“Hey!” a voice called out from our gate, and I turned to see Trel lifting up the door with a pair of her spider-legs while she walked under. She carried two plates of food in her hands, and one of the water jugs was cradled under her armpit. “It is breakfast time.”
“Thanks, Trel,” I said as I took the plate of smoking dinosaur from her.
“Yes,” Sheela said. “Thank you, Trel.”
“They made a mess last night,” Trel said with disgust as she gestured to the surrounding carnage.
“Yeah, but we’ll get plenty of sinew.” I nodded to the basket and noticed that Jinx had come out with Trel. The cat-sized blue feathered dino was rubbing against Trel’s leg.
“Good. I need a lot of it,” she said as she bent down to pick Jinx up. The little chocobo dino didn’t complain, and she began to stroke his feathers with her right hand as she cradled him in her left.
“You like Jinx now?” I asked.
“Now? My dear Victor. I have always loved this adorable little pet of yours.”
“Uhhh, right,” I said with a laugh.
“That laughter seems mocking,” Trel said as her eyes narrowed. “Jinx is a valuable member of our tribe. He isn’t as important as me or you of course, but he ranks a few notches above Kacerie at the moment.”
“She’ll come around,” I said. “I’m guessing Galmine is awake and made this?”
“Yes,” Trel replied. “I am ready for you to inseminate me now.”
“Listen, Trel,” I said as I prepared to argue with her. “I really want to... ummm do this with you.”
“Of course you do,” she replied as her eyes narrowed, “but something in the tone of your voice makes me think you are about to displease me.”
“I need to make sure that everyone is working on something. I can’t be the bottleneck. I have to go get clay so Galmine and Kacerie can work. We also have a bunch of corpses where we can get sinew. I also need to find a larger dinosaur to tame. I also--”
“Stop,” she said. “You are speaking nonsense. I will only be ovulating for another day. As my selected mate, you must perform your duties. All other tasks are unimportant.”
“Our survival is the most important,” I said. “So Sheela and I are going to run to get clay really quick, then we are going to come back with a bunch in one of the baskets we made. Galmine, you, and Kacerie are going to use as much as you can to figure out larger jugs, and maybe a tub. While the clay is getting heated by the fire, you and I will kick everyone else out and use the hut. I’m thinking after lunch. Cool?”
Trel’s mouth twisted, but I couldn’t tell if she was trying to hide a smile or not. “What of my platforms and the saddle?”
“I thought you fixed the saddle last night?”
“No, the birds interrupted me.”
“Well, we aren’t going to be able to go get clay until you fix the saddle, so Sheela and I will get more sinew while we wait for you.” I turned to Sheela and gestured to the camp. “Teach Galmine and Kacerie how to pull the tendons out. I don’t want them wasting any time.”
“Yes, Victor,” Sheela replied, and she jogged back to the camp with her plate in her hands.
“I feel as if you might be delaying our cotius,” Trel pouted as she crossed her arms. “If not for the bulge in your pants or the way you stare at my body, I might think you were not interested in filling my womb with your seed.”
“I’m really interested,” I said. “But I don’t want everyone else standing around with their thumbs up their ass while you and I spend an hour in the hut.”
“But, Victor,” Trel sighed. “We are more important than them. Also, we will require much more than an hour. I need all of you to ensure--”
“I get it,” I said as I fought against the tight feeling in my pants. “Get that saddle fixed. I’ve got a plan and I need to execute it before I have fun.”
“Very well,” Trel pouted. The woman turned to walk away from me, and I couldn’t help but fix my eyes on her fantastic ass. The tight silk shorts she wore didn’t cover up the curve of her butt cheeks, and my mouth almost started to water when I thought about making love to her. The beautiful spider-woman turned around and caught me staring at her, and she winked at me with a coy smile. I thought she’d try again to convince me to change my plans, but she just returned to the fort.
I poured some of the water on my hands to help wash and then ate the still steaming meat on my plate. My hands were still covered with grime, dried blood, and who knows what else, but there wasn’t a bar of soap within probably a thousand light years of me, so I was just going to have to deal with germs.
I scarfed my food and then went back to cutting the tendons. We had a decent amount in the basket now, but I wanted to get as much as I could before the scavengers came.
The list of competing tasks I needed to complete seemed too overwhelming.
I wished we had thirty more people in the camp. I was expecting Kacerie to fall in line, but I figured that I was going to need to talk to her many more times before I got her cooperation.
“Victor! I have completed the saddle!” Trel shouted from the wall.
“Great! Coming back!” I threw my plate and the jug of water in my basket of cut sinew and then carried it back to the door.
Trel held it open so I could walk inside, and then I set down the basket at her feet. Sheela was teaching Galmine and Kacerie how to remove the tendons of the dead dinosaurs inside of our walls, and I could tell from the look on the pink-haired woman’s face that she was not excited about the task.
“Looks good,” I said to Trel as I checked on Hope’s saddle. The side straps looked a lot thicker, and there were now loops to hold a total of six jugs. “I’m really happy that you could do this so quickly.”
“I’m highly motivated,” Trel said as she bit her lower lip. “Please hurry back.”
“You got it,” I said. “Sheela, get a new leaf basket, we are going to get clay. Everyone else, cut as many tendons as you can from the bodies. Try to get them from outside of the wall, but don’t be too far away. Safety first.”
“Yes, Victor,” Galmine said with a wide smile, but I saw Kacerie’s face pale.
“You expect me to go outside? Uhhh. No.” The hairdresser crossed her arms.
“You have your orders,” I said as I climbed on Hope’s back. Trel handed me two spears, and I pushed them into the sheaths on the saddle.
“And who made you boss? Why do I have to listen to you? It’s not safe out there.” Kacerie’s voice cracked a little.
“Look, just stay close to the walls, so you can run back inside if you need to. We need the sinew, and it’s time you contributed.”
“I’m just going to stay inside,” she said.
“Then I’ll deal with you when I get back,” I growled as our eyes met. The old Victor would have probably tried harder to convince her, but I’d saved the woman’s life from a group of green raptors more than once. She could pull her fucking weight.
“That sounds like a thre--”
“Sheela!” I shouted, and she darted out of the hut with one of the leaf baskets. The cat-woman made the leap onto Hope’s back without using her arms, and then I spun the parasaur around so we could exit the fort.
Then we pushed under the door, and I kicked the parasaur into overdrive.
The wind caressed my face and Sheela’s hair tickled my nose as Hope dashed across the clearing. Even though I could smell the blood in the air, and there were corpses of flying dinos everywhere, riding Hope made me feel alive.
“How are you holding onto the basket?” I shouted over my shoulder as I angled Hope adjacent to the area where the orange birds occupied the cave. Both of her arms were wrapped around my waist, but I didn’t want to turn around while I was guiding Hope.
“I used cordage to tie it around my waist and the saddle!” Sheela shouted over the wind, and I nodded.
Hope hit the foothills next to the cave, and I pushed her up to the side of the slope. I ke
pt her pace a little slower than I would have on flat ground so she didn’t actually stumble, and we were soon riding near the tips of the smaller pine trees that skirted the much larger redwoods. Other than the parts deep in the redwood section, the rest of our small valley was visible, and I slowed even more so that I could twist my head around.
“Something wrong?” Sheela asked as I looked back over my shoulder.
“Just want to get a high view of our valley.” I turned from side to side to look over the clearing and the distant river where we got our water, and I noticed Sheela watching me instead of looking toward our home.
“Looks fine,” I said. “One day we might want to have a scout station up here. We can give someone a fast dino to ride down to the camp, or some sort of signal flare. I doubt the larger carnivores can climb up a slope this steep.”
“It is a good idea,” Sheela said, and our eyes met. The tension between us was more than obvious now, but it was hard to tell if she was upset at me that I’d made a pass at her, or interested.
I was really bad with women, and I knew even less about beautiful alien women. I was feeling a lot more comfortable bossing them around because of the success I’d just had with the fort, and the sex with Galmine had boosted my confidence, but I really didn’t know how far I could toe the line with the beautiful warrior woman.
“Let’s continue,” I said, and she nodded before I kicked Hope’s sides.
The rest of the ride to the lake was uneventful. We forded through the second river in the valley, pushed up the far hill’s switch back game trail, and then came to the top of the crest where we could look down on the lake. A few herds of parasaurs drank on the far distant side of the water, but the finger area where Sheela and I preferred to fish and get our clay was unoccupied by any other dinos.
That might not have been a good sign.
“Keep a look out,” I said to Sheela as I guided Hope down the far slope. The area over here was dense jungle, but I stayed on the lower part of the hill’s slope until we could get down onto the sandy beach.
“Should we hunt for some fish while we are here?” Sheela asked. “We have eaten the orange birds for the last two weeks.”
“It’s a good idea, but I don’t want to spend too much time on it. I’ll gather the clay, and you spear whatever fish you can. If you don’t catch any by the time I’ve got all the clay in the basket, then we’ll leave without any.”
“I will get some,” she said with a sly smile.
I rode Hope in a circular pattern around the spot and checked her attitude. She didn’t seem nervous, or excited, or tense, but I still looked into the dense jungle to our side. After a few minutes of riding slowly around our spot, I guessed that there was no danger, and I edged us closer to the shore of the lake.
Sheela took her hands off my stomach and untied the rope around her own waist. We both dismounted with practiced movements and I traded her one of the spears for her basket. The fishing spot and the area to collect clay were about forty feet from each other, and I saw her test the waters a bit with her spear before she stepped in. The sight of her long muscular body walking into the water with her tattered swimsuit on almost made me trip, and I turned away so I could focus on getting the clay.
Then I froze in my tracks and felt the air leave my chest.
There was a group of boot marks in the clay, and they were most definitely not the ones I left from the last time I was here.
“Sheela!” I hissed as I turned to the woman. She looked up from where she was fishing, saw the expression on my face, and then jumped out of the water.
“What is wrong, Victor?” she whispered after she ran to my side, but her golden eyes focused on where I was pointing.
“How many do you think?” I asked.
“Three,” she whispered as she carefully stepped toward the clay. “The sand did not keep their footprints, so it is hard to know where they came from, or where they went, but they were most definitely here.”
“How long ago?” I should have been excited by the tracks since it meant more people were alive besides us, but I only felt a bit of dread.
I had no idea who these people were. They could have been evil men that would gladly kill me and rape my friends.
“Yesterday,” she said. “Perhaps the day before.”
“Doesn’t look like they took any clay,” I said as I studied the spot. My hypothesis might not have been true since the muddy stuff tended to reform after I took pieces out, but I’d made multiple trips here and seen the gouges I made when I collected for a few days in a row.
“They must have come for water,” she said as she scanned the jungle. “I can patrol the edge of the trees and attempt to see where they exited.
“I don’t like the idea of tracking three people we don’t know through a dinosaur infested jungle,” I said. “Let’s stick to the plan, get the clay, maybe grab some fish, and then get back to our fort.”
“Understood,” Sheela said as she returned to her fishing spot.
I set our new leaf basket down on the sand next to the clay and grabbed a massive handful of the light vermillion colored material. I was unsure exactly how much weight the basket would safely carry, so I paused after my tenth scoop and carefully tested the bottom. It was still holding, so I scooped ten more handfuls in before testing it again. I guessed it weight about twenty-five pounds, and the bottom was still holding strong. It was also about half full, so I put ten more handfuls in before trying to lift the basket. The bottom felt surprisingly sturdy, and I guessed that I could probably do another ten scoops, but this was significantly more clay than we had ever been able to pull in one trip, so I didn’t want to get too greedy. If the basket broke then the whole trip would have been pointless.
“How you doing?” I asked Sheela as I picked the basket up and brought it over to Hope.
“I seem to have acquired some fish.” Sheela grinned and then gestured to the three large white fish lying on the sand. I hadn’t even noticed her catching them, but it looked like more than enough for us all to eat for lunch.
“Great job, Sheela,” I said. “Let’s get go--” I saw movement across the small lake finger some hundred yards from us, and I felt my body tense. The jungle was vibrating as if it was trying to shake itself from the earth, but before I could jump on Hope, grab Sheela, and get the hell out of here, the green curtain parted, and three large triceratops pushed out onto the beach.
“Damn,” I hissed with relief. “I thought we were going to have to run.” The trikes seemed like they were minding their own business and they moved to the edge of the beach so they could dip their massive heads into the water.
“They seem peaceful if not disturbed,” Sheela commented as she threaded one of our cords through the fish gills. “I am ready to return.”
“Hmmm,” I said as I studied the trio of three-horned dinosaurs. They were each around ten feet tall at the shoulder, and my Eye-Q told me that there was one male and two females.
“Victor?” Sheela asked after I didn’t move for a few moments.
“Sheela, I want to tame a trike.”
Chapter 7
“Victor, that is different from the plan you wanted to follow,” she grunted.
“Kinda,” I chuckled. “I want to tame a trike in the next few days, but I think they are probably going to be too big for me.”
“Then we will attempt later,” she said.
“Yeah, but we are still going to tame something right now,” I pointed over to the distant side of the lake where the herd of parasaurs was located. “I know I can get one of those since I already tamed Hope. If we had an extra one, both you and I could ride to get water, clay, and food. We’d also have an easier time hauling logs to build the new fort walls.”
“What of the boot prints? You were worried about us returning.”
“This will only take a minute,” I said as I set my yes on the distant parasaurs.
“I am unsure about being on one of these parasaurs by
myself,” Sheela said hesitantly.
“It’s easy,” I said. “Here, let’s tie this basket to her saddle and then you can drive while I sit behind you.”
“But that is the subservient seat.” Sheela shook her head. “You are my lead--”
“It’s just going to be over to the other side of the lake,” I said. “I want you to get used to controlling one. Then I’ll tame one more and we can ride it back to our fort.”
“They are grouped tightly together,” Sheela said as she glanced across the lake. “When you tamed Hope, she was separated from the group.”
“I’m confident this will work,” I said. “We should be able to get close because we are riding on Hope.”
“What if they attack us?” Sheela asked.
“They won’t, but if they do, we’ll just haul ass away. Hope is plenty fast.”
“But she will bear the weight of both of us on her. The other parasaurs are larger and will be able to catch her.”
“Then we’ll shove a spear in them and tell them to fuck off,” I sighed. “Why do you have such a problem with this?”
“The inside of our fort is already very small,” she said without answering my question. “Hope is a smaller parasaur. It will be difficult to fit an additional one inside.”
“But it won’t be impossible,” I replied. “I’ll make it work. Is it the riding thing? Are you afraid of controlling Hope without me?”
Our eyes met for a brief moment, and she nodded slowly. “I do not enjoy admitting fear, Victor. I know I should not be afraid of such--”
“No,” I said. “I get it. In your world, you didn’t have cars or horses, or bikes, or anything. You just ran everywhere. It makes sense. But we aren’t on your world now. We are in Dinosaurland. You are going to have to figure out how to ride these beasts. That’s my order.”
“Yes, Victor,” she said. “I will do as you tell me.”
Tamer_King of Dinosaurs 2 Page 9
