The Horned Water Deer (2)
When I arrived at the fishing-tackle shop, the two officers assigned to that sector were crouched as low as they could get, pistols trained on a pitch-dark footpath. Those little service pistols might drop the thing if luck broke their way — but there was a hard limit to what they could do. I slipped up beside them without a sound.
"Where is it?"
"We spotted it near that trail over there. Right now it's—"
"I see it."
I closed one eye, curled my thumb and forefinger into a makeshift scope, and peered in the direction the officer was pointing. In the dark, a faint blue glow drifted like a fishing float, eerie and restless. As my eyes adjusted, the creature's shape began to resolve. A massive body. A pair of matching tusks jutted from either side of its snout, wicked and sharp.
And... horns?
"A water deer?"
"A what? A water deer?"
The tusks checked out. So why the hell did it have horns?
The moment I muttered "horned water deer," I felt the tension drain from the officers' shoulders. Relief sighed out of the dark from more than one direction. Not that a water deer meant we were in the clear.
"Yeah, well... it's coming this way. And it brought friends."
Around the blue-horned one, several ordinary water deer were strutting along as if they were an honor guard. The sight almost pulled a laugh out of me.
So in their heads, that one's the new boss now, is that it?
I reset my grip on the rifle with both hands.
"Call it in to the substation. If they cross that streetlight up ahead, I'm shooting."
One of the officers started rattling the situation into his radio. A moment later, Inspector Park's answer came back, same as always.
"Leave the call to Huntsman Jang."
Hmm. In other words: if this goes sideways, it's on me.
"You heard him?"
The officer beside me asked it a little awkwardly, but I didn't answer. I just climbed the steel stairs along the side of the tackle shop and headed for the roof.
From the rooftop the view opened wide, and the sky above glittered with that same unpleasant light. At least the weird glow made the approaching herd's movements stand out clear as day. Silver linings. First things first — I needed the officers downstairs to play along. I leaned over the railing and called down in a low voice.
"Get in the cruisers and wait. The second those things hit the streetlight, hit them with the high beams. Got it?"
The officers glanced up at me, then wordlessly climbed into their patrol cars. The principle was simple enough. Smart guys — they didn't need it spelled out. Blind the things like any water deer caught on a roadside at night, freeze them in the lights, and I'd take the shot.
Once the officers were inside the cars, the boss water deer grew even bolder, turning its blue horns toward us and advancing at a slow, deliberate walk. Its buddies kept a single pace behind, flanking it like an escort.
"Eeehk! Eeeuughhh!"
The boss let out that uniquely hideous water-deer scream. Hearing it, some of the tightness in my shoulders actually eased.
Yep. Water deer through and through.
I had no idea what it thought it was doing, but I hoped it understood that crossing that streetlight would end very badly. Or maybe it would just see a neighborhood full of people and turn tail. But the thing was drunk on the mysterious horn sprouting from its skull. Far from spooking at the sight of us, it marched right over the line we'd drawn.
That was the moment the patrol cars below snapped on their high beams in unison, dragging up every ugly genetic memory those animals had of headlights in the dark. Of course. Boss or not, taking a police cruiser's high beams full in the face at midnight would make a human's vision swim. An animal wasn't going to fare any better.
The creature that had been swaggering toward us froze mid-stride, stunned stupid in the glare. And I didn't waste the instant. I pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A sharp crack shattered the night's hush, and the boss water deer's head punched clean through. All that swagger vanished. It crumpled where it stood, eyes nearly popping from its skull, as ugly a death as you could ask for.
The moment their leader dropped to a single gunshot, the other water deer — the ones that had been puffed up following it — finally came to their senses and scattered into the dark. No matter how much extra muscle they'd packed on, a water deer was still a water deer.
I came down off the roof and walked over to where the boss had fallen. Up close, a horn of luminous blue light glowed from the ugly corpse's skull like a star fallen out of the night sky. A soft, inner sparkle radiating from the blue crystal itself.
Well, hell. Jackpot.
Whether the boss had been struck by lightning or dug something up out of the dirt, it had lucked into a Magic Stone growing right out of its head. A stone that size... I could quit the huntsman gig tomorrow and live off it for the rest of my life, couldn't I? A smile tugged at my mouth. I held it in.
I grabbed the ugly thing by a hind leg and dragged it back to where the officers were waiting. Sure enough, the cops who'd climbed out of their cars were a lot more interested in the Magic Stone glittering on its skull than in how big the deer was.
"What? Planning to grab that thing and retire?"
They all burst out laughing at the joke.
"Come on. You think you could even hide it if you ran?"
"You hit the lottery, Huntsman Jang. That's a serious payday."
"I've got two mouths to feed at home. Can't afford to."
I tossed it back deadpan, and one of the officers, still fighting a grin, keyed his radio to the substation.
"Situation resolved. Huntsman Jang handled it, but... the Magic Stone on this thing is huge."
"For real?"
"Yes, sir. It's stuck on there like a massive rack of velvet antler."
"Bring it straight in. No — wait. I'll come to you."
The voice coming through the radio carried more irritation than joy. The reason was obvious. A find like this in the village meant the paperwork and the investigations wouldn't stay at the village level. The whole county would be crawling all over us. Nobody was going home before tomorrow afternoon.
A short while later Inspector Park came pounding up, took one look at the boss water deer's corpse, and clicked his tongue.
"This village is cursed. Mudskippers one week, water deer the next..."
"Want to split it? Conveniently, the horn's in two pieces."
"Yah, you lunatic! I'm a public servant. You think I can take a cut of that?"
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind, then put the radio away and pulled out his smartphone instead. He photographed the Magic Stone-studded water deer from every angle, then immediately started dialing. Yeah. When you're in a hurry, a cell phone beats a radio every time.
"Yes, I'm calling about a Magic Stone recovery. Huntsman Jang landed a real trophy tonight."
I could practically hear the deep sigh on the other end of the line from where I stood.
"Yes, yes. Makes a velvet antler look modest. ...Huntsman Jang? Yes, she's right here — want me to put her on? ...No? Then you'll come down now? ...Understood."
The mix of formal and casual speech told me the county environmental office had gone into full emergency mode over this catch. Inspector Park hung up.
"They'll be here the second the Dimensional Anomaly Warning lifts."
I watched him fussing with his phone, then grabbed the thing by the hind leg again.
"It's an eyesore sitting here. I'll drag it over in front of the substation."
"Yeah. Appreciate it."
Leaving Inspector Park and the other officers behind, I headed back toward the substation. Hauling the heavy water deer along, I got another look at it. It really was enormous. About the size of those... Rudolph-palm-moose-nose things? Whatever they call them, the ones they've got over in the West. That kind of bulk, anyway.
I dumped the boss water deer in front of the substation, and the officers who'd been resting inside drifted out one by one to gawk and groan. Strange things popped out of the woodwork these days, sure — but a Magic Stone this size was a first for all of them.
"Keep an eye on it so nobody walks off with the thing."
I tossed the line at an officer inside, then turned my steps back toward the village entrance where Inspector Park still was. My job wasn't finished. I still had work to do.
On the way back I glanced toward Dohwang-ri Village Hall. Aside from the officers posted there and a few elders shuffling back from the restroom, the place was quiet and nearly empty. The evacuation buses sat with their engines off, waiting patiently. Tonight looked like it would pass without further incident.
And it did. Aside from that horned boss water deer nosing around for a while, the night rolled on without another hitch.
By the time dawn broke, the sky that had been rippling with that sickly light all night had put on a clear, bright face as if nothing had ever happened. I didn't know how the other cities had fared overnight. But Dohwang-ri, at least, had come through this one intact.
Yeah. That was enough.
Nureongi and Poppy were safe. The elders at the Village Hall were fine. So were the officers who'd worked through the night. In the end, tonight had been nothing more and nothing less than this: one water deer that got cocky on a strange new power sprouting from its skull, and paid for it with its life.
I leaned against the railing of the tackle-shop roof and watched the morning sun climb, as peaceful as if the commotion had never happened. Red sunlight poured warm across a face still stiff from a night of tension. I felt the heat of it, and smiled. Just a little.