One of my fears looked to have been in vain, but I wanted to make sure.
“Yes, I found us a new home,” I said, “but before I get into that, has there been any sign of the other tribe?”
“Nothing,” Sheela reported.
“We’ve been guarding the wall non-stop since you left,” Emta continued. “Nothing but the occasional dinosaur.”
“We had a few large predators come into the clearing,” Sheela continued, “and one of the horned ones came near the gate, but I hit it with a spear, and it ran off.”
“I’ve done a few patrols on the hillside,” Gee called out from where she stood a few dozen feet behind everyone. “Haven’t seen anything across the valleys, either.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “That’s one thing I don’t have to worry abou--”
“Victor, have you not been eating?” Galmine’s voice drifted to me from between Keefaye and Quwaru, and the two beautiful women stepped aside some so that my gray-skinned lover could slowly move toward me.
“Uhhh, the last couple of days have been--”
“You are really skinny,” Liahpa gasped as everyone looked at my chest. “I didn’t notice, but--”
“It’s fine,” I said as I waved my hands at them. “The new place is going to be about three or four days of travel. You are all going to love it, but before we start packing up to go there. We have a visitor.”
Everyone looked up at the two Emeralds still sitting on Nicole’s back, but before they could ask what I meant, I pointed back to the center wall of the camp.
“Where is Nomi? We were followed by the most powerful survivor yet, and I can’t beat him. I need her help.”
“I’m here, Victor,” her soft voice called to me, and I turned to see that she was standing behind Trel in the shade of the wall. Her hair was still over her face, but she gave me a small wave when I turned to her.
“He can stop time in a globe around his body,” I began to explain, “and he can also send out a globe to stop time at a distance of about fifty feet. You told me you can stop people from using abilities? Please tell me I didn’t dream that, or we are all going to be fucked.”
“I can do that, yes,” she nodded as she looked over her shoulder at the door. “Where is he?”
“He’s at the river,” I said as I checked Bruce’s vision. “He’ll be here in like ten minutes or so. How much distance do you need to use your ability?”
“It is funny you should ask,” Nomi whispered with a slight chuckle. “Qwuaru, Sheela, and Gee have been helping me practice with it while you were gone. I used to think it was ten feet, but it’s much farther now.”
“I would say it was a hundred feet,” Qwuaru spoke up.
“And it’s awful,” Gee scoffed.
“She was able to take away your Flame Dance?” I asked the obsidian woman.
“Yes,” Gee sighed, “and it feels terrible.”
“Well, I’m happy you all worked on it,” I said as I turned back to Nomi, “like I said, I think he’s only got about fifty feet on his sphere, but I’m worried that he might use his power on you first, and then you won’t be able to do anything to him, so I’m going to go out there alone to face him and--”
The women and Zoru all began objecting at once, and my head swam as I tried to filter out what everyone objected to. Finally, Adella’s sing-song voice cut through the mix, and I was able to focus on her.
“That seems really dangerous to go alone. Can’t we just use Nomi’s power from behind the wall?”
“I’d rather we take care of him outside of our fort,” I said. “If I’m out front, he’ll focus on me. Especially if I shit talk him. Then Nomi can get into position when he moves in to kill me.”
“What if we let him come inside the walls?” Quwaru asked. “Then we can attack him on all sides and--”
“Absolutely not,” I huffed, “No one is getting in here. I don’t want to risk any harm coming to any of you. Stay on the wall, if things go wrong, you all need to get out and run from him.”
“He can’t possibly be that powerful,” Gee grunted. “You should just let me fight him.”
“He can freeze time,” I said, “You’ll go to use your whip on him, and it won’t work.”
“But if I get close enough, the heat from my body will harm him,” she continued. “At least have me out there standing near you. That way he has to pick between two powerful targets.”
I chewed on the beautiful warrior-pirate’s words for a few seconds, and then I realized she was right. Not only was Gee powerful, but she looked deadly. The grass at her feet died wherever she went, so if she stood far enough away from me, Aytron would definitely notice and worry about who to use his power on.
Or he would wait in the trees until he could make a decision, and that was exactly what I didn’t want.
“I need to lure him out so that Nomi can use her powers,” I told Gee. “You can be outside of the walls, but duck down in the trench around the base so he can’t see you easily. If something bad happens, and he comes for me, I want you to try to help, but I don’t want him to see you, get fucking scared, and then not show up.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Gee snickered as she smiled at me. “You always seem to be a few steps ahead of everyone else.”
“Let’s hope that’s the case right now,” I said as I pointed to the shooting platforms that we had put up against our walls so our defenders could see over. “Get Nomi on one of those. I’ll try to lure him closer.”
“I would advise that we give her some space,” Quwaru said. “When she uses her power, it is a bit… uncomfortable for everyone standing around her.”
“Yeah,” Emta grunted, and Zoru and the rest of the women nodded.
“How so?” I asked.
“You’ll feel exhausted,” Urka snickered. “Like you rode on a trike for three days without sleeping while some time-stopping asshole chased you.”
“Oh, I know what that feels like,” I snickered as I looked at Nomi, but the dark-haired woman just shrugged and began to walk toward the wall.
I moved to the gate again, but I only made it a few steps before Trel, Sheela, Galmine, Kacerie, Liahpa, and the Emeralds were all hugging me.
“Be safe,” Sheela said once we all broke our embrace.
“Yes,” Kacerie said. “You keep risking yourself for us. We don’t want to lose you.”
Crush his body with your mighty weapon and feed the earth of your world with his blood and soul.
One Emerald gestured while the other handed me the Cricket Bat of Doom.
“You sure you don’t want us out there with you?” Liahpa asked as I gestured for her and Sheela to open the gate.
“No,” I said. “Close the gate after I leave. If something goes wrong, then get out of here. Scoob, Shag, Fred, Velma, and Daphne, let’s go.”
I knew my troodons were exhausted, but they all chased after me with a chorus of happy hoots. I almost considered asking my balaur bondocs to come instead, but the troodons had been the ones with me on this mission, so I wanted to give them the reward of victory.
I figured that Scoob and the Gang knew that, and that was why they were all happy.
I walked across the land bridge across the pit we had dug around the wall, made a right, and then continued for about fifty yards. This would be the spot Aytron would approach from the trees, and I’d walked and ridden the route a few hundred times in the last three or so months to get water.
I hoped I’d be able to walk it again.
“This can’t be the end,” I whispered to myself, and Scoob let out a gentle hoot as he pushed his head into my hip.
“Thanks buddy,” I whispered to him, and then I scratched the feathers on top of his head as my other hand squeezed the handle of the Cricket Bat of Doom.
It was time to defend my women.
I didn’t have to wait long, after a few minutes, I saw Aytron move through the redwoods at the edge of the clearing. He stopped when he saw me, and I saw hi
s eyes glance up to the walls where he must have spotted the rest of my tribe waiting.
For half a moment, I worried he would just fade back into the trees, but then he stepped into the clearing as a wide grin spread across his face.
“I guessed that someone could control these monsters,” he started. “It is an interesting ability. Inferior to mine, of course, but I imagine how it is useful.”
“You don’t have to work your brain that hard to imagine,” I replied. “I killed everyone in your tribe.”
“They were weak.” He shrugged as he continued to walk toward me, but then he stopped about seventy feet away and glanced back up at the wall behind me. “All women?”
“I’m lucky, I guess,” I said.
“I will speak to them then,” he began, “since you won’t be alive in a few more moments.”
“I could say the same about you,” I said, but Aytron just waved his hand to me as if he was dismissing an annoying waiter and raised his voice.
“I am Aytron Fetaronoca, God-King-Lord-Emperor of the Fetaronoca Galaxy Empire! I rule over countless billions of loyal subjects. I am a benevolent god, so if you exit your fort, come out, and kneel before me, I will not kill you, and you will be allowed to bear my sons. I will even take you with me when I return to my homeworld. However, if you do not submit to me immediately, I will rape each of you in turn while this man watches, and I will kill you afterward. The choice is yours, and I will give you a minute to leave your fort and kneel.”
“Ha!” Trel shouted down from the wall. “What an idiot male! Sorry, idiot male, but you are far too stupid to be a god. Maybe you are a court jester? Or the royal toilet bowl cleaner? Or the assistant to the person who actually cleans the toilets? Yes, that is what you are, second in charge of cleaning the shit someone else leaves. Our husband is going to kill you in a few moments, and then we are going to forget about you a few moments after that.”
“Oh,” Aytron snickered to me. “I like that one. She’s feisty. I’ll have fun with her first. Those types are always the ones who start pleading when I start working on them. She’s your wife? Even better.”
“Look, I’m fucking sick of listening to you talk,” I said. “Let’s just--”
“Just so you know,” he interrupted me. “I actually wasn’t going to let any of your women live. I just wanted to get them down here so I wouldn’t have to chase after them. No, I might keep one or two around as playthings, but you killed my subjects, so I’m going to make you watch as I rape and kill most of your women.”
“You seem to think that you can do that without killing me first,” I growled, and all of my troodons let out angry hisses as they crouched around me.
“I said I was a god, Victor.” he snickered. “And a god does what he wants.”
“How the fuck do you know my name?” I growled as I raised my Cricket Bat of Doom.
“See?” he purred as he walked toward me. “Your Eye-Q hasn’t even upgraded to see the names of your enemies. You are a bug, and I will pull your wings off before I end your miserable existence.”
I heard Sheela grunt on top of the wall behind me and a spear flew over my head like a bolt of lighting. She must have been standing a hundred and fifty feet away or more, but the weapon tracked like a bullet toward the man.
Then it stopped right in front of his face.
“Not going to work!” Aytron laughed as he reached up to grab the spear. Then it came free in his hand, and he spun it around in his palm as he continued to walk toward me.
There was a flash of light, and Kacerie’s Lance beam arched toward Aytron. This too stopped in place ten feet from his body like a picture, and now that the beam was frozen in place, I could see that it looked like a ten foot long streak of angry rainbow.
“I. Am. A. God!” He laughed again as he side-stepped Kacerie’s attack and continued toward me.
Every instinct was telling me to turn tail and run, but I knew I couldn’t do that. For one, I was standing a few feet in front of the slope of our ditch, and I’d just tumble down if I tried to run away, and two, I just needed this asshole to get a bit closer.
Then Nomi would stop him.
I hoped.
“Hold the line guys,” I whispered to the troodons as they crouched at my feet. I could feel their rage and terror, but I just needed Aytron to move a few steps closer and--
Suddenly the world was dark.
I heard screams. Too many screams. They sounded all around me, so I knew it wasn’t just my friends on the wall behind me.
Somehow, Aytron had his fingers wrapped around my throat, but his skin was colored all wrong. It used to be dark with bright “star” spots that seemed to glow, but now his skin was white, and the spots on his skin looked dark. His hair was white too, and his eyes opened in horror as I felt his fingers loosen around my neck.
“How?” he gasped, but I noticed a figure standing behind him.
It was Nomi, but her dark hair was now as white as snow, and it floated up into the air like Liahpa’s normally did. Her eyes were also white, but her skin was dark. And her mouth was opened wide as she held her hand out toward Aytron.
She looked like a beautiful nightmare as she screamed at him.
The world screamed at us, and everything was the wrong shade of black or white.
The grass was black. The sky was white. The sun was black. The redwood trees were silver, and their leaves seemed to glow brighter than a million little suns.
This was her Eclipse power at work.
“I can’t--” Aytron started to groan, but I twisted my hips, brought around my arm, and slammed the Cricket Bat of Doom into the side of his chest.
The weapon made a half-crunching-half-cutting sound as it ripped his body open, and Aytron screamed as he tumbled to the ground.
“What did you do!” he screamed as he clutched his broken side, and I could see a dark rib poking out of his chest and white colored blood gushing out.
“We demoted you, god,” I growled as I raised my weapon over my head.
“No!” he screeched as he raised his trembling hand. “Don’t kill me! Please! I’ll do--”
The edge of my weapon cleaved his skull open like a clay vase, and his brains looked like spilt cottage cheese.
Then I slammed my Cricket Bat of Doom into his corpse again and again until his body was mostly a cum stain of white on the black grass. Then my head began to spin as the lack of colors swirled in my vision.
“Victor?”
A hand gently touched my shoulder, and I blinked as I turned to the voice. It was Nomi, and the color had returned to the world.
“Are you okay?” she asked sweetly. Her hair was pulled back from her angonizly beautiful doll face, and she squinted a little in the bright sunlight.
“Yeah,” I said as I turned back to the mutilated corpse of Aytron. “How did you get so close--”
“He froze you with his ability, but he was still too far away, so I had to climb down the wall. Looks like the range of my ability is about a hundred feet.”
“Yeah,” I heard Gee say from twenty feet or so to my left. “We both rushed to you, but it’s all taken care of now.”
“Thank you,” I said to both of them, but then my head started to swim, and I felt like I was going to throw up.
“Lean on me,” Nomi whispered sweetly, and then she shifted her shoulder so it was in my armpit. She was small and lithe under her gray robes, but she still seemed strong enough to help carry some of my weight.
“You guys are hungry,” I said to the troodons walking next to me. “Go and eat. I made you ‘god’ for dinner.”
Scoob hooted a snicker, and then they all moved to start feasting on Aytron’s corpse.
Gee walked as close as she could to Nomi and I, but the rest of my tribe walked out of the gate to meet us. Someone took the Cricket Bat of Doom from my hand, and then both Sheela and Liahpa put my arms over their shoulders so I could stand better.
“Shit, I’m tired,” I sighed a
s I tried to walk.
“No shit,” Emta scoffed. “But you at least found us a new home?”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “You are all going to love it. You guys started packing everything up? Are you going to be ready to leave soo--”
“Stop!” Trel commanded as her spider-legs carried her to the head of our procession. “Before we start talking about this new home, and the moving, and all that other unimportant boring stuff. We must talk about the real pressing issues.”
“Uhhh, pressing issu--” Kacerie started to ask, but Trel interrupted her with a raspberry.
“Ugh! Why do I always have to keep track of the most important tasks for Victor? Have you all forgotten what our real mission is here on this Dinosaurland planet?”
Everyone kind of glanced at each other for a few moments, but then Trel groaned again and pointed her long black fingers to the two Emeralds.
“Please tell me that at least one of these bodies is pregnant with Victor’s child.”
End of book 6.
Thanks for reading Tamer: King of Dinosaurs Book 6! Book 7 will be on Kickstarter in another few months. Make sure you join my newsletter on my website for updates!
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Editing by Ginger Earle, Nick Kuhns, Jacqueline Miles (who also edits my audio books), Wanda Jewell, Cody Elyko, Anthony DePaolo, Alex Hyde, and Kenneth Smith.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Michael-Scott Earle
Tamer- King of Dinosaurs Book 6 Page 31
