The Changeling Princess (22 page)

I floated over the center of the town, carrying the Devil Spider in my arms. The Sun had just disappeared over the horizon so to attract attention to myself I covered my entire body with a luminous light that lit up the evening sky. Many of the townspeople walked out into the street and got down on their knees in prayer. I spoke in a soft voice with a slight rumble that made it sound as if it was coming straight from heaven.

“The Devil Spider is no longer a threat to any man or beast that walks the Earth. I am taking her back to her domain. Spread my message throughout the land so that you can all live in peace.”

My heart was filled with joy as I headed toward the Mariana Trench. Another horror from the parallel universe had been captured and taken out of commission.

* * *

Pauline was amazed when she read my report.
“I can’t believe you did all these things, Janis. Do you realize that if someone discovers these reports a hundred years from now, they’ll think they’ve discovered the manuscripts of an unpublished science fiction writer?”

I nodded my head and smiled.
“There are times when I can’t believe it all myself.”

CHAPTER 39

I turned twenty-three years old in 1967. I took two weeks off before heading to my next assignment. I would be trying to find Antista, a Sea creature known as the Loch Ness monster.

I tried to relax and enjoy life, but my responsibilities were continually on my mind. Visiting with my parents and playing with the kitties was the best therapy I had going for me. These were the times when I actually felt like a normal human being.

I always made it a point to play with Missy and Izzy in the back yard. Mom got a big kick out of watching them fly around in the sky. It was a happy time for all of us.

I never passed up the chance to visit Wade
’s gravesite when I was home. I knew I would never marry because I would never fall in love again. Wade was my one and only true love and he could never be replaced.

*
* *

I read everything I could find on the fresh water loch known as Loch Ness. Loch Ness was 22.6 miles long, 1.7 miles wide, and its average depth was 433 feet. This was a very large body of fresh water.

Loch Ness was a well-known body of water because of the sighting of a sea monster that came to be known as “Nessie.” Some people thought Nessie might be a Plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile with four paddle-shaped flipper limbs. The dinosaur book I checked out of the library said a Plesiosaur could grow up to sixty feet in length. There was said to be numerous sightings of Nessie dating all the way back to the Vikings. Unfortunately, there was no physical proof to bear this out.

What confused me was that Demons usually preyed on creatures in their surroundings. I couldn
’t find any reports that Nessie had ever harmed anything. When I rechecked my list at home, it specifically said “she creature.” It did not say “monster” or “Demon.” Maybe Nessie wasn’t a Demon. I was confused.

From what I
’d read, the waters of Loch Ness in the wintertime are pretty warm. The bulk of Loch Ness was an even 42 degrees, so it acted like a giant radiator to help reduce the amount of ice and snow on the loch-side roads. If I was still there during the winter, that was a good thing to know.

*
* *

I arrived at Loch Ness in August of 1965. Compared to the range of the Sierra Madre Mountains, Loch Ness was a very tiny place to search for a creature from another universe. I morphed into the Changeling Princess and entered the water. The deeper I went, the harder it was to see. I discovered that the sediment at the bottom of Loch Ness made it extremely hard to see anything. This was not a clear body of water like most inland lakes.

The most useful tool at my disposal was my energy beam. I set it on low and used it like a floodlight. I adjusted the beam to a wide angle and began sweeping the area. I was surprised at how few fish I encountered. I don’t know why, but I thought Loch Ness would be overcrowded with fish.

I soon found out I couldn
’t communicate with the local fish population. I guess their brains were so tiny we just couldn’t connect. I spent my first day in the waters of Loch Ness and didn’t come up with a single clue.

The only logical explanation was that Nessie had gone out into the ocean. Maybe Nessie lived in the ocean and she only visited Loch Ness occasionally. That didn
’t make sense because the list said she lived in Loch Ness. I’d just have to keep searching.

I spent six months in Loch Ness before I finally encountered Nessie. I was at a depth of about three hundred feet when I sensed a large creature swimming toward me. When the creature came into view, I knew it was Nessie because of her size and the shape of her body.

The first thing my senses told me was that this was not a dangerous creature. It had a large mouth and long teeth, but I sensed that this creature had a gentle nature. My Ivarr senses were never wrong.

Th
e creature swam right up to me
. Am I the one you’ve been looking for?

Are you Antista?

That was my name when I lived in another world.

How long have you lived in these waters?

Nessie’s mouth widened into what appeared to be a smile
. I’ve lived in this loch for exactly one thousand Earth years.

I didn
’t know what to think. The fact that Nessie wasn’t a dangerous creature had me totally confused. I had a lot of questions I wanted answered.
I thought all the creatures of your world were Demons. You’re not a Demon.

The fact that I am not a Demon shows you have a lot to learn about my world. Are you familiar with a fish in your oceans called the
‘sailfish’?

Of course I am. The sailfish is considered to be one of our greatest sports fish.

That’s what I am in my world—a sports fish. The land creatures catch us for sport and we are considered a delicacy for their dinner table.

I had more questions
. Can you explain to me how you managed to get here after the portal was opened? You traveled a very long distance and you’re not capable of flying.

I was wounded when I was younger and a very kind Wizard took pity on me. When a portal opened to your world, I was transformed into a Mist and transported to this body of water.

What do you eat? There are very few large fish in this Loch.

I do not eat fish. I feed on the vegetation growing in abundance on the floor of the ocean.

That explains why I couldn’t find you. You’ve been feeding in the ocean since I got here.

I suddenly became aware I was being surrounded by a large school of fish. They ranged from tiny fish to large sturgeons. My senses told me they were forming a barrier because they wanted to defend Nessie.

It appears that you have a lot of friends in Loch Ness, Nessie. I’m impressed that they want to defend you.

They are my friends because I have earned their trust. There are many predators that enter Loch Ness from the ocean. These predators are not welcome here and I have made it my responsibility to make sure they do not hurt anyone. I never kill for sport, but if the predators persist, I have no option but to destroy them.

I was overwhelmed. Nessie was a creature from another world, but she was willing to put her life on the line to defend her friends. I looked around and saw that more fish had arrived to defend Nessie. The schools of fish were so thick I couldn’t see past them. Nessie stated her case.

I know you are an Ivarr and your prime directive is to capture and imprison me. I will not fight you, but I
’m pleading with you to let me stay here in the Loch. I am not asking for myself, I’m asking for the creatures in this loch that cannot protect themselves from the predators that would hunt them down for food.

I never thought I would ever run into a situation like this. I asked myself if I had the right to make any decision that went against the prime directive. I just couldn
’t see Nessie as a prisoner at the bottom of the Mariana Trench beside all those vicious Demons.

I made a snap decision to leave Nessie in the waters of Loch Ness. If the Supreme Entity called on me to do otherwise, then I would come back to Loch
Ness and fulfill my obligation.

Nessie, I
’ve made up my mind to leave you in Loch Ness. It may not be the correct decision, but I sense you are not evil. I wish you and all of your friends a happy and peaceful life.

I thank you and all of my friends thank you. I won
’t disappoint you.

I rose out of the water and headed for home. If I
’d made the wrong decision, I was positive I’d be hearing from the Supreme Entity.

CHAPTER 40

My journey to Loch Ness was my quickest trip so far because I was only gone for six months. I decided Nessie was an exception because she wasn’t a Demon. If she hadn’t come to me of her own free will, I’d probably still be looking for her. As I always did, I delivered a written report to my grandma Pauline.

My parents always liked to hear about my adventures while rounding up Demons. My dad brought up a question about Nessie that I hadn
’t thought of.

“
I wonder why the last Ivarr didn’t capture Nessie?” my father asked.

“
You know, Dad, I didn’t think to ask. It stands to reason the previous Ivarr wouldn’t have had any trouble finding her. Maybe the Ivarr made the same decision I did. Jeez, I feel a lot better now that you’ve brought that up.”

“
What’s next on your list?” my mother asked.

“
Cumado, he’s a devil bat that lives in New Guinea.”

“
He sounds like a foul creature,” my dad said, looking disgusted. “New Guinea’s not the kind of place I’d like to vacation at.”

“
You take the good with the bad, Dad.”

*
* *

I spent the next two weeks reading everything I could find on the world
’s second largest island. At 303,500 square miles, it was a little bit bigger than the state of Texas. I was fascinated when I read that New Guinea is populated by a thousand different tribal groups and a near-equivalent number of separate languages. When I interviewed some servicemen who had been stationed in New Guinea, their opinion of the island was pretty much the same: “It rains too much, the humidity is unbearable, and it’s overrun with insects, rats, and bats.” It didn’t sound like a place where anyone would want to go vacation.

*
* *

I arrived in New Guinea in August. I found out immediately that the servicemen I talked to weren
’t exaggerating. It was hot, humid, and almost impossible to stay dry. I solved the heat problem by spraying my body with a blast of cold air from my energy beam. In a sense, it was like having my own built-in air conditioner. If I was in an enclosed room, I used my beam and cooled down the room in a matter of seconds.

I traveled from village to village to gather information. The first think I found out was that the natives were very mistrustful. I didn
’t blame them because strangers usually meant trouble. Lucky for me, I could speak their language, no matter which dialect it was. All of the dialects sounded like English to me, but with a different accent.

A little trick I used was morphing into a six-foot tall blonde with a radiant glow surrounding my entire body. When I made a dramatic entrance into their village, I was so unusual-looking that they were afraid of me. I think I was mistaken for a god.

When I met with a Chief, I’d explain that I was searching for Cumado, the devil bat that was terrorizing the villages. The mention of the devil bat always caused a lot of commotion. Everyone had heard of the evil bat that killed by sucking the blood out of its victims. I’d gather as much information as I could and then move on to the next village.

I had no desire to walk through the jungle on foot. Morphing into a Mist was faster and a much easier way to travel. I didn
’t have to worry about being bitten, but the large insects really gave me the creeps. I saw some really strange-looking spiders and other type of insects I didn’t even know existed.

I
’d covered almost two hundred villages before I got a real break. I’d been following a faint scent that was getting stronger each day. When I entered the next village, I discovered that a young man’s blood had been sucked out of him the night before. The dead body was laying in one of the huts awaiting last rites. I made myself invisible and slipped into the hut. I leaned over the dead body and took a deep breath. Just like the scent of the Vampire in New Orleans, Cumado’s scent was overwhelming. I morphed into a Mist and flew out of the hut.

I followed the scent for about thirty miles and entered a large cave at the foot of a mountain. It was early in the afternoon and the cave walls were lined with bats. When the Sun eventually disappeared from sight, the sky would be darkened by millions of bats in flight.

I morphed into the Changeling Princess and made myself invisible. Then I flew into the cave and began my search for an unusually large bat with the right scent. Cumado wasn’t hard to spot. He was nesting all by himself because the rest of the bats gave him plenty of room. It stood to reason that the bats were afraid of him. He was probably the type of predator that didn’t give a second thought to killing his own kind. Cumado was about six feet long with a bat-like body and a round head. He had long, pointed ears, two hideous fangs, and long claws that he used like hands. Cumado was a living, breathing nightmare.

I didn
’t waste any time. I used my power of telekinesis and grabbed Cumado before he knew what was happening. His piercing squeal could be heard throughout the entire cave as I pulled him from the wall and flew toward the entrance. Cumado didn’t know what to think because he was being dragged away by an unseen force. I hoped I was putting a little fear in his heart. He deserved a lot worse.

When we reached the outside of the cave, I materialized and we settled onto the ground. I released my grip on Cumado, whose thoughts were running wild.
What kind of human are you? How did you turn invisible?

Cumado lunged at me with his long claws and protruding fangs. It was like holding off a cornered wildcat, fighting for its life. When he tried to sink his fangs into my neck, I heard a cracking sound like a dry twig being snapped in two. Cumado was in shock because he had broken one of his fangs.

You keep that up, Cumado, and you’ll be on a strict diet of oatmeal and soup.

Cumado made one last lunge at me with his claws open wide. I grabbed him by the ears and spun him around in a circle. He was screeching with pain as I slammed him to the ground. I felt like stomping on his face, but
that would have been too easy.
You’re lucky I can control my temper,
I said as I began spinning my force field around his body. When I was finished, I added my signature “W” right between his eyes. I was in a hurry to get back home, so I increased my height to forty feet for a quick trip to the Mariana Trench.

I placed Cumado right alongside the other Demons I had captured. I had to admit that the area was getting crowded. Thankfully, the Trench was long enough that I had miles to spare.