Andy gazed around at the thick vegetation. “Maybe we’re lucky that we found this place. It seems like every imaginable plant is growing here.”
Abigail was about to respond when a loud roar echoed from somewhere near where they were sitting. They shared nervous glances.
“We’re not alone,” Betty said.
“Not at all,” Dotty echoed.
“That didn’t sound like any creature I’ve ever heard,” Abigail said. “Not a lion, for sure.”
“You two had better have your pistols ready,” Andy suggested. “Whatever that was, it sounded pretty close.”
The trees shook with the creature’s unearthly roar as whatever it was stomped in their direction. Andy and the others had no idea what to expect, but they could feel the ground shake beneath their feet with every thunderous footfall. Then a terrible stench like a cross between rotten eggs and a skunk filled the air.
“Hide!” Andy shouted.
“What about Rusty?” Abigail asked.
“Help me drag him,” Andy said. “Betty, Dotty, you guys take cover in that big bush over there. We’ll hide behind that tree. Maybe we can take it by surprise.”
Rusty was heavy, and trying to move him felt to Andy like pulling a sack filled with boulders. But with much heaving and grunting, he and Abigail managed to get the bush pilot and themselves hidden behind a big-trunked eucalyptus tree just as the creature burst into the clearing they’d recently occupied.
The moment Andy laid eyes on it, his stomach churned. It was one of the most horrible creatures that he’d ever seen—even worse than most of the mythical monsters he’d read about.
It didn’t seem possible. The monster had thick, matted fur and strode upon two legs like a gorilla. But the resemblance ended there. Like a Cyclops, it had a single eye—one that was inky black, with no white at all—and upon its belly was a wide, gaping slash filled with broken teeth.
Its mouth is on its stomach! Andy realized. It just looked wrong!
“It’s an Isnashi!” whispered Abigail.
“A what-she?” said Andy.
“Isnashi! My father told me about them. I…I didn’t think they were real. He said he barely escaped one when he was on an expedition in Brazil, but I thought he was making it up.”
“Evidently not,” Andy said.
The beast swayed in place for a moment, sniffing the air as if deciding which way it should turn. The stench of the thing at close proximity was overwhelming, and Andy had a hard time not gagging.
Andy saw Betty and Dotty peer over the top of the large bush they were hiding behind, taking aim with their pistols.
Don’t miss, Andy begged silently. Please…don’t miss.
The sisters fired, but the Isnashi was quicker. At the last possible moment, the beast leapt into the air, avoiding the bullets and landing directly behind the twins!
Betty and Dotty weren’t easily frightened, and if the sudden proximity of the horrible monster bothered them, they didn’t show it. With lightning reflexes, the twins responded. The two let fly a quick series of karate punches, followed by powerful leaping roundhouse kicks.
The women were masters of the martial arts, and they sang as they fought, harmonizing a battle song of their own composition. Andy had heard it once before, when they’d battled the Collective in Hawaii. The music Betty and Dotty made together was beautiful, with an eerie quality about it. It reminded Andy vaguely of the drone of a bagpipe coupled with its high, lilting melody.
It inspired fear in any enemy that heard it.
The assault from the conjoined twins would have knocked any normal opponent back at least thirty feet, and the fierce song they sang would have made the foe think twice about continuing the fight. But the Isnashi was anything but normal.
The sisters stood facing a foe that had barely moved under their best assault, and a flicker of doubt passed between them. When Andy saw that look, he knew that if he didn’t do something quick, Betty and Dotty, the fiercest fighters he knew, probably wouldn’t survive.
Andy glanced around desperately, hoping to see a club or a sharp stick lying nearby. But deep inside, he knew that such weapons would be pointless. And then he remembered. He still had the amulet that had summoned the Dingonek!
Andy reached into his jacket pocket and pulled it out. He scanned the surface of the amulet, looking for anything at all that would tell him how to summon the creature. There was a skull on one side and a smooth surface on the other, but nothing was written there.
The Isnashi loomed over Betty and Dotty, its horrible mouth gaping, ready to bite. Andy rubbed hard on the amulet with his thumb, polishing its surface and trying to see if perhaps the thin layer of grime had obscured some faintly written text.
There was nothing written on the amulet, but as with the fabled genie in Aladdin’s lamp, it was the rubbing that did the trick. Andy gasped as the amulet suddenly grew white-hot. He tossed it on the ground and watched as the amulet began to spin. There was a shimmer and then, uncurling like a great crocodile, the Dingonek reappeared. Andy didn’t have to tell it what to do. The creature obeyed the intention of whoever was in control of the amulet.
The Dingonek roared, and the Isnashi, for the first time in its miserable existence, faced an opponent that was a true challenge. It seemed to know right away that it was threatened, and it let loose another of its terrible howls. The monsters rushed together and fought, a clash of two creatures straight out of myth and legend.
Had it been something in the movies, Andy would have been riveted to the spot. But seeing it for real was truly terrible to behold. Both creatures were fighting for their lives!
The Dingonek’s barbed tail struck over and over again, and the Isnashi, brandishing a set of huge scimitar-like claws, slashed back. There was blood
