by Brian King
And heading toward the entrance of the cave.
Almost like it knew the territory had been vacated by those most able to defend it.
When Sheela saw the intruder, she waved a spear and screamed to get its attention. The pterodactyl kind of lumbered around like I had seen bats do; it hunched over the elbows of its wings. The dino belted out a surprised squawk as it hopped up and started flying to get away from her. Dust blew from the side of the path, and the creature slowly climbed into the sky before the blonde woman could get too close.
Sheela dropped two of her spears, twisted her right arm back, and hurled her javelin at the flapping lizard. It was an impressive display of athleticism, but the dinosaur was already thirty feet in the air, and Sheela’s spear fell short and sailed just under its feet. The beast seemed to understand that Sheela had almost hit it, and it let out a screech as it circled above her.
“It looks like it might try to dive!” I shouted as I weaved my way through the trees of the hillside.
As I reached the spears Sheela left behind, the pterodactyl fell through the leafy canopy like it had been dropped from a plane. It smashed through several branches and snapped them like dried twigs. At the last possible second the pterodactyl threw open its broad wings and came to a hover just a few feet over Sheela’s head. The down thrust of wind blew Sheela's long hair around, and it looked like part of the mane covered her face.
“Sheela! Above you!”
The blonde woman dove away an instant before the razor beak would have impaled her. The cat-woman rolled a few yards, got back to her feet, and hopped behind the trunk of a small tree. The pterodactyl made another dive toward her, but its wings were so large it could not fly under the low branches. It was the perfect defensive spot, and she was able to avoid its attacks.
The animal screamed in apparent frustration, beat its wings a few more times, and then circled back to land on the hillside close to Sheela. As soon as it landed, its leathery wings folded on each side so they became the odd-looking legs again. The dino didn’t appear quite as scary on the ground as it did in the air, but now could easily walk into the clump of trees where Sheela had retreated. Without a weapon, it wouldn’t be easy to keep that sharp beak from poking her.
She needed my help.
“Hey! Over here,” I shouted at the pterodactyl as I set the pot on some flat ground and then picked up one of Sheela’s discarded spears.
“Get away from her!” I yelled as I sprinted toward it.
I didn’t know how to fight a winged dinosaur from the Jurassic era, but I did know how to deal with rabid animals back home when they threatened humans. I closed the distance with my spear extended and cursed for all I was worth.
When I was within spear range, I got a good look at its black eyes and the thin, brown crest sticking backward from the top of its head. Maybe it could see into my eyes, too, and knew I meant business, because the creature spread its wings again and launched off the ground with a hop and several quick wing flaps.
A few moments later, the pterodactyl had gotten about ten feet in the air, and it was pumping its wings frantically to escape. I mimicked Sheela as I threw the long spear with as much muscle as I could put behind it. The primitive weapon hit the center of the monster’s chest, but I’d put a little tilt in my throw, and the sharpened point didn’t penetrate the flying lizard’s tough skin. The creature screamed, nonetheless, and I swear he flapped ten times harder to get away.
The spear cartwheeled down and came to a rest in a bush.
I flipped on my Eye-Q and requested info for the flying dinosaur before it could get too far away.
“Identification: Pterosaur, Pteranodon longiceps, female.”
I blinked off the Eye-Q just as Sheela stepped out from under her protective tree. She appeared ready for another attack, but her hair was a tangled mess and bits of dirt clung to her already-ruined bikini. Instead of a spear, the cat-woman held an egg-sized rock in her palm while scanning above us. I felt kind of dumb thinking she was unarmed because everything was a potential weapon to her.
“That was an excellent throw, Victor.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t kill it,” I replied with a bit of regret.
“We will never be able to kill everything on this planet. Sometimes it is enough to chase the enemy from the field of battle.” Sheela dropped the rock so she could pick up the fallen spear.
The dinosaur flapped back to its perch in the tree but it concerned me it wasn’t leaving.
“My Eye-Q said that’s a female pterosaur, but we call them pterodactyl’s back home.” I said as I pointed to the creature. “You think she’ll try for us again?”
Since Sheela held the spear, I picked up the rock she’d set down so I had some sort of weapon.
“I would not be surprised,” Sheela said as we walked back to the water container. “She might wish to lay her eggs in the cave.”
“Well, she’s going to have to get in line,” I said with nervous laughter. “Somehow we’ve become the hottest spot in town.”
I was relieved to find the water pot was upright and mostly filled. I pocketed my throwing rock before picking up the clay container. Sheela grabbed the other spear, and we turned back. We both kept our eyes on the pterosaur as we hurried up the ramp to the cave, but the winged animal seemed content to preen herself rather than fight us again.
But she was one more problem for us. There were now two species threatening to cause trouble in our neighborhood.
Sheela went right inside our cave, but I stopped and looked into the forest one final time. What other monsters were looking to move in?
Chapter 6
Back inside the cave, I carefully set the water pot at the edge of the fire as if it were made of eggshells. Then I knelt to catch my breath and settle my red-lined heart rate. Sheela was already sitting at the fire near Galmine, and the gray-skinned woman smiled at both of us.
“Did you guys hear that pterodactyl?” I asked while breathing hard. “Sheela and I just scared it away.”
“We heard it screech,” Galmine said in a voice suggesting she’d been holding her breath until we arrived. “Thank you so much for helping Sheela protect us. She’s been doing so much for us on her own. I know she’s glad you were there. I’m happy to see you both are safely back. Trel stayed near me to ensure I was okay while you two battled that bird.”
“Oh, please,” Trel replied with dripping sarcasm coating her voice. “I was only checking the fire, and it’s a good thing I did. Because apparently, no one else can do it. It was going out. What would we have used to cook?”
“We can start a new fire--” Sheela began, but the spider-woman cut her off.
“Whatever, let’s see what the male brought us,” Trel scoffed as she walked on her human legs toward me. “Oh, great. He’s spilled most of it. Typical male incompetence.”
I was rather impressed with my performance. After I sloshed away the first inch, I’d managed to bring most of the remainder across the forest and up the ramp. It was at least 90% of what I pulled from the stream and that felt pretty damned good.
“You cannot fault Victor. We had to hurry and defend the cave from the pterodactyl,” Sheela replied as her eyes narrowed a bit at Trel.
“It was that close?” Trel asked. “It sounded far away.”
“Very close. It almost made it inside.” The blonde woman pointed at the door.
“Ah, well then. That’s different. Almost doesn’t count,” Trel rolled her eyes and then crossed her arms over her perky breasts. The movement hid her nipples from me, and I realized I’d been staring at her.
Sheela let out an almost silent sigh and then sat with her legs crossed while she tended the fire. I found my eyes drawn to her little swath of bikini, and I forced myself to look away.
“Thank you for helping me, Victor,” Sheela said with obvious relief. “Now you may rest and eat. You have earned it.”
I glanced at Trel, expecting trouble, but she suddenly seemed more
interested in drinking some of the water we’d brought.
“Please sit here, Victor,” Galmine said as she patted the ground between her and Sheela.
“Thank you,” I replied, still trying to catch my breath. I was already kneeling, so I shuffled on all fours around Sheela so I could sit between the two sexy women.
The running and tension of being outside had driven my hunger to new heights. The aroma of the stew got me drooling, but I managed to keep my cool and not bang my imaginary plate like one of those prison riot movies.
“I'm afraid we only have one spoon,” Sheela said as she picked up a blackened piece of carved wood from the side of the fire and used it to push the steaming clay pot in front of me.
“That's okay,” I replied. “I'm fine sharing, but you should all eat before--”
“As the Duchess of family Iria, I will obviously go first,” the spider-woman interrupted me. Trel made her way to the far side of Galmine, and her see-through dress pressed against her breasts, thighs, and ass in a way that made it hard for me to focus on anything else in the cave.
I heard Sheela sigh a bit as she used the spoon to slide the pot over to Trel. The spider-woman didn’t even bother to sit; she just reached down with her long, chitinous fingers, took the spoon from Sheela, and then thrust it into the little pot before pulling out a full portion of the delicious smelling turtle stew.
Trel’s black eyes turned to stare at me, and she licked the bottom of the spoon with a throaty moan. Her tongue danced across the edges of the small spoon as she lapped up the juices, and then she slowly slid it into her mouth. Her eyes never left mine, and I forgot to breathe.
“Mmm. Excellent,” Trel sighed after she slowly pulled the spoon out of her mouth and ran her tongue across her lips. She was still looking at me, and I saw her head lower a bit.
She was staring at my crotch.
My dick was threatening to rip out of my pants, so I changed the position of my legs in an effort to make my hard-on a little less noticeable. Trel was obviously trying to get me aroused, and it was working. I didn’t know why she was doing this, but I suspected she just wanted to play with my emotions.
Sheela reached out as if to take the spoon back, but Trel repeated her movement and took a second helping from the pot. The spider-woman kept her eyes on me while she licked the spoon again, and my cheeks burned.
“There is only enough for one scoop per person,” Sheela said with concern.
“Oh, shoot,” Trel replied with over-the-top fake sincerity as she turned her eyes from me. “I had no idea. Didn’t we used to get two?”
“I think you know,” Sheela said softly.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not giving one of my scoops to this male. This discussion has tired me, and I must now go rest.” The dark-haired woman gave the spoon to Galmine before she retreated to the back of the cave.
Trel didn’t bother looking at me when she walked away, but it didn’t matter anymore. My dick felt like it could have hammered nails into two-by-fours, and I glanced at the other two women to make sure they hadn’t noticed my painful erection.
“Guests first,” Galmine said as she passed me the spoon.
“You can go next.” I tried to hand it back, but Galmine crossed her arms and slowly shook her head.
“Men are always so polite,” Galmine declared. “I want you to go next as thanks for helping. I want you to feel welcome here among us.”
I turned to Sheela and offered her the spoon, but she shook her head.
“I hope you won’t see me as a guest for too long,” I said while reaching for the stew pot. “I want to be an equal member of your group.” I did want to be chivalrous and all, but I couldn’t remember ever being as hungry as I was at that moment.
I used the crude wooden spoon to capture a full helping of stew. When the turtle meat touched my lips, I was rewarded with an explosion of taste and satisfaction that nuked my usual meals of pizza and ramen noodles. I swallowed it all in one heaping gulp and felt the warm broth slosh into my empty stomach like a tidal wave.
“This is the best tasting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth,” I finally said with what I imagined was a bewildered look on my face. I knew rich people ate turtle soup, and now I could understand why.
“Starvation makes everything taste better,” Sheela said plainly, “but it is excellent.”
“I think it would be amazing, even if I weren’t starving. Who’s the chef?” I asked.
“Sheela caught it, I kept watch over it, and Trel kept watch over me,” Galmine said. “It was a team effort. We all work so well together.”
“I think I could eat that whole pot, and then twenty more after. Who’s next?” I asked as I looked to both Sheela and Galmine.
“Galmine can go next,” Sheela said with a nod toward the stone-skinned woman.
“Here, please take it back. Thank you for letting me eat before you,” I said to Galmine. I still felt crushing starvation, but I wasn’t going to complain in front of three beautiful women.
“You are most welcome,” Galmine said with her typical bubbly attitude.
The single mouthful of food did little but increase my hunger. There was nothing I could do about it though, so I leaned back on my hands and reflected on our situation. The pterodactyl in the tree was our most immediate threat, but in a world full of vicious, raging dinosaurs it was comparatively minor. Strangely enough, it was the most basic problems of food, water, and safety we had to solve, rather than pie-in-the-sky stuff like how to fight a T-Rex or why the aliens put us here.
“Pie would hit the spot,” I mused aloud.
“Pie? Is that one of your world’s foods?” Galmine asked, and her emerald eyes sparkled with interest.
“What? Oh, yes. Pie is a kind of a …” I tried to think of how to describe pie to a beautiful alien woman. I wasn’t even sure I knew how to make a pie. “It’s like a flattened basket of mashed up fruit wrapped in sugary baked bread.”
“I saw it in my head, but your description is much better. It sounds delicious,” Galmine replied as she tapped her temple. She then passed the spoon and pot to me.
I passed the food and spoon to the blonde cat-woman, and she took them from me gratefully. I watched her tip the pot to get at the remaining spoonful of stew, but then I turned away before she could slide the spoon into her mouth.
“I didn’t mean to talk about pie, but I was thinking about food,” I said. “I guessed that was the last of it, but you wouldn’t happen to have more turtles stashed here, would you?”
“No,” replied Sheela. “I have to hunt for it daily.”
“Yeah, I remembered you talking about that.” I asked. “How much meat can you bring back in a day?”
“Not enough, male, and now we have another mouth to feed.” Trel huffed from her nook in the back of the cave. I peered into the darkness toward her alcove, but there was some sort of privacy curtain, and the light of the fire had a hard time penetrating.
“He did just get--,” Galmine began to reply, but Trel interrupted her.
“I know exactly what he’s done. He’s been annoying, he’s followed Sheela to get the water, and he’s anxious to get his male mitts on our meager food supply.” Trel poked her beautiful face out from behind her silk curtain, and then she scrunched up her nose at the gray-skinned woman.
“I am trying to help you all with--” I started to say, but Galmine jumped in.
“We do have some berries.” She pointed back toward Trel. “We keep a bunch of them back there, where it isn’t as hot. We don’t have much, but it’s what I’m used to eating on my homeworld. Sheela was a sweetheart and found some for me to eat before she went away to find you.”
“Pfft. Some of us don’t eat weed seeds,” Trel said with snark.
“I was able to get many berries, yes,” Sheela explained. “They grow all around us on the hill outside the cave and are easy to gather if you have the time. My species can subsist on fruits and berries for a while, but we require m
eat if we are to exert ourselves.”
“You mean like getting water and hunting?” I asked.
“Yes, you are correct,” Sheela began. “Both require extra calories that I cannot get from eating fruit and vegetables like Galmine. However, hunting in this world is not easy. It is risky to kill big animals and I cannot carry back all the meat. It is much easier to grab small turtles and fish.”
“Even if we did kill a big dinosaur where would we store all the meat?” I asked as I thought about the small refrigerator in my apartment. “We’d be overwhelmed by scavengers a day or two before the place stank of rot.”
“But we would eat like queens while we had it,” Trel said dryly from her nook.
Sheela only nodded. “Turtles like this are my preferred quarry, for now. I can bring them back here alive and toss the shell when I am finished with it. But only the small turtles walk the shores of the lakes and creeks. The bigger ones are in the deep water.”
“Hunt every day and eat it right away? That sounds exhausting.” I really wished I had paid attention to those survival shows on television with the guys who could live for weeks on moss and tree bark. How would they handle food if they were on this planet?
“I am afraid it is,” Sheela answered. “I have to supplement our meals with fruits and berries, which is why I am not at my peak physical condition right now.”
I looked her up and down and found it hard to believe.
“You aren’t in top form? I can’t imagine what you’d look like if you were,” I said with a little chuckle.
I expected a smile in return, but Sheela turned serious. “On my homeworld, the women are expected to always maintain our bodies, maybe even more than the males.”
I was struck by how alien she really was; a woman with short soft fur, feline eyes, and a mane of hair that would be the envy of Rapunzel. All three of the women were aliens, but they didn’t fit the mold of the ‘little green men’ we always worried about back on earth. Maybe ‘alien’ was the wrong word since each of them were pulled from their homes and dumped here like me.
