"Great whales, look at that thing!" Jon shouted as they caught their first glimpse outside.
"Yeow!" Jak yelled in amazement. "What do you suppose it is?"
"Never saw anything like it before."
They stared in awe at the tremendous creature standing in the little clearing, looking belligerently toward their ship. It was so unlike any Earth beast it was no wonder the boys were startled. The huge body was covered with heavily matted fur. It must have been at least a dozen feet long, and stood about eight feet tall. But the striking thing was that the body was triangular, and the beast was three-legged—two at the back and one in front.
There was no tail, and the blocky legs—one at each corner of the weirdly triangular body—seemed to end in clawed feet. The head was shaped something like that of a horse, but the huge mouth, now partly open, was seen to contain great fangs, larger than those of any beast the boys had ever seen in Terran zoos or on any planet they had visited. Two of the tusks were almost like the ones they had seen in pictures of ancient saber-toothed tigers.
The whole getup gave such an effect of fierceness that both boys felt a shiver run down their spines. Jak's voice was tremulous as he spoke. "Yipe! I'm sure glad I'm not out there with that."
Jon was slow in answering. "Yet, if we're going out at all...." He hesitated, then continued, "We'll either have to chase it away, or kill it."
"If we can," his brother retorted.
"I think our guns'll handle it," Jon said. "The question is, how are we going to do it without exposing ourselves?"
Jak thought swiftly. "Maybe we could open the outer lock door a crack, just enough to see through and aim our guns."