Tamer: King of Dinosaurs

by Brian King

  “So, we can expect trouble at the lake?” I said with a little sarcasm.

  “Yes,” Sheela replied. “The lake always has predators lurking, but we have no real alternative.”

  “Couldn’t we walk that way? Along the foot of the hill?” I pointed to our left, which was the same way the creek flowed.

  “You think of every possibility,” Sheela said. “This is good. I prefer to stay on the ridgelines because the dinosaurs seem to prefer the lowlands. Not all of them. But many. This ridge has few trees and less distraction. Most animals will stay in the safety of ground cover.”

  “Won’t we be seen up there?” I replied. I thought again of Bambi and what happened to his mother in the open field.

  “Yes,” she nodded. “But observing them from far away helps us avoid true surprise and gives us options. It is a trade-off.”

  My brain processed everything she said and could find no fault in her logic. Last night, those green raptor dinos had been snooping around not far from where we were now standing. The pterodactyl also refused to leave the grove. Going up onto the hill to get away from those beasts didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

  “You want me to lead?” I asked with surprise when Sheela motioned for me to go in front of her. This was one of those times my first impulse was to let her take the lead and study what she did. Assign the task to the best player in the group and all that. But deep down I thought it would be cool to be in charge.

  “To survive, we must both lead,” Sheela replied. “I watched when you were alone in the jungle yesterday, and you did make mistakes, but I suspect much of that was due to dehydration. If I see you about to make similar errors, I will caution you.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said after a deep, calming breath and an internal. “I’m willing to try,”’ Learn by doing was how I lived my life before I came here. I endured high school and a little college, but most of what I learned about animals came from working with my parents in their animal hospital and not through textbooks. This was no different.

  I walked with Sheela following me around the rocks near the cave entrance so we could begin our ascent up the slope. A few of the big redwoods dotted the hillside in each direction, but most of the trees ahead of us were smaller and more like the elms, oaks, and regular-sized evergreens from back home.

  We’d run next to the same hill last night, but it had been hard to get perspective in the evening shadows. The crest of the hill was a couple hundred yards above us and went left and right as far as I could see through the trees. The slope was somewhat steep, but we didn’t have to crawl or hold onto trees to pull ourselves along.

  The rocky hillside became exposed, and the trees thinned out as we neared the bare, windswept summit. A few lichens and mosses dotted the rocks, but not much else. The ridgeline stretched to our left and right like a dark spine, and I stopped us just before I reached the very top.

  “See something?” Sheela whispered.

  “No. I didn’t want to stand on the top and be seen by everyone on both sides.” I didn’t explain the lesson came from video games. A million newbie players started their first-person shooter careers by standing out in the open so they could get cut down a second later.

  “Yes. Well done, Victor. Hunters in my tribe travel along the backside of hills for that same reason. We should look over the top to ensure there are no creatures along the frontside of the ridge where we intend to walk.”

  “So, you were just testing me?” I smirked at her.

  “Perhaps.” She returned my smile and gestured for me to keep going.

  We crept along the rocks until we had a view over the top of the hill.

  “Wow,” I breathed out with awe.

  The far side of the hill was essentially a cliff above the ocean. We were about a hundred feet above the stark blue water and we looked out on a V-shaped bay. A dark, volcanic mountain was on the left side; a jungle was on the right. Several islands hunkered on the distant horizon, including the one I briefly thought was Catalina from back home. Little clouds dotted the sky above them, and the scene was all sorts of peaceful.

  Except for the hordes of dinosaurs lurking in the jungle.

  “Why didn’t you tell me the ocean would be here?” I asked with a good-natured laugh.

  “Some surprises are useful,” she replied with a feline twinkle in her eye.

  “Damn, I don’t care if this is a dinosaur hellscape, this world sure is beautiful.” I could see for miles in every direction except where the redwoods stood behind me.

  “That fucking figures,” I said. “We live next to a damned volcano.”

  A lone, shattered mountain hugged the coastline on the left side of the bay. The greens and browns of redwoods lapped at the base, but nothing grew on the mountain itself. It would probably fit right into the Sierra Nevada’s back home, but it seemed all the more impressive because it stood alone next to the water. The entire top half appeared to have been blown outward like a giant volcano had exploded. White and gray smoke belched out of the top like an industrial-era factory, making me wonder if the inside was filled with lava. Gigantic, black spires of shiny rock projected high above the lip of the volcano, almost looking like a clawed hand reaching out from the smog.

  “It is impressive,” Sheela agreed. “Galmine said she arrived on the planet down there, on that tiny beach.” She pointed near the ocean waves below the volcano, but it was difficult to look down because the water reflected the rays of the morning sun directly into my eyes.

  “Amazing,” I said looking away from the glare. “How did she get up those cliffs?” The mountain was bad enough, but the thin beach on that side of the bay was guarded by high cliffs as far as I could see.

  “I do not ask her a lot of questions about her time alone. As I said about Trel, each of us carries the weight of that period of fear and handles it differently. I would be wary to climb those cliffs myself. I have been to the edge, and it is too high for my…” she paused for a long moment. “Climbing abilities.”

  I thought of my own journey and instinctively looked to the crowded jungle on the right side of the bay. The sandy beach and rainforest where I struggled to stay alive was somewhere in front of me. As the pterosaur flies, I couldn’t be too far from where I lost my shark-man acquaintance.

  “Sorry. I can’t help my curiosity,” I replied. “I guess I wouldn’t want to talk about my trip through the jungle, either, except that you already saw how mine ended.”

  “The past is done. We must go this way.” She pointed to our right, along the spine of rock, but waited for me to go first.

  “Now that we’re on somewhat level ground, are you okay if I run?” I asked.

  “I would do the same,” she agreed.

  We jogged along the ocean side of the ridgeline so we could see the forest below. We traveled for probably half an hour at that speed, only stopping to ensure nothing was sneaking up on us from the forest side of the hill. I also had to stop a few extra times in between to catch my breath. Thankfully, the only hints of trouble we encountered were distant howls, though that sound never really went away.

  The smell of the ocean drifted on the air when the wind blew in the proper direction. The breeze took the edge off the increasing heat of the morning and my exertion from running. It reminded me of being near the beach back home, which made it easier to block out all the things that could kill me here, just for a little while.

  From time to time we’d see giant pterodactyls gliding on the wind far out over the ocean. They really were magnificent creatures, especially when they weren’t trying to eat us. As we departed from the view of the bay, we saw more trees and fewer of those soaring birds.

  Finally, we entered what I assumed was the same jungle I’d escaped yesterday. The spine of the ridgeline went downward into the familiar choke of vines and trees, and we stuck with it until I had to stop at a jumble of white flowering vines blocking our path. It was the perfect place to catch my breath while lo
oking for a way through.

  “It is not much farther,” Sheela advised, hardly breathing any faster than normal. She leaned on her spear as she often did while talking to me.

  “How did you even find this place?” I asked.

  “I had to know what was around us. I have travelled from far up the beach,” Sheela said while pointing her thumb back over her shoulder. “So getting a feel for the area near the cave has been an interest of mine.”

  “How much have you explored?”

  “From the cave, I know the grove of tall redwood trees sits in a broad valley with a stream down the middle. I consider that the north side of our territory. The volcano of cracked rock by the ocean is to the east. Beyond that is the coastline I walked to get here.” She then pointed to the rainforest to her left. “And this jungle runs to the west. I do not know how far it goes.”

  “And to the south?” I asked.

  “Ocean and islands. I have not explored, of course, but perhaps one day we will have time to build a boat,” Sheela said matter-of-factly.

  “Maybe there are people out there. Or resources we can harvest. Who knows?” I said while thinking about that future voyage. I could barely see beyond my empty stomach and parched lips to consider building a boat, but I fantasize a bit about sailing on the water. I stood there in thought for a minute while my heart rate decreased.

  “Let’s keep going,” I said to end the brief delay. I picked my way through the white flowering vines until it was clear enough to resume our jog. My sore muscles complained about every step for most of our trip, but the morning’s sharp pain was now more of a dull annoyance as my muscles got used to the activity. My uniform didn’t help, either, as the sweat-drenched long pants stuck to my legs or became caught in vines and brambles. When I got back to the cave, I was seriously going to look at cutting shorts out of them to make running a whole lot cooler and easier.

  In ten minutes we were deep in the thick of the jungle, and I recalled those first few hours of meeting blood-thirsty raptors and running for my life. I almost hoped to see Kelg or Heracula emerge from the vines and clogged undergrowth. Each would claim I’d fallen into some hilarious practical joke and I’d soon be on my way home.

  However, the useless fantasizing didn’t last long. I now accepted my current situation, and this world, for what it was. In fact, getting my head straight was one of my biggest victories so far. Reliving the landing reminded me how lucky I was to fall into the laps of three beautiful women. And I couldn’t overlook I was already back in the same jungle, armed and a little less afraid. The shark man might even say I was “dangerous” now.

  That made me smile for a moment. I was glad to have known him, even for those few minutes.

  “The lake is just up ahead,” Sheela said after running for a little while longer. “I will lead for a couple of minutes, so I can show you where we need to go. Okay?”

  “I’ll be right behind you,” I said. I was proud that I’d gotten us there, but this was one of those times when experience trumped everything else, including my ego. She was a regular at the lake and made killing a giant croc look easy.

  “Those are places we must avoid,” she cautioned when we tore through vines and walked around flat areas which reeked of urine. “I suspect they are mating areas. We do not want to smell of animal pheromones.”

  I thought of Galmine’s dizzying scent and could imagine the consequences of being that enticing to a dinosaur.

  She eventually brought us to a familiar-looking ten-foot cliff. We walked along the edge for about seventy-five feet before reaching a little waterfall spilling over into the jungle below us.

  That’s when I recognized it was the same creek I’d used to guide me up and out of the lower part of the jungle. Just before I dunked my head in the lake and almost had it taken off by the giant croc.

  “There is the body of the crocodile,” Sheela said as if reading my thoughts.

  We were now on the opposite shore of the little lake, but the corpse of the huge monster was impossible to miss. It remained where she’d struck it dead at the edge of the water. However, it did look as if it had been visited by the steak knife salesman.

  Something big had come along and turned it over, so its belly faced the sky. Then the scavenger must have sliced the dead croc’s stomach wide open and made it into a serving dish. Blood and bones were splashed randomly all over the muddy bank. In spite of having been gutted, some meat must have been left on the bones, because small dog-sized dinosaurs nosed through the carcass. They were miniature versions of the green-feathered raptors I knew so well, but their feathers were almost all black.

  Sheela guided us through some tall marsh grasses on our side of the lake so the little black dinos couldn’t see us. I was sort of sad to see the body being picked apart, but obviously, I was stoked it wasn’t me lying over there. I glanced ahead to Sheela’s athletic frame, thankful she saved me from that horrible fate. She’d given me a second chance at this world.

  We walked for a few minutes before I realized the lake was much larger than I remembered. The small pond where the crocodile and I met was one cove of a much larger body of water. Now that I was safely on the shore and not dying of dehydration, I saw the lake beyond. Sheela guided us along the confusing bends of the jungle shoreline until we arrived at a thin slice of water about twenty feet wide.

  “We can be somewhat safe here,” she said as she crouched near the water.

  About fifty feet away there was a narrow passage leading to the main lake. That constriction made our little cove very private from the open water side, and I glanced around us to ensure there were no animals.

  The dense jungle pressed in from all sides, giving us a bit of privacy on the shore, and I figured that a dino would have to stumble through the trees before it would see us. The undergrowth stopped a few feet before it met the water, giving us a way to walk around the cove.

  I stood next to Sheela on the red clay shore and poked my spear in the water several times. When I was satisfied no crocs were hiding, I got down on my knees and dipped my hat. It had too many seams to hold water for very long, but it was still better than using my hands. And I sure as hell wasn’t ready to stick my face in. I yanked it out, took a quick drink, and poured the rest on my head.

  “I’m in heaven,” I said while trying to forget that I was in a sick amusement park world called Dinosaurland.

  However, I couldn’t forget for long because I had endless worries. Galmine was probably only on her second leaf, which wasn’t her fault, but it put pressure on me to think of ways to speed her up. Getting to the lake took longer than I expected. I was already starting to worry about how we were going to get firewood and then dinner tonight.

  “It was a good idea bringing the pot for more water,” Sheela said, now kneeling at the water’s edge next to me.

  “I appreciate that you went out and got it the first time today,” I said. “If I knew the lake was this far, I might have drunk Trel’s portion before she could come out and insult me.” I turned to gauge the cat-woman’s response, but she seemed distracted for a moment.

  “May I borrow that?” she finally said while looking at my sopping wet outback hat. I passed it over, and she did the same thing I’d done: she dipped it in the water, took a drink, then poured the remainder over her head.

  “Refreshing,” she declared, before passing the drippy hat back to me. While on her knees, she used both of her hands to brush back her wet and wild hair, looking every bit like she belonged at Lacey’s pool party. I couldn’t help but marvel at how attractive she was.

  “Trel was correct about something, you know,” she said dryly.

  “This should be hilarious,” I said with a touch of anxiety.

  “She described you as easy to read, which you are. To her, that is a flaw. I, however, prefer strong males who see what they want and do what they must do to take it, and I see you looking at me, Victor.”

  “Looking at you?” I asked with concern
as I got my hat back on. I never expected an alien like Sheela to notice me, but all of a sudden I knew I was going to get the very Earth-like “You aren’t my type,” speech.

  “You look at Galmine and Trel just the way you look at me. I know why you do it,” she said in an even tone.

  “I, uh.” My heartbeat was an untamed mustang while I waited for her to keep talking.

  “You desire sexual fulfillment,” she said in a sympathetic tone. “It is in your eyes when you look at each of us. Trel, for instance, confuses and excites you. I do not know why she behaves that way around you.”

  “Galmine, however, hides nothing,” she continued. “While we have known you only a short time, you have shown yourself to be honorable and kind. That is enough for her to want to know you better. I believe you would find her most receptive to your desires.”

  I considered what Galmine said in my ear last night and wondered if the two women talked about it before I woke up.

  I rubbed my head and peered into the water, hoping the next words out of her mouth would be what I wanted to hear. Sure, Galmine’s curves were hot beyond words, and Trel was, well, gorgeous and deadly in one convenient package. But Sheela was a health-magazine-cover “physical trainer” kind of sexy that was well beyond my wildest fantasies back home. Just listening to the all-business warrior woman talk about sex while we were in a danger-filled jungle was making my heart race.

  “As for me, while I appreciate your interest in my body, I cannot act on such attraction because I am married.”

  “Oh, ahh. Okay,” I quickly said, even though my chest was saying: “Well, fuck.”

  “I am glad you understand.” Sheela didn’t look at me. Instead, she got busy filling the pot with water, then she stood up and carried it away like nothing had just happened.

  I was left with my thoughts as the water rippled across the surface of the pond. By the time the ripples were gone, I’d taken comfort that her being married was a pretty good reason to reject me. I would respect her values and keep my head up high. And she did mention Galmine had an interest in me. That was a walk-off homerun in itself, but I couldn’t even think about it until I was safe back in the cave.