THE ÆON BEAST

By early July 2024, it had poured rain in the BeauLarkin to Willamby area of the Victorian countryside for two weeks nonstop. However, by the tenth of July, the rain had stopped five days ago. So the Reynard triplets --Foxy, Roxy, and Moxie -- felt safe out test-driving their new Ford F 150 Raptor on Williamstown Road, the closest thing the area had to a highway. In their mid-fifties and spinsters, the triplets were almost as round as their 160 centimetres height with Dolly Parton-style curly white hair and enormous cleavage. They lived together and had pooled their life savings to buy their first-ever new car. All three had driving licences, and Foxy and Roxy were excellent drivers. As her name suggested, Moxie was a bit of a speed demon, so her sisters only let her drive if they were extremely late for a work-related appointment.

With Foxy driving, they were doing a reasonable seventy-five kilometres an hour across the Macadam surface of the pine tree-lined Williamstown Road that late afternoon.

"Stop driving like an old woman," taunted Moxie: "This thing can do two hundred Kays per hour, according to the saleswoman at Morton's Ford in BeauLarkin."

"That's something that we'll have to take her word for," said Foxy: "Because we ain't going faster than seventy-five while I'm driving."

"Then pull over and let me take over driving."

"No!" said Foxy and Roxy as one.

"Besides," said Roxy; "After she said it could do up to two hundred Kays an hour, I heard her say under her breath, 'With normal-size people inside'."

"That sarky bitch!"

"Hey, she was just being honest," said Foxy: "Let's face it, we're each about a hundred and sixty centimetres tall, and at least a hundred and seventy centimetres around the midriff."

"How dare you?" demanded Moxie, even though Moxie, being the shortest of the triplets at a hundred and fifty-nine centimetres, was also a hundred and seventy-three centimetres around the midriff.

"Let's face it, none of us are shaped like models," pointed out Roxy.

"Unless they suddenly want three middle-aged women who look like short fat versions of Dolly Parton," said Foxy: "If Dolly couldn't sing."

"How dare you! I can sing!"

"The caterwauling you do in the shower does not count as singing," corrected Roxy.

"Certainly not!" said Foxy.

"How dare you both?"

They were still arguing, when the 'hippy', as they thought he was, stepped out from behind a tree, straight onto the road in front of them. At a reasonable speed, Foxy safely swerved the car around the strange-looking creature, without any thought of stopping to give him a lift.

"Was that a hippy, or a yowie?" teased Roxy: "Take a look Moxie."

"If you can turn around that is?"

Sick of her two sisters teasing her about her weight, Moxie tried to turn around in the back seat, only to have to grab at a painful crick in her neck.

"Couldn't see," she said, determined not to cry out in pain and give away that she had not been able to turn around due to her size.


On the Macadam behind the departing car, the Æon Beast raised a fist in anger at the three women for almost hitting it. Nearly two metres tall, the creature looked more like a dirty Cousin Itt from the Addams Family than a man, with long, stringy dark brown hair hanging down all the way to its feet. Despite the sweet smell of pine and gum trees in the air, the beast behaved as though it had something foul under its nose.

Giving off an almost bear-like growl after the departing Ford, the Æon Beast, suddenly vanished.

Seconds later it reappeared. But now it was not alone It had with it two other creatures; Night Feeders, or Dino-Birds,. The Feeders had a basic kangaroo shape; except that their short front legs had lethal-looking fifteen-centimetre-long claws and they had rows of long, shark-like teeth, in a bird-like beak. They also had yellow-brown scales, and yellowy, snake-slit eyes. [See my stories: 'The Night Feeders', and 'The Beldame'.]

Pointing after the departed Ford F-150 Raptor, the Æon Beast said: "Destroy!"

Immediately, the two Night Feeders took off down the centre of the Macadam road. Within twenty seconds they reached a hundred kilometres an hour. Within thirty seconds they were roaring along at a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour, twice the speed of the retreating Ford.


"Come on, plant your foot, sis," demanded Moxie: "Or we'll never get home."

"We're less than forty Kays from home," pointed out Roxy: "Barely half an hour away."

"If I were driving it'd be more like ten minutes away," boasted Moxie.

"That's why we nominated me to drive," said Foxy.

"So that we could get home," said Roxy; unaware that none of them would ever get home again.

"Hey, what's that coming up behind us?" asked Foxy, seeing a thin cloud of dust in the rearview mirror.

"Must be the Yowie," teased Roxy: "Can Yowies travel faster than seventy-five Kays an hour."

"Since they're mythical, they can probably travel at any speed they want," teased back Foxy.

"Don't be dumb!" she leant forward to peer into the rearview mirror before announcing: "Looks vaguely like two emus."

"Emus definitely cannot travel faster than seventy-five kilometres an hour," insisted Roxy: "The might be able to run the pants off a kangaroo, as the song says, but they definitely can't reach seventy-five Kays an hour."

She tried to turn around in her seat but had the same problem as Moxie, her size made turning almost impossible.

"Then they must be ostriches" teased Moxie, as the Night Feeders slowly closed upon the car and their bird-like shape became undeniable.

"Even ostriches..." began Roxy. Then staring at the creatures through the mirror she said: "They do look like oversized birds. Maybe you had better plant your foot a little."

"There's no way any bird could travel fast enough to catch us," said Foxy. Then, after risking a quick peak in the rearview mirror, she decided to plant her foot after all.

Soon the Ford was zooming along at a hundred kilometres an hour. Yet still, the Night Feeders roared ever closer toward them.

"Faster! Go faster!" shouted a panicked Moxie, usually the bravest, or at least most foolhardy of the triplets.

After a second's consideration, Foxy roared the car up to a hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, then a hundred and forty, and finally a hundred and fifty.

"Now we'll leave whatever they are in our dust," said Foxy confidently.

"Like Hell!" said Moxie, who, despite their great speed, took off her seat belt so she could finally look out through the rear window: "Whatever they are, they're still gaining on us."

"No bird can travel at over a hundred and fifty Kays an hour," insisted Foxy.

Then the two Night Feeders let out their monstrous shriek, like Frank Belknap Long's Hounds of Tindalos, and the three sisters realised that whatever was chasing them, it could not be any kind of birds that currently inhabited the planet Earth.

"It's the Hounds of Hell chasing us!" cried Roxy, the most religious of the three sisters, the only one to regularly attend church on Sundays.

"Hounds of Hell or not," said Foxy: "Let's see them catch us at two hundred Kays an hour!"

However, the Ford F 150 Raptor had barely reached two hundred kilometres an hour when there was a loud metallic crunching sound.

"It's ripped the rear door off!" shrieked Moxie.


Dropping the door onto the Macadam behind it, almost skittling the second Night Feeder, the first creature leapt into the baggage section of the Ford.

"It's inside the car!" shrieked Moxie.

The Night Feeder reached forward to grab the fat blonde, making her scream even louder, as it tried to pull her out of the rear of the moving vehicle. However, her enormous size and weight prevented the Night Feeder from moving her. So, instead, it started chomping upon her head where she was seated.

"Our Father, who art in Heaven..." began Roxy, hands clasped together.

"Shut up praying, and help Moxie!" shouted Foxy, unable to let go of the steering wheel to help her sister.

When Roxy ignored her and kept saying the Lord's Prayer, Foxy tried another strategy; she slammed on the brakes.

At two hundred kilometres an hour, the car swerved and swirled, doing its best to spin out of control. However, Foxy was an excellent driver and managed to keep control of the vehicle.

Hearing the Night Feeder screech in alarm as it slammed forward into the rear of the front seat, Foxy accelerated as rapidly as possible again. As she had hoped, the Night Feeder fell out of the rear of the car and broke its neck on the Macadam road.

What Foxy didn't know was that Moxie had also broken her neck against the back of the front seats and was lying dead, partly on the back seat, and partly upon the floor of the Ford.

The second Night Feeder narrowly avoided crashing as the first creature's corpse bounced down the road toward it.

As the car reached two hundred kilometres an hour again, the second creature leapt into the rear of the vehicle with a crash. More careful than the first Night Feeder, the second climbed into the rear seat, before leaning forward to attack the back of Foxy's head.

"Help me, Roxy!" shrieked Foxy.

However, Roxy was too caught up in her prayers to hear her sister's pleas. Let alone respond to them.

"Help me!" shrieked Foxy again.

Then with a sharp twist of its head, the Night Feeder effortlessly snapped Foxy's neck ... sending the car spiralling out of control, rolling over sideways again and again until it shattered against a row of pine trees.

Foxy was thrown headfirst out through the windscreen, despite seeming too fat to make it through. She landed with a crunch, breaking her back and her neck. She was then run over by the out-of-control vehicle.

The second Night Feeder was also killed in the crash, and thrown out through the windscreen landing hard against one of the sweet-smelling pine trees, which cracked under its weight. but did not break.

The Æon Beast suddenly appeared out of nowhere and looked around at the devastation.

The beast made a growling sound to indicate its pleasure, despite the deaths of the two Night Feeders.

Then the beast disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.


Over at the Yellow House in Rochester Road, Merridale, they were seated in the yellow-painted dining room awaiting one of Deidre Morton's magnificent meals and were in a heated discussion.

"I'm just saying that the nine-to-five routine makes no sense at all," insisted Tommy Turner, a short fat blond retiree: "Working five days a week to have only a two-day weekend is slavery; it's morally wrong."

"Then what do you suggest?" asked Natasha Lipzing.

At seventy years of age, the tall thin grey-haired old lady had spent the second half of her life at the boarding house.

"A more sensible idea would be a two-day working week; followed by a five-day weekend."

"I'm sure most workers would agree with you," said Freddy Kingston, a tall stocky retiree: "But the bosses might object."

"Why?" demanded Tommy.

"For one thing they'd have to pay the workers a hundred dollars an hour for them to survive working only two days a week," pointed out Colin Klein.

A tall redheaded man, Colin had worked for thirty years as a top London crime reporter before moving to Merridale and taking up employment with the Glen Hartwell Police Force. He was also engaged to Terri.

"And we'd never get that in the police department," pointed out Terri Scott, a tall, beautiful thirty-something ash blonde, the top cop in the BeauLarkin to Willamby area.

"No," agreed Sheila Bennett. At thirty-five she was the second-top cop in the area; a Goth chick with orange-and-black-striped hair: "The Victorian public service doesn't like paying its workers at all ... Let alone a hundred bucks an hour."

"Besides," said Derek Armstrong, a black American by birth, who worked as a paramedic and was Sheila's boyfriend: "In jobs like ours, it's not just about the pay. It's about helping people. And you can't do that just two days a week. It can be gruesome at times, but I like being able to help the survivors, show them a friendly face, give them painkillers, if necessary, pick them up out of the mud, and get them to hospital for treatment."

"The same with us," said Sheila: "When some maniac or monster is roaming the Glen, we can't just knock off after two days and leave the people unprotected for the next five." [See my stories: "The Brumbies", "Dark Angels", and "The Lily White Boy".]

"Then you put in for five days overtime," insisted Tommy.

"If the public service doesn't like paying us now," said Terri; "They're not gonna pay us a hundred bucks an hour for two days a week, plus overtime rates for five more days."

"Ah, you need to get a stronger union!"

"Admittedly the Victorian Public Service Union is pretty feeble," said Sheila: "But I don't believe a stronger union is the answer."

"All right everybody, settle down now, tea's ready," said Deidre Morton, a short dump sixty-something brunette with remarkable culinary skills.

She placed an enormous roast turkey on the centre of the table.

"Wow, is that a turkey or a dino-bird?" asked Sheila.

"A turkey and it took me eight hours to cook it, so eat up."

"No wonder it's so lovely and warm inside the house," said Sheila before getting stuck into an enormous dinner.

After dinner Terri and Colin went up to bed, followed soon after by Deidre, Freddy, and Natasha.

Sheila, Derek, and Tommy moved to the lounge room to watch 'The World's Stupidest Stuntman Down Under', before also retiring to bed.


It was six o'clock in the morning, when Deidre Morton awakened them again, hammering on the bedroom door.

"Mrs. M., have you gone bonkers?" asked Sheila, looking at her alarm clock: "It's only 6:00 AM."

"There's been a crash on Williamstown Road. Sounds like the Reynard sisters have all been killed."

"Shit, I'd better get dressed too," said Derek, realising too late that Deidre could hear him.

"That's a good idea, Derek," called Deidre Morton, before going to awaken Terri and Colin.


Forty-five minutes later Terri's police-blue Lexus pulled up near the pine grove where the Reynard sisters' Ford F 150 Raptor had crashed. An ambulance stood nearby, waiting for the fire department to cut out the remains of Moxie Reynard. Foxy and Roxy had already been transported to the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

Going across to the Coroner, Elvis Green (so named due to his worship of the late King of Rock and Roll), Terri asked: "So what's the verdict, King? Is it a straight high-speed crash?"

"I thought so at first ... till I noticed that," said Elvis.

He pointed to where one of the Night Feeders lay beside the road.

"A dino-bird!" cried Terri, bringing Sheila, Colin and Derek away from the waiting ambulance.

"Where?" asked Sheila.

"Over there," said Elvis pointing.

"We managed to get that thing out of the wreckage," said Hermione Meldon, the local fire chief: "But we're struggling to get poor Moxie out ... Do you know how hard it is to get a mashed two hundred kilogramme woman out of any vehicle?"

"We know you're doing your best, Herm..." said Terri, stopping as her mobile phone rang. She spoke on the phone for a couple of minutes, then said: "That was Yancy Cartwright over at Leroy ... He says he's being menaced by a two-metre-tall Yowie." [See my story: 'The Yowies'.]

"Something tells me it's going to be one of those days," said Colin as they started back toward Terri's Lexus.

As they reached the car, Cheryl Pritchard, a tall muscular paramedic and Derek's boss said: "There's another of those dino-birds a kilometre or so further down the road."

"Yep, definitely one of those days," said Sheila as they climbed into the Lexus.


By the time they pulled up at Yancy Cartwright's station the Æon Beast had lost interest in the farmer and was heading toward the rear of his farm.

"There it is," said Yancy, pointing after the retreating creature.

Straining to see the Æon Beast, Sheila said: "For all I can see, it could be just an extra dirty hippy dip."

"Hippy dips are young female hippies," corrected Colin Klein: "Teenage girls aren't often over two metres tall, as that figure seems to be.''

"What about the Wahine?" demanded Sheila: "She was young-ish and over two metres tall." [See my story: 'The Wahine'.]

"She was also supernatural," said Terri, forgetting that Yancy Cartwright was listening: "Putting paid to your theory that it's just a harmless hippy chick."

"Well, there's one way to find out," said Colin. Cupping his hands over her mouth, he shouted: "Stop! Police!"

The Æon Beast stopped and looked back at them for a second, then turned around again and started running toward a grove of blue gum trees.

"Well, that's not suspicious at all," said Sheila as they raced back toward the Lexus to start after the creature.

By the time they reached the grove of blue gums, though, there was no sign of the creature.

"Where the Hell could it have gone?" asked Terri of no one in particular.

By way of answer came a hellish screeching from above and behind the blue gums.

"What the...?" asked Colin, as overhead, a vaguely bat-winged creature soared into sight.

"The Verdillac's back!" cried Sheila. [See my story: ' Across the Plains Comes the Verdillac'.]

"We killed the Verdillac," reminded Colin, as Sheila turned the car and started back toward the farmhouse.

"We also killed the dino-birds, twice, but they're here for a third time," pointed out Sheila.

Then as the screeching terror came closer, they could see what it was: "A pterodactyl!" cried Sheila, watching the huge duck-billed grey-blue creature soaring above them, its wingspan stretching ten metres or more..

"Pterosaur!" said Colin: "Pterodactyl is layman's slang."

"Thank you for correcting me, as we're all about to die!"

"You were right, honey," said Terri: "It's definitely one of those days!"

"I don't think we can outpace it!" said Sheila: "I think we'd better leave the car and hide among the gum trees!"

"Agreed," said Colin.

The three police officers abandoned the Lexus and raced toward the blue gum grove. Fortunately, the trees grew close enough together so that the pterosaur would have difficulty reaching them.

"I think we're safe now!" said Terri.

Seconds later, the winged reptile zoomed down and grabbed the police-blue Lexus in its talons.

"My Lexus!" cried Terri.

The pterosaur whooshed up into the firmament, until it was almost out of sight ... Then released the car.

"My Lexus!" repeated Terri.

Seconds later, the car returned to earth with a hellish crash, shattering the windows and sending the doors, roof, and tyres flying off in all directions. Even the engine block went flying, fortunately not toward the three cowering police officers.

"You bastard!" shouted Terri, shaking a fist at the bluish-grey reptile, before Colin could cover her mouth with one of his hands.

The pterosaur had started to depart, however, hearing Terri's voice, it swooped down again, looking around for the source of the cry.

Spotting the three cowering police officers, the creature let out a hellish screech and started down toward them.

"Look out!" cried Sheila.

"Back up," said Colin: "We can escape its reach behind the gum trees."

He lifted Terri through a small gap between two close-growing trees and then waited for Sheila to climb through. Before climbing through himself...

Just in time, since the huge creature landed near where they had just been standing.

Screeching again in pleasure at the imagined kill, the pterosaur advanced, less steadily on foot than it had through the air, still screeching, but now as much to terrify the three people as anything else.

"Back up further," suggested Colin, and the three police struggled to back up through the close-growing eucalyptus trees.

"How?" asked Sheila, a large muscular woman, struggling to get through spaces that Terri and Colin could manage with minimum difficulty.

"Climb up, then jump down," suggested Terri.

"Good thinking," said Sheila, doing as instructed, easily climbing partway up a blue gum to drop down the other side, deeper into the forest, and hopefully out of reach of the shrieking horror: "I was top of the class at climbing at Police Academy."

"That's true," agreed Terri, allowing Colin to help her through the gap Sheila had just managed: "Poor Muggins struggled with the climbing exercises."

"And there were no marks for free-falling during the climbing exercises," teased Sheila.

Struggling against the close-growing gum trees the screeching pterosaur tried climbing after the retreating police, however, its short legs were barely suitable for walking, let alone climbing trees. So it started gnashing at the trees with its razor-sharp teeth, ripping the bark away from the blue gum trees and leaving deep gashes upon the wood beneath.

"I hope those aren't old-growth trees?" said Sheila, as the three people continued, with difficulty, to retreat deeper into the blue-gum forest.

The reptile's shrieks took on a frustrated tone as it became less and less likely that it would be able to reach them. Still, it thrashed and gnawed at the blue gums, ripping off sizeable chunks of bark and wood, without being able to bring down any of the trees.

"Keep going!" said Colin, I think we're almost out of its reach.

As they retreated further, the hellish shrieking took on a frustrated tone as the pterosaur started flapping its oversized wings furiously, whack-whack-whacking them against the tall eucalyptus trees. While still gnashing and gnawing at the trees.

"What the Hell's it doing?" asked Sheila.

"I think the bugger's stuck," said Colin.

"That'll teach you to total my beloved Lexus!" cried Terri, before squeezing between two more trees, assuring that even if the winged reptile could free itself, she was safely out of its reach.

As the pterosaur struggled to escape through the trees; its cries now took on a desperate tone. Finally, sounding frustrated at its imagined food escaping its grasp, the creature started struggling backwards, still ripping and rending at the trees with its teeth as it struggled to escape from the gum tree grove.

Taking out her police revolver, Sheila asked: "Should we try killing it with our guns."

"No, you'd need a mortar to kill that monster," said Colin: "And shooting it would only make it more determined to get to us."

"So, let's just let the bugger back out of the trees, and hope it flies off," suggested Terri.

For nearly fifteen minutes the creature thrashed and fought against its confinement, occasionally gnawing at the blue gums as much from anger and frustration as to free itself. Finally, as the three police officers had started to fear that they would have to keep climbing deeper into the forest to escape the monster, with a hellish shriek of rage, the pterosaur managed to break free, reversing out of its blue gum prison.

Screeching in frustration at its missed meal, the creature hobbled away on its short legs, before stretching its great wings and taking to flight, screeching in anger and hunger as it flew off.

"I think it's gone now," whispered Sheila:

The creature flew off toward where the Æon Beast awaited. As the creature landed the Æon Beast vanished, taking the pterosaur back to its own time.


For safety, the three officers forced themselves to wait another twenty minutes, before finally climbing back out of the blue gum grove.

Racing out into the open, Terri ran across to the shattered Lexus crying: "My car, how am I going to explain this to the insurance company?"

"With a pterosaur on the loose around Glen Hartwell, you're going to have to ring the assistant commissioner in Russell Street for help anyway," pointed out Colin.

"I suppose so," said Terri with a sigh.

Taking her mobile phone out of her shirt pocket, she rang through to Melbourne and told the Assistant Commissioner what had happened. From time to time she cringed as he shouted at her. Finally, she disconnected and said:

"He's agreed to get in touch with the R.A.A.F. to send down a military chopper to take down the flying reptile and also to buy me a new Lexus. But he is right about one thing ... With seven million people in Victoria, and only eleven to twelve thousand people in the BeauLarkin to Willamby area; how come we're the only area that gets supernatural occurrences?"

"My guess is that there's a rift in the space-time continuum nearby, like in Torchwood," said Sheila.

As they started walking back toward the farmhouse, Colin said: "If anyone else had suggested that, Sheils, I'd think they were joking ... But I know you too well."


The next morning, soon after breakfast, they were seated at the huge blackwood desk at the Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell, when they heard the sound of rotors approaching.

"That sounds like our girls now," said Sheila.

The three cops went outside to wait on the slightly overgrown lawn to watch as an R.A.A.F. A25 Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk helicopter approached the station.

After landing in the street, out stepped its female pilot, fifty-something Jennifer Eckles, an attractive brunette with pixie-cut hair, and her twenty-something daughter, Barbara, also a brunette, but with long, flowing hair.

"Babs, Jenny," said Sheila giving them each a hug.

"The R-Double-A-F still won't trust us near an SR-72?" asked Terri.

"Nope, our bosses were having none of that!" said Barbara: "They still haven't forgiven you for destroying an SR-71 last year.'

"What's the big duh?" asked Sheila: "They were phasing them out for the new SR-72s anyway. We just sped things up a little bit."

"I'm not sure they see it like that," said Jennifer with a laugh.

"They're just hard to please," teased Colin.

"Okay, all board, and let's go pterodactyl hunting," said Jennifer.

"Pterosaur!" corrected Colin, Terri, and Sheila.

"All right, let's go pterosaur hunting," amended Jennifer as they all climbed into the S-70 Blackhawk helicopter.

As they lifted off, Terri asked: "I don't suppose the Assistant Commissioner said anything about when I would get my latest Lexus?"

"Frankly he didn't look like he was in a good mood to ask," said Jennifer.

"Although, he did say something about it being a good-conditioned used car this time," teased Barbara.

"What?" asked Terri.

"That's right," teased Jennifer: "No more than five to eight years old."

"What?" demanded Terri. Then, see mother and daughter laughing: "Oh, I see, so this is how the R.A.A.F. treats the cop on the beat."

Which only brought more laughter from Jennifer and Barbara.

"It's not as though it was my fault, either Lexus got destroyed."

"That's right," agreed Sheila: "I wrecked the first one, and the pterosaur wrecked the second one."

"Thank you for reminding me about the first one, Sheils!"

"It wasn't my fault though..."

"That's what she always says," teased Jennifer as they set off upon a fruitless search for the missing pterosaur.


After four days of scouring the local countryside, they were ready to abandon the pterosaur hunt.

"It looks like a bust," said Terri, just before her phone rang. Taking out her mobile, she talked on the phone for a minute or so, then disconnected and said, "That was Ron Elworth outside Leroy. He says the Yowie is back and has brought with it a giant black scorpion."

"That might explain these wacky occurrences," said Colin as they said off again: "If this Yowie, or whatever it is somehow brings these creatures back from the past with it."

"But were there ever giant scorpions on Earth?" asked Barbara Eckles.

"Back æons ago, long before the dinosaurs even," said Colin: "I don't know if Earth's gravity was less in those days to allow them to grow so huge, or what."

"Guidance needed," said Jennifer: "I've typed Leroy into our GPS, but I don't know the way to Ron Elworth's property."

"It's a sheep station, isn't it?" asked Terri, going on to give Jennifer the best directions she could.

"No, horses," corrected Sheila: "It produces the best nags in Victoria. Some say in all of Australia."

"How the Hell do you know all this stuff, Sheils," asked Barbara as they whooshed away.

"I pride myself on knowing the local community."

"So do Colin and I," said Terri: "But we don't know half the stuff you do."

They were still debating the point when they finally reached the outskirts of the Elworth Station where they could see the huge black shape of a ten-metre-tall scorpion terrifying the thoroughbreds which were panicking, throwing themselves against the sides of their corral in a desperate attempt to escape the deadly barb of the monstrous creature.

Beside the corral, a tall, burly grey-haired man in blue overalls was desperately trying to reach the gate to free the hundred or so horses before they bashed themselves to death against the wooden struts of the corral. However, every time he approached it, the scorpion lashed out its tail with the deadly stinger, to prevent him from freeing the horses. A dozen horses already lay on the ground dead or dying from being stung.

As they approached the helicopter occupants saw the giant arachnid repeatedly strike with its tail, stinging horse after horse, which only increased the panic in the creatures which, neighing hysterically, finally managed to break down the corral wall on one side to flee in terror from the deadly creature.

They saw Ron Elworth waving his hands around wildly, mouthing something; presumably encouraging his steeds to run away from the giant menace.

"Okay let's go kill us an oversized bug," said Jennifer Eckles taking the Blackhawk down toward the corral.

"Arachnid," corrected Colin: "Like spiders, scorpions are arachnids, since they have more than six limbs."

"Thank you, professor," teased Barbara, preparing the firing sequence to send rockets toward the creature's black exoskeleton.

"Wait till the last of the horses are safely away," said Terri. However, most of the horses were already outside of the corral, fleeing into the forest.

When the last of the steeds were long gone, Jennifer said: "Okay, let's go stomp us an oversized bu ... arachnid!"

So saying, she zoomed the helicopter down and forward toward the creature. The scorpion had climbed the corral fence to start after Ron Elworth when the monster became aware of the Blackhawk chopper.

Spinning around, the giant arachnid, lashed its segmented tail toward the copter, narrowly missing it and spraying venom across the Plexiglas windscreen.

"Damn, we just washed that," said Barbara, as her mother started to reverse the helicopter a little.

Angered at missing the chopper, the monster climbed out of the corral and started across the long grass after the Blackhawk!

"Keep reversing, Mum," called Barbara as the scorpion charged after them.

"Lord it can run," said Sheila...

Seconds later, the scorpion slashed its deadly tail over its head again. This time smashing into the Plexiglas dome and almost pulling the helicopter out of the air.

"Take us higher!" cried Terri.

Moments later, the stinger slashed again, this time shattering the Plexiglas, penetrating through into the cabin, and missing Barbara Eckles my centimetres.

"Retreat, Mum!" cried Barbara.

However, the scorpion's stinger had imbedded into the cockpit between the two pilots, and effortlessly, the arachnid swung its tail around, making Terri and the others scream, as it tossed the helicopter across the corral, where it shattered upon the solid grown.

"Abandon, chopper!" called Jennifer, assisting her daughter to climb out her side, since the Blackhawk had landed on its left side.

With difficulty, Terri, Sheila, and Colin managed to climb out of the rear seat and raced across toward the edge of the forest, following Jennifer and Barbara.

Ignoring the fleeing humans, the giant black scorpion raced across the corral to attack the fallen chopper, lashing its segmented tail to sting the crashed Blackhawk repeatedly.

"What's it doing?" asked Terri: "It can't kill the chopper."

"No, but it can kill us if it ignites the chopper's rockets and they happen to fly in our direction," pointed out Jennifer, holding her daughter's hand to lead her deeper into the surrounding pine and eucalyptus forest: "Come on, we're not safe yet."

"Right behind you," said Terri, as she, Colin, and Sheila raced after the two fleeing pilots.

"How much deep...?" asked Sheila, stopping as the five people came face-to-face with the Æon Beast.

"The Yowie," said Terri.

Behind them, came the sound of an explosion, followed by whooshing as the scorpion ignited the chopper's sixteen missiles, which whizzed through the air in all directions.

"Deeper!" cried Jennifer, starting past the Æon Beast deeper into the forest. Followed by Terri and the others.

From behind them they heard missiles exploding as they struck the ground or old-growth trees, causing them to splinter and crash to the ground, or go flying through the air.

"Watch out, Mum!" cried Barbara, as the top half of a blue gum whooshed just past their heads.


Behind them, the giant black scorpion had continued to stab at the fallen Blackhawk with its stinger, until the rockets had started to whoosh out. Then wisely it tried to run away ... Too late since two of the missiles zoomed into the giant arachnid, blowing it to pieces, spreading ichor and shattered exoskeleton across more than a hundred metres of the farmland.

At first, the Æon Beast did not realise what was happening, but then as the rockets started whizzing around, lighting up the sky like fireworks, the creature started after Terri and co., running deeper into the forest.

Having started later than the police, the creature was still running when a rocket exploded into the forest floor only a few metres from the beast. Although not killed, the Æon Beast was seriously hurt as it was hurled across the forest, crashing full pace into a large blue gum tree.

Seeing that the Eckles and the three police were crowding around it, the creature used the last of its power to jump back in time and space.

"Where the Hell has it gone?" asked Barbara.

"Don't ask us?" said Terri: "But that confirms that it can whizz back and forth through time."


June 26, 1876, Little Bighorn, Montana, U.S.A.

Combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes had surrounded the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. They were firing arrows, hurling lances, and shooting rifles at General George A. Custer, whom they had greatly outnumbered.

"Should we retreat, sir?" asked one of Custer's few surviving officers.

"The 7th Cavalry does not retreat, soldier," said Custer arrogantly, as two Indian braves aimed rifles at the general.

Only to hit the wrong target as a heavily wounded Æon Beast suddenly appeared on the battlefield between Custer and the Indians.

Taking this opportunity to charge one of the Indians, Custer was nonetheless shot twice: in the chest and in the left temple, either of which wounds would have killed him.


After helping Ron Elworth round up his terrified steeds, the Eckles, Terri and co. accepted a lift back to the Mitchell Street Police Station from the burly farmer. After Ron had left, seated around Terri's huge blackwood desk, Jennifer asked:

"Do you think we'll see that thing again?"

"Not the scorpion," said Colin: "It was as squinched as any giant black arachnid I've ever seen..."

"Have you seen many giant black arachnids?" asked Sheila Bennett.

Ignoring the interruption, Colin said: "But I don't know about the so-called Yowie creature."


It would be ten days before they found the truth, as the Assistant Commissioner from Melbourne emailed them a report one of his officers had discovered in the history books, describing the Æon Beast's mysterious appearance and death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

"Until now, historians have put it down to native superstition," said the email.

"Well, I'm happy," said Terri.

"Because you found out what happened to that thing?" asked Colin.

"No, because my new Lexus turned up yesterday," said Terri: "I don't even care that Ron Elworth sold pictures of the squinched giant black scorpion to the local papers..."

"As long as you've got your new Lexus?" asked Sheila.

"Exactly!"

"Although, the Assistant Chief Commissioner did warn that it was the last time Russell Street would buy you a new Lexus," warned Colin: "No matter what happens to the latest one."

"Ah, I'm not worried, what are the chances of me having a third Lexus destroyed by monsters ... even in Glen Hartwell?" asked Terri.

"Uh-oh," said Sheila, making them all laugh.

THE END
© Copyright 2024 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia