Greg reached the beach – his white face was sweating and had rosy cheeks from the running. He stopped and took a quick breath. The three men were sitting around the fire and all stood up.
“Dude what has happened,” Kenneth said after getting up.
Mark took more time getting his “bear body” from the sand.
“We worried” he muttered.
“Dude, what happened,” Kenneth said.
“Nothing I just got scared,” Greg said before sitting near them Mark laughed loudly and promptly Richard joined him.
“From what? Brooke Shields running naked along the sand!”
“Fuck you, Mark” Greg said. Only Kenneth offered him some sympathy, he knew Greg wasn’t a pussy, something must have happened. As the night settled and they munched on protein bars, Kenneth and Richard asked Greg once more about the trail to what he monotonously answered it lead nowhere. Mark changed the subject and started to tell a story about a sexual conquest of his. As he developed the story something didn’t feel right…Greg glanced over his shoulder to the jungle and he saw some plants ruffling. His eyes kept looking until he heard Kenneth’s voice whispering and asking what was he seeing.
“Guys, guys, are you listening to me?” Mark asked, rather annoyed. “What? Yeah, it’s scary but there are no monsters here!”
A pair of glowing bright yellow eyes flashed them. Greg and Kenneth rose up so quickly, Greg almost fell on the campfire.
“What the fuck!” Mark yelled. Before they realized a beast roared and jumped out of the jungle. The four men yelled as they saw the monster in front of them: it was a man, but a panther too. He had about 6feet and 4 inches! The only sign of civilization was a ragged loin-cloth over his private parts, much like Tarzan’s. His body was pure muscle, covered with black fur. His torso was clawed viciously in his right side and that drew their eyes to the creature’s feet and hands were he displayed powerful specimens.
“Sorry” Richard stuttered. The anthropanther roar back. His fierce eyes had something familiar to them – human traits, they couldn’t identify at all.
“We weren’t expecting guests!” he finally said, with a raspy English accent. Out of the shadows behind them, tow other anthro creatures appeared. One of them was a basically a gorilla with good posture, he was shorter than the anthropanther but still dangerous. The other was a shorter male - a creature resembling an amphibian or a fish, or even something in between. His skin was green, his lips were bloated like a fish, and his black big eyes were something out of a Lovecraftian story.
“Morales!” the panther ordered.
The creature that looked like the Monster from the Black Lagoon took a webbed finned hand to his nose and took a deep breath. He lowered his head, showing a group of spikes like those on a Dragon Fish. As he inhaled his neck filled like a balloon and the spikes were projected towards them.
Greg raised his hand to protect himself but one of them hit his hands. He saw his fellow friends falling on the sand. He took a step back and took the spine out of his own flesh, leaving a purple liquid out of his wound. He looked the around and everything, the starts, the monsters, the sands and the sea mixed up together.
His body fell with a thud.