“Holy shit,” I gasped as I turned to Emerald. “Did that just happen?”
Emerald nodded, and her white eyes were also wide with surprise.
“I guessed she could run fast, but that seemed crazy fast.”
Emerald pointed up to the sun, spun her fingers a bit in a circle, and then pushed the palms of her hands together.
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe she can only do it for a limited amount of time. We had these creatures on my planet called cheetahs. They could sprint really fast, but only for half a minute or so at a time.”
Emerald shrugged, and then she pointed in the direction that the woman with the thick legs had indicated the camp with the dangerous men were.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “We have a decision to make: Do we try to get around these guys so we can check out those cliffs? Or do we head back home? Besides that raised slope area where we first crossed the south river, I haven’t seen a good spot for us. Of course, we can kind of figure out a camp anywhere, but the two reasons I want to move were so that we wouldn’t get attacked and so that we’d find a better location. Seems shitty to move without the second reason figured out.”
Emerald nodded, and then she pointed at the camp again.
“Glad you are on board,” I laughed. “I was thinking we risk it also. I don’t want to come back empty handed.”
Emerald gestured at the beach to our south west with her left arm, and then she pointed more north west with her other arm, then she raised her eyebrow at me.
“I’d imagine that going the beach route around them will move a lot faster, but then we’d have to wrap around on the shore of the river and push north. I’m wondering if we can just cut north here, push through the jungle, and then cut west a mile or so up the hill. I know she said that they still might see us, but I’ve got an ace up my sleeve that she probably didn’t realize.”
Emerald’s white eyes flickered to my arms, and then she glanced at the cuffs of her blouse with a questioning expression.
“It’s a phrase from my world,” I laughed. “There is a gambling game played with cards. Uhhh, the ‘Ace’ is the highest value on, or the lowest depending-- I’m getting a bit esoteric here, but sometimes people can cheat by hiding an ‘ace up their sleeve’ that the other players don’t know about.”
Emerald actually seemed to understand what I was talking about because she smiled at me and then pointed into the sky.
“Yep,” I agreed, and then on cue, Bruce began to drift down and land near us.
My big winged friend let out a happy honk when he landed, and then he frog-hopped over to Nicole’s side.
“Okay, buddy,” I began as I pointed toward where the thick-legged woman had told us the enemy camped. “Here is the situation: There are some bad dudes camping over there by where the river meets the ocean. We are going to try to cut north and then go around them without being seen. Can you fly around over there, see if you can spot them, see if you can find a way for us to get by without being seen, and then report back?”
I realized I was giving Bruce a lot of complicated instructions, and I almost thought he would let out a puzzled honk, but he kind of bobbed his head, let out a happy honk, and then took to the air. Emerald and I watched him ride the wind currents and head west, for what looked like a mile or two, and then he leaned to his right and began to drive northward.
After about five minutes of flying, Bruce turned back toward us and began to drift eastward. He continued to look down as he flew, but then he twisted back around, circled a few times, and then made a straight line right toward us. I guessed he saw something that could work, and a burst of excitement tumbled through my stomach. Then I remembered the vision I had seen from his eyes when the knife-fingered asshole had attacked Emerald and I at our campsite, and I tried to think about seeing the landscape through his eyes. It didn’t work, and I wondered if it was because I was out of range or if it was because my Tame skill wasn’t quite powerful enough yet.
The pteranodon landed next to us again, and he hopped up and down a few times as he let out a weird sounding honk. I couldn’t quite figure out what he was trying to tell me, but his big brown eyes seemed both distressed and excited.
“Did you see the camp?” I asked.
Bruce honked and bobbed his head.
“Are there a bunch of assholes in there?”
He honked again and bobbed his head.
“Is there a way around them to the north?”
Bruce let out three honks and then brought his wings together like he was hugging himself. Then he looked at Nicole and let out a single sad honk.
“Ahh shit,” I sighed. “What about Grumpy?”
Bruce looked at the purussaurus and let out another single sad honk.
“Bevis and Butt-Head?” I asked, and Bruce let out two honks as he nodded.
Emerald tapped me on the shoulder, and I took a deep breath before I looked at her.
“So, Bruce says there is a path around the campsite where he doesn’t think they can spot us, but it’s too narrow for Nicole and Grumpy.”
Emerald frowned, and I turned to look back toward the ocean as I tried to think of a solution. Part of me wanted to just wait until nightfall, but then I’d have a bunch of other problems to worry about. Mainly, I knew there was a ticking clock to get back. Every extra day Emerald and I spent out here trying to find a new home gave our enemies more time to attack our camp when I wasn’t there to protect my women.
Also, moving around Dinosaurland during the night was rather terrifying. Yeah, Emerald could use the gem on her forehead for light, but that would also get the attention of the men in the camp ahead, so it would defeat the purpose of us trying to sneak around them.
We needed to do this sooner rather than later, so I was going to have to take a risk.
“Okay,” I said after I spun a plan around in my head for a few moments. “I think I have a plan. It might not be a very good one, but I don’t want to waste a lot of time, so we are going to divide our forces. Nicole and Grumpy, you both are going to walk west on the beach as close to the ocean as you can. I’d prefer for those assholes not to see you, so Gumpy, maybe you can stay in the water so it just looks like Nicole is traveling alone. In case they attack, you can surprise them.”
Grumpy and Nicole both looked at each other, and I could have sworn that they both eye rolled as they let out matching grumbles.
“What?” I laughed “Are you guys like siblings now? Just take care of each other. I don’t think these men will attack you, but I’m worried about the larger predators. Can I count on you both to protect each other?”
Nicole let out an affirmative grunt, and Grumpy actually surprised me by letting out a rumble that actually didn’t sound like he was complaining.
I turned to Emerald, but before I could explain what we were going to do, she gestured to Nicole’s saddle and raised an eyebrow.
“If she stays far enough away, they might not see the saddle,” I explained. “Or at least, that’s the hope.”
Emerald nodded, and then she pointed at Bevis and Butt-Head.
“We are going to ride them.” I smiled as I grabbed the Cricket Bat of Doom and some cordage from Nicole’s saddle. Emerald watched me knot the cordage around the grip of my weapon in a loop shape, and then I slid the makeshift harness over my shoulder and neck before I slid off of Nicole.
“I’m hoping they are fast enough with us on their backs,” I said as Bevis crouched on the ground so that I could climb up on his back.
I jumped on the back of the pachy, straddled his spine, and then reached up to hook my fingers over his shoulders. The position wasn’t super comfortable, but he was more than large enough to ride like a horse.
Emerald joined my side by leaping on Butt-Head’s back, and then the troodons formed their usual protective circle around us.
“Follow the ocean to the river,” I told Nicole and Grumpy as I gestured with my arm. “Then follow the river up toward us. We’ll probably get th
ere first, but if not, keep an eye up for Bruce so he can coordinate between us.
Both Nicole and Grumpy grunted, and then they turned away from us and marched south toward the distant ocean.
“Now we just have to pray that no big and hungry dinosaurs attack either of us,” I sighed as I turned my attention north to the jungle hillside.
Emerald nodded as she pointed toward the enemy camp, and I let out a laugh.
“Oh, yeah, we also don’t want those assholes to see us.” I urged Bevis and Butt-Head forward, and they took off at a slow jog.
The first hundred yards or so were super uncomfortable since I wasn’t used to the dinosaur’s gait, and the flat blade of the Cricket Bat of Doom kept smacking against my back, but Bevis seemed to get a feel for how I was sitting, and I got a feel for how his hips worked, and we were soon able to pick up a bit of speed.
We followed Bruce as he drifted in the air above us and turned east a bit so that we could run up one of the many wide strips of grass that ran between the jungle groves. The movement up the hill actually helped me sit on Bevis’ back a little easier, and the ride became a little less bumpy. The pachycephalosauruses were much faster than Nicole, and we made it up the side of the slope and to the crest way quicker than the trike had jogged down. Bruce was still able to fly faster than us, though, and he circled up ahead where I saw a break in the jungle trees on our left side.
I steered Bevis into the gap between the trees, and I realized that Emerald and I had left Scoob and the Gang way behind. I throttled back the speed some so that they could catch up, and we all continued through the narrow trail between the dense layers of ferns and massive trees.
Bevis really had a love for speed, and he kept trying to sprint ahead of the rest of the pack as we wound through the serpentine trail. I actually wouldn’t have minded going way faster, since the jungle felt a bit tight and oppressive, but our only real offense at the moment were the troodons, and I was worried that we might run into either a dangerous dinosaur, or the group from the camp we were riding toward.
As if on cue, Bruce let out a warning honk from above us, and I urged Bevis to slow down to a careful walk. I guessed we were getting closer to the enemy camp now, and I wanted to slip by as silently as possible.
The trail twisted north to our right, and the footing transitioned from a densely packed dirt to rocky steps. We were climbing up a gentle slope now, and I glanced back over my left shoulder to make sure that we weren’t going to ascend past the tree canopy.
Then I saw a plume of smoke behind me.
It was probably a hundred or so yards away, and I guessed that it was from a cooking fire because it wasn’t a thick black plume of smoke, but the observation didn’t make me feel much better. We were obviously circumnavigating just around the outside of their camp, and I felt my hands start to get slick with nervous sweat as Bevis slowly moved up the trail.
Then he kicked a rock loose, and I commanded everyone to hold still.
The piece of stone was probably about the size of a softball, but it sounded like a bunch of rapid-fire gun shots as it tumbled down the slope behind us. Emerald’s eyes opened wide, and we both turned back around and braced for someone to scream out an alarm.
But no one did.
I turned back around and commanded Bevis to move up the steps a bit slower this time. The pachy seemed to have realized he made a mistake, and now picked his footsteps more carefully, but my shoulder muscles were still tense.
I kept checking back over my shoulder as we climbed, and I noticed that the trees thinned out below us into an open, but rocky, field. I guessed this was where the muscular-legged woman said that we should have crossed, but Bruce was leading us a bit more north on a path that seemed to thread in and out of various rock formations on a cliff face.
We were almost about to reach the top of the tree canopy, and Bruce let out a warning honk as he landed up on a large boulder thirty yards up the slope ahead of us.
“Hold up,” I said to Emerald as I commanded all of our dinos to stop moving.
She nodded, and then we both turned around to look back at where the fire was. We were actually high enough now to see a bit of the camp through the top part of the trees surrounding them, and I saw four crude looking huts and a bit of movement in the camp. I guessed we were maybe two-hundred yards away now, but if I could see into the camp, then they could see us climbing the slopes of the cliff above them.
“We need to make a dash up to those rocks,” I said as I turned toward Bruce. “See the narrow passage there? That’s where Nicole and Grumpy couldn’t fit. I think Bruce is telling us that once we get through there, they won’t be able to see us move west along the cliffs. All we have to do is sprint up there and hope they don’t see us. Do you want to go first, or should I?”
Emerald glanced back to the enemy camp, then back to Bruce, and then she tapped her chest.
“Okay,” I said as I turned around again to face the slope below us. “I really can’t see where they are looking, so we might just be overly cautious, but I guess you can go when you are ready.”
Butt-Head surged forward, and the pachy raced up the hill while Emerald clung to his neck. They darted right past Bruce, slipped between the two boulders, and then twisted around to the left.
I held my breath and waited for anyone from the camp to give out a warning shout.
For a few moments, I didn’t hear anything, but then Bruce flapped his wings and let out a really loud honk. My heart leapt in my throat, and I opened my mouth to ask him what the fuck he was doing, but then I saw movement down by the camp, and I slid down on the opposite side of Bevis.
A muscular man with long blond hair was drifting up through the air over the smoke plume as if he was being pulled up through the air with an invisible rope harness. I didn’t think he could see me because of the trees and Bevis, but he was definitely looking in Bruce’s direction.
The man wasn’t wearing a shirt, and one of his arms was raised in the air kind of like when Superman flew. He looked a bit like Brad Pitt, only more muscular, and his blue eyes narrowed dangerously at Bruce.
Then my pteranodon let out another annoyed honk, and I saw the blond man shake his head and then glance down toward the ground. I noticed that he wore loose fitting white pants, and he had little bird’s wings on each of his ankles like the various pictures of Hermes I’d seen from my Greek history classes in high school.
“It’s just one of those big flying lizards!” the man shouted as he began to drift down slowly. “He’s perched up on the boulders!”
I heard someone from the ground shout back, but it was a bit too far away for me to hear.
The floating man sank back below the trees, and a brief surge of indecision tumbled through my mind. If I dashed up now, they might not see me because they just looked. Or, they might still be looking to confirm what their flying-scout-guy said. I wondered if I should wait for a few minutes, but then it might seem really suspicious when they saw another flash of movement up on the rocks.
I decided to risk it.
Bevis dashed forward, and the troodons tailed right behind me. I tried to hang low on the pachy’s back to keep from being seen from anyone below me, but the angles were probably all wrong, and I guessed that anyone trying to look up through the trees at the cliff would probably see the bowl-headed dino dart across the open slope with me hanging on his back.
My heart leapt up to my throat, and I focused on the small break between the boulders we had to fit through.
Then I was in between the boulders, in a twelve-foot wide nook hidden between the rocks, and the cool shade helped alleviate some of the tension in my muscles. I actually didn’t see Emerald in the small toboggan-like canyon, but I figured she had moved up ahead so that I could fit in here.
Bruce let out another honk, and I waited and listened for anyone to shout out an alarm from below.
I counted to thirty, but then Bruce flapped his wings and took to the sky. It was all the
signal I needed to know that the bad guys down in the camp hadn’t seen me, so I turned forward, clicked my tongue twice, and steered Bevis through the narrow passageway.
I caught up to Emerald after the first bend, and she smiled over her shoulder, tapped her chest over her heart, and pointed at me. I blew her a kiss, and then her smile widened before she turned around to continue forward.
The path continued a good thirty yards between the rocks, and it started to bend around the shape of the cliff toward the north. There were a few breaks in the boulders where I thought that anyone down below us might be able to catch a glimpse of us while we rode past, so I tried to order our dinos to dart quickly through those sections so that the chances of being seen were lessened.
Soon the cut-out we were in began to slope downward, and we came to a few small switch backs that looked like they had been cut by dinosaurs half the pachys’ sizes. We still managed to navigate down them with some careful foot and tail placement, but when I glanced behind us once we made it down, I realized that it was going to be really hard to return up the slope.
We were back in the jungle now, but I could hear the sound of water to our west, so we pushed through the foliage and soon came to a sandy beach that was flanked by some super tall palm trees. Each must have been two hundred feet tall, and the base of their trunks were as wide as Nicole’s length.
The woman with the muscular legs had been correct about the river. It was a good hundred yards wide and moved at a somewhat leisurely pace. The water was surprisingly clear, with just a light blue lagoon coloring, and I could actually see dozens of fish swimming near the bottom some thirty feet down.
“Wow, that’s super pretty,” I said as I glanced along the long strip of azure water. There were more super tall trees on the other side of the river, but then I saw the jungle begin to rise slowly into a hill that moved south and eastward into the ocean. About two hundred yards south of our position the hill obviously became a sheer cliff, but the edges of the top continued out into the sea some half mile away where the river met the salty water.
Tamer- King of Dinosaurs Book 6 Page 19
