"Wait a minute," he whispered to himself as
he crouched and hurried over to the goat pen. "What the hell
is going on in there?" He looked over the fence and saw all the
goats pressing up against the far wall. In the middle of the pen,
a nanny goat was laying on her side. Stooping over her was a creature
like Dylan had never dreamed possible.
The starlight gave the beast's scaly skin a gray-green
cast. There were thick black hairs scattered over the creature's body,
so it's skin looked like it might be more at home on a rat's tail
or the back of an elephant. There were several long protrusions that
looked like overgrown and flattened porcupine quills growing out of
its back. There were no more than a dozen of these, protruding randomly
out and down from the thing's back and shoulders.
Almost without thinking, Dylan drew his pistol and fired,
just like a movie cowboy. The shot went wild, missing the beast and
actually striking the afflicted goat, killing it instantly. The creature
snapped up, stood on its two hind legs and turned towards the now
terrified Dylan.
It was about four feet high and had a very slim build,
like that of a weasel standing on elongated legs. The powerful legs
bent forward at the knee, like human legs, and the feet had four clawed
toes each. Its belly was smooth and hairless, colored lighter than
its back. Its thin arms terminated in three fingered hands with terrible
hooks for fingers. On its spindly neck, its triangular head bobbed
slightly. It had huge, almond shaped eyes with no whites and a wicked
mouth so filled with teeth it looked like a rabid sewing machine.