The Squire Detectives: The Creature in the Forest

By Jacob Kimble

They are squires-in-training in their village, faithfully attending to their daily duties when alarming news of people mysteriously disappearing from nearby villages reaches their area. Joined by their friend Thomas, William and Peter are sent on a mission across the forest to investigate these supposed disappearances.

Halfway there, they stop to set up camp for the night, triggering the most terrifying experience of their lives! They flee blindly through the dark forest at night while relentlessly being pursued by an unseen terror. The next morning, William finds himself in the middle of the woods, separated from Peter and Thomas, and now everyone is plunged into danger.

Unbelieving townsfolk pile on more danger as their suspicions run wild against the boys. Surviving isnt enough; now they must clear their names as well!

What or who is truly responsible for the disappearances? What will Williams fate be? Will he survive? And will the squires faith be enough to sustain them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781462412013

Jacob Kimble

Jacob Kimble, an outdoorsman and writer, loves mysteries and suspense. Over the years, he has gained skill as a writer by producing short and full-length works of both fiction and nonfiction. Additionally, he enjoys acting and has participated in various theater productions and smaller plays. His greatest passion, however, above all else, is doing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has had the privilege of knowing ever since his early childhood. He hopes you will enjoy the books as his imagination leads you through twisted plots and surprising turns!

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Jacob Kimble.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Inspiring Voices

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.inspiringvoices.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1200-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1201-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016915059

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 09/16/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Intro

Prologue

Chapter 1    Mysterious Disappearances

Chapter 2    The Creature

Chapter 3    A New Mission

Chapter 4    The Search for William

Chapter 5    The Adoption

Chapter 6    The Lost Little Girl

Chapter 7    Midnight Activity

Chapter 8    Pursued

Chapter 9    An Unexpected Meeting

Chapter 10    An Abandoned Building?

Chapter 11    Locked in the Dark Shack

Chapter 12    Chains

Chapter 13    Without a Trace?

Chapter 14    Into the Frying Pan

Chapter 15    The Plan of Attack

Chapter 16    Trapped with Hungry Beasts

Chapter 17    The Final Battle

Epilogue

The Author’s Note to You

The Gospel Message

Next Installment

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to first thank my parents for all their major support and advice throughout the long process of writing this book. Without their help, this book you are reading would not have been possible. My dad put hours and hours into editing my book, even while he had plenty of other things he could have been doing instead. My mom on so many occasions gave me much encouragement, especially on the days when I felt like my writing stank.

I thank Tim, a friend from my dad’s workplace, who reviewed my book, read it to his kids (who loved it!) before it was published, and offered professional insight.

I thank my other friends who helped me along the way. A great encouragement to me was knowing that I had my friends’ interest and support. My best friends Brendan and Ben assured me they would buy the first books!

I reserved my final acknowledgement for the Lord. I believe that the Lord has called and gifted me to be a writer. Only through His providence and guidance have I been capable of writing this book. My prayer is that this book will advance His kingdom in Heaven and point people toward Him.

INTRO

Many years ago, during the fourteenth century, there was a large village called Shamrock Village, where there lived around 1000 people. South of the castle was a main road travelling through the town, from which smaller roads branched out to the clusters of huts in the different farm areas. In this village, we find two young squires, William and Peter. William is 17-years-old while his brother, Peter, is 16. William is of average height with light brown hair, while Peter has darker hair and is slightly shorter than William.

William is the leader of the two and usually analyzes situations carefully before acting. Peter, on the other hand, can be slightly impetuous; but he is loyal to no end and can always be counted on.

They have become known around their village as The Squire Detectives for the quick wits and tracking skills displayed while they investigated the theft of the king’s gold necklace. The two squires could never refuse a mystery and have solved many mysteries troubling their village over the years. But the adventure they are about to encounter will be by far the most dangerous yet!

PROLOGUE

Far away, from a village quite remote to William and Peter’s own village, a hunter is stalking his prey through the forest in the midmorning. He is wielding his bow, tracking a marvelous bear. Since it had rained just the previous night, the bear’s footprints are distinct and easy to track.

That is, they were easy to track; but the footprints faded as the bear had headed into a more rocky terrain dotted with some very tall trees.

Of course the bear had to enter a place where it is hard to track—of all the places! All the hunter can go by now are snapped twigs on the ground and occasional scratches from the bear’s claws, and there are only a few of those.

Nevertheless, the hunter steals into the woodsy area and peers about. Seeing nothing but green trees and rocks surrounding him on all sides, he instead closes his eyes and listens intently for several minutes. He hears nothing but birds singing, bugs chirping, himself breathing, and his heart pumping.

Where had that bear gone? The hunter decides to go straight across the rocky terrain. He hopes that it will soon end and that he will be able to resume tracking the prints on the other side.

He crosses with a quick pace, gliding silently as the wind. He grins to himself when he relocates the tracks and the rocky terrain has given way once more to softer soil. To the left of the soft soil is more rocky ground, but the bear seems to prefer staying on the softer ground. He stealthily follows the tracks while his eyes dart every way to assure himself that he is not being detected.

He dutifully follows the meandering bear tracks—until they end, dead in the woods! What in the world? Had the bear just vanished into thin air?

beartracks.jpg

Walking past the end of the tracks, the hunter can see tufts of black fur spread around the ground about ten feet away—and also some blood. Ahah, something had attacked this bear, and whatever it was had lifted it completely off the ground!

He ponders the situation further. Perhaps the bear had been slain in a bear trap, and strong men came and carried him back to the village. They might not have left very many footprints if they remained on the rocky ground to the left. Then again, something could have brutally attacked it. Were there lions around here? Or maybe tigers? The hunter has never heard of any in this climate, and there were no such tracks anyway. The hunter is stumped. All he is certain of is that he is not going to be able to shoot his bear.

Disappointed, and now somewhat nervous, the hunter almost starts to trudge back through the woods, but he notices something strange. A large depression in the dirt is to the left of the tracks, just off the rocky area. The hunter cannot make out what might have caused it. It certainly looks like some huge track. It is too large to be real though. But if it is real, whatever made it had only partly stepped on the soft ground, meaning this is one gargantuan beast!

A horrible stench suddenly reaches his nostrils. What is that? It smells like death. Is it the carcass of another animal somewhere?

The hunter’s curiosity overcomes his caution, and he ventures onto the rocky ground, the stench growing stronger with every step… and stronger… then disappearing… then coming back even stronger as a small breeze twitters back and forth. He reaches a large tree where he can see flies buzzing, and this is where the stench is strongest.

Walking around the tree, he nearly pukes as he sees the ripped up corpse of a savagely killed bear. There is also another bear carcass—killed much less recently. Bugs are crawling all over the inside of the second bear. Some of the best meat had been removed, but the rest of the bear was left to rot.

Suddenly, the hunter hears a low growl from somewhere close. Snap, crack, THUMP. He instinctively freezes, not wanting to draw attention to his presence.

The hunter hears yet another growl, this time louder, and he slowly readies his bow to fire. He is ready for whatever this is, wherever it is. Or so he thinks. THUMP! It comes from directly behind him.

His heart is now beating furiously, and he turns slowly around. His sweaty hand shakes as he maintains his hold on his bow. When he finishes his turn, the sight freezes him in terror. His entire body shakes violently.

What he saw immediately destroyed his ability to think, reason, or comprehend. Without a thought, he runs—faster than ever before, not knowing what direction he is going. Nor does he care.

Sprinting as fast as he can, he does not anticipate smacking into a large object which somehow escapes his notice. Or did it just appear there? He is knocked down, but without a pause or a second look, he gets up again—running, dashing away in a mad stir. Until now, what he saw was not interested in pursuing him, but when the crazed hunter madly bumped directly into the object, a big, terrifying creature begins to chase the hunter.

The hunter runs exceptionally fast, but the creature cannot be outrun.

CHAPTER 1

Mysterious Disappearances

Three days later, William and his brother, Peter, were busy at their daily squire duties cleaning the castle. Usually the queen, Queen Juliana, would have them clean the jousting room, but this time they were assigned to cleaning a different place—the main hall of Shamrock Castle.

I suppose that this is more favorable than cleaning the jousting room, chimed Peter.

I would agree, William replied, but as long as the queen is glad, I am glad.

Yeah, I would clean the jousting room twice per day if that were what it took to avoid making her majesty upset! Peter chuckled.

Queen Juliana was a great, good natured queen, but when a situation came about that was unpleasant for her, she tended to get irritable afterward. As one could guess, nobody was in favor of her being grumpy, let alone being the cause of it.

When the boys were almost done cleaning, Sir Richard rushed in, appearing to have urgent news.

Sir Richard is a noble knight of their village. He is tall and well-built with dark hair that only reaches halfway down his neck. In his thirties, he possesses a crisp, authoritative voice that can immediately excite everyone’s attention in a room. His stance and posture are as sharp as the sword he carries on his hip.

As squires, William and Peter have been assigned to him. In Medieval Times, each squire was assigned to a knight whom they would aid by dressing him in his armor, carrying his sword and shield, accompanying him to a battle, and carrying out various assignments at his pleasure; and when the knight thought his squires were ready, the squires would be knighted.

Skipping his usual friendly greeting, Sir Richard immediately addressed William and Peter: "We have been receiving reports from villages across the forest of several people mysteriously disappearing. They noted that these disappearances seem to occur especially on Sundays and days when people worship, but they happen on other days, too. These are smaller villages which have few knights and little leadership, so the people want us to help them. Your job is to investigate what’s going on. This is the perfect assignment for you, my young Squire Detectives!"

The boys were shocked by the abruptness of Sir Richard’s message, but they were immediately engulfed with excitement for an adventure.

What must we do? Peter asked.

Sir Richard explained, You must journey through the woods to one of the villages to see what you can discover. The people from that village do not know where to begin. Actually, all they know is that the people are missing, and there have actually been several disappearances that are the same as this. People are not only scared of the woods but also scared in their own villages now.

Peter answered, We won’t be afraid. We all know that God is in control and that nothing will happen beyond what He permits.

That’s my squire, Sir Richard crisply grinned for the first time.

When should we go? Peter inquired.

You must get ready to go right now, if you will, Sir Richard replied.

Alright, we are ready for an adventure, aren’t we, William? Peter said.

I can truthfully say that we are, answered William mildly. He was excited, but he was somewhat troubled about the suddenness of the mission with no pre-warning. One moment they were cleaning, and the next they were being ordered to embark on a risky journey to a village across the forest.

But such feelings did not bother Peter. Since William did not want to appear afraid, he determined to assume the same attitude as his brother. He merrily asked, Hey, should we bring Thomas along with us?

Sir Richard answered, "Sure, it will be good and well to have three people going out there. I think you three will be able to handle this job. And the fact that Thomas