Tamer- King of Dinosaurs 5

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Looks good,” I said.

  “Youleena is going to make more spear and arrow points using her ability,” Sheela continued.

  “Yes,” The willowy woman with the white hair said as she set her stone in her lap, wiped her hands on her long gray dress, and then held the rock back up so I could see it.

  “Hmmm,” I said as I stepped closer to her so I could see. Youleena just pushed the stone toward me and I then carefully pinched it in my fingers as I took it from her hands.

  “She does impressive work,” Liahpa commented, and I nodded as I stared at the stone. It was in the long spade-shape of a spearhead, but there were no rough teeth-like ridges from knapping the rock. The spearhead was smooth on the edges just like metal, and I ran the edge across the top of my nail. It felt incredibly sharp, and I passed it back.

  “It’s amazing,” I said. “How long did it take you to do that?”

  “A few minutes,” Youleena said, and her black eyes turned away from me as a bit of color came to her alabaster cheeks. “I’ve made a bunch and put them in the basket.”

  “We’ll get them set into spear hafts today,” Sheela said as she handed the stone back to Youleena. “We’ll need more arrowheads as well, and we will begin crafting more bows. We still have about half of the pile of branches.” The blonde woman pointed back to the front gate, and I saw that the pile was about half the size as it had once been.

  “Did you all figure out what to do with the ring?” I asked.

  “No,” Sheela said as she shook her head and looked at Trel.

  “I need metal to put in the center so I can attach a handle,” the spider-woman explained. “Wood won’t be sturdy enough.”

  “What do you mean to do with the metal?” I asked.

  “Observe,” Trel said as she used her spiderlegs to skip over closer to the cooking fire. The golden ring I had taken from the blue-skinned barbarian asshole was laying against one of the rock stools there, and she picked it up so that she could show everyone.

  “The issue is that I can’t mount a wood handle to any angle on it, since the edges are incredibly sharp and will just cut through.” Trel moved one of her arms across the diameter of the axe. “If it was metal, the edge wouldn’t cut it.

  “Hmmm,” I said as I pointed at Youleena. “What if we use her ability?”

  “And make the handle out of stone?” Trel asked as she twisted her lips. “It would be really heavy.”

  “Youleena,” I said as I took the ring from Trel’s fingers and held it out before the white-woman. “Can you fill this center with stone so it pushed out against the inner edges of the ring, but on each side, I need a handle to come out in the same direction and join below at a single handle? It will look like a wheel pizza cutter, only the wheel won’t move.”

  “A huh cutter?” Urka asked as she stood up on her tiptoes to look at the ring.

  “Oh,” I laughed. “Just food from my world. It is flat and cut with a tool that has a circular blade.”

  “I can do it,” Youleena said with a slow nod. “I’ll need a larger rock. We can use one of the stools, or I can crack a piece off the work table.”

  “We’ll go out and get one,” I said.

  “It will still be too heavy,” Trel sighed.

  “She is correct,” Youleena said. “It will weigh at least twenty pounds, unless I can find some light stone, but that might not be dense enough to take impact abuse.”

  “It’s for Liahpa,” I said as I pointed to the silver-skinned woman.

  “Me?” she asked.

  “Yep,” I chuckled. “Sheela might be able to use it, but you are the strongest in our group.”

  “Ahem,” Gee said from the side. “I might contest that.”

  “In your Eye-Q, what is your strength?” I asked the fire-woman.

  “Eight,” she said after she blinked her eyes.

  “Liahpa is stronger,” I said, “but this isn’t a pissing contest. You have your flame whip, and anything you touch burns, so you’ll probably melt any weapon you hold.”

  “Fair point,” Gee said with a tilt of her head.

  “My strength is actually eleven now,” Liahpa admitted.

  “Really? Damn, that is great. You’ll be able to use this weapon even better. Oh, that reminds me, is my gear still on the stegos?”

  “We unloaded everything,” Kacerie said. “The tools we put in the pile on the other side of the workbench, and the items that you used to build a hut we were going to use to put a roof over the spot where you are standing now so we have more shelter to work under.”

  “Great idea,” I said, and then I motioned for the women to wait in the semi-circle while I walked over to the other side of the worktable. In a pile there, I found the Cricket Bat of Doom, and I brought it over to them.

  “Did you see this?” I asked Sheela as I passed her the weapon.

  “Ohhh,” she purred as she spun the weapon on her hands as if it weighed as much as a feather. “It is clever.”

  “Yeah,” I said, and then I pointed to Youleena. Sheela passed the weapon to the white-woman, who fixed her black eyes on the teeth attached to the edges.

  “I can easily do this,” she said. “In fact, if we could figure out how to carve cross slices across the perimeter inside where these teeth are glued with sap, I could make the rock just fill in the gap there. Then we wouldn’t need to use the sap, and the teeth would stay in place better.”

  “It might be hard to carve into the wood in that direction,” Sheela said. “It would involve a hooked blade that could fit into the slot and then cut sideways.”

  “I don’t know how you would do it.” Youleena shrugged. “I’m letting you know that it would work great if you could figure that end out.

  “You can shape the stone as you want?” Gee asked.

  “Yes,” Youleena replied. “I touch it with my fingers, and it obeys my wishes.”

  “Victor, can I see that weapon?” Gee asked, and Sheela took it from Youleena and walked it over to the fire-woman.

  “I can’t make those small side cuts she wants,” Gee said, “but I think I can do something that might work just as well. Can you all bring me a branch? Maybe something half the size of the diameter as Victor’s toothy paddle.”

  “I’m calling it the Cricket Bat of Doom,” I said with a laugh. “We’ll find you a piece of wood after we plan the day. I already have some other jobs planned for you.”

  “Great,” Gee said as she smiled at me.

  “What else?” I asked Sheela.

  “The other tribe,” she began. “From what Emerald said, they are far away, but they must know of our location. We should begin our training soon. Everyone should know how to stab with a spear and be able to shoot a bow and arrow.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “Do we have enough spears and bows?”

  “Not enough bows,” Sheela said.

  “Okay. Then we’ll start with spear training. We’ll do half an hour before every meal starting with dinner tonight, since it’s almost lunch time. When we get more bows made, we’ll do archery practice. Sound good?”

  “Yes, Victor,” Sheela said with her usual stoic nod.

  “That alright with everyone else?” I asked the group. “It’s important that we all learn how to defend ourselves, so an hour and a half to two hours a day spent in self defense training is a good use of our time.”

  Everyone nodded, and I looked back at Sheela.

  “That is all I have,” she said with a shrug. “Other than Trel’s look out station up in the tree.”

  “We can speak of that when it is my turn to talk,” Trel said as she winked at me.

  “Okay,” I said as I turned to Galmine, “food is next.”

  “The garden is coming along nicely,” the gray-skinned woman said. “But we are still a month away from having a good production of sustainable food for our number of people. I would like to leave the camp walls again and explore more of the valley looking for edibles.”

 
“We also need more creatures to lay eggs,” I said. “I haven’t seen any yet.”

  “I should check the fish traps again,” Kacerie said. “It has been a few days, but the flying dinosaur you brought home seems to be happy to bring us fish all throughout the day. That could mean we don’t have to go to the river.”

  “Who got the dinos water while I was away?” I asked, and Trel, Kacerie, Liahpa, Sheela, and Emerald looked at each other.

  “They allowed me to ride them, but I did not think to take them out of the fort,” Sheela said. “I poured water onto plates for them, but they did not seem interested in drinking. I believe they missed you too much to care about drinking.”

  “We all missed you,” Galmine said, and the rest of the group of beautiful women nodded as they all smiled at me.

  “Alright,” I said as I returned their grins. “The dinos are all probably really thirsty. Especially Hope. I’ll take them all down to the river after we finish the meeting. We need to build some kind of water trough next to the wells so that they can all get drinks without leaving the fort. The raptors and troodons are also probably really hungry since I haven’t fed them in a few days. I’ll have to take them hunting.”

  I realized that I was still really far away from being able to have automated type systems for dinosaur care. If we could get the water troughs set up next to the wells, which would be a good place for all the dinos to drink, but I still had to worry about the small predators I had tamed getting their daily fat and protein. I’d also have to worry about the herbivores getting a good supply of grass and greens. We still had plenty of grass inside of the fort, but I didn’t think it would last forever, especially now that I had the three stegos. I also knew that the dinos probably weren’t getting all the vitamins and minerals that they needed from just the grass in our fort. They were going to need plant leaves, roots, and lake moss.

  I realized that I’d put off going back to the lake for almost a week now. The Utahraptors were probably gone, and if they were, I could take all the dinos there for drinking, plant eating, and hunting.

  “I will go to the river with you,” Liahpa said.

  “Yeah,” Kacerie said. “I need to check the fish traps, so I’ll go as well.”

  “I can check them,” Liahpa said quickly. “There is no need for you to go. I know you are working on soap.”

  “Sure,” Kacerie said, and then she turned to me. “We might not need traps anymore if the big flying dino Victor got us will keep bringing us fish, but I think we are going to need a lot more clay. Especially if you want to build a trough for all of the dinos to drink from.”

  “Yes,” Trel agreed. “So if you go to the lake, bring back as much clay as you possibly can. Or get more from the river. Either way. I only have about a cubic foot of it left.”

  “I can help get it with Victor,” Liahpa said. “We’ll take care of it.”

  “You seem quite interested in going with Victor,” Kacerie said as she shot the silver-woman a smirk.

  “Ahhhh, well, ummm, yeah.” Liahpa bit her lip and then her cheeks seemed to turn a slight shade of red when she saw the other women looking at her. “I just want to get out of the walls. Feeling cooped up.”

  “I can go with you as well,” Emta said. “My back and arms are strong, I can--”

  “Nope,” Quwaru interrupted. “You are still too injured.”

  “Isn’t Victor in charge now?” Emta asked as she scrunched her nose and pointed at me.

  “I agree with Quwaru,” I laughed. “Just take it easy for a few days. There is plenty of work to do around the fort. What was I talking about?”

  “Feeding and watering the dinos,” Kacerie reminded me, and I nodded at her. The salon-owner was really good at keeping track of all the tasks we had floating in the air, and I appreciated her help.

  “So let’s move onto sanitation,” I said.

  “Great,” Kacerie said as she clapped her hands. “You saw the new hut we built, but we still need the outhouse with the compost pile. You also mentioned something about clothes since it does seem like the weather is starting to get cooler.”

  “And we need clay roof tiles, adobe blocks to make new huts, and paving stones to help keep the ground from turning into a muddy mess,” I said.

  “So more clay?” Kacerie smiled at me.

  “The adobe we can make out of mud mixed with dried grass,” I said, “but it will need to sit out in the sun to bake for a few days.”

  “Can’t she help bake them quicker?” Adella asked as she pointed to Gee. “I can feel how hot her skin is from across the camp fires.”

  “Yeah,” I said as we all turned to Gee.

  “I suppose that I can help with that,” the onyx-skinned woman said with a shrug. “Just tell me what you want me to do, Victor. I am yours to command.”

  “I’m also yours to command,” Keefaye said as she waved at me. “Whatever you want.”

  “Me too!” Adella sang with her beautiful voice.

  “Thanks for all the help,” I said as I smiled at them. Then I caught Quwaru’s silver eyes and I nodded at her.

  “It seems like many tasks,” the red-skinned woman said. “We are all happy to be a part of this.”

  “Thanks, Quwaru,” I said. “I think that’s a lot to do today, but I have one more thing I want to bring up.”

  “I also have several topics,” Trel said as she tapped her finger on her lips. “As first wife, I should have a moment to order everyone around.”

  “Trel, we aren’t ‘ordering everyone around,’” I laughed. “We are all a team.”

  “Pffttt,” the beautiful woman raspberried as her legs drummed on the grass behind her. “They want me to tell them what to do. They all like it.”

  “Not really,” Urka chuckled in her high-pitched voice.

  “Well, you should be happy about it,” Trel sighed. “After all, my building creations will make all our lives better. But also, because I will need your help especially.”

  “Me?” Urka asked as her four eyes blinked.

  “Yes,” Trel said as she smiled wickedly, then she turned to me and raised her eyebrows as if she was waiting for me to let her start.

  “What do you have for us?” I asked quickly so that the group wouldn’t begin to argue.

  “I have built the water filter,” Trel said as she gestured toward Hope’s door. “Did you see it?”

  “I didn’t just see it,” I said. “I took a long drink from one of the jugs. It tastes wonderful. You did a great job.”

  “Thank you, Victor,” Trel said as a hint of color came to her pale cheeks and her spider legs happily drummed on the grass behind her. “I am not entirely happy with the result though. We still have to climb up the ladder to dump the initial jug of water in. It is a manual process, and I want to create a pump system based off the siphon mechanics. That way we will have a constant flow of water into the top reservoir of the filter. Once I put a valve switch on the bottom, the siphon will only pull water up when the reservoir at the top needs more. It will make the process of getting fresh water automatic, and we will only have to clean the tank every few weeks.”

  “Sounds great,” I said. “What do you need from us?”

  “You are already getting more clay,” she said, “but I will need to make my first pipe from it, so I want everyone to look for a uniform length of stick that I can use as my mold.”

  “Can’t Youleena make a pipe shape from a boulder?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the white-woman said with a shrug. “I just need a boulder and for Trel to tell me how long she needs it.”

  “Ohhhhh,” Trel purred as she tapped her long black finger against her lips. “I like you a lot.”

  “What about me?” Urka asked. “You said you needed me for something?”

  “Yeah,” Trel said. “I think my filtration system is good, but I’m interested in seeing if you can use your powers to kill any bacteria in the tank before they go through the filter.”

  “Hm
mm,” Urka said as she tapped her right foot and blinked her eyes. “I can try, but how would we know if it worked?”

  “We can start with unfiltered water,” Trel said. “In smaller jugs. I’ll have you use your powers on one, and then we can leave a few others untreated. I’ll keep all of them covered, and then we can check on them a few days later. Sheela has a good sense of smell, so she can sense if there is a biofilm growing.”

  We all glanced at Sheela, and the cat-woman nodded.

  “Worth a try,” Urka said. “I’m happy to help with anything. I feel like my ability is the least powerful of everyone’s, and I can’t help that much with the jobs because I am short.”

  “Bah!” Trel spat. “Your size is nothing to be ashamed of, and I think your ability is amazing. We just need to find something useful and unique for it.”

  “Uhhh, thank you.” Urka seemed really surprised by Trel’s words, but I knew that was just how the spider-woman worked. She was prickly on the outside, but she had a big heart, and cared about others a lot.

  “We’ll find stuff for you to do, Urka,” I said. “Don’t worry. Everyone has a place in our tribe.”

  “Thanks, Victor,” Urka said with a grateful smile.

  “What is her power?” Gee asked as she pointed at Urka. “Actually, what is everyone’s power? I am still unclear on the matter.”

  “Let’s talk about it over dinner, Gee,” I said, and the woman nodded. I didn’t want to get into a long discussion about it before everyone had their jobs assigned, but I was also still a bit nervous about playing our hand to the fire-woman too early. I wanted to believe that she had changed her tune for real, and was going to be fine following my orders and being part of our tribe, but if Kacerie’s Lance was down, I wanted to hold off on talking about everyone’s powers until I was convinced that Gee wasn’t going to betray me.

  “To continue, there is the lookout tower,” Trel said as she pointed to the tree, and everyone turned to look up at the magnificent redwood.

  “It will take me forever to build a platform up there myself, so I need to make a ladder so that everyone else can climb up there. I also need to construct a pulley system to haul up logs that we’ll use to build the platform, and I need a team who can go up there with me.”