The Lost Monster Tales

Monster in the Lake

Brigham put a finger to his mouth and motioned for quiet. Nicky nodded, and Brigham knew he understood. They stood very still and waited. Their dad had taught them how important it was to make as little noise as possible when they fished. If you weren’t quiet you chased all the fish away.

Then they heard it...a splash...a BIGGER SPLASH! A fish was out there swimming around...it sounded like it was close. But where was it? Brigham reeled in a little line, hoping the movement would snag the fish. Then something tugged on his line so hard that it almost jerked the pole out of his hands.

"Oh my gosh! Brigham look!" Nicky shouted suddenly.

A big ripple appeared in the water and moved their way.

Brigham stared in disbelief. A green lumpy thing rose up in the middle of the ripple and splashed. A gurgling deep growl came from the thing in the water.

Brigham and Nicky screamed. "Aaahhh!"

"It’s the lake monster!" shouted Nicky.

Brigham tried to quickly reel in his line, but something tugged hard on it again. He almost fell over. "Nicky!" he cried. "Don’t leave me! This thing’s got a hold of my line!" Brigham began backing up. "Hurry! Grab the pole!"

Nicky grabbed the pole, and together they pulled on it.

"Reel it in!" Nicky shouted at Brigham.

"I’m trying!" said Brigham. "Don’t let go!"

The buzzing grew less frantic. Suddenly a tiny man and a tiny woman with wings flew right in front of my face. They paused mid-flight, their wings pumping so fast it made me kind of dizzy.

"Fairies!" Amber exclaimed in obvious delight.

I frowned at her. "There are no such things as fair..." My voice faded away. I couldn’t finish speaking because I knew that hovering in front of my face were two beings that fit no description other than that of fairies. They were young fairies, not as old as Mom and Dad, but a lot older than Amber or I. Their clothes were the strangest things I’d ever seen; they actually glistened in the light with so many different colors they reminded me of a rainbow. It looked like the clothes had been woven from animal hair that was as soft and warm as it was colorful. Fur hats sat on top of their heads, and they wore fur mittens and fur boots to their knees with little leather straps wrapped around them.

I could hardly believe that I was staring at real live fairies.

The fairy man bowed low. "Help us, humans! Please! We are most desperate!"

Brianna stood outside the large scary hole that she and her younger brother, Steven, had just discovered in the field near their house that morning and listened.

"Ohhhwww...huh...huh...huh...why me? Huh...huh...huh..."

Something was crying, and it sounded terribly upset.

"Whyyy meee! Huh...huh...huh..." it said again.

Steven got down on his hands and knees and peered into the hole. "Who is it?" he asked Brianna in a concerned voice.

Brianna pulled him away from the hole. "Don’t get so close!" She didn’t know who or what it was, but it definitely didn’t sound human. The voice sounded high-pitched and squeaky. And yet it WAS talking. Goose bumps rose on her arms and legs. "We’ve got to be careful!"

"Should we go get Mom?" Steven asked.

Brianna shook her head. She didn’t know if this hole was dangerous, and Mom might make them stay away from it before they had a chance to check it out. It was big...nearly twice the size of a Frisbee, and it had dirt piled up around the edges, like it had just been dug out. In fact, it was big enough for she or Steven to climb down, and he was bigger than her. She bent over and stared into the hole, turned her head from side to side like a curious Robyn. "Hellooo?" she said in a soft voice. "Is anyone down there?"

But whatever it was didn’t hear her because it kept crying...a sad cry, the kind that made Brianna think of melted ice cream and skinned knees.

That’s what this snake eats," said the man. "Pythons eat live animals. When the python gets bigger, you’ll need to feed it rats."

That was it! I wanted to punch that man in the nose. "Rats!" I didn’t like rats, but then I didn’t know if I wanted to see Jared feeding rats to his pet python either. "You’ve got to be kidding," I said to him.

"Nope!" The man seemed really agitated; his nostrils flared, and he squinted his eyes. "Baby rats at first. And when the snake’s bigger, full grown rats."

"FULL GROWN RATS!" I whispered, barely able to talk. My stomach gurgled; I was upset! This whole snake thing was getting to me. Goose bumps rose on the backs of my arms. And I could tell by looking at Jared that he didn’t think it was too cool to feed his pet snake live animals either; he wasn’t smiling like he had been moments earlier.

"Gross!" he said to the man.

"And when the snake outgrows the rats?" I asked the man.

The man gave a nervous laugh, like he was proving to himself that he wasn’t afraid, and raised his eyebrows. "Rabbits! Our pythons really like eating rabbits!"

Jared and I looked at each other and swallowed hard.

The man pointed at our snake. "And when that python outgrows the rabbits, you better be careful not to let it get loose because it could be a lot bigger and stronger than you by then." He looked right at Jared. "Change your mind yet?"

Trying hard not to be frightened, I stepped into the barn and switched on all three lights immediately. The lights made me feel a little better. The hay smelled like summertime and dirt all mixed together, and I realized that awful smell didn’t smell as bad in the barn. I walked up to a bale and picked up an armful of hay. Lady was waiting for me to throw some in her stall. So I threw some on the ground by her feet and waited for her to hungrily grab the first bite. But she didn’t move. Her ears pricked forward, and she began pawing the ground with her front feet.

My heart slammed into my chest. That awful smell was back, only much worse. Something must have followed me into the barn. Maybe even now, it was waiting for me in the shadows behind another stall. Lady screamed like horses do when they’re really upset; she began pounding the ground with her hooves. Just as I backed away to check around the haystack the lights went out. I stood in pitch black without anyone around to help me. "GREG!" I screamed, but I knew he couldn’t hear me.

Something really big suddenly growled low. "GRRRaaaggghh!"

I quit talking and held my breath. I could tell it was big because the growl was big...the bigger the growl the bigger the something, or at least, that’s how it usually is on growls and stuff.

Whatever it was snorted and growled again. "GRRRaaaggghh!"