Tamer- King of Dinosaurs 5

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Catch,” she said as she threw it up to me. “I’ll make a few more.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I caught the spear. It was a little too wide at the bottom, and it had burn marks on the haft from where Gee’s hand had grabbed it, but it didn’t have to be perfect. I might not even need to use the weapon.

  I hoped I didn’t need to use it.

  “Tannin,” Gee said as she finished the second spear, but instead of tossing it, she passed it up to Tannin.

  We waited for Gee to make a third, and I set this one between Mike D’s armored plates so it wouldn’t fall down, then the two women looked at me, and I nodded in the direction we are going. “I think the path is up ahead.”

  We walked for another minute, and then I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the beginning of the rocky path that had once been the river. We made a right as soon as we reached it and then came upon the staircase waterfall steps that I had once commanded Tom to sprint up while he was chased by carnos.

  The stegos were smaller than Tom, so the narrow switchbacks were going to be easier for them to navigate, but Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock’s steps were starting to get really clumsy, so I commanded them to each go down the steps slowly, and one at a time just in case one of them tripped and fell down the steps.

  Ad-Rock was my biggest concern, since he was carrying all the extra weight of our supplies. He went down the narrow switch backs of the steps pretty smoothly though, and he only slipped once right at the end of them.

  “Okay, that was the hard part,” I said.

  “Unless something attacks us,” Tannin said.

  “That will be the easy part,” Gee laughed, and I had to chuckle a bit at her confidence.

  “I still do not hear anything,” Tannin whispered. “Not even bugs. It is strange.”

  “Gee, can you make your hair glow brighter?” I asked. “Maybe Bruce can see some--”

  A low rumble shook the ground, and it vibrated up through Mike D’s legs, into my feet, then my hips, and then my teeth.

  “Shit!” I hissed. “Turn your hair off!”

  Gee’s hair instantly went dark, and I had to blink for a few moments while my cyber eyes refocused with only the half crescents of the moons for light.

  Then we heard the rumble again, and I felt my stomach turn into ice.

  “It’s behind us,” Tannin whispered, and her voice was filled with pure terror.

  “Be still,” I whispered, and I saw Gee close her eyes so that I couldn’t see them.

  Something took a step, and it sounded both far away and close, then I realized that it was probably far away, but whatever was moving was really fucking big, so it sounded like it was much closer than it was.

  And it was getting closer.

  “We need to run,” Tannin gasped, but I just grabbed her hand, and we squeezed each other’s fingers as whatever was up in the valley above us moved closer.

  It had to be a T-Rex, or a spino.

  Or maybe it was something bigger.

  Whatever it was made a low growl that sounded like Grumpy, only somehow deeper, darker, and more annoyed. I was commanding Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock to hold still, but I could sense that they just wanted to fucking run.

  That would be the worst idea, since the thing walking behind us would totally hear them, and I knew it would have no problem jumping down the waterfall and eating us.

  I pushed calming thoughts to the stegos, to Tannin, and to Gee. I knew I couldn’t tame whatever massive creature was walking the perimeter of the jungle behind us, but I tried to make it think that we weren’t here. I tried to make it want to wander west out of this valley. I tried to convince it that we weren’t down here.

  The steps grew closer, and I almost changed my mind about running, but then the earthquake inducing steps stopped, and the thing made a snorting sound that sounded like a spike of thunder.

  Then it kept moving to the North West.

  I forced the air out of my lungs slowly and felt my head spin a bit. Gee opened her eyes, but none of us moved until we no longer heard the thing walking. I guessed that it must have gone over the hill and to the ocean, but it was still too dark to tell.

  Part of me wanted to see exactly what the dinosaur was, but I was perfectly happy with the result of still being alive.

  “Let’s move ahead,” I whispered, even though the sounds of the bugs and frogs had returned. “Keep your hair dark.”

  “Yep,” Gee muttered, and we moved down the road-like riverbed.

  The going was a bit slower because of the lack of light, but the brush with whatever had come up behind us had put some pep into the stegos’ steps. They weren’t dragging their feet anymore, and their steps seemed lighter for the next half of an hour.

  “This seems to go on forever,” Gee said after we still hadn’t reached the end of the road.

  “I think we are almost there,” I said. “But then we have to climb up the hill of the next valley, follow the river for another half hour, and then another ten-ish minutes or so to our fort.”

  “Ahh, that’s not quite so bad at all,” Gee said, and I saw her white teeth glimmer in the moonlight as she smiled. “You think I can let my hair become fire again? I’m getting annoyed by keeping it like this.”

  “Get down!” I shouted as I saw something move in the darkness of the brush above us.

  Gee dove into the riverbed stones as the dark shape flew over her. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because of the darkness, but my arm was already throwing my spear down at it before my brain could even process the instructions.

  For a fraction of a moment, I thought I’d missed my throw, but my spear caught the shape right in the chest and knocked it to the side just as it was about to bite Gee.

  The onyx-skinned beauty’s hair erupted into fire and she pivoted to face the twitching body that had tried to attack her. It looked like a long necked raptor almost the size of the black-feathered Utahraptors. The shape was familiar, and I guessed its species before my Eye-Q told me what it was: Dilophosaurus.

  The predator wasn’t dead from my spear throw, but it was badly injured, and was trying to stand. Before it could get its feet under itself, Gee’s whip ripped outward and took off the dinosaur’s head with a clean cut that cauterized the wound right after. Then her whip faded from her hand, and she turned back to me.

  “You saved me,” she said flatly.

  “No worries,” I said, “Let’s just continue on.”

  “I didn’t even know it was there,” she said, “and my fire was down. It would have been able to bite me.”

  “But it didn’t,” I said, and the woman stared at me for a few moments before she nodded.

  We made it through the rest of the river without any other problems, and then we angled south-east over the hill so that we could enter my valley closer to the river. Grumpy met us there, and we followed another river until the juniper trees turned into redwoods.

  Then we came to the familiar part in the river where the massive fallen redwood was, and I felt the weight begin to slide off my shoulders.

  “This is where we get our water,” I said with a bit of pride as I waved my arms to the river. “Our camp is half a mile or so north. We’ll leave Grumpy here.”

  “I am looking forward to meeting your friends,” Tannin said.

  “Same here,” Gee said, but Grumpy let out an annoyed grumble as he pulled the top quarter of his body out of the river pool so he rested on the shore. The fire-woman took a quick look at him, and then she stepped a few feet away before she turned to me.

  “This way?” she asked as she pointed through the forest.

  “Yeah,” I said, “but I need you to turn off your fire again. We can’t risk these trees burning.”

  “Yeah,” Gee said as she glanced at Grumpy again. “Can I ride up with you?”

  “Sure,” I said with a smile as I reached down to her. I imagined she felt vulnerable after the dilophosaurus had almost taken a bite out of her when she had last ext
inguished her flames.

  Gee jumped on Mike D, and then we made the last leg of the journey through the redwood forests. It was hard to see because Gee’s hair was dark, but I knew the route really well, and I was able to guide the stegos out into the clearing.

  Then I saw the walls of my fort, and it felt like my heart soared out of my chest.

  As we approached the wall, I heard a chorus of trumpet blasts, toots, screeches, and hoots. By the time we made it to the land bridge by the gate, I was able to see movement through the gaps in the gate. It looked like all my dinosaurs were on the other side.

  “What is going on with them?” I heard Trel screech over the sounds of my happy dinosaurs.

  Then I commanded them all to be quiet and I raised my hands to my mouth to create a megaphone.

  “Honeys, I’m home!” I shouted.

  Chapter 9

  “Victor!” I heard what sounded like a dozen women shout in the distance, and I saw some movement and torches through the cracks in the gate. A moment later Liahpa and Sheela were pulling open the gate, and I pushed the stegos into our fort.

  Before I could get off Mike D, I felt arms wrap around my chest from behind. I recognized Trel’s touch as she used her spider legs to carry us down to the ground, and I felt her lips on my bare shoulders, neck, and ears as she showered me with kisses.

  Sheela threw her arms around me while Trel continued to hug me, and the beautiful blonde woman kissed me deeply. Kacerie’s lips found my mouth right after Sheela stopped kissing me, and then both Emerald and Liahpa hugged me together.

  Then it seemed like everyone was hugging me.

  Trel continued to hold me from behind, but Youleena wrapped her slender arms around my neck and kissed my cheek. Urka wrapped her arms around my hips and made a joke that I couldn’t quite hear over everyone else’s voices. Quwaru wrapped her arms around my waist and rubbed her body against mine as she leaned her head on my shoulder. Adella actually planted her lips on mine and before I knew it, our tongues were dancing together. Not to be outdone, Keefaye also kissed me, and then the group of us laughed when she pulled her mouth away from mine and fanned her lips.

  There were too many questions at once, so I held up my hand, and everyone became silent. As they quieted, I saw Galmine slowly walk into the circle of women surrounding me, and I held open my arms. The stone-skinned woman didn’t speak, but she blinked her beautiful green eyes as if she was fighting against her tears, and then she fell into my arms with a sigh of relief. Her lips burned as she kissed me, and I felt the stars spin above our heads as Dinosaurland seemed to stand still.

  “I knew you were alive,” she whispered when our kiss finished, and her fingers traced along my jawline.

  “Pfft!” Trel raspberried into my ear. “We all knew he was alive! It is Victor! He’s amazing!”

  “You spent the last two days in the tree crying about how your soulmate was dead,” Kacerie said as she rolled her eyes.

  “You are exaggerating!” Trel laughed. “I was just concerned for all of you, since I know how sensitive you are when you worry about Victor. I never had a doubt that my husband and the future father of my brood would return, but now that he is back I’m no longer worried about consoling all of you. It is all perfect now.”

  I was sandwiched between both Trel and Galmine’s perfect bodies, but I cleared my throat and pulled them both away from me so that I could gesture up to the top of Mike D.

  “This is Gee and Tannin,” I said, and my group of friends turned around to look at them.

  “Hello,” Gee said as she jumped down from Mike D’s back, took a step into the middle of the group, and then let her hair catch fire again. The light was brighter than the torches that Quwaru and Sheela were carrying, and everyone took a step back with a gasp. “I am Gee-kalata-beto-yahrit-ill-kanna-sae.”

  “That sounds like a proper name,” Trel commented with a single nod. “Are you a duchess?”

  “No, I am fire born,” Gee said as she returned the spider-woman’s nod. “Victor has told me about much of your tribe. I am eager to find my place here. On my own world, I was commander of my empire’s army and navy. Victor has said that you might need use of my military skills, and I--”

  Gee’s words were interrupted as Galmine wrapped her arms around the fire-woman’s shoulders.

  “You are so pretty!” Galmine giggled. “Welcome to our home!”

  “Stop! You’ll get burned!” Gee gasped as she tried to pull away from the other green-eyed woman.

  “No I won’t,” Galmine laughed. “Your skin feels warm and wonderful. I don’t burn that easily.”

  “Uhh, okay,” Gee said, and then she surprised me by hugging Galmine back for a few moments. Then the women parted and looked at Tannin as she slid from Mike D’s back.

  “Hi,” she said as she nervously ran her hands through her long tangerine-colored hair.

  “Welcome to our home,” Sheela said with her usual nod.

  “Welcome to our family,” Galmine said as she reached out to hug the elf-looking woman. Tannin’s eyes opened wide as she saw Galmine reach for her, but then she relaxed when the stone-skinned woman embraced her.

  “These three are named Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock,” I said as I pointed to the three stegosauruses. Then I gestured up to the sky, and the pteranodon let out a honk as he landed. “This is Bruce.”

  “Wow!” Kacerie gasped. “He’s a flyer.”

  “Yeah,” I said as Bruce hopped over to me and rested his head on my shoulder. I reached up to rub his neck and then felt something press against my leg. It was Jinx, and I let out a laugh as I reached down to pick him up.

  Then I was mobbed by a small army of dinosaurs that had deemed it was time for petting.

  Trel let out an angry hiss as Velma pushed her out of the way. Scoob tried to jump up into my arms. Shaggy butted his head into my shoulder, Freddy wrapped through my legs, and then Daphne jumped up with Scoob and I fell on my ass with a laugh. The troodons let out hoots of glee as they wiggled around on top of me like puppies, and the other women of my tribe all let out large laughs as the balaur bondocs also dog piled on me. I’d somehow kept a hold of Jinx the whole time, and he let out a flurry of annoyed chirps when one of the balaurs, Rachel I think, almost sat on him as she tried to wiggle against my neck.

  “Okay everyone,” I laughed after I’d petted each of them, “that’s good. Let me get up.”

  The troodons and raptors all slid away from me with disappointed hoots and hisses, and Sheela reached out her hand to help me up. I thought I was done with pets, but Tom, Nicole, and Katie let out annoyed huffs, and I walked over to pet each of them as the women followed me. Then I petted Sonny and Cher before I got to Bob. The three big parausarurses actually laid on their sides, just like dogs, so I could pet their tummies.

  “Where’s your wife, pal?” I asked Bob as I scratched his tummy. “She still tending to your egg?”

  Bob let out a toot of affirmation, and I patted his stomach with healthy slaps as he wiggled his back left leg. “I’m so proud of you, big daddy! I can’t wait to see the baby!”

  I looked around at the circle of women, and they all started speaking at once. I laughed again and shrugged before Trel shushed them with an annoyed hiss.

  “How did you all get back here from the cave?” I asked Kacerie.

  “How did you beat that scary flying monster-man?” she asked with a laugh.

  “You first,” I said as I reached out to touch her shoulder. Damn. It felt so good to be home, and as I touched Kacerie’s shoulder, I felt Sheela lean against my right side, and Trel press her body into my back.

  “We didn’t know what to do,” the pink-haired woman said with a shrug. “The dinosaurs were upset, but they didn’t run to follow you.” Kacerie turned to look at Quwaru and her friends and then smiled. “We talked it over and tried a few things. Turns out that Tom will let me and Galmine kind of control him.”

  “I figured something like that must have happened,
” I said. “But I wasn’t sure since you all weren’t at the cave.”

  “It’s not like what you do,” Kacerie said. “I have to kind of ask him out loud to move forward, and he does it, but it didn’t work with anyone but Galmine and me.”

  “Hmm,” I said as I thought about how their names were listed in my Eye-Q under my Women category, but Emerald and the rest of Quwaru’s crew wasn’t.

  “What about the balaurs?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t get them to do anything but follow us,” Kacerie said. “They seemed kind of annoyed also, and a few times I thought that they might just run off, but then Galmine would say something nice to them, and then they would keep going.

  “What about Zoru?” I asked.

  “We put him on the top part of Tom’s saddle,” Quwaru said as she gestured to the trike. “Ride was a bit rough, but Nomi sat up with him, Galmine, and Kacerie. The rest of us walked next to Tom, and we walked back to this camp.”

  “How long ago?” I asked.

  “We waited for you to come back for a day,” Kacerie said. “Then… well… we just decided to go, and we hoped you’d make your way back to us. If you could.”

  “We didn’t hope,” Trel scoffed. “We knew you would come back to your wives.”

  “And here I am,” I said with a laugh. “Emta?”

  “She’s resting in the hut with Zoru,” Quwaru said as she blinked her silver eyes. “Nomi is with them. I’m sure they would all like to see you soon, if you don’t mind visiting them.”

  “I’ll say hi before I go to sleep,” I said as I raised my hand to cover my yawn.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Kacerie laughed. “How did you get away from the big asshole with the wings?”

  “He dropped me,” I said, and then I pointed to Bruce, “but this guy helped me float to the ground. Then I fought the guy with the wings, and another dinosaur helped me. His name is Grumpy, and he likes to be by the water, so I left him by the river.”

  “Enough talk!” Trel spat as she wrapped her arms around me from the outside. “Victor needs to rest. You all can see him tomorrow.”