by Ivy McAdams
He wastes no time in claiming my mouth, and I’m grateful.
My arms encircle his neck, pulling myself closer to him. At first, his lips are soft and I melt against him. Then he kisses me as if he intends to eat me whole, and I can't get enough. My body burns for him, maybe even more now that I know that I can give it to him. Every bit of me. He can take it. And I want him to.
He loops an arm under my legs and lifts me off my cot, holding me to his chest.
I don’t feel so tiny anymore. He’s still much bigger than me, but now I can at least hold onto him properly. I’ll be able to wrap my legs around his waist. Let his tongue into my mouth. Take that giant cock out of his loincloth without fear that I’ll have to turn it down.
That part makes me smile against his lips and already moisture dampens between my thighs. A simple, short skirt and a band top are the only things that separate my body from him, and even that's too much. I want to experience his huge naked form again. To press mine against it.
We traipse to the tent exit and push through the flap. His lips don't ease on mine until a male voice nearby speaks.
“Drek!”
His mouth disappearing already feels like an empty void. I look around with him for our interrupter.
Xjhun runs along the path in front of the Shaman tents toward us.
Drek bares his teeth and emits a growl that’s warning enough to rattle my bones, but also stoke the fire in my belly. The primal energy radiating from him is enough to have me climbing up his torso to lick along his neck and jaw, even in front of the other Kutarian. It’s hard to contain myself.
“I am busy, warrior,” Drek growls, snapping his double pair of fanged teeth shut aggressively. “Leave me be.”
The sound of his voice is the same deep tone that tightened my stomach before, but now there’s a whole new pull in them that wraps me up tight.
I can understand him.
He must feel the thrill in me because he glances at me for a breath and I see the recognition pass behind his eyes. He's spoken to me in a language I understand for the first time, and my new life has begun. I'm beside myself in anticipation.
Except Xjhun doesn’t move, and his eyes look a little wild.
“I don’t mean to bother, Second in Command,” the warrior says. “But the levadon pit is under attack.”
Drek’s muscles tighten and his gaze crosses the village as his nostrils flare. I’m bombarded with strange smells of all sorts. I have no idea what is what or if we can smell the dinosaurs from here. Or their fear. I’m at a total loss, so I watch Drek for his reaction.
“The other warriors?” He asks with a gruff voice.
“On patrol,” Xjhun says.
His jaw tightens, and he reluctantly sets me down. My feet hit the dirt, and for a heartbeat of utter disappointment, I’m afraid he’ll leave me there and go streaking off to the pit.
But he clasps my hand and we run.
Chapter 12
Eva
It takes me the length of the path between the huts to get used to running in this body, on these stilted legs with―what is hitting me behind my knees? Oh right. A tail. But once I get the hang of it, I feel like I’m flying.
Drek’s hand is tight on mine as we sprint around the corner and slide to a stop at the top of the pit. He puts an arm out to stop me from tumbling over the edge. I cling to his large bicep and shoulder as I peek around.
A few levadon linger around the walls of the ravine.
In the center, Calina stands with her feet spread in the dirt and legs locked. Her body looks awkward. As if she's both tense and sagging under her own weight. The muscles in her abdomen and legs are straining. She's in pain.
I’ve been around thousands of goats on birthing day. I know what labor looks like.
“She’s ready,” I whisper against the back of Drek’s arm. His skin beneath my fingers prickles under my breath.
But she’s not completely ready.
Her eyes roll and move around endlessly as her nostrils flare wide. The tip of her tail flicks back and forth.
An old memory from childhood pounces on me and I see Joy, one of my favorite milking goats, standing on top of a barrel in the birthing pen. Her labor had started the day before so Mama was sure there’d be a new baby that morning and sent me out to check on her.
I found the poor goat trembling in pain as she stood off the ground, eyes rolling, nostrils blowing noisy breaths as she observed her surroundings. The rigid tension in her body reminded me of someone who'd spent hours holding up her body weight by her fingertips. Aches, pains, cramps. Had she been standing there all night?
I unlatched the gate and ran in, wondering why there was no baby yet. The clang of metal on the fencepost stirred up movement beside me and I spun around just in time to see a big, slinking coyote dive for a hole dug under the fence and take off into the woods behind our farm. My young heart broke a little for Joy that day. Stalled in labor and ready to give up before I arrived.
And I see the same wild eyes on Calina now.
I want to run out to her. Throw whatever metal latch I can to scare off her demons and put my hands on her hide. The dull yellow skin sparks with splatters of black lights. Dull, but an attempt to ward off danger perhaps.
I ache to comfort the struggling beast. Bless her heart.
“Something’s scaring the shit outta her,” I whisper.
Drek’s eyes are on the male levadon as he nods.
Rhux paces in front of her with his teeth bared and sharp eyes darting back and forth. The bioluminescence on along his spine lights up like an ambulance. A very pissed off one.
Apart from the soft shuffling of the other handful of levadon down there and the loud, stressed breaths from Rhux and Calina, the evening is quiet. The sun has dipped down beyond the mountains and the night’s cool air is approaching. A handful of stars are trying to twinkle through the not-yet-dark horizon opposite the mountains.
It would be a beautiful evening otherwise.
“The vultures are near,” Drek murmurs.
His eyes are trained on the edge of the pit, running along each side and studying the brush and trees near one rim.
I wrinkle my nose at his word as I look to the sky, unsure if our language is compatible.
“Vultures?”
“Small dinosaurs that enjoy terrorizing the levadon. They sometimes pick off their young as well. I believe you met one a few days ago.”
I draw a sharp breath. The raptor.
My fingers flex against his muscled arm as a rush of nerves sours my stomach. The raptors are baby snatchers? It’s no wonder she’s freaking the fuck out. There’s no way she’s going to drop that baby with predators around. And by the way she’s shaking, she’s not going to last much longer before her body gives out. It’s probably still weak from fighting off her anemia, and now this?
“We need to get down there to her,” I say. “She needs help.”
“Yes. But if she’s being watched, so are we. We must be careful.”
My eyes dart around the edges of the ravine again too, a trickle of fear sliding along my skin.
The last thing I need right now, newly awoken from who knows how long of a coma, is to run into one of those bastard raptors.
“What’s happened?” Xjhun calls as he steps up behind us.
I press further into Drek as he points along the top of the ravine.
“Vultures. Along there I believe. You flush out that side. I’ll check the back of the pit.”
Xjhun nods and goes where directed, and Drek returns to scouting from above.
His gaze is like that of a hunter. Small, subtle movements as he observes and reads our surroundings. He doesn’t look back at me as he blades his body to take my hand and leads me toward the edge.
He steps onto the ladder first, running his hand down my hip and the back of my leg as he lowers into the pit. His touch is electric on my skin, and the way he keeps his hand on or close to me as we engage in this possib
ly dangerous scenario makes me feel safer.
Climbing down into the ravine is a breeze now. I bet my legs are twice as long as before. I land in the dirt behind Drek and a few levadon nearby stare at us with twitching eyes. They look like deer in a meadow. On alert and waiting for something to jump out and eat them. As if that were possible. It’s disconcerting to see the giant meat-eaters in such a state.
“Why are they all wigging out?” I whisper as Drek and I make our way slowly through the pit.
“Calina,” he mumbles back, hand going to the knife sheathed on his chest.
I watch him, wondering if I should have a weapon of some sort.
“They’re afraid of her?”
He gives a subtle shake of his head. “Calina is a revered female in this group.”
“Like high in the pecking order or…?”
His grunt sounds almost like a chuckle. “Pecking? The females are important to levadon. Respected. Those males take cues from her, and right now, she’s quite distressed.”
I’ll say. The poor thing is still trembling, though I can’t tell what’s affecting her body worse. Nerves or labor pains.
I’m also moved by the fact that these big dinosaur brutes are matriarchal. I bet none of the neo-paleontologists back home know that.
Rhux rushes us when we get too close and I fall behind Drek with a gasp. He lifts his hands to ward off the beast.
“Whoa, whoa. It is okay, my friend,” he says in a deep, gentle voice.
The levadon blows out a shuddering breath as he calms and slows his approach. He lets Drek place his hand on his nose and the red warning lights on his skin lessen in intensity.
“I know this is a hard time, but we are here to help,” the warrior next to me says, and his kind words fill me with warmth.
Calina is peering over her shoulder at us now and there is a weakness in her eyes. How long has the poor thing been standing out here, delaying her labor?
“She’s not going to last much longer,” I whisper as I gaze back at her, longing again to reach out and touch her flickering skin. To ease her toward the cave she took shelter in last time. It’s not that far away.
But movement over her head draws my eye. A shift in a tree branch on the far side of the pit. The blink of a single beady yellow eye among the brush.
My stomach clenches.
“Drek,” I choke, giving the smallest jerk of my chin. “They’re over there.”
Nothing but his eyes move. All breaths hold for a few seconds.
“I’ve got it,” he says. “See if you can get Calina inside. There should be spears in the back cave.”
I’m not sure about trying to persuade a levadon by myself, or even taking up a spear to protect us, but I don’t have much of a choice. Drek pulls himself up on Rhux’s back in one smooth John Wayne motion, like a sexy alien cowboy, and they’re running through the ravine. Calina picks her head up too, watching the males disappear out the back of the pit.
Nothing I can do but get to work.
I hurry in as a nonthreatening way as possible to Calina’s side. Her eyes flash as she bares her teeth. I’m not as tiny next to her now, but I’m still pretty helpless against those chompers.
“You’re okay, girl,” I coo at her.
She tilts her head to the side an inch, eyes narrowing. Then she draws in a deep breath of me.
It’s then that I realize she’s never seen me before. Not like this.
Dammit. That’s a good way to get eaten.
“Yeah, it’s me. Remember me? I didn’t mean to startle you.” I just keep talking, hoping something in my voice might soothe her. “How you doing, mama?”
It must work because her body droops in relief. She opens her mouth, clacking her teeth, and for a moment I see an image of a big pregnant lady, worn slap out, and venting about her day. Her back hurts. Her feet hurt. And do you have any idea what that idiot Rhux did today?
I smile at her and put a hand on her snout, covering much more area than I did with my tiny human hand. She lifts her nose enough to press it into my palm, and her eyelids droop as she relaxes a little more.
“I know. You must be exhausted. Let’s get you inside.”
The flutter of fear is still prominent in my gut. Something is watching us. If the raptors attack again, we have no way to ward them off. But I push through those nerves to put on a reassuring face for Calina. To push the most positive energy I can muster outward.
Can she feel my energy like a Kutarian? Like I can feel hers? The pain and fear and relief that are melting right out of her body?
I do my best to give her good vibes, just in case, and slide around the front of her body, edging her toward the cave with my shoulder.
Big enough to use some of my weight, I can actually make a difference now, and coax her to take a step. Her legs are still locked pretty tight, and I can see the spasm in her abdomen.
Contractions.
It's so strange to see on her. How did none of the first scientists here fail to notice the dinosaurs gave birth to live young? They hadn't found any eggs―at least none from the big dinosaurs―but the general assumption was that the nests were safely hidden away. Not that they just didn’t exist. I smile in awe as the contraction ripples through her, and even more when she takes her first staggering step with me.
“That’s it, mama,” I whisper. “Beautiful. Let’s get inside and meet that baby.”
* * *
Drek
I retrieve my bone knife from between the ribs of a fallen vulture. It was about my height as it stood, a slimmer build than the levadon but with jaw power that can crush the bones of beasts two and three times its size. It’s no match for our herd of levadon, but with the way Calina’s been making a fuss, the herd has been split and on edge for many turns of the moon. Half of them are usually away from the pit these days, and those that stick around are flighty.
I’m just thankful Calina’s health is returning. She’ll need it to birth her baby. If we can drive these predators far enough away to calm her down that is.
My Eva is smart. She knew Calina’s problem right away, and the life of the levadon pup may be saved because of it. I smile at the pride I feel swelling inside me at the thought of her.
I still can’t believe she’s here with me, in her new Kutarian body. Her small human form was beautiful, and I will miss it, but I know I have not lost her. The breathtaking spark I saw in her blue eyes is still there, just moved over to the just-as-radiant-blue ones in her new body. That shimmer that made my heart beat faster was something I was afraid to lose and wasn’t expecting to see it again. The moment she opened her eyes and said my name, my world became perfect.
And the amazing energy radiating from her? It nearly knocked me back on my tail. The warriors were right. An energy match is the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt, and I can’t wait to get more.
But first, that means protecting the females.
I hop back onto Rhux’s back, knife at the ready.
I’ve seen this small herd of vultures on my patrols. Small red-brown bodies with bright blue crests on their heads. The warriors and I run off threatening predators, but these have been stubbornly finding their way back.
There were five dinosaurs in the group. Now one less by my hand.
The others ran off at the squealing of their dying companion. Let it be a warning to them, else I’ll track down each one of them and end them.
Satisfied with my threatening for now, I turn Rhux back on the path to the pit. We need to check on our females.
The moon is high in the sky by now, and levadon dot the trail back to the village. Some doze on two legs. Others stand in small groups and watch us as we pass. It’s not normal for them all to be lingering outside the pit, but there aren’t many that care to cross Calina. She’s a feisty female and when she’s not locked down in the mess of birthing pains, she can handle the others like she wields a blade of fire. High on the pecking order, as Eva would say.
I don’t b
lame them for avoiding her while she’s so distraught.
The hill that guards the west side of the village lifts into the air in front of us, creating the wall of one side of the ravine. Rhux and I walk down the path of soft black dirt and enter the bottleneck of the pit.
Xjhun is perched on one of the rocky cliffs at the ravine’s entrance, spear in hand. He lifts his chin in a silent greeting. I do the same, thankful one of my warrior brothers will be around to help me watch the levadon tonight.
It’s quiet when Rhux and I enter the pit, and I’m relieved to see that Calina is no longer standing in the middle of the bowl.
I walk Rhux up to the cave entrance and dismount.
“You stay out here and keep an ear out.”
The big male levadon snorts in mutual agreement and blocks the cave with his massive body. I duck under his tail and enter the rocky wall.
Green flames burn in the center of the room and the light flickers along the cave walls. I’ve been keeping the coals warm in case Calina needed a private space, but Eva must have stoked the fire and fed it enough from the supplies at the back of the cave to get it going again.
My smart Eva.
Most of the humans knew little when they arrived.
But not my woman.
Even when I think my breast can't hold any more pride for her, I find her dozing with the giant levadon on the floor. Calina is curled around the fire with Eva propped up against her abdomen. Both breathe the steady rhythm of slumber.
What I’m not expecting is who’s joined them.
The tail and hindquarters of a levadon pup curl out from under Calina’s neck. Its small ribs rise and fall evenly from its safe spot tucked under the female.
I'm even more surprised to find the small square head of a second pup propped on Eva's lap. Its body is pressed in next to its mother’s, but its small front arm loops around Eva's leg, holding her close. One of Eva's hands rests on the pup's head. It's about a quarter of her size and already taken to her like it's her own child.
How have I managed to find myself such a prize?
