“It’s boring though,” the pink-haired woman said. “I don’t really think I should be doing this kind of activity. Can you take me out on one of your dinosaurs for a ride? I’ll gather ferns with you.”
“We’ll figure out the fern gathering later,” I said to the three of them. “Trel’s going to help me with something real quick and then work with you on the clay.”
“What about breakfast?” Galmine asked.
“Bring it out to me while I work,” I said as I gestured for Trel to climb up on Bob. “I don’t have time for a break.”
“Yes, Victor,” the gray-skinned woman said, and she turned back toward the hut with Kacerie.
“What do you need from me?” Trel asked after she had climbed up beside me and given me a soft kiss.
“I need you to tell me how far out to build the wall,” I said as I gestured to the clearing. “Then I’ll have Bob and Hope start digging the trench.”
“Easy enough. Send him more that way.” She pointed away from the wall, and I walked Bob a few dozen paces toward the redwoods.
“Here,” she said. “This is a hundred feet out. It will give us a circle diameter of around two hundred and seventy-five feet and we will encompass the large tree within the new walls. I’ll eventually build part of our fort up there.”
“Got it,” I replied as I ordered Bob to start digging his front hands into the soft grass. He was a much stronger digger than Hope, and he soon had a small trench made.
“Can you control both of them at the same time?” Trel asked.
“Hummm,” I said as I commanded Bob to keep digging. I thought about Hope coming out to help us, and the smaller parasaur ducked under our door and jogged toward Bob. When she reached us, I thought about her digging a trench starting from Bob’s tail and going counterclockwise to Bob’s clockwise direction. She let out a happy toot and then went to work.
“Damn,” I said. “This is going to go really quick. We’ll probably finish the trench today.”
“Does it require a lot of work for them to follow your orders?” Trel asked. “How does your ability function?”
“I just kind of imagine them doing what I want them to do, and they do it.”
“Can you do something else besides supervising them?” she asked as her mouth twisted into a slight smile.
“Depends on what you had in mind,” I asked with a chuckle.
“To ensure that I am pregnant, you should inseminate me again today.”
“I’d love to, but let’s get everyone tasked with a job. I can try to cut down some trees or gather some ferns while our dinos dig the hole, but you also need to help with the clay jugs, figure out if we can make a tub, build a saddle for Bob, and then help with the cordage.”
“Ahh, Victor,” Trel sighed. “All work and no play for you. Perhaps I should explain to you that performing your mating duties on me is a job that is not to be taken lightly?”
“I know it is important,” I said, even though I suspected there was no way Trel could get pregnant from me. “Let’s do it again tonight after we get the whole ‘survival’ stuff figured out.”
“Very well,” Trel sighed as she slid off Bob’s back. “I will perform the tasks you need me to. When shall I fit the platform building in with all these other tasks?”
“Ugh,” I said as I wiped my palm over my face. “I forgot about those. We’ll really need them if we get attacked. Damn, I wish we had ten more people right now.”
“Then we would need more huts. I actually think I should build another so that you and I can have our own private space.”
“That’s really low on the list.” I slid off Bob and then walked across the clearing with her toward the fort.
“It is high on my list,” Trel groaned. “You were wonderful yesterday. I never thought I’d say this about a male, but I want you even when I am not ovulating.”
“Uhhh, yeah,” I said as I felt my cheeks warm. “I had a really good time too. You were great.”
“Of course I was,” she scoffed. “The amazing thing was how good you were. Just let me compliment you without trying to brush it off.”
“Thanks, Trel,” I said. “I’m glad that you and I are together.”
“Me as well, you’ll be very happy when you see our children. You worry about recruiting more people for our fort building activity, but soon we will not need to worry about that.”
“Uhh, how many will you… ummm make?” I asked, even though I still didn’t believe that she would actually get pregnant.
“My last brood was forty,” she said.
“Forty?” I gasped. “Like four and then zero? Like ten times four?”
“Yes, Victor,” she said as her eyes narrowed. “Why do you seem so amazed? That is how my people give birth. My numbers are a bit above average, but that is because I am a duchess.”
“I just… uhhh… How does it work?”
“Victor,” Trel said with a sigh. “I showed you how it worked yesterday. I’ll show you again tonight, but you really need to pay attention this time.”
“Ha,” I said as I saw her grin. “You are fucking with me. What I meant is how do you have that many children at once?”
“They are born as small eggs and pushed into the corpse of my dead mate,” she said with a shrug. “How do your kind give birth?”
“Just a single birth, sometimes twins happen, but the baby is between six and ten pounds normally,” I explained.
“That sounds incredibly painful,” Trel said. “It is already difficult forcing that many small eggs out of my womb and vagina. How do the women of your world do one giant egg?”
“Okay.” I laughed and shook my head as we reached the gate. “Let’s talk about it later. I’m going to grab our axes and start cutting down trees. You are going to do everything I told you to do. Got it?”
“Yes, Victor,” Trel said, and we parted ways so I could grab our stack of axes. We had eight now, and I carried them back across the field so that I could get to work on the trees. Bob and Hope continued digging the trench while I was grabbing the axes, and I realized that I wasn’t really thinking about their job anymore. It almost seemed as if I could issue them an order and they would just do it until it was done.
I decided to test the theory by focusing on cutting down the trees for a bit. The work was a bit slow without Sheela’s swings on top of mine, but I’d gotten pretty good at lumberjacking after a month of using the stone axes, and I soon had the large tree felled.
I turned around to check on the progress of the two parasaurs and was happy to find that they had continued the trench digging. Bob was moving about twice as fast as Hope, but they were both somehow maintaining the correct distance from the walls of our fort.
“What do you think?” I asked Sheela as she jogged over to me.
“It is impressive,” she said. “Your ability grows more powerful.”
“Or I’m just learning how to use it better,” I said. “I know two things for sure.”
“Oh?” Sheela asked as her golden eyes met mine.
“Yeah, first is that this is going to go way easier than we thought, and second is that I’m going to tame a lot more of these dinosaurs to help.”
“We will need more room to house them,” Sheela said.
“We’ll figure that out,” I said. “Just look at how fast they are digging. If we could just figure out how to get them to chop down trees, we would be set.”
“Hmmm.” Sheela nodded and then glanced at the axe in my hand.
“Anyways, let’s get to cutting. I’m going to guess we need about a hundred and fifty of these. We’ll probably clear half of the younger growth by the time we are done.”
Sheela nodded, and we got back into our tree-cutting rhythm.
The morning passed quickly. Kacerie actually came out with our breakfast and the jug of water, and we spent a few minutes chatting with her while we ate. By the time lunch came around, Sheela and I had taken down our fourth tree, and our parasaurs c
ompleted digging the trench around the entire fort. I hadn’t even bothered to look on the other side when they worked, but I got the feeling they were done and then walked over to find them both nuzzling each other. They had made a perfect circle around our fort, and I felt a little amazed that my commands worked so well.
Trel finished the saddle for Bob a little after lunch, and she showed Sheela and me how to tie it around the massive lizard.
“I built this one with two seats and a back storage area,” Trel explained as she showed both of us the saddle. “I used straight wood pieces that are about four inches in diameter as the side supports. These run parallel to his back ridge and are the platforms for the seats and stirrups. They attach under his belly using this webbing, and they are tied up to his ridges using these pieces of wood as support.”
The saddle had looked complicated when she carried it in her arms, but as soon as she set it on Bob’s back, I realized that it was just like Hope’s, only with two extra support straps on the bottom, and thicker logs on the seat instead of stacks of dried leaves.
“If I had some leather, it would be more durable,” Trel said after she attached everything. “But this should work just fine.” Trel gestured to the platform behind the second seat and then showed where the cordage rope was kept coiled up. “You can tie a basket or pots down here. I’ve got a bunch of the rope threaded through the loops here. So you can carry up to eight jugs.”
“Damn,” I said. “This is great, Trel. We’ll be able to get three days of water in one run.”
“I know,” Trel said. “I’m amazing, and a genius. Don’t forget it.” She smiled as she bragged, and I laughed.
“Oh, and speaking of my genius, I also figured out how to add handles to our clay jugs. The latest batch of four is drying by the fire right now. Galmine and Kacerie are working on the next batch, but I used the last of our cordage. If either you or Sheela can go get more, I can hang out some of the sinew to dry. Or, I can do it, if you two just want to keep playing with your trees.”
“We’ll take a break from chopping,” I said. “Our axes are pretty dull, anyway. We need to make another set of those soon.”
“I’ll take them in so that Galmine and Kacerie can sharpen them after they finish with the clay,” Trel said as she gestured for us to hand all the tools to her.
“Let’s go get more ferns then,” I said to Sheela, and we both grabbed four baskets before we mounted on top of Bob and rode deeper into the redwood forest.
The job was actually a bit harder with Bob than with Hope. The male parasaur could hold more, but getting the baskets up on his high back required Sheela standing up on her tippy-toes while I reached down to snag it. We had the process figured out by the time we filled the fourth basket.
Sheela and I returned to the fort with four times the amount of ferns that we would have harvested with Hope, and it only took us ten minutes extra. The new dino was really helping us, and I felt some pride surge in my chest. I was feeling kind of like a badass when we walked back into camp, but then Kacerie stormed out of the hut and stomped toward me with rage showing in her light blue eyes.
“We need to talk,” she growled at me.
“About what?” I asked.
“Not here,” she said as she gestured to Sheela. “You said I could go out with you and gather ferns, but you went without me.”
“Yeah, sorry,” I said. “You were busy.”
“Can you take me to get water and more clay?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Uhhh…” I started as I stared at Sheela. I didn’t see Trel or Galmine around, and I guessed that both of my lovers were still in the hut. “I was planning on heading back to the lake anyways to get water and tame another dinosaur. I guess you can come.”
“Good,” she said as she grabbed my bicep. “Let’s go.”
“We need the water jugs and a leaf basket,” I said as I stepped toward the hut.
“I’ll get them!” Kacerie said quickly, and then she ran back toward the hut.
“Check it out,” I said to Sheela. I was suddenly suspicious of the pink-haired woman, even though I probably didn’t need to be.
Sheela nodded at me and then sprinted toward the door of the hut while I reached for one of the many spears we kept leaning against the walls. My friend reached the hut right after Kacerie did, and Sheela poked her head in for half a moment. Then she turned back to me, smiled, and raised her thumb up like I’d showed her to show that everything was okay.
“Here,” Kacerie said as she carried the basket and two jugs out of the hut. “The other four we’ve got drying aren’t ready yet.”
“That’s fine,” I said as I walked with her out of the gate. We attached everything to Bob’s back, and then we grabbed a second spear before we mounted him. A few moments later we were dashing through the clearing, and Kacerie was squeezing the air out of my stomach.
I gave her a brief tour of our little valley before I headed toward the lake. First, I showed her the fallen tree beside the river where we got our water. Then I ran up the river and showed her where we normally crossed to go to the lake area. Before I went that direction, though, I ran Bob over next to our old cave so I could climb the hill and give her a view. It was my second time up here today, but I was kind of enjoying the moments where I could oversee my little empire.
“This is our valley,” I explained when we got up to the hill. “There is jungle to the north over this hill. There is jungle and the lake to the east, that small mountain range is to our west, but the ocean is on the other side and the ocean kind of wraps around us on the south past those hills you can see there.”
“So, we are at the bottom left corner of this land mass?” Kacerie asked as she pulled her thick mane of pink hair over her shoulder. I’d never studied her hair closely, but the roots were a darker shade of pink that looked almost red, so I wondered if it was her natural color.
“Yeah bottom left is a good way to think of it,” I said. “We have the ocean to our west and south. You wanna tell me what’s bothering you now?”
“Let’s talk about it when we get to the lake,” she said as she turned to face me. “I want to see it.”
“Cool,” I said as I turned around.
“It’s actually warm out,” she commented. “I don’t know why you always think it is so cold.”
“Ahh,” I sighed. “Slang language from my world. I’m sorry. It means I either agree or think something is good.”
“I get it,” she replied, “but it doesn’t make sense as to why you would say it that way.”
I didn’t answer her. Instead, I just pushed Bob into his easy jog, and Kacerie got too busy holding on to me to bother talking anymore.
We forded the river, cut through the jungle, and then climbed the next hill that would bring us out of our valley and into the lake. I still saw the pillar of smoke in the distance, but Kacerie’s face was pressed into my back, and I descended toward the lake before she could see it. I didn’t really want to keep the information from her, but I didn’t know if I could trust her to keep her cool yet.
“We get the clay from over here,” I said as I steered Bob over toward the finger of the hand-lake. The trikes had left, but the small gang of parasaurs were still there.
“Okay,” she said as I slowed down his sprint.
“After we get it and some water, we’ll go to the other side and try to tame one of those parasaurs.” I held onto Bob’s reins with one hand and then pointed off into the distance with my other.
“Is it dangerous?” she asked.
“It should be okay, I’ve gotten two so far. I’d like to get one for everyone so we can all ride around if we need to.”
“That makes sense,” Kacerie said, “but I don’t know if I really want to control one of them.”
“You can just ride behind someone else then,” I said as we finished getting down the hill. The spot on the beach where we came out was devoid of dinos, and I made a little loop aroun
d the finger part of the lake where the clay was while I kept my eyes on the jungle.
“What’s wrong?” the pink-haired woman asked after I’d circled back around.
“Just making sure there are no predators,” I said.
“Like those green ones? How could they attack this creature we ride on? He is at least ten times their size.”
“There are bigger monsters,” I said. “They are called carnotaurus. They have horns on their head and are about the same size as Bob. He can outrun them, but if they sneak up on us, they’ll chomp him with their massive jaws. They are like bigger versions of the green raptors, only they don’t have feathers.”
“Ugh,” Kacerie said. “That is terrible. I hate this place. I wish I were home.”
“I’d send you back if I could,” I said. “We all want to go back.” I knew Sheela didn’t really want to return home, but I didn’t bother explaining that to Kacerie.
“We should focus on doing that instead of all this other stuff,” she said.
“When you say ‘all this other stuff,’ do you mean surviving? Cause that shit is pretty damn important.”
“It just seems like you aren’t even thinking about it. I need to get back. My business will die without me, and all my boyfriends will just move on to others.”
“I think we are safe to get down.” I ignored her last comment and then commanded Bob to lower himself next to the spot where the clay was. “The clay is over there. Take the basket and fill it up about halfway.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to do that,” she said as her hands came around my stomach and then ran up my back to touch my shoulders. “Look, Victor, is there anything I can do to change the situation at our camp?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The other girls are just really mean to me. They don’t treat me nice.”
“Uhh, what are you talking about?” I twisted around in the saddle so I could face her. The pink-haired woman was absolutely beautiful, but so were Galmine and Trel. A few weeks ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to talk to Kacerie without stuttering non-stop, but now her looks didn’t impress me.
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