Tamer: King of Dinosaurs 4
Author: Michael-Scott Earle
Date: 2018-05-05 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Harem; Fantasy; Science Fiction; Fiction; Adult; Survival; Action; Adventure; Romance
Description: Control dinosaurs. Tame women. Rule the world. Victor Shelby and his harem of beautiful alien women have defeated their first enemy tribe, but their troubles are far from over. A new enemy brings terror from the sky, and Victor must do everything in his power to protect the women that he loves.
Publisher: MSE Publishing, LLC

Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

End Notes

Michael-Scott Earle

Chapter 1

“I’m going to come down, so we can talk face to face,” I said to Quwaru as I gestured down the wall of the cliff. “Can you bring all of your people out so that I can meet them?”

“Hmmmm…” she hesitated and then turned back to the carved entrance of her cave. “Is that necessary? We are a private bunch as I’m sure you and yours are.”

“Look, Quwaru, I just saved your ass, and I’m going to need to know who everyone is in your tribe so that I can figure out how you all are going to pay me back. Will-Lack followed me back to my camp, and I bet he took a count of all the people I had there, so I’m just asking to be on an equal footing.”

“You are right, Victor,” she said. “We will all come out to meet you. I want to be friends with you, and I’m thankful that you came to help us. We’d all be dead or slaves if you had not come.”

“Yeah,” I said as I commanded the troodons to move around the west side of the gorge so they could meet me when I climbed down. “I’ll be right there.”

“Will you bring your friends?” Quwaru called.

“I’ll think about it,” I said, and then I slid back away from the edge and stood up. The angle of the cliff meant that she couldn’t see me anymore, and I turned to my friends with a smile on my face.

“You should not go down there alone,” Sheela said, and her golden cat-eyes were filled with concern.

“I’m not going to be alone,” I chuckled. “I’ve got the whole dinosaur gang down there.”

“I agree with Sheela,” Liahpa said. “We do not know these people, and they might attack you.”

“I want you all to stay up here and cover me from above,” I said as I looked at Sheela’s quiver. She only had a few arrows left, but I knew that the warrior woman could put one into someone at our range. “They aren’t going to do anything because they know they need my help.”

“But people are stupid,” Trel objected. “They might decide to be stupid and attack you.”

“Then my dinos will rip them up,” I said as I smiled at my friends. “Look, I know why you are all worried about me, but these folks just saw us take out over a dozen of these Burner fuckers. They don’t know that we blew all of Kacerie’s powers, or that we are almost out of ammo, or that we don’t have any more rocks to throw. They don’t know anything, but having you all come down there with me might push the conversation to them asking what you all can do, and I want to keep that hidden for as long as possible. We might need all the leverage we can get.”

“It makes sense,” Kacerie sighed.

“Yeah,” Trel moaned, but then smiled at me. “This is one of the many qualities I love about you, Victor, you are always thinking a few steps ahead. I will help carry you down the cliff face.”

“Yeah, that might go faster,” I said. “Then when my talks with them are over, I’ll raise my hand like this and then head out on the trail toward the ocean. I’ll wait for you all to meet me back by the black lava flow. Got it?”

The four women nodded, and then I walked with Trel up north to the top of the C shape of the cliffs. She wrapped her arms around my chest when we got there, and I felt my stomach drop a bit when we both stepped off the edge. I shouldn’t have been worried though, her spider legs expertly grabbed onto the vertical rock, and we descended at an even pace.

“Be careful,” Trel said when we reached the bottom. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, and then I wrapped my hands around her narrow waist and gave her a long kiss. Trel moaned when our mouths touched, and she pressed her almost naked body against mine passionately.

I turned around to find my tiger-striped pack of troodons waiting for me, and we all wound our way south beside the cliff face until we connected with the grassy slope that led into the gorge where Quwaru’s people were.

My troodons were covered with the blood of the men they had just killed, and they hooted with excitement when we made it to the clearing. They were a bit like dogs in nature, and they ran over to the corpses of the first Burner we came to, hooted again, and then looked over to me as if to say “Hey, Dad, look at this fucker we killed. Aren’t you proud of us?”

“Yesssss,” I cooed back at them as I scratched each of their heads and appraised the bodies of the men they had taken down. “You all did such a great job. I’m so proud of you.”

The troodons collectively cooed, and then they each took turns pushing their heads into my stomach and hips so that I could pet them.

“Awww. I love you guys too. Let’s keep going. We have to talk to our new friends.”

Scoob let out an authoritative hoot, and the others fell in formation around me as we continued up the grassy hill.

My other dinosaurs were on the other side of the hill standing near the cliff where Quwaru’s clan had the one side of their rope bridge still attached. The triceratops Tom, Nicole, and Katie were closest to the cliff, and the biggest of my three parasaurs, Sonny, Cher, and Bob were back some fifteen feet snacking on the long grass that grew by the base of the cliff where my friends and I had launched our attack on the burners.

I looked across the gap toward the entrance to Quwaru’s cave and saw a small group there. A quick count gave me six others besides Quwaru and Emta.

“You should come over,” I said as I pointed at the trail to their right side that wrapped around the “C” shape of the gorge and came out in the grassy field where I stood.

“So you can sic your creatures on us?” Emta hollered. “No thanks.”

“Uhhh, I came all the way out here to help you all. I’m not trying to hurt you. Calm the fuck down.” I crossed my arms and shook my head at the olive skinned woman.

“You calm the fuck down,” she hissed. “Just because you showed up doesn’t mean that--”

“Stop!” Quwaru growled at Emta, and the larger and more muscular woman stopped talking. The red skinned woman with the horns and silver eyes turned her head back to me and nodded. “We’ll come over, Victor. I don’t think you’d hurt us, since you risked your life and the lives of your tribe to help us.”

“Nope,” I said, and the group of eight talked for a few moments before they cautiously moved to the side trail. It was only wide enough for them to go single file, so I got a good chance to look at them as they walked around the south and east side of the backwards “C” shaped valley.

Quwaru went first. Her long legs, perfect hips, round breasts, and long black hair looked like something out of a pin-up poster. She wore a bikini that made Sheela’s look like a burka by comparison; since Quwaru’s didn’t really cover much besides her crotch and nipples, and her graceful strides made me think about a model on a catwalk. Her red skin, the small horns, and her silver eyes gave me the impression that she was a succubus, but she didn’t have wings or a tail.

Behind Quwaru, the purple skinned creature walked on the trail. I hadn’t gotten that great of a look at it earlier, but now I had time to examine it as it moved. The skin actually looked like it was short fur and not skin, and while the shape and movements of its tail made me think of a monkey, the creature walked tall like a human, and its arms were proportioned about the same as a human’s would be when compared to torso length. The creature didn’t wear any clothes I could see, but I didn’t really see breasts, so I guessed that it was male. Then it turned to me as it walked along the path, and its face looked somewhat fox-like. There was a bit of a long pointed mouth and nose, along with ears which came up to small points.

Behind the purple fox-monkey-creature, a willowy woman wearing a thin white dress walked. She looked totally human, from the side, but I could only see her feet, the slight outline of her legs through her lace dress, and her long snow colored hair. Her skin was only a slight shade pinker than her dress and hair, and she walked with a slow grace that reminded me of someone moving under water.

Behind the white-haired woman was a person who at first looked like a child. The figure had bright azure colored hair that stood up at least a foot from the kid’s head like it had five pounds of hair gel in it, and it wore heavy looking dark gray overalls and a red long sleeve shirt under the shoulder straps. As I stared at the kid, I realized that it wasn’t a child at all. It was a short and thin woman with small breasts, big feet, and a long nose. She looked kind of like a gnome archetype from the various fantasy games and books I’d read, but then she glanced toward me, and I could see that she had two sets of eyes on her otherwise human-looking face. Both sets of the eyes seemed to glow with the same blue light as her hair, and she frowned before turning her attention back to the walkway.

A woman with a human looking body followed behind the short blue-haired gnome. It looked like she wore tight fitting pants made out of a rainbow hued scale fabric, but as she walked, I could tell that her long legs were actually scaled, and she had long beta fish-like fins on each side of her shapely thighs. Her upper body looked human, and she had a green bikini top over her pert breasts. Her hair was long and blood red, and it immediately made me think that she was a mermaid who had somehow transformed her tail into legs that could walk on land. Her beautiful green eyes were almost too large on her face, and their placement gave her an exotic beauty that made me think of those Japanese anime shows.

The next member of Quwaru’s tribe was another female. She also looked humanoid and had a magnificent mane of golden hair that fell back off her head like a waterfall and almost touched the ground. She wore a tight black bodysuit that looked like what cyclists would wear, and there was a foot long sparkly gold horn coming out of her forehead as if she was some sort of human-unicorn hybrid. Her eyes actually glowed gold also, and she stared at me the entire time she walked around the narrow path.

The second to last member of Quwaru’s tribe looked like the crazy woman from that “Ring” horror movie. She had long black hair covering her face, pale skin, and she moved with jittering steps, as if she had to fight to control her body. She even wore a messy gray robe just like the character in the film had, and she didn’t bother to look at me. She just placed a hand on the shoulder of the golden-haired woman with the unicorn horn and allowed herself to be led around the narrow path. The exchange made me think that she must have had a very powerful ability since she seemed so fragile.

Emta brought up the rear. She was almost as tall as Sheela, and had a lithe, toned body which reminded me of a volleyball player. She wasn’t as muscular as Liahpa, who wasn’t as muscular looking as Sheela, but body types were a bit deceiving on Dinosaurland, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the olive-tanned woman with the two ork tusks coming out of her lower jaw could break me in two if she wanted. She turned to glare at me as she walked, and her snake-like hair thrashed around her shoulders as if they were controlled by her emotions.

Besides the purple-furred fox-monkey looking creature, Quwaru’s clan looked to be made up of all women. I didn’t know exactly what to make of the finding, but I spent the few minutes it took the group to walk around the cliff trail thinking about the implications of the two sexes surviving on this world. The Burners had been all men, and seemed like a bunch of assholes, and Quwaru’s tribe seemed to be mostly women and agreeable. My tribe was also mostly women, and we all got along. I was probably looking too much into the situation, but the small sample size of men I had encountered so far on this world seemed to lean toward being total assholes.

“These are my friends, Victor,” Quwaru said as soon as the group of eight reached the end of their cliff trail and stood in a line before me. Their eyes all stared at me intently, and I was suddenly a bit nervous. The woman with the long black hair hanging in front of her face was giving me the heebeegeebees, and the purple fox-monkey creature was odd, but the other six members of the tribe were absolutely gorgeous, and for a few moments I felt like I was back at Lacey’s pool party. Even the short gnome looking woman with the azure hair and four eyes was really pretty in a totally disconcerting way.

“Hi all,” I said to them after I cleared the frog out of my throat. “I’m Victor. Uhhh. Nice to meet you.”

“We know who you are, dumbass,” Emta hissed.

“It’s okay,” Quwaru scoffed at the other woman. “Victor is being nice. We have not met many nice males on this world. I will introduce everyone, and then we can talk about how we can pay you back for saving us.”

“Sure,” I said as I nodded to the red-skinned succubus.

“But what about Will-Lack?” the woman with the white skin and long white hair asked. Her eyes were dark pools of black, and they made her look less human than I would have expected.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “He made it to us, and he asked for our help, but then he died. He had a bunch of arrows in his body.”

The white-haired woman’s face seemed to crack, and she gave a slow nod as her shoulders slumped. The other members of the tribe looked pretty distressed by my news, but none of them seemed surprised.

“He was a good man,” Quwaru whispered. “We saw him get hit by the arrows when he was leaving our cave, but--”

“He has passed on,” the white-woman with the black eyes interrupted. “I am thankful to have known him.”

“Me too,” the woman with the too big green eyes and mermaid legs said.

“Yes,” the blue-haired gnome agreed.

“I will think of him often,” the woman with the golden hair, eyes, and horn said, but she stared at me intently when she spoke, and her unblinking gaze was starting to creep me out a bit.

“He was my brother,” the purple-furred creature said in a voice that sounded deep and masculine. “He gave his life to protect us, and I will always honor his name.”

“We disagreed about much,” the woman with the black hair in front of her face whispered, “but I feel sorrow that he has passed. I am glad that he made it to Victor’s tribe, and that they were able to come and help us.” The woman’s voice was delightfully musical, and I was starting to feel a little less creeped out by her appearance.

“He was a good one,” Emta said as her eyes narrowed at me. “We haven’t met many good ones as of late.”

“Hey, Emta, if you don’t like me, I can just take my friends here and go home, but next time you need help, I’ll just mind my own business.” I crossed my arms after I finished speaking, and Tom let out an annoyed huff from his spot behind me.

The group I spoke to glanced at him, back to me, and then turned to Emta.

“She does not speak for us,” Quwaru said quickly. “We are thankful for your help.”

“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “So back to the introductions. Can you each tell me what your name is and what your Eye-Q ability is? I’m Victor Shelby and I can control these dinosaurs.” I gestured to the group of troodons who were sitting behind me, and Shaggy let out a happy hoot that Bob echoed with a low tuba sounding toot.

The group glanced at the red skinned woman for a few moments, and I could tell they were a bit hesitant to tell me their abilities, but then their leader nodded and stepped forward out of their line a bit.

“You know my name is Quwaru,” the succubus woman said as she touched her fingers to her bare chest above her cleavage. “When I touch others with my hand, I can sense their thoughts and emotions.”

“Ahh,” I said. “That is why you wanted to shake hands with me earlier.”

“Yes,” she admitted as she held out her hand. “Will you touch me now?”

“Hmmmm,” I said as I looked at her fingers. “I’m a bit worried about it.”

“You do not trust me?” she asked as she smirked a bit.

“Maybe after we get to know each other a bit more,” I said.

“This would expedite the process,” Quwaru replied. “I would know if I could trust you.”

“I’m not worried about you knowing if you should trust me or not,” I said with a shrug. “I came here and killed a bunch of your enemies and saved your clan. If you can’t trust me, then you can’t trust anyone. I don’t know if I can trust you yet.”

“I suppose that is fair,” Quwaru sighed as she lowered her hand, but the mermaid woman and Emta frowned.

“This is Zoru,” the succubus said as she pointed to the purple-furred fox-monkey creature.

“Greetings, Victor,” he said as he stepped forward. “Thank you for coming to our aid.”

“You are welcome,” I said as I smiled at him. “It’s nice to meet another guy. The last few I’ve met have been assholes.”

“Guy?” he asked, and a confused expression came over his fox-looking face.

“Oh, male,” I said.

“Ahh!” he gasped and then let out a laugh. “You have assumed my gender.”

“Ahh, shit, uhhh, did I get it wrong?” I asked as my stomach sunk, but then I realized that there weren’t any social justice warriors around to scream at me.

“Yes and no,” he said as he chuckled a bit more. “Before coming to this world, I had no idea there were multiple genders. There is only one type for my species.”

“Huhhhh,” I said slowly, and my brain tried to figure out what I should say next so that I didn’t offend the alien.

“We are both male and female,” it said.

“Yeah, ummm sorry,” I said as I pulled at the collar of my khaki shirt. “I meant no offense, your voice just sounded deep so I thought you were a man.”

“The males of your species have lower pitched voices?” Zoru asked as it fixed its fox eyes on me. They were a lighter shade of purple and looked curious instead of offended.

“Yeah,” I said.

“You may think of me as a man then,” Zoru said with a casual shrug. “When two of my species happen to find each other during a matching mating cycle, we fight against each other, and the winner inseminates the loser’s unconscious body with seed to create offspring. Therefore, I am fine with you thinking I am the dominant one.”

Emta rolled her eyes at Zoru’s words but didn’t say anything, and the other women kept their faces passive. I knew they must have had their own group dynamics, but I didn’t want to spend too much of my brain power thinking about how they interacted with each other.

“What is your ability?” I asked.

“My species have the limited ability to manipulate time,” he said, and a wide fanged grin spread across his face. “It is called Jaunt according to my Eye-Q.”

“Manipulate time?” I asked as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

“Yes. Observe me walk toward you.” Zoru took a step toward me, and I forced myself not to back away. He was only a little taller than me, but his limbs looked lean and powerful, and it kind of sounded like his species was all about beating up and then raping their mates.

Shag, Scoob, Fred, Velma, and Daphne sensed my nervousness, and the five of them let out a hiss of warning when Zoru had taken his third step. The purple alien’s eyes widened with surprise, and then he seemed to teleport back to where he was standing a few moments ago.

“Whoa,” I said. “Was that it?”

“Yes.” He nodded as he waved his hands toward my troodons. “I meant no harm to you or them. I just wanted to show you--”

“It’s fine,” I said. “So, your power lets you appear where you once were?”

“Yes,” he said.

“How long before?”

“Perhaps ten seconds before at the most.”

“How often can you use it?” I asked.

“It makes me tired,” he said. “On my homeworld, I could use it once per moon cycle, and I needed it to defend myself during mating periods. Now I can do it once a day.”

“We should not be telling Victor all of our secrets,” Emta groaned. “We don’t know him.”

“It is fine,” Quwaru said as she gave me an apologetic smile. “We want to be friends with someone of his power. Everyone agrees, but you.”

“Not everyone agrees,” Emta said. “They just do not want to--”

“You should go back in your cave,” I interrupted the olive skinned woman, and the group turned to me.

“Excuse me?” she growled.

“Yeahhhhh,” I said with a sigh. “The thing is, I’m kind of done taking shit from people. I saved your asses, I’m trying to have a discussion, and you are being a bitch.”

“Bitch?” she hissed between her teeth, and I could see the veins on her neck start to bulge. “You have no idea who you are--”

“I don’t fucking care if you think I’m an asshole. I’m the guy with the dinosaurs, and I’m sick of you bad-mouthing me. Your friends are all nice, and we are trying to figure out how to help each other. You can either shut the fuck up, or you can go back in your cave, or…” I gestured to my troodons, and they all sunk into the tall grass like they were diving underwater.

Emta’s mouth opened, and she turned her head slowly to try to see where my troodons had gone. The creatures were only about the size of golden retrievers, but there were five of them, and they could tear Emta into pieces in a few seconds.

It was a bluff, of course. She was pissing me off, but I didn’t want to kill her. I just wanted her to stop posturing against me.

“I will be quiet,” Emta growled, and then she crossed her arms under her small breasts and glared at me.

“Good!” I said, and then I turned to the tall willowy woman with the long blonde hair and the black eyes. “What is your name?”

“I am Youleena,” she said as her black eyes blinked at me a few times. “Thank you for helping us.”

“No problem,” I said. Her voice was soft and pleasant, and she looked almost totally human except for her eyes and bright white hair. But then I noticed her hand and saw that her fingers were long pointed. They almost looked as long as Trel’s fingers, but they were otherwise human looking, while Trel’s looked like they were made of the same chitin as her legs. Her eyes looked like Trel’s also, but Trel’s facial expressions were dynamic and left me no doubt as to her emotions. This woman’s eyes seemed like twin black holes.

“Your ability makes you very powerful,” she said as she turned her head slightly to look at Tom, Katie, and Nicole.

“Yeah,” I said. “What are your powers?”

“I can work the stone,” she said as she gestured back to the front of the cave where the entrance had been carved into blocks. “The Eye-Q calls it Stone Meld.”

“Awesome!” I said. “I can use your help. Can you tell me how it works?”

“Yes,” she said with a slow nod. “My species lives deep underground. We need to shape the stone around us so that we can tunnel and build. When I touch a rock, I can shape it to my will. The process is slow, though.”

“How slow?” I asked as my mind spun with the information she had told me. I imagined high castle walls, bridges, brick homes, and smooth workstations dotting our courtyard. Hell, we had just fortified our walls and dug a trench around the perimeter, but I’d redo it all if we could get it in stone.

“Each of those blocks took me a few days,” she said as she pointed to the fort.

“Ahhh,” I said, and I tried to hide my disappointment. I guessed the blocks were five feet cubes, and while they looked as if they had been cut perfectly smooth, I figured that someone with a stone chisel and a piece of wood for a hammer could do almost as good of a job in a day. Yeah, they would be tired, but it didn’t seem like Youleena’s ability would save us that much time.

“I am still only level one,” she said. “The process is a bit new to me. My people use tools to dig through the rock, but I had always had a fondness and natural ability for sculpting. I have some pieces inside the cave if you would care to see them sometime.” The beautiful woman brushed her long white hair from her shoulder with a slow flick of her fingers and then gestured to the cave entrance. She didn’t take her eyes off me during the movement, and a small smile came to her pale lips.

“I like art,” I said as I returned her smile, “but maybe later. Thank you for telling me about your ability.”

“Thank you for saving us,” Youleena said with a slight nod.

I turned my eyes down to the blue-haired woman with the two pairs of matching azure eyes. Before I could open my mouth to speak, she let out a laugh and then smacked her hands together in a slow clap.

“This guy is good, Quwaru,” the gnome-looking woman said as her four bug-eyes studied me. They all blinked at different moments as she clapped, and I tried to keep my face passive.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I couldn’t tell if she was mocking me, but her voice was high pitched.

“What ya gonna do?” she giggled. “Figure out which one of us you like the most and take her back with you? The Burners asked for tribute too, and you know what happened with them.”

“Yeah,” I said as I gestured around us to some bodies. “I killed them.”

“Naw,” the woman said. “We killed them. Those were just the stragglers.”

“Well, I killed them, and you’d be dead without me.” I shrugged.

“So then you own us?” she asked, and I saw Emta nod.

“Okay,” I sighed. “I was going to answer your question by saying ‘no,’ but some of you seem ungrateful that I risked my ass to save you, so what if I say ‘yes?’ what can you do about it?”

“We’ll fight you,” the blue-haired woman squeaked, and I saw sparks dance across her fingers between her hands like a tesla coil. The color matched her hair, and I had to force myself not to take a step backward.

“Or,” I sighed. “I can just leave. Next time you need help. I’ll just--”

“No,” Quwaru interrupted me and glared at the shorter woman. “Urka is just teasing you.”

“Ha!” the blue-haired woman said. “Maybe I’m joking. Maybe I’m not.”

“Urka is your name?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

“Yeeaahh,” she chuckled, and the lightning danced between her fingers. “You should see your face right now. You are trying to figure out if I’m fucking with you.”

“The thing is: my dinosaurs don’t get jokes.” As I finished speaking. Velma and Daphne raised their heads out of the grass from behind the short woman and let out a growl. Urka gasped as she spun around with the others, and then the two troodons sank back into the grass. “I’m just about done being nice to you all. Like I said, I can just take my dinos and go home.”

“Ahhh shit,” Urka sighed as she turned around with her four eyes opened wide on her face. “I’m sorry, Victor. I never had good comedic timing. I don’t want to make you angry.”

“Let’s just continue,” I said. “I don’t hold grudges. You have electrical powers or something?” I pointed to her small hands.

“Yeah,” she replied. “It’s not much, honestly. Eye-Q calls it Zap. I can throw it about fifty yards, but it only really tickles at that distance, and I can’t really aim it that well. Within ten yards, I can shock someone really good, but it doesn’t knock them down or anything. Just pisses them off. I wasn’t gonna fight ya. Truth be told. I just like to fuck with people.”

“Yes,” Quwaru said with a nod toward her shorter friend. “Urka is Urka, will you please--”

“It’s fine,” I said as I raised my palms to them. “I know that we all come from different worlds and have different cultures. My own tribe has had to get used to each other’s personalities. I’m sure Urka and I will get along fine.”

“Thank ya, Victor,” the blue-haired woman said as she smirked at me.

“What is your name?” I asked the woman with blood-red hair, big beautiful green eyes, and scaled legs.

“I am known as Adella, Victor,” she said as she gave me a small wave. She spoke almost like she was singing, and her voice was all sorts of wonderful.

“Nice to meet you,” I said as I tried to keep from falling into her green eyes.

“You as well,” she said as she ran her fingers down the sides of her scaled thighs, the small scales glittered like rainbows, and the colors were rather mesmerizing.

“What is your ability?” I asked.

“The Eye-Q calls it Water Pulling,” she answered with sing-song words. “I can control water.”

“How?” I asked.

“Witness,” she said as she gestured to the edge of the cliff.

We all turned toward where she pointed, and a pillar of spinning water rose up and over the edge like it was dripping up against gravity in an upside down tornado. The water was probably forty or fifty feet below us, and the pillar she had made now towered twenty feet or so over our heads.

“Wow,” I said after she had waved her hand to send the water spraying away like sideways rain.

“I love water,” she said after a long sigh. “I have not been able to swim much here. Dangerous creatures live in the depths.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I almost got eaten by one during my second day here. How often can you use your power? Can you make the pillar larger?”

“I can only focus on it for a minute or so, and then I get a headache and must rest,” she said as her full red lips formed a frown. “It helps if someone rubs my temples, or nipples.”

“My temples,” she said as she raised her fingers to the sides of her head. “When someone rubs them, my head feels better.”

“Oh,” I said. “I thought you said nipple--”

“I did,” she replied as she raised her fingers to her green bikini.

“Adella,” Quwaru said. “I don’t think Victor wants to see your breasts.”

“He doesn’t?” she asked me with confusion. “He looked interested.”

“Some species hide their reproductive organs from members of the opposite sex,” the red-skinned woman said.

“It does feel good when someone touches them though,” Adella sighed as she turned back to me. “None of you will agree to do it for--”

“I will introduce myself next,” the woman with the golden hair, eyes, and horn coming out of her forehead said as she stepped toward me with a slight bow. She had been staring at me the entire conversation, and this was the first time she had taken her eyes off my face. “I am Keefaye the Golden. On my home world, I was one of the leaders of my people.”

“Nice to meet you, Keefaye the Golden,” I said as I returned her bow.

“You do not need to use my full title, Victor,” she said with a gentle laugh. “On this strange world, I am not a ruler.”

“Titles are important to some people,” I replied. “I don’t want to disrespect you.”

“Ahhh,” she said as her mouth split into a wide smile. Then she turned to Quwaru and nodded again, “I like this man. I know you have not used your powers to tell if he is truthful, but his words please me, and he is very handsome.”

“You think with your sex,” Emta groaned as she covered her face with her hands.

“So?” Keefaye asked with a gentle laugh, and then she turned back to me and the desire in her glowing gold eyes was obvious.

“Uhhh, maybe you can tell me what your ability is?” I asked as I tried not to let my eyes roam over her tight black bodysuit.

“I bless water with my magic,” the beautiful woman said.

“Hmmm,” I said after she stared at me for a few moments. I had kind of thought she would explain it a bit more, but then Quwaru came to the rescue.

“Keefaye can take water and turn it into alcohol,” the red-skinned woman explained.

“Damn!” I gasped. “How do you do it? How long does it last? How much can you do? Does it taste good?” I had never been that much of a drinker, but that was mostly because I was poor.

“I use my magic,” Keefaye said as she touched the fingers of her left hand to her golden horn. “It lasts forever, of course. I can do about a gallon a day, and the blessed water tastes wonderful. It will take you to nirvana, and when combined with certain love making positions that I can teach you, it will--”

“I don’t think Victor wants to know about that right now,” Quwaru interrupted the other women, but then the succubus smirked at me and winked. “Unless he says he does, and then we will indulge him. He has saved us all after all, and I am fine rewarding him.”

“I’m just interested in trading right now,” I said. “Emta said that the Burners demanded-- well, I’m not like that. I just want to protect the people in my tribe.”

“You mean the women in your tribe?” Youleena asked. “Will-Lack said he only saw women when he observed you.”

“Yeah,” I answered. “But I don’t see what difference it makes.”

“There are not many men who are protecting women,” Quwaru said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “Will-Lack was one, and it seems as if you are another.”

“I’m sorry again about--” I started to say, but the succubus just shook her head and then gestured to the end of the line where the woman with the long black hair over her face stood.

“The shy one is named Nomi.”

“Hello, Victor,” she said as she nodded her hair covered head. Her voice was soft, and I almost couldn’t hear it over the breeze.

“Hi, Nomi,” I replied as I searched for where her eyes might have been under her hair.

“My homeworld is dark,” she said as she gestured up to the sun. “We have many moons, and they are constantly passing in front of our sun. The light here hurts my eyes, so I wear my hair down like this.”

“Ahh, that makes sense.”

“The Eye-Q actually calls my power Eclipse, and I can stop someone else from using their ability.”

“Wow,” I said as goosebumps descended my spine.

“Yes,” she said with a soft laugh.

“How does it work?” I asked as I fought against the desire to step away from the woman.

“I just need to be close to the target. About the distance away that you and I are now.”

“Okay,” I said as I tried to control my spinning mind. “How long does the effect last?”

“Their power is gone until I choose to give it back to them,” she said with a slight shrug. “Would you like to experience it?”

“Not really,” I said as calmly as I could. “If you took away my ability to control dinosaurs while we are surrounded by dinosaurs, it would mean we all get killed.”

The rest of the group opened their mouths at my words, and then they turned to Nomi with concern plain on their faces.

“Ahhh, I see your point,” she said with a slight sigh. “I will not use it on you then.”

“Can you only do one at a time?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said with a nod.

“And about a ten foot range?” I asked.

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“It’s really powerful,” I said.

“Not for survival on this world,” she said with a shrug. “Others have more useful abilities against the creatures on this world. You, for example, are the most powerful person we have encountered.”

“If you say so,” I said.

“She is right,” Quwaru said as she nodded to the group of five dinos behind me. “We have been able to survive because we found this cave near the ocean and freshwater. Will-Lack said your camp is in the middle of a forest clearing. It must have been difficult to establish yourselves. I am sure that your creatures helped you.”

“They did,” I said, and then I looked at Emta. “For whatever reason you don’t like me, but I’d like to know your ability.”

“Of course you would,” the olive-skinned woman scoffed. “You’ve made us all line up like goods at a store, so you can make your selection, so I--” she stopped herself mid-sentence, clenched her fists, and then cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be a good girl for you, Victor. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” The beautiful tusked woman batted her eyelashes at me.

“I think you have the wrong idea about me,” I said.

“Whatever,” Emta said. “You’ve got all the leverage, and I don’t want you to kill me like you keep threatening. I can heal quickly. That’s my power, and it isn’t that impressive.”

“That sounds impressive to me,” I said with a shrug. “It’s dangerous out there, so being able to heal quickly is good for survival.”

“Only if I live through the initial damage,” Emta said. “Your dinosaurs would tear me to pieces, and I wouldn’t be able to heal. You are still better than me.”

“I’m not trying to compare people like that,” I sighed. “You all have your team of people, and I have mine. Everyone helps in a team.”

“And now you’ve met our team, but we still haven’t met yours.” Emta crossed her arms and then nodded up to the cliff where I imagined they had caught glimpses of my tribe watching us talk. “Quwaru is willing to give you something, and now you know what we can do. Which of us are you going to take as a slave?”

“I’m not going to take any of you as a slave, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Emta blinked at me with surprise, and then she sighed, crossed her arms, and turned her nose up into the air away from me. “I have seen your type before.”

“No you haven’t,” I said, and then I turned back to Quwaru. “You said that you took out the Burners, but then this group I just fought was the remainder of the group. I’m a bit confused.”

“We thought the Burners were about thirty strong,” the red-skinned woman in the bikini said. “We encountered them a few times on the beach and ran from them. They hadn’t found our base yet, but we knew what they were capable of.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“Will-Lack was able to fly to the pillars of light,” Youleena said as she ran her hands through her long white hair. “He brought us all here, and he saw the Burners capture others. The women were… not treated well. The men were forced to fight each other to the death. Winners were allowed to join them.”

“Fuck,” I said. “What a bunch of assholes.”

“Yep,” Emta said.

“Will-Lack was in the air for most of the day, and he would let us know if it was okay to come out and fish,” Quwaru continued. “He knew where their camp was, but it was in the thickest part of the jungle a few miles to our north, so he could never get a complete count of their numbers. We knew that it was just a matter of time until they found us, and then they did a few weeks ago. They sent a representative who told us to surrender. He claimed that we would be treated well, but we knew better.”

“So you attacked first,” I said.

“Yes,” Quwaru replied with a nod, and the rest of her tribe nodded along with her. “We had been preparing for a while.”

“But the eight-- sorry, nine of you killed thirty?” I looked down the line and recalled their powers.

“Yes,” the red-skinned woman said, and she smiled proudly. “We may not look like much, but we can fight and defend ourselves.”

“Hmmm,” I said as I glanced at the eight of them.

The numbers didn’t add up.

Nomi’s power to eliminate someone else’s ability was powerful, but the woman with black hair in front of her face wouldn’t have been able to do that to thirty Burners. Even if she had lied, and she could use her powers against everyone around her, the tribe seemed to be made of mostly men, and the group I had seen looked dangerous even without their abilities.

Keefay’s ability didn’t seem useful at all for combat. Turning water into wine was great for Jesus, but I couldn’t see how she might have used it to kill a bunch of Burner assholes. Unless they gave them the booze as trade and then the Burners got drunk. The golden-haired woman with the unicorn horn noticed me staring at her, and she gave me a coy smile and raised her eyebrow.

I looked at the short gnome woman with the four eyes. If Urka had been honest with me, she couldn’t have taken out thirty of the Burners. She would have shocked one or maybe two, but then the burners would have killed them all.

“You are trying to figure out how we did it,” Zoru said.

“Yeah,” I said as I looked at the purple furred creature.

“You can’t,” Adella sang. “How could eight take on thirty? It sounds impossible, yet we did.”

“I don’t think you are lying,” I said as I glanced down from the woman’s big beautiful eyes, to the bikini covering her pert breasts, to her toned stomach, to her scale wrapped legs. Maybe she had used her ability to drown the burners? That didn’t make a lot of sense either. Maybe she had distracted them with her good looks and a song? She certainly seemed like a siren that Odysseus’ crew might have encountered.

I turned my eyes to Youleena. The willowy woman with the long fingers didn’t seem like much of a warrior. She had said that it took her a bit of time to carve the stone with her ability, but how had it helped them kill the Burners?

Zoru was another one who had an interesting ability, but I didn’t see how teleporting to a spot where he already once was could be used in a large battle. It was pretty badass in small combat, but the scenario was still nine versus thirty.

Unless they were lying.

I glanced down the line again and tried to chew through the puzzle.

Quwaru looked like a succubus. She had a toned body and could probably fight, but her power was reading minds and emotions when she touched someone.

Zoru looked like a furry fox-monkey. He was tall and had lean muscle. He could totally fight, but not against thirty, and his teleport wouldn’t help much.

Youleena was tall, thin, and her white hair and skin gave her a delicate, ethereal quality. She may have been tougher than she looked, most people on Dinosaurland were, but I couldn’t imagine her in a fight, and I didn’t know how her ability to shape rocks could have helped that much.

Urka was less than five feet tall, and she was skinny. She must have weighed less than one of my troodons, and she had told me that her electrical powers didn’t do more than annoy others.

Adella was all sorts of mermaid beautiful, and her voice was amazing, but they had said that the Burner’s camp was in the forest, so I doubted that her water controlling ability would have helped much.

Keefay’s golden hair seemed to glow like a second sun, and I realized that she would have attracted attention even walking out on the beach, let alone trying to sneak through a jungle to sneak attack a bunch of assholes. Turning water into alcohol was an amazing power for parties, but unless she had somehow figured out how to get all the Burner’s drunk, I couldn’t see much use for it.

Nomi’s ability was very powerful, but it was strategically a lot like Zoru’s. It would be good for small battles, but making it so that one person out of thirty couldn’t use their abilities wouldn’t help too much.

Emta could heal, but it sounded like it wasn’t immortality. She couldn’t just wade into battle and survive. She was worried about getting killed.

Will-Lack was pretty strong, and he could fly, but I didn’t see how he could take out thirty fuckers.

The math didn’t make sense. Quwaru didn’t have enough people that looked like warriors, and their abilities didn’t seem powerful enough.

“I will tell you what we did,” Quwaru said.

“No,” Emta said. “Don’t tell him shit. He already knows too much about us.”

“I’ve figured it out,” I said with a laugh as I turned back to stare at Keefaye. “Or, I think I have.”

“Oh?” the golden woman asked as she raised a single eyebrow.

“There is no way you figured it out,” Emta scoffed.

“Maybe I got it wrong,” I said as I took a deep breath and looked down their line up one more time. “Keefaye made a shitload of alcohol. Probably hundreds of gallons of it. Then the group carefully moved it to the Burner’s camp. Adella made all the liquid splash down on the camp. Urka lit it on fire with her electrical powers, and then they all roasted.”

Their mouths opened with shock, and they stared at me for a few moments.

“Looks like I’m right,” I laughed.

“How the fuck did you know?” Emta asked. “There is no way you could have figured that out--”

“It was a bit of a guess,” I said as I nodded at Keefaye. “Her hair is really attention getting, so I figured that she must have stayed in the cave. That got me thinking about what she would be doing all day.”

“You are very smart,” Keefaye said as she bit her bottom lip.

“So I got it?”

“Yeah,” Quwaru laughed. “I’m astounded. It took us a few weeks to come up with that plan, and you figured it out after talking to us for a few minutes.”

“I’m good at that kind of stuff,” I said with a shrug.

“I spent many hours blessing water,” Keefaye said.

“Then Emta, Will-lack, Quwaru, and I moved them to the perimeter of the Burner camp,” Zoru said.

“Then I made the liquid fly up and coat every surface,” Adella sang.

“Then I zapped it!” Urka squeaked. “Boom! The Burners all burned.”

“Then you all came back here,” I said. “Things were quiet for a few days, so you thought you were safe.”

“Then you showed up,” Emta huffed.

“Victor did not cause the remainder of the Burners to find us,” Quwaru said. “They must have tracked us. Who knows what abilities their members have? At any rate, we are safe now, thanks to Victor, his tribe, and his dinosaurs. We have done our introductions, so now I will ask what we can do to pay you back.”

“Okay,” I said as I looked at Youleena, “I’m guessing that you can’t move the stones? You can just shape--”

“Victor!” a voice shouted above us, and we all turned to see Trel and Kacerie waving wildly at us.

As soon as they saw they had our attention, they pointed toward the jungle

“Ahh,” Quwaru said. “We thought we saw your friends up on top of the cliff, but when they didn’t come down, I--”

“Run!” Kacerie screamed, and I felt my blood chill.

But before I could move, a roar cut through the air and interrupted my voice like a strike of thunder would cover the sound of a bee buzzing. It actually sounded like someone had fired up a jet engine right next to us, and we all startled as my dinosaurs spun around to face the top of the grassy hill that lay between us, the jungle, and the beach.

Just over the top of the slope I could see the top part of a massive predator’s head.

It had to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and I guessed that it had just stumbled through the jungle and cut off our exit from the small canyon.

Chapter 2

“Get in the cave!” I shouted at Quwaru’s tribe as I commanded the trikes to form a defensive line.

“What about you?” the succubus asked, but then the T-Rex let out another roar that made my brain rattle in my skull.

“Just go!” I screamed as I pointed to the small trail. They didn’t need me to tell them a second time, and I turned back around to face the massive predator as soon as it crested the top of the small hill.

And my stomach dropped down to my feet as terror numbed my entire body.

It was fucking huge.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex was probably the most popular dinosaur, and I had seen tons of pictures of it in my life. I’d even gone to the La Brea Tar Pits when I was a kid and stood next to the skeleton. It had seemed huge then, but the creature that stood on top of the hill wasn’t just huge, it was terrifying.

It could have been the angle of the hill, but it looked like it was thirty feet tall. I doubted I even came up to the dinosaur’s knee, and my trikes were probably only half as big. Hope wasn’t here, but I had no doubt that this monster could have swallowed the horse sized parasaurus in one bite, and I wouldn’t have even been an appetizer.

It was a good fifty percent larger than an allosaurus. I didn’t think that T-Rex’s could actually get that much bigger than the other predators, but a quick blink of my Eye-Q confirmed my earlier guess. This was a fucking male T-Rex, and my dinos were trapped in the canyon with it.

The king had paused at the top of the hill, and it shifted its massive red eyes to my three trikes, the three parasaurs, and the group of people running toward the ledge on the opposite side of the grassy field. It let out another roar which made every bone in my body vibrate, and my trio of trikes took a small step backward.

Then I saw movement on the crest behind the monster, and another T-rex moved up the hill.

Oh. Shit.

My Eye-Q said this one was a female. It wasn’t as big as the male, but that didn’t really matter. I didn’t know how I could beat one of these fuckers, so two was just making my situation even more hopeless.

Well, it wasn’t hopeless. My troodons and I could fit on the narrow ledge and escape around to Quwaru’s cave, but that would leave Bob, Sonny, Cher, Tom, Nicole, and Katie behind. I could control the dinos at range, but I didn’t know how far of a distance was my maximum, and the cliff loop would take me almost a whole two-hundred yards out before wrapping back around to the cave. I could sense my tamed dino’s terror, and it was causing my own muscles to go numb.

I wasn’t going to leave my pals behind, and I wasn’t going to let them get eaten.

“Sheela!” I screamed up to the top of the cliffs, and I saw the blonde cheetah-woman gesture for me to run, but I ignored her warning just like I ignored the ice pit in my stomach. “I’m going to bring them close to the wall! Throw shit at them!”

“Vic--” she tried to yell down at me, but the second T-Rex roared, and it felt like the ground shook under my boots.

Then the pair charged down the slope toward the three trikes.

“Shit, back up. Back up! Back up!” I commanded the trikes to fall back away from the edge of the cliff by the water so that we were all closer to the wall below Sheela, Trel, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald.

The whole grassy plain was on a bit of a slope, but it was less steep the closer toward where the cliff trail began. The T-Rexs already had a significant height advantage over the trikes and parasaurses, so I didn’t want to fight them on the hill. We all backed up to the corner beside where the trail met the wall, but I made the three trikes halt a few dozen feet from the wall so that they would have some room to maneuver.

Then the pair of apex super predators reached us.

The big one moved along our flank away from the wall, and I commanded Tom to strafe that way so the tyrannosaurus didn’t have a path that wouldn’t be met with horns. The smaller predator was still twice as tall as Katie and Nicole, but I positioned the two female trikes in a line that kind of wedged the predator toward the face of the cliff where my friends stood.

The bigger T-rex snapped its jaws downward at Tom’s crest, but I was watching him out of the corner of my eye, and I commanded the trike to raise his face and shuffle forward at the last second. The T-rex missed with his jaws, but he was quicker than I would have guessed, and he jerked back before Tom could impale him.

The other T-rex let out another roar, as if it expected its voice to cause the trikes to run, but Katie and Nicole didn’t, so the smaller tyrannosaurus made a quick snap toward Nicole’s side. The predator’s angle of attack made sense because Katie was the one closest to the cliff face, so I predicted the movement and angled Nicole so that her horns were able to ram up and into the carnivore's face when it tried to bite.

This T-rex wasn’t as quick as the bigger one, and its face scraped along Nicole’s horns.

The predator let out a screech as it twisted its face away from the trikes, and then I saw an arrow plummet from the top of the cliff and hit the beast in its left eye.

It screamed again, and the larger one jerked its head away from Tom so that he could glance at his mate.

And he looked fucking pissed.

The male jerked his head around with a whipping motion and tried to take another bite at Tom. I had commanded the trike to get his face up so that it could lance the tyrannosaurus, but we were a half a moment too late, and the predator’s jaws closed around the boney ridge at the top of Tom’s head. My trike let out a surprised bellow and tried to thrash his head, but the T-rex wasn’t letting go.

Then the male tyrannosaurus tried to shift around Tom’s side so he could slash his flank with the long claws that were at the end of his short stubby claws.

Sonny and Bob sprinted forward from the back lines as I tried to keep the female T-rex busy with the press of Katie and Nicole’s horns. The male predator was focused on thrashing Tom, so he didn’t see Sonny and Bob until the two parasaurs shoulder slammed the massive tyrannosaurs.

He still didn’t let go of Tom though, and my trike let out another bellow of fear that cut through my chest like an ice pick.

Then the T-rex twisted his neck, flexed his back, and Tom tipped over on his side.

“Shit!” I shouted as I commanded Nicole to peel away from the female tyrannosaurs. The red-crested trike followed my orders instantly and charged across the fifty feet of field while I also tried to position Katie so that she was forcing their opponent into the wall.

I shifted focus back to the male T-rex. He had twisted his giant body around Tom’s belly and was about to slash open my pal’s stomach with his claws, but then Nicole plowed into the tyrannosaurs’ right side, and the three of them turned into a tumbleweed of teeth, horns, scales, and roars.

I twisted my head back to the T-rex female who Katie was trying to corner. My trike was doing a good job of pushing her back into the wall, but the predator didn’t really seem to be fazed by the arrow jutting from her eye. As I watched, she darted toward Katie’s right side, lurched back as my trike turned her horns, and then shifted to try to take Katie’s left shoulder. It was a feint attack, and it would have worked if I hadn’t somehow guessed that the T-rex was going to try something crafty. I commanded Katie to jerk her head around instantly, and the female rex took another face full of horn.

Then a two hundred pound rock slammed right onto her back and brought her to her knees.

I glanced up to see Liahpa and Sheela lifting another pair of rocks toward the cliff edge above us. Both Trel and Kacerie were screaming something as they gestured down at me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the noises of the male T-rex, Tom, and Nicole.

I turned back around to the melee and saw that the male T-rex had let go of Tom’s crest. The predator was twisting on his back and trying to get his feet under him, but Nicole was wedged under one of his stubby arms and was raking her two longest horns across his chest while Tom was trying to stand up from his side. The male trike was having a bit of a problem getting up because of the slope from the hill, so I commanded Bob and Sonny to push on his side so that he could roll over easier.

As soon as Tom was back on his feet, I ordered him to plow into the side of the pinned T-rex, but the predator managed to nick Nicole’s shoulder with a random claw strike from its free right arm, and I had to order her to fall back so that he couldn’t cut her seriously. This meant that the massive predator wasn’t pinned, and he rolled toward Tom as he kicked out his clawed feet.

I made Tom retreat away from the T-rex’s kicks, but the beast was still laying on its side, so I commanded the troodons to swarm the male’s unguarded side. Scoob, Shag, Fred, Velma, and Daphne instantly complied, and the five tiger-striped dinos jumped out of the grass like pouncing ninjas. In half a moment, they were all over the massive T-rex’s back with their claws and teeth, but it only took me a few seconds to realize that the troodons weren’t really doing anything against the giant predator. Their claws were only leaving light scratches on the T-rex’s scales, and they couldn’t really bite the much larger dino. They were nothing more than a pack of kittens on the back of a horse, but the male tyrannosaurs did get distracted by their attack, and he tried to roll over so that he could shake them off.

I ordered the troodons to jump off before they got crushed at the same time as I sent Tom back in with a charge. The T-rex had rolled away from the trike when he tried to get the troodons off, so now his back wasn’t protected by his thrashing legs and arms.

Tom was only about ten feet away from the T-rex’s thrashing legs when he charged, but it was more than enough space for the trike to get up some good speed and plunge his three horns deep into the back of the predator.

The T-rex screamed and tried to bend around Tom’s crest so he could bite at him, but I commanded the trike to shuffle to the right away from the tyrannosaurus’ jaws. My trike’s horns were still stuck inside the back of the predator, and the movement ended up twisting the predator on the ground so that Tom actually had his back to the cliff face where Katie was trying to keep the female T-rex positioned so that Sheela and Liahpa could chuck rocks down on her.

Both the female and male tyrannosaurus let out frantic screeches of frustration, but then the female’s voice was cut short when a massive stone the size of a motorcycle fell right on top of her skull. The tyrannosaurus crumpled to her knees from the force of the blow, and her head swayed as if she was punch drunk.

I ordered Katie to attack, and the trike slammed her two long horns into the T-rex’s skull. The predator didn’t let out a sound, it just toppled over with Katie’s forward momentum until my trike sandwiched it into the cliff face.

I turned back to the T-rex male and commanded Tom to push forward into the predator’s back. The big trike did as I asked, and he began to plow the tyrannosaurus across the field, away from the wall, and toward the cliff drop where Quwaru’s bridge had once hung.

Toward the forty foot drop into the lake below.

The T-rex seemed to understand what was going to happen, and he frantically wiggled, savagely bit, and whipped his claws at Tom. The carnivore didn’t have any real leverage though, and Tom’s horns were buried into the beast’s back right next to his spine. I didn’t know for sure if the wounds were fatal, but the T-rex wasn’t going to be freeing himself from the trike unless I pulled Tom back.

And I wasn’t going to pull Tom back out, or the T-rex might just come at us again.

Dinosaurland was unforgiving. It was kill or be killed here. It was eat or be eaten. The two tyrannosaurus rex’s weren’t monsters, but they were forces of nature that didn’t care about my feelings. They just wanted to eat everything they could, breed, and then keep eating. Maybe I wasn’t any better, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to protect myself and the people I cared about.

And by people, I also meant the dinosaurs who I had tamed and made a part of my tribe.

The T-rex made an effort to snag one last claw at the side of the cliff, but then Tom raised his head and pushed the massive predator over the edge. There was a shower of blood when the horns came loose, and then there was a long howl before a giant sounding splash.

I walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down into the distant water. The T-rex was thrashing frantically with its puny arms, the water was turning red from its injuries, and I didn’t think it would be able to keep up the doggie paddle.

Then the king of predators let out a final bellow and sank beneath the surface of the water.

I took a step away from the edge and turned back to the female that Katie had pinned. The predator was obviously dead, so I commanded the trike to back away from the wall so the corpse could fall free.

Then I took two steps before I felt my head smack into the grass.

I wasn’t unconscious. Or at least I didn’t think I was. I might have fainted, or maybe I had just decided to lie down. Either way, I was staring at the blue sky, and Scoob was licking my face while the other troodons nuzzled my hands, stomach, and chest.

Then I saw Trel’s beautiful face above me. Her face looked concerned, but I couldn’t hear her when she moved her mouth. Was she speaking? I didn’t quite know, since the sky had started to spin, and I now felt like someone had taken a hammer to my head.

“Victor? Victor? Victor?” Trel’s chitinous fingers were rubbing my face, but then I felt another tongue across my cheek. “Scoob, leave him alone! He doesn’t need licking now!”

“I’m okay,” I said as I pushed my elbow into the ground. “I think I just needed to lie down for a bit.”

Trel wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me against her. She didn’t speak for a few moments, but I could feel her heart hammering against my own chest.

“You scared me,” she whispered.

“I’m fine,” I replied. The headache was starting to go away, but I was still a bit light headed.

“Just sit here for a few moments,” she said when I tried to stand.

“Can’t,” I said. “They are going to think I am weak, and it will be harder to negotiate.”

“I don’t care what those idiots think,” Trel hissed in my ear as she continued to hug me. “You saved them twice now.”

“Perception is important,” I said, “I don’t want it to seem like I have any weaknesses. Please help me up.”

“I don’t see any weakness in you,” Trel hissed and then I felt my body lift off the grass. She didn’t loosen the tight grasp her arms had on my shoulders, and it took me a half a moment to realize that she had used her spider-legs to lift us up.

Then I was standing, and I turned to see Emta and Keefaye poking their heads out from around the far corner of the cliff trail bend.

“It’s fine!” I called out as I waved to them. “I took care of the problem.”

The two women looked at each other, and then their head disappeared around the corner for a moment before the group began to make their way back to me.

“Let me do most of the talking,” I said to Trel.

“Why?” she asked.

“Cause sometimes you are a bit… uhhh rude when you first meet people,” I said as I gave the obsidian-haired beauty a smile. “We are having a good discussion and I’m trying to figure out what we can trade with them.”

“You should ask them to join us,” Trel whispered. The group was still too far away to hear us, but I was glad that she realized our conversation needed to be private.

“I’m surprised you think that way,” I whispered back.

“Of course I think that way,” Trel said. “They owe us their lives. Every kingdom needs peons and peasants to do the work. Look at that one with the hair that twist and turns. She looks like she has a strong back.”

“Trel, we aren’t going to make slaves out of people we help,” I said.

“Who is talking about slavery? They should know you are their better and offer to serve. That is what peasants do. Can you imagine how much more building work I could get done if I had a team to do my bidding? We could devote more time to more interesting activities.”

“Here they come,” I said as I fought against a smile. “Remember to be nice.”

“Pfffttttt,” she raspberried. “I am always nice and charming. Everyone loves me.”

“I cannot believe what I saw,” Quwaru said as the group reached me. “Those were the largest ones we have ever seen, and you seemed to deal with them easily.”

“Yeah, that’s what I do.” I shrugged and fought against the desire to admit to them that it had been really fucking hard and I had been terrified the entire time.

“Who is your friend?” Keefaye asked as she gestured to Trel.

“I am Trel-Idil-Iria, Duchess of family Iria, first wife of Victor Shelby and leader of our tribe,” Trel proclaimed proudly as she held her chin up. “Victor has saved your group twice now, so you are indebted to him. What tribute do you offer to your betters?”

“Uhhh, that’s not quite what--” I started to say, but Trel had turned toward Nomi and a disgusted look came across her beautiful face.

“What is wrong with that one?” Trel asked as she pointed a bony finger. “Is she ugly? Why does she wear her hair like that?”

“I am not ugly,” Nomi replied. “It is the light--”

“It does not matter,” Trel said as she wiggled her fingers. “As long as you can work under my direction without whining, then we will get along splendidly.”

“Who said we were going to be working for you, bitch?” Emta growled.

“Have you any tribute?” Trel asked as she raised an eyebrow. “Or do you not intend to pay your debts to my husband?”

“I don’t owe your ‘husband’ anything,” Emta seethed.

“Ahhh, then you have no honor,” Trel shook her head and tsked. “Such a shame. Can’t be helped, I suppose. I don’t have time to teach you dignity. You may stay here and wallow, the others may offer tribute, or come with us to serve at our camp--”

“Trel,” I interrupted her as I rested my hand on her smooth shoulder. “I got this. Can you let everyone else know I’m okay?”

“Hmmm,” Trel sighed as she gave one last look at the other group. “I suppose I could do that.”

“I’m almost done,” I said. “Have them meet me on the hill.”

“Yes, Victor,” Trel replied, and then she nodded to the others before her spider-legs lifted her off the ground and carried her back to the cliff face. As soon as she reached the wall, Trel Doctor Octopus-climbed up the vertical surface, and I turned back to Quwaru’s group.

“Victor,” Quwaru said as she cleared her throat. “What your wife said about us coming to serve at your camp--”

“You all don’t need to join us,” I said before she could continue. “Trel is just a little over the top sometimes.”

“Oh,” Quwaru replied with a thankful sigh, and the rest of her tribe nodded with relief. “We are thankful that you have helped us, but we would prefer to stay here. This is our home now, and we--”

“It’s fine,” I said with a laugh. “You guys can do your thing over here and we’ll do our thing.”

“That woman, Trel? She said she was your wife?” Keefaye asked with a raised golden eyebrow.

“Yeah,” I said.

“What does that mean?” Adella asked.

“They are joined through law,” Keefaye explained to the mermaid looking woman before she turned back to me. “But are you two exclusive?”

“Ahhh, ummm,” I started to say.

“I would also be interested in your answer,” Adella said as she blinked her big green eyes at me.

“We just fought the Burners so that we didn’t have to be sex slaves,” Emta growled, “and you two get wet for the first male who shows up afterward.”

“Victor seems nice,” Keefaye said with an unconcerned shrug. “He is also powerful and handsome.”

“I like being wet,” Adella said with a musical laugh.

“Ugh,” Emta grunted. “You know what I mean.”

“I know that you are crabby,” Adella said.

“Probably because she isn’t having any orgasms,” Keefaye replied.

“I am not--” Emta started to hiss, but then Quwaru raised her red hand.

“We might be oversharing a bit,” the succubus said as he fixed her silver eyes on me. “Victor’s sex life is his own business, as is ours. Now, tell me, what do you want from us?”

“Youleena,” I said as I nodded at the white-haired woman with the black eyes. “Can you tell me a bit more about your ability?”

“Of course,” she said. “What do you wish to know?”

“You said it takes you a day to shape a rock that size?” I asked as I pointed across the chasm toward the mouth of their cave.

“Yes,” she said with a nod.

“Is that because it is so massive? Or is it that you can only do a few inches every hour? How does it work?”

“Hmmm,” she said as she bit her lip. “I have never thought about it in the way you have asked me.”

“Have you tried carving smaller stones?” I asked.

“Just for my sculptures,” she said. “I do not really carve them though. I shape them.”

“Shape them?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered as she held up her fingers. “The rock is the rock. The stone is the stone, I move parts around so that it is how I wish it to be.”

“Huh,” I said as my brain thought through what she was saying. “So when you carved-- sorry, I mean shaped, those rocks. You didn’t change the mass of them? They are the same as they were before? Just in a different shape?”

“Yes.” She nodded again. “I move the excess parts from my sculptures to the base of the statue. The rocks that you see on the face of our cave are all consistent size and shape on one side, but they have different depths because they were not all the same mass to begin with.”

“Hmmm,” I said. “I was interested in having you help us build stone walls for our fort, but I’m guessing that isn’t going to be as easy as I think it is.”

“I would need to come with you,” she said as she glanced toward Quwaru. “I ahhhh, I would not have a problem with that, if you wished for me to come. I would want to return though. These are my friends.”

“Yeah, I’m not saying you need to stay with me forever,” I chuckled as I held up my hands. “Like I said earlier, you all seem to have--”

“What if we wished to come with you?” Nomi interrupted me, and we all turned to face the woman with the dark hair hanging in front of her face.

“Uhhh. Do you want to come back with me?”

“Would you let us join you, if we wanted?” Nomi asked, but because I couldn’t see her face, and her voice was soft, I couldn’t quite tell if she was serious or not.

“Yeah,” I said as I glanced at Quwaru. “I’m not going to force anything--”

“We are fine here, Victor,” Quwaru said. “Thank you for understanding.”

“We should consider joining Victor,” Nomi said, and I noticed Adella and Keefaye nod.

“No,” Emta growled. “We have a home here. We built it ourselves and have defended it our--”

“We almost died,” Youleena said as she fixed her black eyes on the orc-looking woman. “We would have if not for Victor. Will-Lack has passed into the next life, which leaves you, Zoru, and Quwaru to defend and hunt for the rest of us. I do love our cave, but I love you all more, and do not wish to put you in danger. If Victor can protect us with his dinosaurs, I would think that is our best course of action.”

The eight of them all spoke at once, and it quickly became impossible for me to tell who agreed or disagreed. The various members of the group did shoot glances at Quwaru as they spoke, so I could tell they still respected the red-skinned woman, but she couldn’t seem to get Emta, Keefaye, and Adella to calm down. Finally, I turned to look at Bob, Sonny, and Cher. The three parasaurs were ready for me, and they let out a tuba-like blast that stopped the argument in its tracks.

“Let’s talk more about Youleena’s powers,” I said as I turned back from the parasaurs. As I did, my eyes fell on the corpse of the female T-rex, and I noticed the arrow that Sheela had put in its eye.

Then I got an idea.

“I can come with yo--” the white-skinned woman had started to say, but I waved my hands to cut her off.

“Hold on a second,” I said as I crouched down and ran my hands through the grass. “You said that you just shape them? How narrow can you make the edge?”

“Narrow?” she asked, and her head tilted slightly in confusion.

“Yeah,” I said as my fingers found a stone about the size of my thumb. “Can you shape this like an arrowhead?”

“What is that?” Youleena asked.

“An arrow is what one of my friends shot at the tyrannosaurs,” I said as I gestured over my shoulder. “It’s a small, straight, shaft of wood with feathers on one side to help it fly and a sharp point on the other. We were just shaving the wood to a point and then burning it to make it hard, but I was planning on finding some rocks that we could sharpen and then attach to the tips so they could cut through stuff easier.”

“Ohhhh, shit,” Emta sighed, and I saw her cover her face with her hands. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Can I step closer to you all?” I asked as I looked down the line toward Quwaru. We were still standing a good twenty feet apart, and I didn’t want to invade their space.

“Yes,” Quwaru said, and I realized that she was probably going to try to touch me. It probably wasn’t a big deal, since it seemed like everyone else was telling the truth about her powers, and I didn’t really care if she knew my thoughts.

I walked toward Youleena, and the rest of the group stepped closer so that they all stood around me. For half a moment, I felt kind of nervous surrounded by all these beautiful women and the strange furry fox-monkey-woman-man, but then I reminded myself that I was Victor Shelby, King of Dinosaurland, and they needed my help way more than I needed theirs.

“Can you make this side pointed like a triangle?” I asked as I held out the stone to the white woman. “Then sharpen the sides and the bottom here. Also, put two small slots near the bottom part.”

“I will try,” Youleena whispered as she took the finger-sized stone from my hand and held it in her fingers.

The beautiful willowy woman turned it between her pointer finger and thumb for a few moments, and then she reached her other hand up to smooth across the rock’s surface. I tried to hold in a gasp, but failed when the rock seemed to shift like Playdoh. In half a moment, she had the triangle shaped. Then a second later she had run her fingers down the sides and dug her long nails into the areas by the base to create the arrowhead slots.

“Why do you need those slots?” Adella sang.

“I’ll push the base into a slotted wood shaft, and then tie it with cordage,” I explained. “The slots will help it stay attached.

“That makes sense,” Keefay said. “Victor is very smart.”

“He isn’t smart,” Emta sighed. “That’s how it is done, you all just don’t know how to make arrowheads. My people have been--”

“How come ya didn’t tell us how to do this then?” Urka interrupted in her squeaky voice. “We’ve been together for a month or so and just have sharpened sticks and nets.”

“I’ve been too busy fishing and defending us from the Burners,” the olive-skinned woman said as her hair twisted angrily around her shoulders.

“It’s fine,” Quwaru said as she stepped a bit closer so she could look at the arrowhead taking shape in Youleena’s hand. “My people once used stone weapons for combat, but I forgot as well. I’m not blaming Emta, we are all responsible for helping develop our technology.” The rest of the women nodded at their leader’s words, and then Youleena held out the arrowhead to me.

“This looks great,” I said as I carefully took the stone blade from her fingers and tested the point on my finger. It felt plenty sharp, and I then took a bit of my nail off with the edge. Yeah. It was razor sharp.

My mind started to spin as a bunch of ideas jumped into my head.

“I’m going to need a lot of these,” I said as I tried to keep my voice calm.

“How many is a lot?” Youleena asked.

“At least a thousand.”

“A thousand!” Emta hissed. “That is way too--”

“We will do it for you, Victor,” Quwaru interrupted her friend.

“Then I’ll need a few hundred more; make them maybe three or four times the size. I’ll use those for spear heads.”

“Okay,” Youleena said as she smiled at me.

“Then I need you to do some arrowheads and spearheads, but make them more like long rectangles with the tips sharpened.” As I spoke, I made gestures with my fingers so Youleena could get an idea about the dimensions.

“I think I understand. What will you use that for?” she asked.

“A drill,” I explained, and the women all looked thoughtful.

“Then I need more rectangle or square pieces with the longer side sharpened like a blade.” I glanced down at my feet again and saw a rock that was about twice as large as the one I had handed her for the arrow head. I picked it up, placed it in her hand, and then gestured to the longer flat side. “Put the edge there, you can keep the other side blunt, or you can narrow it out some.”

“What will you use this for?” Quwaru asked.

“I’ll put it in a piece of wood about the size of my arm and use it to scrape other pieces of wood flat.” I pulled my arms toward my chest in a smooth motion to demonstrate, and the group nodded. I didn’t really know what the tool was called, but I’d seen various woodworkers with the weird knife that had a handle on both sides of the blade. They would normally pull the blade toward their chest like they were doing a short boat-row movement and then shave off parts of wood.

“I can do it,” Youleena said. “How many do you want?”

“Let’s say six of various sizes,” I said, and I finally couldn’t fight the smile anymore.

“What else?” Quwaru asked.

“We have given him enough,” Emta scoffed as she crossed her muscular arms. “It will take us too long to do all this shit for him.”

“I believe our lives are worth more than a few rocks and some of Youleena’s time,” Zoru said as he shrugged his purple shoulders.

“I agree,” Keefaye said. “It is apparent that Victor is not just powerful, but also very intelligent. I feel as if I am learning about survival with just the instructions he is giving Youleena.”

“We should give him as much good will as we can,” Adella sang, and I saw her big eyes look up and down my body.

“Some chisels would be nice,” I continued as I felt my cheeks heat up a bit. “They would look kind of like the drills, only wider, thicker. They don’t have to be pointed, they can be flat like this blade.” I tapped the stone in the palm of her hand. “Make one of the less-wide sides come up into a flat pommel so I can hit it with some wood.”

“How does this device work?” Keefaye asked.

“I am familiar with it,” Youleena answered. “My people use chisels to work stone. I am guessing Victor wants it for wood?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“How many do you want?” she asked as her black eyes stared into mine.

“Six at least,” I said as I smiled at her. Quwaru’s tribe had some interesting abilities, but Youleena’s seemed the most useful to me right now. I knew that I would soon have to focus on getting more stone tools, especially if I wanted to build better wood structures, but I didn’t really know a good source for arrowheads.

“Anything else?” Youleena asked.

“We are using stone axes to chop wood,” I said. “They are working fine, but are a bit heavy, if you could try some axe blades, I would use them. They aren’t as high a priority though. What we have works for us.”

“I will see what I can do,” she said as she smiled at me. Then she turned to her friends. “I will need help to gather various sizes of rocks and stones. Then I will need containers to put them in for Victor.”

“We’ll handle that part,” Quwaru assured her, and then the group turned back to me.

“I’m guessing you didn’t really need the clay,” I said to the silver-eyed succubus.

“You are correct,” Quwaru answered with a smirk. “We could have used the plates, bowls, and cups, since you can never have too many, but Youleena has already made those for us. Also, I wanted to see how well you could craft them. We haven’t figured out how to do clay yet. Maybe that is something you could teach us?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’d be down to teach you all. It might be easier if you came to our camp sometime, but I think we should make some trades first.”

“What?” Emta growled. “After all this, you still don’t trust us?”

“You are really hard to please,” I said as I shook my head at the tusked woman. “You are beautiful and powerful. I don’t know why you are so offended by my presence.”

The olive-skinned woman seemed taken aback by my words, but before she could answer, Quwaru spoke.

“We will still take the clayware. We can use it, and I guess that you still need our salt.”

“Yep,” I agreed, and then I turned around to look at the group. “That’s all I can think of right now.”

“Maybe you would like some of my blessed water?” Keefaye said as she fluttered her golden eyes. “It is delicious and will bring you much pleasure.”

“Uhhh, sure,” I said as I shrugged. “I’ll take some when I come back to get the arrowheads and stuff.”

“I am unsure how long it will take,” Youleena said. “I have not used my ability on smaller pieces of stone, but it seems to go much quicker.”

“Can you come back in a week?” Quwaru said. “I believe that was around when you were going to bring us the clay dishes, anyway.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I can do that. Then I’ll pick up more salt and the stone tools.”

“And my water,” Keefaye said.

“Yeah, and that too,” I said as I smiled at the beautiful golden woman with the unicorn horn. She seemed pleased by my answer and her smile made her glow even more.

We stood in silence for a few moments as the group looked at me. This ordeal was reminding me a lot of Lacey’s party, and I suddenly wanted to return to my own camp and the list of improvements that we had to make.

“It was nice meeting all of you,” I said after I cleared my throat.

“Yes,” Nomi spoke first, and I turned to the strange woman with the white robe dress and long dark hair that hung over her face. “Thank you for saving us. I look forward to seeing you in a week.” She nodded her head, and I returned the movement.

“Me too,” Urka chuckled as she blinked her four azure eyes at me. “We’d all be dead without ya. Thanks again.”

“If there is anything else you need, please ask. Anything at all.” Adella’s voice was like a perfectly tuned piano, and she ran her fingers through her long blood-red hair as she gave me a smile that made my heart skip a few beats.

“Uhhh, yeah. I’ll think about it,” I replied, and the mermaid-looking woman bit her lip and let out a sigh.

“I’ll get to work on your tools immediately,” Youleena said.

“I’ll start looking for the stones.” Zoru nodded to the white-woman and then turned to me. “I am glad you came to our aid.”

I almost said “no problem,” since that was what I was used to saying when people thanked me for doing a good job. Instead I just nodded at the purple fox-monkey creature.

“Victor, if we do need your help sooner, do you mind if we send Zoru? He is the only one who stands the best chance of making it to you safely.”

“Yes,” the man agreed. “My ability gives me the chance to avoid being eaten by any of the creatures on this world. I cannot use it often, but it will help me.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said with a shrug. “I can make it to you all easily on the back of my dinosaurs.”

“We should speak more about joining Victor,” Keefaye said after she cleared her throat. “We are all impressed by him. He is more than capable of protecting--”

“No,” Emta growled. “We are doing just fine by ourselves.”

“I’m going to go,” I said as it became apparent that the women were about to argue again.

“Wait!” Keefaye blurted out as I turned to go. Her hand grabbed mine, and her skin felt cool against mine. “Thank you so much. We really appreciate your help. Some people here are a bit grouchy…” Keefaye turned her golden eyes to Emta “... but the rest of us are very thankful for you. We look forward to seeing you in a week. Please think of us.”

“Uhh yeah,” I said as she squeezed my hand.

“Victor, may I walk with you for a bit?” Quwaru said as she pointed up the hill toward where the jungle was.

“Uhh sure,” I said as I gently pulled my hand away from Keefaye. The golden woman sighed slightly, but then she smiled at me and gave me a small wave.

Qwuaru nodded toward the hill again, and we broke off from her tribe and walked up past my trikes. The dinos fell in step behind us, and the horned woman gave a quick glance behind us when Tom snorted.

“They seem like good people,” I said as I nodded to the group still waiting by the bridge.

“They are,” she replied. “Please forgive Emta. She is guarded, but once you get to know her, you’ll find she is a wonderful person.”

“I’m sure she is,” I said with a shrug.

“I’ve thanked you before, but I feel like words are not enough. We’d be dead without you.”

“You’ll pay me back with salt and the tools,” I said with a shrug. “It’s fine.”

“There was talk about us joining you,” she continued as we reached the crest of the hill. I didn’t see my friends right away, but then I saw a flash of pink hair move in the jungle, and I figured that they were standing right at the edge of the jungle.

“Emta doesn’t seem interested,” I replied. “It’s okay. You all can do your thing, and we’ll do ours.”

“Is the offer there?” the beautiful woman asked as she raised her eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Would you let us join you, if we wanted?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her bikini top. She was wearing just about the same amount of clothes as Sheela, and I really had to force myself not to look at her body. Fortunately, her silver eyes and face were amazing, so I didn’t have much of a problem looking at her face when she spoke.

“I would have to talk to my tribe, but I don’t think there would be a problem.”

“You would talk to your wife?” she asked with a smirk.

“Trel already wants you all to join,” I laughed. “She’s like how you told me Emta is: a bit prickly at first, but a wonderful person.”

“At this point, we would rather be independent,” Quwaru said. “I hope that doesn’t offend you.”

“Well, no,” I said, “but it seems like you are getting more value out of our relationship.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You are getting my protection, and I am getting salt and some tools. I could live without what you give me, but you can’t live without my help.”

“So you are saying that you bring us more value than we are bringing you.” Her eyes narrowed a bit, but the red-skinned woman’s voice didn’t betray any anger.

“I’m just saying that eventually I’m going to have all the tools I need, and all the salt I need, but you’ll need my protection for the foreseeable future. So yeah, you can do your own thing over here, and as long as you stay hidden from dinosaurs and other tribes, you’ll be fine, but you are probably going to need my help again and again.”

“Your point is fair,” she said with a nod. “I will speak with them more. Change can be difficult, especially when we have lost someone so important to us. Will-Lack helped make this our home.”

“What do you want me to do with his body?” I asked.

“Hmmm.” Her full lips twisted as she considered my question for a few moments. “My people burn the bodies and scatter the ashes, but I do not know what his people did. I believe he would be fine with burning, if not, I will bear the error on my own soul.”

“I can do that,” I said.

“Thank you again,” the beautiful succubus-like woman said as she reached out her hand. “Will you touch me?”

I stared at her palm and fingers with a bit of hesitation. I knew there was a possibility that this whole thing had been a ruse, and touching the succubus might be incredibly dangerous to me, but I hadn’t observed any hint of that during the conversations with Quwaru and her people.

I looked back into the beautiful woman’s silver eyes and almost laughed. Maybe I was being a total idiot, but damn, I just had trouble denying pretty girls what they wanted, and Quwaru wasn’t just a pretty girl.

All the women on Dinosaurland were absolutely gorgeous.

“Yeah,” I said as I reached my hand out and wrapped my fingers around Quwaru’s.

Her skin was warmer than mine, but it felt soft and smooth. I had kinda sorta feared mind control or death by touch, but I didn’t feel anything besides her touch. Then she smiled at me, squeezed my hand once, and we let go of each other.

“You are a good man,” she said. “No, you are a great man. I have felt your emotions, and I know that you are generous and caring. I know you are passionate and optimistic. I sense your resolve and your genius. I will tell the others, Victor.”

“Uhhh, okay,” I reached up to scratch my head and felt my cheeks flush. “I wouldn’t really say I’m a genius or anything. I try to be a nice guy, but--”

“Survival is not often kind to those who are kind,” she interrupted me. “You understand that too.”

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“I look forward to seeing you in a week,” Quwaru whispered, and then she gave me a final nod before she turned back toward her friends.

I tried not to watch her ass as she walked away, but I failed miserably and didn’t realize I was staring until Scoob pushed his head into my back. He let out a hoot that sounded a bit like a snicker and I rolled my eyes at him.

“Oh, come on! You’ve never been distracted by a nice butt?”

The troodon let out three short hoots, and I laughed again.

“Fair enough, let’s go meet with everyone else. I’ve got a lot to tell them.”

I turned my eyes back to the jungle in time to see Sheela, Trel, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald step out. The five women smiled at me, and I walked across the field toward them with my small army of dinosaurs marching behind me.

Chapter 3

“Do those idiots now understand how amazing you are?” Trel asked as soon as I walked up to them.

“They are thankful,” I said with a shrug. “They are going to be making some stone arrowheads, spear tips, and various other blades that we can use for woodworking. We’ll come back in a week with our clay plates and cups, then do the trade.” I gestured to the pathway through the jungle as I finished speaking, and the six of us begin to walk toward the beach while the troodons took point and the larger dinos plowed through the plants at our rear. The path that the T-rex had taken was pretty obvious, but I kept my dinos on the trail as much as I could.

“But they should be really thankful,” Trel scoffed after we walked for a few moments. “They were impolite.”

“They are fine,” I said. “One of them is a bit prickly, but she’ll come around. Most people do.” I smiled at Trel, but the beautiful spider-woman didn’t seem to realize I was kind of referring to her. “We will eventually all end up getting along. We have to, in order for us all to survive. That reminds me, thank you all for the work you put in. It wasn’t just me who saved their lives, you all helped.”

“It was not much effort,” Sheela said with a shrug.

“It was though,” I replied. “We couldn’t have beaten The Burners without your arrows and strength lifting the heavy rocks. We couldn’t have moved the boulder without Trel’s brain and Liahpa’s amazing ability to control weight. We wouldn’t have known what was going on if Emerald hadn’t of been able to scout for us, and Kacerie’s Lance ability took out their leader before he could give them all the power to counter attack. We are a great team, and the other tribe doesn’t just owe me their lives, they owe all of you their lives.”

My friends were silent for a few moments, but I saw them all smile at my praise. They deserved it. I was grateful that they were all with me, and I knew that we could overcome any obstacle when we all worked together.

“What did you speak about with that tribe?” Sheela asked. “Was it just trading? Or did you learn of their abilities?”

“I learned about their abilities,” I said. “The woman with the red skin, black hair, and horns is Quwaru. She is their leader and she can read emotions and thoughts when she touches someone.”

“Wow,” Kacerie gasped. “That seems crazy powerful.”

“It is no wonder she is the leader,” Liahpa said. “If she knows their thoughts she can understand how to manage them better.”

“The woman with the tan skin, long hair that kind of moves, and tusks on her lower jaw is Emta.”

“She was the most idiotic,” Trel huffed. “You should have heard what she said about Victor!”

“What did she say?” Liahpa asked, and the silver skinned woman with the red eyes actually seemed upset.

“She said they don’t owe him anything! And the way she said it! So rude!”

“It’s fine,” I laughed. “She’ll like me when she gets to know me better.”

“Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “She should just understand how wonderful you are right from the start. Of course, not everyone is as intelligent and perceptive as I am.”

“Yeahhhhhh,” I said as I fought against a smile. “Apparently she can heal from her injuries quickly.”

“That is useful,” Sheela said, and I noticed that the stoic cat-woman was also trying to fight against a grin as she blinked at Trel.

“The one with the purple fur is named Zoru. He’s both male and female, apparently his species breeds by ambushing one another and then inseminating the one who loses the fight.”

“So… like rape?” Kacerie asked as she raised a pink eyebrow.

“Uhhh, well, when you put it that way. I guess so. The one who loses the fight becomes the female and bears the child. He said he can kind of do a time shift where he teleports back to the spot where he stood a few moments before.”

“Hmm, that also seems powerful,” Sheela said. “How often can he or she do it?”

“He said he can do it once per day and that he can go up to ten seconds in the past.”

“And he rapes women?” Kacerie asked again after she cleared her throat.

“Uhhh, I think that is how they breed. He said he didn’t think of himself as male or female. Apparently they just assume those roles when they meet another of their species.”

“I would guess that there is no ill intent,” Liahpa said. “I am wary of males, of course, but if this Zoru is in a tribe with other women, and their leader can read minds, he would have gotten kicked out by now if he intended them harm.”

“Ahh, good point,” Kacerie said, and she seemed to relax a little.

“He seemed nice,” I said with a shrug, “but I’m not sure I trust any of them yet. That’s why I want to trade more with them and build a relationship.”

“What about the others?” Sheela asked.

“The women with the white robe and long white hair is named Youleena. She can shape rock with her hands. She’ll be the one making the arrowheads, spear points, and tools.”

“Ahh, that is an excellent ability,” Sheela said.

“Can she build us stone walls?” Trel asked. “She was the one who did the stones on the face of their cave, correct?”

“She said she can’t alter the mass of them, just the shape,” I explained. “We’d need to take her to our camp and then move the rocks into the fort for her to work on.”

“So when is she coming?” Trel asked.

“I don’t know if it is going to work that way,” I said. “They were split on joining us, and I actually didn’t offer. It might work out in a few weeks, but they seemed like they wanted to stay in their location. It won’t matter once we get a lot of salt and the stone tools from them.”

“I would like some extra peasants to order around,” Trel sighed.

“They wouldn’t be peasants,” I laughed. “They would be equal members of our tribe.”

“More numbers are good,” Kacerie said. “As long as we can trust them. We’ll need more houses for them, and more water, and--”

“We are working on all those things,” Trel waved her hands. “Victor is playing coy with them. It is smart since they will be more impressed with us if they see our fort after we spend another week improving it.”

“Youleena actually seemed like she would be okay coming over,” I said, “but then she worried about her friends. We’ll have to absorb all of them, and Kacerie is right, we aren’t ready for them right now.” The other women nodded their heads at my words, and I continued. “Urka was the small woman with the blue hair and four eyes. She can shoot small bolts of lightning out of her hand, but she said they didn’t do much damage. Adella had the red hair, big green eyes, and the rainbow scaled legs. She seems to be able to control water.”

“How so?” Trel asked with sudden interest. “Was that the pillar of water that came out of the lake at the bottom of the canyon?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Fascinating,” Trel replied as she tapped her lips with her long fingers. “I wonder if I can use her ability for a pump.”

“The woman with the golden hair and horn on her forehead is named Keefaye,” I said. “She can turn water into alcohol.”

“Wait,” Kacerie said. “Say that again.”

“Water into alcohol?” I asked.

“That’s an amazing ability!” the pink-haired woman gasped. “I can use alcohol for soap, hair products, and other cleaning tasks. We can sanitize our cooking area and use it to start fires easily.”

“We might even be able to get the fires burning hotter,” Trel said as she tapped her lips again. “That could help us make clayware faster.”

“You both are in luck then,” I said. “Keefaye seemed the most interested in joining our tribe, so did Adella. I don’t want to just take them from Quwaru, but I know they are arguing for their group to come join us at our camp.”

“They sound like women of sense,” Trel said. “What of the last one with the ugly face?”

“Ugly face?” Kacerie asked with a bit of surprise.

“I’m joking,” Trel laughed. “I couldn’t see her face because of her hair, so I think she is probably ugly. She said she wasn’t though.”

“A woman’s beauty should not determine her worth,” Liahpa said as she frowned at Trel.

“That sounds like something an ugly woman would say,” Trel said as she looked at Liahpa, “but yet, you aren’t ugly. So I’m confused.”

“You are confused?” Liahpa laughed. “I’m surprised you would even admit--”

“I’m being sarcastic,” the spider-woman hissed. “Women are supposed to be beautiful. That is our purpose, along with making beautiful babies.”

“No,” Liahpa sighed. “We are supposed to contribute to a healthy and beneficial society by--”

“That is what we do by being beautiful and making babies,” Trel groaned. “That is how we control idiot men. They pick the most beautiful women to be obedient to, and then that woman makes the babies.”

“Sheela, help me out here?” Liahpa asked the blonde woman.

“On my world, men control most of the resources.” Sheela shrugged. “Women’s roles were to serve men, and the most beautiful women ended up bearing their husbands the most children since they were selected for breeding the most often.”

“Okay, so that sounds crazy,” Liahpa sighed. “Kacerie?”

“I’m really glad I’m gorgeous,” the pink-haired woman laughed. “I had half a dozen rich and powerful men I was dating. Yes, I had my own hair studio, but I loved walking into a room and having all the men turn to me with their jaws open. I agree, it shouldn’t be how a woman is judged, but I liked the power I wielded.

“See?” Trel cackled at Liahpa. “Women need to be beautiful. Once again, you are wrong and I am right. This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. You should just believe me from the start. It will save so much trouble.”

“No,” Liahpa groaned, and then she turned to Emerald. “Do you subscribe to the notion that women are supposed to be beautiful?”

The green scaled woman bit her lips as if she was considering the other woman’s words, but then she gestured to herself and to the rest of the women. Then she motioned to the jungle around her and shook her head.

“See?” Trel said. “She agrees.”

“No,” I said, “She shook her head.” Emerald nodded at me and then motioned for us all to stop by waving her hands.

“What is she…” Kacerie started to ask, but the green-haired woman walked over to her, touched her hands and then made a motion that matched what Kacerie did when she used her Lance. Then Emerald rubbed her hands together as if she was washing them.

“Hmmm,” the pink-haired woman said as her lips twisted.

Emerald walked over to Sheela, touched the blonde woman’s hands, and then made some punching movements. Sheela nodded, and then Emerald walked over to Liahpa and touched the woman’s bicep.

Then Emerald walked over to Trel, stood face to face with the spider-woman, and then tapped her on the temple.

“I think you have your answer,” I said.

“What kind of answer is that?” Trel asked, and the other women turned to me.

“Emerald says that on Dinosaurland, you have each proven your worth with qualities other than beauty. Kacerie has her Lance and her ability to craft stuff we need for sanitation. Sheela has her fighting and hunting ability, Liahpa has her strength and ability to control weight, and Trel has her brains.”

Emerald nodded at me, smiled, and then clapped.

“Fine,” Trel scoffed. “Maybe beauty doesn’t matter that much on Dinosaurland. I’m still glad I am beautiful though, and you all should be glad too.”

“Fine,” Lihapa sighed, and I got the feeling that the floating woman was just tired of arguing with Trel. “Victor, what of the last woman?”

“She wore her long hair over her face but she said it was because she is really sensitive to the daylight. She said to me that her name was Nomi, and she had the power to take away someone’s ability.”

“What?” Kacerie gasped. “She could take away my Lance?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She just needs to be within ten feet of someone, and she can make it so they can’t use their Eye-Q ability.”

“Wow,” Kacerie said. “That could be dangerous. If I couldn’t use my Lan--”

“Who cares about your light beam ability?” Trel hissed. “What if she took away Victor’s ability to tame the dinosaurs? We’d all be dead in a few moments.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.” Kacerie’s blue eyes got larger, and she turned to face me. “That would be really bad.”

“She was actually about to do it,” I said, “but then I told her that might cause the dinos surrounding us at that time to just decide to kill us all, and she reconsidered.”

“She cannot be trusted,” Trel said. “Much too powerful. We shouldn’t let her into our camp.”

“They aren’t exactly knocking on our gate and begging to come in,” I said with a shrug.

“But they will,” Trel scoffed. “How could they not? You are too powerful, smart, and handsome. They will want your protection and your sperm.”

“Can we go a day or two without talking about Victor’s sperm?” Kacerie asked as she scrunched up her pretty face.

“Stop pretending like you don’t want it,” Trel chided. “I see the way you look at him now.”

“It’s not like--” Kacerie started to say, but then we reached the edge of the jungle, and I held up my hand to quiet everyone.

“Sheela and I are going to look at the beach, you all stay here,” I said, and my friends nodded. Then I gestured to the blonde woman, and we walked through the last part of the jungle with the troodons as a close escort.

The beach looked just as I remembered a few hours ago, but I saw where the footprints of the T-rexes dented the sand and moved into the jungle. It looked as if they had come from the north, in the direction of the Burner’s camp, but that could have just been a coincidence.

“Do you see anything?” I whispered to Sheela.

“No,” she replied.

I was about to move back, but then I saw a shadow over the beach, and I glanced up on the sky.

It was a giant flying pterosaurs.

“Ohhhh, shit,” I whispered as I unconsciously ducked down lower in the jungle ferns and grabbed Sheela’s arm.

“It is large,” the blonde woman said with her usual stoicism.

“It’s freaking huge!” I hissed as I looked up at the flying dino. It was a bit hard to gauge its actual size from the ground, but its wingspan shadow made the entire beach darken.

It must have had a wingspan of sixty feet. Maybe more.

“Can you tame one?” Sheela asked as the creature made a single flap of its wings and slowly glided upward higher away from us.

“I’d have to find one on the ground,” I said. “It’s too far away now. I can’t even use my Eye-Q to figure out what species it is.”

“It would be exhilarating to ride one,” Sheela said.

“I thought you were afraid of riding the dinos,” I chuckled as I squeezed her arm. “It took you forever to be up on Hope alone.”

“I am getting used to it,” she said as she gave me a wide smile. “I like it now. Of course, it is not my favorite creature to ride.”

“Sheela,” I laughed. “Did you just make a double entendre?”

“Maybe,” she said, and her cheeks turned bright red. Then she bit her lip, and we both started laughing.

“Looks like it is far enough away now,” I said a few moments later as I saw the creature bank back away from the ocean and fly more inland. “Let’s get out of the jungle and back to our base.”

“Agreed,” Sheela said, and we signaled for our friends to join us on the beach.

A few moments later and we were all mounted up on our various dinos. Kacerie sat behind me on Bob and wrapped her arms around my stomach, and Trel crouched in the trunk area of the saddle where we normally tied our water jugs. Sheela, Emerald, and Liahpa sat on Tom’s much larger saddle and they set off after us as we headed south down the side of the jungle on the beach.

For a few moments, I enjoyed the feeling of victorious pride swelling in my chest. Here I was, riding on the back of a massive parasaur with two beautiful women while three other beautiful women rode on a big triceratops next to me. We had just defeated a bunch of asshole’s that had tried to mess with a group of our new friends, and then I’d tangled with two T-rexes and came out on top. I’d negotiated a great trade deal with the new tribe, and I couldn’t help but smile as the salty wind rushed through my hair.

I wasn’t quite the King of Dinosaurland yet, but I certainly felt a step closer.

We soon reached the lava trail coming down the mountain, and I commanded the dinosaurs in my posse to stop around the shiny black river. Trel had gotten the black sand from this spot just a few days ago, but now I was looking at the glass-like rock with new eyes, and I waved for everyone to dismount.

“What’s wrong?” Kacerie asked as Bob knelt so we could get down easier.

“I know I just asked them to make me some arrowheads, but I believe this stuff is obsidian. I think it has the potential to be sharper than the flint we use back at our camp.”

“Hmmm,” Trel said as her spiderlegs supported her human body in a twisting movement that brought her face down a few inches above the black glass. “This might be true, we should bring some back to our camp, and knap it there. Tom has a basket on the back part of his saddle.

“Let’s get to it,” I said as I grabbed a fist size rock from the beach. Then I raised the rock over my head, covered my eyes with the soft inside part of my forearm, and slammed it down. A few shards of the black lava rock shot into the air, but it all missed me, and my rock had shattered half a dozen larger pieces of rock away from the edge of the river.

My friends all repeated my actions, and we soon had the leaf basket filled with various sized chunks of shiny rock that was the same color as Trel’s hair.

Then we re-mounted and headed up and around the dune section of the beach. I kept the speed lower when going up and down the dunes, just so that I could survey the beach at the top of each one. Even though I had just taken out the Burners, and I knew that this part of Dinosaurland was probably safe from aggressive survivors, paranoia was chewing on the back of my mind. I still had to worry about dinosaurs or other predators. Sure, I’d beaten the two T-rexes, but I couldn’t help but think that I got lucky. The position in the “C” shaped ravine meant that they couldn’t flank me, and Quwaru’s tribe had escaped on the cliff trail. I hadn’t really needed to defend anyone from getting eaten besides myself, and the terrain had helped me muscle around the giant carnivores. I wouldn’t be able to do that same kind of strategy on the open beach, and the crests of the dunes meant that we could get ambushed.

I knew I could never let my guard down.

Fortunately, we didn’t see anything besides a trio of brontos far to the south. They looked like they were swimming in the ocean, and their necks reached up to the sky like cranes from my world. I didn’t blame the dinos for cooling off in the water since it was late afternoon and the sun was beating down on us like a hammer.

The breeze from the ocean did help temper the heat, but we were soon in the jungle, and while the trees gave us a bit of shade, they also prevented the wind from cooling us. My friends didn’t complain though, and we soon crested the hill that led us to the valley between the coast and our home.

I did my usual tactic of moving Bob up ahead first just to the crest of the hill so I could look into the next valley without creating a dinosaur silhouette against the skyline. I didn’t see anything in the next valley besides thick jungle, so I motioned for everyone else to follow me, and we descended the grassy slope on the other side of the hill.

There were two ways through this jungle valley. The first way was through the dried riverbed which ran East and West through the center of the jungle, the second was skirting the foothills next to the jungle’s edge on the north side. I had gone the riverbed route with Tom and Trel a few days ago, and almost gotten eaten by a family of carnotauruses, but that road had the advantage of being concealed from eyes. The northern route was somewhat out in the open, and anyone looking down into the valley would know that we were passing. I had taken the valley route here, since I wanted to get to Quwaru’s tribe as soon as I could and hadn’t cared about anyone seeing us, but now that I didn’t have to worry about speed, I considered my options as we reached the western tree line of the jungle.

“We are going to take the north route at the foothills,” I told Sheela as I rode Bob next to Tom.

Sheela nodded at my words, but I figured that she would. This was the only route she knew, and she probably thought stealth wasn’t too big of a deal now that we had a bunch of big dinos.

We trotted around the jungle, but about halfway through the valley, we heard roars inside the line of trees. I couldn’t get an exact feel for the location of the predators because of the wind in my ears and the density of the jungle, but I guessed they were a mile or more away from us.

I kept pushing our squadron of thunder lizards, and we crested the next hill without being attacked.

The next valley was our home, and I felt a sigh of relief leave my chest when I saw the top of the redwood trees in the center area. It had only been a few hours since we had raced away from the fort and left Galmine alone with Hope and Jinx, but it felt like forever ago. I was eager to return to our home and kiss the beautiful stone woman.

We descended the hillside into our valley, but instead of taking the more direct route across the hillside on the north, I moved the squadron of dinos south until we hit the river so that everyone could get a drink. We didn’t encounter any other dinosaurs on the way there, but at the shore of the river where the trees started to change, we found a group of four large turtles with shells about the size of large trampolines. I flipped on my Eye-Q really quick and identified them as carbonemys cofrinii, and my eyes drifted to the biggest one of the group. He was the only male, and while the females had smooth-ish looking shells of dull brown and green colors, this male shell was spiky, and the scales around his face were shades of red and orange.

“Those are the largest turtles that I have ever seen,” Sheela remarked.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “I haven’t seen any like that so far in our valley. They don’t seem too scared of us.”

We were about fifty yards away on the shore of the river, and as I watched, one of the females slid her body halfway into the water and let out a raspy gasp that made the trees quiver. These things weren’t as big as my trikes, but I guessed they probably weighed as much as my parasaurs.

“Are you going to tame one of them?” Kacerie asked as she splashed some water on her face and over her white blouse.

“I’m not sure I should,” I said as I turned my eyes away from her wet shirt so that I wouldn’t gawk at her pink nipples. “I don’t know what I could use them for.”

“They might help with lifting the logs in place,” Trel said as she stared at the turtles and tapped her lip, “but the dinosaurs we have already tamed do a fine job of that task. These don’t look like they move very fast.”

“No,” I said as the male turned to look at us. He let out a rasp, and they all moved into the river and began to swim upstream away from us.

“Ohh,” Trel gasped. “I’ve changed my mind.”

“Yeah,” I said as I realized what she was thinking. “Their shells are above the water.”

“They could help us travel across lakes, rivers, or the ocean,” Sheela filled in.

“Let’s not get carried away here,” Kacerie chuckled. “Can you imagine what kind of horrific shit lives in the ocean? I don’t want to be out there, even on the back of a giant turtle.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But this is good to know. We don’t really need these turtles now, but we might one day have to cross some water, and I can try to tame some of them then.”

I turned back to nod at my friends, and Emerald’s white eyes caught mine. Just like Kacerie, she had splashed water over her white blouse, and the shape of her human-looking breasts and dark green nipples were clearly defined by the wet material. I knew that the strange reptilian-looking woman with the gems on her face saw me checking her out, but I just gave her a smile and shrugged before I took a quick drink from the river.

A few minutes of Trel complaining that we shouldn’t be drinking from the river passed while we all drank from the river, and then we jumped back on our mounts and rode between the jungle and the river. After ten minutes, we passed the spot where the clay on the side of the river gorge was, and I gestured so that everyone saw it.

“That does look like bamboo in the jungle on the other side of the clay,” Kacerie said as she held her hand against her face like a visor. “I don’t really see anywhere good to cross; the edges of the river are too steep.”

“We’ll have to go east more toward where Victor normally gets water for the dinosaurs,” Liahpa called out from where she rode next to Sheela. “The water is shallow there.”

“I want to get back to the camp first,” I said. “I’m nervous that we left Galmine, Hope, and Jinx alone.”

“She’ll be fine,” Trel said. “The walls are built excellently, and--”

“Yeah,” I interrupted her. “I’m still nervous about it. We need to re-group, tell her what happened, take care of Will-Lack’s body, and then we can go get some bamboo. Galmine might even want to come with us since she knows a lot about plants.”

“Hmmm,” Trel said with a shrug of her bare shoulders. “Whatever you want, Victor. I think Galmine can wait, but I understand your fears.”

I nodded and turned the dinos away from the shore where the clay and bamboo were. Then we continued south eastward toward the spot where the fallen log was. We made it there in another ten minutes later, and then we cut north toward where the clearing was.

As we moved through the redwoods, I made the troodons fan out ahead of us and hunt. I knew feeding predators, even small ones like Scooby and the gang, was going to be more difficult that my herbivores, but I was hoping that the group of troodons might be able to catch a meal while on the move. The group understood my orders, and they disappeared from our sight with a few exuberant sounding hoots. By the time we had made it to the edge of the clearing, the five of them had all returned with their mouths full of either rats or lizards that were about the size of a shoebox.

“Damn, good job guys!” I said as the troodons trotted next to us with their prizes in their mouths.

“I think they are trying to give you their catches,” Trel said as she gestured to the tiger-striped dinos.

“Yeah, I think you are right.” I commanded the parasaruses and triceratops to stop, and the five troodons moved next to Bob. In unison, they all laid their rats or lizards on the ground next to Bob’s feet and then they looked up to me with eager expressions on their intelligent faces.

“Ahhh, that’s really nice of you,” I said to them. “But I think you all should eat them. You caught them after all. Thank you.”

Scoob let out a happy hoot, and the other four quickly bent their necks down, chomped on the corpses they had each caught, and then lifted their heads up so they could swallow the food. Then they all let out happy hoots and began to race around Bob in a circle.

“These guys really like you,” Kacerie said.

“Of course they do!” Trel scoffed. “Victor is amazing.”

“Let’s get back to the fort,” I said, and then I ordered the group of dinosaurs to push through the last of the redwoods.

As soon as we entered the clearing, my heart shot out of my chest when I saw the gate of our fort.

There was a group of raptors trying to climb the door, and it looked like one was already at the top.

Chapter 4

“Shit!” I shouted as I ordered the group of dinosaurs that I controlled to sprint toward the dirt bridge in front of our fort gate. My friends also let out shouts, but the wind stole away their exact words as my vision kind of tunneled around the distant gate.

We were still about three hundred yards away from the door where the raptors climbed, but I got a better idea of the size of them when we started to get closer. These raptors weren’t the horse sized black utahraptors that had been hanging around my valley as of late, nor were they the green feathered Great Dane sized Deinocycus species of raptors. These guys had white, brown, and cream-colored feathers, and they looked to be about the size of my troodons.

But as I got closer, I realized that comparing these guys to my troodons would be like comparing me to an Olympic power lifter.

The new raptors were fucking yoked. They were as wide at the chest as they were long, and the feathers on their skin did little to obscure their rope like muscles. They might have been about the same height and length as my troodons, but they probably weighed two or three times more, and I saw that their toes seemed to have long double-claws coming out of each digit.

There were also twenty of them climbing the wall like angry monkeys looking for a banana. They all turned when they heard my dinosaurs charging toward them, and a brief wave of indecision seemed to spread through their ranks.

“Victor!” I heard Sheela shout over the wind of our charge. “I only have two arrows left!”

“Stop the one on top!” I shouted, and then I turned to see the blonde woman yank her bowstring back.

I jerked my head around as soon as she released the arrow, and my stomach did a bunch of flippy-flops as I watched it speed through the sky. We were still about a hundred yards away, and it would have been a difficult shot for anyone not riding on the back of a dinosaur going at a full gallop. But somehow, Sheela’s aim was true, and the arrow hit the raptor on top of the gate right in the chest. The beast toppled over toward the inside of our walls, but I guessed that it was dead.

I would have expected Sheela’s arrow to make the cream colored raptors pause their assault and run, but the exact opposite happened. The muscular dinosaurs let out an angry screech, and they all jumped off the gate and ran across the bridge over our trench with a wave of teeth, claws, and frantic feather flapping.

Then the crazy ass motherfuckers charged right at us.

“Shit!” I growled as I tried to figure out what to do. On one hand, these guys were pretty small, and I didn’t think that they could do too much damage to my parasaurses or trikes, but on the other hand, I had seen a group of the Utahraptors tear into a pair of big ass brontos, and my dinos were at a much smaller size ratio. I also had troodons that I needed to worry about. Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma were quick, nimble, and devious. These white, cream, and brown feathered raptors were built like brick shithouses, and there were now nineteen of them compared to my five troodons.

The Eye-Q said they were Balaur bondoc, but I had never heard of the species before.

“Stay close together!” I shouted as I ordered my dinos to slow their run and circle up. “Everyone grab a spear!”

Trel handed me a weapon, and I stood up from my saddle as the group tightened up. Bob and Tom were side by side facing the wave of raptors, Nicole and Kim took the flanks, and Sonny and Cher guarded the rear. Before I could really think through if it was a good idea or not, I ordered Cher to crouch low on the grass, and the five troodons all jumped on the parasaurs’ back. Then she stood and the group of troodons’ hopped across Sonny’s back until they stood on top of Nicole and Katie.

“We are going to stab them from up here!” I shouted to my friends as the raptors closed within fifty yards of us. “I might have our trikes and parasaurs stomp on them, so make sure you don’t fall! I’ll send the troodons down when it looks safe. Everyone got it?”

“Yes, Victor,” Sheela said as she pulled back her last arrow. “Should I fire?”

“Yeah,” I said, and then she let go with her arrow.

The shaft hit the raptor at the lead of the pack, and it tumbled into the ground like a bowling ball. I again thought that the death of one of their number might have scared off the rest of the pack, but they all screamed in unison, and then seemed to increase their frantic speed.

Then they were on us.

I jumped off Bob’s back, landed on Katie’s and then grabbed onto her crest with my left hand as I leaned over her head. The trike was trying to spear one of the raptors with her horn, but the smaller dino had moved to the side and was raising its right leg so that it could slash at the much larger dino’s face.

I brought my spear down and around and slammed it into his chest right before he could cut Katie. I’d stabbed plenty of dinosaurs with my spear, but this felt like I was slamming my spear into the ground. I knew that I’d killed the thing because it let out a death squawk, but the tip of my weapon didn’t even punch through the other side of his body.

Another of the balaurs jumped at Katie’s right side, but I commanded her to twist her head around slightly so that I would be yanked back into the way of the raptor. I didn’t have much of a chance to pull back my spear for an attack, but I managed to get the tip in the stocky dinosaur’s face, and it screeched when the point dug into its maw. It fell away, and Bob stomped my opponent with a heavy foot.

I swung back onto the top of Katie and glanced over to my friends quickly.

Trel was leaning over the other side of Bob near where Sheela was on Tom, and both women were stabbing their spears downward. Liahpa was standing behind Sheela, and she was punching her spear down at the spot in between Tom and Nicole.

Emerald was on Nicole’s back and she was twisting her head around as if she didn’t know exactly where to attack. As I watched, Nicole let out a screech, jumped, and sent the green-scaled woman flying through the air.

Then she fell behind the trike.

“Shit!” I hissed as I jumped over Sonny’s back, landed on Cher, and looked at where Emerald had fallen.

A balaur bondoc had made it under Nicole’s legs and was about the leap on the beautiful green-scaled woman, but before it could attack, Velma and Daphne dove from the back of Nicole and hit the cream colored raptor like twin tiger-striped spears. The trio suddenly became a tumbleweed of feathers, claws, and teeth, but I couldn’t really focus on their movements since I had to worry about Emerald.

“Grab my spear!” I shouted as I swung the weapon toward the green-haired woman.

She grabbed the haft, and I grunted as I yanked up on my end with every single ounce of strength that I had. My toes curled in my boots, my hamstrings screamed, and my glutes turned into bags of lead on my ass, I had all sorts of the wrong kind of leverage since I was above Emerald and trying to pull her up on the edge of the spear pole, but I knew that if I didn’t do it, my friend was going to get torn into pieces by another one of the balaurs, or on accidently injured by Daphne and Velma.

My vision dimmed at I hissed air through my teeth, but then I felt the spear move up, and Emerald grabbed onto Nicole’s spine.

“Don’t fall again!” I panted. Emerald nodded, and then I glanced down to see Daphne and Velma tear the throat out of the balaur that they had attacked.

“Good job, girls!” I shouted down at them, and then they hooted before turning toward another pair of balaurs that had run through Katie’s stomping feet.

“Get ‘em!” I yelled to Scooby, Shaggy, and Fred as I pointed down at the two raptors about to attack their females. I didn’t have to ask twice. The three boys flung themselves into the chaotic pit of space at the center of our battle like heat-seeking missiles, and the five of them began to tear into the two cream colored raptors.

I needed to watch them to make sure they were okay, but I also had to keep track of the six bigger dinosaurs and my friends. I needed to be everywhere at once, and I could feel my heartbeat pound a bass drum in my temples as I looked over to where Kacerie was stabbing down with her spear on the left side of Katie. The hair stylist looked absolutely terrified, but she kept moving her arm up and down with a frantic intensity.

I glanced back over to Emerald and saw her move to stand up on Nicole's back. Sheela, Trel, and Liahpa were looking like they were handling the front of our circle where Tom and Bob were, but then I saw movement to my left, and I turned to see four of the enemy raptors running around to flank us from behind where Sonny and Cher were.

I glanced down at the dog pile of troodons again and saw that my pals had ripped apart the other two raptors. Somehow, nobody on my team look to be injured, but I guessed that we had been lucky so far. Even as I watched, another three of the raptors ran through Tom’s legs and came at my troodons. The last balaur of the group got kicked by the trike as he ran through, but the hit didn’t even seem to faze the muscular raptor.

I turned back to the ones at our rear and ordered Sonny and Cher to keep their position. I could sense their fear as the little monsters charged toward their feet, and it took another round of mental orders to keep the parasaurs with their front legs on the ground. Then, just as soon as the four balaur’s were about to reach the chests of my two parasaurses, I had them stand up on their back legs and charge forward.

The balaurs hadn’t quite expected the movement from Sonny and Cher, so they had over committed on their lunge. The group of raptors kind of stumbled forward off balance, and then they screeched half a moment before the two massive parasaurs stomped on top of them.

Unfortunately, Sonny and Cher’s movement had kind of broken up my protective circle, and I gasped when Kacerie lost her balance and tumbled backward down Katie’s spine.

I ordered Sonny and Cher to return to their position, but I knew that would be too late for Kacerie. The pink-haired woman had rolled down Katie’s tail and ended up right near the troodon and raptor fight. The beautiful woman also seemed a bit dazed by her fall, and she blinked her blue eyes as she spun around behind her.

Then I saw three of the balaurs spring past Katie’s flank and come right at the woman.

I didn’t have any time to think. I only had time to act, so I ordered Nicole to bend her back down a slight bit so that I could sprint down her tail. She did so, and I suddenly found myself in the middle of the melee between my troodons and the balaurs they had been fighting. I gave them a quick order to try to clear the way, but I didn’t really expect them to have time to complete it before I ran through them.

A balaur snapped his teeth at me, but Fred used the opening to bite down on the attacker’s throat. Another balaur tried to claw me, but Velma bit his arm before he could get me, and Daphne tore her own claws across his face. My sprint through their melee had provided a distraction that my team needed, and I saw them overwhelm the more muscular cream colored raptors as soon as I ran past.

One of them was about to pounce on Kacerie, but I shoved my spear forward with a shout and slammed the tip into its stomach. I was expecting my weapon’s impact with the balaur bondoc’s body to send a shockwave up to my chest, but my arm was strong, and the Golden Retriever sized dino wheezed a final cough as I ripped the spear from its chest and twisted the point around to jab at another one of his buddies.

“Victor…” Kacerie muttered as I stepped between her and the other two cream colored raptors. I should have been terrified, but all I felt was the hot flow of adrenaline in my muscles, and the headache from trying to control all eleven of my dinos against a dozen opponents.

The balaur I had just jabbed my spear at hissed as she ducked away, but then I commanded Katie to flip her tail to the right, and the tip of it knocked the raptor right upside the head. I heard a loud snapping sound, and the second raptor’s body collapsed as I spun to face the third.

This one glanced back at Katie’s tail and then darted toward me before she could bring it back to hit him. I thrust my spear forward, but the raptor guessed my attack, ducked under my weapon, and then came at my left thigh. I twisted back away from him as his teeth snapped on empty air, and then I spun around to my left to knock the back end of my spear across his face. The balaur bondoc took the hit like a heavyweight boxer taking a roundhouse punch from someone half his weight, and his face twisted to the side while his body didn’t even lean.

I spun back around as his face twisted back to me, but then I continued spinning the spear around behind my back so that the point came to face him just as he leapt toward me. Somehow, I was able to predict the trajectory of his jump, and I stomped my right foot forward as I pushed the spear toward him with every ounce of strength I had in my legs, arms, ass, and back.

The spear actually punched through him at the stomach, and I felt my adrenaline shoot through my muscles like lightning.

I was a bit unlucky, though, since my thrust hadn’t killed him.

The balaur bondoc kicked frantically at me as it screeched, and I had to pull my stomach back to keep from getting shredded by the creature’s claws. At first I thought that they had double the normal claws of the other raptors, but on closer inspection I saw that they really just had two giant claws on their big toe instead of one, and the usual single claw on the rest of their digits. The dinosaur’s limbs were much shorter than the green raptors, and way shorter than the troodons’, so I was able to dodge its attacks and then jab my spear against the heavy creature so that it was positioned at Katie’s rear.

Then I commanded her to stomp down, and the raptor was turned into a red pancake.

I yanked my spear free of the trike’s foot, turned, and then leapt the three steps back to Kacerie. She was trying to stand up, but I didn’t bother to help her. Instead, I just threw my arm under her stomach and lifted her up on my left shoulder so that she was draped over my back. As soon as I had grabbed her, I spun back around to see another pair of brown and cream colored raptors dance between Katie’s stomping legs and come at us.

I guessed that my Troodons had taken care of the other bondocs so I ordered them to jump between the new pair of aggressors so that I could backpedal with Kacerie. They instantly followed my orders, and I heard the screeching melee behind me as I turned and ran to Nicole’s tail.

The trike was dealing with one of the smaller raptors, but I saw her bring her horn down to pin one a moment before Emerald drove her spear through its skull. Then the scaled-woman turned around, saw me running toward the trike’s back, and scrambled to the edge of the spine so that she could help grab Kacerie as I climbed up the tail.

“Victor!” Trel shouted as soon as I had plopped Kacerie down on Nicole’s back, and I turned to see that four of the raptors had jumped up on Tom’s saddle. Liahpa was pinning two of them down against Tom with her spear while they kicked their clawed legs at her, Sheela was trying to pull her spear away from one who had caught the end of it in his jaws, and Trel was fending one off with her legs. I guessed that the spider-woman had lost her spear in the melee, and it looked like she was about to get forced off Bob’s back and fall to the ground.

I didn’t have much time to think about who I needed to help first. I was closer to Liahpa, so I took two sprinting steps across Nicole’s spine, leapt across the gap, and landed on Tom’s platform saddle. My spear sprayed blood as I twisted it over my head and then slammed it down into the face of one of the raptors that Liahpa had pinned. It died instantly, and then I yanked the weapon free of its skull before I did it again to the remaining raptor that the silver-woman had pinned.

Then I went to pull my weapon out, and it snapped off at the tip.

“Shit!” I cursed as I jumped past Liahpa and brought the remaining half of my weapon down on the bondoc Sheela was struggling with.

I had always been pretty damn good at playing whack-a-mole.

The raptor’s skull exploded with a resounding crack when I hit it, but a moment later I realized that my spear haft had actually caused the loud gunshot sound, and my weapon was now only a few feet long.

“Victor!” Trel shouted once more, and I turned toward my lover just as I saw her back spider legs reach out to catch Katie’s top spine so that she wouldn’t tumble down on Bob’s side.

Something inside my brain snapped, and the headache suddenly vanished from my skull. I didn’t see anything but the fucker trying to kill the woman that I loved and suddenly I felt my shoulder connect with the back of the muscular raptor. I’d tackled him football player style, but before I could try to regain my footing, we were both falling off Bob’s back.

Then we hit the grass below.

Something broke when we fell, and for half a moment, I thought it was my ribs or spine. I’d landed on the raptor though, and the dinosaur let out a gasp of agony which convinced me that it had borne the brunt of our fall. I’d landed right on top of its chest with my shoulder, and I twisted my face out of the way of its jaws a split second before it could bite my nose off.

I pushed my forearm into the raptor’s throat and then yanked my knees up to my own chest so that it couldn’t scratch me with its leg claws or kick me off. The position also meant that I was putting more weight on its throat, and the balaur’s gasp of pain quickly turned into a sucking noise of panic as it tried to inhale through a crushed trachea.

“Fucking die,” I growled as I pushed harder on my forearm. This dinosaur probably weighed as much as I did, but in a body half the size. It wiggled against me like some sort of jiu jitsu master, but I could feel it start to lose energy with every gasp it tried to take.

Movement caught the corner of my eye as I tried to choke out the balaur, and I saw another cream colored beast dash toward me. I also heard Liahpa shout my name from above, but she sounded really far away, so I ignored her and commanded Katie to jump forward. The trike obeyed my order, and her nose horn speared the approaching raptor through the torso like a corndog on a stick.

“Victor!” Trel, Liahpa, and Sheela shouted together, and I looked up from the raptor I was choking to see six more dashing across the grassy field toward me. There were less than ten yards away, and I knew that there was no way I’d be able to get up on Bob or Tom’s back before they got to me, and there was no way that my friends could fight all of them on the ground.

I could only think of one possible way out of this. I knew it was a long shot since these things were aggressive and trying to kill me, but I didn’t think I had any other options. My Tame skill was still untested, but if it didn’t work now, I was going to die.

And so were my friends.

“Stop!” I shouted at the six balaur bondocs as I willed them to follow my orders.

For half a second it seemed like my order didn’t work, but then the six raptors slowed their trot some ten feet from me and blinked as if they had just woken up from a dream.

“Back up,” I growled at them, and they all turned their heads to look at me.

“Back. The. Fuck. Up.” My voice felt like sandpaper rolling over concrete as it came out of my throat.

Then I pushed down hard and felt the neck of the raptor I was wrestling with pop.

The six balaur bondocs heard the sound too, and they all took three steps back.

“I’m your leader now,” I growled as I pushed up from the dead body of the raptor and stood. My head was as bit wobbly, and my back and shoulder hurt, but other than that I felt fine.

One of the balaur bondocs curled his lips away from his teeth, and he let out a hiss that sounded like a long sword being sharpened. It was a challenge from the group’s alpha, and I knew that my Tame ability hadn’t won them all over as easily as I had first suspected.

“You wanna fucking go?” I growled as I slammed my fist into my chest. “Come on. Step up and I’ll rip you apart.”

The alpha wasn’t quite the tallest of the group, but he had the broadest shoulders, and his coloring was closest to pure white. His eyes were a clear blue color, and we studied at each other for what felt like a minute. Trel, Sheela, Kacerie, Emerald, and Liahpa knew better than to make a movement or talk, so it felt like it was just me and this muscular raptor in a staring contest.

The first one to blink, or look away would lose, and if it was me, these guys would rip me to pieces before my friends could get to me.

My heart hammered into my chest and sent blood pulsing through my brain like a wheezing tuba. My legs were shaking, but the raptor couldn’t tell because of my pants. My palms were sweaty, but I had my hands turned so that he couldn’t see them. I didn’t even know if this dinosaur could even read my tells, but I guessed that any halfway decent poker player would know that I was bluffing. There was no way I could go toe to toe with this guy without a spear, and I definitely couldn’t take out six of them.

Then the white colored balaur bondoc looked at the corpse of his friend I had just killed, lowered his head, and let out a docile hiss that sounded like a balloon losing some of its air.

My vision flashed a bright color, and I blinked open my Eye-Q to see that I’d tamed the last six of the raptors. I let out a long exhale, and then realized that my Tame ability had actually changed from a 3 to a 4. I still had no idea what it meant in terms of what I could do with my ability, but it did feel like my headache was gone.

I turned to look up at the top of Tom’s back and saw Trel, Sheela, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald perched on the edge of the trike’s crest. Sheela and Liahpa still had their spears raised, but the other women were defenseless, and fear was plain on their beautiful faces.

“Did it work?” Sheela whispered as her golden eyes looked at the group of raptors.

“Yeah,” I said. “They work for us now. Let’s get inside the gate and make sure that none of them have gotten to the inner walls.”

Chapter 5

Sheela and Liahpa got our gates opened in a handful of seconds, and I left Tom behind with them when they closed it so that the rest of the group could run ahead toward the inner wall. I’d gotten lucky in the fight, and all my troodons were alive. Both Daphne and Velma were covered with blood, but they ran as quickly as they normally did, and I didn’t sense any pain from them. Nicole looked to have a few cuts on her legs, but they weren’t really bleeding heavily, and she also didn’t have a problem sprinting across the open field of our fort toward the shorter walls where we kept our huts.

I didn’t see any of the balaur bondocs trying to scale the inside wall, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t already inside, and both Trel and I jumped off Bob’s back, onto the top of the wall, and then flipped over the side instead of wasting time trying to get Hope’s doggie door open.

“Galmine!” I shouted as soon as I rolled on the grass on the inside of our first fort. My eyes scanned the two huts, but I didn’t see any sign of the white, cream, or brown feathered raptors.

Then Hope let out a startled toot, and I turned to see her curled up in her pen next to the door. She was blinking in the afternoon light, and I guessed that she had been taking a nap.

“Victor?” I heard Galmine call out from inside our first hut, and then Jinx sprinted out of the doorway and jumped into my arms.

“Hey buddy!” I gasped thankfully as I petted the pretty dino’s blue feathers. A moment later, Galmine came to the edge of the door and she gave me a cheerful smile.

“Is something--” the gray skinned woman began to ask, but Trel interrupted her with a hug.

“You are okay!” the spider-woman sighed gratefully as she embraced Galmine.

“Yes, I am!” Galmine cooed as she hugged Trel back. “I love hugs, but why do you both look so worried?”

“There were some raptors trying to get inside of the outer walls,” I explained as I set Jinx down and wrapped my arms around both Galmine and Trel’s waists. “We thought that some of them had made it inside and attacked you, Jinx, and Hope.”

“Oh, no,” Galmine gasped. “That’s terrible, but I didn’t hear or see anything. Besides, Jinx was here to protect me, and so was Hope.”

“These were pretty scary raptors,” I said. “My Eye-Q calls them Balaur bondoc, and they almost got us as we tried to defend the wall.”

“But they didn’t get us,” Trel said as Galmine’s sparkling green eyes grew large. “Victor saved us by taming six of them. You should see them, they are handsome and muscular, just like Victor.”

“Uhh, I’m not really quite that muscula--” I started to say, but then I heard Hope’s door swing open, and I turned to see Sheela, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald walk inside.

“I did not see any more of the raptors inside our camp,” Sheela said as she nodded once at me.

“Good.” I exhaled and felt my shoulders relax.

“Did you really tame more wonderful dinosaurs?” Galmine asked me as her arms circled my neck.

“Yeah,” I said after I kissed her soft lips. “They are about the size of the troodons, but they are slower runners.”

“What they lack in speed, they make up for with strength and hardiness,” Sheela said as she pulled Galmine into a hug. The rock-skinned woman cooed again as her friend hugged her, and then they both pulled away from each other with smiles on their faces.

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Galmine said as she rested a hand on Sheela’s and my shoulders. “Show me these new friends.”

Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald took quick turns hugging Galmine, and then we all walked back out of Hope’s door so that we could inspect the new additions to my dinosaur army.

“They are quite handsome,” Galmine said as she squatted besides the big white feathered one that was their leader. “What are you going to name them, Victor?”

“Hmmmm.” I opened my Eye-Q again and noticed that there were three males and three females. The names came quickly to my mind as soon as I finished my count, and I pointed at the big white feathered male that Galmine was petting.

“That one is named Chandler, the other male right next to him is named Joey, then the smaller male at the back is Ross,” I said.

“I like those names,” Galmine said as the other women nodded. “What about the others? Are they female?”

“Yeah,” I said. “The really pretty one that is at the back is named Rachel, the one next to Chandler is Monica, and the one in the middle is Phoebe.”

“I like that last name,” Galmine said.

“Yeah, I figured you would.” I laughed and then gestured for the troodons to come near me so that I could inspect them for damage.

“Will you use these balaur bondocs like you use the troodons?” Sheela asked.

“I don’t think so,” I replied as I ran my fingers through Daphne’s feathers. “I think they will be great guard dinos. Besides, they like sitting around in the same three locations all day anyway.”

“They do?” Galmine asked with a puzzled expression on her beautiful face.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “Okay, so I’m taking these names from a popular entertainment show on my world. It was about a group of six friends that sit around a coffee shop or their apartment and talked all day long.”

“That sounds like us!” Galmine said. “But we are seven friends.”

“And we don’t really sit around a coffee shop talking all day long,” Kacerie sighed. “I really miss coffee.”

“What is coffee?” Liahpa asked.

“A hot drink made with roasted beans of a plant,” Kacerie explained. “It has caffeine in it to help wake you up.”

“Ahhh,” Liahpa said with a shrug. “I don’t have such a drink on my world. We do have tea though. It is made with herbs and hot water.”

The women began talking about the various drinks from their homeworlds, but I focused on my troodons. It only took me a few minutes to inspect each one for cuts, give them a rub down, and then scratch each of them under the chin. The dinosaurs were as affectionate as Jinx was, but the balaur bondocs just stood at attention as if they were a military unit waiting for orders.

I moved over to the trikes and inspected them for cuts. Tom did have a few shallow scratches on his big meaty legs, but there was nothing too serious. Katie was fine, but Nicole’s cuts were a little deeper than I had first thought, and one of them was bleeding pretty well. I didn’t really have any medication or salve to put over the wound, but we did have some sinew and bone that we might be able to turn into a needle and thread.

I did an inspection of Bob, Sonny, and Cher, but the parasaurs were undamaged, so I went back to Nicole and the cleared my throat. “We’ve got a bit of a problem.”

My friends turned their attention to me and then walked over through the balaurs so that they could see Nicole’s leg.

“She is injured,” Kacerie sighed.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s probably not that bad. I think that if I leave it alone it will eventually heal. There is a little bit of blood coming out, and that is kind of disinfecting it. However, it wouldn’t hurt to stitch it up so she recovers quicker. Galmine, do you know any herbs or plants we can use to cover the wound that will help with healing?”

“I do,” the rock-skinned woman said. “When we were last out of our walls, I was just looking for plants we could eat, but I thought I saw a few trees we might be able to use to treat infections. I can also search for herbs that might do the trick.”

“Good,” I said. “Then we’ll also need to figure out how to use one of the bones from one of the carcasses we have eaten as a needle. Then we can use some sinew we have hanging up as a thread. We’ll have to disinfect those in boiling water.”

“I can try to figure out how to make a needle out of some bones we have,” Kacerie said. “The obsidian we got can probably make small blades that I can use to cut the hole out of the end so that we can pass the thread through.”

“I also need to learn how to make blades from a stone,” Liahpa said as she looked at Kacerie. “You all have given me a few sharp pieces to cut with, but I don’t know the technique yet.”

“Sure,” the hair-stylist said with a nod. “I’m not that great at it yet, but Sheela showed me how to chip off the stone. I’ve never done it with the obsidian though.”

“We are going to get more blades from Quwaru’s tribe,” I reminded them, “but it would be good for everyone to learn.”

“I also have soap to make,” Kacerie sighed as she shrugged at me. “What do you want me to work on first?”

“I'd like to take care of Nicole in the next hour or so, but let's talk about our to-do list,,” I said as I gestured for everyone to walk over to where our covered kiln and cooking fires were. The fires were still going from earlier in the day, but the combination of the roofs we had made and the walls were giving us some shade.

“First is defense,” I said as I looked to Sheela.

“We have the trench around the walls,” Sheela said. “That will help against the larger dinosaurs.”

“It didn’t really help us against the smaller ones,” Kacerie said as she gestured to the group of balaur bondocs. “They were about to climb the wall.”

“That would not have happened if we had guards at the gate,” Sheela said with her usual stoic shrug. “Victor normally has the triceratops at the gate.”

“I get that,” Kacerie said, “but what happens when Victor has to leave again?”

“The solution is simple,” Trel scoffed. “Victor cannot leave the camp any longer. He is too important.”

“I have to leave to get shit done,” I said. “We still don’t know if my Tame ability will allow you all to ride the dinosaurs away from me.”

“But you left Hope and Jinx here, and they did not attack Galmine,” Liahpa pointed out as she turned her red eyes to the voluptuous rock-skinned woman.

“Of course not,” Galmine giggled. “Hope and Jinx love me.”

“Leaving some dinos here to guard is a bit different from you guys taking them out to ride,” I said. “If something bad happens here, and they go berserk, you can all hide in the inside walls, but if something bad happens outside of the fort walls, you might get left alone. Or even attacked.”

“So how do we test it?” Trel asked. “You are too important to risk with the daily water gathering you do.”

“We are all important,” I said with a shrug.

“I will ride one of them out into the wilderness,” Sheela said as she gestured to the group of trikes and parasaurs. “I am the one most capable of making my way back if something happens.”

“Okay,” I said as I smiled at the blonde woman. “We don’t need to worry about that quite yet. Let’s get back to the ‘defense’ topic.”

“We were about to make more spears, bows, and arrows for the platform,” Sheela said, and her lips turned into a grin that showed her sharp canines.

“Good, and we are going to get a lot of sharp points for the arrows and spears.” I gestured to the tip of the spear that she had in her hand as I spoke. “We were just sharpening and then fire treating the wood because we didn’t have a lot of time, but I think we need to try using some obsidian that we got as points. We should be able to carve slots in the ends of the spears and arrow shafts, push the flat part of the arrowhead in, and then wrap it with sinew to join it together.”

“I can sit with Kacerie and Liahpa when they are working on the obsidian and then come up with a solution for them, but what about the points that Quwaru’s people will give us?” Sheela’s blonde eyebrow turned up in a question.

“We should still be familiar with knapping them and attaching them ourselves,” I said. “I’m sure the ones they give us will be better than what we’ll do, but I want our tribe to be self-reliant.” The beautiful women all nodded at my words, and I continued. “What else for defense?”

“You wanted me to make the saddles for the other dinosaurs,” Kacerie said. “I helped Trel make the one for Tom, and I think I have a good idea about the design. I’m going to need a lot more cordage though.”

“I was working on cordage for the last few hours,” Galmine said as she smiled at the pink-haired woman. “There is probably enough for one more trike saddle.”

“Great,” Kacerie said, but then she looked at me and grimaced. “But that means you’ve got me working on soap, sewing needles, thread, and making saddles.”

“I’m going to think about it while we go over the list,” I replied, and the beautiful woman gave me a wide smile. Kacerie’s personality had changed a lot since the first couple of days that we met. At first, she had seemed lazy, ungrateful, and uncooperative. I’d actually left her behind at the lake because I feared that she would use her Lance ability on either me, Trel, Sheela, or Galmine, but she’d turned around when I saved her from a dino attack, and had been nothing but nice to everyone since then. She was even doing a great job of reminding me about tasks on my list, and I guessed that her experience owning her own hair salon was helping her manage all the different duties I was assigning.

“What else for defense?” I asked Sheela.

“That is all I can think of at the moment,” the cat woman replied.

“I have something,” Trel said as she gestured to the tree. “I’ve talked about building our camp up in the tree eventually, but we should at least have a watch post up there.”

“That’s a great idea,” I said to the dark-haired beauty. “That’s going to be your project though, none of us can get up there easily. It’s gotta be at least sixty feet up to the nearest branches.

“Hmmm,” Trel said, and we all looked up at the massive tree on the other side of our inner camp wall. It was the only tree in the clearing, and from the ground, it seemed to grow a little higher than the other redwoods in the forest.

“We would also need a rope ladder so that the person on watch could get up easily,” Sheela said.

“Could you use your claws to climb up?” Trel smirked at the blonde woman.

“I could,” Sheela replied, “but it would be more dangerous.”

“I was joking, of course,” Trel laughed. “Building a rope ladder would be the easiest part. I will get to building a lookout perch up in the tree, but my first priority is the water filter. Victor, can we speak of that now?”

“After we talk about food,” I said as I looked to Galmine. “How are we looking?”

“The meat we were slow cooking for the last few days is mostly bad,” Galmine said as she frowned at the campfire holes that Trel had dug into the ground. “You all will need more meat today or tomorrow. Especially now that we have six new friends.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Carnivores will be a bit harder to maintain than herbivores. I don’t think the troodons and balaur bondocs are going to need that much raw meat per day, but now we have eleven of them. I’m guessing that each of the troodons will need about two or three pounds of meat a day, and the balaur bondocs will need three or four. So a rough guess of thirty-five pounds of meat a day.

“That is a lot of meat,” Liahpa said. “Can you send them out to hunt?”

“Maybe,” I replied as I looked at our pack of medium dog-sized dinosaurs.

“We have salt now,” Galmine said with a cheerful smile. “If you hunt something larger, we can preserve the meat longer.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “We’ll just have to find something that is big enough to feed everyone for a week or so, but not too big for us to drag back here.”

“I could continue to modify the sled that we used to bring the tree branches into the fort,” Trel said as she gestured to the sled and the pile of wood branches by the gate that we had used to build the guard platforms on the inside of the wall.

“I like that idea,” I said to Trel, but then she raised a long black finger and wiggled it in the air.

“After I make the filters, dear Victor.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I laughed and then turned back to Galmine. “How are you on food? I know we just got a bunch of vegetables to plant.”

“I have eaten of some of them,” Galmine said as she fluttered her eyelids at me sweetly. “I have not had an opportunity to plant them yet. You said you would help me. Do you still want to--”

“For sure,” I interrupted her. “I think Emerald wanted to help too.” I looked to the silent woman, and she nodded at both of us enthusiastically.

“Galmine should also look at the bamboo,” Kacerie reminded me.

“I would love that too,” the gray-skinned woman said with a cheerful smile.

“Okay,” I said to the group, “As far as short term with food, we have a bunch of balaur bondoc corpses out in front of the gate. I think their meat will be really tough, and I don’t want to feed them to the ones we just tamed, but I think we’ll be fine to eat them.”

“How will you feed them today?” Sheela asked.

“I’ve got a plan forming in my head,” I said as I smiled at her. “Let’s keep going through our list, and then I’ll tell you all what your assignments are.”

“We need to inspect the fish traps,” Kacerie said.

“Good reminder,” I said as I smiled at her.

“You also mentioned something a few days ago about getting small dinosaurs for eggs,” the pink-haired woman said as she winked at me.

“Yep, I’ll keep an eye out for those. Is there anything else we need to think about for food?”

The women all looked at each other, shook their heads, and then looked back to me. I was suddenly struck again by how completely crazy this situation was. Just a few months ago I had been mopping up shit in a Los Angeles County Animal Control kennel. I’d loved my job, but it was only because I loved working with animals. I didn’t have anything else going on for me, and I had no plan to improve my life.

Then aliens grabbed me, put crazy cyber eyes in my skull, and put me on a dinosaur infested planet with a bunch of other alien men and woman. So far, the men all seemed to be highly aggressive and capable warriors, and the woman all seemed to be beautiful and skillful as well. I still had nothing but guesses as to the aliens’ real goals with this abduction, but I’d gone from zero to hero with my dinosaur taming abilities, the strategic planning I’d learned from playing video games, and the charisma that came from a short life of being a nerd and just being nice to people.

Now these six beautiful women wanted me to organize them, lead them, and protect them from all the violence that Dinosaurland could throw at us.

I almost didn’t even know who I was anymore, but I’d somehow done a great job of protecting my friends, and I was going to keep doing it for as long as I lived.

Dinosaurland was terrifying, but somewhere in the mix of all this, I’d grown into the man that I always wondered if I could be, and I’d somehow had fun doing it.

And I didn’t want to go back home. I was in love with these women, and I never wanted to be without them.

“Victor?” Sheela asked.

“Oh, sorry,” I said as I blinked away my thoughts of my previous life. “My mind was wandering. Okay, so next we have water.”

“Finally,” Trel sighed. “I was beginning to think you didn’t care about my life’s work.”

“You just started talking about a filter a few days ago,” Kacerie chuckled.

“And it has occupied my mind along with the thoughts of Victor and my brood since then,” Trel scoffed. “After all, there is nothing more important than what is in my mind. You do know I am a genius, correct?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kacerie said with a surprisingly straight face. “You’ve told us. A few times actually.”

“Yes, but you keep forgetting,” Trel tsked. “Ahh well. Let’s talk about the filter.”

“You had to make the kilns first,” I said as I pointed to the three large chimney shaped structures that she had made out of mud.

“Yes,” she answered, “and now I have the various grains of sand I require and a basic model for a funnel. I will spend the rest of the day shaping the first one and then heating it. Then I will test the filter tomorrow.”

“Got it,” I said. “I know you will do a great job on it.”

“Of course I will.”

“What about the pump to push water from the river to our camp?” Kacerie asked.

“I will work on it after the filter,” Trel answered as she tapped her lip with one of her long fingers. “If we can get that woman from the other tribe to join us, it will make the situation much easier.”

“You mean Adella?” I asked.

“The one who can move the water,” Trel answered. “I forget what her name was. I’m sure they will all come to their senses soon and come join us. Once they do, I can use her powers to begin a siphon that I think will work much better than the pump idea.”

“We’d still have to lay clay pipe though?” Kacerie asked.

“Yeah,” Trel answered. “First comes the filters.”

“Okay,” I said. “Then we need to talk about living conditions and sanitation.”

“This is my favorite topic,” Kacerie whispered as she leaned forward.

“We need some sort of pavement surface inside of the fort,” I said. “The rain made everything all muddy, and you can see where our walking lines have torn away the grass. Pretty soon, the whole area is going to be covered in mud, and we are going to track it inside of our huts. We need some paving stones.”

“It will take too much clay,” Trel said. “We need clay for the filters and the plates you promised the other tribe.”

“Can we make them out of mud?” I asked with a shrug.

“To protect us from mud, you are going to make bricks out of mud?” Trel asked as she raised a perfect eyebrow.

“My ancient people made bricks with something called ‘adobe’ or ‘cob,’” I explained as I made a square shape with my hands. “I’ve never done it before, but they would mix mud with straw, form them into bricks using a mold of wood, and then lay them out in the sun to dry.”

“And that worked?” Trel asked with a bit of disbelief as she tapped her finger to her lips.

“Yeah,” I said.

“What if it rains?” she asked. “Won’t it just turn the brick back into mud?”

“Hmm,” I said as I thought through it. “Most of the adobe houses I’ve heard of were built in areas where there wasn’t a lot of rain.”

“I can see it working for walls of a hut,” Trel said with a shrug, “but if you want to build a path with it, I think the rain will destroy them.”

“There has to be a way to mix more sand, or more straw, or something with it to get it to hold up to rain,” I said and my eyes drifted toward the three kilns that Trel had crafted.

“I’m going to test it out and try heating them with fire. That might temper the material enough to keep it from turning back into mud once it is wet.”

“I’d like to help you,” Kacerie asked as she raised her hand. I was a bit surprised by her volunteering, so I gave her a wide smile.

“You’ve got a lot of stuff to do,” I said. “I’ll take your help if I need it, but this might be something I have to do on my own--”

Emerald waved as I finished talking and then she tapped her own chest and then pointed at Galmine.

“Ohhh, good idea,” I said to Emerald.

“What did she say?” Kacerie asked.

“She wants to help me with the bricks, but she also thinks that Galmine might be able to help us find the right way to mix the mud together with the straw and sand so that it is optimal.”

“You got all that from her pointing at herself and Galmine?” Liahpa asked with disbelief plain on her face.

“Uhh, yeah, I think so. Emerald?” I said, and we all turned to the green-scaled woman. She smiled at me and gave a single nod.

“I can help with making bricks,” Galmine confirmed. “I’m good with rocks, dirt, and plants.”

“So we’ll work on the mud bricks, but we also need to talk about the toilets and compost pile,” I said as I looked at Trel and Galmine.

“After the water filter,” Trel said as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay, but do you have a plan?” I asked. “We need a safe way to get rid of the waste, especially if we are going to get more people in our tribe.”

“We talked about making one of your ‘in houses,’” Trel said as she shaped a square with her long fingers.

“Out houses,” I corrected.

“Whatever,” she huffed. “I’ll need clay to make a seat and toilet, but I need clay to make the water filter and the plates for the tribe with the idiot women.”

“They aren’t idiots, Trel,” I sighed.

“They haven’t joined us, and they disrespected you,” the spider-woman said after she cleared her throat. “Clearly, they are idiots for not seeing your worth after you saved their lives.”

“Could we make it all out of wood?” Kacerie asked.

“Why would we make it out of wood if we could make it out of clay?” Trel asked as she twisted her lips to the side.

“Because we have a whole forest of massive trees just a few hundred yards from us,” Kacerie said as she gestured toward the redwoods. “Clay is going to be harder to get, and probably harder to make into a seat for one of these outhouses.”

“I suppose you are right,” Trel said.

“Wow,” Kacerie laughed. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Pfffttt,” Trel raspberried at the pink-haired woman. “You are smart. I am not often wrong, but I will admit when I am. I still think clay will be the better material, since our excrement will not stick to the sides of anything as easily, but wood will work better in the short term.”

“It doesn’t have to stick to the side of anything,” I said. “We just make a raised hole where we can sit, then it will fall down into a basin that Galmine sets up for compost.”

“I will need square cut lumber then,” Trel said.

“I can help with that,” Liahpa said. “I’ve gotten pretty good at cutting down trees.”

“Find older wood which is not green,” Trel said. “That way it will not twist.”

“We could always make the walls out of the adobe,” I said with a shrug. “I think that will be easier than cutting lumber for it.”

“I will help you make a plan for the structure,” Trel said. “Just decide what you want to make it out of.”

“Okay,” I said as I smiled at her. “I think that’s everything for the sanitation and--”

“Clothes,” Kacerie interrupted me.

“Ahh yeah,” I said. “We have to figure out new clothes.” I looked down at my outfit as I spoke. My boots were in good shape, and my socks, underwear, pants, and shirt had just gotten washed in the last rain, but both the pants and shirt were starting to get a bit threadbare. They were polyester blends, and I knew that if they were cotton they would have already turned to dust, but they still weren’t looking like they had more than another month left in them.

Kacerie’s jeans were also torn up, and I could see her creamy skin through a few dozen holes. I only considered her blouse “white” because it had been that color when I first saved her from the raptors. It was now a shade of light grayish-pink from a few weeks of dirt from working and blood from prepping meat.

Sheela’s bikini top and bottom were already frayed to something that a stripper probably would have blushed wearing, and it looked like the fabric that covered her nipples did little more than add a gray shade of color to her milk-chocolate colored areola.

Liahpa’s tight swimsuit-superhero outfit had a few tears along her ribs, but there really wasn’t much material there to begin with, so I knew that the whole garment would probably fall apart if a shoulder strap got cut.

Emerald’s outfit looked surprisingly clean. Her tight black slacks looked like something a business woman would wear to a meeting, and her low-cut frilled white blouse was the same color as her white eyes. The clothes looked a bit dusty, but I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t any blood, tears, or mud marks anywhere. She hadn’t really been out hunting or outside of the fort much, and she’d only been on Dinosaurland for a week, so I guessed that it made sense that her clothes were still in good shape.

Trel’s spider-web looking lingerie looked fine. Well, it was distracting to look at since it showed more skin than Sheela’s bikini, but I didn’t see any sort of damage to any of the gray colored material.

“Wait,” I said as I looked Trel over closely. “How did you get that outfit?”

“This?” Trel said as she ran her fingers down her full breasts, taut stomach, and perfectly proportioned hips.

“Yeah,” I said. “You were wearing tight shorts and a wrap over your breasts a few days ago, then you came out with this on and--”

“Do you like it, though?” Trel asked as she ran her tongue over her lips. “I made it for you, and I’ll admit that I was a bit disappointed when you didn’t drool over me before we left to get the sand.”

“Uhh, well, yeah, I like it a lot,” I stuttered. “I just, uhhh, had things to worry about.”

“How did you make it?” Kacerie asked. “Did you cut up your other outfit?”

“No,” Trel scoffed as she looked to me. “That sounds like something a peasant would do. I made this one anew for Victor’s enjoyment, but don’t worry, I am not mad you did not notice it. You do have many things to worry about.”

“How did you make it?” Kacerie asked.

“What do you mean?” Trel asked as she tilted her head.

“What did you make it out of?” the pink-haired woman said after she took a deep breath and gave me a frustrated look that Trel didn’t seem to notice.

“With my silk, of course,” Trel said, but then she blinked her eyes and looked at the other women with a bit of confusion. “Ohhh. Perhaps you all do not make silk?”

“No,” Sheela said. “I told you that before we even met Victor.”

“But that was you and Galmine,” Trel said with a shrug. “Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald all came here with nice clothes. How was I supposed to know that they didn’t make the garments themselves? All the women on my world craft their own clothes.”

“So you can make clothes anytime you want?” Kacerie asked eagerly. “I would fricken kill for a new pair of underwea--”

“No,” Trel said as she held up her hands. “I cannot make clothes anytime I want. Producing silk takes nutrients from my body, and I need it all for my brood.”

“But you said you just made that outfit for Vic--” Liahpa started to say but Trel interrupted her.

“There is not much material to this, and I thought I could spare it. For Victor’s enjoyment, of course.”

“How do you produce it?” I asked as I looked over her perfect body again. We’d made love many times, and I hadn’t really seen any part on her naked body that looked like it produced silk webbing, but then I remembered that the corpse of the raptor stashed behind the hut had been wrapped in webbing.

“It is on the base of my spine,” Trel said as she turned her ass toward us and pointed with her long finger.

Kacerie, Liahpa, and I took a few steps closer and bent down to inspect the top curve of Trel’s perfectly shaped butt. At first, I didn’t see anything, but then Trel moved her black finger out of the way and I saw what I had once thought was just a mole on her tailbone. I hadn’t given it much thought when we were making love, but I moved my face closer and saw that it was really a small indent with four tiny spinnerets.

“It’s kind of cute,” Kacerie said.

“Of course it is!” Trel said as she turned around to face us. “Every part of me is beautiful.”

“So, you can’t make clothes because of our, uhhh, brood?” I asked her.

“Yes,” Trel answered with a proud smile. “Our babies will need all the nutrients in my body to gestate. Then I will lay them in the corpse of the raptor behind our hut, they will hatch, and then consume the decayed flesh.”

“When is all this going to happen?” Kacerie asked.

“Tomorrow,” Trel said.

“Tomorrow?” everyone asked in unison.

“Yes, why are you all so surprised?”

“You, ahh, don’t look like you are pregnant,” I said as carefully as I could.

“Oh, silly Victor,” Trel chuckled. “I’ll know if I am pregnant tomorrow. Well, I should have known sooner, but tomorrow is the first day of my gestation cycle. Then I will need another two weeks where you all need to bring me delicious food to eat while I lounge around and build my brood. Then I will lay them, and a month later we will have an army of minions that will do our bidding. Well, unless I birth a duchess.”

“What happens if you birth a duchess?” Liahpa asked.

“It isn’t important,” Trel said with a somewhat sadistic looking smile on her face. “What is important is that I’ll know tomorrow, so we should also plan for some sort of celebration. I’ll leave it to you five to figure out.” Trel gestured to Kacerie, Sheela, Galmine, Liahpa, and Emerald.

“Why do we need to figure--” Liahpa began to ask.

“You are my sisters. That is what you do when I begin my gestation. You throw me a party.”

“I love parties,” Galmine sighed. “When my people have a party, it always ends with everyone wrapped around each other in a passionate orgy of--”

“Annnnndddd, that brings us back to talk about clothes,” Kacerie said as she turned back to me.

“Can we make anything out of the cordage?” I asked her and Galmine.

“It would be rough material,” Kacerie said with a shrug. “I can keep washing our stuff, but first I need to make more soap. The clothes won’t last forever though.”

“Trel, if we found some sort of soft thread-like material, could you knit it into garments for us?”

“Ugh, I suppose,” Trel said.

“You don’t seem that excited about it,” Liahpa huffed.

“If I asked you to smash rocks all day with your big muscles, you wouldn’t be excited either.”

“Fair point,” the floating silver-woman said with a nod. “I guess I can see where you are coming from.”

“It is just boring,” Trel sighed, “but I suppose I won’t be doing anything else for the next few weeks, so if you can bring me something I can turn into thread and knit, I will make new clothes for each of you.”

“Thanks, Trel,” I said. “It is really going to help us out.” I didn’t like the idea of her sitting around for two weeks and not working, especially since I needed her engineering brain to make sure that we weren’t messing up any fort building problems, but having her make us clothes would be a good use of her time.

It all depended on if she was pregnant, and I still didn’t quite believe that she was.

“I’ll keep an eye out for something we can use for clothes,” I said to the group. “Are you all ready for your assignments?”

The six women nodded, and I looked to Liahpa. “You are going to be dragging all the Balaur corpses inside by the fire pits.”

“What about--” she started to object, but I continued.

“Next to the fires, Kacerie and Galmine are going to show you how to make knives from the obsidian.”

“I don’t quite know how to do it with obsid--” Kacerie started to say, but I continued.

“Galmine knows rocks, she can show you how to do it, or we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about failing. We can always go back and get some more.”

The three women nodded after I finished speaking.

“As soon as you are done bringing the corpses in and making the blades, you are all going to butcher the meat and prep it for cooking and storage. Galmine won’t help you with this part; Emerald will after she helps me dig another fire pit. Then Kacerie will figure out a bone needle.”

“Why do you need another fire pit?” Liahpa asked.

“I’m going to be burning Will-Lack’s corpse,” I said. “It was what his friends wanted. Once that is done Galmine and I are going to go explore outside the walls. We’ll check the bamboo spot and then look for other herbs that we can use to cover Nicole’s wound. She’s going to be staying here right next to you all while you are working. As I said, I don’t think her wound is that serious, but I still want you to keep an eye on her.”

“What should I do, Victor?” Sheela asked.

“Weapons,” I said, and her golden eyes lit up. “Hopefully you’ll have a bunch of arrows and spear shafts made by the time they have some obsidian ready.”

“I will do it,” the cat-woman said confidently.

“What of me, Victor?” Trel asked.

“What do you think?” I smirked at her.

“Water filter,” she purred as she bit her lower lip.

“Yep, get those baking as soon as you can.”

“I’ll only be able to get one of the funnels done tonight,” Trel said as she looked up in the sky. “We are running out of daylight.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We all don’t have much time. Emerald, you are with me. Everyone else, you know what to do. Let’s get a move on so that we can all get back here once the sun sets and eat some grub together.”

The women all smiled, nodded, and then went to work.

Chapter 6

I walked with Sheela and Emerald to the pile of branches by the gate. The stack was about three quarters of the size it was when I had first hauled it all inside, so I figured that we still had plenty of material to build weapons, huts, or any other structures we wanted. Tom, Katie, the troodons, and balaur bondocs followed us across the open grass of our fort, but Sheela spoke before I could order them to stand by the gate.

“Victor, I have a concern,” she said.

“What’s wrong,” I asked as I glanced to her and then moved my eyes over to Emerald.

“I am worried that the weather is changing,” the cat-woman said with a shrug, and I guessed that she didn’t care Emerald was listening.

“How so?” I asked.

“The influx of rain is normally caused by a change in atmospheric temperature and pressure,” she explained.

“Huh,” I said as I looked up into the sky. The late day sun was really beating down on us, and I realized that I had no idea where my hat was. “It’s getting hotter. You think summer is around the corner? It’s already been crazy hot and humid, but today feels ten degrees hotter.”

“I think that it might get colder,” Sheela said. “Sometimes summers have a final burst of heat before they change to autumn. At least on my world.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That happens on my world too. Especially in the part where I lived. We’d often be hot all through autumn and only get cool when winter started. How about you, Emerald?” I turned to the scaled woman, and she stared at me with her white eyes before nodding slowly.

“I am a bit worried about what might happen if the planet we are on cools too much,” Sheela continued. “There might be migrations of the dinosaurs, lack of food, and snow.”

“Hmmm,” I said as I grabbed three stout wood branches from the pile by the gate. I intended to use them like shovels, and I handed one to Emerald.

“I know you are already thinking about this, but we should consider building stouter huts, or maybe even a larger shelter for our dinosaurs. We should also consider some sort of cellar where we can store food.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “We’ve got a ton of shit to do, though, and we don’t know for sure that the weather is going to change.”

“It might not,” Sheela said with a shrug, “but being prepared would not hurt.”

“Yeah, you are right, but we only have so much time in the day. Taking time to complete tasks that are important, but not urgent, might hurt the things we need to do that are urgent.”

“I understand, Victor,” Sheela said as she gave me a slight smile. “I know you have a lot to juggle, and I trust your judgement completely. I hope that I am wrong, but I have spent most of my life hunting outside during all the four seasons of my world, and it feels as if the cold winds of autumn are approaching, and then winter will follow. The jungle is all around us, so perhaps it will be mild, but this planet is strange, and it might not follow the rules of my world.”

“Thanks for telling me,” I said as I nodded at her words. “I’ll start thinking about what we need to do to prepare for a cold season.”

“Thank you, Victor,” Sheela nodded her head at me, and I saw her eyes flash to my lips. I knew that the beautiful warrior woman wanted to kiss me, but she was too shy to make a move. She wanted me to tell her what to do, and I had no problem fulfilling her desires.

“Give me a kiss,” I said, and she quickly pushed her lips into mine. Our tongues danced for a few moments, and then she let out a soft purr just as we parted.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she touched her forehead to mine.

“Anytime,” I whispered. “How about tonight?”

“Yesss,” she replied softy, and then we parted so that we could get back to work.

I turned to see Emerald staring at me with her strange white eyes, and I presented her with two of the branches I had taken from the pile.

“Can you clone yourself for this?” I asked. “It would help with the digging.”

Emerald frowned, shook her head, and then gestured up toward the sun. Her hand moved downward and then went up again as if it was a pendulum.

“Ahh, you can’t do it again until tomorrow?” I asked.

She shook her head, pointed back to where Bob, Sonny, and Cher sat beside Hope’s gate, and then made a digging motion with her hand.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I know it would go a lot faster if they dug, but it is kind of impersonal. I didn’t really know Will-Lack, but he seemed like a nice guy, and he sacrificed his life so that his friends could live. I just want to dig the hole ourselves. Know what I mean?”

Emerald shrugged, but her predator looking eyes didn’t blink.

“Yeah,” I said with a shrug as we walked back toward where the gray-feathered man had fallen from the sky. “Maybe it doesn’t matter. Hell, I should really just bring his body back to his friends, but they didn’t ask for it back. Part of me is glad since I didn’t want to make another trip back to the beach.”

Emerald tapped her temple, frowned, and then shook her head.

“Naw,” I answered. “Well. Okay, I should feel bad, but I don’t. How much more should I do to help them? I hauled ass out there, saved their lives, and then offered to trade with them. I would have made another trip with Will-Lack’s body if they asked, but I’m not sad they didn’t. We have too much shit to do.”

Emerald nodded, and I gestured for her to grab a few branches from the pile that we would use for the fire. We didn’t speak as we dragged them across the clearing, and then we set them down next to the big man’s feathery body. I was used to seeing dead animals at my parents’ clinic, and I had witnessed plenty of violent deaths during my stay at Dinosaurland, so the sight of another corpse didn’t really phase me that much.

I looked at the grass next to him, raised my stick, and then slammed it into the ground. The dirt was still a bit soft from yesterday’s rain, so it came up pretty easily with the makeshift shovel, and Emerald joined me after I had taken a third stab into the ground.

“This kind of reminds me of when my parents died,” I muttered as I threw a small chunk of dirt away from where we were digging. “I didn’t actually bury them, though. Just like the funeral.”

Emerald looked over to me, raised an eyebrow, and then drew a line over her throat with a long finger.

“They died in a car accident,” I said, and then she tilted her head a bit more. “Oh, cars are kind of like the sled.” I pointed over to where we had parked the sled next to the pile of wood. “But they have wheels on them, and you can control them as you ride. They are machines, made of metal and plastic. Do you have anything like that on your world?”

Emerald nodded, but then she tapped her temple, made the line over her slender neck again, and shrugged.

“Your’s drive themselves?” I asked, and she nodded. “So there aren’t any accidents?”

Emerald nodded again, frowned at me, tapped her chest where her heart was then pushed her shovel into the dirt again.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Thanks. They were good people. We are working on cars that can drive themselves, but probably still a few years away.” I laughed a bit, shook my head, and then moved to push my shovel back into the dirt, but she touched her lips and raised another eyebrow.

“Well, I was just thinking about how crazy it all is. We are here, but our worlds are still continuing on. I had a few friends, but no one really close. I kind of distanced myself from people after my parents died. I don’t think that anyone but my co-workers will even know I am gone. They probably will just think I quit and not even bother looking for me. No one knows I am here. No one is looking for me. Self-driving cars are just one thing that I’ll miss, but there will be thousands of others. I feel like I should be sad, but I’m not.”

Emerald tilted her head again and motioned for me to continue.

“I like being here,” I said. “I like my friends and the work. I kind of wish dinosaurs weren’t trying to eat us all the time, and there weren’t other hostile tribes, but once our fortress gets developed enough, I don’t think we’ll have to worry that much about dinosaurs. We’ll just have to worry about the other tribes coming after us.”

Emerald, raised her stick-shovel, and then made a motion as if she was swinging it at someone.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I guess I don’t really have to wait for a tribe to come after us, I could just attack first.”

Emerald nodded, and her smile looked dangerous when combined with her white reptile looking eyes.

“You are pretty feisty, aren’t you?” I laughed, and the beautiful scaled woman nodded. Her smile grew larger again, and it actually looked a bit creepy. Her teeth were human looking, but her eyes just seemed to stare into my soul without blinking.

“What did you do for work on your homeworld?” I asked. “Or did you have work?”

Emerald nodded, bit her lip, and seemed to consider how to explain what she did. While she thought about it, I went back to digging and realized that we were about halfway done with the hole.

“Did you figure out how to tell me?” I smiled at her after she had gone back to digging and a few minutes had passed.

Emerald shook her head, but then her eyes got large and she gestured for me to come near her.

I nodded, stepped next to her, and then she turned her neck up so that I could see the slender profile of it. Before I could ask her what she wanted me to look at, she moved her finger across her skin-like scales and tapped behind her ear. I looked over and saw another gem there, but this one wasn’t purple or green like the ones on her face. This one was black and polished like the obsidian.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

Emerald raised a finger to tap on my lips, and then she gestured to the camp.

“Hmm,” I said as I thought about what she was telling me. I was normally pretty good at figuring out what she was trying to say, but the gem on her neck had me a bit stumped.

Emerald seemed to understand that I was lost, so she rubbed her fingers over my temple, gestured to the dinosaurs, and then gestured at the gem on her neck.

“You control people?” I asked, but I suspected that I wasn’t quite understanding her correctly.

Emerald bit her lower lip, shook her head, tapped me on the chest again, and then motioned to the camp.

“Okay, I think I got it,” I said. “You are some sort of manager or government employee, and you tell everyone what to do all day.”

Emerald nodded enthusiastically and then raised up two fingers.

“So government?” I asked, and she clapped her hands together.

“Ahh great,” I said. “Does the black gem on your neck mean that you were born into it?”

She nodded and then gestured to the other gems on her face.

“I’m guessing that a lot of your politics have to do with the way those gems are set?”

She nodded again.

“Well, that’s cool. Since you are used to leading people, am I doing a good job? Do you think there is anything I could do better?” I felt a bit self-conscious now that I knew that Emerald was used to managing people. I’d just been getting by with my basic organizational real time strategy video game skills, and I worried that I was doing all sorts of stuff wrong. Yeah, it was working, but it wasn’t like I was Vince Lombardi, and I knew I had a lot to learn.

Emerald pushed her full lips together with a pensive look, but then she touched the black gems on her neck and pointed to the group of parasaurs. Then she stepped closer to me, touched my mouth, and then touched her chest above her firm breasts.

“Huh, sorry, I don’t get it.”

The green-haired woman tapped on her gem, pointed to me, and then motioned for me to start digging. I smiled at her and then pushed my shovel into the ground, but then she raised her hand to make me stop.

Then she touched my lips and tapped her chest again.

All of a sudden, I realized what she was saying, and I felt goosebumps descend my spine.

“Your gems let you control them?” I whispered, and Emerald nodded.

“Like… uhhh… all of them?” I asked.

Emerald shrugged and then shook her head.

“So are you like a queen then?” I asked. “Or a duchess like Trel? How does it work?”

Emerald made a cup with her hands like she was holding water and then moved her hands outward. Then she closed her fists and gave me a sly smile.

“You were trying to conquer your world?” I asked.

Emerald’s shoulders slumped, she nodded and then shrugged.

“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Sooo, uhhh, how many of your kind, did you, uhhh--”

Emerald raised four fingers and then tilted her head back and forth.

“Around four million?” I guessed.

Emerald shook her head and pointed up to the sky with a long finger.

“Four billion?” I gasped.

She nodded and then shrugged.

“Damn,” I hissed. “Uhhh. Soooooo. Yeah. I must seem like an idiot trying to tell you what to do--”

Emerald shook her head urgently, tapped her chest above her left breast, and then moved her fingers up to touch my lips. She kept them there, and I was conscious of the cool temperature of her scales.

“You… uhhh, like me?” The words sounded stupid coming out of my mouth, but Emerald nodded and the smile faded from her lips.

“So you--” I started to say, but Emerald’s other hand suddenly shot up around my neck.

I hadn’t expected the movement, and it was almost too quick to see. I couldn’t twist away in time, and I felt my stomach drop.

Then I felt Emerald’s lips pressed against mine, and her hand began to massage the back of my neck.

My body relaxed instantly, and I felt my lips return her kiss of their own accord. Her tongue pushed into my mouth as soon as she felt me return her kiss, and it explored the roof of my mouth as if searching for hidden treasure. She tasted like grapes or sweet wine, and my head started to swim as my tongue pushed against hers.

She pushed her lithe body against mine, and my hands roamed down her slender back before they came to her tight butt. I squeezed both of her ass cheeks, but she didn’t let out a gasp of pleasure, she just kissed me with more intensity.

Her teeth playfully bit my lower lip once, and I gasped, but then she bit down harder on me, and I hissed when pain shot through my mouth.

“Ouch,” I whispered when she pulled away from me. I half-expected her to apologize, but she just licked her lips and ran her nails through my hair. Her white predator eyes stared into mine intently, and I couldn’t help but feel equal parts attraction and fear.

It had just taken one passionate kiss for me to realize that Emerald was the kind of woman that mothers warned their sons about.

“I… uhhh… kind of don’t know what to say other than that you are a really good kisser.”

Emerald nodded and tapped on my lips again. It was still sore where she bit me, and I saw a bit of blood on her finger. Then she licked my blood off that finger with a long movement of her tongue that left little to my imagination.

My dick was hard enough to pound some nails, but a tiny part of my brain was screaming “danger, dude!” and I had gotten pretty good at surviving Dinosaurland by listening to that little voice. Emerald was all sorts of alien-babe beautiful, but it seemed that she wanted to either fuck my brains out or eat me, and I didn’t want to get distracted by trying to get her alone in my hut so I could figure out which one.

“Uhhh, let’s finish digging,” I said after I gulped and swallowed a throatful of air.

Emerald nodded, leaned back into me, and gave me a soft kiss that I returned. Then she licked my lower lip where she had bitten me and stepped away from me.

Then she went back to digging with her shovel as if nothing had ever happened.

I looked around the camp quickly to see if anyone else had noticed our make-out session, but Sheela was busy sorting wood pieces into piles for weapons, Trel was bent over a hunk of clay by the kilns, and Galmine, Kacerie, and Liahpa were sitting by the cook fires with their heads together looking at the obsidian.

I realized that I hadn’t breathed for probably half a minute, so I let my breath out slowly and then focused on digging for a bit. After the tenth fling of dirt, I opened my Eye-Q and looked to the Women tab. Galmine, Trel, Sheela, and Kacerie were all there, but Emerald wasn’t. I didn’t know quite what to make of the information, but I figured that I still needed to be cautious around the green-haired woman.

Especially since she had just told me that she controlled four billion of her own people and was trying to conquer her own planet. Maybe she really did like me, but I found it easier to believe that she knew I was powerful, and was just following my directions until she could figure out how to manipulate me better.

Or maybe I was just being paranoid.

I wanted to ask her a bit more details about her race, and the war she was fighting, but I also wanted to avoid talking to her until I could gather my wits better. I was still all flustered from when she had kissed me, and all the digging wasn’t causing my erection to go away. Finally, we finished clearing a three foot deep hole, and I gestured for her to help me arrange the branches inside.

We made a raised bed of the branches, pine leaves, and some dried maple-looking leaves that we often used for kindling. As soon as it was finished, we moved over to Will-Lack, and I squatted beside him. His body was still filled with arrows, and I debated what I should do with them before I just decided to yank them out. The bolts were just sharpened into wood points, and I guessed the Burners either hadn’t figured out how to make arrowheads yet, or they had been like us and didn’t have the time.

“Alright,” I said as I gestured for Emerald to take his feet, “let’s put him in.”

The green-haired woman nodded, squatted down, and grabbed both of the gray bird-man’s legs. Then I nodded, and we both stood. I had expected him to be a bit heavier than he was, but he was capable of flying, so I guessed that his bones might have been hollow.

“That’s good,” I said as Emerald and I laid him into the lowered hole on top of the wood. “It’s still daylight now, and I don’t want anyone to see our smoke, so I’m going to wait until the sun sets before I light it.”

Emerald nodded, and I commanded Tom to trot over to me. We both grabbed onto his horns, and he carried us over to where Galmine, Kacerie, and Liahpa were working by the fires.

“How’s it going?” I asked as soon as we arrived.

“Good!” Kacerie said as she gestured to the four roasting corpses of the Balaur Bondoc. All of their hands were covered with blood, and I saw another pile of cut up meat on the side of the flat-top boulder where they were working.

“The obsidian cuts very well,” Galmine said as she held up the small blade in her hand. It looked like black glass and I saw Liahpa slicing through sinew and feathers as if they were made out of Play-doh.

“Galmine taught me how to knap,” the athletic-woman said when she saw me look at her hands. “It’s not as hard as I thought. We’ll have all this meat salted and smoking in the next half hour.”

“Great,” I said. I turned to Kacerie, but before I could ask her about the needle, she held up three long ones.

“Damn,” I said as I leaned in close to look at them. “Those look perfect.”

“Yep,” she said. “Not as slender as the ones I had on my world, but I can fit the sinew through and it should be fine for Nicole’s gash. I was about to sterilize it, but I knew you said you were going to go herb hunting with Galmine.”

“Yeah,” I said as I smiled to the rock-skinned woman. “You ready to go? We’ve got a few hours before the sun sets, so I thought we’d go check out the bamboo and then do another tour around the river.”

“Ohhh, that sounds very fun,” Galmine cooed. “I’m looking forward to some alone time with you, Victor.”

“We aren’t going to have that much time,” I chuckled, “but let’s get going.” I commanded Tom to crouch down, helped Galmine mount on his back, and then grabbed a spear that was leaning against the wall.

“Damn, who loaded Tom up with empty baskets and pots?” I asked as soon as I climbed on his back.

“That was me,” Kacerie said as she looked up from the work table. “I thought you’d need them and I didn’t want to waste your time loading them up when I could do it.”

“Uhhh, thanks,” I said.

“You are welcome.” She smiled at me, winked a light blue colored eye, and then leaned in closer to Liahpa so that she could help the other woman slice up the meat.

I turned Tom around and trotted him over to the gate where Sheela sat Indian-style on the grass. She had finished sorting the branches and was carving a slot into a spear haft with a piece of flint.

“We are going to go look for some herbs and check out the bamboo,” I said to her as I stopped Tom in front of the door.

“Should I come with you?” Sheela asked as she uncrossed her legs and sprang to her feet like a gymnast.

“Nope,” I said. “I need you to work on the weapons. I’m going to take the troodons and the balaur bondocs and hope that we can get some hunting in. We’ll be back in a few hours. Can you help us with the gate?”

“Of course,” Sheela said, and then she moved over to the door, pulled one of the massive laced up gates, and gestured for us to exit.

“See you soon!” Galmine waved to Sheela as we rode out with a train of eleven raptors.

We made a left once we crossed the bridge and then trotted across the wide clearing in the direction of the fallen log. It felt like I had made this short journey to get water hundreds of times, and maybe I had, but I forced myself to pay attention to every shadow behind every tree.

“I thought it would be cooler under the trees,” I said as I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. “It got really hot.”

“I don’t mind the heat,” Galmine purred in my ear. Her arms were wrapped around my waist, and her fingers slid down my stomach until she was rubbing them across the bulge in my pants.

“Uhhh,” I sighed. “Not to complain, but I kinda need to pay attention while I’m steering Tom.”

“Oh, darn,” she giggled. “How about when we get to the bamboo? I’d like to see something else that is hard, long, and thick.”

“Hmmmm,” I sighed as her hands continued to rub me. “We have to find herbs to treat Nicole’s cut. Then I should bring back some bamboo, maybe some clay if I can reach any. We only have a few hours before the sun sets.”

“You always work so much, Victor,” Galmine said, and I felt her lean her head into my back.

“I’ve got to,” I said. “A man has to take care of his women.”

“You are the best of men,” she said. “I knew you had a kind heart and a good soul when I first laid eyes on you.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said as she brought her hands away from my crotch so that she could hug me tighter. “Around the fire. You were scared, but the first topics you spoke of was how to help us. Trel was really mean to you, but you didn’t fight her or argue. You reminded me of my people. We try to cooperate. We need to, or else we’ll all die.”

“You haven’t told me that much of your world,” I said as we reached the fallen redwood. Tom was way too big to fit inside, so I trotted him on the right side of the giant hollowed out tree, and instructed the troodons to scout up ahead.

“I mentioned that it is cold,” Galmine said as she snuggled into my back. “We only had a few hours of sunlight every day.”

“Was that because you lived near the poles on your planet?” I asked.

“No,” she answered. “We had lots of dark angry clouds and lightning. Not much rain though. We would plant where we could in the hard earth, and take water from the streambeds when rain did fall. My people understood the rocks and the soil. We couldn’t live in nice huts like the ones we have built in our fort, we had to live in caves so that the lightning and storms wouldn’t hurt us.”

“Damn,” I said as we reached the wide part of the river where I normally got water. I hadn’t given the troodons orders to play in the water, but I could tell that they wanted to, so I let them go frolic in it while I crossed with the balaur bondocs as escorts. The water was only about hip deep, and the current wasn’t that fast, so my mid-sized raptors didn’t have a problem crossing.

“It was a tough life, but a good one,” Galmine continued as Tom pushed through the water. “We told stories of our ancestors, raised each other’s young, and then made love to each other when we were not working the earth and plants.”

“Ahhh,” I said as I tried to push away my feelings of jealousy. Galmine previously hinted that she had lovers back on her own world. Or at least, she had indicated that her people just kind of had one big orgy every night.

“I like it more here,” she said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, silly. Why do you sound so surprised?”

“I dunno,” I replied as I turned over my shoulder a bit to catch a glimpse of her beautiful smile. “I just assumed that you wanted to be back with your own people.”

“I miss them,” she admitted. “I miss our songs, and our talks. I miss the children and the games. But look up in the sky. Do you see the beautiful blue color? Do you see the sun? Do you see the water flowing around us? Can you smell the earth on the air? This world is beautiful, warm, and nurturing.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it nurturing,” I laughed. “Pretty much everything alive on this world wants to kill and eat us.”

“I don’t believe the planet does,” Galmine replied. “The dirt is ripe for growing delicious food, and we have passed many edible plants. There might be predators on this world, but the planet gives us an unlimited bounty. My world tried to kill us every hour, and we huddled in fear of the next lighting storm or wave of freezing temperatures that might kill our crops.”

“That does sound shitty,” I said. “I can see why you like this place so much.”

“I also love you,” Galmine said as she hugged me tightly again. “I never felt close to any of the males of my people. I had sex with plenty of them, of course, but none of their penises were as thick or long as yours, and none of them rode me as energetically as you do. It feels amazing when we make love, and I always look forward to the next time you will choose to penetrate me.”

“Uhhh, okay,” I said as I tried to adjust my hips so that my erection could calm down. “I’m… uhhh, glad to be of service.”

“Your sperm also tastes very good in my mouth, and you hold me after you climax inside of me. The men of my species just look for a hole to fill. We all love each other, but I feel as if you care for me as an individual woman.”

“I do,” I said as I leaned back against her. Tom pulled out of the river and I gave the command for the troodons to come join us on this side of the river.

“You are also brave, intelligent, and hard working,” Galmine continued as she rubbed her face against my back. “I just feel safe with you. I am not one to worry much,  but I do not worry at all when you’re nearby. Even out here in the open wilderness, I know that nothing bad will happen to me, since you are here to protect me, Victor. As I said before, you are both hard and soft. Hard with discipline, strength, and perseverance. Soft because you care for me, Trel, Sheela, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald, as well as your dinosaurs. Kacerie told me about the other tribe, I know that you would save them, and I know that you would be kind to them afterward. They were lucky to have met you. We all are.”

“You sure know how to stroke a guy’s ego,” I laughed as I steered Tom along the shore of the river toward the bamboo. I hadn’t explored this side of the valley at all, so I commanded the troodons to scout up ahead and to our sides while the balaurs stayed close.

“I would like to stroke other parts of you,” she whispered in my ear, and I felt goosebumps rappel down my back and tickle my tailbone.

“You are also really distracting,” I said, and then we both laughed.

“I can’t help it!” Galmine giggled. “I think Dinosaurland is wonderful, and it is even better when I am embracing you.”

“Awww,” I sighed as I wrapped my fingers around her and leaned back into her again. “I love you too, Galmine. You were the first person in the group to accept me, and I didn’t quit because you kept encouraging me.”

“Oh, look!” she gasped as she pointed down to our left. “I believe that plant is garlic.”

“Huh,” I said as I commanded Tom to stop and then lay flat so that I could help Galmine get off his saddle.

We both walked over to the plant that Galmine had pointed to, and she squatted beside the green leaves. I actually had no idea what garlic looked like outside of the dry white bulbs I saw in the supermarket, so I was a bit surprised when she sniffed the leaves and then let out a squeal of laughter.

“Yes! It is garlic! Oh, look! More over there! And over there! Victor, this is amazing!”

I saw where Galmine pointed, and then moved to help her dig out the plants, as soon as I knelt down, I could smell the faint scent of garlic on the leaves. It reminded me of spaghetti and pizza, and my stomach started to growl.

“Garlic is a great seasoning,” I said as we lifted the first plant and put it into a pot.

“It is also a powerful antibiotic and fungicide,” Galmine explained. “We can crush it and rub it on Nicole’s wound.”

“Really? Damn, I didn’t know that.”

“You can also chew it and eat it raw if you are feeling sick. It helps fight all the bad bacteria in your stomach and blood. It is a wonderful herb.” Galmine dug around another one of the plants with her fingers, and I helped her put it in a pot.

“I’m learning a lot from you,” I said, and she gave me a beautiful smile.

“Ahhh, thank you, Victor. I’m happy to teach. We have really gotten lucky. I can replant these bulbs in our garden, and we will have as much as we need every day.”

“That’s great,” I said with relief. Having something to help against infection took a bit of the stress off my shoulders, and I felt my mood lighten a lot when we finished putting all the plants up on the trunk part of Tom’s saddle.

Then I helped Galmine climb onto his back, and we set off again toward the bamboo.

“The new dinosaurs are very handsome,” Galmine said as she looked over the white, cream, and brown colored balaur bondocs. “They remind me of you with their big muscles.”

“Ahh, I don’t really have big muscles,” I said.

“Oh, yes you do,” she said as her hands rubbed up my chest and rounded to my biceps. “They are very hard.”

“I guess I have been building the fort a lot,” I said, “but I still don’t really think that--”

“Here,” she interrupted me as her fingers went to my chest and began to unbutton my shirt.

“Uhhh, I don’t--”

“Shhhh,” she sighed. “I just want to feel your bare skin against mine. I know you do too.”

I grunted and then held my right arm out so that she could pull my sleeve off. Then I did the same with my left arm, and she ran her hands down my back.

“Yes,” she moaned. “You are very muscular.”

“Huh,” I said as I looked down. Galmine was actually right. My biceps were way bigger than I remembered, and I could see the big vein popping out of the top. My chest was also chiseled, and my abs actually looked like a washboard. I wasn’t going to be winning any Mr. Universe contests, but all the physical activity and pure meat diet had turned me into a hunk.

“Yes,” she said. “You should keep your shirt off all the time. I like looking at your body. Ohhh wait! Here.” I saw her rifle through my khaki shirt and then pull my shiny gold badge off. “I also like this. You should put it on your belt.”

“Okay,” I said as I took it from her, and I realized that the beautiful gray-skinned woman had buttered me up pretty well. I’d pretty much do anything she asked me at this point.

“That’s a good spot,” she said after I buckled the badge to my belt.

“That reminds me,” I said. “Have you seen my hat anywhere? I can’t remember the last time I had it.”

“You wore it the day we finished the fort, and you saved Kacerie,” Galmine said. “It fell off your head when you jumped on Hope.”

“Oh yeah,” I said.

“Then I put it in the hut,” Galmine said as she pressed her lips together. “Funny though, I can’t remember where it went. It definitely isn’t in the hut anymore. Maybe we moved it to your hut?”

“I don’t remember seeing it in there either,” I said.

“I’m sure it will come up,” Galmine said with a cheerful smile. “I know it was important to you.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Oh, stop Tom again!” she gasped as she pointed at the bank of the river. “I think I see horseradish!”

“Horseradish?” I asked as I commanded Tom to crouch so that we could get off.

The shore of the river was beginning its climb into the ravine formation, and the vegetation that Galmine was pointing to looked almost like a group of tall mustard plants with white flowers.

“Oh, Victor!” Galmine gasped as soon as we reached the plants. “We are so lucky!” The beautiful woman clasped her hands together and looked up at the sky. “Thank you Dinosaurland!”

“I’ll take it that those plants are horseradish?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “It is like the planet knew what we were looking for and provided it for us. This is also like garlic, and can be used as an antiseptic. It also adds great flavor to food. There is plenty here, will you help me dig it out?”

“Sure thing,” I said, and I instructed the raptors and troodons to go roam around the jungle in a defensive formation behind us.

It took us about a half hour to get all the mustard-like plants dug up and set on the trunk of the saddle, then we were off again and moving toward the bamboo.

“We don’t have a lot of time left,” I said as we approached the area where I thought the bamboo grew.

“Hmmm,” Galmine muttered as she pressed her lips against my bare back and traced her fingertips across my muscles. “We have plenty of time for fun.”

I let out a short laugh and then pointed into the jungle. “The bamboo is up here. Let’s take a look.”

“And then?” she whispered. “We’ve gotten all the plants we need to treat Nicole’s wound. We should reward ourselves.”

“Let’s take a look at the bamboo first,” I laughed again and then I pushed Tom through the dense part of the jungle trees toward where I saw the tall stalks of bamboo growing.

A small stream ran through this part of the jungle parallel to the river. I guessed that it must meet up with the larger body of water somewhere to the north of us, but the density of the jungle actually muffled the river enough so that we only heard the trickle of the stream.

The bamboo here was plentiful. In fact, it looked almost as if the jungle had given way to a forest of the tall tubular stalks. We had entered from the south, and it looked like something out of a Japanese ninja movie to the west and north west for as far as I could see.

“Awesome,” I said as I commanded Tom to lay down so we could get off. “There are tons of it here.”

“They are very healthy,” Galmine said as she slowly ran her fingers down the length of one. She turned her eyes to me as she moved her fingers over the plant, and she bit her lower lip suggestively.

“It’s hard to see the sun,” I said as I looked up to the canopy. Some light was trickling through, but I wasn’t going to be able to tell how much time had passed easily. “I don’t want to return empty handed, so let’s cut down some longer pieces, bind them up, and then head back home. Can you help with some cordage?”

“I would love to,” Galmine said as she began to peel some bamboo leaves from the stalks near her.

I ordered the raptors and trodoons to form a perimeter around us again, and then I grabbed one of the stone axes from Tom’s saddle and found a stalk of bamboo that I figured was six inches thick and about ten feet high. It took me eight swings to topple it, and then I rolled it over to a somewhat clear spot next to the stream.

“It is distracting,” Galmine said, and I looked over to see her sparkling green eyes watching me.

“What is?” I asked, even though I could already guess the answer.

“Watching you work,” she said with a light laugh. She sat poised on a rock like some sort of swimsuit model, and I had to tear my eyes away from the curve of her mostly naked body.

“Just a few more,” I said as I went to work on the next stalk of bamboo. This one was about the same size as the last one I toppled, but I improved my technique a bit, and it only took six swings.

I pushed the second stalk of bamboo next to the first, but before I could go onto the third, I heard a hoot behind me. My stomach dropped, and I jumped over to Galmine so that I could protect her, but then I sighed with relief when I saw Scoob and Shaggy run toward us with large rats in their mouth. Scooby sat his prey at my feet, and Shaggy placed his in front of Galmine. Then they both let out happy hoots and pressed their heads into our chests so we could scratch them.

“Awwwwww!” Galmine squealed with delight as she petted Shaggy with the hand that wasn’t holding her cordage. “They are so sweet. I’m sorry Shaggy, but I don’t eat meat. Thank you so much though.”

Shaggy let out two quick hoots and then turned to look at me. I nodded at him, and then he quickly gobbled up the rat. Then he pressed his nose into Galmine’s hair affectionately.

“See? This world is beautiful and kind in its own way,” Galmine said as she wrapped her arm around my leg and leaned her head into my hip. “I am grateful to be here with you, Victor.”

“I’m happy I’m with you also, Galmine.” I smiled down at the beautiful woman, but then Scooby let out a questioning hoot.

“You can eat this one too, buddy,” I said to him, and the leader of my troodons echoed Shaggy’s grateful hoot before he devoured his own rat.

“I think they are really hungry,” Galmine said as her hand moved up my leg toward my crotch

“Yeah,” I laughed, and I moved back to the bamboo that I wanted to cut. “They might have to go hungry tonight, which sucks, but I don’t really want to feed them the corpses of the other balaur bondocs.”

“Why not?” Galmine asked.

“Chandler, Ross, Joey, Rachel, Monica, and Pheobe shouldn’t cannibalize their own species. It can spread disease and make them unhealthy,” I explained.

“Oh,” Galmine said. “That makes sense.”

“Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma would probably be okay to eat them, but I think the reason the balaurs attacked our camp was because they were hungry and smelled the ashes of our campfire on the wind.”

“Hmmm,” the cheerful woman frowned a bit, and her change of expression actually broke my heart some. I realized that I would do anything to make her happy, but Galmine was the kind of person that would never ask for anything besides love.

I cut down another pole of bamboo, checked to see Galmine’s progress on the cordage, and then cut down a forth. I guessed I now had about fifty feet of building material across the four pieces, and I quickly went to work cutting the branches off them so that I could bind them together.

By the time I was done, it was getting pretty hard to see through the trees, so I grabbed Galmine’s cordage, bound up both ends of the stack, and then dragged the bundle over to Tom’s saddle.

“So strong,” Galmine sighed, and I chuckled again as I lifted the stack up onto the back part of Tom’s platform and tied it down. The length of the poles ran along his spine, and I figured that Galmine could hold it between us as we rode back.

“I’m all set,” I said as I helped her stand from her rock. “Let’s get back to camp.”

“Wonderful,” she said with her usual cheerleader smile. “I cannot wait to plant these lovely herbs and then make a salve for Nicole’s wound.”

“Me either,” I said as I helped her climb up Tom’s saddle.

“Can we spend the night together?” Galmine asked. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m eager to make love to you again.”

“Uhh,” I hesitated. “I think Sheela wanted to be with me tonight.”

“Oh,” Galmine said, “That will be lovely. I’m so happy the two of you are lovers. I’ve noticed her mood has improved dramatically since you began inseminating her.”

“Uhhh, you have?” I asked.

“Yes,” Galmine sighed happily. “She was always so dour and pensive. I see her smile now, and when you aren’t looking at her, she stares at you longingly. You have given her something to hold on to, and because she loves you, she can love herself.”

“Because she loves me she can love herself?” I asked.

“Sure,” Galmine said with her usual sweet smile. “She is allowing herself to love someone. Sometimes, that is what it takes to free a soul from its prison.”

“I’m happy we are all together,” I said.

“Me too,” Galmine said. “I think Dinosaurland wanted us to find each other. You make us all whole, and we give you something to fight for.”

I nodded at Galmine’s words and then focused on steering Tom out of the dense jungle while I balanced the bamboo on the seat between us. The sun was close to setting behind the western hills, and the river was bathed in a golden light that made it look like a stream of pennies.

We made our way southeast along the shore again back toward the spot where we could ford the river. The air was still oppressively hot, but I still didn’t have my shirt on, and Galmine’s naked body was cool against my skin. Her fingers continued to roam over the muscles of my shoulders, back, chest, and stomach, and I felt my mind begin to drift to a relaxed state.

Part of me still couldn’t believe where I was. Yeah, the whole ‘being abducted by aliens and put on a planet filled with dinosaurs’ was insane, but it almost seemed crazier that I was riding a triceratops with a group of raptors and troodons as an escort while one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life ran her hands across my muscular body and told me about how wonderful I was.

I heard a hoot up ahead, and the troodon call yanked my thoughts back to the mission at hand. The call had come from Fred, and it didn’t sound like a warning hoot, so I called him back to me.

“What did you see?” I asked him as the group of troodons ran to Tom’s side.

Fred looked up at me with obvious excitement on his face, and he hopped up and down as he let out three hoots.

“He must have found something wonderful,” Galmine said.

“Yeah,” I replied as I commanded the troodons and raptors to close in closer around Tom. Then I pushed the trike slowly down the shore of the river toward our usual spot where we got water.

We were still a good five or ten minute ride from where we had forded the water, but I saw why Fred had gotten so excited after we continued on our path for another minute: A group of large deer were drinking at the shore of the river.

I counted ten of them, eight didn’t have horns, so I guessed that they were female, but the other two had massive antlers which looked almost like tumbleweeds. I thought that the massive stag I had killed the other day by myself had been large, but I now realized that one had probably been of average size. The largest male of this group was about the size of a Clydesdale, and even the smallest female looked large enough for me to ride.

“Hmmm,” I whispered as I studied the group.

We were a good hundred yards from the deer, and our position was higher up on the ridge of the river shore. We also had some low growing jungle ferns in front of us, so the deer really couldn’t see us. The troodons and balaur bondocs could sense the prey though, and I sensed a wave of excitement pass from Fred to the rest of them.

“It looks like I might not have to worry about feeding these guys tonight,” I whispered.

“You want them to eat one of those deer creatures down below?” Galmine asked.

“Yeah,” I said as I glanced back at our saddle storage area. “We aren’t going to be able to bring any of the meat back, so I’ll just have them kill one of the deer and then eat it here.”

“But they are so much larger than Scooby’s gang and the other raptors you just tamed,” Galmine whispered with concern. “Won’t it be dangerous?”

“I’m going to control them,” I said as I started to think through the plan.

Galmine was partially correct. The troodons and balaur bondocs were golden retriever size, and I guessed that the two massive stags would probably be able to do some serious damage to my pets if they all tried to attack. However, I had eleven of the smaller bipedal predators, and I knew that I could leverage each of their strengths.

The troodons were fast, cunning, and sneaky. I doubted that the five of them would be able to take down one of the stags by themselves, but I guessed that the much more muscular balaurs would be able to. However, the cream colored raptors were probably too slow to chase down any of the deer.

I was going to have to herd them into an ambush.

Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma sank into the jungle like ninjas, and I mentally ordered them to circumnavigate the deer so that they could come at them from the opposite side. I knew the tiger-striped group was stealthy, but the sound of the river was also covering any noise they might make moving through the dense jungle.

The two stags seemed to be taking turns looking over the females, and I ordered the troodons to stop moving when one of the stags jerked his head around toward where they were hiding. I felt my breath catch in my throat, but then I exhaled slowly when the stag turned back around and drank from the river.

The main problem with the group were the stags. I didn’t know exactly what they would do when the troodons attacked, but there were really only two possibilities: The first was that the stags attacked the troodons to protect the females, the second was that they all turned to run.

If there was a large predator, like a carnotaurus or allosaurus, then I could see the stags running with the females, but I didn’t believe they would flee from just a group of smaller predators. I guessed that they would try to defend their females, so I had to plan around the stags’ aggressive movements.

I moved the troodons to the edge of the jungle and then made them pause when the other stag turned to look around at the jungle. Then he went back to drinking, and I put my plan into motion.

Chandler, Joey, Ross, Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe sprang from the jungle ferns at our location and charged down the slope of the river shore toward the pack of deer. They hissed as they ran, and I saw the stags’ heads jerk up to assess the situation.

As the balaur bondocs charged, Scooby and Shaggy swam through the water toward the backside of one of the males while Fred, Daphne, and Velma slunk toward the others. I doubted that the troodons could swim through the water completely silently, but the two stags were distracted by the muscular raptors hissing and charging down the hill at them.

The stags didn’t know the troodons were in play until it was too late.

The tiger-striped dinos were masters of the hamstring chomp, and they executed the maneuver perfectly on the two stags. The one that Scooby and Shaggy chomped screeched with surprise and tried to twist so he could slice my pals up with his antlers, but the troodons were already retreating away, and the stag collapsed as his rear legs couldn’t hold his weight.

The other stag tried to run as soon as Fred, Daphne, and Velma were on him, but that only helped the trio bite into his legs, and the Clydesdale sized stag did a jumping stomping type maneuver that reminded me of a bronco trying to throw a rodeo cowboy.

The stag’s bucking might have injured one of my troodons, but they had followed my orders perfectly, and retreated just like Shaggy and Scooby did. The second stag made a few more angry kicks in the air, but then he came down on the right rear leg wrong, and the limb buckled as the hamstring finished tearing. The creature went down with a cry, and I ordered all five of my troodons to circle back around to it.

The female deer turned to run away from the charging balaur bondocs, but then they saw that the two males had been toppled and they panicked. Four ran to the south, and crashed through the jungle like steam rollers, and the other six turned north and sprinted into the redwood forest. The delay in their decision almost allowed my pack of raptors to get one of the females, but I was focusing on the stags instead, and I ordered them to move over to the deer that the troodons were circling.

The first stag let out an angry bellow and then tried to use his front hooves to claw his way up to standing. I actually hadn’t wanted to kill both of the stags, but I worried that one of them might attack if I didn’t take them both out. I didn’t want to risk losing any of my troodons or balaurs during this hunt, so I figured that more meat would be fine.

The second stag knew he was fucked, and he twisted his neck around frantically as he tried to thrash either troodon or balaur bondoc. I didn’t want the creature to suffer too long, so I had my troodons move a bit closer. The second stag took the bait and twisted his neck toward them. Then I ordered the Friends to take the stags back, and both Rachel and Ross tore open the deer’s throat with their twin toe claws.

My group moved back to the first stag as the second one bled out, and I saw that the deer had somehow gotten his two front legs under his torso again and was making a solid effort to get up.

The troodons fixed that with their usual efficiency. Velma and Daphne jumped at his left leg, sliced their claws along its length, and then dove out of the way before the stag could impale them with his antlers. Then Scooby and Shaggy did the same with the stag’s right leg, and the massive animal fell back down on his belly. The balaurs were ready for him to fall, and they jumped on his back like a blanket of white feathers and tearing claws.

Then the hunt was over, and we had successfully taken down two massive stags.

“Damn,” I said as I exhalled thankfully and ordered the group of eleven dinosaurs to start eating.

“That was amazing,” Galmine said. “They work so well together.”

“Yeah,” I said as I watched the troodons and raptors tear into the stag corpses. “Sorry it’s a bit gruesome.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Galmine said as she smiled sweetly at me. “It is the circle of life. Our friends need to eat, and I understand that they get the most nutrition from meat. The sight of them enjoying their meal does not upset me.”

“Yeah,” I said as I turned back to watch Velma tear a big chunk of bloody meat from the stag’s neck and swallow it. “They must have all been hungry because-- Hey!” My shout interrupted Chandler hissing at Scooby as they ate next to each other, and they both turned to me and lowered their heads obediently.

“Be nice!” I barked, and then both of the dinos sank their heads lower so that they were resting their chins on the deer. They stared at me for a few moments. Then I nodded, and they went back to eating.

I moved Tom down the rise of the river bank until we were closer to the group. The sun was rapidly moving down the hills, and I figured we only had thirty minutes before it would turn into twilight. We were probably another fifteen minutes away from getting back to the fort, and while we could make the journey once the sun had moved past the hills, I didn’t like the idea of it.

“You were saying that they were hungry?” Galmine asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “but I think we need to get moving. I don’t want to be caught out here when it is dark.

“It won’t be dark for another hour or so,” Galmine said as she turned to look at the fading sun.

“It will be dark enough once--”

“Ahh, Victor,” Galmine sighed as she fluttered her eyelids at me. “We will be okay out here. You should let our friends enjoy their meal. It will make them strong.”

“Yeah but--”

“Can you have Tom lay so that we can get down,” she interrupted me.

“Sure,” I said as I commanded the triceratops to lay. Then I helped Galmine get down from the saddle.

“Ahhh! The air is cooling down.” She stretched her arms over her head. The movement caused her large breasts to lift up deliciously, and I saw the rock-looking parts of her skin move away from her nipples so that I could see them. “How long will it take for them to eat?”

“Maybe fifteen minutes,” I said. “Hard to tell but--”

“So we have plenty of time,” Galmine said as she reached her hands out to touch my belt.

“Galmine, we really have to get--”

“Shhhhh,” she whispered as her sparkling green eyes focused on my mouth. “We are safe out here surrounded by our friends and our love. Sheela can have you later tonight, but can I have you now? I am melting for your hard and soft touch.”

I opened my mouth to answer her, but she was already kneeling in front of me on the sand and opening my belt. I’d been hard pretty much this whole trip, so I easily sprang from my underwear when she pulled them down.

Galmine looked up into my eyes as she took me in her mouth. A satisfied moan escaped her lips as she licked me, and then I didn’t really care about getting back to the camp before the sunset anymore. All I cared about was pleasuring this beautiful woman who had taught me so much about gratitude.

And I spent the next half an hour doing that next to the river while the sun faded from the sky and the river sang its song.

Chapter 7

The purple sky of twilight had faded almost to black by the time Galmine and I made it back to our fort. Katie was guarding the door, and I commanded her to use one of her horns to help me lift the doors up and away from the entrance so that Tom could come through. By the time we had done that though, Sheela had already joined us with her spear clutched in her sharp fingers.

“I was worried,” she said as she glanced down at my bare chest. I had put my shirt back on, but only buttoned the lower two, so most of my upper body was easy to see.

“It took a little longer than expected,” I said as I gave her a hug.

“Much, much longer than expected,” Galmine sighed contently from her seat on top of Tom.

“We got a bunch of antiseptic herbs, some bamboo, and I fed the raptors and balaurs.” I gestured up to the back of Tom’s saddle, and Sheela smiled.

“This is good news, and I am glad you are okay.”

“I’m going to let you all unload everything,” I said. “I’ll send Tom over to the cooking fires while I start the fire that will burn Will-Lack’s body.”

“Would you like help with that?” Sheela asked.

“You all have a lot to do,” I said as I shrugged. “I’m just going to light the fire, say a few words to the wind, and make sure he burns all the way. If you all want to come say something, you can, but none of you knew him.”

“Fair enough,” Sheela said as she vaulted up Tom’s back and sat next to Galmine. “We will wait for you by the cooking fires. Dinner should be ready soon.”

“Great,” I said and then I commanded the balaurs to guard the gate with Katie while Tom and the troodons went to the covered area where I saw Kacerie, Trel, Liahpa, and Emerald working.

Then I walked over to the pit Emerald and I had dug for Will-Lack.

It was almost too dark to see, but I had started hundreds, or maybe even thousands of fires in the few months that I’d been on Dinosaurland, and didn’t need my vision to set up my hand drill and tinder. My palms and fingers were covered with calluses now, and it only took a few practiced spins of the hand drill before I had a small coal burning.

I tipped the coal into the soft tinder, picked it up in my hands, and slowly blew on it. The pinpoint of orange light quickly turned into flame, and I carefully set it down into the shallow pit next to Will-Lack’s large body. Then I added a few handfuls of kindling until the fire was healthy. I watched it spread to some larger pieces of wood for a few minutes, and then I stood at the foot of the shallow grave and cleared my throat.

“I, uhhh--” My voice cracked a bit, and then I jumped when I felt something soft press against my leg. I was Jinx, and he let out a sympathetic squeak when I looked down at him.

“Hey, buddy,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”

Jinx rubbed against my leg like a cat, and I reached down to scratch him under the chin where he liked.

“I didn’t know you that well, Will-Lack,” I said as I stood again, “but the people of your tribe appreciated the sacrifice you made. I would have done the same for my friends, so uhhh, yeah. You really have my respect, and I hope that the next part of your journey is peaceful. Maybe we will meet again someday, and we can develop a real friendship.”

I didn’t know what else to say, so I wiped some sleep from my eyes, gave the growing fire a last look, and then turned back to the cooking fires where my friends were gathered.

They all smiled at me when I took a seat next to them, but they stopped their conversation and shot glances back to the pit where Will-Lack burned. We all sat in silence for a few moments, but then I cleared my throat and nodded at the cooking meat.

“How’s dinner looking?” I asked.

“It’s ready,” Kacerie said as she moved to cut a chunk off the roasting raptor with her new obsidian knife. Liahpa had a plate ready, and the silver-skinned woman handed it to me.

I turned to give the plate to Sheela, but the warrior shook her head and held up her hands. “Please, Victor, you should eat first. We all decided.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I don’t need to eat first. I can wait for you all--”

“Just appease us and eat the food, Victor,” Trel groaned. “You try to be too nice sometimes.”

“Okay,” I said as I took a bite of the smoking meat. It was a bit tough and chewy since the balaur bondocs were so muscular, but the salt really helped with the flavor. The six women all stared at me as I chewed, and I felt my cheeks start to turn red.

“It’s really good,” I said after I finished chewing, and they all exhaled.

“What’s that all about?” I asked when they smiled and started cutting more meat off the roasting dinosaur.

“As Trel said, we just wish to take care of you, since you take care of us.” Sheela took a plate of food, smiled at me, and then bit into it delicately.

“We are all equals here,” I said. “I don’t need special treatment.”

“But we wish to treat you well,” Galmine said as she smiled at me. “That is being an equal. You would eat last if you could. You would take the smallest portion if we were out of food, and you would go a week without sleep to take care of us.”

The rest of the women nodded, and I was a bit surprised to see that Liahpa nodded along with them. The red-eyed woman caught me looking at her, and she smirked at me.

“I am still getting used to the idea of being so close to a man,” she said, “but I cannot argue with anyone here when they say that you are a good leader and a nice person.”

Emerald smiled at the other woman, turned to me, pointed at my mouth, and the gestured to the spot above her breast like she had earlier when we were digging the grave for Will-Lack. I finally understood that she was telling me that my words make her like me, and I stared into her strange eyes for a few moments.

“Thank you, everyone,” I said, and then I took another bite of meat and asked for a status update.

“I have made hafts for four spears and about twenty arrows,” Sheela said.

“We’ve got some knives from the obsidian,” Liahpa said as she gestured over her shoulder to our work bench boulder. “We’ve also made points for Sheela’s weapons.”

“The meat we aren’t cooking is cut into thin strips,” Kacerie said as she pointed to one of the far campfires. “I don’t know if this is the right way to do it, but I have a plate covering the hole so that the smoke moves to the side and kind of cooks the salted meat.”

“It is similar to how my people would smoke meat,” Sheela said, “we normally used a large vessel with grates so that the smoke could dwell inside the container for some time.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s how my people did it too. I’ve never smoked meat before, but I saw smokers for sale at the hardware store. We’ll keep trying different methods until we see what works best. We don’t seem to have that much trouble finding meat right now, so we can experiment.”

Kacerie nodded at me, but I saw Sheela frown and then stare into the fire. I knew that she was worried about the change in the weather, but I couldn’t do that much about it right now.

“I have finished the most important work,” Trel said after she cleared her throat. “The first funnel for our water filter is baking in the largest kiln. I’ve also made some plates and cups. It will take me a few days to get the amount you have promised the other tribe, but I will have it done ahead of schedule.”

“Damn, you are fast.” I smiled at the dark-haired woman, and she winked at me.

“I am a genius.”

“Yep, we know,” Kacerie sighed.

“I know you know,” Trel laughed, “but I keep saying it so that you all will feel better.”

“Feel better?” Liahpa asked as her mouth turned up into a grimace.

“Of course,” Trel said. “With Victor’s strategies and dinosaurs, and my genius buildings and design work, we will have the most wonderful and safest fort possible. Then you all will be able to live in comfort and luxury. I want you all to be safe so that is why I work so hard.”

“You are a tough one to figure out,” Liahpa sighed as she shook her head.

“Excuse me?” Trel scoffed.

“I just can’t tell if you are an arrogant bitch or really nice,” the red eyed woman said.

“Can’t I be both?” Trel laughed.

“Uhhh, yeah, I guess you can.” Liahpa let out a laugh that matched Trel’s and the two women smiled at each other across the fire.

“I am almost done making a poultice with the bounty we gathered,” Galmine said, and I turned to see her mashing something in a clay bowl with a stone. “It should be done in a few minutes, and then we can apply it to Nicole’s wound before you stitch it up.”

“Victor, can I do that?” Kacerie asked. “I have sure hands and I am used to sewing hair weaves.”

“Sure,” I answered, and the blue-eyed woman smiled at me.

We all ate and chatted a bit more about our jobs for tomorrow, and then Galmine declared that the poultice was ready.

“Wow,” Kacerie said when Galmine handed her the bowl. “This smells like it would peel paint off metal.”

“It’s a mixture of garlic bulbs, horseradish, ash from the fire, and some tree sap. It should stick to her leg without need of a bandage.”

“Got it,” Kacerie said as she looked over to Nicole. “Can one of you get me a light?”

Sheelai and I quickly lit sticks on fire, and then we all walked over to stand around Nicole’s wounded leg. The cut was about eight inches long, and still bleeding a bit, but the slice looked pretty uniform. I didn’t see any dirt or grass in the wound.

“It looks pretty clean,” Kacerie said as she looked at the wound. “Do you all think I should put this poultice on first and then stitch it closed?”

“I think you can probably stitch it up first,” I said as I tried to remember about operations that my parents had performed in their clinic. They had always washed cuts first before stitching them up and then applied a bandage with healing ointment. We didn’t have any more soap, though, and I didn’t know what would happen if the herbs stayed stuck in a cut that we then sewed up.

“Okay,” Kacerie said as she handed the bowl back to Galmine. Then the hairdresser reached into her pocket, grabbed the needle, and double checked that the sinew thread was attached.

Then we all leaned in close as she pushed the bone needle through the flap of loose skin.

I half expected Nicole to jump or grunt, but the trike just shifted her head around to look at us out of the corner of her eye. Kacerie didn’t seem to notice, but she did smirk as her fingers pushed the needle through the top flap of skin.

“You all are making me a bit nervous,” she chuckled. “Been a while since I’ve had this many people watching me do something.”

“Hard to tell you are nervous,” Liahpa said. “Your hands aren’t even shaking a little. Are your people naturally calm?”

“No,” Kacerie answered. “I just have sure hands.”

As she talked, she pushed the tip of the needle through the second piece of skin, looped the thread around the point twice, and then pulled the needle the rest of the way out.

“Why did you do that loop?” I asked.

“So if one section accidently gets ripped, the whole thing won’t fall apart. Watch.” Kacerie moved the needle down to the next flap, pushed the tip through, and then did another double loop around the point before pulling it out.

“Ahh, I get it,” I said as I continued to watch her.

It took her another few minutes to finish, and everyone but Kacerie let out a long exhale of relief as soon as she tied the last knot in the stitching.

“That should do it,” she said as she put the needle in her blouse pocket and reached for the bowl of the poultice which Galmine made. As soon as she got it on her fingers, Sheela inhaled sharply and took a small step back.

“Yeah,” I said as I smiled at the cat-woman, “that is pretty damn strong. I’m almost crying from here.”

“I’m sure this will kill any bacteria on the wound.” Kacerie sniffled, blinked, and then wiped the mixture on and around Nicole’s cut.

“I think it smells delicious,” Galmine said cheerfully.

“Uhh sure,” Kacerie said as she finished applying the stuff to Nicole’s leg. The pink-haired woman held out her fingers, grimaced, looked around at us, and then wiped what she could off on the grass. “I need to make more soap. A lot more soap.”

“It is done then?” Trel asked as she leaned in close to study the wound.

“Yep,” Kacerie said as she patted Nicole’s leg. “Let’s hope she heals fast.”

“I’m sure she will,” the spider-woman said. “After all, Galmine made the remedy, and you stitched her up. I’m going to go back to work on my filters. Does anyone need me for anything else before I dive back into my designs?”

We all shook our heads and Trel nodded at us before walking back over to her side of the work bench near the kiln.

“I’m going to go work on more soap,” Kacerie said as she pointed to the side of the cooking fires where she kept her soap bowls.

“I should--” I began to say, but Sheela rested her hand on my shoulder.

“-- rest,” she said, and the other women nodded.

“I’m fine,” I said, but then on cue, I felt a yawn coming that I had to cover with my hand.

“You did quite a lot today,” Liahpa said, and her red eyes stared into mine intently.

“Yeah, we all did,” I said with a shrug. “We saved a bunch of people’s lives. We should be proud of that.”

“But controlling your dinosaurs makes your tired.” Sheela’s fingers squeezed my shoulder, and I turned to face her. The expression on the stoic warrior’s beautiful face convinced me that I wouldn’t get away with arguing.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll head to bed. Sheela, come with me.”

“Yes, Victor,” she whispered as a small smile spread across her lips.

“I’ll see you all tomorrow morning,” I said to everyone else, and they all bid me a good night as I walked around the corner, through Hope’s door, and into the central fort area.

Hope was still sitting in her stable, and she let out a happy toot when she saw me.

“Hey, sweetie,” I said as I scratched her head and neck. “Are you feeling okay? You haven’t moved from this spot all day.”

Hope let out another happy toot, and I shrugged and turned to Sheela. “I should get her some water really quic--”

“I will do it after I have relaxed your body,” she interrupted me. “You just need to rest.”

“Relax my body?” I chuckled, and then I walked into my hut with the beautiful blonde woman.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Tell me what you want, Victor, and I will give it to you.” Her eyes glowed in the pale light coming from the small fire in my hut, and I let her question roll around in my mind for a few moments. I had just made love to Galmine less than an hour ago, but I was already hard again, the purr of Sheela’s eager voice was driving me wild.

“You should take off my clothes first,” I said. “And then I can think of one muscle that really needs to relax.”

“Yes, Victor,” Sheela said, and then her hands moved to unhook the bottom two buttons of my shirt.

Then she removed my shoes, my pants, and my underwear. Sheela’s touch was gentle and slow, and she surprised me when I lay down by beginning to massage my chest and arms instead of straddling me.

“That feels nice,” I muttered as my eyes drifted closed.

“Hmmm,” she purred, and her hands moved to rub my thighs.

“You are going to put me to sleep if you keep that up,” I sighed, but then I gasped when I felt her fingers wrap around my erection.

Then I gasped again when I felt something else wet and tight wrap around me. She had her feet flat on the ground, and her bikini bottom pushed to the side so that I could easily see my penis slide into her.

I moved my arms behind my head so that I’d be propped up, and I let my breathing relax in time with her lifting motions. After a few minutes, Sheela’s breathing became more urgent, and her body began to convulse as she tightened around me.

Much later, after we had enjoyed each other a few times, she lay on top of my chest and absently traced my chin with her fingers while we stared into my fire. My own fingers traced down the light fur of her back, she actually began to purr like a kitten.

“I am content,” she whispered.

“Me too,” I replied.

“But contentment is a precursor to laziness,” she said. “The night is still young. I should work on more arrows.”

“Orrrrr, you can stay here with me tonight,” I whispered as I ran my fingers through her light fur. “The work can wait.”

“That is a very un-Victor-like thing to say, Victor,” Sheela chuckled.

“A sexual innuendo earlier today, and now a joke?” I said with a mocking gasp. “What has gotten into Sheela, the proud and stoic warrior woman?”

Sheela chuckled and then shifted her body a bit more so that more of her was touching me. “Perhaps I can stay a bit longer, if you are fine with it.”

“Ahh,” I laughed. “I forgot to order you. Sheela, spend the night with me, and make love with me again in the morning, or maybe in the middle of the night if we both wake up.”

“Yes, Victor,” she purred, and I felt a shiver run down her body. “What about the guard shif--”

“They will figure it out,” I laughed. “They are intelligent women that know we need someone to be watching every night.”

“You are right,” she said, and her body seemed to sink into me as she relaxed more.

“Oh, that reminds me. Have you seen my hat?”

“Hmmm,” Sheela sighed. “I have not seen it for many days. Last I remember, you had it when we were first building our inner fort walls. This was right before the green feathered raptors attacked.”

“Huh,” I grunted. “Galmine said the same thing. I think I lost it during that fight.”

“No,” Sheela said. “It was in the hut the next day, I remember seeing it.”

“Well, fuck. I wonder where it went.”

“It will turn up,” she said. “I will look for it tomorrow.”

“One other topic I wanted to speak to you about,” I said.

“Yes?”

“What do you think of Emerald?” I asked. “Galmine loves everyone, so I don’t know if I trust her opinion. Trel thinks everyone is… well, you know what Trel thinks.”

Sheela didn’t speak for a few moments, and then she exhaled slowly and turned her head up so that her golden eyes could stare into mine.

“I do have some concerns,” she admitted.

“Okay, good,” I sighed. “I’m not the only one. Why do you have concerns?”

“She watches you,” Sheela said. “She studies your movements and actions with a strange intensity. I was more worried before she kissed you.”

“Oh,” I said. “You saw that?”

“Yes,” Sheela said. “It looked passionate. What were you both speaking about beforehand?”

“I had asked her what her occupation was. It took a bit of us going around in circles, but she is apparently some sort of queen or other type of ruler with some four billion people at her command.”

“Four billion?” Sheela asked, and her eyebrows raised with disbelief.

“That is what she told me.” I shrugged. “It also seemed like she controlled them with the gems on her face and behind her ears. I got the feeling that her subjects didn’t have much choice, and that she wasn’t the only one with powers. She was trying to conquer her world.”

“Like you control the dinosaurs?” Sheela asked, and her face betrayed her concern.

“She did point to the dinosaurs when she spoke of it, but I’m gonna guess that it only works on her own species.”

“Why would you guess that?” Sheela asked.

“If she could control us or the dinosaurs, wouldn’t she have done so already?”

“I suppose so,” Sheela answered. “She might be waiting for the right time. Ahhh, I might be thinking too cynically. I have not noticed any sinister or malevolent behavior from Emerald. I have only noticed her staring at you, and it is probably because she finds you desirable.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Some looks she has given me have been a bit creepy, but she has done nothing other than try to help us. She may have been this ruler of her people, but she is also humble enough to help me dig a grave for the body of a man she didn’t know. I’m probably being too paranoid.”

“It is good to be paranoid,” Sheela said as she smiled at me. “Your paranoia has kept us alive these many months. We might have died in the cave if you didn’t believe me about the orange birds.”

“It was a good idea to build a fort, even without the orange birds coming,” I said.

“Have you asked Kacerie about Emerald?” Sheela asked.

“Not yet. Do you think I should?”

“Yes,” Sheela answered. “She has proven herself to be loyal and trustworthy. She is also creative and hard working. I am glad that she worked out with us. When she first arrived, I feared that we would have another person with Trel’s difficult personality.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m glad it worked out too. I’ll talk to Kacerie tomorrow. I don’t think we have anything to fear from Emerald, but I want to make sure everyone is coordinated.”

“Good,” Sheela said, and then she turned her face away so that she could lay more comfortably on my chest. She must have been more tired than she let on because her body began to twitch with the first stages of a deep sleep not even three breaths later.

I slowly wrapped my arms around her narrow waist, took a long inhale of her long blonde hair, and then closed my eyes as well. I didn’t fall asleep immediately, but Sheela’s breathing lulled me to a kind of in between world, where I had dreams of riding winged dinosaurs up into castles that floated in the sky. In the dream, I wore badass looking knight armor and carried a lightning spear. I landed next to one castle, kicked open the door, and walked down a long hallway.

There were two massive thrones at the end of the hallway. They looked like they were made of gold and they were carved in the shape of two twisting dragons. Emerald sat on one of the seats, and her white eyes bore into mine as I approached her. When I reached the end of the hallway, we stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Then she gestured to the throne next to her, and I walked up the stairs to the dais so that I could take the seat by her side.

Chapter 8

I startled awake when I felt something slimy run across my face. I gasped, flung my naked body to the side, and then waved my arms in front of my face to ward off whatever it was. My hands closed around the small feathery body, and Jinx let out a squawk that sounded like he was just as startled as I was.

“You scared me,” I laughed as I relaxed my fingers around his body and began to scratch him.

He wiggled closer to my chest, and I glanced outside of the hut door while I petted him some more. It looked like early morning, and I shivered when I saw that my fire had burnt down to only embers. I set Jinx down, put my underwear and pants on, grabbed some wood from the corner of the hut, and then had the fire up and going in a few minutes. The warmth felt good against the skin of my torso, and I let my body warm for another few minutes before I put my socks, shoes, and shirt back on.

“Let’s go see what everyone else is up to,” I said to Jinx, and he let out a happy squawk as we walked out of my hut.

Dark clouds were rolling in from the west, and the air felt like it was some twenty degrees colder than it was yesterday. It was comfortable out, maybe on the side of cool, and I guessed that it was probably in the mid-sixties Fahrenheit.

It was going to be a great day to work on all our projects, and I felt excitement spin in my stomach. I also felt a bit of trepidation when I thought about Sheela’s warning. Did the sudden drop in temperature mean that we were in store for a change of seasons? I decided that I needed to focus on better huts, food storage, and thicker clothes, but I’d begin worrying about all that tomorrow.

I didn’t see anyone else in the inside of our first fort walls, but I did see Hope sitting in her usual spot in her stable. There was a bowl of water sitting next to her, and she took a small sip of it as I walked closer.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I scratched her chin. Hope didn’t seem sick, but she hadn’t moved from this spot in the last day or so. I thought she might have hurt her leg, so I squatted down to look at them carefully. Her hind legs looked uninjured, but then I noticed that there were a lot of twigs and packed dirt under her stomach.

“What is-- oh!” I laughed and then looked up into Hope’s big brown eyes. “You’ve laid an egg! Can I see it?”

Hope let out a proud little toot, and then she moved her rear leg so I could get a better look at the basketball sized object that she was sitting on. It was speckled with a mixture of green, gold, and brown spots that seemed to sparkle when the light hit them. The shell actually looked quite papery, but my eyes were drawn to the base of the egg, where it was wrapped in what looked like a tight leather case.

“Hey! That’s my hat!” I should have been mad, but Hope let out an apologetic sounding toot and lowered her head sheepishly. The gesture made me laugh, and I raised both arms up so that I could hug her big face and scratch her.

“It’s okay, girl,” I whispered as I rubbed her down. “You can keep it for now. I bet it helps you feel safe, huh?”

Hope tooted softly in my ear and I gave her another hug before I released her.

“Now, who is the lucky guy?” I asked, and Hope tooted a few times before looking out of her door.

“Bob! You rascal!” I shouted into the clearing, and the big parasaur lifted his head from where he was laying by the door. He must have realized I’d found out about the egg, and he let out a tuba sounding toot.

“What’s wrong?” Kacerie asked as she leaned around the other corner, and I saw that her blouse, arms, and hands were covered with soot.

“Come look,” I said as I winked at Bob and gestured back to Hope. Kacerie raised a pink eyebrow, followed me back to Hope’s nest, and then let out a gasp of delight when she saw the egg.

A few minutes later we had everyone gathered around Hope, and the female parasaur gave out some proud sounding toots while Bob looked in from the doggie-door gate.

“We should name her Trel,” Trel said after the women had all giggled with delight and took turns complimenting Hope and rubbing her neck.

“You want the dinosaur’s baby to be named after you?” Liahpa asked with an obvious sigh.

“Of course,” Trel scoffed. “It is a powerful and regal name. Fit for any female creature that wishes to control her destiny and rule over the lesser beings that need her constant care and supervision.”

“Victor should probably name the baby,” Kacerie said as she rolled her eyes at Trel. “He names all our dinosaurs.”

“Excellent idea,” Trel said as she smiled at me. “He will name the baby after me, of course.”

“Let’s just wait and see if it is a boy or a girl,” I chuckled.

“Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “Good decision. An idiot male would not be worthy of my name.”

“How long will it take to hatch?” Galmine asked. All the women had seemed excited about the prospect of a baby dino, but Galmine was lightly bouncing on her feet as she asked her question, and the movement was doing all sorts of distracting things to her breasts.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I think she’s only been nesting for a day or so. It could be another few weeks. I doubt it would go longer than a month since it would be too dangerous for Hope not to be able to move.”

“Is there anything we need to do to help her?” Galmine asked.

“We’ll bring her food, water, and make sure that we keep this area nice and clean. Who wants the job?”

“I will do it,” Trel said, and we all looked at her with surprise.

“You?” Kacerie said.

“Of course,” Trel scoffed. “I have given birth before. Have any of you?”

The women all shook their heads.

“See? I am the best suited to take care of another woman ready for birthing.”

“But you said earlier that you would need to sit around during your gestation--”

“Yes,” Trel interrupted Kacerie, “but that has nothing to do with Hope, you can all bring me water and food, and I will bring water and food to Hope. It is quite simple.”

“Uhhhh,” Kacerie sighed and then covered her face with the palm of her hand.

“Just someone ensure she has a stack of grass and leaves to eat, and that her water bowl is full,” I said. “Just look at it every time you walk by. We can all take care of her. Now, let’s talk about what everyone is working on today.”

“Over breakfast?” Galmine asked. “We were about to wake you up for it.”

“Oh, sure,” I said, and then we all walked out of the inner fort and rounded the corner so that we could sit next to the cooking fires.

“Sheela, will you be working on more arrows, bows, and spears today?” I asked the blonde cat-woman.

“Yes,” she said. “Victor, there is also something else we spoke of a few days ago. You once asked me to train everyone on combat skills.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I didn’t forget about it. I just want you to get a supply of weapons set up for each of our platforms first. What do you say we start training a bit tonight before dinner? We’ll need everyone but Galmine to participate.”

“Good,” Sheela said with a smile, and I saw the other women nod.

“Kacerie?” I asked as she handed me a plate of salted meat.

“The needles are done,” she said. “The other tasks you wanted me to do are: checking on the fish traps, making saddles for the other dinos, and working on the soap. I actually stayed up late last night making a new batch of soap. It will need to cure, but I can check on the traps and then start working on the saddles today.”

“Good,” I said after I took a bite of the food. “Why don’t you come with me when I take all the dinos to get water?”

“Sounds good,” she replied.

“Kacerie,” Liahpa cleared her throat, and the hair stylist turned to look at the Lift Ball player.

“Yes?”

“Would you mind too terribly if I went with Victor alone to check on the fish traps?”

“Uhhh,” Kacerie hesitated, and then her bright blue eyes narrowed a bit. “Why?”

“I’ve only gone with him once to the river, and it was an enjoyable break from--”

“But you keep saying that you don’t like men.” Kacerie crossed her arms and her full lips pressed together.

“Yes, but I think Victor is--”

“They were my traps, I built them and--”

“Hey,” I interrupted the argument before it started to get more heated. “Kacerie and I are going to go in the morning. Liahpa, I’ll go with you tonight. Cool?”

“It is cooler, yes,” Liahpa replied with a bit of confusion.

“Victor says ‘cool’ sometimes when he likes something, or when he wants affirmation,” Sheela said as she took a bite out of her food.

“Yeah, sorry,” I laughed. “It’s slang from my part of the world. Our translation technology doesn’t seem to communicate it correctly.”

“I will go tonight,” Liahpa said with a nod of her head that caused her long white hair to wave up through the air. “I can wait a few hours.”

“You seem pretty intent on going with Victor,” Kacerie said as a coy smile spread across her lips.

“What are you hinting at?” Liahpa raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, nothing, I guess,” Kacerie said. “But if you really want to go now, I can go with him tonight and check the traps.”

“It’s fine,” Liahpa spat. “I’ll wait. Whatever Victor wants.”

“Galmine?” I asked as I turned to the rock-skinned woman.

“I need to plant all of our delicious vegetables and herbs,” she said as she gestured over her shoulder to the area I had plowed for a garden. “Do you still want to help me?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll help you after I get back from the river with Kacerie.”

“What a fun day this will be,” Galmine said as she blessed me with a wonderful smile.

“Liahpa, what are you working on?” I asked.

“I was going to help Sheela with the weapons,” she said as she fixed her red eyes on me. “Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Helping her get all the weapons done should free us up for training tonight. Thanks for helping.”

Both Liahpa and Sheela smiled at me, and I turned to Trel.

“Are you still working on the filters?”

“Yes, Victor,” she said. “They should all be done today. I’ll also try to get more plates and cups made. I don’t know how I got saddled with that job, but I will make sure they are of high quality, even if those fools do not deserve them.”

“Thanks,” I said. I almost pointed out that I hadn’t really asked her to make the plates and cups for Quwaru’s tribe, but then I realized that Trel often complained about the things which she really wanted to do. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Trel probably wanted to make all the plates and cups because she really liked building things.

“Emerald,” I said as I turned to the green-haired woman. “Can you help Sheela and Liahpa with the weapons until I get back with Kacerie? Then I’d like you to help with the saddles.”

Emerald smiled at me and nodded, and I tried not to think about the weird dream I had with her last night.

“That’s the plan for the day,” I said. “If anyone needs any help with anything, let me know and I’ll figure out how to help.”

“Victor,” Trel said. “I must speak with you before you go to get water and fish with Kacerie.”

“Uhh, okay,” I said as I looked around to the other women. They suddenly looked concerned.

“We should speak in private,” she said, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

“Okay,” I ate the last of my meat, handed the plate to Kacerie, and then stood up from my rock chair.

Trel motioned for me to follow her, and I walked back around the corner, under Hope’s lifted doggie-door, and then into my hut.

“Is this about the babies?” I asked.

“What?” she asked with confusion.

“Your pregnancy?” I asked.

“What about it?” She tilted her head to the side and her long straight hair fell away from her delicious looking neck.

“Uhhh. Normally when a woman that is pregnant wants to talk to her lover alone, it means that something is wrong.”

“Oh!” Trel snorted. “No, I wanted to talk to you about this.” She stepped to the other side of my small hut, fished her fingers under a mat there, and then pulled out a circle of gold metal that glimmered in the fire light of the dark hut. It was the soul ring that I took from the blue barbarian asshole that I had killed at the river a few days ago.

“Ahh, yeah,” I exhaled. “Have you figured out how to make something with it?”

“I tried to heat it,” she said, “it is a very strong metal. The edge didn’t dull when I scratched it with a stone to test its composition. I’ve looked all over its edges and do not see any seams or anything. It appears to be just a simple weapon, and I think that the man you fought must have had some sort of power that let him control it.”

“That’s what I figured,” I said with a shrug. “Why did you want to talk to me about this in private?”

“It seemed like you didn’t want them to know about your fight a few days ago.” Trel shrugged.

“Yeah,” I said, “but now the cat is out of the bag with the whole concept of aggressive tribes. They all know that we could get attacked at any moment, we don’t need to keep this from them.”

“The cat was in the bag?” Trel asked with concern. “But it was let out?”

“Sorry,” I laughed. “Another expression from my world.

“You have too many of those,” Trel chuckled. “I cannot keep track of them all. Do you want me to show this to Sheela and Liahpa? Perhaps they can think of a weapon to make?”

“That’s a great idea,” I said. “Actually, this is a perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate some great leadership.”

“It is?” Trel asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“For sure,” I replied. “Show this to them, tell them how I got it, and then ask if they can make a weapon or tool from it. Maybe help them with a design, since you are really good at designing and building stuff, but let them come up with the idea.”

“But what if their idea is stupid?” Trel sighed. “I can’t let them be dumb.”

“You might just be surprised,” I said. “You like both of them, and they like you. Everyone wants to do a good job. Good leaders help others.”

“Hmmm,” Trel groaned. “I will try it, but just for you, Victor.”

“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to go with Kacerie. Have fun.”

“I will,” she replied, and I turned to leave my hut, but then I stopped and turned back around to face her.

“What about your pregnancy?” I asked.

“Hmmm,” she said as she tapped her lips with her finger. “I’ll know any hour now.”

“Okay,” I said, and then I pulled her to me and gave her a long kiss.

“I’m happy either way,” I said after our tongues explored each other’s mouths for a few moments.

“You don’t have anything to worry about Victor,” she laughed. “I am very fertile. We will soon have many beautiful babies running around that look just like you and me.”

“Okay,” I said as I tried to relax my shoulders. “Uhhh, I should get going.”

“Have fun,” Trel said, but as I turned to exit, she grabbed me, and we kissed passionately for another few minutes.

“There,” she panted when our lips finally parted. “That is a proper goodbye.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, and then she picked up the soul ring from the ground, winked at me, and walked out of the hut.

I watched her ass sway as she walked away and then went to work gathering all the empty water jugs from our camp. A few minutes later I was out in our courtyard and was helping Kacerie load the jugs onto Tom’s saddle.

“I’m going to leave Katie at the door and Nicole next to you all, so she doesn’t move! I’ll also leave the balaurs.” I called out to everyone. They were all looking at the golden ring in Trel’s hands, but they looked up to me and nodded.

Kacerie and I jumped on Tom, spun the trike around, and then made our way to the gate. With the help of Tom and Katie’s horns, we got them opened quickly and were soon in the redwood forest with a train of parasaurs behind us and a troodon escort in front.

“You didn’t say anything about fighting someone at the river,” Kacerie said.

“You caught Trel’s explanation?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said over the wind. “You really shouldn’t leave the fort alone anymore. Trel is right, you are too important.”

“We are all important,” I countered.

“You know what I mean,” she huffed. “If I, or Galmine, or even Trel died, it wouldn’t really impact the group, but if you died, we probably wouldn’t live more than a few days.”

“I don’t think that,” I said. “You are all capable women. Trel, Galmine, and Sheela survived just fine without me.”

“Hmmm, I doubt that,” Kacerie said.

“Also, I’m not really going alone anymore. The troodons are a great escort. They can scout around the river and see if there is any danger before I get there.”

“Alright,” the pink-haired woman huffed. “I suppose that’s much better.”

We rode in silence for a few more moments. There was a spot on the saddle to sit behind me or to my side. Galmine had sat behind so that she could wrap her arms around me, but Kacerie sat next to me, and she reached up to clutch her long pink hair when it accidently blew in my face.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I like your hair. The color is great, and it’s thick and healthy.”

“I should have nice hair,” she said with a laugh. “I am a stylist after all.”

“Do all your people have hair that color?” I asked.

“No,” she said as she tied it into a bun at the back of her head. “Why? Do all the people on your world have hair your color?”

“Hmm, kinda,” I said. “Most people have brown hair like mine, a lot of dark hair like Trel’s. Less people have hair Sheela’s color, or some have red hair, but it’s like an orange-ish red. Not like a blood red. Lots of people dye their hair bright colors. If I saw you on my world that’s what I would have thought you did to your hair.”

“Hmmm, dyeing hair? That seems so strange.”

“No one dyes their hair on your world?” I asked.

“Nope,” she said. “The hair color is a bit of a social status, and people would not want to be caught trying to fake it.”

“It is a social status?”

“The closer someone is to a pure red color, the higher their status is in our society,” she explained. “So people with blue or green hair are normally our less educated or useful members of society. People with purple or brown hair are a bit higher status. People with yellow or orange are of better status.”

“Didn’t you say a few days ago that computers ran your society?”

“That’s part of it,” she said. “The hair-color is genetic, but they perform the aptitude tests.”

“You mentioned a few days ago that you were pretty high up.”

“Yes,” she shrugged. “Pink is actually kind of a rare color, so I tended to get attention wherever I went.”

“Huh,” I said.

“It isn’t red,” she said quickly, “so it wasn’t like I was one of our most respected members of society, but I don’t think there was another person with pink hair in my city, or at least, I didn’t know them.”

“Did anyone know of anyone with pink hair?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You said it was rare, and you didn’t know anyone in your city that had pink hair, but did anyone you ever met say that they knew of someone in another city that had your hair color?”

“Nope,” she said as her mouth twisted. “Everyone just complimented me on it and said that they have never seen a shade like it before. Then I would give them my business card and get them to come into the salon.” Kacerie laughed, and the wind made it sound somewhat musical.

“Hmmm,” I said.

“You look thoughtful,” Kacerie said as she smirked. “Do you like my hair that much?”

“You do have nice hair,” I chuckled, and I saw a bit of color come to her cheeks. I was somewhat surprised by her blush, since she indicated several times that she had dated multiple men back on her home world, and that people constantly complimented her hair.

“Thank you,” she said, “but I was joking a bit before. What are you really thinking about? I can tell that your brain is working.”

We came to the end of the massive log, and I slowed down the dinosaurs so that the troodons could scout the river bank without the noise of the heavier dinos tromping through the forest. Kacerie and I didn’t speak for a few moments, and then I heard a hoot of reassurance from Daphne. I commanded the whole group to go down through the last of the trees and to the water’s edge, and then I motioned for Tom to lay down on his stomach so that we could get down easier.

“Let’s fill up the water first before we check the traps,” I said.

“Sure, but what about my question?” Kacerie smiled at me coyly.

“We talked a few days ago about what our abductors want,” I began as I handed her an empty water jug. “I think I’m starting to lean toward what Trel thought: each of us is the most powerful representation of our species.”

“And my hair color told you that?” she laughed.

“Well, kinda, but not entirely,” I returned her laugh as I bent down to fill up my water jug. “What do you think of Emerald?”

“I like her,” Kacerie said quickly. “She always seems eager to help. She takes a watch shift every night and doesn’t complain about anything we ask her to do.”

“Do you trust her?” I asked.

“So, now I feel like you are setting me up for something,” Kacerie laughed. “Yep, I trust her. Or at least, I did until we started to have this conversation, now I’m thinking you are about to tell me that she really wants to kill us in our sleep and eat us. Then again, if she wanted to do that, she would have already. She’s had lone watch plenty of times while the rest of us slept.”

“I talked to her some yesterday when we were both digging the grave for Will-Lack,” I began. “To make a long story short: she is apparently a queen or ruler of her people, and she controls four billion of her kind.”

“Four billion?” Kacerie gasped. “That is the entire population of my world.”

“It’s about half of mine,” I said. “She seemed to indicate that she wasn’t the absolute ruler, and that she was trying to conquer more, but I didn’t really pry.”

“Wow,” Kacerie said as she moved to get the last of the jugs from Tom’s saddle. “I would not have thought her some great war leader. She seems so nice.”

“I think I might have interpreted her wrong.” I shrugged.

“You don’t though,” Kacerie said as she returned my shrug.

“I don’t?”

“No, you haven’t noticed that? You seem to be the only one who understands what she means. You figure it out right away. She makes a few slight movements and you just seem to know what she says.”

“Huh,” I said. “Now you are giving me something to think about.”

“But let’s talk about my hair,” she giggled as she bent down to fill up the jug again. “What does it have to do with Emerald?”

“Trel is a duchess of her people, Sheela admitted that she was the most skilled huntress, Emerald is the ruler of four billion people, Liahpa is the best athlete on her world, you have hair color that is not normal for your people, Gamline said she never had a crop die.”

“I see what you are getting at, but what about you?”

“I don’t really make a lot of sense,” I laughed. “My job was one of the lowest in our society, and I never thought I was anything but average. I didn’t have any goals in life after my parents died.” I let out a long breath. “I’m not really exceptional.”

“Maybe on your homeworld your potential was not realized, but you are very exceptional here,” Kacerie said. “And it isn’t just the dinosaur taming stuff.”

“Yeah,” I laughed as I nodded down at the water jug. “I’m also great at getting water.”

“You organize us, you lead us, and you give us hope.” Kacerie shrugged and then her blue eyes bored into mine like drills. “You could have left me to die at the lake. At the time, I thought you were horrible, but you came back to save me, and I realized I was wrong about you. I was wrong about a lot of stuff. I guess I just didn’t want to be here.”

“Would you go back home if you could?” I asked.

“Hmmm.” She paused, bit her lip, and considered for a few minutes. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t?” I was actually surprised by her answer.

“I would miss you,” she said.

“Me?”

“Ohh, ummm,” Kacerie cleared her throat, and her cheeks turned a bit red. “I meant everyone. Even Trel. I’ve come to like her, despite her many sharp and pointy quirks.”

“But you don’t miss your friends on your homeworld?” I asked.

“I do,” Kacerie sighed. “But then every day I think about what I really had. I had my salon. I loved it, but maybe it was only the prestige? I thought I loved cutting hair, but now that I am doing this other stuff around the camp, the thought of just going back to a life of caring for people’s hair seems really boring.”

“But it’s a lot safer,” I laughed, and then gestured for her to come with me to where we had placed the first fish trap.

“True,” she chuckled. “I guess I would go home, if given the chance, but I know that I would think about you every day for the rest of my life.”

“Me?” I asked as I smirked at her.

“Umm everyone. You know what I mean, Victor.”

“Yeah,” I said, and then we pulled up the cordage that was binding the trap down in the shallow part of the river. The cage came up empty, as did the next one, but the third had a fish the length of my arm inside, and we pulled it to the shore so that we could tie a rope through its gills.

There was only one more fish in the traps, but this one was also large. I realized that we would be pretty self-sustainable on food if we could supplement the fish traps with veggies from Galmine’s garden. I also wanted to find some sort of chicken-like creature we could domesticate for eggs, but I hadn’t seen one yet during my explorations in the last few days.

Kacerie and I reset all the traps, climbed back on Tom, and then made our way back to camp. We didn’t speak on the return trip, but when we made it to the gate, she turned to me and pointed at Katie.

“You are going to make a second trip?” she asked.

“Yeah, I need to get water for her and the balaur bondocs.”

“Can I come with you again?” she asked.

“Uhh, sure,” I said, “but Liahpa might want to--”

“She looks busy with Sheela,” Kacerie interrupted. “Let’s drop off Tom by the campsite and then ride Bob back to the water with the ones that need to drink.”

“Sounds good,” I said, and then I steered Tom over to the spot between Hope’s doggie-door and the kiln where Trel was working. The spider-woman was focused on a piece of clay she was shaping with her longer fingers, and she didn’t even look up as we parked Tom next to her. I did catch Emerald’s attention, so I gestured for her to come over as Kacerie and I dismounted.

“Kacerie and I are going to go back for the second trip of water,” I said as we both pulled the jugs off the storage part of Tom’s saddle and set them on the ground. “Can you put the water jugs in the huts and then start prepping the fish for lunch? We probably just need to gut it and salt it.”

Emerald nodded and smiled at me, and I reminded myself that she was the ruler of four billion people.

“Thank you so much for your help,” I said. “We will be back in a few minutes.”

Emerald nodded at us again and then waved when Kacerie and I climbed up on Bob’s back. The big parasaurus’ saddle only really had two seats on it, so Kacerie sat behind me, and I was suddenly conscious of her arms wrapped around my stomach.

I commanded Tom and the six balaur bondocs to follow Bob to the gate of our compound, and then I set the big male trike to guard the door while Katie and the cast of Friends ran with us back toward the river.

Kacerie and I didn’t speak as we rode toward the river, and I started to get the feeling that she wanted to talk to me about something. By the time we made it to the river, and the dinos started drinking, she still hadn’t asked me.

“What?” she asked as I turned in my seat to look at her.

“You tell me,” I chuckled. “I feel like you want to talk to me about something else.”

“Yeeeeaaa,” she sighed. “Sooooo…” she paused and then bit her bottom lip.

“Uh oh,” I laughed. “What’s wrong?”

“You can say no,” she said.

“You haven’t even asked me.”

“It’s a weird question, or I dunno. It isn’t weird, unless you say no, but then I think it might be weird if--”

“Just ask me!”

“Alright,” she said as she reached up to touch my chin. “I really don’t like your beard. Can I shave it off?”

“Shave it off?” I asked. “Uhhh--”

“I’ve shaved plenty of men before,” she interrupted me. “I think you have a handsome face, and the beard is covering too much.” Her fingers traced up my jaw and then began to knead my scalp. The sensation was very pleasurable, and my breath caught in my throat.

“I’d also like to cut your hair,” she whispered. “It’s a bit long. I really like your hair. It’s nice and thick.”

“Ahhh, don’t you need tools or something for that?” I was practically panting as she scratched my scalp, and she probably could have gotten me to do anything she wanted if she just continued.

“I’d love my scissors and a razor, but I got the idea yesterday when we knapped the obsidian. It is much sharper than the flint. I know that I can give you a perfect shave with the soap as a lather.”

“I’ve never really had anyone else shave me before, is--”

“You’ll like it,” she said as she fluttered her blue eyes at me. “I’ll heat some water, and massage your neck and face like I’m doing to your scalp right now. You can sit on one of the boulders by the campfire, or we could do it alone in your hut if you want.”

“Alone?” I asked as I closed my eyes.

“If you want,” she whispered, and I forced my eyes open so that I could stare into hers.

Our faces were only a foot or so apart, and we stared into each other’s eyes for a very long time.

“Okay,” I said.

“Alone?” she asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“If that is what you want,” I answered.

“What do you want, Victor?” she asked.

“You are scratching my scalp right now, so I’m pretty much going to tell you whatever you want to hear.”

“Fair enough,” she laughed, and then she traced her fingers down the side of my face again. “We’ll figure it out later tonight. Deal?”

“Sure,” I said as I slowly relaxed my lungs and let out a long breath. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I cleared my throat as I turned back around in the saddle to look at the drinking dinos. They all looked like they were done drinking, so I ordered everyone out of the slow moving water.

Then we all headed back to the camp, and I was even more conscious of Kacerie’s arms around my stomach.

When we returned to the camp, Kacerie helped Tom and I angle the gates back closed, and then we jumped back on Bob so we could ride back to the campfire. We passed the pit where I had burnt Will-Lack as we rode, and I saw that the pile of wood was now all ash.

“I’ll work on the saddles now with Emerald,” Kacerie said when we made it to the inner wall and both slid off Tom’s back. “If that is what you want.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Which dinos do you want me to keep here for your work?”

“I’ll do Katie first,” she said, and I commanded the brown colored female trike to stand next to the resting Nicole.

Then I went to find Galmine.

The gray-skinned woman was in the dirt area that I had plowed up for her on the south side of the inner fort wall. She had set a few of the plants down in the dirt at one corner and was moving her foot through a loose section of the earth on the other side of the plowed rectangle.

“I am ready to garden!” I said as I walked up to the field, and the beautiful woman turned to smile at me.

“This will be very fun!” she sighed as she slowly clapped her hands together. “I am just figuring out the best place to arrange everything. Can you grab those spinach plants and bring them over here? I think they will like this spot. It is closer to the water.”

“Sure thing,” I said, and then I walked over to where Galmine had set all of our plants. We had a lot of spinach, and it took me six trips to bring them all to the beautiful woman. She planted with sure, but slow movements, and as she placed each small plant into the soil, she showed me how to angle the roots properly. She also praised each one individually and complemented them on either their root, leaves, size, or the color of their foliage.

“Does that help them grow?” I asked her after she had told the tenth spinach plant that he had a wonderful green color to his broad leaves.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Galmine giggled, and I laughed along with her.

“Ohh,” she gasped as her hands moved through the dirt to the next row. “This is a very good spot. Can you bring me the little lemon tree?”

“Yeah,” I said as I jogged over to the tree and carried it over. It was about as tall as me, but covered in spines, so I had to be careful where I held it.

“Help me dig a hole here,” Galmine said as I set the tree down.

“I’ll use the stick that I have over--”

“No,” she said as she smiled up at me. “Squat down here and use your hands. Feel the soil between your fingers. It will fill you with energy and love of life.”

“Uhhh, okay,” I said as I squatted down next to the mostly naked woman and began to clear the dirt with her. I had to admit that it was pretty calming to work with the dark brown dirt, and while I couldn’t imagine doing it all day, every day, for my livelihood, it was pretty fun to work next to Galmine.

“That should do it,” she said after we had dug down some two feet or so.

“How do you know this is a good spot?” I asked.

“It is closer to the water,” she replied with an obvious smile.

“Huh.” I lifted up the lemon tree carefully, set it in the hole, and then held it upright as she pushed the dirt in around the base.

We talked a bit more of her world as we planted the rest of the spinach around the tree, and then I ran to get the cassava plants so that we could put them in the next row. We made it all the way to the other side of the rectangle I had plowed, and then we planted the parsley along the edge.

“Ohh!” she gasped again as she dug a spot for us to put the garlic. “This is a nice spot for the pepper tree. Can you bring it over?”

“Yeah,” I said, and I ran back to the dwindling pile of our plants so that I could grab the shoulder high tree.

“What makes this spot good?” I asked as we started to dig another deeper hole.

“It is closer to the water,” Galmine said as she smiled at me.

“Wait,” I said as I stopped digging and looked over at the lemon tree. “That is south of us, closer to the river. How is this spot closer to the water?”

“The river?” Galmine asked, and her beautiful face looked confused.

“Yeah, the river. You said that spot was closer to the water.”

“Not the river, Victor,” Galmine let out a light laugh and smiled at me sweetly. “The water in the ground.”

“The. Water. In. The. Ground?” I asked.

“Yes,” Galmine replied. “Victor, why is your mouth hanging open?”

“There is water in the ground?” I asked as I jumped to my feet. “What? How? Holy shit, Galmine. Why didn’t you say so?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know--”

“And you can tell where it is?” I gasped.

“Yes,” she said as she rested her hand on the earth where she kneeled. “This spot isn’t as good as where we are planting the tree, but the water is still close.”

“How close?” I asked.

“Hmmm, here it is twelve feet,” she said, and then she moved her hand over to where we were going to plant the pepper tree. “Here it is nine, but only in this spot.” She waved her hand over the area.

“Ohh fuck me,” I laughed as I put my palm against my face. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”

“What’s wrong, Victor?” Galmine asked. “Did I make you angry? I did not wish to--”

“Nope,” I cut her off with a laugh. “Not at all. I’m a bit mad at myself, but I should have asked you if you could sense groundwater. Of course you could. You have powers to sense earth and rocks, and you are an expert at growing plants.”

“Why are you mad at yourself?” Galmine reached her hand up, and I helped her stand.

“Don’t worry,” I said as I planted a big kiss on her lips. “I just figured out something amazing, all because of you. I’m going to need your help really quick, but then we are going to get back to planting.”

“Of course,” she said. “What do I need to do?”

“Come with me,” I said as I grabbed her hand, and we walked over to the campfire area.

“Trel! Sheela! Liahpa!” I shouted, and the three women looked up from their work. They must have sensed the excitment in my voice because they all quickly jogged over to where Galmine and I were heading.

“What’s wrong?” Trel asked.

“Galmine just figured out how to solve our water problem,” I said as I smiled at the green-eyed gardener.

“She did?” Trel asked.

“I did?” Galmine asked.

“Yep,” I said. “Ladies, we are going to dig a well, and Galmine is going to tell us where.”

Chapter 9

“A well?” The four of them asked in unison.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll have Bob get us started with the hole, and then we’ll continue on with sticks. When we dig deep enough, we’ll have plenty of water, and we won’t need to make as many trips to the river.”

“And I can make a pump that goes from the well to my filter system!” Trel laughed from her belly and tapped her finger tips together. “Victor, it is a genius idea.”

“It was Galmine’s idea,” I said.

“Awww, not really,” Galmine laughed, “but I am happy to be your muse, Victor.”

“How deep will we need to dig?” Liahpa asked, and she was having a hard time keeping the excitement off her face.

“Hmmm,” the green-eyed woman said as she looked around the grass. “I will need to walk around some and feel the ground.”

“Should we put it in the inner fort?” Trel asked me.

“Hmmm,” I considered as I looked around the camp. We were in between the garden and the cooking fires, and there was a lot of empty space around us, and I could see our camp eventually expanding to a point where it might be a bunch of traffic going in and out of the doggie door, but I did like the idea of it being closer to the huts, especially if Trel set up her filter there.

“Galmine, can you check and see if we can dig a well near the walls by the huts first?”

“Sure,” she said, and then we all walked together through Hope’s big doggie door and into the inner fort.

Galmine strolled around the inside area for a few minutes. Maybe “strolled” wasn’t quite the right word, she moved like she was doing a slow dance with the wind, and I noticed that the other women were smiling as they watched her move.

“Does that help you find the water?” Liahpa finally asked.

“Hmmm?” Galmine looked over to us and then tilted her head.

“You are kind of dancing,” the floating woman said. “Does it help?”

“Oh,” Galmine laughed. “No. I just like dancing. Don’t you?”

We all laughed, and then Galmine pointed to a spot that was in between my new hut and Hope’s stable. “There is water here. Ten or so feet down. It is the best spot inside these walls. There might be better spots outside. Should I go look?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t know if I’m going to build one inside or outside.”

“Inside,” Trel said.

“I agree,” Sheela said. “It is easier to defend if it is inside this wall.”

“Maybe,” I replied with a shrug. “I won’t be able to use Bob to dig the first part if we do it in here, since he can’t fit. The troodons and balaur bondocs can help, but they won’t be able to get out if I make it too deep. They also won’t actually be able to scoop it out. Doing it in the main area of our camp will probably go a lot faster.”

“Hmm,” Trel said as she tapped her finger to her lips.

“We could always do wells in two spots. Then you can build two filter systems.” I winked at her.

“That is a good idea,” Trel said, and she smiled wide enough for me to see her vampire-looking fangs.

“I might even be able to work on both at once,” I said as I thought through the process.

“With the dinosaurs?” Liahpa asked.

“Yeah,” I said as the plan took shape in my head. “I need you and Sheela to get sticks we can use as shovels, some sort of platform we can use to pile dirt on and then drag away, and then we’ll need baskets to haul the dirt up the holes.”

“I could make something out of clay,” Trel said, “but it won’t be ready until tomorrow.”

“I don’t think it will be worth the time investment,” I said. “The baskets we made with the thicker branches will probably work, since they are larger than the ones we made with the tight leaves, but the dirt will fall through all the holes, so we’ll need some wide leaves as a liner.”

“I know of a plant on the edge of the clearing on the west side that has wide leaves,” Sheela said. “I will run over and grab--”

“Ride Bob over,” I said, and the blonde woman nodded slowly. I guessed that she wasn’t completely comfortable riding the dinos yet, especially alone, but this was a good chance for her to be out of the fort without me. It would probably help her confidence, and Bob was easy enough to ride.

“I’ll get the shovels then,” Liahpa said, and the two athletic women jogged out of the inner gate.

I ordered the balaur bondocs to come into the fort and stand next to me. Phoebe came in first, but the rest of the group arrived shortly after. The white, cream, and brown feathered raptors didn’t seem to have the playful mood that the troodons did, but then I reached out to scratch Monica’s head, and she let out a grateful sounding hiss. I gave each of them quick pets and then turned to the spot where Galmine had told us there was water.

“Alright friends, we are going to dig a hole here. Make it about this wide at the top.” I measured a space about four feet in diameter and the raptors glanced at both marks I made with the heel of my boot.

“Try to throw the dirt close to the door,” I said as I pointed, “but don’t get any on Hope, okay?”

The group hissed in agreement, and then I gestured to the hole. “Let’s see what you can do. If you can get it done quickly, we’ll go out hunting again.”

The muscular raptors hissed with noticeable excitement, and then they all began to rake their front claws against the dirt.

At first, it looked like they weren’t making much progress, but then the top layer of soil got loosened by their paws, and the dirt started to fly away like a wave from the ocean. I stepped aside, so that I didn’t get hit, watched them for a few more moments, and then walked out of the doggie-door so I could check on Galmine.

I found the gray-skinned woman on the north side of the wall closer to the base of the massive redwood tree than I would have expected. She was carefully stepping over the roots that lay above the ground as she glanced up high to the tree’s canopy.

“Is there water over here?” I asked.

“Yes,” Galmine said as she smiled at me. “I am slow to walk, so it will take me a long time to journey across the whole courtyard. I thought that this handsome guy might be able to guide me in the right direction if I looked at his roots.”

“Ahh,” I said.

“He is magnificent, isn’t he?” she asked as she looked up again. “We have nothing like this on my world. It is all gray and dying. It makes me happy to see him every day.”

“Yeah,” I agreed as I looked up at him. “He is pretty--” the words caught in my throat when I saw something dart through the clouds in the distance.

“Did you see that?” I asked as I pointed to where I had seen the shape.

“I was looking at the tree,” she said. “What did you see?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, and I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest. Then I saw the movement again, and I was able to get a better look at it.

The shape looked like a person with wings, not a dinosaur, and looked like they were flying in this direction.

“I need you to get inside the inner wall,” I said. “Go as fast as you can. Actually, nevermind.”

“Victor, what is-- ohhh!” Galmine gasped as I picked her up in my arms and started running across the roots.

“Kacerie! Emerald! Get inside the huts!” I shouted to the two women working on the trike saddle, and they darted in through the doggie door without saying anything.

I turned toward the far entrance to the gate, Liahpa was in the process of grabbing sticks from the pile, but she had turned to me to see what I was shouting. Sheela was riding on the back of Bob, and she’d also turned around in the saddle to look at us.

“Take cover! Hide!” I shouted. “Be quiet!”

For half a second, it didn’t seem like they heard me, but then Sheela jumped off Bob’s back and dove under the large pile of loose branches with Liahpa.

“What is--” Trel started to ask, but I just nodded my head toward the hut as I ran in with Galmine.

“There is a survivor flying this way!” I hissed as soon as we had all crammed into my hut and I had commanded the balaurs to run into the other hut and the troodons to sink into the grass where I left them relaxing by the campfire.

“You should invite her--”

“I don’t think it was a her,” I interrupted Galmine. “It looked male, really big, with large wings. I know he saw our camp, and I don’t want any of us out in the open.”

“But we don’t know for sure if he is bad,” Kacerie whispered, and Jinx let out a chirp that sounded like he disagreed with her. We all turned down to look at him, and he spun around in a circle and let out another scared sounding chirp.

“We don’t,” I agreed, “but Jinx is right, most of the men I’ve met on this world have been assholes. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Is your Lance ready?”

“No,” Kacerie said as she shook her head.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “Okay, we are just going to hold tight and wait for him to fly over.”

“How will we know?” Kacerie asked.

“I can try to open a hole in the roof of this hut and look up,” Trel said as one of her spider legs moved up to tap on the ceiling.

“You probably won’t get a good enough angle,” I said as I crouched down and tried to lean my head out so that I could see the cloudy sky while still being inside of the hut. The view kind of worked, but the door was facing east, which was the opposite direction of where the figure had been flying from.

I felt someone tap on my shoulder as I crouched, and I turned around to see Emerald tapping on her chest with her other hand.

“I’m not sure that’s a good--” I started to say, but the green-scaled woman shook her head violently and then held out her hand.

“What does she want?” Trel asked.

“She is going to make a doppelgänger and then go out there and be our eyes,” I said, and Emerald’s head changed from shaking to nodding.

“That would be a good way to see if he is friendly,” Kacerie whispered. “She could just stand out in the open and wave to him. If he lands and is friendly, we’ll know.”

“And if he’s not friendly…” I sighed and then looked at Emerald. “Are you sure? We keep using you to scout and sacrifice yourself. I know that it hurts, so if you--”

Emerald punched me lightly in the arm, brought her hand back down, and then shook her fingers as if she was telling me to hurry.

“Alright,” I said, and the beautiful reptilian woman smiled as I grabbed her hand.

My skin felt warm, and then she blurred for a moment. I blinked, and then there were two Emeralds holding my hand. Both of them wore the same outfit and looked completely identical. There was even a loose thread of cordage in their hair by the ear, and I reached up my hand so that I could pull it from the hair of the woman whose hand I still grabbed.

The other Emerald darted out of the hut and then sprinted out the doggie door and into the main courtyard of our fort. I hissed at her to try to get her to stop, but she kept running, and I turned back to Emerald.

“She should stand right outside our hut so that we can protect her, or at least see what happens to her.”

The real Emerald shrugged, but then I heard a loud flapping sound over our heads, and we all ducked low in the hut.

I ducked back down to the ground at the edge of the hut opening and stared up into the sky. I’d been right about the creature flying toward us being a man, or at least somewhat male. The creature had a muscular and broad chest, legs like tree trunks, and arms coiled with thick ropes of muscle. His skin was black like asphalt, and the wings on his back looked like giant bat appendages, except the outer sides of the wings were covered with shark-like teeth. Instead of feet, he had bird-like talons at the end of monkey paws.

I couldn’t see his face, since his trajectory took him eastward away from me, but then his head twisted down and I could see that he had a jaw full of teeth with tusk-like mandibles, a nose that looked like a pig’s, and three giant black eyes. It didn’t look like the flying man was wearing clothes at first, but then I realized that he had baggy pants which matched the color of his wings and skin.

Then he swooped down into our camp and was hidden behind our walls.

“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath, and I then took a hesitant step out of the hut.

“Victor!” Kacerie and Trel both hissed at once, but I waved my hand back and then took a few more silent steps toward the doggie door.

Hope was in her stable, and I raised my finger to my lips so that she wouldn’t toot at me. The parasaur figured out what I wanted and didn’t make a sound. I continued alongside the well hole that the balaurs were digging and then made it to the edge of the gate so that I could look out into our courtyard.

The large winged-man had forced Emerald’s doppleganger to the ground and was in the process of grabbing her ankles with his feet while she kicked and punched him. It only took me a moment to realize that the fucker was going to try to fly away with her in his grasp, and my brain spun when I tried to figure out what I should do.

Part of me expected what I saw, but another part of me really wanted this guy to be friendly. We needed help to survive, and it was hard enough living with the dinosaurs on Dinosaurland without all the super powered alien survivors trying to kill each other.

The troodons had been hiding near the campfire, and I gave them the order to sneak up behind the fucker, but as they crept nearer to the man wrestling with Emerald’s doppelgänger, I wondered if attacking this guy would be the right decision.

It looked like he was trying to abduct her, not kill her, and if he was trying to abduct her, he might have had a camp with other survivors. If he took the doppelgänger there, then Emerald would know where they were, and we could go on the offensive instead of waiting for them to come back.

I hated the plan.

I knew this wasn’t really Emerald, but this motherfucker was still attacking one of my women, that could have easily been Galmine, or Kacerie, or the real Emerald. I wanted to find out if this fucker had a camp or a group of allies, but not as much as I wanted to kill him for trying to take one of my women.

I gave the orders to the troodons, and they wiggled through the grass toward the man with the bat wings. He was not really fighting Emerald’s doppelgänger back. He was letting her punch him and kick on him while he focused on holding her down with his left hand while he tried to position his feet properly.

Then the troodons were within range.

I was a millisecond away from giving them the order to tear into the asshole, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I almost jumped out of my skin. I turned around and saw Emerald standing behind me and I saw the other women leaning out of the hut door watching us.

“He’s about to grab her!” I whispered as urgently as I could while still keeping it a whisper that I didn’t think the asshole could hear.

Emerald shook her head and waved her hand up in the bird, circled around her head and the pointed northward. I knew she was telling me to let them go, but I shook my head.

“We can kill this fucker now,” I whispered. “I don’t want him to take her. I protect all of you, even if she isn’t the real you, I won’t giv--”

Emerald interrupted me by pulling my face toward hers and kissing me. Her movement surprised me, and I felt the air leave my lungs as she gently tugged me away from the doggie door.

I heard wings flap on the other side of our wall, and I gently pulled my mouth away from the beautiful scaled woman’s exploring tongue. Then she gestured for us to go back into the tent and nodded before we sprinted across the inner fort.

“What is happening?” Kacerie asked.

“He is taking her,” I said as I pointed out the door. Then I saw his head crest the top of our inner wall, and I held my arms out as I stepped back deeper into the hut. My friends all got the idea, or maybe they heard the wings flapping, and they stepped back with me and went quiet.

My heart slammed into my chest, and I felt rage burn a hole in my stomach like an uncooked chili hot dog. I still wanted to stop the guy, but now I knew that I had lost my opportunity.

For now.

Emerald’s left hand began to massage my shoulder, and then she cupped my chin with her right fingers and turned me so that she could stare into my eyes. The strange woman was smiling, and I knew that she was trying to help me feel better.

Then I didn’t hear the wings anymore, and I looked out to see that the large winged man was just a speck in the sky to our north east.

“Why did you let him take her--” Kacerie started to say, but then Trel interrupted.

“Victor didn’t let him take her! He wouldn’t let anyone hurt us. He must have a plan.”

“Yeah,” I said as I turned away from Emerald and looked at Trel, Kacerie, and Galmine. “Emerald will know where his camp is located, and if there are more of them.”

“Ahhh!” Trel cackled happily as she tapped her finger tips together, “It is very cunning.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, and I glanced at Emerald. “I don’t feel great about it though. I kind of just wanted to kill the fucker.”

Emerald shook her head and then gestured for all of us to look at her. Then she drew a line across her neck, smiled, and then made circles around her eyes with her fingers as if she was wearing goggles.

As soon as she finished making her hand motions, the other women turned to me so that I could translate.

“She said that we don’t need to worry about her doppelgänger. She’ll die as soon as she sees the location of their camp and gets a rough look, and then we’ll know exactly where they are at.”

“It is a good plan,” Trel said again. “Let’s get back to our projects.”

“Uhh, we just got attacked,” Kacerie said. “You want to go back to work?”

“Or course,” Trel scoffed. “What else are we supposed to do? As soon as Emerald knows the location of these idiots, we will take Victor’s dinosaurs over there and butcher them. In the meantime, working will bring us focus.”

“Alright,” Kacerie sighed, and then she gave me a quick glance before she gestured for Emerald to come back to the saddles with her.

“I’ll tell Sheela and Liahpa that they can come out,” I said.

“Good,” Trel replied. “Can you make the raptors work again? They were making good progress.”

“Yeah,” I said as I ordered them to come out of the other hut and continue digging the hole.

“Victor, should I still look for a second spot for the well?” Galmine asked.

“Yeah,” I replied, I’m going to stand next to you the whole time. “Trel, I want you to be either inside one of the huts, or standing next to someone at all times.”

“Pfft,” she raspberried. “I will be fine. No one will dare attempt to abduct me.”

“Just do what I say, or I’m going to worry about you,” I said.

“I have to work!” Trel groaned. “The filters need to be made, and then these wells need to be dug. I must be able to--” She stopped speaking and then crossed her arms as she looked at me.

“Yeah, okay, Victor,” she whispered. “I will be careful. I can see you are worried about me. It makes me happy, even as I am annoyed with you. Go find the next digging spot with Galmine, I’ll go with Sheela to get these leaves.”

“Bring Liahpa with you,” I said, “and come back as quickly as you can.”

“I will,” Trel said, and then she stepped out of the hut, elevated herself off the ground on her spider legs, and then quickly dashed across the open space and over the wall.

“Let’s go find this other spot for a well,” I said to Galmine, and we walked together back out to the tree.

“You are worried,” she said after we had walked for a few minutes.

“Yeah,” I said. “This changes our defensive strategy, and I feel like a bit of a fool for not thinking about it sooner.”

“How does it change things?” she asked as she fluttered her long eyelashes at me.

“That guy could come back at any moment and snag one of you. If it happened at night on watch, we wouldn’t even know.”

“Did he snatch Emerald’s clone that easily?” Galmine asked as her mouth opened to form an “O” shape.

“No. She fought with him. It didn’t look like it helped much, but he didn’t just grab her and fly off.”

“I think we will be okay,” Galmine said as she smiled at me. “Emerald will know where they are soon, and if he, or any of his friends come back here before you can speak with them, then we will stop him. You always protect us, Victor. I believe in you.”

“Thanks,” I chuckled, “I guess you are right, as long as we stay close together we’ll be pretty safe.”

Even though I was laughing, I still worried that my “buddy system” plan might not be that bullet proof. The winged monster-man had sharp looking teeth on his wings, and his arms were the size of my legs. Emerald’s clone may have bought herself some time by fighting, but it was apparent he wasn’t actually trying to hurt her. He was trying to kidnap her.

Who knows how dangerous he was if he actually tried to fight.

Then I remembered the troodons, and I called them all over to me so that I could pet them. They’d been just about ready to murder that flying asshole, and I realized that I had an easy answer to my fear. Between the troodons and the balaur bondocs, I had a really good guard dog force. They could easily keep a close guard on everyone, and if that guy tried to take anyone again, they would rip him a new asshole.

The solution brought me a lot of relief, and I had Daphne and Velma stay with Galmine and I while the boys moved over to where Kacerie and Emerald were working on Katie’s saddle. When Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa got back, I’d assign a guard to them. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was still a good one.

At least until I knew where that asshole had taken Emerald’s doppelgänger.

Then I’d pay him a visit.

Chapter 10

By the time that Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa returned on Bob with the leaves, the six raptors had dug down at least four feet deep into the well next to our huts, and I had started digging the second well some thirty feet to the north of where the kilns were set up. It had been the best spot that Galmine could find, and both Sonny and Cher took to the job with toots of pleasure. I guessed that they were kind of bored sitting around, and I wondered if I needed to focus more on giving them daily exercise.

The leaves which the three women brought were perfect for hauling dirt. They were about three feet wide by four feet long, with a waxy finish that would let them slide across the grass easily. After I assigned either troodons or balaur bondocs to everyone as personal guard dinos, I went with Trel, Liahpa, and Sheela to the well by the huts so that we could plan our next steps.

“I was thinking we’d do a ledge about here,” I said as I gestured to the side of the floor some four feet below. “So come out maybe a foot and a half or two feet and then dig down until we get to the water.

“Why the ledge?” Liahpa asked.

“That will give us somewhere to step up and out,” I said. “Will also help when we have to pass the dirt up. Someone can kind of straddle the hole using the ledge and then the person digging at the bottom can pass up a basket full of dirt.”

“Makes sense,” The floating woman said, and then she jumped into the hole and kind of drifted down almost like she was a falling feather.

“Of course it makes sense,” Trel scoffed. “Victor thought of it.”

“Are you in a bad mood today?” Liahpa asked as she held up her hand for the makeshift shovel.

“No,” Trel grunted as she passed down the stick.

“Okay,” Liahpa replied, and she gave Trel a friendly smile.

They actually stared at each other for a few moments, and Trel sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Liahpa, Sheela, and I all turned to the spider-woman.

“I am grouchy,” Trel sighed. “It isn’t your fault.”

“Is it about the--”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Trel turned away from us, and then walked over to Hope, scratched her on the chin, and then continued out the door with Scoob in tow.

“I’ll go talk to her,” I said as I turned back to Sheela.

“We will work here.” The blonde woman replied with a short nod, and then she squeezed my shoulder before climbing down into the hole.

I walked by Hope, scratched her on the chin, took a look at her egg, and then continued out into the main courtyard. Kacerie and Emerald were almost done with Katie’s saddle, but I couldn’t really see Trel anywhere. Then I heard a hoot off to my left, and I turned to see the spider-woman climbing up the trunk of the massive redwood.

I walked over to stand next to Scoob, and we both looked up into the high branches. I couldn’t see Trel up in there, but that might have been what she wanted.

“Trel?” I called out.

“Yeah, Victor?” she shouted down.

“You okay?”

“I am looking for a place to build a lookout station.”

“Okay,” I said. “Do you want to talk about anything?”

“No,” she said. “Just let me work. Please. We’ll talk tonight at dinner.”

“Got it,” I said, and then I patted Scoob on the head. “Keep an eye out, buddy.”

Scoob’s hoot sounded surprisingly understanding, and he turned his face back up to stare intently into the trees.

I walked back over to the well that the parasaurs were digging in the courtyard. They were almost done with the four-ish foot deep hole, but they were too big to get into the hole and finish the other parts. Sheela, Liahpa, and I would have to dig that out ourselves, but first I needed to finish the planting with Galmine.

I walked back over to the garden to find the gray-skinned woman sitting in the middle of her plants petting two of the balaurs with Jinx curled up asleep in her lap. The pepper tree was still laying on its side from a few hours ago and I carefully lifted it up and put it into the hole we had previously dug.

“Thank you, Victor,” Galmine smiled at me.

“No problem,” I said as I returned her smile. “We got a little distracted by the well. I can dig out the rest of the spots for the garden if you just want to relax.”

“I’m fine to continue working,” she said as she poked Jinx in the side. The little chocobo bird gave out a sleepy chip, but then he reluctantly got off her lap when she nudged him again.

It only took us another hour or so to plant the rest of the plants in the garden. Galmine and I talked a bit more about the differences and similarities of our home worlds, but I found it hard to focus on the conversation because I kept looking over to Emerald to see if she had any news.

Finally, the last bit of horseradish was planted, and we only had to do the mint.

“We should do this one over by the tree,” Galmine said. “It will spread all over the garden if we plant it here, but the roots over there will keep it mostly contained. There is also less sun there, and the mint likes that.”

“Great,” I said as I helped her stand. Then we walked toward Emerald and Kacerie, who were both in the middle of putting a saddle on Sonny.

“Darn,” Kacerie said as she glanced up at the dark clouds that were starting to chase the lighter gray clouds away. “We are pretty much out of cordage, and I think the rain is going to hit us in the next hour.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We should probably grab lunch soon. We have those fish to cook up.”

“We’ll be done with this soon,” Kacerie said.

“How are things, Emerald?” I asked her.

The green-haired woman shook her head and shrugged.

“She still hasn’t died?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.

Emerald shook her head and shrugged again.

“But she can… uhhh… kill herself if she wants to?” I asked.

Emerald nodded and then pointed to her eyes and ears.

“You think that your doppelgänger is seeing and hearing interesting stuff, so she is staying around to get more information?”

Emerald smiled and then reached up to touch my temple.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s hope that we get some good information.”

I continued to the base of the tree with Galmine and saw that Scoob was still standing there looking up at the branches. He turned when I approached, let out a happy hoot, and then rubbed his head against my hip while I petted him.

“Is Scoob alright?” Galmine asked.

“Trel is up there working on a lookout station.” I didn’t want to tell Galmine the rest of the story since I figured that Trel would explain it tonight.

We found a spot on the north side of the tree that Galmine said would be perfect for the mint, and we had it all planted a few minutes later. Galmine asked if she could prepare lunch for everyone, and we parted company for a bit so that I could check on the progress of the wells.

Sheela was at the bottom of the hole digging with the makeshift shovel-stick, and Liahpa was actually standing instead of floating on the middle step that they had cut out. Sheela had dug about eight feet down, and the ground at the bottom was looking like loose mud. Both women were splattered with mud and dirt, and they looked up as I walked to the side of the hole.

“Looks like we are almost to water,” I said as I tried not to stare at both of their breasts. It was a bit hard since I had a high angle, but I was also really interested in the progress of the well.

“I think we will hit it in the next few minutes,” Sheela said as she speared her shovel into the mud, grabbed a bunch of the wet dirt, and dumped it in a leaf basket. Then she repeated the same act three more times and lifted the basket up to Liahpa.

“Is Trel okay?” the silver-skinned woman asked as she took the basket from Sheela, lifted it over her head, and then handed it to me.

“She’s in the tree,” I said as I took the basket from her and dumped it out on the pile of dirt next to Hope. “She said she’ll talk to everyone at dinner. We’ll be ready for lunch in probably half an hour. Do you both want to take a break?”

“I would prefer to keep working,” Sheela said as she went back to work on the mud. Her movements were quick and strong, like she wasn’t even tired.

“Same,” Liahpa said as she took the basket from me. “How deep should we go?”

“We’ll need to be able to get a bucket down there,” I said as I thought through the process. “Or maybe a pump or something. I don’t quite know what Trel has planned. How about you dig waist deep?”

“I will do it,” Sheela said as she looked up and smiled at me.

“How about I bring you both some food when it is ready, and you both take a few minutes break to eat it?”

“Very well,” the cat woman said, and Liahpa nodded.

I took another bucket of dirt from the Lift Ball player, threw it on the pile, and then tried to think about what I could do for the next half an hour while Galmine was making lunch. I could just stand here and watch the two beautiful women get sweatier and covered with mud, and that had its appeal for sure, but it wasn’t really a very good use of my time, so I turned my attention back to the pile of dirt and mud and looked for the stack of leaves. I found them near one of the huts and soon had a bunch of them set on the grass between the pile and Hope’s door. Then I pushed some dirt onto a leaf, grabbed it carefully, and dragged it out of the inner fort.

It was about eighty feet to the spot where the parasaurs had dug up the second well, and I knew I was going to have to find a more efficient way to move the big pile over here. Not only was this going to take forever with just me doing it, I was kind of bent over double shuffling backward the whole time. I turned my attention back over to the sled we had at the far side of the fort by the gate and the pile of wood. It was too wide to fit through Hope’s door, and I chewed on the benefit of having it only for the remaining sixty or so feet of distance. It seemed like it was still worth it, so I called Bob to me, jumped on his saddle, and then rode him over to the harness.

Ten minutes later I had the platform covered with wide leaves and pushed as close as I could get it to Hope’s door. I would have loved to have possessed a proper shovel, but I didn’t, so I just went about scooping the dirt with my hands and flinging it on the platform.

After I made a half dozen tosses, Shag let out a hoot, and I turned to look at him. “Are you laughing at me?”

Shag hooted again, and I pointed at the spot on the dirt next to me. “Laugh it up, buddy, I’ve got a spot right here for you.”

Shag let out another hoot and leapt by the pile next to me. Then he pushed his head against my shoulder so I could scratch him a bit, and we both started throwing some dirt like angry dogs.

“We are trying to get the dirt on the platform, Shag,” I said after the troodon kept throwing the stuff against the inner wall of the fort.

Shag hooted in agreement and adjusted his aim so that more of it got on the platform. The troodons were decent diggers, but they really didn’t have the right kind of hands for scooping up dirt. Shag was super energetic, but each of my scoops threw a good four times as much dirt in the same time period. It probably would have gone faster with all the troodons and raptors helping, or hell, all of my friends, but everyone had their own tasks to do, and I was just trying to get extra work done before lunch time.

“Lunch!” Galmine called out, and I stopped working so that I could go bring plates to Liahpa and Sheela.

The fish was slow baked over a rock and sprinkled with salt and garlic. The smell was amazing after not eating anything with spices for two months, but Sheela and Liahpa didn’t seem to notice the smell. They just wiped their hands off with water from a nearby jug and then crammed the food in their mouths after they had climbed out of the hole.

“This is quite a change,” Liahpa said as she chewed.

“Hmmm?” Sheela asked.

“Victor serving us,” the silver-skinned woman chuckled as she pointed at me.

“You both are working hard,” I said as I peered into the hole. The bottom was brown water now, but I couldn’t tell how deep it was.

“Almost done with this one,” Sheela said. “Should we help you with the dirt, or start on the next one?”

“Let’s get this dirt out of here,” I said as I nodded over to the big pile.

“Then let’s get to it,” Liahpa said as she scarfed the rest of her fish, took the plate from Sheela, and then handed them to me with a grateful smile. “Thanks, Victor.”

“No problem,” I said as jogged back out to the campfires so that I could eat my own lunch.

Everyone else had the same sense of urgency as I did, and I saw that they were finishing the last bites.

“Emerald thinks it is going to rain soon,” Kacerie said as she nodded up at the clouds.

“How long?” I asked the green-haired woman, and she flashed her five fingers three times.

“Fifteen minutes?”

Emerald nodded.

“How about your doppelgänger?”

Emerald shrugged, but she didn’t seem worried.

The fish tasted wonderful, and I complimented Galmine on her culinary skills as I passed her back my plate. Then I ran back to the pile of dirt and got back to throwing it on the sled. The pile was only a quarter gone, but the sled was about half full, and I’d still have to unload it at the dump spot.

I didn’t want to rain to hit the dirt while it was still inside the inner fort, it would make a huge mess and probably end up sliding into Hope’s stable. I realized I was going to need some help, so I walked around to the well.

“Hey,” I said. “We’ve got some rain coming. I kind of want to get the dirt out before--”

“We are done.” Sheela was waist deep in the brown water and she smiled up at me as she passed the last basket of mud up to Liahpa.

“Great,” I said as I took the basket and set it on the ground. Then I grabbed the shovels, helped Sheela climb out, and then lowered my hand to Liahpa. The silver-skinned woman didn’t even think twice about touching me now, and I pulled her up easily.

“Trel will be happy,” Sheela said as the three of us looked down at the well.

“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll have to build something around the edges so no one accidently falls in, and we’ll need her pump, but this is a great start.”

The three of us went to work on the dirt with Shag, and the sled was quickly filled up. Then we all unloaded it at the second well site before taking it back to the doggie door.

Just as we were loading the last of the dirt on the sled, the first drops of rain begin to fall, and we hurried to offload it at the new site. By the time we cleared the sled, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the three of us were soaking wet. I untied Bob from the sled hitch and commanded him to go rest. Then we all ran back to the campfire work station so we could enjoy the heat of the fires and the roof.

Around the cooking fires, Kacerie was mixing soot and fat in a bowl, Galmine was washing the lunch plates in the rain, and Emerald was making cordage. Liahpa, Sheela, and I took our usual seats by the fire, and I shot a glance over to the redwood tree.

Scoob was still standing in the rain looking up into the leaves faithfully. I sighed and then called all the raptors and troodons over so that they could cram under the roofs that we had made by the fire.

“When is she going to come down?” Liahpa whispered, and everyone turned to look at the tree.

“She said for dinner,” I sighed and then looked over to the kilns, they were still burning, but I didn’t know the status of the various plates and filter funnels Trel was working on. Could the clay overcook? I guessed that Galmine would know, but I hesitated to ask, since I didn’t want our conversation to turn to working on the project without Trel.

My heart ached for her. I knew she wanted children, and I had tried to warn her that it wouldn’t work out between us, but now I hated that I had been right. I didn’t really want to be a father yet, but I loved the haughty genius, and I would have given her anything she wanted to make her happy.

“Victor,” Kacerie called out, “my first batch of new soap is curing. It could use another week or so, but I’ve just rubbed some on my hands and it feels fine. How about that shave?”

“Shave?” Sheela asked with concern.

“Yep,” Kacerie said as she stood with the bowl in her hand and stepped over a sleeping Jinx so she could kneel next to me. “His beard is getting out of control. His hair also, but I’ll do the beard first. I just put some water next to the fire so that it could heat up.”

“Sounds good,” I said. I knew that we had talked earlier about maybe her shaving my face in private, but I was a bit too worried about Trel right now to think of spending the night with the beautiful pink-haired woman.

“What will you use to shave him?” A voice called out, from the direction of the kiln, and we all turned to see Trel step under the roof. Streams of water poured down her perfect body, and she twisted her lips into a smile as she stared at Kacerie.

“Uhh, some of the obsidian,” the hair-stylist said. “It’s plenty sharp enough.”

“Good,” Trel replied. “I prefer to see his handsome face. You can proceed.”

“Are you alright?” I said. “Do you want to talk?”

“Yes, and yes,” Trel said as she looked around at everyone. “I’m afraid I have terrible news for all of you.”

Chapter 11

“Terrible news?” Galmine gasped.

“Yes,” Trel sighed. “Everyone, please sit down.”

“Uhhh, we are all sitting down,” Kacerie pointed out.

“Then you should sit down more,” Trel huffed.

“How can we sit down more if we--”

“Trel, just tell us the news,” I interrupted Kacerie as I touched her shoulder.

“Yes,” Trel sighed again, and then turned her black eyes to me. “I’m not with brood. I am sorry everyone.”

“Oh Trel, you don’t need to be sorry,” Liahpa said as she reached out to touch Trel’s hand. I thought the black-haired woman would actually pull away, but she surprised me by wrapping her fingers around Liahpa’s and smiling down at her.

“No, no, no,” Trel sighed. “You see, as first wife of Victor and leader of our tribe, I need to follow through on my commitments. As I said earlier, the only use a woman has is to create beautiful offspring. I have failed this time, so we will not have any helpers until the next time that I ovulate. I promised you all a brood, so I am sorry.”

“Trel,” I said. “No one was relying on you to have children.”

“Oh, I know,” Trel moaned as her head rolled back on her shoulders. “You told me that you didn’t think we were compatible, but I know what the actual problem was this time.”

“Uhhh, the problem?” I asked.

“Yes,” Trel said. “We didn’t have enough sex. You only inseminated me six or so times when I was ovulating. What we need to do next time is go for three inseminations a day for the full period when my eggs are ripe for your seed. Then there will be no question that I will bear your brood.”

“I still don’t think that--”

“Also,” Trel interrupted me. “We need to practice much more between now and then. You had healthy orgasms with full ejaculations into my womb, but I want to spend more time learning the best way to make you climax. Then you will deposit more of your seed into me during each of our three daily sessions.”

“But if our species aren’t--”

“We also need to work on our diets,” Trel said as she tapped her lips with her finger. “You were eating too many berries and not enough fat and meat. We weren’t eating enough varied meats. Next time I ovulate, we will need to have much more protein and fat so that we have all the proper energy and stamina. Sheela, you will have to hunt more for us.”

“I will do it,” Sheela said with a serious expression on her face.

“Trel,” I started to say, but then she interrupted me again.

“The sleeping arrangements will need to improve as well. Neither one of us got enough sleep during the nights. We should spend every moment when we are not having sex relaxing while the tribe takes care of us.”

“Trel,” I said as I stood, “Stop. Please.”

“Stop?” she asked. “Victor, I am just trying to plan for our babies.”

“I know you are,” I said, “and I love you for it. I will have as much sex with you as you want. I’ll lie around in our hut all day and make it so that we get all the food and rest you want. I’ll do anything you ask me to make you happy, but I’d like you to realize that there might be a possibility that no matter what we do, we won’t be able to have children.”

“Because of us being different species?” Trel asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Ha!” she laughed and then tossed her wet hair over her shoulder. “I have already thought of that, my dear Victor.”

“Uhh, you have?” I asked, and everyone turned to look at me before turning back to Trel.

“Yes,” Trel said as her lips curled up into a wide smile that showed off her sharp canines. “I will prove you wrong.”

There was silence for a few moments as everyone tried to fight the confused look on their faces.

“How are you going to prove him wrong when--” Kacerie started to ask, but Trel wiggled her fingers at the pink-haired woman kneeling next to me.

“It is simple, really,” Trel said. “Victor does not think he can impregnate me because we are from different worlds, but he has not spent enough time proving that hypothesis.”

“How do I prove that-- oh,” I said as soon as I understood what she was saying.

“Exactly!” Trel laughed, and it sounded a bit like the sound a cartoon villain would make. “You must begin inseminating everyone. Then, when they all bear offspring from your seed, we will know that you were wrong, and I was right.”

“Ahhh,” Liahpa began to object, but Trel shook her head and indicated that she wasn’t finished.

“Victor has been inseminating Galmine, Sheela, and I, but he has only done one of us a day. Have either of you two ever been ovulating when his seed fills your womb?”

“No,” Galmine said after a moment of thought.

“No,” Sheela said. “I am actually concerned that getting pregnant would be--”

“It just isn’t enough to test the theory,” Trel interrupted. “You will all need to allow him to inseminate your womb when you are ovulating. Starting with Kacerie.”

“Me?” Kacerie gasped.

“Yes, you,” Trel said as she turned her dark eyes on the other woman. “You look similar to Victor. I will bet that you will be most likely to become fertilized with his seed. When are you ovulating?”

“Uhhh, okay,” Kacerie laughed as she glanced at me sideways. “Is this a joke or some--”

“Why would I joke about making babies?” Trel scoffed. “It is the only thing we can do that idiot males can’t do, other than not be idiots.”

“But I really don’t want to have a baby,” Kacerie said after she cleared her throat.

“Why not?” Trel sighed. “Didn’t we already talk about this? It is our job to have beautiful babies. You are beautiful. Victor is very skilled at love making. It will feel wonderful when his sperm fills your womb, and then you will have a beautiful brood a few weeks later.”

“First of all,” Kacerie started, “Didn’t we have a rule about not mentioning Victor’s sperm every day?”

“Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “His sperm is important, we should talk about it every--”

“Second of all, it takes forty-four weeks for my people to have a baby. Third of all, we normally have one child at a time.”

“Then you should start immediately,” Trel said. “Are you ovulating?”

“Fourth of all,” Kacerie continued, and her voice was getting louder with every word. “It’s dangerous! If I’m pregnant, I can’t just run around or ride on dinosaurs. Also, the baby is a liability. Babies need constant attention until they are around ten or so years old. Taking care of one is a full time job for one or even two people.”

“That is fine,” Trel said softly. “We will take care of you when you are gestating. We will love the baby and cherish it since it is yours and Victor’s. Don’t you see how important this is?”

Kacerie stared at Trel with disbelief, and then she turned to look at me.

“Look, Trel, maybe we all need to relax on the sex talk for a bit,” I said. “I love you, Sheela, and Galmine. We don’t need to--”

“All the women here desire you,” Trel said as she gestured to Kacerie.

“Wait--” the pink-haired woman began, but Liahpa beat her to the outrage.

“I do not ‘desire’ Victor,” the silver-skinned woman hissed.

“You are being foolish,” Trel scoffed. “Also, I see you looking at him out of the corner of your eye when he walks by. Your planet filled with boring women has a silly game where you lift balls just because you yearn for a male's testicles to play with. Victor will pleasure you beyond anything you have ever experienced before. You can stop with the childish games. It is time to be a woman now, and women have sex with the best men they can acquire so they can produce beautiful offspring.”

“Ahhh,” Liahpa sighed as she put her palm up to her face. “I don’t even know what to say to her right now. I feel like my head is going to explode.”

“Trel,” Kacerie said, and the spider-woman turned to her. “I am very sorry you aren’t pregnant, but maybe we don’t have to rush into Victor having sex with everyone? These kind of things should develop over time. Uhh… organically, so that both people know they like each other.” Kacerie turned slightly to face me as she spoke, and I nodded at her words.

“Fine,” Trel sighed. “Nothing has to happen tonight anyway. I will practice with Victor unless any of you want to--”

“Can I help you with your filters or plates?” I asked so that she couldn’t continue.

“Ahh!” she gasped. “They should be done baking. No, let Kacerie remove that beard, I will work on my projects until dinner. Then we will have an early lovemaking session.” Trel darted over to her kilns and then gasped with delight at the far one. We all watched her grab a bit of clay and start rolling it on the work table, but then she saw us looking at her, and she motioned with her long black fingers in a manner that made it clear she wanted us to go about our business.

“If she thinks that I’m going to let Victor put his--” Liahpa began.

“Didn’t you want to go with him to get water tonight?” Kacerie asked as she turned to the other woman.

“I… well, yes, but--”

“Huh,” Kacerie laughed. “That’s interesting.”

“So,” I said as I cleared my throat to get everyone’s attention. “How are the weapons coming along?”

“We have put all the obsidian spear heads onto the hafts,” Sheela said as she gestured to the inner wall. I could see that six of the spears now had black glass tips, and they looked sharp enough to perform surgery with.

“We can knap more obsidian and carve more spears and arrows,” Liahpa said. “Oh, we don’t quite know what to do with this thing.” the woman with the white floating hair reached down next to her seat and lifted up the soul ring. It sparked a bit from the light of the flames coming from the fire, and a strike of lightning cracked through the sky a second before thunder boomed.

“Is there a weapon you can make out of it?” I asked.

“We have thought about an axe,” Sheela said, “but all the outer edges are sharp, and I cannot think of a safe way to mount it to a handle.”

“You couldn’t just wedge it through a piece of wood and use it like an axe?” I asked.

“No,” Sheela said as she shook her head. “The outside edges are unbelievably sharp, a handle wouldn’t last.”

“We need some way to anchor it in the middle so it is stable and then attach a handle that way,” Lihapa said as she held her hand through the open spot of the ring, “but it would mean that the blade would be perpendicular to the haft. We could use it like an adze, but it would not be much of a weapon.”

“Hmm,” I said as I looked at the ring again. Both of my friends were correct, the only safe place to hold the soul ring was in the center, and that would make mounting it to a haft almost impossible.

Unless we could get something made out of metal and shaped to fill the center.

“Wait!” I gasped. “I have an idea!”

“What is it?” Liahpa asked.

“We can use stone! Youleena can shape it for us. Put it on the ground and I’ll show you.”

Liahpa set the soul ring on the ground by the campfire, and I stepped around Kacerie so I could crouch next to it.

“Stone will fill the inside,” I said, “and push against it so that it won’t wiggle around when it hits something. Then from each side an arm will come down and then meet into one handle.”

“That will be a lot of stone,” Kacerie said.

“It will be heavy,” Sheela sighed.

“It will, but I know someone who is crazy strong.” I looked up at Liahpa and smiled.

“You would want me to use it?” she asked as she brought her fingers to her chest.

“Yeah,” I said with a shrug. “It makes the most sense. Trel doesn’t think the metal will dull easily, or ever. So we need to have someone using it for chopping wood or anything else that fucks with us.”

“I do not really know how to use such a weapon,” she said as she blinked her red eyes at me.

“I will teach you,” Sheela said.

“We need to get it made first,” I said. “I’ll take it with us when we go to bring them their plates and cups.”

“Will they do it though?” Liahpa asked as her eyes drifted toward the weapon. I could tell she was excited about my idea, and she was having a hard time keeping the smile off her face.

“They’ll do whatever I tell them to do,” I said, and she nodded at me.

“Victor,” Kacerie said. “The water should be hot enough right now. Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Where do you want me to sit?”

“Back where you were,” Kacerie answered as she reached for the clay pot.

I sat on the rock, and the other women watched with interest as Kacerie took some soap she had made and mixed it in another bowl with the hot water.

“Normally I’d have you in a comfortable chair where you could lean back,” she said as she set the jug of hot water and the bowl of soap on the rock next to me. “You’ll have to try to close your eyes and relax while you still keep your body upright.”

“I think I can manage,” I said, but then she pulled some obsidian blades from her pocket and set them on the rock by the jug and bowl, and I started to get a bit nervous. “You sure this will work?”

“Of course,” she said as she poured some hot water on her hands and reached for my face.

My beard wasn’t super long, but this was the longest time that I’ve ever gone without shaving, so her finger had to search through the hair to find my jaw and cheeks. Her fingers were warm and wet from the water, and I closed my eyes as she began to massage my face.

“Yeah,” I sighed after a few moments. “I can see how having a nice chair to relax in would be useful. This feels pretty darn good.”

“Umm hummm,” she said, and then she took her fingers away so she could pour more hot water on them.

“The water is getting on your shirt,” she said. “Let me take it off for you.”

“Uhhh, okay--” I felt her fingers tug at the buttons on the front, and then I relaxed my shoulders so she could take it off.

“That’s better,” she said. “I wouldn’t spill any if we were in my salon, but I’ll do the best I can.”

I felt a little water fall from my beard and hit me in the chest, and then I almost jumped when I felt Kacerie’s fingers from her left hand leave my face so she could rub the water on my chest.

“Victor’s body has gotten much more muscular,” Galmine sighed. “I do enjoy looking at it.”

“I agree,” Sheela said, and I felt my cheeks start to redden.

“Don’t you all have something to do?” I chuckled, and then I cracked open my eyes to see Galmine, Sheela, Emerald, and Liahpa staring at me.

“Oh, I’m doing something right now,” Galmine said as she fluttered her eyelashes at me. “This is very entertaining.”

“Sheela and Liahpa?” I asked as I looked at them.

“We have our tools right here for our weapon crafting, Victor.” Sheela smiled at me and then held up the starting piece of an arrow.

I laughed again and then closed my eyes as Kacerie continued to rub my face. I felt my mind kind of drift away, and the warmth from my face started to creep down my neck, to my chest, stomach, and legs. Kacerie’s fingers were amazing, and I wondered how many men must have lined up at her salon door to get worked on.

“Time for the soap,” she said as she pulled one set of fingers from my face for a few moments.

The soap felt a bit cooler than my face, but that only lasted for a few moments while she rubbed it into my beard. I was trying hard not to purr, or moan with pleasure, and I only succeeded because I knew that four other women were watching her work on me.

“Now hold still,” Kacerie asked, and I felt something flat press against my cheek and trace down my skin.

“Wow,” Liahpa gasped. “That is very sharp. You took all the hair off with one swipe.”

“Yep,” Kacerie whispered. “This blade is much sharper than the metal I used back in my salon. Please let me focus, one mistake and we’ll have a dead Victor.”

I heard Sheela hiss a long breath, and then Kacerie laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’ve never made a mistake. Liahpa, can you pour some water from the jug over my blade to wash it clean?”

“Of course.”

I felt the glass blade trace my cheek a few more times, and the spots where it passed felt amazingly cool. Kacerie’s fingers held my chin firmly, although I felt like I couldn’t have moved it even if I wanted to.

She finished the left cheek and sideburn area, and then she moved onto the other side. I started to relax when she got to my chin, but the sensation of someone else pushing and pulling at my skin was a bit alien feeling.

Then I felt the blade begin to slide across my Adam’s apple, and I tried to hold my breath.

“Hmmm,” she said after the blade had gone over the front of my neck. “Let me feel.” Her fingers roamed my face, and I didn’t feel anything but her touch and the cool breeze coming from the rain.

“There is one little spot here,” she said as I felt her rub more soap under my chin. Then I felt the blade pass again, and her fingers rubbed the spot right after.

“And now your upper lip,” she whispered. “I’ll rub more soap.”

I let out a long breath and tried to do my best to make my lips flat. It felt like she had a smaller blade though, and it passed across the skin without much of a whisper.

“And that’s it,” Kacerie said as she caressed her fingers over my face again. “What do you think, ladies?”

“Looks wonderful!” Galmine said as she clapped, and I opened my eyes so that I could see her smile.

“I do prefer his face to the beard,” Sheela said as she stared at me. “I am also glad you did not cut his throat open.”

“I like the look,” Liahpa said. “What about his hair?”

“That is next,” Kacerie said, but then she looked at Emerald. “What do you think?”

The green-haired woman bit her lower lip and then tapped her chest above her left breast.

“Emerald likes it too!” Galmine giggled.

“Now for the hair,” Kacerie said as she reached for the jug of hot water again. She poured it over her left hand and then began to rub my scalp as she stood behind me.

This time I couldn’t help myself. I closed my eyes and let out a long moan of pleasure as her fingers worked my scalp.

“Feels good, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“You have great hair,” she said. “It’s full and thick.”

“Victor is very virile,” Sheela said.

“Oh yes,” Galmine agreed.

“This is going to be a bit messy,” Kacerie said. “I don’t have a cape to put around your neck. Maybe you should take off your pants?”

“My pants?” I asked.

“And underwear,” Kacerie said.

“This is an amazing haircut,” Galmine giggled.

“Why do I need to--” I started to say, but Kacerie interrupted me.

“Victor, if you leave your pants on, then hair will get on them. Then we will have to spend a lot of time washing the hair out in addition to the dirt. If you take off your pants and underwear, then you can just jump in the rain to wash off. This saves us a lot of time, and you like saving time.”

“This is true,” Liahpa said, and I opened my eyes to find her staring at my crotch. “He likes saving time and being efficient. He doesn’t want any bottlenecks.”

“Fine,” I said, and I quickly stood up, took off my boots and socks, and then undid my belt. With a quick movement I’d taken off both my underwear and pants.

“I’ll hold them,” Galmine said as she reached her hand out, and Sheela grabbed my clothes so that she could pass them to the green eyed woman.

Then I sat back down and closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t have to look at the women staring at my body like I was a piece of meat.

“Ahh, I wish I had scissors,” Kacerie sighed as I felt her tug at my hair a bit.

I couldn’t even feel her make her cuts with the blade, but I could feel the hair falling across my shoulders and onto my thighs. Her fingers still massaged my scalp every couple of slices with the glass blade, and I was able to relax even though I was the only one naked.

“Alright,” Kacerie said after ten minutes of cutting. “I think that’s as good as it will get without scissors. Victor, you should go jump in the rain and wash off. Let me get you some soap.”

“Thanks,” I said as she gave me a handful. Then I stood from my rock, tried to ignore the women staring at my penis, and walked out from under the roof.

I knew that the rain was going to be a bit cooler than it had been a few nights ago, but I started shivering almost instantly, and I had to warm myself by quickly rubbing the soap through my shorter hair.

“Here is more soap if you need it!” Kacerie called out, and I looked back to see her holding the bowl. My hair was pretty clean now, but I was out of soap, so I got some more and then washed off the rest of my body.

Then I returned to the campfire and gestured for Galmine to give me back my pants.

“Ohh, Victor,” the rock woman sighed. “I’m sorry, I started washing your pants and underwear. You can’t wear them now, they are all wet.” She pointed at her hands and I saw proof of her words.

“You should just warm yourself by the fire,” Liahpa said, and I turned to see her staring at my dick like it was a powerful earth magnet and her red eyes were made out of iron.

“Hey, my eyes are up here,” I said to her.

“Oh, I know,” she replied with a smug smirk, and then she continued to stare at my manhood.

“Okay,” I laughed. “I’m gonna go back in my hut and sleep. You all can handle everything for the rest of the night.

“Aww,” Galmine sighed. “But what about dinner?”

“I’m good for the night,” I said. “I’ll leave the raptors and troodons guarding you all. Emerald, let me know as soon as you know. Okay?”

The green-scaled woman nodded, but then I saw her eyes drift down my chest.

“Ugh,” I laughed, and then I walked back into the rain toward Hope’s doggie door.

“I bet they are staring at my ass,” I whispered to myself as I walked through the rain, but then I just laughed again. My body did look way better than it had before I came to Dinosaurland, and I realized that it had been a while since I last looked at my stats in my Eye-Q. As soon as I made it in my hut and got the fire going, I blinked my eye and pulled up the correct menu.

Strength: 6

Stamina: 4

Movement: 3

Special skill: Tame -- Level 4

“Damn!” I gasped. Both my Strength and my Stamina had gone up one rank each. I still had no idea how any of it worked, but it was good to know that I was making progress.

I stood up from the edge of the fire as soon as I was dry and turned to go my bed, but then movement at my door caught my attention and I spun around to see a figure standing at the entrance.

Kacerie.

She was soaking wet from the rain, and the pink nipples of her firm breasts pressed against her white blouse urgently. We stared at each other for a few moments, and the orange light from the fire made her blue eyes glow like the lightning outside.

“This… this doesn’t mean anything,” she whispered as she began to unbutton her shirt.

“What?” I asked.

“It just… doesn’t need to mean anything. It can just be us enjoying each other.”

“Kacerie,” I sighed, and she stopped unbuttoning her blouse so I had her full attention. “I want it to mean something.”

She swallowed and then her cheeks turned red a bit. “I just don’t want to be alone.”

“That’s the only reason you are here?” I asked, and I knew she was lying.

“What will you say if I tell you that I love you?” she asked, and I could see her hands start to tremble a bit.

“You don’t have to be the one to say it first,” I said. “I love you. You are smart, resourceful, kind, and caring. I’m so thankful that you are here with me, and I don’t want to be apart from you.”

She gasped, blinked, and then looked down at the fire for a few moments.

“Can you pull out before you climax inside--”

“No,” I said.

“No?” she asked as her eyebrows narrowed.

“No,” I repeated. “I’m going to make sure that you enjoy yourself a bunch of times, but then I’m going to fill your womb.” The words left my mouth almost before I could think them through, and I almost took them back, but this wasn’t the old Victor speaking. This was the new Victor, and if I made love to a woman, I was going to do it for both our enjoyment and for the benefit of the tribe.

“But what if I get pregnant?” she asked.

“You heard what Trel said,” I answered.

“Yes,” Kacerie whispered, and then she turned back to the fire and stood still for what felt like a minute.

Then she turned her light-blue eyes back to me and continued unbuttoning her shirt.

She was in my arms a second after her shirt was off, and we both let out a gasp as our skin touched each other. Our lips met urgently, and then I pulled on her mane of long pink hair so that her head tilted back. I attacked her throat with my lips, and she let out a startled gasp of pleasure when I kissed her.

I unbuttoned her jeans, and both our hands tugged down on her wet pants while she wiggled her hips free. Her underwear came first, and then I pulled her down on the sleeping mat so that I could kiss, lick, and suck on her pretty pink vagina.

“Oh, good,” she gasped as soon as my tongue touched her between her legs. “You know how to do that.”

“Yeah,” I growled, and then I went back to licking her.

Maybe it was the pent up sexual frustration that we’d been dancing around, or maybe it was just the fire of the hut or my oral skill. Whatever it was, Kacerie climaxed after only a minute or so of me licking her, and then she returned the favor for a few minutes while I lay on my back.

When I finally penetrated her, she was more than ready for me, and the early afternoon spun into a passionate night where our bodies seemed to always be joined.

In the end, she begged for me to fill her, and we climaxed together before we collapsed. We were both sweaty, and panting, and struggling to catch our breath, but then we laughed together, before we kissed.

“Now I see what Trel meant,” Kacerie whispered as she rested her head against my chest.

“Hmmm,” I sighed, and wrapped my arms around her narrow shoulders. Her skin looked like snow in the pale light, and my arms were surprisingly tan and muscular.

“I should get back,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“I… ahhh.” She laughed at bit. “No one knows I’m in here. I just said I was going to get a basket. I didn’t think that you’d last so long.”

“I’m pretty sure that they all know you are in here,” I said with a chuckle. “Just spend the night with me. We’ll wake up in each other’s arms, and I’ll make love to you again.”

“Oh really?” she giggled. “Morning sex?”

“Unless I wake up in a few hours,” I said as I yawned. “Then we are going to have midnight sex as well as morning sex.”

“That sounds great,” Kacerie whispered, and then she sighed with contentment.

Then we both nearly jumped out of our skin when someone clapped at the entrance of my hut.

Kacerie and I bolted upright, and I saw Emerald standing at the entrance. Her white eyes were wide and her mouth was open as if she was trying to talk.

“Did she--” I started to ask, and the green-haired woman nodded and then pointed to her eyes and ears.

“So now you know everything the doppelgänger knows?” Kacerie asked as she hugged her hands over her naked breasts.

Emerald nodded, and then she looked back at me.

“And I’m guessing that it is bad news for us?” I asked.

Emerald nodded, and I felt my stomach drop.

Chapter 12

Half a minute later Kacerie and I were dressed and sitting out around the cooking fires with everyone else and our group of troodons and raptors. It was still raining, but the downpour wasn’t as intense as it was a few hours ago, and the thunder boomed far off to the east.

“Now we have to figure out what Emerald saw,” I said as we all looked at the scaled woman. She nodded at me, and I thought through my series of questions.

“Did he take your doppelgänger back to another camp?” I asked, and Emerald nodded.

“Was the fort better than ours? More advanced?” I asked, and Emerald nodded.

“How many people did they have there?” I asked.

Emerald flashed both of her hands eight times, and then one of her hands once.

“Eighty-five?” I gasped, and she nodded, but then she raised up a single finger and we all watched her wave her arms around like a bird for a few moments.

“They only have one that can fly?” I asked, and she nodded.

“The black-winged asshole that took your doppelgänger?” I asked, and Emerald nodded again.

“How far away are they?” I asked, and Emerald bit her lip as she looked around the grass beside the fire.

She grabbed a few small stones that were in the grass, and then she knelt by the fire and gestured for us all to come closer so we could see. We all did, and then she gestured to us and placed a small stone on the dirt.

“I’m guessing that is us,” Kacerie said, and Emerald nodded before she held up a stone and pointed at the bucket of salt we had sitting next to the campfire. Then she placed the stone about two inches to the left of us.

“Quwaru’s tribe,” Sheela said, and Emerald nodded as she grabbed a third stone.

Then she put it about a foot and a half up and to the right of us.

“That looks pretty far away,” Liahpa said, and Emerald nodded. Then she made a motion with her hands that looked like peaks and pointed to the north.

“I don’t know what the means,” Kacerie said.

“I think she is telling us that they are past a far mountain range,” I said, and Emerald nodded at my words.

“Good!” Trel said. “They can stay far away from us and we will continue our life here. We’ll just avoid them.”

Emerald shook her head at Trel and then made the flapping motions with her arm, then she pointed at the rock of the new camp and back to our rock.

“That fucker who took your doppelgänger is coming back here,” I said, and she nodded vigorously.

“When?” I asked, and Emerald made a circle with her hand, pointed to the east, and raised her arm.

“Morning?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Hmm,” I said as I stood from my rock and began to pace. My friends all watched me for a few moments, and then I turned back to Emerald. “You said they only have one that flies?”

She nodded, but then she flexed her arm, pointed at her bicep, and then made the motion with her fingers to indicate eighty-four.

“The rest of the tribe is also really strong?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Well, shit,” I grunted as I fought against the worry. We had gotten lucky with the Burners, and caught the group off guard, but I didn’t know how I could take out almost a hundred enemies who all had unique abilities.

Unless I tamed a lot more dinosaurs.

“Were they all men?” I asked, and Emerald shook her head and showed seven fingers.

“Huh,” I said, and then Emerald lowered all but one finger and then pointed at me with another hand.

“Their leader is a woman?” I asked, and she nodded.

“I find it hard to believe that a woman would be--” Liahpa started to say, but I cut her off.

“Doesn’t matter how it happened,” I said. “Emerald saw their camp and heard them talk. I’m guessing that she must be crazy powerful, do you have any idea what she can do?”

Emerald shook her head, but then wrapped her arms around her shoulders, shivered, and then made the eight-four with her fingers.

“Everyone is terrified of her?” I asked, and she nodded.

“What are we going to do, Victor?” Galmine asked, and the other women’s eyes all looked concerned.

“There is just one guy that flies,” I said, and Emerald nodded again, so I continued. “This is good. He is coming here and he doesn’t know our exact number. They just know this is a camp, and he took one of us easily.” Emerald nodded again, and I felt a smile come to my face. “He’s going to underestimate us. His whole tribe will. He’ll come here, and we’ll be ready. Then we’ll kill him and figure out how to take out his tribe.”

“Do we know that this tribe is… uhh, not nice?” Kacerie asked, and we all turned to Emerald.

“If they are taking prisoners, I’m going to guess that they are assholes,” I said, and Emerald nodded her head urgently.

“What do they do with the people they capture?” Liahpa asked, and Emerald made a motion with her hands as if she was holding onto something and shaking it horizontally.

“I don’t know what that means,” Liahpa said as they all turned to me.

“It looks like she is in a cage,” I said and Emerald nodded at me.

“They keep people prisoners in cages?” Kacerie asked. “What do they do with them ultimately?”

Emerald shook her head, clutched her breasts, and then gestured to the crotch of her pants.

“Fucking assholes,” I growled. “I’m going to stop them.”

“If they only have one member that flies, they will lose that advantage after we kill the man.” Sheela tapped her spear butt against the ground as she spoke, and I could see that her fingers were tight around the weapon.

“But they know where our camp is located?” I asked as I turned to Emerald, and the silent woman nodded.

“Do they know where Quwaru’s camp is?” I asked, and Emerald surprised me by nodding.

“Shit,” I growled. “So if we take out the flying asshole, it’s still just a matter of time before they come here for us.”

Emerald nodded.

“Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “Let the idiots come. Victor will destroy them with his dinosaurs.”

“I don’t know if it will be that easy,” I said.

“Of course it will,” she laughed. “Emerald, how many days of walking are they from us?”

Emerald looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and then she held up two and then three fingers.

“See?” Trel said, “We have two days to prepare for them.”

“They might not even come,” Liahpa said.

“I’m sure they will come,” I replied.

“Maybe,” the red-eyed woman said with a shrug. “Think about it though, they probably just have this one flying man going around the continent snatching people. When he doesn’t come back, they might decide to just leave us alone. A two or three day walk is a pretty dangerous task in Dinosaurland.”

I looked to Emerald after Liahpa finished speaking, and the green-haired woman shrugged her shoulders. Then she pointed to her bicep again.

“They might leave us alone, they might take a while to get here, but they are strong, and we should plan on fighting them sooner rather than later?” I asked, and Emerald nodded.

Then she smiled at me, and her teeth matched her eyes.

“Okay,” I said. “First problem is the fucker coming in the morning. How long did it take for him to bring your doppelgänger back to his camp?”

Emerald raised one finger and then wiggled her hand a bit.

“About an hour?” I asked, and she nodded.

“And you are sure he’s leaving in the morning?” I asked. “Couldn’t he leave any moment?”

Emerald shook her head and then pointed up to sky. As if on cue, the sky was lit up with a fork of lighting, and a distant boom of thunder crashed.

“Fair enough,” I said. “And you can’t do your doppelgänger again?

Emerald shook her head and frowned.

“Kacerie, has your Lance ability reset?” I asked.

“No,” she sighed. “I don’t know if it is resetting at random now, or if it is actually quicker. It’s only been a day and a half, and it takes many days on my world.”

“How long did it take the last time?” I asked.

“Uhhh. Two days, I think,” she said.

“So we won’t have a doppelgänger and we won’t have a Lance,” I grunted. “We are going to need some bait to get him down to the ground, and then we are probably going to need a way to keep him from escaping while we kill him.”

“It will be simple,” Trel said. “I will stand out in the open looking beautiful, as I always do. Since no man can resist me, he will swoop down to try to kidnap me. Then your dinosaurs will rip him to pieces.”

“The troodons and the balaurs might be able to kill him quickly,” I said, “but he also lifted Emerald’s doppelgänger and flew for an hour. I’m worried that he might throw my dinos off and then escape. We’ll be in serious trouble then.”

“We need a net,” Kacerie said, but Emerald waved at us, flapped her arms, and then gestured to her teeth.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “A net might not work because the flying asshole has sharp looking teeth on his wings. He might just cut through it.”

“I will throw my spear at him,” Sheela said, “Or shoot an arrow. If my aim is true, he will die.”

“And you have great aim,” I said as I smiled at the blonde woman. “It is a solution, we just have to figure out how to get you closer.”

“He’ll be so awestruck by my beautiful body, he will not even notice anyone else is around him.” Trel cackled and then tapped her bony fingers together.

I didn’t really like the idea of using Trel as bait, but I didn’t know if I had a better choice. Galmine couldn’t fight back if she needed to, Kacerie couldn’t really either. Sheela could, but I’d rather have her make a surprise attack with her Critical Strike instead of fighting him face to face. Emerald didn’t have a doppelgänger ready.

Then I turned to Liahpa, and I got an idea.

“Can you be the bait?” I asked.

“Me?” she asked as she looked back at Trel.

“Yeah,” I said. “He won’t be able to take you.”

“He won’t?” she asked with confusion on her beautiful face, but then the realization struck her, and she laughed. “Of course!”

“Yeah,” I said as I grinned. “How is he going to pick you up? You can just carry a rock in your hand or something and make it heavier.”

Emerald waved to us, and then she pointed to her pants when we all looked.

“Oh yeah,” I said, “He was wearing pants. Can you make those weigh a bunch?”

“Sure,” Liahpa laughed. “He won’t be going anywhere.”

“So here is a rough plan,” I said. “You’ll be out in the central open part of the fort. We’ll need you to be working on something.”

“I could be crafting weapons,” Liahpa answered.

“Cordage would be better,” I said. “Or maybe potting stuff. Yeah. We’ll have you at the table working with clay. He’ll swoop down to grab you, you make his pants weigh a bunch so he can’t get away, and then Sheela will kill him with her spear. I’ll have the troodons hiding in the grass nearby as back up.”

“The table is under one of our roofs, though,” Kacerie said as she pointed to the table. “Will he be able to see Liahpa if she is working there?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “He’ll see her for sure if she’s out in the open, but then he might think it is a trap. Emerald, what do you think?”

We turned to look at the scaled woman and she looked thoughtful for a few moments. Then she waved her arms like a bird, tapped her temple, and then tapped her bicep again.

“The flying guy is smart and strong?” I asked, and she nodded with a frown, and then she pointed to the boulder we were using as a work table.

“You think Liahpa should be at the table because he’ll be less likely to think it is a trap?” I asked, and she nodded again.

“There you go,” Liahpa said with a shrug, but then she turned to look at the boulder, and I saw her face darken.

“You going to be okay with being the bait?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she nodded, but I could tell that she was having second thoughts.

“I know you, uhhh, well, have a bit of an issue with men, so--”

“I’ll be fine,” Liahpa growled. “I’ve faced harder challenges in my life and came out on top. I am not afraid of a male. Even one with big wings that have teeth on them.”

“You are very brave, Liahpa,” Galmine gasped. “I would be afraid of getting captured and taken to a camp filled with mean men who would use my body as--”

“That’s okay,” I cut Galmine off as I saw Liahpa’s red eyes widen. “We aren’t going to let anyone get kidnapped.” I set my hand on the shoulder of the silver-woman, and she turned her red eyes to my fingers before she gave me a shadow of a smile.

“I wish to be a more integral part of this plan,” Trel said.

“Alright,” I said as I thought through the missing pieces. “How do we hide Sheela?”

“Hmmm,” Trel muttered as she tapped her long finger to her lips. “Ahh! I have it! We’ll dig a small trench and cover it with leaves and sticks. We can even make a ring of stones around it so it looks like it would be a campfire. Sheela will be concealed beneath, and then she can spring out and teach the idiot male his last lesson.”

“I think that will work,” I said, and then I turned to Emerald. “What do you think, you heard all of them talk amongst themselves? Can we fool him?”

Emerald nodded, but then covered her ears and shrugged.

“You didn’t hear all their conversations, so you aren’t positive, but you still think it will work?”

Emerald nodded, and I turned back around to the other women.

“We are going to need to prep for this guy. I know we are all tired, but we should go work on the hole for Sheela, and then practice where everyone is going to stand and a few different scenarios just in case--”

I heard Tom make a trumpet blast cry, and the troodons and raptors all jerked their heads toward the gate of our fort.

“What was that?” Kacerie asked, and the surrounding dinos all began to sprint away.

“Whoa,” I said, and the group of troodons and balaur bondocs skidded across the wet grass until they stopped. Then I looked back to my friends and gestured to one of the spears on the wall. “Something is at the gate. Everyone but Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa get inside the inner wall.”

Sheela was up in an instant, and she tossed me an obsidian-tipped spear from across the fire. I caught it easily, spun it in my calloused hand, and then started running with the troodons and raptors across the clearing. I only made it ten steps before Sheela, Liahpa, and Trel caught up to me, and Trel quickly outpaced everyone when she used her spider legs to sling shot herself forward across the ground.

The night wasn’t quite pitch black, but the storm clouds covered all the stars and the two moons and the light rain wasn’t helping. I could only see about five feet in front of me as I ran, but Rachel ran a bit slower in front of me, and I was able to guide myself by her white feathers.

“Victor!” I heard a shout outside the gate when I finally made it there, and I felt my shoulders relax a bit.

“Who is it?” I called out, but Trel had already scaled the wall and hissed the answer down to me.

“It is that idiot woman with the twisting hair!”

“Emta?” I called out, and then I crept close to the closed gate.

“Yes!” she shouted. “We need your help! Can I come closer?”

“Yeah!” I shouted over the rain, and I ordered Tom, Katie, Scoob’s gang, and the Friends to all relax.

“What’s wrong? I asked as we all stepped to the side joint of the gate. There was a small gap there, and Emta put her face against it.

“It’s… Zoru…” she gasped, and I couldn’t tell if she was hurt or breathing heavy from running, or both. “He’s hurt really bad. Quwaru asked for me to come to you for help.”

“Ha!” Trel shouted from up above us. “Just as I thought, as soon as you need my husband, you come crawling--”

“How did he get hurt?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

“I was attacked as I ran here,” she wheezed. “I’ll be okay. I just--” she started coughing, and I saw blood dribble from her mouth.

“Shit!” I growled. “Let’s get this gate open!”

Liahpa, Sheela, and I grabbed on the cross section of the door and yanked it up and out a crack so that Emta could stumble through. I couldn’t quite see her injuries in the dark, but she looked like she could barely walk. We put the gate back down in the slots, and then we all ran over to her as she collapsed on the wet grass.

“Where are you hu-- holy shit!” I gasped when I saw that her chest was cut open and her left arm was gone at the elbow. She was covered with bite marks, scratches, and her hair was weakly twitching.

“You should have seen what I did to them,” she coughed, laughed, and then coughed again.

“Let’s get her under the shelter,” I said as I pushed my arms under her neck and legs. Then I stood up from my squat and ran back toward the campfire with my friends and dinosaurs in tow.

“We don’t have time,” Emta hissed as she brought her right arm up to wrap around my shoulders. “Do you have anyone who can heal others?”

“Tell me what happened,” I said as soon as we reached the camp fires. I set the olive skinned woman down next to the holes where we had the flame, and the extra light showed me that the cuts on her chest were much more serious than I’d first thought. I could see her rib bones, and her intestines were hanging out of her stomach like a drooping fanny pack.

“Yesterday, Zoru and I were attacked when we went to fish.”

“Dinosaurs?” I asked.

“No,” she coughed. “It was a big male with black wings and skin. We fought against him, but he cut Zoru up bad. Me too, but I healed and managed to drive him off.”

“Then he flew in our direction,” I said.

“You’ve seen him?” she gasped, and I saw Kacerie lean over and whisper in Galmine’s ear. The gray-skin woman nodded, and I saw them both stand and walk out into the rain.

“Yeah,” I said, “he came here, we know where their camp is, but--”

“He’s strong,” she growled as she tried to sit up. “I know how to fight, but I think he could have beat me if he wanted. I think he realized I was going to be too much trouble, so he fled. Can you help Zoru?”

“We don’t have anyone that can heal--”

“I was the only one who could make the trip to you,” she said as she grabbed my right hand with hers. “Everyone else is in the cave. If Zoru dies, I’ll be the only one who can protect them. Quwaru can fish, but she can’t fight that well. Please help us.”

“Now you come to us for help?” Trel scoffed. “After you insulted my husband?”

“It’s okay,” I said as I waved to Trel. “I still want to help them, but I don’t know if we can. How bad is he hurt?”

“He is cut on the sides and stomach,” Emta said. “He’s in shock, and I don’t think he’ll live through the night. I ran all the way here, in the next valley over, I was attacked by dinosaurs bigger than those.” She nodded to the balaur bondocs.

“The next valley over?” Sheela asked.

“Yeah,” Emta coughed. “I beat them off, and then ran the rest of the way here.”

“In the dark, with your arm and chest like that?” I asked.

“I would have gotten here sooner, but I didn’t know exactly where your fort was. Will-Lack just said it was in a clearing in the middle of the redwood forest.”

I glanced up at Sheela, and the stoic warrior actually looked impressed.

“We don’t have anyone with a healing ability,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“Ahhh,” Emta sighed as she closed her eyes.

“That’s not entirely true,” Kacerie said as she and Galmine stepped back into the light. Galmine carried some of our horseradish and garlic on her hands, and Kacerie held up her needles.

“I don’t know how much that will help,” I said as I nodded at the needle.

“What is it?” Emta asked as she tried to look up toward Galmine and Kacerie.

“We have a solution that will help with infection,” I said, “and we have a needle and thread to sew up wounds, but I don’t know if--”

“Please help us!” Emta gasped. “Victor, please. I’m sorry I was such a hot head with you. I didn’t want to admit what I know now: We can’t survive on our own. We need to join with your group. You’ve already helped us before. You are a…” Emta coughed again, and more blood dribbled out her mouth. “... good man.”

I looked up at my friends and started doing the math in my head. It would be really hard to make it back to their fort during the night, but even if I could somehow lead the dinos through there while I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me, I didn’t know exactly how many hours I had until dawn.

And then how many hours I had left until the winged man showed up at our fort and tried to take Liahpa.

Even if we got to Zoru in time, there was no telling if we’d be able to help the purple-furred monkey creature. All we could do is clean out his wounds and then sew him up. Even though Kacerie had done a good job with Nicole’s leg, sewing up someone innards was a lot different from a light flesh wound. He was probably a lost cause, and I’d take a significant risk rushing out there with hopes to save him.

I sighed and tried to think of any upside to trying to save Zoru. I hated to think about it in numbers, but I had my own tribe to protect, and I knew that risking myself would be risking them.

“I was the only one who didn’t want to join you,” Emta said, and I figured she was guessing at my hesitation. “Even if you can’t save him, I’ll vote to join you if you just come back with me. It would show that you care for us, and that was all I wanted. Again, I’m sorry I was so mean to you when we first met. I have excuses, but none of those matter now. I just don’t want my friend to die. I don’t want any of my friends to die.” Her hand squeezed mine, and her eyes stared intently into mine as her hair wiggled across her shoulders.

“The flying man is coming back in the morning,” I said. “He’s coming to our camp.”

“How do you know?” Emta asked.

“We just do,” I said.

“If we hurry, you can be back before he arrives,” Emta said as she tried to sit up. “We can bring them all back with you. We’ll all fight him. Well, I’ll help you fight him. Everyone else isn’t very strong.”

“I don’t think you can make the trip back in your condition,” I said.

“This is nothing,” she wheezed. “I’ve been through worse. I’ll be fine in four or five hours.”

“Really?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

Emta stared into my eyes for a few moments, and then she sighed. “Alright, I’m pretty hurt, but I’ll live. My arm won’t grow back for a few days, but my chest will be healed by morning.”

“That is still impressive,” Sheela said.

“But you aren’t going anywhere,” I said to Emta.

“Does that mean you’ll help them?” the olive skinned woman asked, and I exhaled.

Then I looked up to my friends for a gut check.

“No,” Trel spat. “You saved them once, and they were ungrateful.”

“It was just me!” Emta hissed. “I was ungrateful. I’m sorry, please forgive me. Trel is your name?”

“You will call me by my full name. It is Trel-Idil-Iria, Duchess of family Iria, and first wife of Victor--”

“I’ll call you whatever you want,” Emta interrupted. “I said we will join you. Victor knows what we can do, I’m sure an intelligent woman like you has uses for us?”

“Hmmm,” Trel sighed, and then she shrugged. “Yes.”

“Victor,” Galmine said, and I looked across the fire to her. “We should help them. Then we can bring them back with us so we can be a bigger family.”

Kacerie nodded, and Liahpa did as well. Then I saw Emerald open her fingers and slowly close her fist as she smiled wide at me. I was correct more times than I was wrong when I translated her gestures, and I knew that she was telling me to build my empire and acquire more people that would be in my debt.

I looked over to Sheela, and the cat-woman nodded. “Your dinosaurs were just insurance. Even if you do not make it back in time, we will defeat the winged man.”

“It only took us an hour or so to make it there a few days ago,” Kacerie said. “We can get there, do what we can for Zoru, and then return before the sun comes up. There is plenty of time.”

“It’s going to take a lot longer than an hour to make it there in the dark,” I said as I released Emta’s hand and stood from her side. “So we had best get going.”

“Thank you, Victor!” the tusked-woman gasped as her hair waved at me.

“Who is going with you?” Kacerie asked.

“You,” I said as I looked at the rest of my friends. “Everyone else needs to work on the trap for this asshole. I’ll take the balaurs with me and leave the troodons.” I hesitated when I realized that I was going to be leaving my friends alone with the small predators. I don’t know if my orders will hold up if I am far away, but they had with the trikes, parasaurses, and Jinx. “I’ll ask them to hide and then protect you when he lands.”

“We will kill the idiot male,” Trel hissed, and Sheela and Liahpa nodded.

“Galmine, how quickly can you make another batch of poultice?”

“About half an hour,” she said. “Maybe an hour. I’ll need--”

“Too long!” Emta coughed. “He is dying. Can’t you take her with you?”

“Hmmm,” I said as I thought through the plan. It was already going to be dangerous enough trying to get to the beach at night, but Galmine was a liability because she couldn’t move fast enough to avoid attacks.

But I didn’t have an hour to wait.

“Can you mix while we ride on the back of Tom?” I asked Galmine. “Even with the rain?”

“Yes!” she laughed. “I will do everything I can to help this poor man. The rain will mean I don’t need to bring water with us.”

“I just want it to be a quick adventure,” I said as I ordered Tom to run over to us. The whole plan was making me uneasy, but it was still storming out, and I felt confident that Emerald had told me the truth about the winged man leaving in the morning. This was a risk, but it would mean that our tribe would more than double, and then we would all be a lot safer.

I just had to ride hard tonight, through the dark, drizzling rain and through a jungle filled with all sorts of aggressive dinosaurs.

Okay, so maybe this wasn’t such a great idea, but I was the only guy who could do it, and I didn’t want Zoru to die.

“Galmine, get everything you need,” I said as I gestured to Tom.

“I have it all,” she said as she picked up three bowls and a cluster of herbs. I helped her get on Tom’s back, and then I helped Kacerie settle into her saddle.

Then I turned around to review the plan with everyone, and I found Emerald standing right behind me. She touched her chest and then pointed at Tom.

“You want to come?” I asked, and she nodded.

“I don’t think that is a good idea,” I replied, “It is going to be hard for me to focus on steering Tom and the balaurs while I--”

She interrupted me by shaking her head, pointing at her eyes, and then gesturing to the surrounding blackness.

“Wait, you can see?”

Emerald nodded and then pointed to the largest gem on her forehead. Suddenly, it pulsed to life, and I had to cover my eyes with my arm as a purple light hit me right in the face.

The light was gone an instant later, but I turned to see that she was looking away from me.

And the light from her forehead was illuminating the wet grass for about forty feet.

“Damn,” I gasped. “What else can you do?”

She shrugged, and I saw her lips curl up into a smile.

“Okay, Emerald. You can guide my sleigh tonight. Get on.”

She nodded, and the purple spotlight coming from her head bobbed up and down. Then she scampered up onto Tom’s saddle.

“Be safe,” I said to Sheela, Liahpa, and Trel.

“We will,” Sheela said, and then I gave both her and Trel a kiss before I climbed up Tom. Then I gave them one last look, ordered the troodons to hide in the grass and protect my friends, and then rode Tom to the gate. Katie and Tom both used their horns to help us open the double doors, and then I dismounted so that I could help her put them back in their proper holes so that the gate was closed behind us.

Then we were trotting through the dark night and rain while the balaur bondoc chased the edges of Emerald’s purple spotlight.

Chapter 13

We made it out of our valley without much of a problem, and I realized that the rain was actually a bit of a blessing in disguise. Emerald’s purple gemstone light was really bright, and it probably would have gotten all kinds of attention as Tom ran across the foothills. The light rain was making visibility shitty everywhere, and I doubted anything farther away than two hundred yards would be able to see the light as we trampled past.

I was trying to keep a rough track of time as we rode, but the rain was cold as fuck, and I found that my attention was occupied by trying to think warm thoughts while also steering Tom and our team of raptors. I noticed that neither Galmine nor Emerald shivered as we rode, but Kacerie was, and I pulled her off her seat and into my lap so we could share body heat.

There were two choices of a westward route in the next valley. I figured that the riverbed-road which cut through the center of the jungle might actually be a river now, so I decided to continue on the north route at the foothills. We made it about halfway through the valley before I heard the balaurs all hiss together like a den of coiled snakes.

Then the green feathered raptors jumped into our ranks.

I recognize my old enemy deinoychus antirrhopus as soon as I saw them. There were only four of them, but they were twice the size of my balaur bondocs, and they made a B-line right for Phoebe. She was the smallest of my group, and I guessed that the green feathered raptors thought she was the easiest prey.

They didn’t realize that none of my dinos were easy prey.

None of the balaurs were as agile or fast as the troodons, but Phoebe was the quickest of the bunch, and she twisted around the first bite that the larger raptor tried to catch her with before she spun around and dove under Tom’s legs while he trotted. It was a maneuver that the larger raptors hadn’t expected, but two of them gave chase, and ducked their heads as they tried to dodge under Tom’s belly.

Then I ordered the big trike to pull the ultimate belly-flop.

He was running, but he didn’t seem to care about that as much as he cared about my orders. Tom kind of Supermanned out with his rear legs pointing back and his front legs pointing forward as he flopped, and I heard the satisfying squishing sound of two Great Dane sized raptors turning into pancakes.

Then the shockwave of the trike’s bounce traveled up through the saddle, and Galmine almost flew out of her saddle.

“Shit!” I shouted as I grabbed the gray-skinned woman’s waist as she started to slide away from me. I had to twist around in my saddle, but Kacerie’s weight on my lap kept me from following Galmine down off the trike’s back.

Galmine’s body was wet from the rain, and she let out a gasp as she started to slide out of my arms.

I hissed through my clenched teeth, and tried to wrap my arm around her better, but then Emerald grabbed the gray-skinned woman’s arm, and we both yanked her back into her seat.

“My bowls!” Galmine shouted.

“I’ve got them!” Kacerie yelled, but I didn’t have time to look. The remaining two raptors were still trying to chase Phoebe, and I had to focus on running her around the group of her other friends so that they could come at the two larger dinos from the sides.

The closest green raptor made a sliding lunge at Phoebe’s legs, but I saw the movement coming, and I ordered the smaller female to leap in the air. She missed getting chomped by mere inches, and the green raptor slid on his belly with an annoyed hiss.

Then his hiss turned into a scream when Ross and Joey tore into his back. With their double claws.

The last raptor turned his head around when he heard his friend scream, and I used the opportunity to command Rachel, Monica, and Chandler to intercept the much larger dinosaur. The three of them hit him right in the chest, and the females locked their jaws around his throat while Chandler raked his feet across their opponent’s chest with a karate looking kick.

The one that Joey and Ross were fighting rolled over, and tried to snap at them, but they easily avoided his teeth, and then tore into his belly with twin strikes. It let out a startled gasp, and then my two balaurs jumped off his dying body so they could charge the one that the other three were engaging.

But then that green raptor fell, and it was quickly torn to pieces by the smaller raptors that I controlled.

“Looks like it hasn’t been their day, their week, their month, or even their year. Everyone alright?” I commanded Tom to get his feet under him and glanced at my friends.

“Yes!” Galmine said as she leaned into me and Emerald. It felt like all three of the women were sitting in my lap now, but it didn’t bother me, I was just thankful that no one had fallen off and none of my balaur bondocs were hurt.

“Let’s get moving!” I shouted at the dinos, and they turned their bloody faces away from where they were chewing on the green feathered raptors so that they could run out in front of Tom again.

We didn’t run into any more dinos in this valley, and the rain started to lessen to a sprinkle by the time we made it to the next set of hills. I took it as a good sign, and I could almost smell the salt on the ocean when we crested the top hill.

“We’ll be at the dunes in another minute,” I said to my friends, and they all nodded. “How is everyone doing?”

“I’m fine,” Galmine said as she smiled at us as she held up the bowls. “I mixed the poultice using Tom’s trotting motion.”

“I’m cold, but I’ll be okay,” Kacerie said.

Emerald tapped on her temple, shook her head, and then wrapped her arms around herself in a hug.

“You can’t keep the light up for much longer?” I asked, and she nodded. I noticed that she was actually starting to shiver like Kacerie, and I adjusted the way I was sitting so that I could wrap my arms around each of them.

We made it to the dunes, but as soon as we passed them and came to the obsidian stream, Emerald’s light began to flicker like a lightning bug. Her body felt cold in my arms, and I let go of Kacerie so that I could rub the green-scaled woman’s arms and shoulders.

“Just a little longer!” I said over the wind and rain sprinkles, and Emerald nodded as she leaned her body back into my chest.

Then we were at the jungle entrance to Quwaru’s fort, and I instructed everyone to get off.

“Kacerie and Emerald, can you walk?” I asked as I picked Galmine up in my arms. “I’m going to push Tom through the jungle, but a stray branch might knock you off.”

“I’m fine,” Kacerie replied through chattering teeth, and Emerald nodded as the beam from her forehead flickered again. For half a moment we were in complete darkness, and then the purple light came on, and I nodded for them to walk behind me and the raptors.

Then we pushed through the dark jungle trail.

Emerald’s light was almost non-existent now, but it was still enough of a glow for me to see where the balaurs were ahead of me, but I couldn’t really see where I was putting my feet because I was carrying Galmine, and I half stumbled a few times over roots.

Finally we made it through the jungle and to the grass hill inside of the ravine. Emerald’s light finally went dark, and we were bathed in a few seconds of darkness.

“Shit,” I growled. “Emerald, can you--”

“She’s fainted,” Kacerie said. “I’m holding onto her.”

“Damn, I’ll carry her the rest of the way.”

“That’s fine, Victor,” Galmine said as I put her down. “I can walk. Thank you for carrying me.”

“Kacerie,” I said as I reached out to where I heard her voice. “I can’t really see you. Can you--”

Light suddenly appeared from behind us, and I turned to see two figures holding torches standing on top of the hill crest.

“You came,” Quwaru said, and her mouth smiled almost as brightly as the torch she carried.

“Yeah,” I said as I looked at the woman standing next to her. It was Nomi, and her dark hair still covered her face so that she wasn’t exposed to the light from the torch that she held up. For half a moment, I felt a twinge of worry that the one person on their tribe who could use her ability to take away mine was here, but then I recalled Nomi saying that she lived on a dark world, and I guessed that she had some sort of night vision.

“Thank you,” the red-skinned woman said after she and Nomi jogged to us.

“We want to help,” I said.

“Is Emta okay?” Quwaru asked. “She obviously made it to you, but I do not see her here.”

“She’s hurt,” I said as I moved to pick up the unconscious Emerald, “but she said she would be fine.”

“What is wrong with this one?” Nomi asked as she pointed at Emerald.

“She fainted,” I said. “Let’s get inside of your cave and out of the cold.

“Of course, sorry,” Quwaru said as she bowed her head slightly.

We walked slowly up the hill, and then down the other side. I saw that their rope bridge was repaired, but I didn’t bother asking how they had done it. I just transferred Emerald to a fireman’s carry over my left shoulder and focused on getting across the bridge without dropping her.

“Is she okay?” Keefaye asked as soon as I made it across.

“Yeah,” I said, “she’s just cold. Do you have a fire I could--”

“That way,” the golden-horned woman pulled on my shoulder, and I gave a quick glance behind me to see Quwaru helping Galmine step across the bridge. It sounded like the two women were chatting, but I couldn’t hear them, so I turned around and went with Keefaye deeper into their fort.

The inside of the cave was smaller than I had thought. The first room was only about twenty feet by twenty, but there were scorch marks on a wall that looked as if it had been kind of half-shaped from a pile of rubble. Keefaye pulled me to the corner of the room, and we slipped through a narrow gap around the smoothed-out rubble and into a room almost four times as large.

There were three campfires going in the middle of the floor. One had a roasting spit built out of bamboo sitting across the open flame with a fish cooking, one fire had a collection of wet clothes laid out to dry, and the third was where everyone else was gathered. I saw Zoru’s prone body laid out on a grass mat, and Adella was holding onto his left hand.

Urka, Adella, and Youleena turned as I set Emerald down on a mat next to the drying clothes, and their concerned frowns turned to half smiles.

“Victor!” Adella sang, and she set down Zoru’s hand so that she could stand up and walk over to me. Her steps looked a lot like dance movements, and I was a bit surprised when she hugged me tightly.

“Thanks for coming,” Urka squeaked, and I nodded to her as soon as I parted from the woman with the scaled mermaid looking-legs.

“Yes, thank you,” Youleena said as she drifted over to me. I half expected her to hug me also, but she just took my hand in her’s and gently kissed the skin there.

“Uhhh, well, I don’t know for sure if I can help, but I bought three of my friends. One of them fainted from the travel, but the other two--” I looked back over my shoulder just as Kacerie and Galmine walked through the doorway with Quwaru and Nomi. “They might be able to help.”

“Let’s take a look at what we’ve got here,” Kacerie said as we both moved to Zoru’s side.

“He’s pretty ripped up,” I sighed as Youleena lifted the rags that they were using to cover his wounds. His chest was sliced open almost as bad as Emta’s was, and there was a long trail of deep puncture wounds on his stomach. His left leg was also cut up pretty bad, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding as badly as the wounds on his stomach.

“Alcohol?” Kacerie asked as she leaned over him and sniffed.

“Yes,” Keefaye said. “I can bless water and remove all bacteria.”

“Do you have a jug of it somewhere?” Kacerie asked, and the group all pointed to a stone pitcher that I guessed Youleena had formed.

“Okay,” Kacerie said as Galmine sat next to her. “I need to sterilize the needle and my hands. Galmine and Victor too. Someone pour it out so we can--”

Before Kacerie even started speaking, Urka had grabbed the jug, and the three of us all rubbed our hands together under a steady flow of alcohol that the small blue-haired woman poured.

“I don’t know if I can fix his stomach,” Kacerie said as she rubbed the alcohol on her needle and thread, “but I can work on his chest. Victor, can you hold open the two flaps of his skin at the bottom? Someone get me more light, and I need someone else to hold him down in case he wakes up.”

My lover’s voice had taken on a commanding edge, and the group hurried to execute her orders. Nomi held the torch over the area so that we had light, Quwaru and Youleena held Zoru’s body on the ground, and I pried open his cut more so that Kacerie could look deeper into the wound.

Then she moved her fingers inside of the furry purple fox-man and started stitching.

No one spoke for a few minutes, then Kacerie asked me to pull some of his muscles apart by his ribs so that she could stitch some sort of organ closed. I had seen my parents perform plenty of operations, so I wasn’t squeamish, but I saw Adeela and Youleena look away from Kacerie’s blood covered fingers.

“Pour more alcohol,” Kacerie ordered when she put a new thread through the needle. Urka poured it again, and Kacerie sterilized the tool before going back to work.

“How did you learn how to do this?” Adella asked. “Sorry, I don’t know your name.”

“Kacerie,” my friend replied without looking up from her work. Her pink hair actually started to fall over her face, but Nomi’s left hand darted out like a lighting strike and quickly coiled up the mane in her fingers.

“Thanks,” Kacerie said, but she still didn’t look up from her needlework.

“Are you a doctor on your world?” Quwaru asked.

“Ahhh, no,” Kacerie said. “Sorry, I’m just trying to sew up everything that looks cut open. I need to focus, can we talk--”

“Of course!” the horned woman said apologetically.

“Victor, can you hold open this muscle here?” Kacerie asked.

“Yeah,” I said as I pulled the part she wanted open. Her bone needle passed through whatever organ was underneath, and then she let out a long sigh.

“Okay, I think that’s it for everything under the muscles. Now we’ll get the muscles and skin. Then I’ll work on the other cuts.”

“Thank you so much,” Youleena gushed. “You don’t know how--”

“This still might not work,” I said. “Kacerie and Galmine will do everything they can, but I told Emta that it might not be enough.”

“We appreciate you coming out here in the rain and darkness to help him,” Quwaru said, and the other women nodded.

What felt like another hour passed as Kacerie sewed, put new thread through the needle, and then repeated the sterilization process. Finally, the massive cut on the chest was finished, and Kacerie rubbed the back of her hand over her tired eyes.

“That’s the best I can do,” she sighed. “Galmine, it’s now up to you for that cut. I’ll look at his stomach now.”

“This will help him feel better,” the green-eyed woman hummed as she began to spread her poultice on his stitched up wound. The other women watched with interest, but no one spoke.

“I don’t think these puncture wounds have gone into his stomach organ,” Kacerie said as she leaned over the wounds. Emerald had woken up and now held Kacerie’s long pink hair back away from her face, but Kacerie didn’t even seem to notice it.

“You don’t smell acid?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Anyone else have a good sense of smell?” Kacerie asked, and the other women all shook their head.

“Zoru does,” Urka said.

“Decision time,” Kacerie said as she turned to me. “I can cut open the muscles on his middle and see what his stomach looks like. If he’s not wounded, then he’ll lose even more blood for no reason. I don’t know how much blood he has actually lost so that could kill him.”

“Other option is that you just stitch up the holes and hope he heals through?” I asked, and she nodded.

I turned to Quwaru, and the beautiful succubus bit her lower lip. “Please, do whatever you think is correct. We won’t blame you if it doesn’t work.”

“Just stitch him up,” I said, and Kacerie went to work.

It was hard to keep track of time, but my legs, back, and shoulders were aching when she finally finished stitching up the holes on Zoru’s stomach and the gash on his leg. I hadn’t even done the heavy lifting, Kacerie had, yet she didn’t seem tired.

“That’s the best I can do,” she finally said, and then everyone let out a collective breath as Galmine began to apply her herbal mixture.

“Thank you again,” Quwaru said, and the rest of the women of her tribe echoed her words.

“We need to get back,” I said as I forced my tired legs to push me off the ground. My nerves were all sorts of raw, and it felt like sand was in my eyes when I blinked.

“You should stay and rest,” Adella sang in her sweet voice.

“We can’t,” I said. “The winged man who did this to Zoru is coming to our camp.”

“He is?” Keefaye gasped.

“Yeah,” I said. “Long story, but we have a plan to take him out. Quwaru, can I speak with you privately for a moment?”

“Of course,” she said as she uncoiled her long red legs. She stood with the grace of a dancer, and then she seemed to float across the stone floor toward me. I gestured for her to walk with me into the corner, and I leaned in toward her so that we could whisper.

“I spoke with--”

“I know what you are going to say,” she interrupted me with a soft whisper. “We wish to join you. I knew the moment I touched your hand that you are a wonderful person. I knew you would come when Emta asked you for help, and I know that you will protect us if we join with you. Emta was the only one with complaints, but she agreed with me before she left. It is too hard for us to survive on our own. We need your protection. I will give you anything you want if you take us in.”

“I’m in charge. I’ll seek advice from you, and I’ll ask your opinion on matters, but there won’t be a line of separation between our clan. You are all in my tribe now, we are not sharing the fort with you like we are two separate families. Understand?”

“As I said,” Quwaru whispered as her silver eyes burned into mine. “I’ll do or give you anything you want. Anything.”

“That’s great news,” I whispered, and she sighed with relief. “You don’t need to give me anything. I just need you all to work hard and be nice to my friends.”

“We will do it,” she agreed quickly. “Thank you, Victor.”

“Zoru is in no condition to move,” I said as I glanced back at the unconscious man, “and we have to get back before dawn. I’ll come back in a few days and you all can pack your stuff on my dinosaurs, then you can come back to our camp. We might be cramped for a day, but--”

“We’ll make it work,” she said.

“Are you all okay for a few days?” I asked. “Do you have enough food and water?”

“Yes, Victor,” she said as she nodded.

“Alright,” I said and then I turned toward the group as I heard Kacerie laugh. Adella was laughing also, and I kind of wished that I had heard the joke.

“We will get along just fine,” Quwaru purred.

“Yeah,” I said as I gave her a smile. “Now we have to go.”

“I look forward to you coming back,” she said as she held her hand out to me. I clasped it, and she smiled sweetly at me before we let go of each other.

“Kacerie, Galmine, and Emerald,” I called out to my friends. “We have to get going.”

My three friends nodded, and the group of women that were soon to be absorbed into my tribe followed us to the narrow passage that led to their front room, and then we trickled out through the narrow gap around the rubble.

Then my stomach dropped down to my feet.

It was light outside.

“No,” I growled as I ran to the edge of their cave and looked up into the sky. The clouds were gone, but it was closer to mid-morning than dawn. We had lost track of time during the surgery, and I guessed that the winged man would be hitting our camp at any minute.

Maybe he had already arrived.

“We need to go!” I shouted at my friends, but they didn’t need any encouragement. They saw the light, and they knew that we didn’t have much time to get back.

I grabbed the railings of the rope bridge and half-ran, half-stumbled across as I did the time math in my head. If I really pushed Tom, we could probably make it back in thirty minutes, and the sun did still look kind of low in the sky. The big flying man might not have actually left his camp yet. We could still be okay, or maybe he had already arrived at our camp, and Sheela had ended him just as our plan dictated.

“Victor!” I heard Kacerie scream behind me. Her voice was filled with terror, and I spun around to see her standing at the first part of the rope bridge with her finger pointed in the air right above me.

Then I realized that the fucker we were worrying about hadn’t gone to our camp.

He had come here instead.

Massive hands grabbed my shoulders, and dark wings came down around me. The rope bridge made the sound of a bass guitar string being plucked, and Kacerie screamed again as she started to fall. I screamed also, but then I saw Emerald grab onto my lover before she could tumble down into the water far below.

I didn’t fall. Instead, I felt the hands squeeze tighter around my arms as the wings beat around me. Then I was floating in the air, and I saw Quwaru throw herself toward the edge of the cliff so that she could help Emerald pull Kacerie up.

Both Galmine and Emerald were pointing at me, but I couldn’t hear anything but the sound of the fucker’s wings beating.

And we were moving really fast.

“Fuck you!” I shouted as I tried to bring my arms up to punch the man. I might as well of tried to wrestle with a giant though, my arms couldn't move in his grip, and every second I spent thrashing did nothing to change the fact that we were gaining altitude.

I tried to kick up at him, but my body didn’t quite bend enough, and my foot only went up to my chest.

“She would want you.” The man’s voice was a dark rumble that I felt vibrate in my chest through his legs. “But she won’t know. Besides, we have too many men, anyway.”

I looked down and felt my stomach tumble. The jungle below us looked like a blanket of ruffled folds that were supposed to be valleys, and the ocean was way off to my right. Dinosaurland stretched off in every direction I could see, and I realized that the planet was massive.

I had no idea how high up I was, and I didn’t really want to find out.

“Good bye,” he rumbled.

Then he let go of me.

Chapter 14

“No!” I shouted as I felt the pressure in my shoulders go away.

I was tumbling through the air like a spinning coin, and my stomach lurched from the dizzying array of blue, green, and brown.

Then my stomach filled with disappointment.

There were hundreds of thousands of ways to die in Dinosaurland. I should probably have died in the first hour I arrived on this dangerous world, but I’d beaten all the odds and survived. I’d met Sheela, Trel, Galmine, and Kacerie, and fallen in love with them. We had built a home that was safe, we’d shared laughter, hopes, and dreams. We had come to view this crazy world as our own, and I’d tamed many powerful dinosaurs to protect us.

I’d felt kind of invincible, but at the end, I was just a man who could die like anyone else.

And my death was quickly approaching.

I realized I was screaming, and I closed my mouth as I tried to level myself out in my fall. Had anyone ever survived a skydiving accident where their chute didn’t open? I kind of remembered hearing about it, but that didn’t mean I would.

Fuck.

I wanted to scream again as the ground seemed to take up all of my vision. Dinosaurland was so beautiful, so lush, and so amazing. I glanced left and saw the curve of the horizon. I’d once thought that we might have been on a massive spaceship, but finding water for a well and the slope of the sky told me that this was an actual planet.

I had thought that it was going to be my planet.

King of Dinosaurs. What the fuck was I thinking? I was going to die, but what saddened me most was to know that my friends were going to miss me.

No one missed me on Earth. I hadn’t mattered there, but I mattered here. I mattered to six amazing women and a new group of friends who were counting on my protection. I wasn’t going to be there for them. I had failed them.

I was screaming again. The ground was a green velvet blanket that wanted to wrap around me. The air was cold.

Any moment now, and it would all end. No more Dinosaurland. No more fort building. No more women to hold at night. No more survival.

No more Victor Shelby.

Just nothing.

I hoped I’d see my parents.

But then I saw a single pteranodon flying below me.

It was hard to tell how wide his wings were, but he looked like a floating angel against the green backdrop of the jungle below us.

He was my only chance.

I didn’t have any time to go through the logistics of my plan, but I focused on calling him to me as I fell. He was off to my right somewhat, so I tried to angle myself over so that I could fall next to him. Unfortunately, the change in my body position only made me seem to fall faster, and I sped past him.

“Fuck!” I growled as I looked up. Then my heart leapt in my throat when I saw the winged dinosaur fold his wings to his side and dive toward me.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” I shouted as I reached my arms up toward the pteranodon. It still seemed like it was really far away from me.

And I could see the details of the jungle trees below me.

Then I felt the pteranodon’s feet smack into my forearms, and I shouted with joy.

I grabbed at its legs, slipped, and then made another attempt. The flying dino’s legs were a bit thicker than my arms, and its feet looked like longer versions of my foot. It couldn’t really grab onto me that well, but the helpful guy was trying his best to latch onto me.

Then my fingers closed around his ankle just under where they joined his wings, and his feet kind of hooked around mine. I almost screamed with joy, but then I looked down and gasped when I saw that we were probably only a hundred feet or so from the ground.

“Open your wings!” I shouted up at the pteranodon, and he let out a painful goose honk as he flexed his arms wide.

We slowed, but it was more of a controlled fall than an actual parachute.

“Wider! Hurry!” I shouted as the dinosaur let out another honk of distress. His wings were bent upward against the current of the air, and I felt our momentum start to slow a bit.

I still didn’t think it was enough. His feet weren’t independent of his wings, they were attached, and he was having trouble trying to fight against my weight by flying upward.

I looked at the ground and saw a clearing in the jungle up in the distance. I commanded him to adjust his wings so he wasn’t fighting against the fall, but was instead gliding us toward the grassy field. Surprisingly, this seemed to make our descent slow a bit more, but I knew that we were still falling way too fast.

Then we hit the clearing.

My legs hit the grass first. I tried to kick up, or run, or do anything to lessen the fall, but as soon as my boots hit the grass, I realized that a good chunk of our downward momentum had now been turned into forward momentum. It was like trying to step out of a moving car, and I couldn’t do anything else besides let go of the pteranodon so that I didn’t yank him down with me.

Then I was tumbling.

My breath exploded from my chest. My head smacked into the grass. My hip drilled into the dirt. My shoulders pile-drived into Dinosaurland.

I lost count of the times I tumbled, but I opened my eyes to blue sky, small fluffy clouds, and a ringing in my ear.

For what felt like a lifetime, all I could do was blink and wonder if I was in heaven.

Then the pteranodon let out a honk that sounded like a question, and he tapped my chest with his beak.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, and the pteranodon let out another honk.

“I’m alive,” I grunted, and then rolled over to my side so I could push myself up on my feet. My legs felt like I’d just run five miles, my hips felt bruised all over, my right shoulder was numb, and my head hurt like I was hungover, but I was alive.

I was alive.

“Yes!” I shouted as I raised my arms in the air. My right shoulder protested the movement, but I didn’t care.

I was alive.

“Thank you,” I gasped to the pteranodon as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He was a big fella, maybe as big as the black feathered Utahraptors but with less muscle mass. He was all scales, and they glittered shades of green, blue, and yellow in the sunlight. I couldn’t really tell how wide his wings were, but I guessed about thirty feet across, maybe even fourty.

The flying dinosaur let out a honk when I hugged him, but it didn’t sound like he was protesting. It was more of a “it’s cool, bro, I’m happy to help out” sounding honk.

Then he honked again, and it sounded kind of terrified.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” I asked as let go of his neck and looked at his face.

He was looking behind me, and I turned around a second too late.

The big fucker with the black wings and tusks was flying across the clearing. His fist slammed right into my stomach, and my body went numb as I tumbled away from him. It was the fall from the pteranodon all over again as I rolled across the grass, but this time my entire body was numb with pain.

“Hmmmm,” I heard him rumble after my vision cleared. “I’m surprised you are alive.”

I felt something press on my chest, and I looked down to see that his black taloned foot was pretty much the size of my rib cage. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do anything, but look up at the big asshole who was about to crush my chest.

Then the pteranodon slammed his sharp beak into his face.

The man growled and stumbled off me as he brought his massive hands up to cover his eyes. I still couldn’t seem to force air into my lungs, but I managed to ignore the agony in my body so that I could scurry to my feet.

The pteranodon poked at the big fucker’s face again, but the winged man had his hands blocking his eyes, and I think the attack only made contact with the palm of his hand.

I sucked in a painful gasp of air after I stood, and the darkness at the edges of my vision cleared a bit. I ordered the pteranodon to stab at the big man’s crotch, and the asshole let out a bark of anger when my dinosaur stabbed his beak into the big man’s groin area.

Then he brought one of his hands down from his face so he could cover his vitals, and I commanded the pteranodon to stab him in the face again.

The man staggered away from my dinosaur, but I knew that the victory was only temporary. Yeah, my new dinosaur was about as tall as a horse, but the black winged asshole was probably eight feet tall himself, loaded with muscles, and he probably weighed three hundred pounds.

As soon as he got his wits about him, he’d go on the offensive.

So, I couldn’t let him get his wits together.

I sprinted toward the man and tucked my left shoulder down so I could slam into his stomach. He grunted when I hit him, and his bare feet stumbled back, but he didn’t go down. Instead, he thrashed out with the ham sized hand that had been guarding his groin, and I had to duck down to avoid getting clobbered.

Then, without really thinking, I twisted up from my duck and slammed my right fist into his groin.

He gasped with shock and staggered back again as he swung out with his arm. The man’s wrist was probably the size of my knee, and I knew that he’d knock me out if he managed to hit me in the face.

I jumped away from his next swing and then kicked him in the groin again. He took another three steps back from me, dropped his hand from his face, and then aimed a punch at my new pal. The strike might have hit the pteranodon, but I ordered the flying dino to hop away, and the creature let out a honk at the big winged man which sounded all sorts of mocking.

“You control the creatures of this world?” he growled as his three eyes turned to glare at me. The big man was all sorts of ugly, and I might have made a comment about his looks if I wasn’t struggling to breathe or worried that he was about to kill me with his ham-sized fists.

Instead, I ordered the pteranodon to jump into the air, open its wide wings, and then start to fly away. The ugly man with the three eyes watched it go for a few seconds, and then he turned his attention back to me.

That was exactly what I wanted since the pteranodon was just gonna circle back around in order to try to come and dive bomb him from behind.

I just had to survive the big asshole’s attacks for a few seconds.

“I changed my mind,” he growled as he stepped toward me. “I will take you with me. She will reward me for bringing you to her.”

“Who are you talking about?” I tried to say, but I was still wheezing, and it came out like “Ohhh youuut?”

The big man dived toward me.

I expected the movement from the way he set his back leg against the grass, and I rolled to the side just as he dashed forward. My bruised shoulder took the hit on the grass, and I gasped, but his arms also missed me, and I managed to complete my roll and end up on my feet.

Then I was running.

I couldn’t really think of anything else to do. This guy was two feet taller than me and twice my weight. He had claws on his toes, teeth on his wings, and tusks on his face. I doubted even having a spear would do me any good, but my eyes still searched the ground for some sort of weapon as I ran.

I didn’t see anything, and I heard his wings flap behind me.

I juked to my right and then rolled left as I ran. His wings passed over me, and he let out an annoyed growl. I was back on my feet, but as I spun around to try to run, his hand came out to grab the front of my shirt.

My body acted without me thinking, and I knocked his hand aside with my forearm and kicked out at his groin again. The toe of my work boot slammed right into what I guessed were his nuts, and he let out another angry shout as he doubled over.

His wings spun around, and the teeth on the outside rim of the limbs tore across the shoulder of my shirt as I spun away at the last moment.

“I have changed my mind again,” he growled as he spun in a circle and extended his wings out to their full length like some sort of demon. “I will kill you.”

He flapped his wings again and then crouched down a bit. I knew he was going to try to pounce on me, and I realized that there was no way I’d be able to escape his wide wings and long arms if I tried to flee.

So I ignored the terror in my stomach and charged him instead.

My movement forward caught him off guard, but then the pteranodon slammed its beak right into his back as it swooped in from the sky, and the asshole’s three eyes opened impossibly wide when the beak punched out of his chest.

He was too tall to punch in the face, so I went for the balls again, and aimed a jump kick right into the bulge. My boot connected with the combined force of my sprint and the weight of my body coming down from my jump. The big fucker screamed a horrific trumpet blast of anger, and then he spun around in a circle as he tried to dislodge the pteranodon from his back.

I almost got sliced into ribbons by the blades on his wing, but I dove to the ground just in time. I rolled to my right as his foot tried to stomp me, and then I somersaulted across the grass and came up a good fifteen feet away from him.

I ordered the pteranodon to pull its beak out of the man’s back as he struggled to throw the dinosaur off, but instead of ordering the dino to stab him again, I told him to just jump in the air and get some distance, he did so, and narrowly avoided getting sliced up by the man’s bat wings.

“I’m going to kill you!” he shouted as he spun back to me. I would have thought that the whole “dinosaur beak speared through the chest” would have stopped him from shouting, or breathing, or done something to slow him down, but it actually just looked like it pissed him off, so I decided that it was time for Plan B.

I turned and ran away from him as fast as I could.

There was a good hundred yards of the grassy field between the edge of the jungle and me, and the flying fucker probably had a speed advantage with his long legs and wings, but I really didn’t have any other options.

I heard his wings flap, and I fought against the desire to glance back over my shoulder as I ran. Instead, I focused on the distant jungle trees and pumped my tired legs and sore arms as furiously as I could.

His wings beat again behind me, but they didn’t sound as close as they did the first time, and I guessed that I was gaining distance. Then his wings beat again a few moments later, and they sounded really close.

I dove forward across the grass on my belly like I was trying to steal home plate, and I felt the fucker’s thick fingers fumble across my shirt as he tried to grab me while he flew past. I looked up and saw him arch his back so that his teeth covered wings would swoop him higher in the sky. For half a moment, it looked like he was actually flying away from me, but then I saw him glance over his shoulder, and he started to turn around in the air.

I sprang to my feet, ignored the feeling of my burning lungs and continued my sprint to the jungle. The good news was that I could see him coming at me now, and I could kind of guestimate how long it would take for him to be able to swoop down on me. The bad news was that I could see him now, and I realized that he flew really damn fast.

I couldn’t tell for sure if I was going to be able to get to the trees before he got to me.

“Ahhhhh!” I seethed to myself as I pushed my legs to run harder than they ever had before. I could see the big asshole preparing to dive, but my pteranodon was a bit too far away to attack him.

Then the big winged man dove, and I turned my full attention to the jungle.

I was about ten yards away.

I poured every last ounce of strength and willpower I had into my legs, and then I jumped as soon as I thought I was close enough.

“Arrrrggghhh!” I heard him scream, and then I heard what sounded like a guitar string being plucked.

I rolled on a ground of dead leaves, bounced off a root, and then came up on my ass. I was inside the cover of the jungle, and I turned my head to see that one of the palm-looking jungle trees at the edge of the clearing had been sliced in half. The top part was toppling over, and I saw the three-eyed asshole float down and land on the grass as if he was a ballet dancer.

Then he ran toward me.

“Fuck,” I groaned as I forced myself to my feet and turned away from him. I wasn’t going to be able to keep this up forever. I needed a way to beat the guy, but I couldn’t think of any plan beyond trying to get some more space from him so I could have time to come up with something.

The jungle was just dense enough to keep him from flying through, but it wasn’t dense enough to snare or hammer the massive man as he ran after me. I was still able to twist and turn around trees a bit faster, but he also used his wings to give him a short jumping boost of speed, and he had started to close in on me after a minute or so.

Then I saw another clearing ahead of me through the trees, and I realized I was fucked. I still sprinted toward it, but dread filled my stomach with every step, and I figured that I was going to have to turn around and face fight him toe to toe as soon as we got out of the jungle.

Then I hit the edge of the trees and gasped.

It was a cliff, and there was a sixty foot drop down to a small valley with a twisting river cutting through the center.

In the far distance I saw a herd of stegosauruses drinking at the river.

My pterosaur pal dived toward me, and I jumped off the cliff edge as soon as the three-eyed asshole broke through the trees.

I made the trust-fall grab for the pterosaur’s ankles, and we found each other a lot quicker this time. He let out a honk of annoyance when his wings took my weight, but then he kind of angled his body forward, and we started to glide down to the valley below.

Maybe glide wasn’t quite the best word.

This was a moderately controlled fall that was going to have a rough landing, so I commanded the pterosaur to aim more towards the river rather than the solid ground of the valley. He complied, and I let go of his legs when we were about ten feet over the water so that he wouldn’t get all caught up with my landing.

It looked like I was falling into a part of the river that was right next to the shore, but the water was deep, cold, and fast moving. My body went into a bit of shock when I plunged beneath the surface, and I had to kick my exhausted legs over and over again until I got to the shore.

Then I looked to my right and saw the asshole gliding down toward me on his black wings.

“Fuck this guy,” I growled as I forced myself to stand. I looked away from him and toward the center of the open valley. The group of stegos were about three hundred yards up river, so I forced myself to run again.

The cold water had done me a bit of a favor. My legs didn’t quite burn as much as they did when I was running up through the jungle above, and my shoulder didn’t seem to ache as much. I still felt like I wasn’t running as fast as I was capable of, but I guessed that I’d be able to get close enough to a stego to tame it just as the big three-eyed asshole reached me.

Then looked back over my shoulder and saw he was almost upon me.

Fucking shit, he was way faster in the air than on the ground. My mind spun with options, but I could only come up with two: fight him and probably die, or run where he couldn’t possibly follow me.

I chose the second option, and dove back into the river.

The numbing cold swirled around me. I tugged at me. It pulled me away in a swirl of inky blackness.

The stegos were upriver from me, and there was no way I’d be able to get close enough to them with the current pushing me away.

I was just delaying my death for a few more moments. Soon I’d have to come up for air. Soon I’d have to face this fucker.

I did the only other thing I could think to do. It was a shot in the dark, except it was quite literally a dark river that was pulling me tighter into its embrace.

I reached out with my mind and tried to Tame something that could help me.

Then that something answered, and I felt my body slam into its bulk. The creature was dark and brooding, but it had sensed my stress and wanted to help.

Or maybe it just wanted the meal I promised.

I clutched to its top and felt it swim toward the shore.

I came up out of the water first, and the three-eyed winged man stepped knee deep in the water so that he could grab me. Before he could throttle me with his ham-sized hands, he noticed that I was crouched on the back of something massive, and his three eyes opened wide with alarm.

“What--” he started to say, but then the jaws of the dinosaur-crocodile exploded from the water and chomped down on his waist.

My enemy tried to fly, but he only got one beat of his wings off before the croc slammed sideways. I knew he was going to do a death roll, so I jumped off the massive creature that had just saved my life and tumbled back in the cold water as it began hissing and thrashing.

I drank a lung full of icy water again, swam to the shore, and then crawled out onto the gravelly sand. I almost didn’t have enough strength to move anymore, but I still looked back into the water. My Eye-Q said the crocodile I had befriended was purussaurus brasiliensis, and I guessed it was probably longer than thirty feet. I couldn’t really tell for sure since most of it was in the water thrashing as it tore the three-eyed asshole into pieces.

I thought about the crocodile that had tried to eat me when I first came to Dinosaurland. That guy had been about half the size of this one, and he only rolled around two more times before he slowly sank under the surface of the river with his meal clutched in his six foot long maw.

“Damn,” I sighed with relief as I lay back on the sand and closed my eyes. I was tired, so fucking tired, but I felt something poke me in the stomach, and I opened my eyes to see the big pterosaur looking down at me with a concerned expression on his long face.

“I’m alright,” I said as I rolled to my side, pushed up with my arm, and staggered to my feet. “Just need to keep moving. How far away do you think I am from everyone else?”

The pterosaur honked and then turned his head sideways.

“I know you don’t know,” I chuckled as I started to take a few steps away from the shore of the river. “I’m just making conversation.”

He honked again and then made a kind of frog jump on his legs so that he was keeping pace with me.

“Him?” I asked as I turned back toward the river. “I’m not sure if I actually tamed him. Let me look in my Eye-Q.” I opened back up my menus and then toggled over to the right menu to see the list of dinosaurs which I had tamed. Purussaurus brasiliensis was listed at the bottom.

Did this mean that the giant croc would follow me around? Did this mean that I could tame other large predators? Or had I just gotten lucky?

I focused my thoughts in the water and asked the croc to surface. Nothing happened at first, but then the massive creature surfaced like a submarine and fixed his yellow eyes on me.

“Sorry,” I said, “uhhh, I was just making sure you were okay.” The giant dino-croc made a growling noise that sounded like a tuba making love to a chainsaw.

“Shit,” I laughed. “You don’t have to be all grumpy about it. Yeah, go back and eat. I hope he tastes better than he looks. You can catch up with me later.”

The croc, who I had just decided to name Grumpy, let out another rumble and then sank back into the water of the river.

“Alright, buddy,” I said as I turned to the pteranodon, “my friends are going to worry about me. I have to get back to them, but I have no idea where I am.”

The pteranodon let out a honk, and I rolled my eyes.

“I know I’m on land, silly. Which direction is the ocean?” I looked up to the sun, but it was directly overhead.

The pteranodon looked over toward where the river was flowing and honked.

“Okay,” I said. “So the plan is that we follow the river to the ocean, and then… I guess we’ll pick a direction and just walk that way? I’m thinking we are north of Quwaru’s cave, you don’t know her yet, but she’s great.”

The pteranodon let out a happy honk, and I looked toward the direction where we’re supposed to walk.

Shit. I had no idea how far away I was from everyone. It might take days, maybe even weeks to get back.

How in the hell was I going to survive out here alone?

As soon as I asked myself the question, I started laughing. A three-eyed asshole with wings just flew me up to skydiving height and tossed me out to die, but I hadn’t. I’d survived.

I was on a planet full of dinosaurs, and I could tame every single one.

How was I going to survive? The question was more like “how soon could I get back and how many awesome dinosaurs could I tame while making my way home?”

“We need a name for you,” I said as I looked at the pteranodon. “What do you think?”

He let out two long honks, and I laughed. “You helped me take out the flying bat-asshole. How about I call you Bruce? It’s an awesome name for an awesome hero.”

Bruce seemed to consider the name for a moment, and then he let out a happy honk.

“Alright!” I laughed and then hugged the big flying dino again. Then I pointed upriver to where the stegos were drinking. “Bruce, first thing you are going to learn about me is that I don’t want to walk if I can ride, and I always like to ride in style. Let’s go make some new friends, and then we’ll find our way to the ocean and get back home.”

Bruce let out an affirmative honk, and then we both walked along the shore of the river toward the group of spiky-tailed dinosaurs.

End of book 4

Thank you for reading this novel! What was your favorite part of Tamer? Which woman do you like the best? Do you want to read another Tamer novel? Let me know in your review! Click here!

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Dear reader, if you REALLY want to read the next Tamer novel- I’ve got a bit of bad news for you. Unfortunately, Amazon will not tell you when book 5 comes out. They also won’t tell you when book 6, 7, 8 etc... are published. You’ll probably never know about my next book, and you’ll be left wondering what happened to Victor, Sheela, Galmine, Trel, and Kacerie. That’s rather tragic.

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Editing by Ginger Earle, Nick Kuhns, Diane Velasquez, Deborah Haggitt, Jacqueline Miles (who also edits my audio books), Debbie Elholm, Holly Lenz, Wanda Jewell, Cody Elyko, Jay Taylor, Lucas Luvith, Anthony DePaolo, Roy Petty, Zach Summers, Alex Hyde, and Kenneth Smith.

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Copyright © 2018 by Michael-Scott Earle