Theme Thursday...........GREEN

Opal Nation22

Father removed the Packwitt's hand covering the wound and was shocked at what he saw, something had bitten off a large portion of the Packwitt's shoulder. Father said it looked more like a shark bite, but they were not anywhere near an ocean. Father quickly set to work doing as much triage to the shoulder as possible. He knew that there was no such thing as a hospital in the Opal Nation, and that he would be the only one who could save the Packwitt.

He had the other Packwitt start a fire as quickly as possible. He had already clamped off as many bloodvessels as he could. He was thankful that they had brought such an extensive first-aid kit. It was almost like a portable hospital. They sterilized everything, while they were working and Father quickly got to work stopping the bleeding and then patching up the Packwitt as best as he was able to under the circumstances.

Finally when they had done everything they possibly could, Father and the Packwitt sat back and looked at each other. Father had so many questions for the Packwitt, lying there passed out, due to the morphine. But he had a suspicion that the Packwitt who had been with him knew what had happened here.

Father sat there staring at him for a few minutes. The Packwitt would not look Father in the eyes.

Father finally said, "What do you think happened here? Where is the other Packwitt and zerthbeelee?"

The Packwitt finally looked at Father and there was shock in his eyes. He uttered one word, "Bullcomimao!"

Father had no idea what the Packwitt was talking about. What did bullcomimao mean? So he asked the Packwitt what he meant.

The Packwitt stood up and started pacing back and forth, looking around and then stared at the ground. He then told Father that the missing Packwitt and zerthbeelee were dead and that the bullcomimao had done this. He explained to Father that the bullcomimao was a creature that very few Opalites had ever lived to talk about.

The bullcomimao was not a large creature, but he was a vicious hunter and preyed on the unsuspecting and the weak. He lived underground and hibernated most of the year after it's last kill and gorging on the blood of it's latest victim. It would store all of the food and blood inside of it's body and turn brown, like the color of the ground. Then it would burrow underground to hibernate and because it was the same color brown as the ground, that it was very difficult for the Opalites to hunt.

The Opalites knew very little about the bullcomimao except that it changed colors once it had burned all of it's stored up fuel in it's body. Then it would wake up and begin to hunt it's prey once again. While it was hunting it lived above the ground and while living above ground it's new color was green. It would live among the plants and was what Father compared to a chameleon. Maybe it was the chameleon's ancestor, a green monster.

The Packwitt continued telling Father what he knew about the bullcomimao, he said that it usually attacked and killed many of the smaller creatures that it came upon. He thought that they usually were lone hunters and did not hunt in packs, but it looked like this was an attack by more than one bullcomimao. Possibly three or four had attacked their camp. They had probably been after the zerthbeelee and that the Packwitt, who had been trying to protect his zerthbeelee, probably got caught in the middle of the attack. They would then drag off their prey to gorge and feed upon.

All the while that the Packwitt had been talking, he had been pacing around the outside of the camp while looking at the ground, he suddenly stopped and stared.

Father stood up, walked over to where he stood, and then looked to see what the Packwitt was staring upon. Slowly they both backed up.......

For those who missed part 21, here is the link. Which also links to parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,17, 18, 19, and 20. For more Theme Thursday's please go here.