“Do you have any clothes?” I asked as I turned to look deeper into the hut. I didn’t see anything more than the sleeping mat and a cold fire pit, but when I leaned deeper into the darkness, the woman lunged out the doorway of the hut.
“Wait! I--” I caught myself from trying to stop her from leaving and then shook my head. “Yeah, I don’t blame you at all.”
I heard a muffled gasp outside, and then what sounded like moaning. I ducked under the doorway of the hut and saw that the woman had fallen over just outside the ring of huts. It seemed like she was having trouble running, and she curled up into a ball when I got close and raised her right hand toward me. She had long nails on each of her fingers, but they didn’t look like Sheela style sharp claws, they just looked like normal human fingernails.
Now that she was out in the sunlight, I could see that her hair was a tangerine color. It was thick and curled down almost to her ankles. Her legs were covered with dirt, dried blood, and bruises, and her feet were black and blue from lack of circulation.
“You look really hurt,” I said as I sat on a rock placed near the still burning campfire. “I want to help you, but I get it if you have some trust issues right now. Looks like you can’t really walk. I can pick you up and take you back to the river. My friends are there, and we can take you back with us, or I can rub your feet to get some circulation back in them, and then you can leave if you want. Or I can leave.”
The orange-haired woman still had the gag around her mouth, so she couldn’t really answer me. She just stared at me with her hand raised. Then I noticed that her arm was shaking, and it looked like she didn’t have enough strength to hold it up any longer.
“Maybe you have some clothes in the other hut?” I asked as I stood up from the stone and looked in the fourth hut. There was just another sleeping mat inside, and what looked like a pile of sharpened sticks that were about to be processed into arrows.
“Nothing in there,” I said to the woman as I pulled my head out of the last hut. “Can I take your gag off? Then you can tell me what you want. I’d like to help you, but I’ll leave you alone if you prefer it that way.”
The tangerine-haired woman’s eyes were a dark blue color, and she stared at me intently for half a moment before she nodded and then pointed to her mouth.
“Okay,” I said as I carefully stepped toward her. She slid away from me for half a moment, and I froze, but then she blinked her eyes and tried to sit up so that I could get to the back of her head easier.
The bindings for her gag were wrapped up in her hair, and there was also a bunch of mud, grass, and blood caked in there. It looked like the knot had been in place for days or even weeks, and the hot anger pressed against my stomach like a tornado.
“Those fuckers are dead,” I hissed. “All four of them. Fuck those guys. Shit, I have to use my knife again. Is that okay?”
She nodded, and I reached into my pocket for my blade. I tried not to cut her hair, but the cordage of the gag was knotted all in her mane, so I had to slice some of it off. Then the gag was freed from her face, and she let out a gasp of pain as she crawled away from me again.
“So, yeah,” I said as she curled into a ball on the ground and looked up at me. “Do you want to come with me? I’ve got some water, and we can hunt for some food. My friends are waiting for me just by the river. They are all really nice, but again, I’ll understand it if you don’t want to come with me. It’s just going to be dangerous out here by yourself. Especially if you can’t really walk.”
She stared at me for a few more moments, but her eyes didn’t look as wild as they did a few minutes ago. Finally, she opened her mouth. No words came out at first, but then she swallowed, and tried to speak again.
“I’ll come,” she whispered, and I sighed with relief.
“Okay,” I said as I looked around the camp again for anything I could use for clothes for her. I would have given her my shirt if I could, but my undershirt was back at my camp, and I’d left my longsleeve shirt back with Gee. “Do you mind if I carry you back? It really looks like you can’t walk right now.”
Her eyes drifted down my chest to my pants and then she looked back up to my face and opened her mouth. “Carry me.”
“Okay,” I said as I gave her a smile. I made sure my knife was in my pocket and then slowly stepped toward the tangerine-haired elf-woman. For half a moment, her eyes went wild again, but then she lifted up her knees so that I could slip my arms under them and around her lower back. I stood up from my squat with her in my arms and then twisted her long hair in my left hand so that I wouldn’t accidently trip over it. Then I carefully stepped around the campfire and made my way through the forest toward the river.
The woman was skinny, but I was still a bit surprised by her lack of weight in my arms. She probably didn’t weigh more than sixty pounds even though she looked to be about as tall as I was. As we walked through the forest, I kind of expected her to freak out, or maybe claw at me, but I was surprised again when she pressed her head against my chest and let out a long sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Victor?”
“Yeah,” I said back as I stepped over a fallen tree trunk. “Don’t worry about it. You are safe now. Well, as safe as any of us are on this world. What is your name?”
“Tannin,” she whispered.
“Thanks for telling me,” I said. “I’ve got some water you can drink back on the other side of the river, and we’ll try to get some food. I’m guessing you are really thirsty and hungry.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “So thirsty.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of you.”
“Thank you,” she said as she pressed her face into my chest.
Then she started shaking, and I resisted the urge to hug the poor woman closer to me. Tannin probably wouldn’t appreciate my touch. I just needed to get her across the river to Gee so she could warm up and sip the water I had stored in the bamboo container.
When I made it to the river, I saw Gee standing on my side. Her hair was on fire again, and her onyx-skin had its usual wave effect on the light because of her body heat.
“I was about to run in after you,” she said as she gestured into the forest. “What do you have?”
“She was in one of their huts,” I said. “Her name is Tannin. She needs some water, warmth, and food. Let’s cross back over to the stegos and set up camp for the rest of the day.” I had wanted to make a lot more distance, but it seemed like Tannin wasn’t in any condition to even ride on the back of one of my stegos. The woman needed water and food, and then she could decide if she wanted to come with us.
“Hi Tannin, I am Gee-kalata-beto-yahrit-ill-kanna-sae, but Victor just calls me Gee.”
The tangerine-haired elf glanced away from my chest and nodded at the fire-woman, but she didn’t say anything.
“I can’t really help you carry her over,” Gee said.
“I should be okay,” I said as I looked at the boulders I had used to jump over the river. “We’ll fall into the water back where you first hid, so--”
“I can take her from you there,” Gee said, and then the fire-woman surprised me by taking a few steps and long jumping over the entire river like a flaming projectile launched by a catapult. She made it the entire thirty-five-ish feet easily and landed with a slide on the smooth rocks on the other side of the water. Then the onyx-skinned beauty jumped into the pool of water right where she first hid when the four men showed up and beckoned to me.
Tannin didn’t look at the river while I carried her over the boulders, but she refused to let go of me when I tried to lower her down the last boulder to Gee. I finally just held the elf-eared woman close to my chest and jumped down the ten-foot drop into the pool next to Gee. I got soaking wet, but it didn’t really matter, a few moments later I’d found the place where I had left my bamboo cup, and Tannin was taking small sips from it as she sat on my lap.
“I need to go back to their campsite,” I said. “I left m
y Cricket Bat of Doom there, and they have a few tools I can use.”
“Cricket Bat of Doom?” Gee asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “The asshole on the other side of the river had it. Looked like a flat club with teeth on the edges. Tannin, can you wait here with Gee while I go?”
Tannin glanced at the fire woman, nodded, and then sipped more from the bamboo container. She still had one of her arms and her hair wrapped around me, so I carefully untangled myself, made sure she was sitting comfortably next to Gee, and then gestured to some various wood logs around the river bank.
“Gee, can you make us a small campfire so I can cook some fish?”
“Easily,” she replied, and then she turned her eyes away from Tannin, stood from the rock, and began to gather some stray pieces near us.
“Can you hunt some more fish for us buddy?” I asked the pteranodon after I motioned for him to hop over next to us. Tannin’s dark blue eyes widened when the horse-sized flyer let out a happy honk, and then she gasped when he took to the air.
“The monsters do as you ask?” she asked.
“Yeah, but they aren’t monsters.” I smiled at her. “He is my friend. So are those big guys over there.” I pointed to Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock. The three stegos were eating moss on the shore of the river, and the tangerine-haired woman turned around to glance at them.
Half an hour later I had retrieved the Cricket Bat of Doom, the various axes, knives, and the antler pick from the camp and returned to our side of the river. Gee had started a fire in a small rock pile, and both women seemed lost staring into the flames. I set my newly acquired tools down a few feet away from the fire and then moved aside so that Bruce could land. He’d speared three fish in his beak again, and I pulled them free after I petted his neck where he liked it. Then the pteranodon let out another honk, and I nodded before he jumped back into the air.
“What did he say?” Gee asked.
“Huh?” I asked as I began to cut open and clean the fish.
“Your flying dinosaur. It seemed like he asked you a question.”
“Oh, he asked if Tannin needed more food, and I told him that it was better to be safe than sorry.” I smiled at the elf-woman and I noticed that the blood and dirt had been cleaned off of her face. As with all the women on Dinosaurland, she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her eyes were a bit larger than a normal human, and her face was a bit narrower, but she had exquisitely arched eyebrows, high cheekbones, and a cute chipmunk looking smile which came to her lips when she heard me mention food. She was still naked, but her tangerine colored hair was laying over her shoulders in a way that covered her chest and groin while she was sitting.
“Are you feeling any better?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she whispered with a slight nod. “Thank you again, Victor, ahh, and Gee.” Tannin turned to the burning woman.
“No thanks are needed,” Gee said. “You’ll feel even better after you eat. When was the last time you--”
“It has been many days,” Tannin said, and then she bit her lower lip, blinked her eyes, and stared down at the fish I was cutting.
The three of us were silent for a few more minutes, but then I finished my work on the fish and pushed the stone into the fire so that they could all cook. I was just in time for Bruce’s second arrival, and the pteranodon surprised me by having a four foot long monster fish with rainbow scales speared with his beak.
“Wow!” I gasped as I shot to my feet and moved to grab the wiggling fish. “Great job, Bruce!” the flyer let out a happy honk when I pulled the fish free, and then he raised his wings as if he was flexing his muscles again.
“Incredible,” Tannin said as she looked at the horse sized dinosaur. “Is that your Eye-Q ability?”
“Yeah,” I said as I laid the massive fish on a rock and stabbed his brain with my knife to end his life. “I can’t control all the dinosaurs on this world, but I’m getting there. What is your ability?”
“Ahh,” she hesitated, blinked away tears, and then glanced into the fire. “You have seen my back. They cut my wings off when they killed my friends. My Eye-Q still says Wind Summon, but I used my wings to bring the wind to me.”
“Shit,” I hissed as I shook my head and continued working on the fish. The three of us were silent again as I worked, but then I made eye contact with Gee and motioned to the fish. “I think we need a bigger fire.”
“I can cook it with my hands,” Gee said. “Just let me know when you are ready for the heat.”
“Okay, this is good,” I said as I cut the large fish open and laid it spread out on the rock.
I stepped away as Gee took my spot and the onyx-skinned woman began to wave her hands over the fish as her arms turned orange.
“Victor,” she said after the fish began to steam. “I’m afraid I forgot about your shirt.”
“Oh, I’ll grab it--”
“No,” Gee laughed. “You put it under my head, and I kind of closed my eyes for a bit. Then I realized my hair was on fire again. That black charred pile behind you is all that is left of it. Sorry.”
“That’s alright,” I said. “I’m just glad you are alive. When I saw you floating in the water, I thought you were dead.”
“I would have been if you hadn’t pulled me out,” Gee said, and her glowing green eyes stared into mine from across the fire. “I owe you my life.”
“No you don’t,” I laughed as I toed the charred remains of my Los Angeles County Animal Control uniform shirt. “That’s how my tribe is. We help each other.”
“I am slightly ashamed,” Gee sighed and then shook her head. “I have never lost a battle, yet the second man I fought on this world would have killed me if you hadn’t helped.”
“Caution is important,” I said. “Everyone they bring here has a special ability.”
“Did he hit you with his spit?” Gee asked.
“No, but I saw him use it on you. Also, in the various games I’ve played, someone with a snake looking face almost always spits poison.”
“Perhaps those games have prepared you better than I thought,” Gee laughed and then she reached down to the fish and flipped it over. “This should be done at the same time as the others are. Maybe five more minutes.”
“I’ll get started on the hut,” I said as I turned toward Ad-Rock.
“You don’t wish to keep going?” Gee asked. “I know you are eager to return to your friends.”
“We’ll wait until Tannin has eaten and had a good night's sleep,” I said as I nodded at the elf-woman. “It’s afternoon, anyway. We’d only get another hour or two of traveling before we’d have to stop, and this place looks like a pretty good spot. The boulders on the sides over there will keep anything big from coming down the river at us without walking in the water and making noise, the forest on either side of the river is pretty dense, and the path down river looks like it’s going to turn into switchbacks again. This could be the safest spot we find until we hit the ocean, so I’d rather we stay here for a bit.
“It is a good plan, Victor,” Gee said, and then she smiled wide at me before returning to the food.
Then I continued my walk over to Ad-Rock and began to set up the hut again.
Chapter 7
The rocky ground within fifty feet of the river was too tough to pound my support poles into, and I didn’t want to venture too deep into the forest where my stegos couldn’t travel, so I ended up building a simple two person pup-tent sized shelter by leaning my longer poles against one of the boulder walls and covering that with long pine tree branches which I cut down from the trees near the water.
The structure only took me half an hour to make, and I took a break in the middle to eat the fish that Bruce had caught and Gee had cooked. I was all sorts of starving, but so were Gee and Tannin. We finished off the three fish and the massive four foot one with ease, and then the two women sat around the fire whispering to each other while I went back to work on the lean-to.
“Co
uple of problems with the design,” I said once I finished laying the ferns on the stone for bedding and turned to the two women, “but I think one problem will solve the other.”
“Okay,” Gee said as she raised a flaming eyebrow.
“The stone by the river is really cool,” I said. “I can keep stacking up pine needles for bedding, but it’s not that comfortable, and they are covered with sap. The palm fronds I’ve already collected work best, but I think it will still be cold tonight.”
“All three of us will sleep in there?” Tannin asked as she looked at the small lean-to.
“Just you and me,” I said, and her dark blue eyes opened wide, so I waved my hands toward her. “There is a divider in the middle, so we’ll each be on opposite sides of it.”
“Then I will be alone?” Tannin asked, and she seemed even more upset.
“Ahhh, I can take the divider out if you want,” I said with a grimace. “I just thought you’d prefer to sleep alone. I’m fine either--”
“I can sleep in the pool there,” Gee said as she pointed to the same spot where she had hidden when we fought the men.
“I’d actually like you to sleep right here,” I said as I pointed to a spot about ten feet from our shelter. “The rock here is the same piece as the floor. So your body heat should keep us all warm tonight. It won’t be as cool as sleeping in the water, but the rock here is still cold from the nearby flow of the river.”
“I will be fine with it,” Gee said. “Whatever you want, Victor.”
“Great,” I said, and then I turned to Tannin. “Did you have enough water and food?”
“Yes, thank you.” The tangerine-haired woman nodded at me again, and she gave me a cute smile as she wiped her upturned nose with the back of her hand. “You have been very nice to me. I thought that--”
“Don’t think about it anymore,” Gee hissed. “It won’t help you. They are all dead, and you are still alive. That is all you should think about.”
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