The QuickFoot.

The ride was long, and I couldn’t hold my excitement to work with the mythical Jerald Creps. I wondered what kind of stuff would he teach me, placing down traps? picking up scents? spotting foot prints? There’s a million and one things out there to teach me about cryptids!

“BEEP, Last Stop, Pagleji!”

“Now, EVERYONE OUT!!!”

The train conductor interrupts my delusions through the speakers, with his mean and raspy voice.

Besides the speaker’s lack of manners, my heart was pounding with excitement, I jumped out of my seat and rushed to the doors, suitcase in hand.

As they opened, I was greeted by soft winds and trees as tall as the sky. Beautiful grass behind the train platform, I can’t wait to meet Jerald Creps.

I step outside and-...

“YEOWCH!!!”

I didn’t see that there was a step when I got out and I find my face on the floor.

Besides this little accident, I get up, sweep the dust off my clothes and look at my surroundings to look for him and…

…

There’s no one here.

“Where the HELL is he?”

I go to my phone to check if I was either soon or late.

5 PM, the time was right, the train had arrived at the exact time that we had to meet up. Maybe he is a little late?

I sit down on a bench, waiting for him.

“I mean, nobody is exactly perfect, right?”

A minute passes, the minute becomes ten minutes, then half an hour passes, then a full on hour, still no signals of him. I don’t have his number nor any way to contact him, all I can do is wait. Until finally…

“HEEEEEEEEY!!!!”

The voice of a man shouts out in my direction, the voice sounds weirdly familiar. Not too deep nor high pitched, even though it has a little accent.

I look to where the voice comes from, and I freeze.

At last, it’s Jerald Creps! What took him so long? And… he is sprinting towards me! I rush down to him to greet him with my suitcase in hand.

“Wuuff… Wuuff… Wuuuff…”

We reach each other, he’s out of breath. He puts his hand on his chest to catch a break, almost like his life depended on getting here.

“So uhmm… Jerald Creps… Hello! I-It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

I tilt my head to the side, trying not to sound mean in the process, even though I am quite upset that he was late. I would like to give him a piece of my mind, but I’m going to train with him so I better swallow my pride.

“Wuuuff… Wahahahah! Hello uhhmm… W-what was your name again?”

…

Did he really just ask me for my name!? We met like a week ago, we are going to train for over a year! Come on!!!

“...Oh uhm, yeah.”

I put my hand over my head, saluting him and I say with determination.

“Marta, newbie to cryptid hunting!”

“Hmm! Well Marta, haha…! Welcome to Pagleji, from today onboards you will be trained by me… Jerald Creps. The Legendary Cryptid Hunter! Hahaha!”

He says as he wraps his arm around me and makes me envision what's next for me, even though the first impression wasn’t the best. I can tell that this chapter of my life will surely be something.

“Yes, sir!”

“Hehe… I can tell that you have potential in you, and what's best to start with by… going to hunt a cryptid right about now!? Haha!”

He points at me as he says that I have potential, just to then motion his arm to point at the forest.

…

I am very skeptical about this, don’t get me wrong here. I’m the first person that would love to go out hunting. But where is my room? Where are the cabins? I have to unpack all of my stuff for god’s shake!

“Uhhmmm… Sir Jerald… Shouldn’t you first show me around? At least let me put my suitcase in my cabin… like… I do get a cabin, right?”

He stares at me for a second with a face that makes me look like I just said the most terrifying thing in the world.

“Oh yeah! You do get a cabin, don’t worry!”

“Even! We are going to your cabin right now, meanwhile we try to see if we can spot any cryptid on the way there! I should’ve phrased that correctly before… my apologies.”

Phew! I thought for a second that I would have to sleep in the woods.

“Oh good! good! Sooooo… What are we waiting for? lead the way boss!”

I salute him again in a humoristic manner.

“Hahahah! You’re one funny creature. No need to be so formal.”

As he laughs he smacks my back, he’s a lot stronger than I thought.

Jerald then walks down the train platform, and enters into the woods. Pretty much everything around here is woods, no buildings in sight!

I follow behind him, on our way there, it would be best to get to know each other a little better?

“Sooo. Jerald, do you like being a cryptid hunter?”

“Hmmm, yeah sure.”

Yeah sure? That’s the most basic answer he could have given me!

“AAaaaand, well, don’t want to be mean here but… why were you so late?”

I can tell by his face that he’s in shock by my question.

“...Uhmmm, I was… you see…”

“I was uhhhh….”

As Jerald tries to come up with a convincing excuse for his negligence, the sound of bushes moving can be heard from behind. We instantly turn around.

“What… what was that?”

I don’t know if I should be either excited, or scared about this. What if it’s an actual full on cryptid? I can prove to Jerald what I’m capable of!

As I try to approach the bush, Jerald grabs me by the shoulder and exclamates.

“No, I’ll go.”

Reluctantly, I obey and he begins to check the bush. He moves to the sides the leaves to look inside.

…

He turns back at me.

“Wuuuff… Haha! There’s nothing here. No need to look so scared now, hahaha!”

As I look at him, I can see a big silhouette probably a meter taller than him approaching from behind.

“J-Jerald, behind you!”

He looks back.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!”

A big, hairy creature towers and screams right behind him. His appearance can only be described like the mix of a bear with an orangutan, if someone told me it’s related to a bigfoot or a yeti, I wouldn’t doubt them.

“AAAAH!!!”

Jerald and I scream in fear as we start running in the opposite direction of the creature, I unconsciously leave my suitcase on the ground.

We run and run, I’m too scared to look back to see if it's following us, so I ask Jerald.

“J-JERALD. IS IT FOLLOWING US!?”

He looks back, and then looks at me.

“It is…”

I look back to where the creature is, it’s following us down at full speed.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

The creature screams at us, I can see such anger and aggressiveness in his eyes.

“W-WHAT DO WE DO!? YOU ARE THE PROFESSIONAL HERE!”

“WE RUN!!!”

We just run!? Isn't he supposed to be a professional!? We run for what feels like an eternity, hoping that whatever that thing is doesn’t catch up to us.

In the distance I can see cabins, finally safety at last!

When we reach the cabins, passing through the “Pagleji’s Cryptid Hunting Training Camp” sign.

I don’t hear anymore of the monster’s footsteps, maybe it got tired of us? I look back to see if it’s still there. And to our luck, it is gone.

I leave what is probably the biggest sigh of my life.

“Aaaaahhh… We… We made it…!”

I look at Jerald, he looks just as tired as I do.

“Ahh… Ahhh… Ah…! Hahahaha! Yeah of course we did! We are profe-”

Just as he’s talking I notice something, I’m missing my suitcase. This is all his fault, I smack him in the face with the palm of my hand as he’s talking.

“OUCH! Creature, what was that for!?”

“What the hell! I didn’t notice and I left my suitcase back there! You have to get it back! It’s your fault that I lost it!”

I had everything in that suitcase, my clothes, my cryptid magazines, my everything!

“Oh, that ermmm..! Well, I’m not sure if QuickFoot is still around but…”

“Oh Quickfoot? So that’s what that thing is?”

I’d love to learn more about cryptids, but now is just not the time.

“Why yes of course! Quickfoot, A quickfoot is a bear-like creature, almost like a-”

He notices how I’m getting even more mad with each word that he’s saying.

“I-It will be fine uhh…! I-I’ll go get it in.. a few hours, alright!? How about meanwhile I show you to your new cabin?”

Still filled up with anger, I agree.