Caveman Alien’s Riddle (Caverman Aliens Book 13)

by Calista Skye

  “I don’t mean I’m going to swim. At any other point in my life, I would fly. I think I made that clear some time ago.”

  I chew on the berries, ignoring the over-ripe taste. I need the sugar. “Are you able to walk on water? I’m not.”

  He looks down at his booted feet. “I don’t know. But I suppose I have to find out.”

  We walk on, and after ten minutes we’re at the shore of a small lake, one out of probably a hundred. They stretch out to the horizon, making the landscape look like a labyrinth. But between the lakes, tall pines grow.

  “I’m pretty sure the ground is firm enough to walk on,” I judge, squatting down on the gravel and testing the temperature of the water. “And this is pretty chilly. You want to try to walk on it?”

  Caronerax dips the toe of one boot into the lake, meeting no resistance. He frowns, then tries again with the flat of his foot. It sinks beneath the surface until he stands on the bottom. “We’ll walk around.”

  The gravel crunches under our feet as we walk around the edge of the lake. I keep an eye on the sky, the woods, and the lake itself. From the adventures the other girls have had, I know that lakes on Xren can contain some pretty nasty monsters.

  But I also know that the water in the streams and lakes is usually pretty clean. None of the girls have gotten sick from drinking water on this planet, even if it hasn’t been boiled.

  I squat down again and scoop lake water into my mouth. It’s fine. Cool and clean. “Caronerax, you want to try some?”

  He gives me a short glance, then walks on.

  Of course, dragons in human form aren’t human enough to really need to eat and drink, but this one is probably not in the best shape of his life, and a little bit of water never hurt anyone.

  I hurry to catch up, then study his wound as we walk. “How do you feel now?

  “There’s somewhat less pain,” he growls.

  I’m relieved. “Great! Let’s apply more of the paste soon. Twice a day should be good.”

  He sighs. “Very well.”

  Our shadows grow long while we walk along the shores of one lake after the other, always trying to keep going south.

  This is actually not bad. The lakes are close enough together that any bigger dino would struggle to make its way between them.

  We keep coming upon little packs or herds of smaller creatures, most of them harmless. But the fact that there are so many of them here is a good sign. They must feel pretty safe.

  After another hour, I slow down. The sun is about to set. We’ve walked all day, and despite the berries I’m starting to get really hungry.

  “Well?” Caronerax asks. “Is this your village?”

  “We’re nowhere near the village.”

  “Then why are you not walking?”

  I lean on a tree close to the shore. “I can’t walk at night. And I’m exhausted.”

  “Ah. This is the food issue you mentioned?”

  “Sure. Among other things.”

  “Can’t you get food? Ingest more of the ridiculous berries, perhaps?”

  I turn the leaf cone upside down to show him. “All gone.”

  “Can you find berries somewhere?” he frets. “What else do you eat? Leaves? Roots? Bugs?”

  I shrug. “Fruit is nice, but I haven’t seen a single fruit tree all day. Some roots are edible if you boil them, most are not. Leaves are not food, only seasoning. At best. I can eat grilled meat, but I have no hunting weapons, and it’s getting pretty dark. The bushes with berries are pretty rare, looks like. I don’t absolutely need to eat right now. But I will need to rest until tomorrow morning.”

  I’m not sure how that will work. It’s not like I have a tent or a blanket or anything to make for even a slightly comfortable night. But right now, I can’t walk another step.

  And of course walking in the woods at night is also not recommended. Some predators are mostly active in the dark, and you can’t spot them before they’re right on you.

  Caronerax stares at me for three heartbeats, then turns on his heel and marches off in among the trees with determined steps.

  I draw breath to call him back, then change my mind. I’m not at all sure I’ll be safer with him than alone in this lake area. Maybe he should continue on his own, and I will continue on my way tomorrow.

  I gather fallen branches and a couple of pounds of dry not-pine needles from the ground. I still have fire-making stuff in the pouch around my neck, and after a few minutes there’s a crackling little fire on the shore of the lake.

  Sitting down with my side to the water, just in case of lake monsters, I make myself comfortable on top of a sheaf of thick, squishy leaves.

  The flames warm me fine, something we usually don’t need fires for in the jungle. But this is not a tropical jungle like at the village. This is a boreal pine forest, and the air is chilling fast despite the sun setting.

  What do I do now? I’m obviously still far from the village. Weeks away, probably. I have to stay alive until then, which means I have to make hunting weapons. This not-fishing rod might fool dinos and turn their attention away from me, but it won’t kill and gut them. Actual fish don’t live on Xren in any great numbers, as far as we know. But I suppose I could try some fishing if I can make a better and thinner line.

  In fact, I better get started on that. And on making a spear.

  This could be a busy night. Which is fine, because I have no intention of going to sleep.

  I get to my feet again and gather some useful materials I spotted while collecting firewood. The pines are not useful to me, but there are smaller trees and bushes here. None of them bear anything edible, but I should be able to fashion a spear.

  I painstakingly cut a sapling off at the root, then pull off a strip of bark. It seems strong enough to make a thinner not-fishing line from, although—

  “Not the hottest fire.”

  I jump and spin around, holding the little tree out from me like a sword.

  Caronerax dumps a dead raptor on the gravel beside the fire. “But dragon fire is known for its heat, of course. Anything less seems pitiful to us.”

  I lower the sapling. “You scared me!”

  He reaches his fist out towards me and spreads his fingers like he did with the bobont. “Boo.”

  Bending down, I pick up my dropped little knife. “I’m not that jumpy. It’s just that I thought you were gone for good. Are you going to use that thing?”

  He puts his hands on his hips, clearly satisfied with himself. “I will use it to feed you.”

  I take in the dino. “It’s a lot for one girl to eat.”

  “They don’t come in smaller sizes. Take it or leave it.”

  I tiptoe over and kick the dino’s rough skin. I have tried dinosaur meat before. It’s sour and stringy and not strictly edible unless it’s boiled to a gray mass of fibers and used to fill out stews if there is absolutely nothing else available.

  And this thing is big. If I were to gut it and try to get a small piece of meat from it, it would take me all night. “Thanks.”

  Caronerax peers out over the lake. “This is a remarkably tedious planet. Nothing of value anywhere.”

  “Thanks again,” I mutter and squat down to cut a claw from the raptor’s paw. Those things can be sharpened to good points and used as spearheads or arrowheads. The teeth, too, but I doubt I’ll want to start working inside the dino’s mouth. If I cut myself on one of its teeth, I have a good chance of dying from sepsis or some terrible infection.

  “Are you feeling better?” I ask while working on this disagreeable task.

  The dragon taps a finger around his wound. “Perhaps.”

  In the darkness I can’t be sure, but it looks to me as if the injury has stopped bleeding, and the dried green paste of the healing herb is still hanging on. That’s a good sign. “I’ll put some more paste on it. After I wash my hands.”

  “You may.”

  “Too kind,” I mumble.

  “Yes, without question,”
Caronerax agrees, sending me a cold glance. “I hope you will show yourself worthy of the kindness of a dragon.”

  I put more wood on the fire and rinse my hands in the lake. The water is clear and cool. I doubt there are big monsters at the bottom of it, but of course you can never know.

  Taking the bundled-up leaf with herbal paste out of my pocket, I pat the ground. “You want to sit down so I can reach?”

  “No,” Caronerax says, but he does it anyway.

  I gently remove the old, dried paste from his chest. In the flickering light from the fire, it does appear that the tender area under the scales has shrunk a tiny bit. “Looks like it worked.”

  “I’m happy for your sake that it did,” he growls. “It would be hard to live with no fingers.”

  I get some paste on my finger and start working it onto his silky skin with the hard scales underneath. “You know, you don’t have to keep making those threats. I know you’re dangerous, and I’m not going to harm you.”

  “You have already harmed me.”

  “Again, I mean. Harm you again.”

  “It’s rare for anyone to harm a dragon,” he points out. “Nobody gets a chance to cause harm a second time.”

  The paste covers the wound, which I see now is quite a small hole in the skin and the scale. Only one of the pieces of metal scrap has penetrated. The others haven’t left any marks.

  “Do you know what kind of thing might be able to go through your scales? I mean, ordinary steel can’t, unless it’s traveling really fast, right?”

  “If you say so,” he grunts. “You’re the expert.”

  I can’t help it. Having hurt him this badly is starting to give me a guilty conscience. Sure, I had every reason to shoot him back at the village. But this injury seems to be sapping him of strength.

  I add a new layer of paste, using the last of the small amount I was able to wrap into a pack of leaves. “Not really. I was defending myself against what I thought was an attacker.”

  “I see.” His voice is flat and dangerous.

  “I may have been wrong, of course,” I add quickly, stroking his scales with paste in an attempt to soothe. “But why did all the dragons attack the village last night?”

  “I can only speak for myself,” Caronerax sighs. “I came into your village on my own, spurred on by the certainty that something big was about to happen. The air was thick with tension. Every tree stood as if quivering with expectation of a major event of some kind. I can only assume that the others felt the same and knew that this was the time to act, to do something. You must have felt the planet holding its breath.”

  I carefully pat the newly pasted area of his chest. “That should do it. Yeah, I guess I felt something last night. Except I feel that every night, the sense that something bad is about to happen. I’m usually right.” I sit down, not as far from him as before.

  “It was the earthquake,” Caronerax says, shifting his position. “When it came, it released the tension.”

  I put another branch on the fire. The lake is still and flat, reflecting the blue shine from the moon Yrf overhead.

  Hmm. If this place were in fact really far from home, like on a totally different latitude, wouldn’t the moon be lower in the sky? Right now it looks much the same as it does from the village. I have to check the sun tomorrow, see if it is lower in the sky around noon.

  “It wrecked our village.”

  “Lesser beings and their reliance on their temporary constructions,” he scoffs. “No sense of what is important.”

  I suck on the tip of my index finger. Working on the not-fishing rod, I got a splinter without noticing. “We kind of need those things to live. What is important to you? Only the hoard?”

  The dragon stretches out his long legs. “There is nothing ‘only’ about the hoard. Not in any way. The hoard is life, the fullness of experience, the ultimate reward and bliss. No lesser being can understand.”

  “And still, here you are. Light years from your hoard.”

  He chuckles. “Not quite.”

  I glance up at him. “No? You have collected a hoard here?” It makes sense. He was able to fly in his dragon form, something that hardly any of the other dragons have the energy to do anymore without their hoards.

  His hand shoots out as quick as lightning and grabs my wrist. His eyes penetrate me, one bright yellow and the other a vivid blue. He brings my hand closer to him, forcing me to get up on my knees on the gravel and awkwardly lean in.

  “I mean, it’s none of my business!” I exclaim, afraid of what he will do to me.

  Caronerax holds up one finger, tipped with a pointy claw that glints dangerously in the moonlight. He studies my hand and brings the claw closer. I’m powerless to resist, although I pull at my hand, afraid of being hurt.

  Then, still paralyzing me with his gaze, he digs the claw into the tip of my index finger.

  I prepare to scream, but then I realize it doesn’t hurt.

  He holds on to my arm, then brings the claw up to my eyes. The tiny splinter is hooked on the tip of it, barely visible in the flickering light from the fire.

  He rubs the tip of my finger on the still wet paste on his chest, then lets go of it. “Let’s see if it heals you as well as me.”

  I study my fingertip. It’s none the worse for wear, and the sting from the splinter is gone.

  “Thanks,” I say weakly, bewildered by this turn of events.

  “Of course, they attacked your village,” the dragon says into the fire. “There is no other place to attack. The tribes have no valuables and are dangerous. Your village is more dangerous, but there might be value. Is there?”

  “Um,” I say, having some trouble keeping up with his sudden change of topic. “No, not what you would find valuable. We have no gold or anything else you might need for your hoard.”

  “That’s what I thought. Nothing in there called to me. Except—”

  He gives me a weird look, then gets to his feet.

  “Except what?”

  He points to the raptor. “Are you going to eat that creature or not?”

  Huh. I think he almost said something important there. “I can’t. I’ll use some parts of it. In fact, I should start to cut into it before it gets too stiff.”

  He snorts. “Remind me to never do any hunting for you again.”

  “No, it was kind of you to bring me this. But if there is a next time, I can make more use of a smaller creature. Like the things that look like sheep? Or turkeys?”

  “I will carefully note down your order next time,” he deadpans.

  This guy is too sarcastic for words.

  I stand up on sore legs. It’s been a whole day of walking, and they demand more rest. But this is important.

  Caronerax drags the not-raptor closer to the fire. He walks over to the lake and dips his boot into it again, splashing like a toddler in a puddle, as if he can’t believe he’s unable to walk on the surface.

  With his golden locks of hair and his dense, black stubble, he looks both angelic and devilish, both softly beautiful and unspeakably manly at the same time. It’s a contrast that could confuse the hell out of a poor philosophy student like me. All I know is that it’s extraordinarily attractive.

  I get busy with my little knife, carving up the leg of the raptor to where I know there are thin, but strong tendons pretty close to the skin.

  It’s dirty work, and by the end I’ve got dino blood up to my elbow. But I also have a long, white tendon that will be a much better string for my not-fishing rod than the braided bark. The claw I wanted to extract is attached to the bones of the raptor, and my knife is too small to get it out.

  I sit down at the fire again.

  Caronerax is strolling carelessly along the shore, elegant and powerful and dangerous.

  The cavemen in the tribe have a bubble of safety around them, something about their presence and competence that makes you seek them out for their protection in the jungle. This dragon guy has more like a sphere of dang
er around him. A volume of space you can enter but not leave alive.

  At least that’s what I should feel. But I also feel that I’m safe with him. Safe from everything else, that is. Not safe from him. Not at all.

  I put more wood on the fire, then sit down in front of the dead not-raptor and lean back on its cooling carcass. It smells really bad, but my back needs the support right now.

  A chill goes through me. But it’s from the cool air, not because I’m about to spend the night in a strange forest with a murderer as my only company.

  7

  - Jennifer -

  I wake up with a start, looking around anxiously. But there are no obvious dangers.

  The fire has burned down, but the embers still glow. I’m chilly, but not so bad that I’m shivering.

  The sky is getting brighter.

  The dragon is nowhere to be seen.

  Well, I survived the night. And I think I slept well. Even though I’m still hungry, I feel pretty much ready to attack the day and make as much progress towards the village as I can.

  WIth or without the dragon. He probably got impatient and decided to go on alone, which is… well, I guess it’s fair enough. But it makes me feel less secure, and the brightening forest starts to feel full of dangers again.

  I splash water in my face and briefly consider taking a quick dip, but the water is too cold and I’m not in the mood for it.

  I drink my fill of water, quickly replace the string on the not-fishing rod, and walk on with the brightening horizon to my left. That should take me south, and anyway it’s the only direction I can walk that’s not blocked by a lake.

  Of course, I will sooner or later come to a place where there’s no obvious way south, and at that point I’ll have to backtrack.

  My legs are sore and stiff from yesterday, but after a few paces they warm up and I can tell they will handle one more day like this.

  Caronerax has left, and for some reason that stings. Sure, he’s an overbearing brute. But I got the feeling that he mellowed a little last night, especially after the healing paste seemed to work pretty well. I may need a blood-chilling monster on my side on this walk. The not-fishing rod is untried, and even if Heidi made it look easy, there’s no guarantee I can do it. Anyway, this forest seems to contain mainly raptors, and I’m willing to bet those are untameable.