Honor Thy Father: Chapter 3 - "The Fallen One"
The Bear-tooth Mountain Archive
Welcome back, dear reader, to the third chapter of Honor Thy Father, a new serial short story set within the world of The Bear-tooth Mountain Archive. But don’t let that scare you, this one can stand all on its own.
Jude has now learned a dark truth from his father, that a giant lives at the top of Bear-tooth Mountain. As the pair venture through the woods, they do so intending to glimpse the creature themselves…
The pair had been hiking through the forest for over an hour when Elroy Anthony stopped his son dead in his tracks.
He looked around carefully, though the boy could see no sudden alarm on his face. He was calm as an evening’s soft breeze but spoke with the firmness of a steady flame.
“We are close.”
He sniffed the air. It was then that Jude recognized a faint odor lurking about, a distinct stench that burned the nostrils.
“What is that father?”
“Sulfur.”
Before Jude could ask yet another question, his father answered.
“It comes and goes. Dark forces are at work here. We must be cautious.”
Jude nodded and followed his father as he slowly marched through the trees. Elroy Anthony made the sign of the cross as he led his son carefully through the thicket, eyes peeled for anything that might be lurking about.
He heard nothing out of the ordinary, but his nose warned him of the potential danger. The older man fought hard to resist the temptation to despair, and likely didn’t even notice the drips of sweat forming at the base of his neck before they escaped down his back.
When they came to the base of the Mountain, father and son looked up at its jagged peak.
“Wow.”
Jude could hardly believe how close he was to the dark tower.
Though an army of trees ran up most of the mountain, he could see the pointed topside through a clearing above. His mouth hung open with delight, and he nearly forgot all about the potential dangers. It was exhilarating being this close, and the fit of gooseflesh that had infected him earlier covered his body once more. After so many days and nights of dreaming about the mountain from afar, he was finally there, thrilled at last.
That is, until his father plucked him from the earth and rushed him behind a bolder nearest the base.
Jude had half expected to see another glowing orb floating aimlessly about. After their previous encounter, his father had been extra cautious, and even covered some of their tracks. But Jude was surprised to see nothing out of the ordinary at all.
His father held him tightly as they took cover, never betraying his own fear as they stood silently. His Papa waited patiently for something that likely would’ve been as fantastic as it were terrible.
Jude imagined everything from a fire-breathing dragon swooping down with a claw-full of gold to a horde of the undead sprouting from the earth, but neither of these were the evil that his father was taking great care to avoid.
When the earth began to quake, Jude quickly put the pieces together.
The boy half-expected the creature to be chanting “Fee-fi-fo-fum” as it ambled down the unholy Mountain, but that phrase was reserved strictly for fairy stories.
Though he couldn’t see the beast, he felt its each and every step as the ground vibrated beneath him. He heard the creature too. Its heavy groans were almost metallic, violating the ears the louder and closer they got. Jude shoved his hands against his head and closed his eyes. He fought back against fearful tears that whispered you are going to be eaten, trying to remain strong for his father.
“Fear not, my son.”
Jude looked up at his father as he removed a small sack from his inside jacket pocket and handed it over to him. He opened the sack to reveal cuts of raw meat, which had brought from home.
“This will distract the creature while we take a closer look. You must know the enemy we are up against.”
“Do I not know it already? Is knowing not enough?”
“I am afraid not.”
Elroy Anthony stole back the sack from his son and, as the ground continued to quake beneath them, stood out from behind the boulder. He looked down the pathway leading up to the Mountain, steadied his aim, and promptly launched the sack into the distant trees.
As intended, the fringes were caught on a loose branch, and the bag of meat hung there, waiting to be discovered.
Jude’s father returned to their hiding place and held a finger up to ensure his son remained quiet.
“Not a sound,” he whispered — though the boy needed no reminding.
Minutes passed like hours as the rumbling in the ground grew more intense. No longer were these quakes far off. In fact, the pair were forced to brace themselves to even remain upright as each new crash shook the soil beneath them.
Strangely, the beast wasn’t roaring as it had before. It had no doubt caught a whiff of the bait that had been left for it, and likely hoped to surprise its prey. It must not have realized that each step could be felt through the earth.
When Jude and his father heard the clear snapping of branches, the old man peered carefully around the boulder. Jude waited as his father watched the creature from afar, and, a moment later, he was beckoned to do the same.
Jude never forgot the moment he first laid eyes on the giant.
The creature was over fifteen foot tall and dressed in a shaggy red mane that ran down its back. It was as pale as full moon, mimicking the color of freshly fallen snow. But unlike snow, which was fresh and pure, the creature looked sickly and diseased. It had clearly been deprived of the sun.
Standing there stark naked, the giant pawed at the sack of meat. Its lanky fingers — six on each hand — were fashioned with jagged nails that looked more like the claws of an animal. It wasn’t long before they tore a hole through the sack and spilled the pieces of raw beef onto the cold, wet ground.
The creature wasted no time stabbing the meat and bringing it directly to its mouth. It was horrible to watch as the stringy pieces of meat hung from the chapped lips of this disgusting creature.
Jude thought that he hadn’t seen anything more disturbing in his life. Though the orb had given him a fright, it still made him far too curious. In contrast, watching the giant devour raw flesh was worse than watching his father skin a buck, or a wolf devour one of their calves. The monster felt like a distortion of everything that was good and true about humanity. Like an unnatural nightmare that had been bred solely to destroy everything in its path.
He wasn’t too far off.
Though he understood why his father had brought him here, he wished that the creature had been described to him beforehand. He hadn’t known what exactly to expect, and the reality of it was far worse than he would have imagined for himself.
Although Jude and his father were quite far from the giant, its enormous features were as recognizable as if it were standing on the opposite side of the same room. With each new ravenous bite, Jude could see the doubled rows of carnivorous teeth inside its ungodly jaws. They appeared sharper than the hunting blade his father often carried, and as they tore through uncooked flesh, Jude couldn’t help but imagine what they might do to a human being.
“Papa…”
Jude’s father tried to still him, but it was too late. The words had been spoken, and not even Elroy Anthony could put them back in his son’s mouth.
The giant ceased from its meal and stood as motionless as the trees. It closed its eyes and tilted its head slightly, as if listening for further movement.
The beast could tell something, or someone, was out there watching. It had heard the boy, and a human child was indeed a much finer prospect than a sack full of old cow meat.
Elroy Anthony placed his large hand over his son’s mouth and steadied them behind the boulder. Silently, he petitioned heaven as his other hand gripped the hilt of his sword. He would be ready if that beast charged him, and he would waste no time sending his son back into the woods and straight for home if it came down to it. He had hoped Jude would have understood the gravity of the situation, but Elroy was reminded that his son wasn’t yet a man.
God willing, he would live to become an old one.
Jude tried to swallow his fear. Though his attempts to stay still as the grave failed with each new second that passed. The eerie silence only prolonged the danger and kept his imagination running rampant. He recognized his error and felt foolish.
The revelation that monsters — real, true monsters — did indeed exist beyond the pages of storybooks and legends struck him like nothing before or since ever could. It made him wonder what else was out there.
What else could be hiding beneath the comfort of his bed or in his darkened closet?
If giants could come down from the earthen tower in his backyard, did that also mean they might follow them home?
The boy wished he had never come.
He wished that his endless curiosity about the Mountain had faded as his courage had now. He knew his father had always been weary of the pull that Bear-tooth Mountain had over his only son. It had consumed so much of his imagination that, although he was now faced with the very object of his fascination, he wanted to be anywhere else.
Jude gripped his father’s left hand like one grips the handlebars on a steep hill, not realizing that his father had already pulled his sword with his right.
Suddenly, the sky grew dark overhead. Jude had a strange feeling as he looked up, knowing full well that evening was still a few hours away. He knew there hadn’t been many clouds that day. Even under the cover of the forest, there was no way that these shadows should overtake them.
So, when his eyes tilted upward and he saw the creature standing directly above them, a fantastic feeling of panic throttled itself on top of him.
The giant had somehow crept upon them, and there was no escape.
But before Jude could scream, Elroy Anthony pushed his son through the gap between the giant’s legs and swung faithfully at the creature’s thigh. The giant howled in pain as it swiped at Elroy with its heavy paws.
Jude’s father dodged each attempt and countered with another swipe of his own. Blood ran down the creature’s already scarred complexion, and the father looked wildly at his son. His eyes flickered furiously, and his hands were already covered in the creature’s blood.
“Run Jude! Return to your mother!”
Jude obeyed without a second thought.
The creature hadn’t noticed that Elroy had pushed his child under its torso, and so the boy made it quickly into the forest where it would be harder for the giant to follow. He wasn’t quite sure how far he ran, but he kept on as fast as his little legs would carry him. He refused to look back, refused to give an inch to the monster as if it were already gaining on him.
After that initial wave of panic wore off, he realized that no one was pursuing him. Jude slowed to a crawl and turned back to wait for his father.
Through the trees, he could barely see his Papa boldly holding his own against the monster. Like the knights of old who braved themselves against fearsome dragons to rescue fair maidens, so too was his father sacrificially buying time for his son to escape.
Jude wished that he had the same courage as his father.
He wished that he too could wield a sword against mankind’s sworn enemies. But mettle like that didn’t come naturally. And anyway, he didn’t have a sword of his own.
As he watched his father cut and slash at the creature, he saw a fierceness in his eyes that he had never seen before. Even from afar, he could make out that particular look of purpose and destiny that the old man carried with him.
Elroy Anthony was no stranger to blood or violence. He had butchered plenty of their own stock over the years. But in battle against a foe like this — an ungodly beast towering menacingly over him — Jude saw a different side to his father. He always thought of his Papa as a hero, but he finally understood the meaning of such a word. There was a weight to it that he had never appreciated before, a weight he would never forget.
As the conflict raged, the boy was frightened only once when the giant managed to swipe his father across the battlefield. Struck by his sudden relocation, it took Elroy but a moment to retrieve his sword, and just in the nick of time too.
The old man rolled out of the giant’s path and jerked upward with the grace of a grasshopper. He dug his sword into the creature’s calf, which caused it to writhe in agony before falling to the ground.
It didn’t stay there, of course, and it wasn’t down long enough for Elroy to deliver a killing blow. Instead, Jude’s father used this time to make a daring escape. Having sheathed his sword, he retrieved his Winchester, which had fallen in the scuffle, and hurried into the forest, away from the monster—which scrambled back to its feet, hissing and growling like a wounded animal.
Jude waited as his father caught up and ran to meet him. He threw both his arms tightly around the old man’s burly and sweaty abdomen, squeezing with all his might. Elroy returned the favor but broke their embrace the moment he heard a crashing sound from the trees behind him.
More than forty yards away, the giant plunged itself into the forest. It had begun to pursue them with a raging fury burning across its bent face.
The boy and his father did not waste their breath. Instead, they ran urgently. The giant had been slowed by the dozens of trees, which also obscured its view. Each snap and crunch beneath the giant’s feet compelled Jude and his father to run faster, and with each pressing step they moved closer to home.
“Wait!” Jude shouted as he ran beside his father. His voice lowered to a whisper. “We cannot lead it home. Mama and the girls are there!”
“You are right, my son.”
Elroy came to an abrupt halt and turned back at the creature, still pursuing them from a distance. He readied his rifle and began firing quick rounds into the giant from afar.
“I will lure it elsewhere; you return to your Mama.”
“But Papa…”
“Do as I say, Jude. Protect your mother and sisters.”
The boy was petrified. He wasn’t sure he could do it. He didn’t have the strength his father did.
“Make me proud, my boy.”
Those last words were the kick that Jude needed, and he carried them with him as he dashed through the forest. Just like before, he didn’t waste any time looking back at the carnage behind him, but this time, it wasn’t because he was afraid...
No, he was on a mission now. He was going to make his father proud, one way or another. He was going to live up to his father’s example and protect their family. And, most importantly, he was going to ensure that this monster would never follow them back home.
Read Chapter 4: “A Guiding Light” here.