Corn Patch

Harlan was a big man, an easy 6'2" and around 240 pounds. His arms were the size of trash cans, so long they reached down to almost his knees. His hands were thick, so thick they looked abnormal, that was from years of heavy work in his fields.

Now just over 40, he never married, probably because one glance at him scared the crap out of any normal woman.

It scared most men, too.

His normal expression was one of anger, and if he did smile it got worse.

There just wasn't much chance that Harlen would ever find himself a woman, he was resigned to that and just tended his crops.

Once every year he would fly down to Reno, then hop a cab out to one of the bunny ranches. Harlen was always spiffed up, his hair combed and his teeth brushed for those trips.

Even so, most of the women who worked there took one look and then looked away, hoping they wouldn't be picked. Even the big guys standing around, there for security looked a bit nervous when Harlen walked in.

But Harlen had a pocket full of money, that helped. The first time he went into one of the back rooms he could tell the woman was scared.

She was blonde and stacked, Harlen liked them blonde and stacked. She really had a concerned look on her face when he first touched her, that changed quickly though. Harlen's big meaty hands were gentle, he took his sweet time exploring every inch of her until she began to purr.

By the time Harlen was done with her she wasn't scared any more. Harlen was very big everywhere, you see. Add in a bit of pent up demand and he usually managed at least three times, sometimes four. The pretty blonde looked a bit worked over when she came out, but she was smiling.

He grinned to himself when he heard the woman whisper to another one as he prepared to leave.

"Man, I would do that guy for free!" She giggled.

The next year when he arrived at the bunny ranch, the same woman was still there. She spotted him and did everything she could to interest him, but Harlen had had her once and he wanted something different. The woman actually got a pout on her face.

The one he picked looked a bit frightened. But once again, that didn't last long.

That was about all there was to Harlen's life, he planted his crops, cared for them, then the field workers came and helped him with the harvest.

All of them always did exactly what he told them to do, too.

Then one year he was checking the fields, the Corn was doing well, big 10" ears. He walked down the row, then spotted some plants with the ears torn off. Checking, he found some more plants damaged, now that pissed Harlen off.

"Probably a damn Raccoon or some critter like that." He thought to himself. He went and got his traps, set them out.

The next day he went to check, every single one of the traps were gone. All he found was a footprint, it was about 6 inches long and had three toes. There was just the one, and some scuff marks in the dirt. Harlen had no idea at all what the critter getting his Corn was, it sure as hell wasn't a Raccoon.

He went to town and bought some bigger traps, plus some steel posts to chain them down with.

"Whatcha got Harlen, a dang Bear out there?" The shop keeper asked, looking down at the gear Harlen set on the counter.

"Don't know. Eats Corn, though." Was all he said.

Back at his house, he went out into his workshop and welded the chains to the top of the posts. Then he drove them completely into the ground until just a few inches stuck up. He attached the huge traps, set them. He was careful with them, he knew if he got his hand caught in one of those it would probably take some fingers off.

Satisfied, he checked the rest of his crops, there was a lot of missing ears. He went back to his house to make some dinner, figuring that whatever it was would be there in the morning.

The next morning he grabbed his 10 gauge double barrel shotgun just in case.

All of the traps were gone when he got there, the posts too, except for one. The top of the one post was bent over, the chain snapped completely in two.

"Now what the hell?" He thought. He stood there and scratched his slightly balding head. He wasn't real sure he could have snapped that chain with his tractor.

"Probably a damn defective Chinese made piece of shit." Harlen decided. More Corn was gone, too.

Harlen realized that now he had a serious problem. He headed back up to the house, made some food, then after he ate he went out and walked all the way around his fields. It took awhile, it was almost six miles.

He found several trails where something had been coming in from the main forest off to the west. He had always left a 40 acre buffer there and built a fence, to keep the Deer out. He found a couple of footprints, too, they were smaller than the first one he had found but similar. Three toes, and what looked like a claw on the end of each one. It sure as hell wasn't a Bear.

Just one thing to do, and that was stake out the trail, try to get whatever it was with his shotgun. That night Harlen sat out in his field, waiting. It got cold after the Sun went down, and a light fog settled in. He could hear the rare chirps of insects, that was all.

Hours went by, nothing. Then Harlen dozed off.

The sudden silence was what woke him up. He was instantly alert, listening. It was almost pitch black out, he felt by his side and found his flashlight. There was a crunching sound not 50 feet in front of him. Then he head a noise that sounded like an ear of his Corn being torn off, another crunching sound.

He waited, almost holding his breath, the sound got closer. Then he heard what sounded like a voice, but whatever it was saying was no words he had ever heard. Another smaller, quieter voice answered, in the same gibberish.

They were close now. He flicked on his light, there was a flash of fur and a glimpse of the rear end of...something. It looked like the hind end of a..Dog? But the legs, they were backwards at the knees, powerful looking. Harlen cut loose with both barrels in the general direction, sawing a half dozen Corn plants right in half.

There was sudden silence. He waited, not a single sound. Scatter barrel be damned, he knew he had missed whatever it was.

Finally, off in the distance came a long drawnout cry that cut right through to his soul.

Feeling spooked for the first time in his entire life, he headed for the house at a trot.

He shut the door behind himself, actually locked it. Harlen never locked his front door.

He didn't sleep very well that night. The next day, he drove down to the store in town and asked for some 10 gauge slugs. They didn't have any, so he settled on some buckshot instead.

"Slugs? Buckshot? What in the hell are you after, Harlen?" The guy asked him.

Harlen didn't answer, he just stuffed the case of 10 gauge shells in his pocket and left, leaving the clerk shaking his head. He also stopped at the library, checked out a book on identifying animal tracks.

He spent the rest of the day checking everything possible, there was nothing even close.

That night he stayed inside the house, the door solidly locked. He even sat upstairs and listened, around midnight he once again heard the noises. It sounded almost like children chattering to each other, playful??

Harlen felt a cold chill, whatever those things were, they sure as hell didn't seem to be very playful.

The next morning Harlen went out to check his fields, the double barrel 10 gauge with buckshot loads tucked securely under his arm.

The damage was now getting severe, he had lost nearly two full acres.

Harlen finally did something he almost never did.

He got mad.

That night found him sitting out in his field, his shotgun ready. Buckshot would stop a damned Elephant, he knew. He kept the gun ready, both hammers back and a row of loads right beside him in easy reach. He had even practiced reloading until he felt that he was good at it, there was obviously more than one critter.

He was stuffed full of coffee, too, to ward off any chance of dozing off. The moon came up, the night was clear and cool. The dim moonlight cast shadows that made the hair on the back of his neck bristle, but Harlen held his ground.

Just after midnight he heard the crunching sounds over by the pathway coming into his fields. There was a squeak of wire, he knew that was something climbing up and over the fence. He waited, his fingers on both triggers.

The sounds got closer, he could hear whatever is was ripping off his ears of Corn and eating them. He knew that whatever the animals were, they ate the entire ears, husks and all because he had never found any with the kernals stripped off.

Once again, the sounds were getting close. Harlen had his entire attention on those sounds, he knew whatever it was was now just a couple of rows away. He raised the barrel slowly, pointed at the sound.

There was a motion at his side. It took a second for him to realize, then he tried to leap to his feet. He felt the shotgun torn from his hands, then something was on his back. He went forward with the weight, tried to roll out from under it. There was a stab of pain in his arm, he was forced face down into the dirt and pinned there.

Even his great strength was not enough, he used every ounce of it and still could not move. The chatter, just gibberish began around him, he realized there were several of them. He saw the swish of a fuzzy tail, he could see furry legs close by in the weak moonlight, that was all. He could not lift or turn his head.

A dark fuzzy face leaned down and peered at him, just inches away. He could see it out of the corner of his eye.

Terrified, Harlen felt his bladder let go, then he went limp. They had him, there was no point in trying to resist. He felt the pressure ease up when he relaxed. Something leaned down and sniffed at him, he got a glimpse again of that face of some kind, it covered with fur. It stepped over and nuzzled against the damp area at his groin.

There was more voices, almost the musical sound of children, but nonsense.

Then he heard a deeper voice.

"Briiing herrr." It almost sounded like it had said, "Bring her" but each word was drawn out very long.

"You can talk?" Harlen managed to ask.

"Yeees. Beee quiiiet." It said again, it was a growl.

"What do you want?" Harlen demanded, still feeling the pressure holding him down. He wasn't struggling now.

"Beee quiiiet. Youuu willl scarrre herrr."

"Scare her? Scare who?", Harlen thought.

Suddenly he was rolled over onto his back, now he could see them, barely in the dim light. They looked like a cross between a huge Cat and Canine of some kind, they all had long tails, fuzzy like a squirrel's. He expected to see fangs but there were none. The heads sat directly on huge shoulders, the front legs were long and powerful looking. All of them were down on all four limbs, one of them held each arm. Another one much smaller then stood up on it's hind legs. It had a shorter tail, it swept back and forth.

It sniffed again at his groin, then moved to look at his face, placing both front legs on his chest. He saw it clearly, almost...human? But fur, deep angled eyes, a nose that was wide and dark, flaring as it sniffed at him. Two short ears formed a peak at the top of it's skull, they flicked back and forth, turning oddly. Then it stood up, he realized he was looking at breasts covered with fur. The creature stepped away, the bulging hips joined legs bent backwards at the knees.

Harlen thought he was having a nightmare, tried to wake up. The smaller one reached down, he saw the paws, three toes, a long curved claw on the end of each one. The paw reached down, then a smaller toe extended out the side. It grasped the catch on Harlen's jeans, easily tripped them. A quick motion with one of the razor sharp claws slit the waistband of his briefs. The animal reached down and grasped each side of his jeans and pulled them to his knees.

Now naked from the waist down, Harlen struggled again, tried to press upwards with his massive arms, actually succeeding with the one on his right. Another one reached down and the two of them forced his arm back to the ground.

The small one that now stood astride him leaned forward, took his limp penis in it's paws. It worked it with firm strokes, the soft fur rubbing against him made Harlen begin to erect even though he tried not to. He expected to be slashed, but the long curving claws had retracted.

Then the animal stepped forward slightly, and holding him by the shoulders, slid it's rear end down and over him. It felt extremely wet, then he felt contractions.

Harlen closed his eyes, this could not be happening! He was being raped by a pack of wild animals! His mind began to wander crazily, he felt he was at the bunny ranch somehow. As the sensations built, he squeezed his eyes shut.

{The woman on top of him was beautiful, her long blonde hair flowing down over her shoulders, sweeping back and forth with each motion she made. Her wonderful full breasts first peeked at him, then slid out of sight behind her hair, then peeked out again. She was grunting with each thrust of her hips, an almost animal like sound.

He felt her lean forward as her orgasm hit her, her face nuzzled against his neck, he felt her teeth gently bite into him. Harlen opened his eyes as his seed blasted from his body.}

The part human, part cat like face was looking down at him, he could feel the tail whisking against his legs.

He heard screams that went on and on.

Later he realized those screams were his own.

Sunlight on his face woke him up, Harlen lay on his back, his pants pulled down to his ankles, his briefs shredded. The shotgun lay at his side, the shells still laid out in a row. He saw that both hammers had been set to safety. He got up, pulled up his pants, then grabbed the weapon and headed for his house.

Inside, he stripped down, inspected himself in the mirror. He could not find a single mark. He went into his shower, ran the water over himself until it ran full cold.

Dressing, he thought about what had happened. He decided he must have dozed off into a nightmare, coffee be damned. Then he looked at his briefs.

The slash was as neat as any razor could make, it went from the waistband to the leg opening. The memory flooded back, it had happened.

Downstairs, he started to pick up the shotgun, then just leaned it back up in the corner. If they wanted to harm him, kill him, that would have been easy.

Harlen thought some more about it. The small one, it was a female. A female what, he didn't know. But they wanted her bred, that was obvious.

He shuddered again, but he knew what he had to do.

In the barn, Harlen serviced his tractor, drove it down and plowed the last 40 acres closest to the forest. He had planned on doing that anyway, but now he was planting...for them. He wasn't sure why, he just knew he had to.

Somewhere out there, there was a child coming. What, he didn't know, but he knew there was.

Two days later, he drove the tractor down there with his disc attached, to turn the field again, get the soil in shape for the next season's planting.

He spotted an area where the soil was disturbed, curious, he stopped the tractor and got off, walking over there.

Grooves were cut into the dirt. He looked carefully, made out the words.

"Thank you." It read. At the bottom was a clear and solid track pressed firmly into the soft dirt.

It was about six inches long, three toes. The mark where the claws had been curled into the soil were clear.

Then Harlen heard the sounds, long cries out in the forest, a rustling of the bushes. They moved away, all was silent.

Harlen went back to his tractor, he had work to do.