Kilgore's Five Stories #5: December 2020: Kilgore's Five Stories, #5

By Shaun Kilgore

Kilgore's Five Stories #5 collects five original short stories by author Shaun Kilgore. Inside, you'll find a mix of tales set in various genres and settings. This issue contains the following stories: 'The Beast of Mern,' 'In A Giant's Eye,' 'A Perilous Fight,' 'Transcend,' and 'The Last Sacrifice' (written as John Sykes).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
• Release date: Jan 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393276517

Shaun Kilgore

Shaun Kilgore is the author of various works of fantasy, science fiction, and a number of nonfiction works. His books appear in both print and ebook editions. He has also published numerous short stories and collections. Shaun is the editor of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. He lives in eastern Illinois.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

In A Giant’s Eye

Transcend

The Beast of Mern

A Perilous Fight

The Last Sacrifice

About the Author

Copyright Information

Kilgore’s Five Stories

#5 December 2020

Original Short Stories Every Month

Shaun Kilgore

Introduction

THE LAST ISSUE OF Kilgore’s Five Stories for 2020 has arrived. Welcome to Issue #5. Inside you’ll get five original stories by yours truly. Still working on release dates but I’ve got it figured out and you should see Issue #6 much sooner. Thanks again to all of you who’ve picked up previous issues and I hope you join me this month and in the months ahead. See you next month!

Shaun Kilgore, December 2020

In A Giant’s Eye

NORTH OF THE Cumberlands, Walt and me saw our first giant tracks. We were hunting some of the big cats the city dwellers liked for their fancy shows when we spotted them. I never would have figured they would look so much like ordinary folks’ feet only bigger. Goes to show how stories get all stretched out of shape. Me and Walt trudged up a hill, mired in mud from the spring rains. At the top old Walt fell down into one of the footprints. I was laughing until I realized what it was.

Would you look at that? I don’t believe what I’m seeing.

Walt stood up in the center of the giant’s footprint, trying to wipe away the mud. What’re you talking about, Loyd?

Walt scrubbed his fingers on his coat and climbed out. He looked at the print then saw the next one. He pointed. I don’t believe it. Them’s giant tracks, Loyd. My pa used to talk up stories about them giants. Always thought they was just talk.

Looks like more than talk to me, Walt, I said.

Yep, I reckon so, Loyd, said Walt.

I had this crazy thought. You maybe want to follow them?

Walt looked at me like I’d sprouted another head. Follow them? Now why would we want to do a fool thing like that?

I don’t know, I said. Maybe we might get to see a giant for ourselves. It’d be something, Walt. That’d be a story to tell the boys around the shack.

Humph. They’d believe anything. Their noses are already red before daybreak. I’ve never seen them with their senses about them.

Come on. What could it hurt?

Walt looked at me and sniffed. He hitched up his knapsack and snagged his bow from the ground where he’d dropped it. For a wonder, the arrows had stayed in his quiver. He gave me another look maybe to make sure I was serious.

Alright. Let’s go then, he said.

I smiled. Off we go.

Following the trail of a giant wasn’t a simple thing. No, you had to consider how tall they were and their gait. This giant must have been forty feet tall or better and moved easily over the uneven terrain of the mountainside. Me and Walt had a devil of a time keeping after the tracks. Trees, thick brush, and outcroppings of gray stone made the going rough. I was scaling the rocks and getting scratched up on brambles more often than following the footprints. Walt was cussing the whole way but he kept coming. Never once considered turning back. He was hooked on this crazy hunt as surely as I was. I just had to see one of them giants with my own eyes.

We spent the better part of the day on the trail, never once hearing a sound or catching a sign of the giant. The only constant was the footprints. Even when we did have to detour around some tree or rock, we still managed to pick up those tracks. They were a hard thing to miss. Our path continued deeper in to foothills. We encountered a few other animals but the woods seemed empty. My skin was crawling as we entered some early evening fog. We’d gone a let the day get away from us.

Darkness closed in on the mountains. Me and Walt finally had to stop and set up camp for the night. We hadn’t had any luck at all. I was sure Walt was going to give me grief. Once we got our fire burning the crackle of the flames and the heat were soothing away the aches of the day’s trek. Walt said nothing, which I took as a bad sign. I was just biding my time. He’d say something sooner or later. I knew Walt well enough by now. While I dreaded the words, Walt kept himself busy cooking some of the dried soup in a pan over the flames. Once he had it good and hot, with the smell of onions and garlic wafting in my direction, he spoke.

You think we should keep following the trail?

I sat up straight. I hadn’t been expecting that question. I looked at Walt in the flickering firelight. His grizzled face just stared at me.

I...I don’t know, I guess. I mean, Walt, I thought you’d be giving me an earful and telling me what a waste of a good hunting day it’s all been.

Walt scrubbed his day’s growth of whiskers and pursed his lips for a second. Well, I was aiming too, but I got to thinking about it, Loyd. I can’t quite shake the idea. I think I need to see one of them giants for my own sake. I reckon the only way to do it is to keep after this one for as long as we can. And pray rain doesn’t wipe the prints away.

It’d be something, wouldn’t it, Walt, I said softly.

Sure would, Walt replied. He poured some of the soup into a tin cup, dug out a spoon from his sack, and handed it to me. Eat up while it’s hot. Shame I don’t have some cornbread to go with it. That Millie Wite makes some fine cornbread. I’d like to pay her a visit once we get back.

I nodded and ate my soup and pondered the kinds of stories folk in the Cumberlands like to tell about giants. The old ones had the best stories, but also the ones that made you think they were winding them up just to get your eyes goggling out of your head. Of course, I wondered if maybe they were right. I looked around at the darkness that surrounded us in the mountain forests. Our little pool of light didn’t offer much protection. Me and Walt were out with nothing but the trees and the stars overhead. The air was getting chilly so we both tried to hunker down as close as we could to the flames without catching ourselves afire. We had just a blanket apiece. We’d had the sense to wear thick wool coats and pants along with long-uns that we wore underneath them. I brushed my fingers against the bow and the arrows. Then I made sure I had my knife loose nearby just in case. Satisfied, I tucked my cap down low near my eyes so my ears were covered and tried to sleep.

Of course, I couldn’t sleep at all. How could I? That giant could be lurking out there in the dark just waiting for us to doze off. Maybe it knew we’d been following it? Now it was just getting ready to pounce on us like one of the big cats. My eyes came open. I’d turned my head away from the campfire so I wouldn’t be blinded. The only thing I could see was darkness and the outlines of fir trees and few of the rocks that seemed to grown right out the grass. The little clearing we’d chosen was a flat shelf surrounded by steeper hills. We were about a hundred paces