Duster had finished hurling the metal wall staples into the soft rock of the mountain side, as Flint and the assembled group of villagers studied them. Wess grumbled something under his breath, which Flint chose to interpret as,
"I could have done it better, he lacks technique". The smoke from the fires was still dying down, and the rain had stopped. The bright blaze of the forest fire seemed far away now, almost as if it was from a different lifetime. All that mattered was the search. Taking the large wooden board Lighter had given him, Flint tucked it inside his belt, taking off his leather vest  to prop the board against his back. He pulled the vest back on over it, helping to secure the board. He adjusted his hat and began the climb up the ladder. Duster picked up Boney, his fur still wet from the rain. Boney whimpered at the sight of the ladder, and Flint had to turn to look at him from the ladder.
"Boney, calm down." Once Boney stopped whimpering, Flint continued up, as Duster carried Boney up the ladder in his arms. The night air was still, the smell of smoke still strong. Flint clawed his way up the ladder as fast as he could, Duster and Boney following behind him. Curse his aching joints, and curse the farm work that had made them sore. Once he reached the top of the cliff face, his eyes shot towards the tree, and stopped on the tattered red piece of dress. He rushed towards it as quick as he could, Duster calling from the ladder,
"Flint, wait up! I can't climb that fast, I'm carrying Boney!" Flint didn't listen. He wasn't listening to anything, not even the racing of his heart as he stopped and picked up the small piece of the dress he had bought Hinawa only a year ago. Hinawa. It had been hours since she and the kids and disappeared, and yet this new discovery only raised more questions for Flint, his red bandana flapping in the wind. It had only been a few days ago that she and Claus and Lucas had hiked up to her father's house, but now it seemed like years since he had seen them last. Duster managed to make it to where Flint was, panting and nursing his bad leg.

Boney sniffed the piece of dress, barking and whining. Flint pocketed it gravely, as he looked around. A small path cut between the high rocks of the cliff, and, walking further, Flint gasped at what encountered him inside the mouth of the path. Two strangely dressed men, wearing pinkish suits with masks that resembled a pig, were standing by an unknown device, what looked like a caribou sitting in the center of it. Only, it wasn't a normal caribou. Strange, metallic plates stood out on its body in place of skin and fur, and one of its antlers appeared to be a kind of steam valve. Only one of its legs was flesh and blood, and it had a dulled look in its remaining eye. As Duster approached, he let out a gasp as well, Boney barking loudly at it. The barking alerted the two men, who turned and panicked. One whispered something to the other, and he quickly pressed a series of buttons on the small control panel adjacent to the large central area where the caribou sat. With a crackle of electricity and a hiss of steam, the caribou's electric eye glowed a bright red, as it stood up and charged at the trio. Flint barely managed to pull Duster aside in time, as it turned and tried to charge them again. Duster searched his bag, which had fallen to the ground when Flint shoved him aside. Boney growled and sprang forward, teeth and claws barred. He latched onto the remaining flesh of the creature and dug his teeth in. The caribou howled with pain, shaking franticly to throw Boney off. Flint looked around for his board, finding it quickly. Raising it up, he swung at the caribou's flesh leg, hoping to take advantage of it's relative weakness. The board struck with a sickening crunch as the bones in its leg cracked from the force of the hit. Howling in a mixture of pain and rage, the caribou hurled Boney off its back, a mixture of blood and motor oil pouring from the wounds on its back. Duster managed to find another wall staple and, just as the beast leaped forward to gore Flint, hurled the staple into the caribou's metallic underbelly. 

It let out a gurgling cry and fell to the ground, oil and blood mixing in a poll underneath it as it weakly tried to stand. The two pig masked men ran off, one of them dropping a small notebook. Flint jumped up and ran after them, Duster hurrying after him. As they ran into the clearing, they were almost blown back by the gust of wind that arose as a strange craft began to hover off the ground. Mouths agape, they watched, stupefied, as the pig nose looking mating flew up and away from the clearing, a strange song blaring from inside. Standing around a moment longer, they made their way back to the device, Duster picking up the notebook as Flint walked over to the caribou. It was still alive, electricity crackling across its body at random intervals. Boney sat near it, whimpering. Flint kneeled down and examined the wound. Duster's wall staple had pierced it deep, two large hole made in its underbelly, one in the metal half, the other in the organic half. Each wound bled the same mixture of oil and blood, as the caribou let out a whimper of pain that quickly descended into a gurgling noise. Duster walked over and nearly vomited at the sight of it. 
"Duster, hand me one of your wall staples." Flint was still kneeling beside the caribou, and Duster silently obliged him, handing over another staple. Flint clutched it tightly, weighing it in his mind. Without a word, he plunged it into the caribou's head. The beast let out one last whimper of pain, and was dead. Flint stood and walked to the ladder Duster had constructed, climbing down it slowly. Duster was about to follow, when he remembered the small notebook he and picked up. He pulled it out of his pocket, examining the pig-nose insignia on the front. He opened it, trying to make out the poorly written words inside.

All the creatures here suck.
We need to make 'em cooler.
So the theme will be:
-Tougher!
-Rougher!
-Badder!
We'll mix this and that to create whole new things no one's ever seen before!
I dub it the Fascinating Chimera Project. Let's reconstruct and modify stuff slowly and steadily.

Duster re-read the scrambled words one more time, making sure he had read it right. The very idea disgusted him, and he wanted to know who was behind it. As he finished reading the note again, Duster took one last look at the creature, before grabbing his bag and limping to the ladder as well. He picked up Boney, carrying him down as the last glimpse of the tortured beast faded from view, replaced with the gray rock that formed the cliff.