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Crowley appeared in the middle of Bobby's library and eyed the papers, books and scrolls spread around every surface in the room. “I see you've been busy.”
“Give Captain Obvious a prize.” Bobby snarked and discarded yet another book onto the floor. “Where the Hell have you been? I called you two days ago.”
“In Hell. I left my phone with my meatsuit.” the demon shrugged and nudged one nearby stack with the tip of his shoe. It toppled over with a loud 'plop'. He grimaced at the mess. “What did you need me for?” he asked.
“Not did, I still do.” Bobby grumbled, pushing a stack of papers onto the floor and paging through yet another book. “A buddy of mine encountered a new type of fugly. It's attacking animals for now, but there's an elementary school nearby.”
Crowley picked up one of the highest stacks. He balanced the books easily and looked though the titles. All of them mythology compendia. “And I assume you've been trying to locate it in lore.” He commented. There was an empty bookcase on his left, so he set the books on one of the shelves.
“I can't find anything about these buggers!” Bobby snapped, still paging angrily through his latest book. “I've even ransacked the library, and I got zip!”
“When did you last sleep?” Crowley asked, lifting the spread open maps off of Bobby's armchair and rolling them up.
“That's not the issue!” Bobby growled.
“Well, excuse me for being concerned.” Crowley snarked back and tossed the maps into the mapbin. He plopped down onto the now free armchair and crossed his legs at the ankles. “What exactly did you want from me, to help you look through all this mess?” He gestured at all the papers strewn about.
“No.” Bobby rubbed a hand through his hair. “I'd assumed you'd know what the bastards are.”
Crowley shrugged. “I know many creatures that first feast on furry critters and move on to people. I'll need more details.”
Bobby blinked in thought, then started digging through his papers. “I've got a picture, my buddy had sketched the thing and faxed it over.”
Crowley got up and promptly fell back down as his foot slipped on a pile of papers. “Bollocks.” he muttered, staring crossly at all the clutter around him. He knelt down and gathered as many of the papers as he could into one pile. “What does it look like?” He asked, patting and shaking the pile until it was an even stack.
“Teeth, fur, something like a shell along their backs. Small fuckers, about a foot high. Fast as hell. My buddy said they make a high pitched shriek whenever he manages to get near them.”
“That does sound familiar.” Crowley murmured, lifting the stack of papers and documents onto a shelf in the bookcase. He bent down and grabbed the few scrolls by his feet and set them next to the stack.
“Found it!” Bobby crowed and lifted up a printed page.
Crowley squinted at the picture. “That's an Arowalt.”
“A what?”
“An Arowalt. Should be in Indian mythology.” Crowley took the picture and cocked his head to the side. “I haven't seen one in ages, I thought they'd gone extinct.” He shrugged and set the picture down on the desk.
“Apparently not.” Bobby snorted, already digging through the books behind his desk. “Native Indian or Indian Indian?”
“The latter.” Crowley crouched down next to the pile of books he'd toppled earlier and put it back into a neat pile.
Bobby found the correct book and lay it on the desk, next to the picture. He quickly found the right entry and squinted at the illustration. He compared it to the faxed sketch and scowled. “This doesn't look one whit like it!” he growled accusingly.
“Their young do.” Crowley explained, picking up the several empty coffee cups and carrying them to the kitchen. “Your hunter 'buddy' must've stumbled onto a nest.” He left the cups by the sink and walked back. “If I remember correctly, after they eat enough meat, they make a cocoon and sleep for a few years.”
“Human meat?” Bobby asked, scanning though the entry. “This says they eat bark and leaves.”
“That's after they leave the cocoons. Very calm critters, unless provoked.” He grabbed a crumbled up blanket and started folding it.
Bobby relaxed visibly. “So they're not dangerous to humans.”
Crowley blinked and turned to look at the hunter. “I may have forgotten to mention they make the cocoons out of kiddie skin.”
Bobby paled and his shoulders tensed back up. “Balls! How do we kill them?”
Crowley set the folded blanket on the couch. “Fire. Find the main nest and torch it, that'll take care of most of them. The stragglers can be done in with a simple bullet through the eye.”
“How do we find their nest?” Bobby demanded, tone urgent.
Crowley made a thoughtful noise and tapped a finger against his chin. “Somewhere with a lot of trees, close enough to a source of meat and not far from the kiddies. They do like holes and caverns, I remember that clearly.”
Bobby grabbed the map off his desk and looked through it. “There's a small forest between the school and the fields the animals are disappearing from.”
“Sounds perfect.” Crowley shrugged and sat down on the couch. “Just tell your 'buddy' to find a cave and listen for a shriek, that's a dead give-away whether they're there or not.”
Bobby walked over to him and leaned down, giving him a quick kiss. “Thank you.”
Crowley licked his lips and grinned. “Not a problem. Just go straight to bed after you call that buddy of yours. I'm not gonna peel you off the floor when you crash.”
Bobby didn't answer, already dialling.