by Brian King
“Ooh, even better. I’d love to know how you picked up women and bedded them,” Galmine asked while she playfully squeezed my knee. I sat between her and Sheela, but Galmine remained much closer after she hugged me. She loved to talk with her hands and sometimes, like now, she spoke with a hand glued to my body.
“I don’t think you’d be very interested in my sex life,” I finally replied. Talking to three attractive women about how I failed at picking up attractive women seemed like a no-win scenario.
“You’re right. We aren’t.” Trel shook her head, but she didn’t move back into her alcove.
“I should get back to work.” I stopped carving to consider how much I had left. After a couple of hours of whittling with sharp rocks, I’d only carved the hole about halfway through the wooden handle.
“No, please.” Galmine said in her cheery voice. “I want to know all about you. You don’t have to be ashamed. On my world sex can be initiated by either gender but usually there are so many of us together you never really have to worry about finding body warmth.”
I cocked my head with an admittedly confused look on my face.
“You mean you have sex with multiple people?” I asked. I tried not to sound overly interested in the topic, even though I was.
“Oh, yes. Of course. I’m surprised someone like you doesn’t find it easy to engage multiple partners,” Galmine said as if the idea was incredible. “You are so handsome.”
I sat there not sure what to say. On the one hand, I was never great with women, and when I was finally getting a grasp on them, my parents died in the car accident. I had been forced to drop out of school and get a job. The confidence to talk to pretty girls wasn’t really on the table when one was eating ramen every day to barely scrape by. On the other hand, after spending a few days on this planet, I wouldn’t be afraid to go back and hit on every sexy woman at Lacey’s pool party. The threat of death put everything in perspective.
“Uhh, thanks Galmine,” I said.
“I should probably explain that my world is very dull,” the silver-haired swimsuit model went on. “It can be cold and lonely at times, but we manage to grow more than enough food to keep us healthy and alive. There is little to do in the chill of nighttime, except gather in large groups for warmth, talk, and to find comfort in the bodies of others. It would be rare to engage in such flirtations with just one partner.”
“Eww,” Trel chimed in. “The thought of suffering the presence of multiple men makes my stomach churn. I enjoy sex with the one I deem worthy, but finding a second male for the same breeding period would be tedious beyond words. Can you even fathom the sight of two Victors?”
“Mmm,” Galmine hummed. Her broad smile and hungry eyes suggested she totally disagreed with Trel. I smiled back but had no interest in arguing the point with the spider-woman.
The charcoal and embers of the hot fire snapped and crackled as the discussion momentarily died down. The smells of our dinner hung in the air of our smoky chamber, though most of it wafted out the front door.
“So, um, Sheela, does your kind have multiple partners like Galmine’s world?” I asked as I turned her way. She continued to crank out cord at an impressive rate while we all chatted, but she stopped at my question.
“Only the males. The strongest men may take as many wives as they can support. Many have three or four, but a few have much more, especially the nobility. My husband is a lord of a very powerful province on my world. He has the wealth and power to support a great harem of women. I became his property a week before I was brought to this planet.” Sheela spoke calmly, but I interpreted sadness in her words.
“You were a newlywed? I’m sorry. That really blows,” I said sympathetically.
“Do not feel sorry about my marriage,” the feline woman replied. “I was his seventeenth wife, and we only met once to consummate the arrangement. If I had not been taken and brought here, our next night together might still have been many months from now. All husbands of power have their favorite wives.”
“I don’t think I would like your world, Sheela,” Galmine admitted. “Can women have multiple husbands? That might make it a little better,” she said, sounding uncertain.
“No. Women are property, and we seldom cooperate among our gender because the competition for marriage is so intense,” Sheela explained.
“And what of the extra males?” Trel asked from back in her chambers. “If there are so many women to each man, what happens to the males who have no women?”
“Wars claim some,” Sheela explained. “A few die fighting each other for the right to establish a pride. Sometimes they just disappear. I really do not know what happens to them all and I never questioned any of this until I arrived here and had to consider my new situation.”
“Won’t your husband come looking for you?” I offered the question as a way to cheer her up. I figured being married meant the spouse would move worlds to find her. That’s what I would do if Sheela was my wife.
“Women on my planet do the bulk of the hunting when we are not engaged in mating rituals or rearing cubs,” Sheela said dryly. “I was abducted while I was tracking game in a remote forest of our lands. It could be months before my husband knows I am not in his home and further months before they figure out where I was last seen. I will be declared missing and assumed dead when they find no trace of me. His eighteenth wife will then become the seventeenth and life will go on.”
“Da-amn,” I uttered under my breath.
“Also, my people have no means to travel to this planet even if Lord Errnazz was aware I’d been brought here,” Sheela said with finality.
“Is that the name of your husband?” I asked.
Sheela acknowledged my question with a curt nod.
“That’s horrible, Sheela,” Galmine said with a frown. “I think you should divorce ‘Lord Snazzy’ and find a new, better man. If you come to my world, I can introduce you to many who will treat you better than that, but I warn you we do not have such concepts of ownership or exclusivity and one sex does not rule over the other.”
“Thank you for your generous spirit, but marriage is something my people take very seriously,” Sheela replied while looking to the gray-skinned woman. “Divorce is rare, even when the husband is negligent. Most women with bad husbands learn to endure the suffering rather than seeking a way out.”
“But it can be done?” Galmine replied. Her world sounded like a party while Sheela’s sounded a little like slavery.
“Women are traded all the time as property, but I could leave on my own if I found a stronger male,” Sheela replied before continuing to work with her cord.
Sheela’s body language suggested she didn’t want to talk about it any further, so I tried to think of a question that would change the topic again.
“So, are you married, Trel?” I asked. I didn’t want Sheela to feel uncomfortable, and I also wanted to keep the discussion far away from my uninspired background with the fairer sex.
“Such a primitive concept. Did you not hear I have thousands of suitors? Why would I ever pick just one?” Trel gave her answer as if it were so obvious.
“Because you love him?” I said with amazement that we were actually talking back and forth.
“Ha! Idiot!” Trel laughed from her belly. “You would say that. I bet you think of love as a means of entrapping a woman, which is a common fantasy among males on my world. However, there is no higher love than dying for me during the mating process. Once the male has served his critical biological function, he is to be discarded, and his body preserved until his children mature enough to consume him for nourishment. That is when I love him the most.” The spider-woman smiled, and I could see her fangs glimmer in the firelight.
“Oh, shit. That was you?” I said as I remembered when Sheela had first brought me to the cave. “I thought I hallucinated when I first got here because someone said they wanted to fu--, um, have sex with me, and then eat my body.”
Trel laughed i
n a way I’d not heard before. It wasn’t her usual malicious cackle but something which sounded a lot more like a normal human laugh.
“Oh, Victor. If you have one positive trait, it is that you make me laugh.” She chuckled a bit more before speaking again. “I made the statement before I knew you. Now that I’ve had time to judge where you would fall in my suitor list, you can rest assured you are almost in the back. Perhaps in the final dozen out of all ten thousand males. Do you see why your words are so humorous to me?”
“Wait a sec. So, I’m not dead last on your list?” I grinned at her.
“Ugh. You don’t know how to take an insult, do you?” Trel replied while doing her best to sound disgusted with me.
“Like you said, I’m just a simple ass kisser,” I added with more good-natured laughing.
Trel didn’t reply. Instead she turned away, stomped back into her alcove, and slung her curtain shut to end our discussion. I quietly laughed for a few more moments until I remembered Sheela probably wasn’t in the same good mood as me. I turned to the blonde woman and caught her smiling.
“I am sorry about your husband. Are you going to be all right?” I asked her.
“Do not worry about me,” Sheela replied. “I was sad for a time, yes. My husband seemed like a decent man. Life is often cruel, and there is nothing I can do about it except survive. The challenges of this planet are much more severe than on my homeworld, so in a sense, I am thankful for this burden as it will force me to become a better warrior to endure.”
“Wow, and I thought I was the glass-half-full person,” I replied. “You were yanked from your life and dumped in Dinosaurland, and you see it as a learning opportunity? I stand in awe of your positivity.”
Sheela nodded, and her smile grew a bit larger.
“What’s Dinosaurland?” Galmine interjected. “Is that what this world is called?”
“I highly doubt it. I call it Dinosaurland because it sounds like Disneyland. That is a place on my world where children go to be entertained with rides, food, and brightly painted replicas of animals like dinosaurs. I went there many times growing up. It’s the kind of place a child never forgets.” My words reminded me of the many trips I’d taken with my parents, and I felt my mood sour a bit.
“Your home must be fabulous, Victor,” Galmine suggested in a cheery voice that perked me right back up.
“It has its ups and downs. I think I’d rather live on your world where everyone is, um, friendly with each other.” Of the three women, Galmine’s “free love” planet was the sweet spot. Sheela’s society, with forced marriages and unhappy women, sounded like no fun at all. And who the fuck would volunteer to have sex with, and then get killed by, a woman like Trel? No night of sex was worth that penalty, was it?
“So, you didn’t answer me, earlier. We’ve all shared a bit. How do you pick up women on your planet, Victor?” Galmine blinked her big green eyes suggestively and moved her hand further up my leg. I got the sense she was asking me because she wanted me to try to pick her up. It was also becoming difficult to carve the axe handle because she sat right up against me. If she got any closer, she’d be in my lap.
“You really want to know?” I asked though I sincerely hoped she’d say no.
“Hmmm, yes. I really do,” Galmine said while leaning even closer.
I regretted mentioning my lady-killer buddy Dale and his exploits at the bars. There was no way I could embellish my skills at finding women to be anywhere near as successful as him. I toyed with the idea of making something up, but telling lies to my new friends would backfire. I had a face that made it easy for anyone back on Earth to know when I was fibbing.
“Okay. Well. There isn’t really a lot to talk about.” I scraped the axe handle with my small flint knife a few extra times before continuing. I’d never been great with women. I was a bit shy growing up, and when I did go out to party, I normally ended up being the designated driver. Also, I was really broke, and I never felt confident asking a girl out. I realized explaining all this to three alien women would take all night, and it wasn’t going to help them think I was any cooler.
“I’ll listen,” Galmine said patiently. Her hand seemed to be getting closer to my crotch, but I couldn’t see her moving it.
“That’s okay,” I sighed. “Let’s just get back to work. My love life has been all sorts of boring.” I set the axe handle down to give myself a break. I leaned back on my hands to stretch, which only made it more obvious where Galmine’s hand was on my leg. I took a moment to study my pants to ensure my growing boner wasn’t too obvious, then I stayed in that position waiting to see if she’d drop her question.
“I doubt that,” Galmine said emphatically. “You are just the right amount of nice. Hard and soft, like I said,” she added with a giggle. “But you care for others as much as yourself. Animals return affection without question. But women require real emotions, not those created by artificial means. You and your golden heart would fit right in with my people because you broadcast your desires without any hidden agenda. You are being modest. I bet you’ve had hundreds of lovers.”
“That’s nice of you to say, Galmine, but it really isn’t like that.”
“Then the women on your planet are fools,” the gray-skinned woman said as she shook her head. “You are honorable, and gentle, and I am very happy you are here with us, as is Sheela.”
I turned to look at the blonde woman, but she was focusing on her rope. Her eyes didn’t meet mine, but she did give her usual nod.
“And you are happy to be here with us!” Galmine cheered. “I can tell from your body.”
“Uhh, I think you might be mistaken aga--” I started to say.
“Am I?” Galmine said in a teasing way. “Then how do you explain this?” She grabbed my flagpole of a dick, but let me go right away. I jumped at her forwardness but relaxed when she pulled back. I glanced to Sheela to see if she saw my reaction, but she remained focused on her cord twists.
“I, uh, can’t control that,” I said with mild embarrassment in my voice.
“Victor, I live on a world where men and women are honest with each other. When a male looks at a female as you do, there is no question what he is thinking,” Galmine said while her eyes were on my crotch in case there was any doubt what she was talking about.
“But it doesn’t mean anything,” I said while wondering if my words were helpful. “I’m like that a lot.” I felt a little like I was being put under the microscope by the way she talked about my, uh, physical stimulation.
“And yet you did not act on it,” Sheela said as she re-joined the conversation. “A male on my world would enter this cave and demand sexual dominance over the females before agreeing to protect us.”
“Sexual dominance?” I asked since I was unsure of her exact meaning.
“He would demand intercourse to assert himself and then cover us with his seed to mark us as his,” Sheela replied dryly.
“Damn!” I hissed.
“I spoke of this earlier, Victor. I have seen you look at our bodies. There is no shame in your reaction. Galmine touched the problem you have carried around since you have arrived here, yet you’ve controlled your obvious urges. Women notice these things. You are not admitting your talents, but it is easy for us to see how strong, brave, and caring you are.” Sheela smiled a little, then turned back to the fire. She continued speaking a bit softer, and to no one in particular: “I find that attractive.”
“Me too. The restraint makes you super sexy,” Galmine purred as she rubbed against my rock-hard dick once more. I felt a little guilty because Sheela definitely saw her do it that time. I wasn’t sure how to handle the attention, I just knew I didn’t really want her to stop.
“I, uh, appreciate it. But I didn’t come here to have sex with anyone. We have a shit-ton of stuff to take care of. This axe,” I picked it off the ground and made as if to continue cutting, “is one thing of a million that we have to do before those birds arrive. I can’t be thinki
ng about enjoying myself.”
I admit I shifted through all six gears to speed away from my throbbing lie about not wanting to have sex. Galmine could have had me undressed in about three seconds if she wanted. Sheela could rip through my clothes in two. And Trel was a dark horse; except for the part about death, having sex with her would probably be mind-blowing. All the discussion about sex was cramping my ability to think about our survival. I needed it to stop.
At least until our new camp was built.
“We’ll stop, for now,” Galmine said quietly. She gently slid her hand back down my leg and off my knee with a coy smile. She turned so she faced the fire more directly, then picked up her cord to resume her work. Part of me was very angry for steering the conversation away from sex, but it had to be done.
“So, can you tell me how you made the pots, Galmine?” I asked. She’d made the new water jugs earlier this afternoon and then set them inside our fire ring to bake them. I couldn’t think of a question that was any less sexy than clay pots.
“Sure,” she said happily, “but don’t think this changes anything, Victor. I like you, and I’m not going to hide it.”
“I understand,” I replied with a gulp. My heart also skipped a few beats at even the slightest hint that Galmine and I would be together.
“So, the pots are easy to make,” she said as she gestured to her work space. “I rolled the wet clay and mixed it with some rock chips I broke off from the stone here in the cave. It helped to keep them firm. Once I shaped them like you asked, I let them dry for a bit before I dropped them into the fire to bake.” She pointed at the two jugs sitting inside the fire ring.
“Sheela has been real good about keeping it hot enough,” Galmine added. “They should both be done in the morning.”
We all had to sit back a little further due to the extra heat, but it was worth it to speed up the production of the two crucial additions to our inventory. I looked at their narrow tops and continued cutting the axe handle while I thought about how I’d arrived at their shape.
