The Swords of Zinjaban

"We ought to have one of those things in our movie," whispered White. "Do they have tame ones for rent?"

Reith replied. "The Dasht of Ruz has one in his zoo; but he'd never lease it. We'd have to go to Majbur to find one of the tame bishtars the Krishnans use to pull railroads."

"One good action shot of that animal would be worth a hundred meters of an animated model—" White began.

"Oh, hell!" said Ordway. "We can't run all over the planet on the budget they gave me!"

"But Cyril, don't you see—"

The two executives from Cosmic Productions had gradually raised their voices. Reith said, "Hey, pipe down! You're bothering the animals."

The female bishtar had turned to face the carriage and stood with ears twitching and trunks sniffing. Then it opened its vast maw, gave a thunderous snort, and began shuffling with appalling speed towards the travelers ...