Yeti

What happens when you mix mythical yetis with officials?

 

"A something? You think you were followed by a something? Well can you describe that 'something' to me? You can't? Oh." Inspector Doyle burst into peals of laughter after replacing the receiver of the phone.

          "What's the case?" Doyle's assistant asked.

          "Another mountaineer who thinks he's been followed by some creature during his climb up this mountain," came the reply.

          It seemed very much like a simple case of misinterpretation, but the little police post stationed at the foot of a mountain had already received two such reports of unusual sightings the previous week, plus other calls of missing persons, which were quite normal in the mountains.  The first caller, who lived on the mountain, reported that while collecting wood, he spotted a large, hairy, tall creature walking around some distance away. He was terrified, and hid behind some bushes (and plugged his ears) until the creature disappeared.

          The second caller had a much more dramatic encounter.  He also lived on the mountain. In the middle of the night, he was woken up by the noise of something falling in the living room of his house. He ran outside armed with a toilet scrubber (he could not find anything else) and caught a fleeting glimpse of a large, white, furry animal, about three metres tall dash out of his house through the open door.

          Doyle sat lazily in front of the computer screen. He added the latest report to the database. Such calls were quite unusual, no doubt, but he had answered calls that were much more bizarre. Time passed slowly when you are in a lonely shack at the foot of a mountain, once in a while rendering assistance to the people living a few hundred feet above you. Most of the time you would be answering calls on the telephone. There was only one person to talk to, and that was Dave, his assistant.

          Dave had to take care of all the small tasks of the office. One of them was making the coffee for his boss. They had received another report of an unusual sighting, and his boss wanted coffee. The stove had run out of firewood, so he had to go out to collect some. He need not go far; there were plenty of sticks everywhere outside. Leaving his coat in the office, Dave unlocked the door and went out. He did not expect to be outside for long. Hurrying to a spot where there were trees, Dave bent down quickly and gathered branches on the ground. Then he saw something.

He felt a sudden chill grip his heart. A tinge of fear lined his face. He saw a trail of giant footprints imprinted on the snowy ground. Each footprint had the imprints of three small toes and one large one. No human could have made them. Dave was new in the mountain duty, but he was sure those footprints on the ground could not have been made by any animal he saw in the chart of 'Mountain Animals' hanging in the police post. Thinking fast, he took out his handphone which had a camera, and snapped a picture of the giant footprints. He had to tell his boss about his discovery.  

          Then, a shadow fell across the trail of footprints, and a large pair of…feet came into Dave's field of vision. They were enormous, had three small toes and one large toe. They do not belong to any human being. Nor do they belong to any of the creatures he had seen in the chart of 'Mountain Animals'. The feet belonged to a large animal which Dave had never seen before. Dave had the reputation of being a tall person, but this creature easily beat his 1.8m frame at a height of 3m.

Dave looked up and saw an ape-like creature with a face framed by shaggy white hair towering over him. He let out a scream of terror and fear, and made a frenzied dash for the office door. The door was locked. It would lock automatically when closed. Dave rattled the doorknob and pounded his fists against the door, screaming and shouting for the door to open. He dug into his pockets for the key, but alas! His keys were in his coat pocket, and he had left the coat inside the office! Dave turned around to face the creature, his heart pounding hard. It was advancing slowly upon him with a menacing hunched up walk.

Doyle was dozing in front of the computer screen. Frenzied fists pounding on the door and a voice screaming furiously, jolted Doyle awake. He sat bolt upright, and for a moment, was in a daze. "Surely that had to be Dave's voice," he thought.

Dave was unwilling to let the creature get its way. It most probably wanted to drag him into the forest where nobody would ever see him again. How could a creature just show up and rudely drag him away? That was utterly impolite. "I would not allow that to happen," thought Dave, his heart racing.  It was a reflex action. In a scream of fury, and a perfectly timed double-jump, Dave leapt into the air, scrambled onto the shoulders of the creature, and jumped onto the roof of the office. The surprised animal was standing on the ground, looking up at Dave with an offended look in its eyes. As his heart quieted down, Dave smiled. He took a low bow to the creature, then scrambled across the roof and slid down the chimney.

Doyle was very annoyed. He had been disturbed from his sleep by Dave hammering on the door. He would tell Dave off for forgetting his keys. Just as he was about to open the door, something fell down the chimney, and black soot burst into the room.

A black figure, somewhat resembling Dave appeared and began chattering about hairy creatures that were three metres tall with enormous feet. Inspector Doyle let that person finish talking. He had dealt with people who were very anxious, and had to calm them down first. When the figure was done talking, Doyle began asking questions an inspector would ask when interrogating someone. The figure seemed to get very irritated, and finally wiped the soot off his face. Then did Doyle realise that that figure was actually his assistant, Dave.

Three months later, Dave resigned. Apparently, nobody believed his story because he had nothing to prove his sighting. He had dropped his handphone during the roof jumping stunt, and most probably, the creature had taken it. They came to the conclusion that Dave was terrified when he thought he saw something that resembled the 'creature' that was reported by a few residents thus he behaved dramatically.

Back at the police post, Doyle had run out of firewood, and he was craving for a coffee. He does not have an assistant because he felt that they cause more trouble. Doyle decided to go outside to collect some firewood. He left the door open and went outside. Just as he was bending down to pick up a branch, he stopped short. Imprinted on the ground was an enormous footprint. It was made by a creature with three small toes and one large toe.

 

Author's Note

Something from a year ago...

Reviews

[nostal]

I really like this.
The story flows along well and it's also nicely written.
Good job.