“What?!”  Tess nearly tripped as she hurried to my side.

          We stood over the skeleton for a long time before either of us spoke.

          The bones were a near perfect skeleton, curled up on its side, with almost every bone exactly where it was supposed to be.  One empty eye socket seemed to be gazing up at us.

          “Do you think its human?”  Tess asked – taking a step back as if being human would make it come alive.

          “How many humans have you ever seen with four legs?”  I asked sarcastically taking a jab.

          “So, what is it then?”  She asked, moving closer again.

          “Looks like some kind of big animal,” I said.  “Like a deer or something.”

          I got on my knees, took a deep breath and got in closer to the gray bones.  “Nope.  Can’t be a deer.  It has toe bones not hooves.  Hmm, look at the teeth.  They’re really sharp.  It could be a dog.”  A few years ago I was in my doctor phase and must have read ever book ever written, for ten-year-olds, about bones.

          “Oh, poor dog,” said Tess.  “I wonder how it died.”

          “Probably attacked by an animal.  This is the country.”  I said.

          “How could anything eat a dog?”  Tess knelt beside me.  “They’re so cute.”

          “If you were born in China – they’d be Thanksgiving dinner.”  I joked.

          “Jake!  That isn’t funny.”  She pushed me over.  “Besides, I’m serious, what, around here, would eat a dog?”

          “A wolf or coyote maybe.”  I said.

          “Wouldn’t a wolf or coyote have left broken bones?  I mean…a fight with anything would have left broken bones.  Or traces of broken bones?”  Tess reasoned.  “This skeleton is pristine.”

          “Maybe it just died – like of old age or something – and someone buried it here under that weird plant root.”  I said.

          We silently stared at the dog again.  I was wondering how it died.

          A shrieking howl made us both jump.  The ominous and frightening sound filled the fall air and echoed through the grove of trees.

          We held our ears but even that could not shut out the howling that was growing louder and louder by the second.

          “What is it?”  Tess cried.

          I could only stare back at her – squinting away the sound.  I had no idea what could make a sound so horrible and horrifying.

          I did know…that whatever it was was moving closer.