Secrets, Lies and Dragonflies

Chapter 39

In seconds, the threat of what Monique, Elizabeth and the others are about to face becomes perfectly clear. Rising from the sand, a massive figure grows two stories high. Six gigantic dinosaur legs carry the creature's serpent build.

Stumbling back, the girl with the spear quickly regains her footing and hurls her weapon hard through the air, only for it to repel like a toothpick off his thick hide. His enormous head swings in her direction and he locks in on her with a raging death stare.

Running up on his other side, the girl paired with Monique tugs at her leather armband and retracts a stubby stick from its casing. When she swings the stick like a tennis racket, a twenty foot cord erupts out of the blunted end. With a snap of her wrist, the rope recoils, just missing Shrewdy's neck. The frayed ends crack loudly.

Shrewdy lets out a high pitched shriek before violently thrusting his tail, barely missing Monique but swiping the girl with the bullwhip off her feet and flat on her back. His thick, yellow claws dig into the sugary sand as he towers over her, defenseless.

Looking as if he's about to rip her to shreds, he suddenly cranes his head in Monique's direction when she screams, "Hey! Over here you creep!"

Surprisingly he doesn't pursue her, nor tear the bullwhip girl apart. Instead, he tramples toward the ocean.

Retrieving her deflected spear, the other girl shouts to Elizabeth, "He's heading toward the water! Come on! We can't let him escape!" By the time he's halfway in, they've launched onto his broad back. Failing to penetrate the thick armor of scales with her blade, she still doesn't relent.

Monique pulls the girl with the bullwhip to her feet. With her face covered in sand, she brushes away the grains like annoying gnats. Apparently unaffected by the near-death experience, she and Monique race in to rejoin the fight to prevent Shrewdy from disappearing into the sea. Snapping her whip, a loud pop sounds by his neck, but the rope falls limp onto wet sand. Winding up for another strike, she snaps it once more and this time, she nails it. The rope has latched around one of his webbed arms.

Waves crash against his trunk as he tries to break free from the rope, flinging the girl across the surface of the water. She doesn't relent either. Monique makes a mad dash to help anchor her grasp and together they're able to momentarily prevent his escape.

Arms out for balance on Shrewdy's back, just as Joan instructed, Elizabeth and the girl with the spear inch their way up. Each step is met with an effort to wound him, only impenetrable scales deflect every attempt.

Hissing and wailing, Shrewdy can't shake any one of them. His jaw widens, exposing tarnished fangs that could easily cut them in half. He coils as if he's about to strike when suddenly riding in on a swell, the girl paired with Shannon leaps from her surfboard and soars through the air—flying monkey style. Slamming against Shrewdy's neck, her arms and legs work in sync as she shimmies up to the base of his head. When she snatches an ultra-thin stick nestled in a sling against her calf, it instantly transforms into a glimmering silver dagger.

Aiming for the only area unprotected by his thickly plated membrane, she plunges the weapon deep into the corner of his opened jaw. With both hands, she twists the handle until his jaw is severed open. In one final motion, she releases her legs and lets her body weight and gravity finish the job. Slicing through his torso on her way down, black sludge flows from the open wound. A rancid smell fills the air.

With Shrewdy's neck slashed wide open and his webbed arm secured, the bullwhip girl yanks at the rope, breaking it free from the base of her stick. "Hold him tight," she tells Monique. "I'm going to secure the rest of him." Swinging her stick causes another rope to eject from the base. She cracks it against the opposite side, lassoing his free arm. Elizabeth and her partner jump from his back to secure it. Like an endless can of silly string, ropes erupt from her bullwhip-making stick until she's secured all six of his lower limbs.