by Calista Skye
“That was the idea,” I reply. “I mean, nothing else flashes like that here.”
“Right,” Heid says, sipping on an infusion of leaf. “But the dactyls refused to get close to it. Like it scared them. Even in the daytime. So we patrolled the area around it, as close as we could get the dactyls to fly. But we saw nothing special, except that weird, dry riverbed. Which we’ve seen many times before, so it wasn’t that weird to us. Of course, we didn’t know it was a dragon’s trench.”
“Xark’on’s tribe used to kill dactyls from that treehouse,” I explain. “Those things really fear it now.”
“They really do. So today we flew another patrol, and we saw movement and a whole bunch of guys and you. And that was it.”
“I’m really glad you did,” I say. “We didn’t have much of a chance against those guys. So you have two of those things now?”
“Yeah,” Heidi confirms. “Dar’ax actually wanted one for each of us. He’s a romantic, you see. So he’d secretly been taming one away in the jungle. He knew you guys aren’t super happy about dactyls close to the cave. He’s the one who saw your signal first, in fact.”
“A flashing light at sunset,” Sophia says, nursing little Aurelia. “Pretty good idea.”
I shrug. “It was the only thing that crossed my mind. I was cut off from you guys.”
“I sure wonder why the dactyls would dump the girls there in the first place,” Aurora muses. “And then the dragon comes right after to make sure they don’t leave.”
“Both things were arranged by Bune,” Emilia states. “Why, I don’t know. But it’s just obvious. Why didn’t all the dactyls dump their girls, though? There were more than twelve who were taken away.”
“Maybe they were dumped somewhere else,” Sophia speculates. “There might be more dragons around.”
“We’ve never seen any more of those trenches from the air,” Heidi says. “If there are any, they’re far away.”
We just sit and enjoy the morning for a while. The air is cool, and the turkeypig stew is bubbling in the pot. For once, I’m not the one who’s making it. Apparently, the girls feel that my honeymoon has started already. That’s fine with me.
“That treehouse sounds great, though,” Sophia sighs. “Nice view and no dactyls.”
“It's really nice,” I confirm. “Some brave dactyls will scream at it from a distance, but that's as bad as it gets. We don't think the tribe will come there. They don't like leaving the village. Xark'on will claim it as his if they show up, and then they can decide if they'll fight him for it. It's only fair. His father pretty much built it.”
“So, is he cast out now, or what?”
“He assumes that he is. He’s not going to ask. He doesn’t want anything more to do with them.”
“I don’t blame him,” Aurora says. “That tribe is bad news. Especially that chief. What happened to him, anyway?”
I shrug. “Xark’on knocked him out, and someone dragged him away into the jungle. We don’t really care. I think having to stay a virgin is punishment enough.”
“Xark’on not the vindictive type?” Delyah asks carefully.
“He’s not,” I state with some pride. “I actually never saw him kill anyone or anything, except for the dragon. He’s good at using non-lethal force, looks like. That hammer of his helps with that.”
“A sword is pretty much on or off,” Emilia agrees. “If you use it, someone usually dies. There’s no middle ground. It’s either in its sheath or sticking out of someone’s chest.”
“Can’t someone invent the taser?” Heidi suggests. “I’d buy one.”
“Someone should,” I agree. “But we first have to invent electricity. Can we, Delyah?”
Delyah shrugs. “We can. In theory. We have iron, and that’s a good start. We’d need some copper.”
“Okay,” I decide. “Let’s invent the taser today. Delyah will mine copper and make electricity. I’ll make plastic for the casing. Emilia, you make the battery. Aurora, you have to come up with a cute design for it. I’m thinking something unicorn-y?” Yeah, I’m a little giddy today. I’m married! To Xark’on!
The girls take my silliness in stride.
“If we have batteries, that kind of opens the door to certain other inventions,” Heidi says. “But I’m not going to expand on that.”
“Like toy cars?” Sophia deadpans. “Talking dolls? Cellphones?”
Heidi nods. “You’re a mother, so of course you’d think of something dirty like that. Yeah, no. I had something else in mind. But you’re all such innocent young girls, I’m not going to tell you what.”
“She means vibrators,” Aurora whispers very loudly. “You know, to massage your shoulders after a long day in the fruit mines.”
“Ooh,” I coo. “Sounds wonderful.”
“It does,” Heidi agrees. “So Xark’on’s never going back? Didn’t he have a cave or a tent in that village? Some belongings?”
I fill a hollow stone with the hot infusion. “He only cares about his art supplies. And he has those. He wishes he had his sewing set, he says. The night before the trap was ready, he went back to the village, got the skin, and left. But then he changed his mind, went back, and then spent the whole night in his tent, just sewing my new dress. Says he wanted it to be a small goodbye present in case he died trapping the dragon, and he didn't think that just the skin was enough. The dress turned out nice, too.”
Sophia frowns. “Did he really intend to use himself as bait?”
“He did for a while. Then he changed his mind and wanted to think of something else. But the bait had to be alive to be effective. And human. When it came down to it, he just couldn’t wrap his mind around actually using someone for that.”
Some of the new girls are waking up and shuffling out of the cave, rubbing their eyes. We greet them and give them a place to sit among us, food, and hot drinks that are nothing like coffee.
“So, how’re you holding up?” Emilia says softly. “After you had to kill that guy?”
“Pretty good,” I say honestly. “He would have killed Xar’kon. I did what I had to. It’s the way of the jungle. Sometimes it’s kill or be killed. This planet has hardened me. I mean, I’m sure we’d all develop PTSD like all hell if we were back home. But Xren allows no weakness. It gives you no time to dwell on the bad things.”
Aurora hands out leaves full of not-sheep stew. “So when are we going to Bune to straighten things out once and for all?”
We all look at Delyah. She’s the expert on those things.
“We’ve had it with Bune,” she says. “That dragon was the last straw. We’ll get Emilia’s delivery out of the way. And then we’ll see how long it takes to make weapons for all of us. Crossbows and knives and swords and spears with long steel blades. We’ll make steel armor for the guys. I want the new mothers and the visibly pregnant to stay here. When we go to Bune, it’s not to chat with whichever entity is toying with us. It’s to take over the whole place. Because this? This is war.”
It’s very quiet, and I’ve got goosebumps. I’ve never heard Delyah speak with such coldness.
“They made Delyah mad,” Sophia finally says. “I think that’s the last thing they’ll ever do.”
- - -
It’s a long walk to the treehouse. The trench is still there, but now the glass is broken, and there are little green shoots all over it, finding their way up from the sand. The trench will soon be a pleasant little valley.
“We should cut the vegetation down here regularly,” I suggest as we walk through it. “It will be like a road. We can walk much faster down here.”
“A road in the jungle,” Xark'on muses. “Not just for survival. But because it's better. Yes, we will do that. Perhaps Troga was good for something in the end.”
We walk around the trap, keeping our distance. I have no desire to go anywhere near it again.
When we come to the tree, we spend some time making damn sure that there's nobody up there. The ropes are hangi
ng there like usual.
Xark'on takes the rope off the nail. “My father forged that nail. And he hammered it in right there. Using this hammer.” He knocks on the head of his sledgehammer.
“I'd say that this is your treehouse,” I state. “That tribe doesn't have any claim to it. Sacred or not.”
When we get up there, everything is the way it used to be. Well, most things. I take some time to rub away Xark'on's dried blood from when he'd been hit on the head.
Then I stand by the railing and feel the breeze. The worries and the dangers of the jungle just melt away up here in the fresh air. I can feel my shoulders lowering as I take a deep breath and just relax.
We'll be here for two weeks, until Heidi signals to us that Emilia is about to give birth. We want everyone to be there for that. It seems like a tribal thing to do.
I help Xark'on hang up his pictures all over the inner wall of the house. Then we eat a good dinner, drink a little of the krunik, and just watch the sun setting over the jungle.
“Tomorrow, we'll hunt together,” I say. “Get food and water. We'll make more blue color. Enjoy the peace and quiet. You'll paint. I'll see if I can do some writing. Do you know what that is?”
“Yes, of course.
I frown. “You do?”
“Oh, yes. I do that all the time.”
“You write?”
“All the time.”
I scratch my head. “It's just, I've never seen you do it. And there's no written language on this planet.”
“We have many of those. All written. The languages. Especially the one by the pond.”
He's lost me good. “By the pond?”
“Yes. Written language. It's very nice. Kind of grainy. I've seen better, though. Some tribesmen saw a very large one over by Berion Hill. Just a season ago.”
I think for a minute. “Is any of this true?”
“No.”
I punch his shoulder. “You're terrible. But okay, fine. I get it. I'll stop patronizing you. I'll show you what writing is tomorrow. I intend to develop the written version of cavemanese. Can't be that hard. I'll test it out on you until you beg for mercy. You'll be the first tribesman who knows how to read.”
“I can't wait,” Xark'on says drily.
“You'll love it,” I assure him. “All kinds of stuff opens up if you can read.”
“Does it? How about this? Does this open up?” He places his hand right on my pussy.
I spread my legs so he can grope me good. I'm very ready for it. “That thing, there, is always open for youuoohoohhhhh yeaaaaaahhhh...”
He soon tires of fingering me, so he pulls the dress off me and lifts me into the hammock.
Gods, I missed this. He'll fuck me good, and then I'll come as hard as I ever have. Now he's mine for good. Forever and for all.
I'm going to scream out my ecstasy and my joy right out over the jungle. It tries to kill us every day. Now it'll know that life is still winning. And that our victory is too sweet for ordinary words. It has to be screamed.
I spread my legs and open myself to my husband. “I love you.”
His eyes are warm and dark and infinitely deep. Like all the rest of him. “And I love you.”
He places his cock at my entrance, and I'm shaking in expectation.
He grips my hips, and I spread more.
Then he thrusts.
- - -
© Calista Skye 2018
- - -
To be continued in fall 2018 with Part 6, Caveman Alien's Secret, which is Delyah's story.
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- - -
Meanwhile, try my completed Fire Planet Warriors series! Here's an excerpt:
Fire Planet Warrior's Captive: Part One of the Fire Planet Warriors series
1
- Harper -
“I'll never get tired of that.”
Harper stroked an errant wisp of hair out of her face and took a breath of thin, dry alien air. The sky was dark, but the planet Bry was clearly visible as a crescent right above her head. Half of the planet was in darkness, and the other half was lit up by the white sun. On the dark side of the planet a thin, yellow line of light was clearly visible as it pulsated erratically along its length.
Ava glanced up at the sky. “Looks like it's picking up steam.” She opened the door to the biodome. “Must have hit a dry area.”
Harper squinted. Ava was right – the huge wildfire that circled Bry's one continent was brighter than it had been the night before. Seen from Gideo Station on one of Bry's moons, it was just a jagged yellow line, but even so it was obvious to everyone who saw it that it had to be an enormous fire.
The blaze never went out. Bry's single continent was a rough O, with a giant lake in the middle. The fire raged around and around the continent like the minute hand on an antique clock, and the vegetation just had time to regrow before it was burned again as the fire completed one more lap.
It was one of the most mysterious things in the universe, and being able to look at it every day from pretty close was one reason why Harper had volunteered to go into space to set up Gideo Station. Maybe one day she would even be able to go to Bry itself and see the blaze from even closer ...
Ava kicked the dust off her boots, stepped inside the biodome and held the door open for Harper. “You coming?”
“Just a moment. I've never seen it this intense before.”
“Suit yourself. I'm not staying out here on pizza night.” Ava let the door slam shut and Harper was alone on the sand outside the station. She couldn't hold back a happy smile. Outside the station on an alien moon many light years from Earth. It still blew her mind every time she thought about it.
It was hard work being a space colonist, with many sixteen-hour days and a multitude of problems that had to be solved every day. But it also let her see things that no Earthling ever had before. Like that eternal fire that just went around and around, once every four hundred days, and no one knew exactly why or how it was even possible. That was why they were there in the first place, monitoring the strange fire planet from this base on the planet's moon. A moon with an atmosphere, even. The opportunity to establish a base here was too good to pass up for Earth's Space Expansion.
A thin whirring noise reached Harper's ears and she glanced behind her. The main telescope was adjusting its angle slightly to get the best possible view of the fire. It was controlled by a computer, but still there were four humans here to set up the station and then take care of the equipment until the computer could handle everything on its own.
It was the best job Harper had ever had, even though she had been skeptical when first she learned that by coincidence, this base would have an all-female staff. There were only four of them, but they had great chemistry and they were all good friends by now. Base chief Ava was the oldest of them, and she made sure that everyone was included in everything. She would not tolerate any infighting at all. That woman was just born to be a leader. Just like Charlotte was born to be a shuttle pilot and Lily was born to be a computer nerd. Harper herself probably wasn't exactly born to be a biologist, but she loved it. They were a great team-
She frowned. One of the stars in the sky above her was moving. No, it couldn't be a star. It moved fast across the night sky. It got brighter, too, as if it was coming closer. It was very white.
A shuttle? No, that didn't look right. And there was no sound, either.
Harper took a step towards the biodome door and grabbed onto the door handle. Now the light went back and forth across the sky, like it was searching for something. It moved insanely fast, then suddenly grew much larger. It had to be coming right for her!
She pushed the handle down and opened the door, ready to dive inside if something threatening were to happen.
Something more threatening, she corrected herself. Because that thing there wasn't just a light. It was something big and dark that totally obscured the stars behind it. It
had to be huge.
And suddenly it had many lights! In all kinds of different colors, blinking and flashing and rotating and twirling in a pattern so splendorous that Harper had to gasp at the impact it had on her senses.
She realized that she was gawping, but she found it impossible to take her eyes off the thing. It hovered silently in the air above the sand, and it had to be the size of an apartment building. It was very beautiful and the lights were extremely friendly.
Harper slowly let go of the door handle and just stood there, staring.
Yes, friendly. It only wanted what was best for her ...
- - -
She came to and immediately knew she was in big trouble. She was tied on her hands and feet, and she was lying on her side on a metallic floor.
She knew she had been asleep. Or unconscious. But now she was awake, and she felt no ill effects. She wasn't even drowsy.
She got up into a sitting position. Yeah, this wasn't the inside of Gideo Station or any other place she had ever been. This was ... alien. But not alien in any way she had ever expected. The metal floor was rusty in patches, and the dim light was yellowish. There were uneven walls with strange-looking consoles and lights and technology that had to be advanced, but still managed to look old and even dirty.
But the most alien thing was the aliens themselves.
There were four of them, standing around her in a circle, just silently staring at her in a way that was so creepy it sent shivers down Harper's spine. The were roughly human-shaped, with two legs and two arms that were so long they reached almost all the way to the floor when they stood upright. Except they weren't really upright – they were all hunched over in a way that made them seem unhealthy. Their skin was a yellowish pale that was translucent in places, showing greenish internal organs inside. Their heads were small and pointy on top, and there was no hair, just brownish scales that grew down the sides of their faces.