Tamer- King of Dinosaurs 4

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Doesn’t matter how it happened,” I said. “Emerald saw their camp and heard them talk. I’m guessing that she must be crazy powerful, do you have any idea what she can do?”

  Emerald shook her head, but then wrapped her arms around her shoulders, shivered, and then made the eight-four with her fingers.

  “Everyone is terrified of her?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “What are we going to do, Victor?” Galmine asked, and the other women’s eyes all looked concerned.

  “There is just one guy that flies,” I said, and Emerald nodded again, so I continued. “This is good. He is coming here and he doesn’t know our exact number. They just know this is a camp, and he took one of us easily.” Emerald nodded again, and I felt a smile come to my face. “He’s going to underestimate us. His whole tribe will. He’ll come here, and we’ll be ready. Then we’ll kill him and figure out how to take out his tribe.”

  “Do we know that this tribe is… uhh, not nice?” Kacerie asked, and we all turned to Emerald.

  “If they are taking prisoners, I’m going to guess that they are assholes,” I said, and Emerald nodded her head urgently.

  “What do they do with the people they capture?” Liahpa asked, and Emerald made a motion with her hands as if she was holding onto something and shaking it horizontally.

  “I don’t know what that means,” Liahpa said as they all turned to me.

  “It looks like she is in a cage,” I said and Emerald nodded at me.

  “They keep people prisoners in cages?” Kacerie asked. “What do they do with them ultimately?”

  Emerald shook her head, clutched her breasts, and then gestured to the crotch of her pants.

  “Fucking assholes,” I growled. “I’m going to stop them.”

  “If they only have one member that flies, they will lose that advantage after we kill the man.” Sheela tapped her spear butt against the ground as she spoke, and I could see that her fingers were tight around the weapon.

  “But they know where our camp is located?” I asked as I turned to Emerald, and the silent woman nodded.

  “Do they know where Quwaru’s camp is?” I asked, and Emerald surprised me by nodding.

  “Shit,” I growled. “So if we take out the flying asshole, it’s still just a matter of time before they come here for us.”

  Emerald nodded.

  “Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “Let the idiots come. Victor will destroy them with his dinosaurs.”

  “I don’t know if it will be that easy,” I said.

  “Of course it will,” she laughed. “Emerald, how many days of walking are they from us?”

  Emerald looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and then she held up two and then three fingers.

  “See?” Trel said, “We have two days to prepare for them.”

  “They might not even come,” Liahpa said.

  “I’m sure they will come,” I replied.

  “Maybe,” the red-eyed woman said with a shrug. “Think about it though, they probably just have this one flying man going around the continent snatching people. When he doesn’t come back, they might decide to just leave us alone. A two or three day walk is a pretty dangerous task in Dinosaurland.”

  I looked to Emerald after Liahpa finished speaking, and the green-haired woman shrugged her shoulders. Then she pointed to her bicep again.

  “They might leave us alone, they might take a while to get here, but they are strong, and we should plan on fighting them sooner rather than later?” I asked, and Emerald nodded.

  Then she smiled at me, and her teeth matched her eyes.

  “Okay,” I said. “First problem is the fucker coming in the morning. How long did it take for him to bring your doppelgänger back to his camp?”

  Emerald raised one finger and then wiggled her hand a bit.

  “About an hour?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “And you are sure he’s leaving in the morning?” I asked. “Couldn’t he leave any moment?”

  Emerald shook her head and then pointed up to sky. As if on cue, the sky was lit up with a fork of lighting, and a distant boom of thunder crashed.

  “Fair enough,” I said. “And you can’t do your doppelgänger again?

  Emerald shook her head and frowned.

  “Kacerie, has your Lance ability reset?” I asked.

  “No,” she sighed. “I don’t know if it is resetting at random now, or if it is actually quicker. It’s only been a day and a half, and it takes many days on my world.”

  “How long did it take the last time?” I asked.

  “Uhhh. Two days, I think,” she said.

  “So we won’t have a doppelgänger and we won’t have a Lance,” I grunted. “We are going to need some bait to get him down to the ground, and then we are probably going to need a way to keep him from escaping while we kill him.”

  “It will be simple,” Trel said. “I will stand out in the open looking beautiful, as I always do. Since no man can resist me, he will swoop down to try to kidnap me. Then your dinosaurs will rip him to pieces.”

  “The troodons and the balaurs might be able to kill him quickly,” I said, “but he also lifted Emerald’s doppelgänger and flew for an hour. I’m worried that he might throw my dinos off and then escape. We’ll be in serious trouble then.”

  “We need a net,” Kacerie said, but Emerald waved at us, flapped her arms, and then gestured to her teeth.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “A net might not work because the flying asshole has sharp looking teeth on his wings. He might just cut through it.”

  “I will throw my spear at him,” Sheela said, “Or shoot an arrow. If my aim is true, he will die.”

  “And you have great aim,” I said as I smiled at the blonde woman. “It is a solution, we just have to figure out how to get you closer.”

  “He’ll be so awestruck by my beautiful body, he will not even notice anyone else is around him.” Trel cackled and then tapped her bony fingers together.

  I didn’t really like the idea of using Trel as bait, but I didn’t know if I had a better choice. Galmine couldn’t fight back if she needed to, Kacerie couldn’t really either. Sheela could, but I’d rather have her make a surprise attack with her Critical Strike instead of fighting him face to face. Emerald didn’t have a doppelgänger ready.

  Then I turned to Liahpa, and I got an idea.

  “Can you be the bait?” I asked.

  “Me?” she asked as she looked back at Trel.

  “Yeah,” I said. “He won’t be able to take you.”

  “He won’t?” she asked with confusion on her beautiful face, but then the realization struck her, and she laughed. “Of course!”

  “Yeah,” I said as I grinned. “How is he going to pick you up? You can just carry a rock in your hand or something and make it heavier.”

  Emerald waved to us, and then she pointed to her pants when we all looked.

  “Oh yeah,” I said, “He was wearing pants. Can you make those weigh a bunch?”

  “Sure,” Liahpa laughed. “He won’t be going anywhere.”

  “So here is a rough plan,” I said. “You’ll be out in the central open part of the fort. We’ll need you to be working on something.”

  “I could be crafting weapons,” Liahpa answered.

  “Cordage would be better,” I said. “Or maybe potting stuff. Yeah. We’ll have you at the table working with clay. He’ll swoop down to grab you, you make his pants weigh a bunch so he can’t get away, and then Sheela will kill him with her spear. I’ll have the troodons hiding in the grass nearby as back up.”

  “The table is under one of our roofs, though,” Kacerie said as she pointed to the table. “Will he be able to see Liahpa if she is working there?”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “He’ll see her for sure if she’s out in the open, but then he might think it is a trap. Emerald, what do you think?”

  We turned to look at the scaled woman and she looked thoughtful for a few moments. Then she waved her arm
s like a bird, tapped her temple, and then tapped her bicep again.

  “The flying guy is smart and strong?” I asked, and she nodded with a frown, and then she pointed to the boulder we were using as a work table.

  “You think Liahpa should be at the table because he’ll be less likely to think it is a trap?” I asked, and she nodded again.

  “There you go,” Liahpa said with a shrug, but then she turned to look at the boulder, and I saw her face darken.

  “You going to be okay with being the bait?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she nodded, but I could tell that she was having second thoughts.

  “I know you, uhhh, well, have a bit of an issue with men, so--”

  “I’ll be fine,” Liahpa growled. “I’ve faced harder challenges in my life and came out on top. I am not afraid of a male. Even one with big wings that have teeth on them.”

  “You are very brave, Liahpa,” Galmine gasped. “I would be afraid of getting captured and taken to a camp filled with mean men who would use my body as--”

  “That’s okay,” I cut Galmine off as I saw Liahpa’s red eyes widen. “We aren’t going to let anyone get kidnapped.” I set my hand on the shoulder of the silver-woman, and she turned her red eyes to my fingers before she gave me a shadow of a smile.

  “I wish to be a more integral part of this plan,” Trel said.

  “Alright,” I said as I thought through the missing pieces. “How do we hide Sheela?”

  “Hmmm,” Trel muttered as she tapped her long finger to her lips. “Ahh! I have it! We’ll dig a small trench and cover it with leaves and sticks. We can even make a ring of stones around it so it looks like it would be a campfire. Sheela will be concealed beneath, and then she can spring out and teach the idiot male his last lesson.”

  “I think that will work,” I said, and then I turned to Emerald. “What do you think, you heard all of them talk amongst themselves? Can we fool him?”

  Emerald nodded, but then covered her ears and shrugged.

  “You didn’t hear all their conversations, so you aren’t positive, but you still think it will work?”

  Emerald nodded, and I turned back around to the other women.

  “We are going to need to prep for this guy. I know we are all tired, but we should go work on the hole for Sheela, and then practice where everyone is going to stand and a few different scenarios just in case--”

  I heard Tom make a trumpet blast cry, and the troodons and raptors all jerked their heads toward the gate of our fort.

  “What was that?” Kacerie asked, and the surrounding dinos all began to sprint away.

  “Whoa,” I said, and the group of troodons and balaur bondocs skidded across the wet grass until they stopped. Then I looked back to my friends and gestured to one of the spears on the wall. “Something is at the gate. Everyone but Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa get inside the inner wall.”

  Sheela was up in an instant, and she tossed me an obsidian-tipped spear from across the fire. I caught it easily, spun it in my calloused hand, and then started running with the troodons and raptors across the clearing. I only made it ten steps before Sheela, Liahpa, and Trel caught up to me, and Trel quickly outpaced everyone when she used her spider legs to sling shot herself forward across the ground.

  The night wasn’t quite pitch black, but the storm clouds covered all the stars and the two moons and the light rain wasn’t helping. I could only see about five feet in front of me as I ran, but Rachel ran a bit slower in front of me, and I was able to guide myself by her white feathers.

  “Victor!” I heard a shout outside the gate when I finally made it there, and I felt my shoulders relax a bit.

  “Who is it?” I called out, but Trel had already scaled the wall and hissed the answer down to me.

  “It is that idiot woman with the twisting hair!”

  “Emta?” I called out, and then I crept close to the closed gate.

  “Yes!” she shouted. “We need your help! Can I come closer?”

  “Yeah!” I shouted over the rain, and I ordered Tom, Katie, Scoob’s gang, and the Friends to all relax.

  “What’s wrong? I asked as we all stepped to the side joint of the gate. There was a small gap there, and Emta put her face against it.

  “It’s… Zoru…” she gasped, and I couldn’t tell if she was hurt or breathing heavy from running, or both. “He’s hurt really bad. Quwaru asked for me to come to you for help.”

  “Ha!” Trel shouted from up above us. “Just as I thought, as soon as you need my husband, you come crawling--”

  “How did he get hurt?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

  “I was attacked as I ran here,” she wheezed. “I’ll be okay. I just--” she started coughing, and I saw blood dribble from her mouth.

  “Shit!” I growled. “Let’s get this gate open!”

  Liahpa, Sheela, and I grabbed on the cross section of the door and yanked it up and out a crack so that Emta could stumble through. I couldn’t quite see her injuries in the dark, but she looked like she could barely walk. We put the gate back down in the slots, and then we all ran over to her as she collapsed on the wet grass.

  “Where are you hu-- holy shit!” I gasped when I saw that her chest was cut open and her left arm was gone at the elbow. She was covered with bite marks, scratches, and her hair was weakly twitching.

  “You should have seen what I did to them,” she coughed, laughed, and then coughed again.

  “Let’s get her under the shelter,” I said as I pushed my arms under her neck and legs. Then I stood up from my squat and ran back toward the campfire with my friends and dinosaurs in tow.

  “We don’t have time,” Emta hissed as she brought her right arm up to wrap around my shoulders. “Do you have anyone who can heal others?”

  “Tell me what happened,” I said as soon as we reached the camp fires. I set the olive skinned woman down next to the holes where we had the flame, and the extra light showed me that the cuts on her chest were much more serious than I’d first thought. I could see her rib bones, and her intestines were hanging out of her stomach like a drooping fanny pack.

  “Yesterday, Zoru and I were attacked when we went to fish.”

  “Dinosaurs?” I asked.

  “No,” she coughed. “It was a big male with black wings and skin. We fought against him, but he cut Zoru up bad. Me too, but I healed and managed to drive him off.”

  “Then he flew in our direction,” I said.

  “You’ve seen him?” she gasped, and I saw Kacerie lean over and whisper in Galmine’s ear. The gray-skin woman nodded, and I saw them both stand and walk out into the rain.

  “Yeah,” I said, “he came here, we know where their camp is, but--”

  “He’s strong,” she growled as she tried to sit up. “I know how to fight, but I think he could have beat me if he wanted. I think he realized I was going to be too much trouble, so he fled. Can you help Zoru?”

  “We don’t have anyone that can heal--”

  “I was the only one who could make the trip to you,” she said as she grabbed my right hand with hers. “Everyone else is in the cave. If Zoru dies, I’ll be the only one who can protect them. Quwaru can fish, but she can’t fight that well. Please help us.”

  “Now you come to us for help?” Trel scoffed. “After you insulted my husband?”

  “It’s okay,” I said as I waved to Trel. “I still want to help them, but I don’t know if we can. How bad is he hurt?”

  “He is cut on the sides and stomach,” Emta said. “He’s in shock, and I don’t think he’ll live through the night. I ran all the way here, in the next valley over, I was attacked by dinosaurs bigger than those.” She nodded to the balaur bondocs.

  “The next valley over?” Sheela asked.

  “Yeah,” Emta coughed. “I beat them off, and then ran the rest of the way here.”

  “In the dark, with your arm and chest like that?” I asked.

  “I would have gotten here sooner, but I didn’t know e
xactly where your fort was. Will-Lack just said it was in a clearing in the middle of the redwood forest.”

  I glanced up at Sheela, and the stoic warrior actually looked impressed.

  “We don’t have anyone with a healing ability,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Ahhh,” Emta sighed as she closed her eyes.

  “That’s not entirely true,” Kacerie said as she and Galmine stepped back into the light. Galmine carried some of our horseradish and garlic on her hands, and Kacerie held up her needles.

  “I don’t know how much that will help,” I said as I nodded at the needle.

  “What is it?” Emta asked as she tried to look up toward Galmine and Kacerie.

  “We have a solution that will help with infection,” I said, “and we have a needle and thread to sew up wounds, but I don’t know if--”

  “Please help us!” Emta gasped. “Victor, please. I’m sorry I was such a hot head with you. I didn’t want to admit what I know now: We can’t survive on our own. We need to join with your group. You’ve already helped us before. You are a…” Emta coughed again, and more blood dribbled out her mouth. “... good man.”

  I looked up at my friends and started doing the math in my head. It would be really hard to make it back to their fort during the night, but even if I could somehow lead the dinos through there while I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me, I didn’t know exactly how many hours I had until dawn.

  And then how many hours I had left until the winged man showed up at our fort and tried to take Liahpa.

  Even if we got to Zoru in time, there was no telling if we’d be able to help the purple-furred monkey creature. All we could do is clean out his wounds and then sew him up. Even though Kacerie had done a good job with Nicole’s leg, sewing up someone innards was a lot different from a light flesh wound. He was probably a lost cause, and I’d take a significant risk rushing out there with hopes to save him.

  I sighed and tried to think of any upside to trying to save Zoru. I hated to think about it in numbers, but I had my own tribe to protect, and I knew that risking myself would be risking them.

  “I was the only one who didn’t want to join you,” Emta said, and I figured she was guessing at my hesitation. “Even if you can’t save him, I’ll vote to join you if you just come back with me. It would show that you care for us, and that was all I wanted. Again, I’m sorry I was so mean to you when we first met. I have excuses, but none of those matter now. I just don’t want my friend to die. I don’t want any of my friends to die.” Her hand squeezed mine, and her eyes stared intently into mine as her hair wiggled across her shoulders.