Chapter Twenty: It Stings

An Acheri is an Indian ghost. This type of ghost is believed to be always found in the form of a small Indian girl. She will come down from the mountains or hilltops bringing with her diseases and illnesses to the people of the villages or towns below. The children of the town or village are especially vulnerable to the diseases. The only way to stop her from infecting you was wearing a red ribbon around the neck.

The hard part was killing her. There was a whole ritual to stop her. The blood of deer, an unborn snake egg cracked and all topped off with clear river water. You add them all together in deer skin water sac. You throw the contents at the spirit and it will kill it.

Jenny goes to the local tribal store. She easily gets the deer sac and somehow gets some a totem that’s supposes to local it. I go out in the woods near the tribal land to save some time. After hours I find a snake egg. The deer is easier to find because there is one dead and still has blood in it. But after I found that, the floodgates opened up. I find eight more deers and see human like remains. I call Jenny and tell her. She says she will head over. She will know where I am because of our newest purchase of GPS tracker phones. It’s weird if this was a year ago, I would have called the police.

I walk around and look for other clues. All the bones of the animals and humans are crushed. The cause of death of could be anything. I’m standing there and an unnatural wind heads my face. I freak out and stumble to the bony ground. I get up and look around. I don’t see anything. The wind gets me again but stronger. I fall again. It must be like 100 MPH. When I look up this time, I see a beast in front of me. It has the head of a wolf, the torso of an Indian man, the arms of a dog or a wolf and the legs of a wolf or goat.

Blood is dripping from this horrible beast of a face. It shows me his claws and swings it at me. It catches my chest and my blood spills on the bony woodland floor. Pain shoots through my body, it’s almost unbearable. I swing at it for my own survival and I hit it in its hairy face. The punch doesn’t do any damage. I look at my rifle but it’s too far to reach. I go to roll for it, but the creature kicks me and I crash to the floor. It walks over me and stands over me. It growls, taunting me to get up. I can smell the death all over him. It swings its dirty bloody claws on my chest again. The pain is somehow worst this time and I scream out in pain. It just stops and stands there enjoying my pain. Through my tears I can see the creature opening his mouth and leaning into me to bite me. I think it’s all over for me. I close my eyes.

I hear a shot. But the pain makes me pass out. I don’t know what has happened for a while. When I finally wake up I’m in a small place. The place is illuminated by a small in the center. I’m on some soft cot or something. I try to get up but the pain in my chest it too unbearable. I scream out. An Indian man walks in and looks at me. He speaks.

“Sit.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Black Buffalo Foot from the Anishinaabe tribe.”

“Cool name.” I laugh but its short because it’s extremely painful.

“I and my people lived in this land for thousands of years. We lived in the company of Ho-Chunk tribe.”

“Thanks for saving me. What was that thing?”

“That thing is a Quanlier. It’s belongs to Cherokee legend and somehow made its way up here. It has the head of a wolf, the torso of a man, the arms of a dog and the legs of a jackal. Its power is it can run at speeds of up to 300 MPH.”

“Did you kill it?”

“I can’t. You will need to.”

“Well it kicked my a*s the first time.”

“And I’ll help you stop it from doing the same.”

“Two questions. One, have can’t I with this injury. And two, why can’t you kill it.”

“Well. For your second question, the answer is I’m the same type of mythic creature, so I can’t hurt my kind. And one, I’ll heal you if you do a few things for me.”

“What are those things?”

“You must kill few things for me. The Acheri, the Quanlier, the Baykok, the Wendigo, The Mishibizhiw, and the Animikiig.”

“You?”

“Yes. And after you kill all of those. It will release the Red Horn and you have to kill that too.”

“And if I refuse to kill all of them?”

“The injuries you obtained will kill you.”

“Feel your neck.” I feel my neck, its deeply torn open; I can feel my bloody nerves. “You were bitten before I could save you. If my healing isn’t permanent, you will bleed out instantly.”

“Ok. I’ll take the deal. How do I do this?”

“I will give you items to kill all of them. You will then come back to me with their spirit items and I’ll heal you permanently.”

“Is that it?”

“And you will three weeks to do this. At midnight on this same day of the week, you will die if you do not get me those items.”

“Alright. Why can’t you do this?”

“There are my brothers. But they normal don’t kill. Somehow they all went crazy and will kill till they are stopped. Somehow I haven’t turned evil. We have a deal?”

“Seems like I’m forced too, so yes.”

He leans over and waves his newly red growing hands over me. I feel the pain go away. After he finishes, he gives me a book with all the creatures. Next he hands me six items. He says the book will tell me which item to use on which. The book also says how to summon each one and what I’ll receive from them. I flip through the book and see two papers ripped in the back. Last thing he tells me is that the six items will combine and will lead me back to him.