Read Online Return of the Ancients by Greig Beck - Free Book Online Page B

age. The vile smell of its hot breath on his face made him turn away, gagging.
    The creature held up its hand and between two claws sat the magnificent diamond from the laboratory.
    Arn nodded. ‘You can have it.’
    The thing kept its eyes on Arn’s face and motioned with one arm, hissing something to the small group behind it. They immediately carried over a wooden bench, on which they then placed a heavy stone jug and bowl.
    The creature looked Arn up and down, as though deciding where he would begin. Arn felt his nerves were about to break.
    ‘Can you understand me?’
    The creature stopped and stared for few seconds, and then went back to pouring a stream of water from the jug into the bowl.
    ‘I’m your friend,’ Arn persisted. ‘I mean you no harm.’
    The creature ignored him. Instead, he dipped his small, clawed hands into the water and rubbed them together, holding them up and inspecting them as Arn had seen surgeons do before commencing an operation.
    ‘Oh God, no. Listen, I come in peace.’ He knew it was pointless, but fear was doing the talking now.
    It reached up to his face, and Arn felt the sharp talons raking his skin for a second, before circling around his temple as if searching for the tenderest places to start.
    ‘Please don’t . . .’
    Then it began. The pain was excruciating as all five of the sharp talons entered the soft skin of his temple. The face leaned forward to stare again, the breath reeking of carrion, rotting teeth, and a foulness that was both nauseating and frightening.
    The hissing and whining commenced, and then stopped. Then came more probing and whining. Arn gritted his teeth. It made no difference – the hissing and whining became ever more forceful, insistent, like an endlessly repeated question.
    More probing, and then the voices lowered, punctuated by pauses and different inflections. The pain that he felt at his temple moved to the centre of his skull, and then . . .
    ‘Ugly hairless creature; your shape disgusts me. All apes are long dead. From where do you come?’
    Arn’s first thought was that the pain had caused him to pass out and he was just dreaming. Or worse – that it had sent him insane. Perhaps that was it? Whatever happened in the acceleration room at Fermilab had rendered him insane, and this wasn’t happening at all? He giggled deliriously at the creature’s flattened face.
    The thing started talking again, but this time its eyes were closed, and the words didn’t seem meant for him.
    ‘This one has travelled far. Strange mind, complex mind, toolmaker, war maker. Not fully grown yet – almost, but not yet.’ It opened its eyes and leaned in close. ‘Are you ape?’ The claws sunk deeper. ‘Where do you come from, ape? What do they call you?’
    The pain in the centre of Arn’s head turned to fire, and he felt blood stream from his nostrils.
    The claws dug deeper, the questions repeated.
    Arn screamed out his answer, ‘I hear you, I hear you!’ He grimaced and spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Not an ape; I’m a man.’
    ‘No!’ The creature spat this into his face, and then turned and hissed the words, ‘This ape is a liar’. It spun back and growled into Arn’s face with such hatred, that he tried to shrink back into the frame that held him.
    ‘Man is gone. Man is long dead.’
    The creature once again held the diamond in front of Arn’s face. ‘What is the blood stone for?’
    Arn nodded, summoning as much warmth as he could. ‘It’s for you . . . a gift.’
    The creature snorted derisively, turned to drop the stone and snatched up Arn’s pocketknife and held it in front of him, while keeping its other claws embedded in his temple. ‘And what is this? Is this a weapon?’
    Arn tried to shake his head. ‘No, just a sort of . . . tool.’
    ‘More lies. Make it work for us, ape.’ The old creature pushed the knife into one of Arn’s hands. Then he frowned and leaned forward to sniff him. ‘I sense a kinship with the