Jumlin's Spawn Read Online Free PDF

Oliver. “It’s more than a
story.  It’s a myth.  You know what a myth is, young
man?”
    “It’s a lie,” Yancey said.
    Oliver softly cleared his throat, as though to
redirect the conversation. He dragged a hand back through his blond
hair.  “The writer Joseph Campbell said a myth is a public
dream.  A dream experienced by a lot of people. It reveals a
deeper truth.”
    “This dream is a nightmare,” the old man said. 
“Jumlin told the first lie. He was the first liar, the great
deceiver. He was among the oldest entities, so he was very
powerful. No one could trust him. To protect the rest, he was
imprisoned in the Realm of Spirit Shadows.”
    “If he was so powerful, how could they imprison him?”
Yancey asked tartly.
    “He was so old and powerful. He was also very weak.
His only great power was in his ability to deceive.”
    “Typical Indian myth,” Yancey said, “it makes
absolutely no sense.”
    Oliver gave Yancey another sharp warning glance.
“Native Americans are largely aboriginal Asians. What you’ve
described, Mr. Ten Bears, sounds like a kind of early Zen thinking.
It makes perfect sense. Please ignore him and go on.”
    “There was a medicine man of a tribe,” Billy Jack
continued, “who was brother to the chief of the ten tribes. He made
a pact with Jumlin so the medicine man’s barren wife might have
children.”
    “What kind of pact?” Oliver asked, leaning
forward.
    “Jumlin promised the medicine man that, if he used
dark magic to return Jumlin to the real world, Jumlin would give
the medicine man many sons and daughters.  But when the
medicine man brought him back, all Jumlin did was possess him, body
and soul.  With the medicine man’s body, he brought forth
children, but they all had Jumlin‘s evil seed in them.”
    “Don't you hate it when that happens?” Yancey
asked.
    “You're not doing a good job of listening, as your
grandmother wanted,” the old man said, his lips drawing up into a
patient grin.  “Jumlin’s son, Laughing Bear, was just as evil
as he but more cunning.  While Jumlin was believed to be
destroyed by the magic knowledge of the Hunters, Laughing Bear
escaped his father’s fate.”
    “So where is he supposed to be?” Oliver asked. 
“This Laughing Bear guy.”
    The old man continued, “Laughing Bear and his
brothers and sisters still walk the earth.  They feed on the
blood and flesh of the beasts of the field, on the humans, and they
breed with human women. That is what is happening now in the Angel
Caves.”
    “I get the allusion, okay?” Oliver said. “The spawn
supposedly feed on the blood of the beasts of the field, in other
words, the buffalo.  Thank you for the information. We'll take
all that under advisement.”
    “You may,” the old man said, nodding toward Yancey.
“He won't.”
    “Look, Billy, I don't mean to be rude,” Yancey said,
“but it's just, there's no evidence there is any reality to this.
But, if we find signs of a buffalo-blood-sucking fiend, I’ll let
you know.  Conversation over.”
    “For your own sake,” Ten Bears said, “and that of
your friends, don't dismiss this too quickly. The creatures will do
everything in their power to keep the Caves. They are wicked beyond
compare. More evil than the deceiver himself. If you need help, you
should talk to the trees, Yancey.”
    Yancey shook his head. “I've always found trees to be
awful conversationalists. But philámayaye, tókša akhé,” Yancey said
with a smile that said “now get the hell out of our Jeep.”
    As Ten Bears left, five minutes passed before Elfie
saw the university transport arrive with some nervous-looking
undergrad bearing a suitcase-sized container.
    “Is this one of those new super-lasers, like in the
comic books?” the big-eyed undergrad asked as Oliver unlocked the
hatch for Elfie and the undergrad to slide the contraption inside
the cab.
    “Yup,” Elfie said. “I'm really Laser Lady. We're
delivering it to