Tamer- King of Dinosaurs 4

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Yes,” Quwaru said, and I realized that she was probably going to try to touch me. It probably wasn’t a big deal, since it seemed like everyone else was telling the truth about her powers, and I didn’t really care if she knew my thoughts.

  I walked toward Youleena, and the rest of the group stepped closer so that they all stood around me. For half a moment, I felt kind of nervous surrounded by all these beautiful women and the strange furry fox-monkey-woman-man, but then I reminded myself that I was Victor Shelby, King of Dinosaurland, and they needed my help way more than I needed theirs.

  “Can you make this side pointed like a triangle?” I asked as I held out the stone to the white woman. “Then sharpen the sides and the bottom here. Also, put two small slots near the bottom part.”

  “I will try,” Youleena whispered as she took the finger-sized stone from my hand and held it in her fingers.

  The beautiful willowy woman turned it between her pointer finger and thumb for a few moments, and then she reached her other hand up to smooth across the rock’s surface. I tried to hold in a gasp, but failed when the rock seemed to shift like Playdoh. In half a moment, she had the triangle shaped. Then a second later she had run her fingers down the sides and dug her long nails into the areas by the base to create the arrowhead slots.

  “Why do you need those slots?” Adella sang.

  “I’ll push the base into a slotted wood shaft, and then tie it with cordage,” I explained. “The slots will help it stay attached.

  “That makes sense,” Keefay said. “Victor is very smart.”

  “He isn’t smart,” Emta sighed. “That’s how it is done, you all just don’t know how to make arrowheads. My people have been--”

  “How come ya didn’t tell us how to do this then?” Urka interrupted in her squeaky voice. “We’ve been together for a month or so and just have sharpened sticks and nets.”

  “I’ve been too busy fishing and defending us from the Burners,” the olive-skinned woman said as her hair twisted angrily around her shoulders.

  “It’s fine,” Quwaru said as she stepped a bit closer so she could look at the arrowhead taking shape in Youleena’s hand. “My people once used stone weapons for combat, but I forgot as well. I’m not blaming Emta, we are all responsible for helping develop our technology.” The rest of the women nodded at their leader’s words, and then Youleena held out the arrowhead to me.

  “This looks great,” I said as I carefully took the stone blade from her fingers and tested the point on my finger. It felt plenty sharp, and I then took a bit of my nail off with the edge. Yeah. It was razor sharp.

  My mind started to spin as a bunch of ideas jumped into my head.

  “I’m going to need a lot of these,” I said as I tried to keep my voice calm.

  “How many is a lot?” Youleena asked.

  “At least a thousand.”

  “A thousand!” Emta hissed. “That is way too--”

  “We will do it for you, Victor,” Quwaru interrupted her friend.

  “Then I’ll need a few hundred more; make them maybe three or four times the size. I’ll use those for spear heads.”

  “Okay,” Youleena said as she smiled at me.

  “Then I need you to do some arrowheads and spearheads, but make them more like long rectangles with the tips sharpened.” As I spoke, I made gestures with my fingers so Youleena could get an idea about the dimensions.

  “I think I understand. What will you use that for?” she asked.

  “A drill,” I explained, and the women all looked thoughtful.

  “Then I need more rectangle or square pieces with the longer side sharpened like a blade.” I glanced down at my feet again and saw a rock that was about twice as large as the one I had handed her for the arrow head. I picked it up, placed it in her hand, and then gestured to the longer flat side. “Put the edge there, you can keep the other side blunt, or you can narrow it out some.”

  “What will you use this for?” Quwaru asked.

  “I’ll put it in a piece of wood about the size of my arm and use it to scrape other pieces of wood flat.” I pulled my arms toward my chest in a smooth motion to demonstrate, and the group nodded. I didn’t really know what the tool was called, but I’d seen various woodworkers with the weird knife that had a handle on both sides of the blade. They would normally pull the blade toward their chest like they were doing a short boat-row movement and then shave off parts of wood.

  “I can do it,” Youleena said. “How many do you want?”

  “Let’s say six of various sizes,” I said, and I finally couldn’t fight the smile anymore.

  “What else?” Quwaru asked.

  “We have given him enough,” Emta scoffed as she crossed her muscular arms. “It will take us too long to do all this shit for him.”

  “I believe our lives are worth more than a few rocks and some of Youleena’s time,” Zoru said as he shrugged his purple shoulders.

  “I agree,” Keefaye said. “It is apparent that Victor is not just powerful, but also very intelligent. I feel as if I am learning about survival with just the instructions he is giving Youleena.”

  “We should give him as much good will as we can,” Adella sang, and I saw her big eyes look up and down my body.

  “Some chisels would be nice,” I continued as I felt my cheeks heat up a bit. “They would look kind of like the drills, only wider, thicker. They don’t have to be pointed, they can be flat like this blade.” I tapped the stone in the palm of her hand. “Make one of the less-wide sides come up into a flat pommel so I can hit it with some wood.”

  “How does this device work?” Keefaye asked.

  “I am familiar with it,” Youleena answered. “My people use chisels to work stone. I am guessing Victor wants it for wood?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “How many do you want?” she asked as her black eyes stared into mine.

  “Six at least,” I said as I smiled at her. Quwaru’s tribe had some interesting abilities, but Youleena’s seemed the most useful to me right now. I knew that I would soon have to focus on getting more stone tools, especially if I wanted to build better wood structures, but I didn’t really know a good source for arrowheads.

  “Anything else?” Youleena asked.

  “We are using stone axes to chop wood,” I said. “They are working fine, but are a bit heavy, if you could try some axe blades, I would use them. They aren’t as high a priority though. What we have works for us.”

  “I will see what I can do,” she said as she smiled at me. Then she turned to her friends. “I will need help to gather various sizes of rocks and stones. Then I will need containers to put them in for Victor.”

  “We’ll handle that part,” Quwaru assured her, and then the group turned back to me.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t really need the clay,” I said to the silver-eyed succubus.

  “You are correct,” Quwaru answered with a smirk. “We could have used the plates, bowls, and cups, since you can never have too many, but Youleena has already made those for us. Also, I wanted to see how well you could craft them. We haven’t figured out how to do clay yet. Maybe that is something you could teach us?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’d be down to teach you all. It might be easier if you came to our camp sometime, but I think we should make some trades first.”

  “What?” Emta growled. “After all this, you still don’t trust us?”

  “You are really hard to please,” I said as I shook my head at the tusked woman. “You are beautiful and powerful. I don’t know why you are so offended by my presence.”

  The olive-skinned woman seemed taken aback by my words, but before she could answer, Quwaru spoke.

  “We will still take the clayware. We can use it, and I guess that you still need our salt.”

  “Yep,” I agreed, and then I turned around to look at the group. “That’s all I can think of right now.”

  “Maybe you would like some of my blessed water?”
Keefaye said as she fluttered her golden eyes. “It is delicious and will bring you much pleasure.”

  “Uhhh, sure,” I said as I shrugged. “I’ll take some when I come back to get the arrowheads and stuff.”

  “I am unsure how long it will take,” Youleena said. “I have not used my ability on smaller pieces of stone, but it seems to go much quicker.”

  “Can you come back in a week?” Quwaru said. “I believe that was around when you were going to bring us the clay dishes, anyway.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I can do that. Then I’ll pick up more salt and the stone tools.”

  “And my water,” Keefaye said.

  “Yeah, and that too,” I said as I smiled at the beautiful golden woman with the unicorn horn. She seemed pleased by my answer and her smile made her glow even more.

  We stood in silence for a few moments as the group looked at me. This ordeal was reminding me a lot of Lacey’s party, and I suddenly wanted to return to my own camp and the list of improvements that we had to make.

  “It was nice meeting all of you,” I said after I cleared my throat.

  “Yes,” Nomi spoke first, and I turned to the strange woman with the white robe dress and long dark hair that hung over her face. “Thank you for saving us. I look forward to seeing you in a week.” She nodded her head, and I returned the movement.

  “Me too,” Urka chuckled as she blinked her four azure eyes at me. “We’d all be dead without ya. Thanks again.”

  “If there is anything else you need, please ask. Anything at all.” Adella’s voice was like a perfectly tuned piano, and she ran her fingers through her long blood-red hair as she gave me a smile that made my heart skip a few beats.

  “Uhhh, yeah. I’ll think about it,” I replied, and the mermaid-looking woman bit her lip and let out a sigh.

  “I’ll get to work on your tools immediately,” Youleena said.

  “I’ll start looking for the stones.” Zoru nodded to the white-woman and then turned to me. “I am glad you came to our aid.”

  I almost said “no problem,” since that was what I was used to saying when people thanked me for doing a good job. Instead I just nodded at the purple fox-monkey creature.

  “Victor, if we do need your help sooner, do you mind if we send Zoru? He is the only one who stands the best chance of making it to you safely.”

  “Yes,” the man agreed. “My ability gives me the chance to avoid being eaten by any of the creatures on this world. I cannot use it often, but it will help me.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” I said with a shrug. “I can make it to you all easily on the back of my dinosaurs.”

  “We should speak more about joining Victor,” Keefaye said after she cleared her throat. “We are all impressed by him. He is more than capable of protecting--”

  “No,” Emta growled. “We are doing just fine by ourselves.”

  “I’m going to go,” I said as it became apparent that the women were about to argue again.

  “Wait!” Keefaye blurted out as I turned to go. Her hand grabbed mine, and her skin felt cool against mine. “Thank you so much. We really appreciate your help. Some people here are a bit grouchy…” Keefaye turned her golden eyes to Emta “... but the rest of us are very thankful for you. We look forward to seeing you in a week. Please think of us.”

  “Uhh yeah,” I said as she squeezed my hand.

  “Victor, may I walk with you for a bit?” Quwaru said as she pointed up the hill toward where the jungle was.

  “Uhh sure,” I said as I gently pulled my hand away from Keefaye. The golden woman sighed slightly, but then she smiled at me and gave me a small wave.

  Qwuaru nodded toward the hill again, and we broke off from her tribe and walked up past my trikes. The dinos fell in step behind us, and the horned woman gave a quick glance behind us when Tom snorted.

  “They seem like good people,” I said as I nodded to the group still waiting by the bridge.

  “They are,” she replied. “Please forgive Emta. She is guarded, but once you get to know her, you’ll find she is a wonderful person.”

  “I’m sure she is,” I said with a shrug.

  “I’ve thanked you before, but I feel like words are not enough. We’d be dead without you.”

  “You’ll pay me back with salt and the tools,” I said with a shrug. “It’s fine.”

  “There was talk about us joining you,” she continued as we reached the crest of the hill. I didn’t see my friends right away, but then I saw a flash of pink hair move in the jungle, and I figured that they were standing right at the edge of the jungle.

  “Emta doesn’t seem interested,” I replied. “It’s okay. You all can do your thing, and we’ll do ours.”

  “Is the offer there?” the beautiful woman asked as she raised her eyebrow.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Would you let us join you, if we wanted?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her bikini top. She was wearing just about the same amount of clothes as Sheela, and I really had to force myself not to look at her body. Fortunately, her silver eyes and face were amazing, so I didn’t have much of a problem looking at her face when she spoke.

  “I would have to talk to my tribe, but I don’t think there would be a problem.”

  “You would talk to your wife?” she asked with a smirk.

  “Trel already wants you all to join,” I laughed. “She’s like how you told me Emta is: a bit prickly at first, but a wonderful person.”

  “At this point, we would rather be independent,” Quwaru said. “I hope that doesn’t offend you.”

  “Well, no,” I said, “but it seems like you are getting more value out of our relationship.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “You are getting my protection, and I am getting salt and some tools. I could live without what you give me, but you can’t live without my help.”

  “So you are saying that you bring us more value than we are bringing you.” Her eyes narrowed a bit, but the red-skinned woman’s voice didn’t betray any anger.

  “I’m just saying that eventually I’m going to have all the tools I need, and all the salt I need, but you’ll need my protection for the foreseeable future. So yeah, you can do your own thing over here, and as long as you stay hidden from dinosaurs and other tribes, you’ll be fine, but you are probably going to need my help again and again.”

  “Your point is fair,” she said with a nod. “I will speak with them more. Change can be difficult, especially when we have lost someone so important to us. Will-Lack helped make this our home.”

  “What do you want me to do with his body?” I asked.

  “Hmmm.” Her full lips twisted as she considered my question for a few moments. “My people burn the bodies and scatter the ashes, but I do not know what his people did. I believe he would be fine with burning, if not, I will bear the error on my own soul.”

  “I can do that,” I said.

  “Thank you again,” the beautiful succubus-like woman said as she reached out her hand. “Will you touch me?”

  I stared at her palm and fingers with a bit of hesitation. I knew there was a possibility that this whole thing had been a ruse, and touching the succubus might be incredibly dangerous to me, but I hadn’t observed any hint of that during the conversations with Quwaru and her people.

  I looked back into the beautiful woman’s silver eyes and almost laughed. Maybe I was being a total idiot, but damn, I just had trouble denying pretty girls what they wanted, and Quwaru wasn’t just a pretty girl.

  All the women on Dinosaurland were absolutely gorgeous.

  “Yeah,” I said as I reached my hand out and wrapped my fingers around Quwaru’s.

  Her skin was warmer than mine, but it felt soft and smooth. I had kinda sorta feared mind control or death by touch, but I didn’t feel anything besides her touch. Then she smiled at me, squeezed my hand once, and we let go of each other.

  “You are a good man,” she said. “No,
you are a great man. I have felt your emotions, and I know that you are generous and caring. I know you are passionate and optimistic. I sense your resolve and your genius. I will tell the others, Victor.”

  “Uhhh, okay,” I reached up to scratch my head and felt my cheeks flush. “I wouldn’t really say I’m a genius or anything. I try to be a nice guy, but--”

  “Survival is not often kind to those who are kind,” she interrupted me. “You understand that too.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed.

  “I look forward to seeing you in a week,” Quwaru whispered, and then she gave me a final nod before she turned back toward her friends.

  I tried not to watch her ass as she walked away, but I failed miserably and didn’t realize I was staring until Scoob pushed his head into my back. He let out a hoot that sounded a bit like a snicker and I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Oh, come on! You’ve never been distracted by a nice butt?”

  The troodon let out three short hoots, and I laughed again.

  “Fair enough, let’s go meet with everyone else. I’ve got a lot to tell them.”

  I turned my eyes back to the jungle in time to see Sheela, Trel, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald step out. The five women smiled at me, and I walked across the field toward them with my small army of dinosaurs marching behind me.

  Chapter 3

  “Do those idiots now understand how amazing you are?” Trel asked as soon as I walked up to them.

  “They are thankful,” I said with a shrug. “They are going to be making some stone arrowheads, spear tips, and various other blades that we can use for woodworking. We’ll come back in a week with our clay plates and cups, then do the trade.” I gestured to the pathway through the jungle as I finished speaking, and the six of us begin to walk toward the beach while the troodons took point and the larger dinos plowed through the plants at our rear. The path that the T-rex had taken was pretty obvious, but I kept my dinos on the trail as much as I could.

  “But they should be really thankful,” Trel scoffed after we walked for a few moments. “They were impolite.”

  “They are fine,” I said. “One of them is a bit prickly, but she’ll come around. Most people do.” I smiled at Trel, but the beautiful spider-woman didn’t seem to realize I was kind of referring to her. “We will eventually all end up getting along. We have to, in order for us all to survive. That reminds me, thank you all for the work you put in. It wasn’t just me who saved their lives, you all helped.”