Caveman Alien’s Trick

by Calista Skye

  “Rax’tar,” I call softly, using his name for the first time. Rockstar. Hmm. Not yet, my dude.

  He stops and turns his head. “What?”

  “Let me down, please. I have a… need.”

  He gently swings the sack off his shoulder and holds me up to eye level. He pierces me with his luminous, purple eyes. “Are you in pain?”

  My cheeks are warming up. “No. Not really. I just have to… water.”

  “Ah.” He opens his other bag and holds up the water skin.

  Good grief. “No. The… the opposite need.”

  I can see the wooden gears churning in his caveman mind. Then he gets it. “Oh! The opposite need! Water coming out.”

  “Yes. So please set me down and take me out of the sack. And then look the other way.”

  He stares me down for three more heartbeats. Then he does as I ask, and I’m standing on the ground again, freed from the thick fabric of the sack, looking down myself and my bag of a dress. It’s a sturdy garment, but not elegant. Yeah, wasn’t planning to travel anywhere today.

  I spot a suitable bush. “You turn your back.”

  He frowns, but he wouldn’t be a humanoid man if he didn’t follow that instruction. The huge caveman slowly turns around, clearly not comfortable with letting me out of his sight.

  I scurry behind the bush and finish up, finding that the leaves on the bush are somewhat usable.

  Then I have to make a quick decision. I am free of the sack. The jungle is dangerous, but an unknown caveman with a purple glint in his eye may well prove to be even more so.

  I quietly sprint away, keeping the bush between me and Rax’tar. The exact direction is less important – I think I can guess the approximate direction back to the village.

  My gladiator-style sandals were made by Heidi, who has specialized in making footwear for us and always does a great job making shoes that actually fit. These ones allow me to run swiftly and quietly across the moist, springy dirt under the trees. It feels good to use my body after hours in that damn sack. I was never the most athletic girl, or even in the top fifty in my fifty-one person class, but living a hard life on Xren has gotten me in better shape than ever. I get up a pretty good speed, and I kid myself that I can even feel the slight difference in gravity here and on Earth.

  I stick to a straight line, running as fast as I can without making noise, not bothering to look behind me. If he catches me, he catches me. But I don’t have to run far to be out of sight for him, and that gives me a pretty good chance to find my way back home.

  The wind is in my face, and for a short moment I relish the freedom and the speed. I just might be able to escape!

  Then I hear something big crashing through the undergrowth behind me, and the fear fills me out into my toes and fingertips. He’s coming.

  I’m able to speed up a little, running on my toes, still making sure not to make too much noise. If he can’t hear me, he can’t be sure which direction I went.

  I could still make it.

  7

  - Rax’tar -

  There are light tinkling noises coming from behind the bush, and I smile. She might be an alien, but she is human enough. Her innocent little errand there is quite endearing, and a strange warmth spreads in my chest.

  I look up at the canopy of leaves above. I can just about spot the sky, and the occasional ray of light brightens the jungle. Not long from now we’ll be at the Gate, and then I’ll almost be home.

  Hmm. It’s taking Phoebe a long time to finish, and I can no longer hear anything. Possibly that is how it is with females. They may well be very different when it comes to those things. I have not been aware of just how mysterious they are.

  Mysterious and wonderful. There is defiance in Phoebes dark eyes, and her soft, female scent keeps having its effect on my crotch, even when I walk.

  Should I have let her out of the sack? Of course, there was no other way. And surely, she understands that being on her own in this very active part of the jungle is extremely dangerous, especially for a small and weapon-less creature like her. She appears entirely defenseless.

  No, this is ridiculous. How much water can such a small woman contain?

  I throw a quick glance over my shoulder. I can’t see through the bush, of course. But it is very quiet now.

  “Will you soon be done?” I call softly. It’s really not a good idea to make any noise at all, but I’m starting to worry.

  No response.

  “Phoebe?”

  Nothing.

  I take a step towards the bush. “I will come behind there now,” I warn.

  She doesn’t protest, so I walk around the bush and throw a quick glance to the other side of it.

  My feet start running, all by themselves, almost before it hits me that she’s gone.

  Either she has been taken by a Big, or she is running away from me.

  But if she has been taken, I would have heard it. And there are no tracks of any such thing taking place. There are only the tracks of small feet, far apart. As from a small female alien, running.

  The sting in my chest from the realization that what she’s running from is me almost takes my breath away. I don’t want to make her want to escape!

  I run as quietly as I can, following her obvious tracks. She’s running in a straight line, never advisable in the jungle. It makes your route predictable to predators. She’s like a child, totally helpless in the woods.

  At least she can’t run too fast on her short legs. Those legs with the dimples on the back of the knees…

  I speed up, caring less about the noise I make. I can’t let her get away from me!

  Two paces later, I hear something big crashing through the bushes in front of me. That’s not Phoebe. That’s a predator hunting her. And that predator is closer to her than I am.

  A strange fear grows in me and makes me disregard the noise I make. Now, speed is more important than stealth. Phoebe has already attracted danger with her reckless act.

  I run as fast as I can. And there it is, the tail of the rekh. It’s bounding through the jungle, relaxed and certain of catching its prey.

  And there’s Phoebe! She’s running hard, still going straight, making the hunt much too easy for the rekh.

  “Reeeeekh!” I roar, trying to both warn her and catch the predator’s attention. All it accomplishes is to make the predator speed up and Phoebe suddenly dart to the left, buying her another second of life.

  The rekh is still closer to her than I am. Her only chance is to keep confusing it with many sudden changes in direction. I wonder if she knows it.

  “Make many sudden changes in direction!” I yell as I run.

  She keeps running, but makes no further effort to confuse the rekh. It’s snapping at her heels now.

  Phoebe trips over something, falling forward just as the rekh pounces on her. It misses and shoots over her stretched-out body, then has to scramble to halt its movement and get back to attack her. It’s a full-grown rekh, and it’s heavy.

  I draw my dagger and charge at the rekh before it can pounce again.

  “Aaaaggghhh!” I scream as I duck under the predator’s claws and plunge my dagger into its neck, using both hands to pull the blade upwards, ripping a long gash in the rekh’s neck. Cold blood shoots out and drenches me as the rekh collapses, dead on the spot.

  I back away from it, mindful that even dying creatures can suddenly launch a last assault.

  But this one doesn’t.

  I replace the dagger in its sheath and wipe the cold, stinging rekh blood out of my eyes.

  Phoebe is curled up on the ground, shaking.

  I take her into my arms and lift her, once more marveling at the softness, the firmness, and the lightness of the female.

  “I’m sorry,” she whimpers. “I thought it was you.”

  “It’s a dangerous place to run,” I explain, relieved that she is still alive. “The jungle is full of predators.”

  She clings to me, still trembling
. “I know. That was a rekh?”

  “A big one. There are very many of them in the woods. But they are not the worst thing you could have attracted.”

  “I thought it was you,” she repeats. “I wanted to escape.”

  “I see.” I don’t know what else to say.

  “Don’t put me in the sack again,” she pleads with her mouth close to my neck. “I hate it.”

  “I won’t,” I promise, at that moment too relieved and too elated to deny her anything.

  “Will you take me back to my village now?”

  “I won’t,” I say again. Hm. I suppose I am still able to deny her some things.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want to be without you,” I state truthfully. The more I am with Phoebe, the more I want to still be with her. It’s a strange sensation that I can’t remember having noticed before.

  “What will you do to me?”

  “I don’t know.” I am very truthful today.

  “Put me down.”

  I do as she asks.

  She arranges her garment and then looks up at me. “You are not allowed to hurt me. Did you know that?”

  I frown. “I am not planning to hurt you.”

  “If you do, you are no better than that.” She points to the the rekh I killed. “And I will make sure you are just as dead.”

  I don’t like the way she’s talking. Did I not just save her from that predator Big? Why does she think I’ll hurt her?

  I turn my back to her and rip a handful of leaves off a bush, wiping the rekh blood off me before it sets and becomes harder to remove. “Do as you wish,” I state.

  I drop the bloodied leaves to the ground and toss the now empty sack over my shoulder again. It has good material in it and might become useful.

  I look around and find the best way to go then walk further into the jungle.

  I walk for ten paces before I casully turn my back to see if Phoebe follows.

  My heart swells when I see that she does.

  This might still be fine.

  8

  - Phoebe -

  So my escape worked. I am no longer in the sack, and I get the feeling that Rax’tar wouldn’t stop me if I left now.

  But what choice do I have? He’s right – the jungle is full of danger. And I forgot just how lethal those dangers are. The predators and dinos stay pretty far away from our village, probably because we’ve hunted so many of them there. So it’s pretty safe to take a casual stroll into the woods as long as you don’t go further out than a mile or so. Here, dinosaurs lurk behind every tree, it seems. I’d forgotten what that feels like. And the only one that can protect me is Rax’tar.

  I have a feeling he would not agree if I asked him to walk me back home.

  I could ask, I suppose. I’ll do it later. I’m curious about where we’re going. And now that my heartrate is returning to normal and the stress hormones in my bloodstream are being slightly diluted, the fear and the panic are giving way to something else that I haven’t felt since I came here to this damn planet.

  Rax’tar walks ahead of me, looking down at the ground, reading tracks and picking the safest way for us to go. But he plainly can handle himself in a fight, too. He cut that dactyl’s throat out with only his knife. I can’t deny the safety he instils in me. It’s pretty addictive. And when I think about it, my life back at the village isn’t that attractive.

  He is attractive, though. While he has the same alien features as the other cavemen, now that I’m closer, that only serves to make him look more manly. The proportions of his face aren’t right to my eyes, maybe, but the rest of him… wow. He has arms as thick as the thighs of Earth men, and his thighs are thick as their waists. And still he’s among the leaner cavemen. His muscles flex under his purple stripes, and his eyes take in the jungle around him with a cool calculation that speaks of endless experience and competence.

  I’ve heard the married girls in the night, of course. That’s impossible to not hear in our small village. The noises the make are the envy of every unmarried girl, even it they try to keep it down. They make barely veiled hints about their husbands’ prowess, especially when the don’t think any of us unmarried girls are listening. So I know that a caveman can be a fabulous lay.

  I had no idea fear and horniness were this closely related. Rax’tar saved me from that rekh, and since then all I can think about is stripping naked and offering myself to him. I tingle like crazy down below, as if letting go of the fear has opened the door to another emotion that was waiting right under the surface.

  He is a virgin, too. At least that’s one thing we have in common. I’ve had the opportunity, once or twice. But either the circumstances haven’t been great, or the guy wasn’t everything I want for my first time.

  I can’t help but wonder what it would be like. I mean, just once? See what all the fuss is about?

  Rax’tar’s round, muscular butt flexes inside his tight pants with each step, and his back looks like a bundle of steel cables. What would it feel like to embrace that?

  He stops, and I do, too, looking around for the danger he’s sensed. But there’s nothing. On one side is a sheer cliff wall, on the other just ordinary jungle.

  “What?” I ask softly.

  “You can come if you want,” he rumbles, taking a swig from the water skin before offering it to me.

  My hunger strike plan goes out the window as I realize that I am in fact extremely thirsty. The water is tepid, but fresh and clean. “Come where?”

  He accepts the now empty water sack. “If not, your village is in that direction. Go towards where the sun rises in the morning.” He points.

  “You know it’s too dangerous for me to walk there alone.”

  “I know.”

  “Will you not help me get home?”

  “I also have a home.” He walks towards the cliff.

  I scramble to follow him. “But you took me from mine. It’s only fair that you take me back.”

  “Would you have come with me if I hadn’t taken you?”

  “No.”

  He stops and fixes me with those purple laser eyes. “Are you happy in your village?”

  I look away. “It’s fine.”

  “Because you looked unhappy to me. Even during the party last night, you hardly spoke to anyone. Only the occasional weak smile, but no laughter. While your friends were all enjoying themselves. I thought you might want to see something else than the same tribe every day.”

  His words strike me deeply. “Maybe.”

  “I would guess that you’re feeling out of place. Alone. Maybe even useless. Not contributing to the tribe the way you want.”

  Damn, is he a freaking mind reader? “Uh-huh.”

  “I know what that’s like. I was once a part of a tribe. It made me unhappy, even though I was born there. Only when I left the tribe did I become the man I always thought I could be.”

  He’s read me well. And that’s pretty impressive. I am as alien to him as he is to me.

  “Is that the only reason you took me? To make me feel better?”

  An alien smirk is playing on his lips. “No.”

  Well, he’s honest.

  “And now you’re going home.”

  “I am.”

  “If I come with you. Do you promise to bring me to my home later?”

  “I will make no promises. But yes, it is probable that we will go back to your village at some time.”

  “Anytime I want.”

  That smirk could become very annoying. “You can go anytime you want. You want my help, it must be a time that suits both of us.”

  He’s infuriatingly honest.

  “You are pretty much forcing me to come with you, you know that? I will die if I go back on my own. The Bigs will eat me.”

  He peers back at the jungle the way we came. “There is a good chance of that.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you?”

  He scratches his ear. “It bothers me a little. Well, it’s
a tough jungle. Sometimes we have no choice.”

  “Anyway, I can’t climb that.” I nod towards the cliff. It’s a sheer wall, at least sixty feet tall.

  He looks up at the rock face. “I doubt I could, too. I would get dizzy and fall down. You’d have to bury me. Or give me a magnificent funeral pyre worthy of a warrior. You could keep my dagger, of course. Do you know how to make a pyre and say the prayer for the dead tribesman?”

  He has that glint in his eye again. He’s making fun of me, I think. I’ll just ignore it.

  “Then how are you going to get up there?”

  “Hopefully, I’ll never need to. Can you hear something?”

  I listen. There’s the familiar sound of the jungle, rustling and distant animal noises and the wind in the treetops. And now that it’s quiet, I can hear the soft tinkling of running water.

  Rax’tan takes two steps to get close to the cliff. Then he looks at me and grins as the ground swallows him.

  I gasp, and both hands fly to my mouth. He just vanished!

  I carefully tiptoe closer. And I see why. The plain ground gives way to a another cliff, this one on my side. It’s the mouth of a wide cave, and the opening is ten feet below ground level.

  Rax’tan is standing down there, grinning up at me. “Come down!”

  “It’s too high. I’ll break my legs.”

  “Sit down on the ledge.”

  I look behind me, towards the edge of the jungle. This is probably my last chance to go back home alone. Through the jungle, full of raptors and skranters and T. Rex-es and whatever other horrors lurk in among the trees.

  A terrible screech makes me duck down, and I see a familiar speck in the sky.

  Ah yes. And dactyls. Those flying horrors scare me more than most things, and I quickly make my choice.

  I sit down on the ledge, ready to jump down into Rax’tan’s arms. But he’s so tall, he just reaches his arms over his head, grabs me by the waist, and lifts me down like I’m only a toddler.

  For a short moment he holds me like that, face to face. His eyes are like luminous crystals with an inner light, and his scent fills my nose again.