Tamer_King of Dinosaurs 2

by Michael-Scott Earle

  We took the direct route that led down the hill without putting us in the jungle. It meant that the raptors could see us if they bothered to look over in this direction, but I kept my eyes glued to the group across the lake, and none of them seemed to notice us.

  Bob skidded to a stop right next to the clay, and I jumped off his back the moment he lowered himself. Sheela and I started flinging clay into the baskets five seconds later, but I kept glancing up toward the other side of the lake.

  “I’ll watch them, just go!” Kacerie hissed, and I turned my head back down so that I could focus on putting as much clay in the basket as possible.

  As soon as my first one was full, I heaved it up and ran the fifteen feet back to Bob. Kacerie helped me set it on the back part of his saddle, and I sprinted back to the clay while Sheela lifted hers up to Kacerie.

  My arms were burning from scooping so fast, but I ignored the pain and forced myself to scoop the clay faster. My second basket was soon full, and I ran it over to Kacerie as Sheela took her second over. We each only had one more to do, and I felt a bit of relief fill my stomach. We were going to be able to get away. Then tomorrow the wall would be built, and we could wait a few days before coming back here.

  Then I heard a screech drift toward us from the other side of the lake.

  “Shit!” Kacerie hissed.

  I didn’t bother looking up, I needed four more scoops to fill up the basket, and I got them done as Kacerie whispered to us.

  “They see us! Shit! Go! Go! Hurry!”

  Sheela was already dashing back to Bob, and I followed right behind her as soon as I put my last handful of clay in the basket. Kacerie was still trying to tie the fourth basket down, but she gave up and grabbed Sheela’s before taking mine. As soon as I could, I jumped back up into my seat and then turned to face the other side of the lake. There were a group of four raptors sprinting around the lake’s edge, and they were letting out angry squawks that cut through the still valley air.

  “Tie them down!” I growled as I glanced over to see Sheela and Kacerie struggling with the baskets.

  “I’m trying!” the pink-haired woman hissed frantically. “If you go now, we’ll lose them!”

  “Fuck!” I growled as I turned back to the raptors. It took about a minute for me to push Bob around the lake, and I guessed that the four raptors chasing us could go just as fast.

  Maybe even faster since they didn’t have three people riding on their backs.

  “Come on!”

  “Go!” Sheela and Kacerie shouted in unison, and I commanded Bob to speed away. My big friend didn’t need much encouragement, and he tore away from the shore of the lake as if his ass was on fire. We sprinted up the hill and then wrapped around into our jungle quickly, but I still heard the sounds of the raptors screaming behind us.

  We reached the first river, and I debated my options as I wiped the wind-sting from my eyes. I knew our pursuers were fast, but I wondered how well they could track by smell. If I took Bob straight back to our camp, would the massive raptors be able to follow us? That would be a nightmare since I didn’t think I’d be able to win a fight with four of them and keep all my dinos alive. The battle could set us back a few days.

  It could even mean that the entire pack learned of our camp, and then it would just be a matter of time before they killed us.

  Instead of heading straight back, I could push through the river a bit, take it downstream, go in and out of it a bit, and hope the raptors lost Bob’s scent. The risk with the plan was that they could just catch up to us, and that would also be a tough battle. Thankfully, Kacerie had her two Lances ready, and Sheela had her Critical Strike, but it would still leave one of the fuckers fighting against Bob, and I didn’t think my big buddy would get out of that unscathed.

  But it was still the least risky of our options, so I decided to go with it.

  I pushed him into the river and urged him to plow through it as fast as he could. I didn’t know if the parasaurus understood exactly how my plan was supposed to work, but he took to swimming with the current faster than I thought he would, and we were quickly away from the spot where we normally forded the water.

  The walls of a ravine closed in around us as Bob swam downstream, and I strained my ears to hear the sound of the chasing raptors.

  “They are getting closer!” Sheela hissed, and I cursed under my breath. I didn’t see any way we could get out of the river in the next two hundred yards, so I was now betting on the raptors not thinking we went into the water.

  “Kacerie, get your Lance ready,” I said.

  “I’m ready,” she said over the roar of the water. We all gasped when Bob’s head briefly disappeared under the waves of the river, but he popped back up a few seconds later, and then let out a loud toot of distress.

  “Shhh! Bob! Come on, man!” I doubted that the raptors could hear him toot over the water, but I didn’t want to risk it.

  I just needed him to keep swimming for a few minutes, get past the walls of the ravine, and then we could run on the shore for a bit.

  A wave surged over a boulder and soaked my shirt, but none of the water got on Kacerie and Sheela. I glanced back to make sure that the baskets were okay, and it looked like the water wasn’t getting close to them.

  We waited silently while Bob swam with the current, and I prayed the raptors wouldn’t figure out where we went and chase after us.

  “I think we have lost them,” Sheela said after what felt like ten minutes, and I let out a sigh of relief.

  The river fed out of the ravine, and we came to a spot where Bob could get onto the shore. I steered him out of the water and then ran him down the east side of the river for about a mile. I actually went about a quarter mile past the spot where the fallen redwood tree was, but then I doubled backed into the river, and then let him get a drink before I pushed him back to camp.

  I dropped Sheela and Kacerie with the clay at our workstation in the forest and then commanded the trikes to come patrol the surrounding area. As soon as Tom, Nicole, and Katie were in place, I ran Bob back to our fort and then ran inside to talk to Trel. She was getting her clay funnel on top of a tripod of long poles of three inch diameter wood, but she turned to me with a questioning look.

  “We were seen by the raptors,” I said. “They followed us into this valley, but we lost them in the river.”

  “Ugh,” Trel sighed.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We need to finish the wall tonight, or we might not have a tomorrow.”

  Chapter 17

  “Are you sure they’ll keep searching for us?” Trel asked me as we both walked out of the fort and got onto Bob.

  “No,” I said. “They might give up and go back into the lake valley so they can just eat the rest of the two brontos, but four of the fuckers chased us at least two miles, and they wouldn’t have done that unless they were interested in hunting us down.”

  “Even if we start burning the logs right now, it will still take six or so hours for them to finish,” Trel said before I commanded Bob to run back to the work site.

  “We have to make it go faster,” I said as soon as we reached the site. “How do we do it?”

  “Ugh,” she groaned as we got off Bob and jogged over to where Kacerie and Sheela were setting the clay. “There is a way, but it’s risky. Also, aren’t you worried about potential enemies seeing the smoke?”

  “We’ve got two or three hours before sunset,” I said. “I’m more worried about the raptors. What’s this other way?”

  “The sap,” Trel said as she pointed to one of the closest giant redwoods. “It will burn quick and hot. If we can get the fire started with it, and then add some slowly as it burns, I think we might push the timetable up. We won’t be able to do it with all the logs, but if we do it with twenty, then we can work them into the walls while the others burn. Then we’ll save some time.”

  “Victor, do you really wish to work out here once darkness falls?” Sheela asked. “The raptors could sn
eak up on us then.”

  “I’m worried about that, of course,” I said. “But if they find our camp tonight, they are going to do some damage to our dinos, then we won’t be able to build tomorrow. This needs to happen now. Are you three with me?”

  “Of course,” Sheela said with a quick nod.

  “Yep! Let’s get it done,” Kacerie said.

  “You are a slave driver,” Trel moaned, “but life will be more relaxed with the wall up. Then you can pay more attention to me instead of worrying about getting attacked. I will work through the night if needed.”

  “We need a way to grab this sap,” I said.

  “Someone needs to collect it quickly,” Trel said. “And they can’t touch it. Since they won’t be able to bring their hands close to the fire. We might need to collect it with a stick or something.”

  “I will go get a plate,” Sheela said. “Then I will ride around on Hope, get as much as I can, and return. Which logs should we burn first?”

  “These,” Trel said as she gestured to the stack. “We’ll start on the others first, but they’ll be done last.”

  We went to work with a frantic energy. Sheela jumped on Hope and darted away while Kacerie continued to lay clay. Trel and I began to burn the logs after Kacerie, and the pink-haired woman managed to stay ahead of us since we had to set up the fire for all the holes and vertical cuts.

  Sheela returned some half hour later with a surprisingly massive glob of sap sitting on one of our plates. It was about skull size, and I saw that she had used one of our other plates to scrape it off the trees and onto her platter. Trel showed her how to place it on the log, and then we carefully set it afire. The sap burned far hotter than I expected and we actually had to take a step back from the log because of the heat.

  It also produced a thick plume of black smoke.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Trel asked me.

  “Too late now,” I said as I stepped back more from the foul smelling fire. “The sun is almost down, so maybe no one will notice. Let’s keep moving.”

  “You got it,” Trel said. She and Sheela went to work on the first batch of trees, and I continued on the original plan of lighting the remaining ones.

  The sun was just a sliver of orange on top of the western mountains when we finished lighting all the fires. It meant that anyone looking in our direction would have only seen the smoke for less than an hour.

  “Okay, we are in luck,” Trel said when I circled back to her and Sheela. “This is burning much faster than I thought. We’ll be ready with this first batch of logs in a few minutes.”

  “That’s great!” I said as I commanded the parasaurs to approach us and get ready.

  “Sheela is going to get more sap and put it on the rest so that we speed it all up,” Trel continued. “I know how you hate bottlenecks. I think we’ll be able to get the logs in the trench with zero downtime.”

  “Trel, you are amazing,” I said.

  “Oh I know,” she laughed. “But I wouldn’t be this brilliant if you weren’t always pushing me to design and build new things. Sheela, Kacerie, and Galmine also help.”

  “Are you actually giving me credit for something?” Kacerie snickered.

  “If you want to make me happy, you’ll have some soap made tomorrow.”

  “Oh, I’ll get right on that.” Kacerie gestured to the pile of flaming logs and rolled her bright eyes.

  “Good!” Trel said as she clapped her hands together. “Have I told you before that I am a duchess? I need to have regular baths.”

  “Sometimes I can’t tell if you are joking or not,” Kacerie sighed. “But yeah, I’m looking forward to making some soap. Tomorrow or the next day.”

  “That log looks ready,” I said as I pointed to one of the first ones Sheela had put sap on. “It’s still smoking, but let’s get it over to the trikes.

  Sonny followed my orders and rolled the log over to the trench. It stopped smoking by the time it got to the wall, and he was able to position it in a way so that Katie and Nicole could get their horns under it. Then the trikes lifted it up, and Trel and I went to work hammering our dowels into it.

  The next log was ready as soon as we were done with the first, and the rest of the night blurred into an almost endless process of hammering in dowels, fetching logs, lifting, and hammering in more dowels.

  The darkness became thick, but my eyes adjusted to the light of the twin moons, and we kept working.

  My shoulders started to shake with exhaustion, but I forced myself to keep hammering, and we kept working.

  My mouth burned with hunger, and I could sense that the other three women were skating on the edge of exhaustion, but I told them all to drink water, and we kept working.

  Then we were setting in the thick logs that would make our new fort’s entry, and I realized we were almost done.

  “The one on the top will be tricky,” Trel said as she blinked and rubbed her fingers across her sleepy eyes.

  “I’ll have Bob and Sonny lift it up,” I said as I ordered the exhausted dinos to move over to the last thick log. I’d been thinking about how to do it and figured that it would be best if the parasaurs pushed it onto the trike’s lowered horns first. Then I had the trikes lift up their heads together so they brought the log up like a moving shelf. Then the two parasaurs would roll the log the rest of the way up the vertical pillars before it slid into place at the top.

  The plan worked flawlessly, and we all let out a long sigh of accomplishment.

  “Now the doors,” Trel said as she pointed to the rectangular frames she had already crafted.

  “Sheela, let’s lift them in place,” I said, and we both moved to the first door. We were both beyond exhausted, but we managed to muscle the first one into place together. We hadn’t dug out the holes for the posts to slide into yet, but the door looked like it would work. We moved the next one into place, and then Trel asked us to secure them with four logs that braced the whole ordeal.

  “Is that it?” Kacerie asked as soon as we had pushed the last brace up.

  “Yeah,” Trel said. “That’s it.”

  My vision flashed, and I blinked open my Eye-Q. Structures now said “3”. It was good progress, but I wondered what our camp would look like when it said “10” or “100”.

  “Good job, team,” I said as relief flooded my stomach. “Now we’ve got about an acre and a half of space. We can build a farm, more huts, a--”

  “Bathhouse,” Trel interrupted me.

  “Yeah, sure. I feel a lot safer now. I hope you all do too.”

  “Yes,” Sheela said. “Thank you for pushing us, Victor. We are all safe because of you.” The cat-woman smiled at me, and I gestured for her to come closer so I could hug her. She did so, and our lips met for a lasting kiss.

  “Hey, when did that happen?” Trel asked. “And where is my kiss?”

  “Come here,” I said and the obsidian-haired beauty stepped into my chest so she could kiss me.

  “Well, I’ve just got hugs,” Kacerie said as she opened her arms to me. “You have saved my life a bunch, and I feel like we really have a chance.”

  “Get in here,” I said to her as Trel and Sheela stepped aside for the pink-haired woman. Kacerie threw her arms around me and then surprised me by actually grabbing my chin and kissing me. It was a quick movement, but her tongue explored the inside of my mouth a bit before she broke it off.

  My Eye-Q flashed again, but I didn’t need to check it to know what it would say. Kacerie had been a bit of a rocky start, but she was committed to me now. I was hoping our friendship would develop more, but first, I wanted to sleep for two days.

  “The dinos need water, but they will have to wait until tomorrow morning,” I said. “Plan for tomorrow is just hunting and getting water. It will be a light day. Cool?”

  The three women agreed, and we walked the hundred feet back toward the entrance of our smaller camp.

  We’d almost made it there when half a dozen beams of li
ght filled up the night sky in all directions.

  “Shit,” I said as I turned my head around in an attempt to judge how far away all the pillars of light were. They were all different colors. Red, blue, orange, pink, green, and purple, but there was a pillar of light to our east that was silver in color.

  This one looked as if it was maybe only a mile away.

  “Victor, I know what you are thinking,” Trel groaned.

  “We need to go,” I said as I commanded the exhausted dinosaurs to stand.

  “No! It’s late! You’ve been working all night! There will be more of them.”

  “How hard would this have been without Kacerie?” I asked as I gestured to the wall. “We have big plans. We need more people. I need to make a run for it.”

  “I will go with you,” Sheela said.

  “So will I,” Kacerie said. “You saved me. I want to save someone else.”

  “Fine!” Trel stomped her foot. “I’ll go--”

  “You don’t have to,” I said as I mounted up on Bob.

  “Maybe I want to? You’ll get into trouble without me.”

  “Alright. Grab your spear. Kacerie and Sheela on Hope. Trel’s with me. Those four raptors might have gone back to the lake valley, but they could be around. Also, the people that just arrived on Dinosaurland would be confused so they could attack us first and ask questions later. Get ready to fight. Kacerie, you use your Lance first, then Sheela will use her Critical Strike, and then I’ll bring Tom and Bob into play, we’ll leave Nicole and Katie guarding the door. Got it?”

  The three women nodded, and then I helped Trel get into the seat behind me. We made the quick trip to the new gate, jumped off our dinos, lifted the doors away, and then climbed back on our mounts. I commanded Katie and Nicole to stand abreast at the entryway and guard, and then we rode as quickly as we could toward the silver pillar of light.

  I prayed that we weren’t too late, but I also prayed that we’d be able to help the new arrivals without any sort of violence.

  I pushed Bob into the lead of our pack as we darted through the massive redwoods. The wind carried the scent of pine needles, mud, and new dew. I’d never felt as free as I did when riding on the back of a dinosaur, but this quick recovery mission was bringing me a sensation I hadn’t felt since I’d saved Kacerie. It was as if a part of my soul was shouting a war cry, and I kind of hoped we would run into something that we could fight. It was a ridiculous thought for sure, but I was in command of five massive dinosaurs, and three capable warrior women.