B25C14 - Wolf Senses

I stuck my head out of the alcove to see what was going on back down the slope. With this slight elevation I could see the base clearly, if not in detail.

But it wasn't the far-off base that got my attention. There was very little alive anywhere near us, and thus almost nothing to smell. So when the new scent drifted our way, all our wolf heads perked up.

You probably know how well a dog can smell and hear. Well, a wolf is to a dog what a Ferrari is to a Hyundai.

Smell! Sound! Sight! All locked on like some computerized targeting system.

<What the heck are those things?> I cried.

There were two of them. About eight feet tall. Humanoid. Torso, head, and limbs in the usual places. Only their heads were shaped kind of like a hammerhead shark's, oblong with big, dark globs on each side that must have been eyes. Each creature had two thick upper arms growing out of broad shoulders. The upper arms split at the elbows to make two forearms.

Big, burly, nasty-looking beasts. Silver, with flashes of blood-red and midnight-blue along their flanks, along their shoulders, and converging in their faces.

I'd seen that color scheme before.

They were sliding toward us on long, ski-like feet. They used two of their forearms, one right and one left, to propel themselves forward.

And they glistened in the light like diamonds or crystals.

With their third and fourth forearms, each carried a chunky black tube of some kind.

<Ax, we've got aliens coming,> Jake said. <I think they're the ones we saw in those cylinders.>

Jake described them.

<I do not believe it,> Ax cried. <A perfect description of a Venber.>

<Venber? What happened to them being extinct?> I cried.

<Reports of their extinction may have been exaggerated.>

<Ax, are you developing a sense of humor? If so, stop it, okay?>

<Well, whatever they are, they're coming this way in a hurry,> Rachel said. <And judging by those big guns in their hands, I don't think they're welcoming us to the neighborhoods.>