In spite of being momentarily scared off, Kriltik just kept at it day after day, until he got on my nerves! I warned him over and over, but he didn’t back off.  Finally I got tired of listening to the mooo-ing and felt it was time to do something about it. I just didn’t know what.  Yet.

On the way home from school I set my brain to work, trying to think of what I could do using the cow monster idea.  I wished I could somehow get a real cow from Earth.  That would set him back a little.  Up close, those things are big and scary-looking, even though they’re not, really.  But I knew that would never fly.  I could just imagine Xerix, trying to wrassle a cow onto a saucer and transport it back with him to Gizmok.  It made me laugh out loud.  My ultimate plan was to scare Kriltik badly enough that he’d stop pestering me. I thought long and hard about it … and finally I came up with a brilliant plan!  

There was a klimlorn tree growing near our house, with seed pods that made for very fine cow horns!  I started there.  I planned to get Kriltik, but good! Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to hurt him, but I wanted to be true to my promise to him.

I’d make sure the cow monster was gonna get him! I’d give him some of his own medicine to make him realize how much bullying hurt!  As I picked the various things I needed, I could see the whole plan coming together in my head.  A few of the branches would make a great set of teeth too.  From the local market I bought two plarrpa gourds for eyes, found some extra cloth Qantuu had lying around, and pried a knotty piece of bark off another tree for a nose.  Finally, I was good to go.

Qantuu was a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. She figured something was up when she saw me carrying a huge jar of glue to my room.

She asked me what all the glue was for, and I managed to come up with the answer quickly enough that she wouldn’t suspect anything.  Or so I thought. 

She’d been aware of the bullying and had always been in contact with the school.  They were all aware of Kriltik’s habit of bullying kids who were different, but so far had not been able to find a way of stopping him.  Unbeknownst to me they’d already spoken to Kriltik’s parents, but talking to him didn’t seem to help. It was a hard characteristic to break  with talk alone.  

Anyway, I knew none of that, carried on with my own plan … and lied through my teeth to my Maamel when she asked about the glue! I told her it was for a school project.

Xerix came to my room to talk to me, but when he saw what I was making, he was less interested in talking, and more interested in the plan I’d hatched. He wanted in!  The deal was, Qantuu was not to know of it because if she did, she’d probably bring the whole thing to a screeching halt!!  Maybe she wouldn’t, he said, but he wasn’t taking any chances!

I’m amazed that Qantuu never found out what we were doing. But, Xerix and I worked on that thing until the cow monster was finished. And what a monster it was!  It was impressive and as scary as we could make, and I was pretty sure it would terrify the heck out of Kriltik.

Available for pre-order in Kindle format on  www.amazon. com

Release Date July 31, 2026 in paperback and Kindle