The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

“Are you done?” he asks.

As I take my mind off the task of building my tower, I realize that Luca has been done for several minutes. We built in silence, just enjoying being with each other, the ways kids do. It felt foreign and unnatural at first, but some part of me now feels rejuvenated. “Yeah, I think I’m done.”

“Okay,” he says, and starts to tear down his creation.

I stop him with a hand on his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Em says I can’t leave any evidence,” Luca says. “So we have to take them down and flatten out the ground.”

“Huh,” I say, “Makes sense. But…let’s do it like this.”

I do my best impression of a Godzilla roar, and stomp toward my castle.

“What are you doing?” Luca asks.

“Being Godzilla,” I say. “Justin and I used to do this in the winter, in the snow when the plows made piles on the side of the road.”

Again, Luca couldn’t possibly understand what I’ve just said. He has no context for it. Godzilla, snow plows and roads are all foreign to him. But the wanton destruction of a freshly built mud castle seems to be a universal language to boys everywhere. Luca roars and joins in, crushing his castle beneath his feet.

“Is Godzilla like Behemoth?”

“Yeah,” I say. “But not as scary. He’s even a good guy sometimes.”

Luca gives his castle one last stomp, flattening it out. “Good.”

Then, in a flash, the boy’s mind moves on to something else. “Oh, hey, come see this!” He dashes to the water’s edge and stops when his toes get wet. He bends over and starts slapping the lake’s surface with his hand.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Calling my friends.”

“Your friends?”

“Well, they’re sort of my friends. Em says I should stay away from them. That they could be dangerous. I don’t think so, but—”

“If Em says they’re dangerous, you should probably listen to her,” I say.

“I know, I know,” Luca says with faux exasperation. “But they started coming here just after I woke up. And they come when I call them. Like this.” He slaps the water with a little more effort. “Just watch.”

He slaps the water for another minute. I can see he’s about to give up, but then something swirls just beneath the water, twenty feet out. I place a hand on Whipsnap.

“Luca,” Adoni says, his tone serious and very adult sounding. He has one hand on his bolas and a knife already in the other.

“I know, I know,” Luca says, waving away the man’s concern.

I look to Krane. He’s watching, too, but his arms are crossed and he looks only half-interested.

A puff of air brings my focus back to the swirling water. Something took a breath.

The swirling shape rises again, five feet closer. I can see a vague, large shape beneath the surface of the water. Had this been midday instead of sunset, I might have been able to see the true size of the creature, but the orange sun fails to pierce the water.

Again, five feet closer, the swirl emerges. As the creature surfaces, a cloud of expelled steam blocks its face for a moment. Then the air clears and a doglike face with big black eyes is revealed.

“Gloop!” I shout, charging into the water.

“Solomon?” Luca says, now sounding afraid.

“What’s he doing?” I hear Adoni shout. I can hear his feet, too, running toward the beach.

I wrap my arms around the Weddell seal that has saved my life twice. The seal nuzzles against my side and then swims circles around me.

Adoni arrives, bolas spinning above his head.

“It’s okay,” I say, raising a hand up. “He’s a friend.”

“You’re friends with this creature?” Adoni asks.

“Among others,” I say.

He lowers the bolas. “Right. The dinosaurs.”

“Grumpy is here, too?” I ask.

“Grumpy?”

“The male cresty.”

Adoni starts to sound annoyed when he says, “Cresty?”

“The dinosaurs.” I remember what Aimee called them. “The crylophosaurs.”

“Ahh,” Adoni says, finally understanding. “We have heard stories.”

“Have you seen them?” I ask.

Adoni attaches the bolas to his belt with a shake of his head. “I’ve seen a lot of strange things, but you… I saw them just once. They left. With Xin.”

Before I can ask for more details, a woman clears her throat behind Adoni. He falls silent and steps aside.

It’s Kainda.

Gloop slides beneath the water and disappears.

“Go get something to eat,” she says, then glances at Adoni and Krane. They nod and start away from the lake. “Take the kid, too.”

Adoni takes Luca’s hand and leads him away.

I take a step to follow them, but Kainda stops me with a stare and says, “You stay.”

Luca glances back at me apologetically before fading into the jungle.