About fifteen hours later they landed on a rather large privately owned island. It was a no-fly zone other than authorized planes. Kendra stretched and moved to get off the plane. Following Derrick out she jogged down the steps and darted out the fencing before anyone else. She ran fast, faster than any one human could. This was her time to feel free and Kendra embraced it.
She ran down toward the ocean from where she could see it. No one stopped her and she was glad for it. Kendra smiled and went in up to her calves. It felt like home to her and she couldn't explain it. She glanced over her shoulder knowing that someone was coming toward her.
Kendra moved out of the water and over to the aged gentleman that was standing there. he was getting older now, something that would happen to Kendra unless she changed to one of the immortal races. Survive on blood, or crave raw meat for the rest of her life? She didn't know what was better.
"Figured you would be down here. You ran off before they could stop you to bring you to headquarters for a briefing."
"I just got back. we just got back. I'd like to relax. Besides, it looks like you were waiting here for me." She accused. This was supposed to be her time to relax. Why was he here?
"I was, knew you'd run to the ocean. You're very attracted to it." He shrugged. "We have another job for you to do, this one is a class ten." She sighed. There were ten classes, and one through five were ones that they caught and brought back. None to moderate danger. Six through ten were moderate to extreme danger and the ones that they normally had to destroy. It made her sad. She felt that they had the right to live. Was that human or homunculus talking, she didn't know.
"Well, what is it? A Hydra?" She said laughing and he looked serious.
"That's not funny, thankfully we have never run across one since I've been director here. They are extremely dangerous creatures." She had been joking, she didn't know that they had actually found a hydra. Her interest was peaked now. Just what had they found? Looked like she wasn't going to get a rest.
"You only send me along if you want to capture it." She said eyeing him, his name was Thomas Biegon. Clearly, as he said, he was the director of this facility and put the missions and crews together.
"Or learn from it before we must destroy it, and you have yet to be unable to calm anything with your touch. You might get close enough for samples." Oh goodie.
"I've never tried on anything above a class six. And six was still jumpy with everyone else." He gave a shrug.
"We have a meeting to get to, come," Biegon said as a small golf cart came up to the edge of where the sand started. She moved with him, they got into it and went up to the larger building. On the way she passed the Pegasus being moved and it looked rather dejected. She saw the intelligence there that humans never gave credit to. Inside she wondered about her fate. Humans outnumbered the mythical world a million to one. She looked away from the Pegasus feeling shame that she had brought this creature to a shiny cage. One that she was in, she was just one of the lucky ones that got to go out on a leash she guessed.
__The Briefing__
Derrick looked at Kendra as she came into the room. Her wealth of dark brown hair falling straight below her shoulders. Her eyes were that exotic ice blue, and her figure a man's dream. It was hard to remember that she was made that way because of what she was. She drew the eye of most men in the room and he couldn't help but feel happy that she was sitting down next to him.
Her voice was soft and sweet. It ran through your body and made you think of hot steamy sex. If he was being absolutely honest. She was aware of her effect but he really didn't think that she understood her effect on the opposite sex. He was so glad she couldn't read his mind, nor the others in the room. He was sure that he wasn't the only one, but she was aloof and didn't let others near her. Too bad he would really like to be a whole lot more than the friend's thing. Derrick honestly cared about Kendra, but she always kept a distance.
"Hey." She said sitting down and he sighed. This was as close to her as he was ever going to get, and he liked her, not just because he was drawn to her.
"Right back to work." He said and she smiled, a flash of white teeth.
"So it would seem." Kendra looked at Derrick and wished that she could feel more than a friendship with him, but she just couldn't. In the end, he could never give her what she wanted. Mainly because she didn't know what she wanted. He was just a very good friend to her. She knew how he felt, but it was her that was the problem.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you have been selected to go to the Himalayan mountains. The range is massive, and sightings have been coming in regularly of this anomaly. Though no one has been able to give an actual description of what the creature is. Just a lot of guesswork, but the evidence is supporting a ten."
"What the Abominable snowman?" Someone said and the others laughed.
"That would be a lot easier if it was," Biegon said but shook his head, a few slides showing the different areas that they would go.
"Some have said that it looked like a huge flying lizard, and others said that it was a man that had bat-like wings. All we know is that people have sent several hunting parties after it. None came back and many times whole villages or towns were destroyed."
Biegon clicked something and an old depiction came up. It looked like a Chinese dragon rising over a group of people. He clicked again and there was a European-style dragon now showing and a lot of them were raising their eyebrows.
"There is lore a plenty in this region about dragons and their powers." There was a murmur through the room. No one, no one in recent history had ever claimed to have seen a dragon. Was he seriously proposing one had been seen?
"Hold up, you're telling us this is a dragon we are going after? How could something like that stay hidden? There would have been sightings way before now." Kendra looked at the dark hair and skinned man that spoke.
"True, that is why we want to see if we can catch it or learn about it first to see what it is. However, if you would listen," The room was silent and he continued.
"During the dark ages, stories of dragons were everywhere and then they started to dwindle and the story of hunts of these mighty beasts being brought down with sorcery and special weapons were told. The very last story was in a mountain village in China."
"They said that they had found a woman who could draw the beast to her. She was condemned as an evil sorceress, one to dabble in black magic. They got their finest men and killed the beast and burned the woman. Shortly after the entire village was destroyed. Not a man, woman nor child was left alive."
"When was this?" Derrick asked.
"The record would date back some six hundred years or so."
"Damn." Someone said in the background.
"Either way, eyewitness reports that were handed down over time, said that when a small group arrived at the burnt village, they found a great beast dead. A large hole where its heart should have been, the story is fuzzy but they said that a man was found there as well. He was dying, and they didn't know why, as he had no wounds on him. They asked what happened."
Everyone was sitting there and rather wrapped up in the story. If there was anything more they enjoyed than seeing the creatures it was hearing about them in the past. The fight of humans against those that were evil or different. Plus it was valuable information to have going after these creatures.
"Well?" someone prompted. "Did he kill the thing or what?" Thomas smiled.
"They don't know, he was laughing like a madman and died before they could do anything. Or so the old records say. Passed down, hard to tell."
"So what are we to do?" Kendra asked. "I mean it sounds like no one knows a thing about this being. If it's not something else in disguise." There was a murmur of agreement around the room.
"We don't. So first we want to gather information and then we will see what is to be done."
"I thought you said this was a class ten," Riley said. Everyone knew that something of that caliber was always destroyed.
"It is, it might be something else. Last week, a highly trained team was sent into the mountain range thinking there were hostiles there. When they didn't report in a rescue team was sent to find them. Three were bloodless, two burned beyond recognition and two others in a bloody mess over a large field."
"Sounds like fun," Kendra commented and there was a bit of laughter that went through the team that relieved some of the tension.
"You move out in an hour so be ready," Thomas said and dismissed them. Kendra didn't go anywhere, just went to wait to get on the plane. She was sitting there waiting with a few others who were talking about what they were going to do. As normal she just listened, nothing else to really think about.
"Sounds like a group to me, a dragon sounds far-fetched. I mean there were men found with blood loss, and two chomped up? Sounds like a vampire werewolf team to me."
"Yeah, but crazed, vampires and werewolves don't work together when they go mad. They can't think straight." The second man said and the other shrugged.
"They could just hate humans." One supplied.
"Then why are they hiding up in the mountains? Kind of stupid, they should be down in populated areas trying to get rid of us like a lot of others are." Kendra had to agree, though she wasn't believing this dragon business either.
She smiled at Derrick as he came up and sat next to her. Once again she felt sad. Her curse, she just didn't seem to respond to humans. She had a couple of vampires, but in the end, she felt like she wasn't going to have anyone for herself. She wished so much she could feel that way toward Derrick, or anyone. To want them around all the time. It really did look like that was her curse, she could attract them all but never want them herself.
"Ready?" Derrick asked with a raised eyebrow at her small bag.
"Don't need much." She said with a smile and he shook his head. A few minutes later they were boarding and then taking off for their next destination. She wondered what the world would do if they knew about the things that went bump in the night.
"You know," she said next to Derrick and looked at him. "I think I'm glad that I'm not on the spiritual team, demons, and shadow people… I'll stick with what I can see, even if it shoots flames. At least it can't take over my body."
"What about your mind? There are some that can do that." Derrick countered.
"True, but I've toughened my mind up and can kick their ass if I have to."
"Amazon woman." She just smiled and did a few one-two fake punches. He laughed and leaned back in his seat. She could fight though, she was every bit as trained as the military men on board, stronger and faster than them as well. Kendra just got comfortable for the flight as it was a bit of time.
Kendra fell asleep and woke in time to prepare for landing. It was a good thing she slept, the twelve-hour flight was rather long and dull otherwise. She pulled on a light coat as they got off the plane and went into the airport. They found their luggage and got into their vehicles to head to where they were going to set up camp. The money her group seemed to have never ceased to amaze her. That and the connections.
Kendra's mouth fell open as she looked at the enormous mountain range overhead. She hadn't really looked out the plane window. She hadn't been to this part of the world, and the mountain range was awe-inspiring and breathtaking. Just as much as the wild jungles of the world, but this looked so much more rugged and dangerous. She felt very much like a small child who marveled at the raw power the world could possess. She put a hand to the window and just watched the scenery go by as they climbed the mountain and found their way into a decent-sized town.
They were on the northern end of the town here and staying at a large three-story building that had been outfitted just for them. The people she worked for were effective that was for sure. She knew that the story going around the town was that they were just a group of scientists that were here to study the weather patterns of the area and doing other checks with snow depths and whatnot on the mountain.
"You know if I was a dragon, I would pick someplace a lot warmer than this. Aren't they cold-blooded?" Bryce asked. He was a well-built man and average height with dark brown hair and blue eyes.
"Maybe it was frozen all this time and finally came back to life with global warming," Lee said, a shorter woman with grey eyes and a tough exterior.
"Damn that global warming, always biting us in the ass." Bryce retorted and there was a round of laughter. They moved into the building and went up to the third floor where the living area was. Along with part of the second, they picked their rooms. Kendra was relieved that she had her own, even though it was small.
The thing about working out in the field for a while, if you got stuck in a room and if tension mounted, it was hard to live there. She tossed her bag on her bed and opened the first door in her room and that came out into Lee's room. She smiled at her and saluted.
"Got my own room too, looks like we all do, but Bryce and Cody." She said and Kendra just smiled.
"Well, they get along fine," Kendra said and moved out into the hallway. She moved down to the first floor and looked at the rooms set up for storage. A lab area along with a sitting area for meetings. Just simple equipment that was easy to transport. Things for blood samples and such. Like she said they had money and connections. However, she moved to find out just where they were going first. Probably a good walk on foot.
Kendra had to say that if you were not physically fit, you should not be on this team. It looked like their first day was going to be a major hike around the area. They also had to look out for local wildlife. Which they were more likely to encounter than their mysterious being, and while it was snow free now, they were calling for it within a week or two.
"Okay people, look sharp and make sure to mark anything that looks suspicious. We have a lot of area to cover and this was the last area it was spotted in. Those of you going to mingle with the locals, make sure that they believe you are just interested in the local history. We don't need them running us out of here. Thinking us thieves." There were nods all around and they moved to leave. Kendra kept her fingers crossed that this being was already gone. Deep in her heart, she was growing tired of capturing them. This one sounded like it would be death and that made her wish to do this even less.