Caveman Alien’s Riddle (Caverman Aliens Book 13)

by Calista Skye

  “Okay,” Beatrice says, holding the tasteful little bunch. “I actually never want to get married. But the flowers are nice, and I’ll totally keep them. They won’t have a chance to wither before we’re back on Earth.”

  “Then you can sell them as magical alien wedding flowers,” I suggest. “‘Marry a dragon within a week or your money back.’”

  She laughs. “Yeah, we’ll just see. They’re nice, I might keep them.”

  “Meanwhile,” Delyah says, “that’s a cool wedding ring you got there. Gold and everything.”

  I hold it up. It’s kind of shapeless, not perfectly round or carefully polished to a sheen. But it’s incredible. “It’s pretty sweet. Caronerax carried the gold next to his heart for days. As in, really next to his heart with nothing between them. I know because it was beating against my hand when I pulled this thing out of his chest.”

  “Imagine gold being toxic to dragons,” Heidi marvels. “I’ve never heard anything more ironic in my life.”

  “It’s weird,” I agree. “But it kind of makes sense. The hunger for gold is behind all their bad qualities, like greed and distrust and all this. It gives them toxic behavior, so of course it kills them if it gets inside them. Actually, don’t listen to me. I’m too happy to think.”

  Aurora checks the string on her crossbow, which never leaves her person anymore. “I wonder where that nugget came from. I mean, it must have been in the gravel around the village. What if our trusty old creek is in fact a river that runs thick with gold and always has? That would be pretty ironic, too.”

  “Maybe every stream on Xren is like that,” Caroline says, dressed in her white lab coat and looking regal. “Maybe this is the most gold-rich planet ever, you just need to pan for it. Or mine it.”

  “Could be,” Mia agrees. “It took me all of ten minutes to pan enough gold for Kyandros to get a pretty good start on his hoard. Girls, this level is kind of chilly. Is it time for some snacks?”

  We move down to the fun fair level, where the girls have prepared a small buffet. There are no chairs or tables, just standing room. Which is fine.

  Caronerax and I walk around the level, holding hands.

  I point. “That’s a rollercoaster. Remind me to never try that. That’s a carousel. That thing there is… I don’t know. Some alien thing. Your enemies built everything in this ship so that their kids would have a little bit of a life, some experiences other than just a barren spaceship.”

  He’s silent for a long time as we walk around the level, with me occasionally joking with our wedding guests.

  “Our thirst for gold ruined them,” he finally says. “We hunted them to extinction for their gold and their riches. Not our proudest moment, I think now.”

  “I think so too,” I agree. “But that’s something that could happen again if dragons ever discover Earth. I worry about that, my love.”

  “Yes,” he says, tapping his lips with one finger. “The Plood know where your home planet is, although that’s something they would only reveal to me in exchange of an extortionate amount of gold. But the connection exists and is a risk.”

  “Even if the dragons don’t go there, the Plood are bad enough,” I tell him. “Could we do something to stop them coming to Earth?”

  “Married to you, I’m convinced I could do anything. So yes, we will find a way. The Plood will never go to your planet again. Nor will any dragon.”

  I go up on tiptoe to kiss him. “It’s okay if you go there. And Kyandros and Aragadon. But not to plunder. Just to visit in peace and friendship.”

  “Agreed,” he says.

  At that moment I know it will be okay. Nobody is as strong as my husband. He will fix this, too. He’s totally awesome. Totally perfect.

  I squeeze his hand. “Tell me, do you collect Transformers?”

  He nods. “Yes, of course.”

  I look up at him. “Really?”

  “No, not really.”

  “It would have been weird. I mean, how would you even get them? Anyway, what are your thoughts on non-Hegalian determinism?”

  He frowns. “Very complicated and unconventional, of course. Disturbing, some would say. Are you sure you want to hear them?”

  I grin. “No, not really. Save them for a rainy day when we’re inside and we have nothing to do.”

  He reaches down and innocently squeezes my butt. “I doubt you and I will ever have nothing to do.”

  I grin up at him. “You only think of one thing, don’t you?”

  “How true,” he thoughtfully admits. “Non-determined hegemonism is on my mind at all times. As well as the transformations that I collect.”

  I laugh. “That’s not what I meant, you terrible rogue.”

  “Oh, you mean something else?” He pinches me again, making me squeal. “You might be onto something.”

  “I definitely am. It’s the same with me.” I innocently stroke his bulge outside his pants.

  “Such a horrific, all-consuming affliction we suffer from,” he sighs. “But it is better to suffer together than apart, I always say.”

  I kiss his chest right where the hole used to be. It’s now barely visible as a scar. “You’ve never said that before.”

  He frowns. “Are you sure? Sounds like something I’d say.”

  “It really doesn’t.”

  “No, that’s true.”

  I examine his wrists, which are now also healing fine. “My love, that first day, after I punched your wound… were you a little bit afraid of me?”

  “Perhaps. I never dreamed pain would be so... painful. Yes, I suppose I found you a little bit scary.”

  I reach up to stroke his silky beard. “Boo.”

  We don’t actually eat that many snacks at our reception, and before long we make our goodbyes and make our way through the ship. We pass several cavemen on the way, tensely guarding all the entrances.

  “It feels a little bit like wartime,” I whisper as we leave the ship through the main door and go out on the ledge, bathed in sunshine. “Like we could be attacked at any time.”

  Caronerax Changes, and I climb up on his neck.

  We could. I do believe there is a war on.

  He beats his powerful wings once, and then we’re airborne and soaring into the sky. Beneath us is planet Xren, with its jungle and lakes and mountains.

  The feeling of freedom and sheer joy is overwhelming, and I grin into the wind that forces tears from my eyes. I totally get why dragons prefer this over walking.

  Like the view?

  “It’s wonderful.”

  I always thought so. But I have never seen it like I do right now. It feels even better when we can enjoy it together.

  “I love you,” I tell him as we climb higher and higher.

  He laughs into my mind. And I love you too, my extraordinary wife. Oh, that’s nice to say. I love you. I love you. I love you!

  I laugh too, because how can I not? “Are we going anywhere special?”

  I thought we could look at swamps.

  “Really liked that swamp, huh?”

  Not the swamp itself, perhaps. But this love thing feels so good that I want everyone to have it. So I think we should inspect several swamps and see if perhaps they have inhabitants that might want to meet our tentacled friend.

  “Marshie? Yeah, cool! We’ll find another monster for her. I never knew you were such a romantic, Caronerax!”

  I am a dragon and a prince. Some romance was bound to seep in.

  “I see what you mean. You pretty much come straight out of the pages of a fairy tale.”

  I’ll take your word for it.

  I hold on to his scales while we zoom across the terrain, covering miles in what feels like seconds. “Can we stop somewhere else first?”

  Where?

  “Somewhere where there’s soft grass. Maybe a crystal clear creek. A safe place where we can get some privacy.”

  My love, I had the exact same thought. We should find a place to discuss the hegemony of dete
rmination as soon as possible.

  “We really should. And then maybe have some sex?”

  Or! Stay with me, this could sound crazy: we’ll have the sex first.

  “Yeah! That’s how we will do it. First the sex, then the sex.”

  And I would suggest that we finish with some lovemaking.

  “A stroke of genius! Yes, that’s it. You got it. We’re newlyweds, after all. And I do have a place in mind. A secluded island, a lot like ours, but without a curious Marshie spying on us. It’s really Aurora’s island, but I asked her and she’s fine with us spending our honeymoon there. In fact, I think it’s in that big lake down there.”

  Caronerax abruptly dives, and I scream with thrilled terror as we plummet to the shimmering blue lake with the emerald green island by one shore.

  “I sometimes think you enjoy scaring me,” I say as we come in to land.

  My dragon beats his wings once, and then we’re down.

  He Changes to human form and puts the hairpin into his golden locks.

  Then he gently lifts my chin and brings his lips close, gazing right into my soul again.

  “Boo.”

  Epilogue

  - Jennifer -

  “Take a look at this. Probably nothing, but…” I shake the cherry pits out of my little pouch. They rattle on the alien material of the console in the control room.

  All the girls come over.

  “What are those things?” Phoebe asks. “They aren’t ordinary seeds.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I tell her. “I mean, they probably are. They just don’t look like it. Now, try to smell them. It’s okay, I’ve rinsed them in water.”

  The girls take one pit each and bring them to their noses.

  “It’s familiar,” Ashlynn says. “Not very strong, though.”

  “Try to scrape it with your fingernail,” I suggest and do the same with my pit.

  They all do it, then take another sniff.

  Sophia gasps. “Is that… could it…?”

  “I don’t know,” I tell them, excitement surging. “It’s too soon to say. And it’s plainly not the same thing. But it could be pretty close.”

  “Cocoa,” Delyah calmly states. “Or a very similar smell, anyway. Quite fatty and not too hard. It should be possible to mill it.”

  “More than possible,” Dolly says and bites off a little piece, chewing it with her front teeth. “Easy. Heck, even if this isn’t exactly the same as cocoa beans, it has all the flavor and the bitterness. Once we find sugar, we can make not-chocolate all day long.”

  “Can’t we extract sugar from fruit?” Emilia asks. “We haven’t bothered with that before, but if it means we can make freaking Hershey’s, then I’ll set up a sugar mill right now.”

  The girls are excited, sniffing and chewing the cherry pits from Marshie’s island.

  “Oh my God, this is crazy cool!”

  “We might have Snickers tomorrow! Right, Emilia? You’ll make Snickers first?”

  “No, where would you get the peanuts? Do something simpler. Just a soft milk chocolate.”

  “Yes! A bar of Milka! Swiss quality. You can’t go wrong.”

  “Why so complicated? M&M’s is all anyone ever needs.”

  I grin as the girls pat my back and laugh and joke.

  Sophia shakes her head in wonder. “Is there anything this planet doesn’t have?”

  “Coffee,” comes the immediate response.

  “Kardashians.”

  “Decent tissues.”

  “An Apple store.”

  “Yes, yes,” Sophia laughs. “It was one of those rhetorical questions. But we are discovering a lot of good stuff now, making our lives better.”

  “Okay,” Delyah says. “Great discovery, Jennifer. That will be super important. Now, we have to talk about the future.”

  We settle down.

  I glance at the three hundred and sixty degree display that shows everything around Bune. It all looks perfectly peaceful now. Caronerax is at full strength, and he can keep most of the enemies away. It also looks like Kyandros and Aragadon are drawing some power from his presence, which he thinks is because he is royalty.

  But we still need the shelter of Bune.

  And there is another problem. When he put his hand on the escape ship, he could tell it was not intact. He can’t tell how bad it is, and Mia can find no problem with it. It might only be a minor crack or something out of place. But it feels a little bit broken to him.

  That means none of us can take a chance on it unless it’s a total emergency and it’s that or death.

  “Weird things are happening,” Delyah says. “The battering ram was really unexpected. The caveman army suddenly dissolving is another thing. From what we experienced during the earthquake and battle, it looks like some of the guys in the army let the dragons in on purpose.”

  An angry hiss goes through the room. We probably all suspected something like that, but hearing our chief say it makes it more real.

  “And I can’t forget the groups of cavemen and dragons measuring each other up without fighting. Something is going on, and it can’t be good for us. On the other hand, we now have a weapon against dragons. A piece of gold shot by a blunderbuss should be effective in penetrating their hard scales. One of the softest metals is the only thing that can easily penetrate them. Kind of interesting.”

  “Now all we need is gold in sufficient amounts,” Heidi points out. “Never an easy thing to find.”

  I raise my hand. “There may be a source. I’ll find out.”

  Delyah nods, wise enough to not ask any more about that. “We can hold out indefinitely in here. If the escape ship was sure to work, I’d recommend that all the girls who want to leave Xren should go now. But if there’s a chance the Plood have sabotaged it, then we should find out if and how. We have time for that. Let’s not screw that up, this close to the end.”

  We leave the control room in thoughtful silence.

  Caronerax is waiting on the garden level and comes over to embrace me. “There you are. Finally.”

  I squeeze him. “Hey, it was only ten minutes.”

  “It was indeed. Ten infinite minutes away from you.”

  I stroke his scaled chest, fully healed. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say. You don’t believe in that?”

  “I don’t believe in absence at all. I am all about presence.”

  “I know.” I look up at his extraordinary face. “My love. I have to ask you something.”

  “My astonishment knows no bounds.”

  I slap his scales lightly. “Stop that. Husbands aren’t supposed to roll their eyes at their wives.”

  “I think opinions differ on that.”

  “Probably. Anyway. Your cache. It contains gold, yes?”

  “If you say so.”

  “And gold is effective ammunition against the dragons.”

  He taps his chest. “Demonstrably.”

  I steel myself. “Could you lend us some gold? In case we have to fight the dragons.”

  He thinks about it. “Pieces of gold as ammunition? My dragon heart winces at the mere thought. Yes, I’ll lend it.”

  I frown. “You will? From your cache? Just like that? I was expecting that you’d demand an immediate divorce.”

  “The cache hasn’t been on my mind for days,” he says. “It’s very mysterious. I think it’s because my wife is now my main hoard. So as long as I have you, I can lend gold. Or even give it. May I keep some of it?”

  I go up on tiptoe to kiss his lips. “Keep as much as you want. I don’t think we need much.”

  “Then start with this.” He reaches under his pants and takes off the gold chain, handing it to me. “I don’t need it to Change anymore. Each link could be split in four, I would think. That should be ammunition enough for at least a skirmish. Just make sure to hit with every shot. Don’t want to give dragon enemies gifts of gold. Make sure it gets inside them and poisons them.”

  The chain is h
eavy in my hand. “This has to be a couple of pounds. Thank you. We may not need much more.”

  “Tell me if more is required. The cache is buried under the campfire in your old village.”

  My jaw drops. “You just told me the location of part of your hoard!”

  He taps his lips. “I did, didn’t I? Well, now I have to kill you.”

  “I don’t believe you will.”

  He grins. “The available evidence points to you being right about that. Don’t tell anyone, though. That was only for your ears.”

  “Your secret is safe with me, prince. Now, I wonder if we-”

  Phoebe appears at the alien elevator, then comes walking fast, urgency in her movements. “Guys, you want to look at something up in the control room?”

  Caronerax and I follow her up.

  Delyah points to the giant display screen that is the wall. “Do we know who that is?”

  The sun is setting, and the shadows are long. That’s why it’s so easy to see the hundreds or dragons and cavemen standing together in a long line about a half-mile away from Bune. There must be hundreds of them, if not thousands.

  But that’s not the worst part.

  Above this new and mixed army, alarming enough on its own, is the thing that Delyah was talking about.

  There’s a dragon, very big and powerful, flying along the line with slow, calm beats of its wings.

  As we watch, it turns in the air and is suddenly coming right at us, as if it knows we’re watching.

  The dragon grows big as it approaches, beautiful and still terrible.

  I gasp. “Is he going to…”

  Delyah and Phoebe and I reflexively duck as the dragon gets close enough to touch.

  Then the room is bathed in searingly bright light as the chilling creature breathes a stream of plasma-hot white fire at the old spaceship.

  When we get up again, Caronerax is still standing there, watching the other dragon circle away. Part of the display is now dead and black, its outside sensors burned to a crisp. But we can still see that this new menace is blue with bright yellow stripes. He looks a lot like Caronerax.

  “We know who that is,” my husband says tightly. “That’s my brother, Prince Yranox. The heir presumptive to the dragon kingdom. Probably the mightiest of dragons.”