"Lunch at the Billabong" by Katie R Hinton

Sunlight steamed down from a cloudless sky of brightest blue, through the verdant green leaves of the eucalyptus trees and onto the graveled path by the billabong. Animals and insects went about their business as they always had and always will so long as their kind survive in this world.

They paid no, or only very little attention to the clothed creatures on the path, as the animals had become accustomed to their presence and in many instances had even begun training the odd creatures to share the food they always bought with them when they came. These creatures were unlike the other inhabitants of the billabong in that they only walked the path for a few hours each day and then disappeared entirely when the sun began to set.

The strangest thing about the two-legged creatures was their appearance. As far as any of the animals could tell, they were almost completely hairless, but they covered themselves with strange leaf-like things. So odd. But the animals had learned to ignore the oddities, and for the most part they enjoyed watching the creatures as they walked along the path and interacted with one another.

On this particular sun-filled day, there were only a few of the creatures still about. A large group of them, all dressed alike and wearing strange ribbon-collars around their necks and walking together, had passed through earlier. When the two-legged herd had left, three of the creatures had lagged behind. They were still at one of the places where their kind would always stop to eat. The particular eating place where the three had stayed was right on the edge of the water.

The three creatures sat at one of the wooden things that they had placed in this larger patch of graveled ground. They were eating together and making the strange sounds that the animals assumed were some primitive form of communication when one of the creatures suddenly stopped eating and gestured toward a fleet of turtles that had just swam up to the water’s edge.

The creature, true to its training, pinched off a piece of its food and tossed it into the water. The turtles swam in closer and one of them ate the morsel. Seeing the approval of the fleet, the creatures picked up the remainder of their food and went over to the edge of the murky brown water. They began pinching off more pieces and tossing them to the turtles.

One of the creatures tossed a large piece into the water. It missed the turtles and made a small splash about three feet further into the billabong. Moments later, ripples began to form at that spot and as they slowly expanded and moved toward the creatures, the turtles quickly swam away. This left the creatures wondering why, and where, the fleet had gone. Another of the creatures, who appeared to be female, leaned over the water and looked into the depths, searching for the turtles.

The creature gasped as a large shape slowly rose from the water. All three of the creatures were paralyzed with fear by the monster beyond description that towered before them. There was no time for the creatures to scream.

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“Twenty-five!”

Silence filled the coach.

“Alright now, where’s number twenty-six?” More silence followed the delegation manager’s crisp Australian accent.

“That makes three.” She said, more to the other leaders than for the delegates to hear. “Where could they have gotten off to? Go ahead and finish counting off,” she told her charges, “and please do it correctly so we can see if anyone else is missing. No messing around this time.” The last statement was directed towards some of the boys in the back of the coach, and her icy glare told them that she meant what she said.

The numbers twenty-seven through thirty-nine were shouted in turn. No more numbers were left out, and no mistakes were made in the count-off.

“We’ll just have to go back and look for them.” She said sadly to the leaders, and with a slight shake of her head.

One of the leaders, a woman with short-cut dark hair, shook her head as well and said, “Oh, these kids today just won’t listen, no matter how many times you tell them.”

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The bunyip sank deeper into the soft mud. He was having a good day. First that lovely little crocodile had crossed his path, and then those delicious bipeds.

He spat out the last of the ribbon-collars the bipeds had been wearing and batted at a passing fish. The bunyip did not really intend to catch it, though. What was a tiny fish to a full stomach?

A nap was the thing for him now. Yes…a nice, long nap.