We Are Not Eaten by Yaks by C. Alexander London

off the yeti, just as Lama Norbu reached the gun. The creature turned and charged right at the monk, swiping the gun out of his hands. It flew through the air and Celia caught it.
    â€œI don’t know what to do!” she yelled, and tossed the gun to her brother, like a hot potato, while Lama Norbu ran in circles, chased by the angry yeti. Oliver didn’t have time to think or to aim. He’d seen enough cowboy movies to know what to do. He pointed the gun at the monster and closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.
    â€œAhhhhhhhh!!!!” he yelled as the gun kicked and bucked in his hand, nearly knocking him over. The gun’s recoil felt like a punch in the arm from a bear. He opened his eyes to see what he’d done, and prayed he hadn’t accidentally shot his sister or Lama Norbu.
    The yeti stood upright and looked back at Oliver. She turned toward him, puzzled. He raised the gun again, but didn’t really know if he had the strength to fire it.
    â€œSorry,” he muttered, and knew he would never be much of a hunter. He didn’t have the aim, the arms or the stomach for it.
    The yeti roared and pounded her chest like a gorilla, and then took one big leap, effortlessly jumping over Oliver and bounding up from boulder to boulder.
    In seconds the creature was gone into the mist, and only the echo of its roar lingered in the air.
    The twins ran to the edge of the cliff and peered over the side. They saw their father hanging by one hand from a tangle of roots. The ground was thousands of feet below him. He smiled up at his children.
    â€œWell, that was unexpected,” he said. His face was a little bruised and his glasses cracked, but his good mood was unflappable. “That must be the creature that the Royal Geographical Society claimed to have discovered in nineteen twenty-one! The Wild Man of the Snows! They called it the yeti, which is probably a mispronunciation of the Tibetan words for ‘man’ and ‘bear.’ Amazing! I can’t say it looked much like a man, but—”
    â€œExcuse me, Doctor, but would you like us to lift you up?” Lama Norbu interrupted as he took the rifle from Oliver’s shaking hands. Dr. Navel had gotten so excited by his ideas about the yeti that he’d forgotten he was hanging off the edge of a cliff.
    â€œThat would be appreciated, thank you,” he replied, smiling.
    For the second time that day, Lama Norbu scurried down the side of the cliff to rescue Dr. Navel. This time the kids watched from above and talked while Lama Norbu hoisted.
    â€œSo that was a yeti,” Oliver said.
    â€œI guess so,” Celia answered.
    â€œI just shot at the abominable snowman!”
    â€œSnow woman , and yeah, I guess you did.”
    â€œDo you think I hurt her?”
    â€œIt didn’t look like you hit her at all. You don’t have very good aim.”
    â€œWell, I never shot at a mythical creature before, so excuse me. I didn’t see you racing to the rescue.”
    â€œYou’re a real Agent Zero,” Celia said sarcastically, but Oliver took it as a pretty huge compliment. He stood a little taller and smiled.
    â€œRemember the special we saw, Monsters—Myth or Reality: The Expert Files ?” Celia asked.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd you couldn’t sleep for a week because you thought there was a yeti under your bed.”
    â€œI did not think there was a yeti under my bed,” Oliver said, his pride deflating like a day-old birthday balloon.
    â€œYou did too,” his sister said.
    â€œNot a yeti. A basilisk, which is a kind of snake demon. That’s totally different from a yeti.”
    â€œWell, that’s not the point anyway.”
    â€œWhat is the point then?”
    â€œRemember what Sir Edmund said about bigfoot, and the basilisk and . . .”
    â€œThe yeti.” Oliver’s eyes grew wide. “Yeah, he said he had them in his zoo. He was talking about it at