Nibblerflutzer

It descended like a shadow of death, with all the glory and horror of untouched power. It menacingly brooded over the mountain tops and broke with all the force of a hundred waves on a sea shore.

The thunderstorm had started when we were on our way up the mountain. My younger brother Thomas had callowly suggested we call off the trip, only to incur the wrath of the oldest three of the family, the unstoppable hiking trio.

This camping trip in the Rocky Mountains was the ultimate culmination of what they dreamed of as a vacation. My dad was rather outgoing and adventurous. He loved hiking for the joy of a challenging ascent. On the other hand, my mom was all about the view from the top of a climb. My sister loved wildlife and carried a camera everywhere with her. Whenever she wasn’t photographing birds, she turned on Thomas and tried to catch a picture of him smiling, but he never did. He’d always turn on a severe frown and shake his head disappointedly at her.

The clouds only built up, and the rain fell harder. Our evening grilled hotdogs over a fire didn’t happen, and my mom substituted chili from a later day, swapping the meals. We were tired and soaked from the short hike from where we left the car to the cabin on top of the mountain. When we arrived, I barely ingested my chili and headed to the shower before falling asleep.

This trip was supposed to celebrate my sister’s senior year. She was graduating high school and planned to attend a photography school next year. She stayed up late with my parents that night, discussing where they would go first tomorrow.

The storm let up in the middle of the night only to attack with greater fierceness in the morning. I woke up to thunder and lightning in a morning so dark with clouds that I thought it was night. Obviously, we wouldn’t be doing anything the trio had schemed up.

Thomas knocked on my door, and I got up to let him in. He asked me if I had heard any thunder in the night and said something about electrical theory before exiting again. This may seem strange to you, but it is pretty much his Modus Operandi. He doesn’t talk much like a six-year-old and constantly has this ‘world will soon end’ grave expression. He is into science and excessively ahead in math.

The rain didn’t let up all day. When six rolled around, Thomas had been hiding in his room for most of the day. The rest of us had been fighting boredom in various ways, including making way too many smores over the gas burner, playing way too many hands of hearts, seeing who could stand in the rain the longest (until the wind and lightning got out of hand), and playing paper games. My sister even tried to take Thomas out to jump in puddles, but I’ll leave you to guess how that turned out (“You want me to what?”).

Now, on their tenth round of hearts, the only game my mother brought, my mother, father, and sister were around the table with me having quit and been replaced early on by a wild card (my mom always said that made no difference, how charming). I was on a couch staring at the ceiling (which I found far more stimulating than playing cards). Presumably, Thomas was discovering the secrets of the universe in his room.

I had wanted to be an explorer since I was little. Most people do when they are younger, but it lasted until I was fourteen. I had originally been excited about this trip, thinking of exploring unknown corners of the world. Unfortunately, the normality of life pursued me here. Maybe the world had shrunk or quite possibly all been explored, but I think I might have been born at the wrong age. And so this trip was turning out to be a real bore.

Something passed my peripheral vision. My head snapped up. It was already gone, but it had been there. I got up and looked out the window. A retreating form had reached a stretch of trees to the left of the cabin. Almost everything I do is spontaneous, and before I thought about it. I was in my raincoat and after the shadow.

The outside had a rather torrential air as if the whole mountain was undergoing an ablution of gigantic proportions. Lightning overhead seemed to give the impression of someone playing with the universe’s light switch, while the thunder had a quality that reminded me of a family moving around furniture in the sky. The smell was probably the only pleasant thing about the outside; an almost earthy freshness filled the air.

I kept to the edges of the house and threaded through the trees after the mysterious fleeing creature. My quarry was just ahead of me, moving at a surprising speed and tripping every few feet. It was carrying a type of butterfly net and muttering to itself quietly.

I finally was catching up to it when it spun around to face me. I hit the brakes, tipped backward, and fell into the mud. Thomas stared down at me in mild surprise. He asked me what I was doing outside at this hour, ‘jumping in mud puddles.’ He said this last part with a slight grin (just slight) indicative of the morning‘s experience.

“I should be asking you!” I said, getting painfully to my feet, “We need to get back to the house.”

He shook his head, exasperated, “No! Kirk! I saw one finally, and I’m tracking it!”

I looked down where he was pointing and saw a mess of animal tracks, “what are you tracking?”

He bent his head confidentiality, but the thunder drowned him out. His successive creepy sentence was timed better and got the perfect effect of a lightning flash while he was talking and a thunder crash right after. “A Nibblerflutzer…”

*Boom!*

I raised my eyebrows, “You are out in a hurricane looking for a boogie monster?”

He rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, “Hurricanes are only in tropical regions. This is just a type of long-range windstorm with oscillating thunderstorms inside the mother current.”

I grabbed his arm, attempting to lead him away, “When I figure out what that means, I’ll go in for meteorology. For now, let‘s go!”

Thomas stamped his feet, disengaging his arm from my hand, “NO! Didn’t you hear me? There is a Niberflutz out here!”

I got down on one knee and grabbed his shoulders, “there is no such thing as a Nibblerflutzer!”

He let out another sigh and stepped back. He was beginning to sound like an over-taxed school teacher, “I’ve only ever seen pictures of one, and my friends won’t believe that I saw one unless I take a picture! I have its trail, so we need to go now!”

Don’t you love it when someone says we?

“What do these Nibblerflutzeres look like?” I asked, following him as he took off. I was unwilling to admit he’d sparked my sense of adventure.

“It was big, and I’ve heard they sometimes attack people,” Thomas said, “but they aren’t dangerous. They have big teeth and eat lots of things. They have HUGE tails, and they hide in trees.”

I was starting to wonder what kind of crazy mythical beast my brother was looking for until all that, “It sounds like a rat…”

Thomas nodded, “Yeah, I know!” and continued through the trees without an explanation.

We continued left from the cabin, due north (knowing the direction constantly is a necessary explorer trait) for a quarter mile until we came to an open stretch of rocky ditches. Then, as if he knew where he was going, Thomas set off confidently through them, marching like a soldier boy from that old nursery rhyme… didn’t that have a bad ending?

“It‘s over here!” he whispered when we reached a new grove of trees.

The branches rustled as the wind died down. The howling, thunderous squall abdicated for the moment. Something moved in a tree. I took the butterfly net Thomas handed me and readied myself.

The creature leaped out at me, and I swung my net out. It connected by chance, and a snarling, screeching mass was caught in the net. I glanced with horror and excitement at the rare mass of fur and tails. My face fell, and all the excitement and adventure drained away.

“Thomas,” I said with clenched teeth, “please tell me this is not the Nibberfultz!”

Thomas came close with his camera and snapped a picture, completely excited. The storm had predominantly deflated, with the lightning and rain dispersing. The wind was just as strong, but I could still clearly see and hear his glee as he said, “YES! It is amazing!”

“Thomas,” I said again, doing a worse job of controlling my anger this time, “this is not a Nibberfultz. This is a squirrel!”

He looked at me, nodding, “Oh yeah, that’s right, I forgot they were called that!”

At this point, I had thoroughly lost control. “WHY IN THE WORLD DID YOU CALL IT A NIBBERFULTZ?”

“I forgot its name, so I gave it a new one!” he said, “now let‘s take it back and show everyone!”

I turned the angry squirrel loose and grabbed Thomas’s hand, “no! We are going back right now!”

As we picked our way out of the trees, the lightning and rain picked back up at a speed that I would have found astounding any other time, so Thomas probably didn’t hear me growling to myself, “…dragged me out in the middle of the night… wanted to find an ‘elusive creature’…”

I Only partially noticed the first roar because I was engaged with my musings. Thomas tugged on my raincoat sleeve, “Kirk, what was that?”

“Just the storm,” I muttered before it rang out again: a bone-shaking guttural roar of primal hatred.

Lightning lit up the sky, filling it with a light as bright as day and silhouetting the humanoid creature on the hilltop facing us. Thomas jumped into the air and dropped the flashlight on the ground. The beast‘s head was thrown back, and from its mouth came such a sound that I will never forget. It launched down the hill on two legs, coming right for us.

Thomas groped around the muddy ground, looking for the flashlight. I grabbed Thomas and pulled him to his feet in the inky blackness, “Forget the flashlight already! RUN!”

I sprinted back towards the small grove of trees with Thomas on my heels. I glanced back momentarily when the sky lit up with a flash, only to see that Thomas was farther behind me than I thought. He was running as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, but no matter how old he seemed, he was still only six. He tripped forward and landed in the mud as the sky flickered out again. A sickening feeling hit the pit of my stomach as I sprinted back, grabbing Thomas by the collar and lugging him back to his feet.

Another roar resounded behind us as the sky lit up, and the beast saw its quarry. I dodged into the trees with small Thomas gasping for breath behind me. I pulled him into a bush, and we hid there, waiting for the monster to pass.

“What… was… that?” Thomas gasped.

I didn’t answer, mainly because I was running, but also because I hadn’t a clue. Another important reason why I never responded was because the tree behind us flew into the air with a fiery explosion. I yanked Thomas back up by the ever-useful presence of his coat collar, only to push him back down as the tree flew right over our heads. We sprinted away as a clap of thunder applauded our narrow escape, and a crash behind us indicated pursuit. Thomas pulled his hood away from my grasp and managed to yell, “Stop man-handling me!”

Another tree to our right was ripped away. I dodged to the side, lost grip on Thomas, and fell over. Unfortunately, we were on the edge of a ridge at the time. I went sailing down it, with a concussive roar keeping me company.

I rolled down the hill like a released barrel and shot down into a tree. My eyes closed for a moment after the impact, but I couldn’t have been unconscious because I was able to notice when Thomas came rolling down into me. I nearly screamed before realizing it was him.

“Thanks for catching me,” he breathed quickly.

I nodded, pain from my head fading, “Let‘s climb up this tree.”

I felt around the trunk. Despite its size and distance from the first limb, it had good purchase and thick bark. Tree climbing is another essential explorer skill, and with Thomas clinging to my back, I pulled us up quickly into the tree. We scrambled from the bottom branch, about ten feet off the ground, to a few above—nearly twenty-five feet up. Thomas collapsed back against the tree trunk and a branch, breathing laboriously. I squatted down on the edge of one branch, gripping another and holding a large rock to bash whatever was chasing us.

I know that was a useless gesture, considering our attacker just flattened a few small trees. However, it did give me a feeling of being in control of the situation.

You might think this would be my dream. I mean, what part of an explorer movie was missing? But while I had often fantasized about situations like this, it was unequivocally terrifying and not at all fun.

Some light illuminated our surroundings, probably moonlight fighting through the thinning clouds. I could barely pick out Thomas’s form, leaning against the tree trunk. The light was perverse enough that I couldn’t pick out what was underneath us.

“Kirk?”

I glanced back at Thomas, “Yeah?”

“I’m scared.”

The slight dissolution of the storm had ended with this pronouncement, and the storm began to pick up quickly. This whole night was reminiscent of a mathematician‘s favorite example of the sine function.

Dealing with scared little brothers is not an explorer skill. I pondered what to say for a moment, “Well… you don’t have to be. Because…” I couldn’t think of anything. Any moment, Thomas would realize I was drawing a blank. He continued to stare at me, hoping for encouragement.

The tree began to sway violently as the storm picked up to a crescendo, and a violent roar rang out.

“It‘s shaking us out of the tree!” Thomas screamed, wrapping his whole body around the branch. The King of Obvious hung there the best he could, but the shaking was violent enough he began to slip down.

I flung my rock into the darkness below, accompanied by another roar. Thomas finally lost his grip and fell, barely catching his hands on a branch below me.

The shaking continued. A hideous stench filled my nostrils, presumably from the thing shaking us out like rats. Will this seriously have to be the last thing I smell? I remember thinking.

Thomas‘s six-year-old hands couldn’t grip the expansive branch, especially with the shaking. The screech of the wind sounded like a cackle as I reached my hand down and tried to grab his forearm, but with one final shake, Thomas came loose. I launched myself after him, barely catching his wrist in my hand and my other hand on a branch.

We hung in darkness until the sky lit up, showing me Thomas’s feet… were inches above the bottom branch. I set him down gently and followed after.

The brief, tempestuous skirmish of the skies had left, bringing back the earlier calm. The wind had gone down, but it was still enough to shake the tree like an off-balanced ship. There was no monster below us, which was definitely a good thing. Thomas still gripped the tree with white knuckles.

I leaped down nimbly, landing in the soft loam below. I glanced around briefly, trying to get my bearings.

With the storm letting up, I got a better view of the area around our tree. A cliff sat off to the northeast of us, cascading oddly from the ridge above as if it had once been a liquid lava flow. It probably led to a drop-off if I remembered the map my dad showed me. The ridge we were on continued downwards quite steeply to the south. It was the same one I had rolled down earlier. It was lucky we had rolled into the pine tree when we did. Otherwise, we would have continued down the slope for a long time.

Heading north back up the ridge wasn’t an option, especially since the cabin was southwest of here, but going south wasn’t much of a possibility with the ridge being so steep.

Lightning flashed in the air, illuminating another falling tree in the distance. A moment later, as the thunder boomed, I could pick out yet another tree falling, this one closer.

“He’s headed back!” I screamed up to Thomas, “Get down here quickly!”

South was no longer a choice, so Eastward to the cliffs was the best chance. I glanced up at Thomas, but he was still gripping the tree and shaking his head at me!

“Jump already!” I shouted. Even though Thomas shook his head again to indicate he understood but refused, my words were drowned out by a deafening roar. Another tree fell over. People say humans cut down too many trees, but this guy could have easily been a lumberjack instead of a roaming monster.

“I’ll catch you!” I screamed over the increasing wind, clawing at my words like a rabid raccoon. This was a complete lie, but anything and everything was coming out of my mouth as I tried to get him to jump.

Thomas weighed this idea against the enormous killing machine behind him and leaped for me. I extended my arms, but he crashed straight into my chest, knocking me flat.

“Thanks for catching me,” he breathed and got up. I groaned and stumbled to my feet.

He looked me up and down, “What happened to you?”

I was about to tell him exactly what he had just done, but a roar and a mighty stomp reminded me of our hazardous situation.

I grabbed his arm, and we raced away. The beast behind us thundered in protest. As we reached the cliffs, the same pine tree we had sheltered in crashed to the ground. Pushing Thomas ahead of me, I climbed up the slippery shale slope. Rocks and pebbles flew everywhere, and Thomas released many a mini avalanche into my face. We made little headway against our giant pursuer, whom we could hear but not see until we reached firmer ground.

It was black as pitch, seeing as the storm had really picked up again, and rain poured down in sheets that had lost all semblance of opacity. I felt as though I might be able to swim up through the sopping wet air to the clouds. I groped around the cliff, trying to find someplace to hide, seeing as we were now stuck out in the open, when Thomas yelled from my left, saying he’d found a cave.

“OVER HERE!” he screamed, “COME OVER HERE!”

I crossed the slippery rocks up an invisible narrow ledge, and his voice got louder.

“YOUR ALMOST HERE!”

A boulder fell out of nowhere and crashed into the rocks near me. I let out a scream, simultaneous to another flash of lightning and a roar. Slipping off the ledge, I caught myself on a shallow root burrowing into the cliffside. I shouted in pain as another smaller boulder slammed next to me, throwing shards of stone into my arm.

A roar of triumph shattered the night; more footsteps as well. It was throwing rocks at me!

“HEY!” Thomas screamed hoarsely, “HEY YOU!”

The roar was cut off, and lightning lit up the night. I tried to angle around to see my attacker, but it wasn’t happening. I was still hanging by one arm and trying to pull myself up, but it wasn’t happening.

Another bellow and another boulder, but Thomas didn’t back down.

“Yeah! I’m talking to you!” Thomas yelled but didn’t seem to have anything else to say.

Lightning flashed, and I heard another tree fall. Thomas ran back out of the edge of the cave, silhouetted in the light for a moment.

“You leave us alone,” he yelled. I heard something whooshing through the air in the darkness. A departing roar sounded through the skies as Thomas bent down and grabbed my arm. He wasn’t anywhere near strong enough, but with the threat of impending boulders gone, I managed to drag myself up and into the cave.

Thomas was shaking, but it sounded like he was smiling, “I scared him off, Kirk! I did it.”

I highly doubted his small missile had done anything, but I didn’t say so, “nice.”

Thomas pulled out a box of matches in an oilcloth (he seemed to have everything you might want on him) and struck one. The cave, in the minuscule flicker of the solitary light, was revealed to have a small fire pit on the floor. Two moldering blankets sat in a corner next to a pile of firewood. An old, mildewy backpack and an assortment of old wooden tools, such as a trowel and a bucket, were near the entrance.

I glanced around, surprised, but quickly built a fire (yet another explorer skill).

“What is this place?” Thomas asked. The exhilaration was fading, and he was starting to look scared again.

“Some old campsite?” I guessed, looking around, “Pretty old at that.”

Thomas glanced at some of the blankets and the backpack, holding his nose and kicking them across the floor. There wasn’t any room for me to stand upright, so I sat down near the fire, building it up. Thomas came and sat down next to me. Our clothes eventually dried from the flames.

“Kirk,” Thomas said quietly as the storm raged, “I’m scared.”

I sighed again and glanced at the cave entrance. The storm was hitting an all-time peak, but sounded more like background noise here.

“Why did you throw that rock at the monster?“ I asked him.

He glanced up at me, puzzled, “What do you mean?“

“It wasn’t going to hurt him.“

“Oh…“ Thomas said sheepishly, “I guess I wasn’t thinking. I was just afraid he was going to hurt you.“

I laughed and stirred the fire, absent-mindedly thinking that marshmallows would be good, “So was I!“

Thomas smiled slightly at this, which equaled a full-out laugh for him and his grave countenance.

“Being afraid isn’t the problem; you were brave because you were afraid,” I said. “But I’ll always be here for you, just like you were for me whenever you are afraid.”

He frowned slightly, “what about when you go away on explorer trips?“

I laughed at that. It seemed all of the tense stress was draining away and leaving nothing but cheer, “I guess you will need to come with me. You can be my bodyguard.“

“Will you be mine?“

“Sure.“

The wind and rain screeched and howled like wild things, and out there, some monstrous creature was sulking over a lost dinner. In the cave, though, it was light and quiet. All was at peace.

A growl woke me up. I sat up straight and looked at Thomas. He opened his eyes wide and looked at me, panicked. I shook my head and motioned for him to stay down. He nodded.

I moved across the cave, listening intently. The storm had gone, leaving a glorious dawn dripping wet and musical with birds. It was the most amazing sight I had ever seen, and it took my breath away. The growl sounded again, like menacing muttering. I grabbed the wooden bucket, brimming with murky algae water, and stepped closer to the exit.

The shadow of the beast came into view. It must have been nearly the size of a man’s shadow. It let out yet another grumbling growl and stepped into view.

To my horror, I tossed the bucket into my father’s face before I could stop my hands.

He glared down at me. And I took a step back.

“Wait… No! Dad… I… we… we were running from this…”

“We were hunting for squirrels!” Thomas shouted gleefully, “Only I thought they were called Nibblerflutzeres.

My dad pinched his nose in agitation, “Let’s talk about this back at… the cabin,” he breathed in a whisper.

I nodded dumbly and looked at Thomas, glaring profusely at him. He shrugged and grabbed his waterproof bag. “It‘s true.”

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and we followed our father, “I guess.”

As we marched back to the cabin, I couldn’t help but notice the signs of our escapade, and I couldn’t help but wonder, was it all real?

I saw the trees, most obviously lightning-struck. boulders lay here and there scattered by lightning, striking the cliffs. I saw the mighty pine, ripped and lying on the ground, and realized what flimsy soil it was in and how easily the wind could have shaken its branches. When I thought of the mighty footsteps and roars of our pursuer. Instead, I heard in my ears the thunder of the powerful storm.

Thomas came up to me, “I’m sorry, Kirk.”

I looked at him, surprised.

“This is my fault, I got us into all of this. I should have stayed in the cabin.”

I grinned, “Probably, and I would next time, but I’m not sorry we had this little adventure. Only in retrospect, that is.”

He looked at me questioningly, “Why?”

I smiled even greater, “because it showed me the world is bigger than it seems. One day, Thomas, I’m going to become an explorer, I’m going to come back to this mountain, and I’m going to find that creature.”

“What are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to give him a name,” I said with conviction.

“What will it be?”

“The Nibblerflutzer.”