharp spike at the back of the head of the hammer hit the man straight in the foot and pierced it. Rog pulled it out and disappeared in the darkness so fast the man didn’t even see what was happening. He just saw a shadow and felt a horrible pain and then the shadow was gone. He screamed and limped on, was struck by an arrow in the other leg, yelled in anger and defiance. The animal sounds were louder, angrier, he limped forth, there was no regret in him, no understanding. Only the feeling of being owed everything he ever wanted.

He screamed obscenities back, was struck again, a new arrow, to the buttock. He yanked it out, threw it away, so angry he was steaming. A new shadow, and this time the hammer hit his elbow, crushing it. The man would have attacked if he had seen his tormentors, he had no feeling of understanding at all. In the end he was barely moving, so injured he was bound to die soon anyway but he still kept going, could still not understand why or how this happened, he was still being the victim here, the innocent one.

Bob had tried to find the watering hole, now in the summer it was just a muddy patch of murky water in the middle of nowhere, a place the wildlife stayed clear of since they knew they would get stuck. He was heading in that direction and that was when Phoron decided that enough was enough. He scooped down and grasped the man with his claws, now almost the size of the great eagles. He had no problems lifting the shrieking human and he dropped the man into the mud, he landed with a splash and sank into it right away, to his waist, then to his chest. He would never be able to get out of there on his own. Celegorm grinned, then he spat and Rog made a very obscene gesture mostly used by orcs. The man saw them now, two giants, more than seven feet tall, both glowing slightly and clearly not humans.

He kept shrieking and thrashing until his already over exerted heart had enough and gave out, ending him in a most fitting manner.

Celegorm gave Rog a high five. “Good, now, let us see what Moriraca has done with the guards.”

They ran through the morass of cliffs and rocks, and before long they were standing by a rather tall rock which protruded forth from the ground. They saw bodies, strewn around them and most looked as if they had died from fright, there were little blood to be seen. Moriraca walked up to them, now in humanoid shape and he was terrifying since the body was so dark it seemed to swallow all light, like a human shaped black hole. “Most of them have dropped, few were any good. Some have managed to run though, could be heading for the ranch”

Celegorm smiled, his eyes were narrow. “And we have someone there, waiting”

The maia nodded. “Yes, guiltless he is not but not too bad either, he is just desperate. He may have committed atrocities the way Oromë sees it but he can be saved.”

Celegorm grunted. “Yes, unlike those bastards”

Moriraca growled. “Yes, I doubt that even the coyotes will have any interest in devouring them, the poor animals may develop ulcers.”

Rog was shaking with withheld laughter. “Yeah, we have committed a crime, environmental pollution”

Celegorm just shook his head. “Come on, let’s go, I think Lomiel wants us over there”

--------------

By the ranch the remaining guards were stumbling into the yard, most of them were scared straight out of their wits and not without reason. They had emptied their rifles and guns into something which was there and then not and it made men drop dead, seemingly without reason. They were born and raised as people well used to horrors but nothing like this, no, not at all. To people of this century such things were simply impossible, a denizen of ages now gone by would have dealt with it way better since superstition was a part of everyday life.

The man on the roof was watching, waiting. His anger was burning in him for it was men among these who had betrayed him and beaten him up. That he had started to have doubts about his master and discovered what the ultimate prey was had led to this and he was sure that he would get even now. Killing animals wasn’t what he had been trained to do, and killing in war is something else than to kill defenceless human beings who had once been his brothers in arms. His biggest mistake had been to mention his doubt to one of the guards, he should have kept his mouth shut, taken the money for that last trophy and just vanished, he knew that art well.

The men came forth, it was still dark there and he knew which ones he could blame for his misery. He also knew which ones it was that had known about the man hunts and the time of reckoning was come. The rifle wasn’t his usual one, but he was a very good sniper indeed and he had chosen a good spot too. The shape of the buildings would shield the muzzle flash and the sound would get distorted too. He would have time to drop those he needed to drop before they saw where he was. The first shot rang, followed by five more in very rapid progression. He had no time for really accurate aiming but to him hitting the head was good enough, each shot didn’t have to go through the eye. Five of the guards fell and the remaining four scattered. They ran into the house to look for some guns and had a surprise of the rather shocking type. One of the guys grasped a rifle and tried to fire it and it exploded in a cloud of shards. The man fell, shrapnel everywhere. Each and every gun there had been sabotaged, gorilla glue poured into the barrels of each one.

Three remained, they tried to find their friends only to see that they were chained to the beds and seemingly dead and in the far off distance there was a sound of sirens. Lomiel slid out of the shadows, she wore a black suit now and she nodded at the sniper, he was dismantling the rifle. “Are you going to let the cops catch you?”

The guy nodded. “Yes, I deserve it. Heck, I should have told the cops everything the moment I realized what these guys were really about, but I know a lot, I think I can get a good deal, and besides, in jail I may change my occupation too!”

Lomiel grinned, Celegorm and Rog appeared as well, and beside them…Buck gaped and swallowed, he looked a bit like a fish on dry land and Celegorm sent him a wry smirk. “Yeah, not humans, I know. Neither of us are but if you say one word about this to anyone we will find you, understand?”

He nodded, eyes bulging. The two tall black shapes almost made him piss his pants. Rog stared at him. “Lay down behind those garbage cans, pretend to be unconscious. You are injured, they may think you were simply collateral damage. Are you a good liar?”

Buck nodded. “I am, I think I am at least.”

Celegorm petted him on the shoulder. “Good, you were simply here as a life guard and got knocked out before things went to heck, you don’t remember anything, except that you realized what these men were up to and wanted out, you just didn’t have the time”

Buck made a grimace. “Just as good as anything else I guess, I will stick to that then.”

The sound of sirens got louder, Celegorm stared at Lomiel. “You asked the girls to call the cops?”

She giggled. “And made a hysterical 911 call, claiming that the men were going nuts and killing each other”

Rog frowned. “How the heck will they explain this then?”

She held up a bag. “This, I have left trace all over the place. Drugs laced with LSD, it should really give the investigators something to chew on now won’t it?”

Celegorm laughed. “Right, come on, we have got to go before the cops arrive, I assume the papers are in order?”

She nodded with a very devilish expression. “Yes, they are in order, and I told the 911 operator about the men in the basement too, that they were prisoners.”

They ran off and hid in the bushes again, before five minutes were gone by the cops pulled inn, many cars and officers and two swat teams. They entered the building and some medic started working on Buck who played his role very well, in fact it was not too unlikely that his next career ought to be as an actor.

The seven men captured to be prey were found and also taken care off, they were brought outside and checked over and then they were driven off, they would probably have a lot of very interesting things to tell the investigators.

They waited as people and stuff were brought out, then they returned to the old barn and waited. There were helicopters everywhere now, and they would see the bloodshed come the morrow but by then the three of them would be long gone.

Lomiel was very excited as she turned on the TV the next evening, the news were onto this like a flock of vultures. The ranch had been ransacked completely and the evidence found there left the investigators in shock, not only had this very exclusive club been extremely corrupt but they had used human beings as targets in a most bizarre hunt. Seven men were rescued and they all told of kidnapping and the use of drugs and threats.

There were even more witnesses. Three former life guards who refused to say a word about anything and another guard who spoke very willingly and was in deep shock of what he had seen. There had been a massacre there, nobody knew exactly what had happened but it was assumed that there had been some sort of accident involving a gun and in panic the guards had started firing at each other and the club members had ran off in a panic and fell into an old pot hole. Some dogs had been found dead and some of the officers believed that there had been a bear there and that the guards had fired at it and that it had been wounded and killed several of the men,

There had been traces of LSD in their drinks and the one guard who did speak claimed that one of the now dead men had laced the drinks, because he was pissed off at his boss for not paying him enough. But the investigations would last for months and in the end not really lead to much. But many disappearances would be solved and the dead would be given proper burials. There were even papers confirming that one of the members had ordered one of his guards to kill animals he claimed to have shot himself and it made the media go amok and attack almost every person they knew of who participated in this type of hunt. Being a trophy hunter had suddenly become equal to being a pariah.

Rog stayed with Celegorm and Lomiel, he got his own truck and a trailer and they would travel together. Moriraca and Phoron stayed with Rog, and he was often out there on missions his master Aüle decided, Celegorm didn’t ask but he realized that it more often than not included the use of the hammers and some inventive but very efficient violence. Rog wasn’t named “Demon” for naught and with the two maiar by his side he was worthy of his name.

Celegorm continued to work for Oromë and Lomiel was by now a servant of Yavanna and her face was often seen in media, she worked hard to ban the use of fur in the fashion industry and the use of photoshop in commercials. And she of course worked hard against deforestation and habitat loss and if some people hated her for it, well, that was their own problem.

Some months after they saw an ad in a newspaper, Buck had not stayed in prison very long, there hadn’t been any evidence of him doing anything wrong at all, except working for some rotten dude and his injuries were fixed. He had gotten a sentence of just two weeks but during that time he had given some interviews which sent cold shivers down the spine of the public and now he was writing a book about his experiences among the rich and shameless. It was expected to become a best seller, already before it was finished.

Celegorm had a good laugh when he read this, he was still pissed at the man for having hunted those animals but he did also admire the audacity of doing this, exposing himself and his employers. You shouldn’t really talk shit about the dead but sometimes it was both righteous and good.