by Calista Skye
I am totally stalking him. But I can live with being a stalker. I mean, it's not that creepy. I don't want to harm him or even talk to him. I just want to look.
Today, he's continuing something he started yesterday, which is getting a huge boulder out of the ground. Yesterday, he dug it free from dirt while I was watching, and then he just sat down on the ground and stared at it while rubbing his chin. At that point, I slowly crawled back the way I'd come and went back to the cave. I don't want to stay here for that long at a time, or the girls might get suspicious.
Of course I should have told everyone about this. And I was absolutely going to do that the first time. But on the way back through the jungle, I changed my mind. It was just one thing too many. Everyone was really anxious about Aurora not returning. Heidi and Ar'ox were constantly flying around on their tame dactyl, searching for her. Everyone else was also going into the jungle on foot, searching for her. I was, too.
I decided that I'd tell them the day after. No need to add to the uneasy feelings in our little tribe on that particular day.
So the day after, I came back here. Just to make sure. And there he was. Humming, digging with a stick, carrying gigantic rocks under his arms as if they were only bundles of laundry.
Then it kind of became too late to tell anyone. I told myself that I'd just find out more about him so there's more to tell them. What the heck it is that he's building, for instance. And what's the deal with the whole landscape further down that hill? It's looking so weird, like some kind of riverbed that shines like crystal.
Heck, it's just one caveman doing his thing pretty far away from our cave. It's not like a sensational event. We've encountered several tribes by now. Four caveman are living with us in the cave, for crying out loud. One more isn't going to matter.
And what would happen if I told them? Maybe one of our own caveman would walk here and talk to the guy.
Then what?
When we first came here, we decided that we needed the support of other tribes to survive on this lethal planet. But as it turned out, our little tribe quickly became the best one. We don't need any other tribes to help us out anymore. They can only cause trouble. We're painfully aware that a cave with six actual women living in it will be a temptation that some tribes and bands of raiders won't be able to withstand on a planet with no women of its own. We want to stay as secret as possible. Striking up a conversation with a random caveman for no particular reason is probably not a great idea.
So it won't make any difference whether I tell the others or not. When I figure out what exactly he's building, I might report on him.
Or I might not.
The thing is, I really like looking at him. He's so peaceful, happily doing backbreaking labor in the humid jungle. Humming and even whistling sometimes. So freaking strong and full of manly energy.
In the cave, everything is common property. I have nothing that's mine except my tiny little piece of the sleeping section with its thin furs. But this, this caveman and his project, is mine. For now. It's a part of my life that's like a refreshing break from the hard life we lead. A vacation from the homesickness and the hopelessness. And the occasional darkness that comes from out of nowhere, like it did back on Earth.
There are no other breaks for me. The married girls have their husbands and their intimacy. I don't. But I have this. And it feels good to watch someone else's life for a while.
The guy down there is chopping down trees and hammering their trunks into the ground with his giant hammer. Because that's what he's carrying in his belt. Cavemen usually have swords, but this guy has a damn sledgehammer with an iron head the size of a microwave oven.
Right now, he's building some kind of frame and pulley system to get that boulder out.
It's strangely hypnotizing to watch, and I think I just have time to see whether he succeeds or not before I have to make my way back to the cave and be useful.
I slowly change my position so I'm sitting cross-legged on the ground, still peering between the leaves as I take a piece of fruit out of my pack and start quietly munching on it.
He's humming again, a deep, contented sound that travels pretty far and which is so badly out of tune it's really cute. Except I suspect that the notes we know from Earth may be specific to that planet, so I shouldn't judge. Maybe he's giving me a pitch-perfect rendition of some caveman chart-topper.
I enjoy watching the muscles in his back and arms flexing with each movement. I like his fluid motions and his casual displays of unbelievable strength.
Like other cavemen, he's not conventionally handsome. His face has the wrong proportions for that, and most fashion models on Earth don't have fangs. But I don't care. He's a spectacular specimen of maleness, an image that's unnecessarily underpinned by the considerable bulge in his pants.
I think he has to be kind and thoughtful. Cheerful and generous. A giving lover with a dominant streak.
I have a flash of me walking down there, stripping naked, and just offering myself to him. The very idea sends a thrilled little tingle to my crotch. It's been a long time since I had any action like that, or of any kind at all, and that guy down there—
I forcibly stop my train of thought before it goes too far.
So now I'm being a creepy stalker.
2
- Xark'on -
I'm being watched.
It's not the first time. I've started having that feeling at various times every day here. Sometimes after the noon hour, sometimes before. Mostly right after sunrise.
It's not uncommon for some young creature to be curious about a man in the jungle. But little hatchlings tend to stare for a while and then to continue with their doings. They don't return to the same spot again and again day after day.
For many days, I shrugged it off. A feeling like that could be so many things. It might be the basic risk of being alone in the jungle, which is never advisable. It might be the excitement for this thing I'm making and the incredible, fantasy-arousing event that will follow if things work out the way I think they will.
Or it might be a boy from some other tribe, or indeed my own, curious about what I'm doing. It doesn't feel like a hatchling, somehow. And yet, it doesn't feel like danger.
There's only one place the creature can be hiding. When I finally climbed the hillside and observed behind the bushes up there, there was a little patch of trampled weeds. It reassured me. If it had been enemy warriors, the patch would have been much larger. And if they'd in fact left a trampled patch like that, it would be as a signal to me: we're watching you.
But there would be no reason for it. This is not the turf of any other tribe. No, this is something else.
I straighten and look up a tree, observing the row of bushes with my side vision.
Nothing's moving. But there's something there. I'm quite sure now.
I could drop my hammer and sprint up there, surprising whichever creature is spying on me.
But it would be a waste of energy and effort. I feel no threat, and while I am becoming curious, this project is much more important than revealing a scared boy from some other tribe. Certainly when it's nearing completion, I might have to chase him away. For his own safety, if nothing else.
Before then, I must make sure he doesn't get too close. I've designed and built a device precisely for that purpose.
My frame looks good, and I attach the ropes and pulleys to it, then to the boulder. Then I grab the end of the rope and heave on it.
3
- Caroline -
I have to stretch my neck to get a better view when he starts pulling on the rope to lift the boulder. That thing has to weigh ten times as much as him, and he is a giant of a man.
The huge tripod he's constructed creaks with the strain. Or maybe it's the rope. And the man himself isn't humming anymore.
“Come on,” I whisper. “You can do it.”
Somehow, I really want him to succeed, this complete stranger I have been shamelessly stalking for wee
ks. But I've watched him do this, and in a way it's partly my project too now. Whatever it is. I want him to succeed spectacularly with everything he does.
He lets go of the rope and adjusts the frame a little. Then he grabs it again, takes a deep breath, and pulls. The boulder moves in its deep hole, but it's not coming up.
Again, the caveman adjusts his pulley system and smears something greasy onto it.
Then he grabs the rope and uses all his power to pull on it. The muscles on his thighs look like they'll make his pants split as he leans forward to stem against the ground. A deep grunt reaches my ears, and the boulder is slowly lifted out of its hole and up into the air. The caveman pulls another rope to swing it to the side while the whole contraption creaks dangerously, and then he lets go of both ropes. The boulder hits the ground with a deep thump, and I do a little fist pump behind my bush. He did it!
Suddenly, I freeze. Something is wrong. A cold sweat erupts on my back—never a good sign. I’ve been so focused on the caveman, I haven’t been as watchful as I should.
I slowly turn my head.
There's something behind me. Something very alive and very big. Something that gives off a high-pitched, liquid growl.
I'm afraid to look at it. But I have to. I clutch my spear and turn.
The blood freezes in my veins, and I feel tears of terror starting to form. It’s a raptor.
As in velociraptor, the fast, nasty little dinosaurs that starred in the first Jurassic Park movie.
Of course, they’re not that. These are alien dinos and completely different. But still, they remind us of raptors.
It scares me, is what I’m saying.
I point my spear at it, hoping it will just go away. I don't want the caveman to see me. At the same time, I don't want to be eaten by this thing. Hell, I don't want to be in the same universe as this thing.
It's just standing there, heaving and glistening. It has eyes on the sides of its head, but right now they’re not pointed at me. Maybe it only detects sound like a bat? Then maybe I can try to sneak away if I'm being really quiet.
I take one quiet step to the side, still bent over.
The monster turns a little to follow my movement. It must be able to see me, after all.
Before I was dumped on this planet, this would have made me curl up and sob in fear. And I still want to do that. But after months living in a cave and seeing horrific monsters pretty much every day, I'm able to use a small fraction of my brain for cool calculation.
Okay, so it can see me somehow. But it hasn't attacked me. Maybe it's less dangerous than it looks? Maybe it's just as scared as I am, and it just wants to run away?
I take one very short step towards it and lift my spear.
The raptor tilts its head as if thinking what the fuck is that insane chick doing?
Then it attacks.
It pounces straight at me, claws in front like a wall of spikes.
I squeal and jump backwards into the bushes I've been hiding behind. But now the caveman worries me a lot less than the raptor.
I fall over into the bushes, but the dino is still coming at me, so I scramble through the undergrowth, making a whole lot of noise.
I spot the caveman looking up, and then I hear the raptor coming through the bushes, and I just run the easiest way, which is straight down the hill.
Everything is grass and weeds and tree trunks as I panic and run, not caring where as long as it's away from the monster.
From the corner of my eye, I see the caveman moving, but everything is blurry, so I can't see exactly what he's doing.
But I can hear a terrifying shriek from behind me. Very close behind me. The raptor is about to snag me with its needle-like claws.
Then I yelp as one of my feet snags on something and I trip forwards, dropping the spear and holding my hands out to break the fall.
But I never hit the ground.
There's a loud swish, and I feel like I'm being grabbed in a huge clutch that's squeezing the breath out of me.
And then I'm seeing everything from above through a wide mesh of rough fibers.
The raptor is below me, crouching on its powerful legs and then jumping straight up into the air, coming closer to me very fast.
Again, I yelp and scramble wildly, but I'm being held very tightly, and I can hardly move.
Then the man throws his sledgehammer, and it spins through the air. It hits the raptor right in the middle with a thud that makes my ears ring. It breaks the monster's jump and sends it somersaulting backwards like it's been shot with a cannonball.
The hammer falls to the ground, and the raptor looks dead.
Only then do I have time to consider my own situation.
I'm hanging in the air in a rough net of some kind, just like Han Solo and Princess Leia when they're caught by the cute teddy bears in Return of the Jedi.
Except their net was larger, not as tight as this. I can barely move my arms, and I have to concentrate on each breath to fill my lungs.
And I'm upside down. My lower body is above me, and I'm curled up with my knees down by my chin.
For a brief moment, I struggle to get more room, but the net doesn't give. Instead, it feels like it tightens with each move I make.
I glance up and down. I'm at least twenty feet in the air, hanging from the top of a tree with one slender trunk and a wide crown high up, like a coconut palm.
Then I focus on the caveman.
He's looking up at me with his hands on his hips, not even bothering to retrieve his massive hammer.
I don't know what to do. Our introduction looks like it might be slightly awkward.
“Take down, please,” I suggest in his language. My voice sounds squeaky and shaky, and the fight-or-flight hormones are still flooding my veins.
He frowns up at me and then takes hold of a rope tied to the tree. For a moment, I worry that he'll just open the bottom of the net, making me fall down from here, so I grab onto the mesh as well as I can.
But all he does is lower me down until my shoulders are just a foot above the ground.
“All the way down, please,” I specify, looking up at him.
I've never been in a less dignified position. My ass is the highest point of my body, and I can only hope that my dinosaur-skin dress is hiding the most intimate parts of me. But I suspect it doesn't. If not, he's getting a whole eyeful of woman right now as he frowns deeply at me from above.
His eyes are unusually dark but not brown. They look pitch black to me. Or maybe it's because all the blood is going to my head.
He squats down three feet away and just looks at me. Okay, so he has violet eyes, with an inner light in them just like the other cavemen I know. A deep violet light.
Fine. But I'm still hanging here, seeing him upside down. “Please let down.”
He studies me carefully, and his gaze pauses at my butt and crotch for a little longer than what I can handle without blushing even more. He's examining me like he would a nice sword or an interesting wall painting. Or prey.
And he's not saying anything. I know why, of course. You don't talk to prey. You kill it and eat it.
Or in this case, you rape it and breed it. If this guy is a raider or an outcast or a rogue, anything is on the table. And he has a hungry look. I don't think their beliefs about the sacred Woman will keep him from taking his pleasure from me if he so chooses.
Still, he's studying me. I'm starting to feel like an insect on a lab bench.
Then, he reaches out and pulls on a thin line attached to the net, the bottom gives out, and I drop to the grass.
“Oof. Could have let me a little further down first,” I complain as I rub my shoulder. The ground isn't that hard, and I didn’t break anything, but still.
I glance over at the raptor who's now just a large bundle of claws and teeth on the ground. But it's still moving a little, so I guess this guy didn't kill it completely.
4
- Xark'on -
My mind is spinning
like crazy. I know what that creature in my trap is.
It's a woman.
That's what was spying on me. A woman!
All the signs are there. The smallness. The roundness. The thin, child-like voice that's still completely adult in a way that my brain struggles to handle. The protrusions on the chest. The wideness of the hips. The size and roundness of the rear. And... I swallow on a dry throat, feeling my crotch swell. And the slit.
Right where the shaman told us it would be. It was so easy to see when she was in the net with her head down and her garment in disarray.
Two seasons ago, seeing a woman on Xren would probably have shocked me out of my wits. Now, the effect is not as strong. Much has happened these past seasons.
But a woman this close? It still makes me feel as if I'm standing beside myself just watching.
This is what the shaman told us about. A woman in the woods.
No, not a woman. The Woman.
The Woman who would be found in the jungle and who would then go to the Ancestors and get the tribe their own women back.
It's very confusing. I never believed in the myth. In truth, until recently I didn't really believe that there ever was such a thing as a woman, a being much like us warriors but still much different. A human who could give birth to offspring. Female offspring. Living birth, even, without laying eggs like all other beings here on Xren.
I think that was what made me doubt the whole thing when I was just a boy. We have the Lifegivers. They give us babies to perpetuate the tribe. Why dream of this nonsense with women giving living birth to females who will grow up to be women as well? It's too fantastical, as I realized when just a boy.
If they wanted us to believe in something, maybe say that the woman will lay eggs that hatch to reveal a baby. I mean, this woman, here, is tiny! A Lifegiver is much larger. How can this little creature give birth to anything other than an egg? I saw that little slit just now. That egg would have to be quite small. Miniscule. Far smaller than the babies we lift out of the Lifegivers.
