Lockhart's Legacy (Vespari Lockhart Book 1) by J. Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

revolver, drawing it in preparation for what was coming. Finally, he kicked dirt onto the campfire. The light would only blind him from seeing in the dark, so it had to go.
    As Lockhart’s eyes adjusted to the starry-lit night, he got his first glimpse of his quarry. The vishler walked toward him, standing upright on two feet. The creature towered over him at more than ten feet tall. It had taken a longhorn’s skull as its own. Tip to tip, the horns were at least as wide as Lockhart was tall. Below that, he had a harder time distinguishing which animal the bones came from, especially in the dark. The vishler was lanky - its arms nearly scraping the ground, and the vines and weeds that strapped its bones together appeared weak, loose, and sloppy. Because of this, Lockhart guessed that this was a child, no more than a decade old.
    Skulls, humans included, hung around its waist like a belt, but the vishler hadn’t collected many. Only five humans in total. Most of this vishler’s bones had to have come from animals that died in the wastes. Its fingers all ended in bird skulls, the beaks forming the fingertips. The vishler’s chest was comprised of a series of rib cages harnessed together as one whole. Standing on hooves strapped to the three feet tall femurs of an animal he couldn’t identify, the vishler screeched at Lockhart, extending its arms outward and kneeling down to him to show off its collection of bones.
    The vespari wasn’t impressed, and he certainly wasn’t afraid. There had been bigger and more ancient vishlers in his past. This one wouldn’t even make the notebook. Lockhart aimed his revolver at the creature and fired before it finished its roar. The runed bullet collided with the vishler’s longhorn skull, cracking it and silencing the monster instantly. It froze there in the moment and then fell forward with a thud.
    The kill had been easy. He worried that it was too easy. He wasn’t going to make the mistake of overconfidence. Lockhart waited a couple minutes to ensure the vishler really was dead before he made another move.
    No stirring from the creature.
    He stepped forward a couple paces and kneeled to examine its skeleton body a little closer but still keeping it at a distance. Still, the vishler remained motionless. At this closer proximity, Lockhart could see the bullet hole in the skull and the cracks that extended from it. He saw no sign of life behind the vacant eyeholes. Standing, Lockhart walked the rest of the way to the vishler’s body. There, he kicked the longhorn’s skull. The skull separated from the rest of the bones, as all the weeds and vines had come loose. The rest of its body held firm together though.
    Backing up, he knew it wasn’t over. The vishler abandoned its skull, and must’ve had another to use. Maybe it wasn’t so young and foolish after all. The creature, sensing that its facade hadn’t worked, revitalized itself. The vishler stood upright again, leaving the abandoned longhorn skull on the ground. It’s head was now the skull of a deer with multiple tined antlers. This time, it didn’t waste its breath with a roar; it simply leapt at Lockhart with its beak-lined claws.
    Even if he got off another shot, those talons would still tear him to shreds. With this in mind, Lockhart dove out of the way, landing hard on a rockier than desired stretch of ground. Rolling away, he got to his feet as soon as possible. His experience and learning all flashed before him. A simple runed bullet could kill any vishler. You just had to land it in the exact right spot.
    At the core of that self-made skeleton was an organ - a heart that stretched out to all those bones.  The skeleton was just armor, protection against beasts, humans, and other monsters alike. If the bullet didn’t penetrate the creature underneath, it would have no effect on the vishler other than making it discard one of its collected bones.
    Looking at the bone-encased thing, now recovering from its missed