Excerpt: Riders of the Mapinguari

Here is the prologue to Riders of the Mapinguari, by Gaddy Bergmann. Riders of the  Mapinguari is the third book in The Feral World trilogy.

Felix was perched high above the ground in a wooden watchtower on the western edge of the large village of Laredo. The darkest part of the night had passed, and he now watched the dim, blue light of dawn growing on the horizon. It was summer, but this time of day was the coldest. To ward off the chill in the air, Felix kept his arms crossed over his chest, with his hands tucked underneath and pressed firmly against his ribcage.

As one of the sentinels on guard that night, it was Felix’s job to stay alert, keep an eye out for any kind of danger, and protect his tribe. This role was a respected and necessary one, and Felix was proud to serve his beloved home in any way he could. But he hated sentinel duty. He absolutely hated it. Like all the other young men, he assumed it about once each month, but he dreaded it. Although a sprightly young man, he was definitely diurnal. Whenever his turn came up in the rotation to stand guard for his tribe, the Laredoshi, Felix always felt as though his heart were being slowly crushed by boulders. Of course, he always managed to serve his duty. Then he could relax. However, his next turn was always only a month away. Felix longed for the day when he would become senior enough to be exempt from this tedious and miserable chore.

This morning, however, he was absolutely exhausted. He and his young wife had just had their first baby, and although they adored their new son, caring for him was absolutely enervating. So staying awake to watch over an endless savanna seemed impossible. Standing guard didn’t really frighten Felix, as it did some of the other young guards, but that was simply because nothing ever really happened.

Laredo was located in the hot, dry fields of the southern Warmland. Situated just east of the Grand River and not far west of the Gulf of Mexico, the climate here was hot and the land harsh. Laredo was not the most prosperous territory in the Warmland, but it was large and stable enough to discourage serious attacks; there had been none in the past four decades. Occasionally, there were skirmishes at the borders with the neighboring tribes, such as the Corpushi to the east or the Santonishi to the north, but these were more formalities than real threats. There was also the occasional interloper or band of thieving trespassers, but even that was a rarity and easily rectified besides. There was nothing really to look forward to except the hourly, silent, torch signaling with the other sentinels, and the last one had just recently been completed. No, nothing ever happened, and to Felix, boredom combined with darkness and fatigue could only mean slumber. He grew tired of straining his eyes with nothing but his torch to aid them. The chirping field crickets and the occasional hooting owls seemed to be lulling him to sleep. With nothing but the sparse trees, wild emu birds, pronghorn antelope, and texins—the wild cattle of the Warmland—to keep him company, Felix drifted off to sleep.

Suddenly, a powerful jolt rocked Felix’s watchtower, and like a tiny hatchling from its nest, he tumbled out and plummeted to the ground. Felix reflexively tried to break his fall, but he landed on his right wrist, first brushing past the short, wiry grass and then crashing onto the hard earth. Felix heard a sickening snapping sound as a jolt of pain shot up from his arm; he knew it was broken. Clutching his injured arm to his torso with his good one, he sat up quickly and frantically looked around to figure out what had happened. Just then a massive blow landed on the side of his head, which threw him back several feet and smashed him into the ground once more. Felix was dazed but still conscious, now both his arm and his head throbbing, and although he remained supine, his eyes darted about wildly as he tried to see what was happening in the growing morning light. He heard the soft crunching of grass off to one side, a kind of slow plodding of someone approaching him. Then, he saw it. Felix became wild with terror when he finally realized what was happening.

“Mapinguari!” he screamed as he looked directly at his assailant. “Mapinguari!”

Felix’s assailant was not human. A giant beast with shaggy, brown fur was now slowly approaching him. Its odor was overpowering: a kind of musky, musty stench that filled Felix’s nostrils and rattled his brain. The creature was simply enormous. It had a broad muzzle, stocky midsection, and thick tail. It lumbered on its undersized hind legs toward Felix in a hunched-over posture, holding its powerful forelimbs high off the ground and close to its body. Three of the four fingers on each hand bore massive, sharp claws, as did each of its inside toes. This caused it to walk peculiarly on the outsides of its feet, yet its footsteps fell lightly and gracefully onto the earth.

When the beast reached Felix’s side, it reared up to its full height and gave out a deep, resonant bellow. The creature was enormous—as tall as an elephant or taller, a gigantic wall of fur and dust and mud. As a thousand thoughts and emotions raced through Felix’s mind, the most salient one was confusion. Then, beneath the shaggy hair, Felix saw that the beast wore a red, leather collar about its neck, and suddenly things began to make sense.

Laredo was under attack.

Felix’s fear turned to horror when the beast, still standing tall, flexed its thick, long neck to an impossible degree and looked down directly at him. Then it bent over and, with one mighty swipe of its claw, tore his belly wide open. His body rocked slightly from the assault, but it didn’t respond immediately. Within seconds, though, the blood began to flow and the ruptured organs began to protrude. Now in shock, Felix felt almost no pain, but in his terror he managed to let out one final sound.

“Mapinguari!” he cried one last time, but this time hoarse, faint, and gurgling. Then the beast inserted its muzzle into Felix’s opened abdomen and began to feed, periodically causing the body to sway like a large, floppy rag. The beast grunted with contentment as it consumed more and more substance from Felix’s body. Within moments, the life force left Felix, while that of the beast grew.

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Bibliographical information for Riders of the Mapinguair is found at this link on Gather: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977713531

See more about the book at Flying Pen Press.