by Calista Skye
I take a last look around, but this area looks like any part of the jungle. I can't tell where I am. “Coming!”
I'm just about to turn around when I feel strong hands under my shoulder and I'm lifted straight up, clean off the ground. I drop my sling and the rock in surprise, and I don't even have time to squeal.
3
- Heidi -
It happens so fast my head is spinning, and it takes me several seconds to realize that I'm on top of something big. Something that moves and gives off a faint, rancid smell of rotting meat. I can tell because my face is pressed into it. I'm face down on this thing, this very living thing, and someone is definitely pressing the small of my back into whatever it is. I can see the ground under me, passing by fast in the darkness. It has to be twenty feet down. I'm up pretty high.
And I can see feet. No, claws. Long, sharp, huge claws walking across the terrain.
For a moment I'm really confused about what to do. On one hand, I'm not in any pain. On the other hand, I'm being carried away on what is becoming clear to me is a dinosaur.
Well, I have to do something. I can't just lie here like a dead raccoon and be taken against my will to who knows where. I wriggle and writhe as much as I can, kicking my legs and hammering my fists onto rough and thick dinosaur skin that feels about as supple as hardwood. “Heeelp! I'm being kidnapped! Caroliiiiine! Dinosauuuur!”
Nothing happens. And I doubt anyone heard me. The dinosaur travels surprisingly quietly over the leaves and branches on the ground, and I think we're moving pretty damn fast, too.
“Caroliiine! Cavemaaaaaan!” My shouting gets squeaky by the end of that. This isn't the best position for yelling. I can't breathe in deep enough.
I feel my glasses slowly sliding down my nose, and I reach up with one hand to push them back and hold them there. This is the only pair of glasses on this alien planet, and if I lose them or they break, then my chances of survival get that much lower. I'm not legally blind without them, but seeing everything in the world as a blur holds limited appeal. And it's not like there's a branch of Lenscrafters under every bush here.
I try to squirm around so I can see who's holding me down. And in a short glimpse I see it – that's the caveman I saw last night. It's impossible to mistake those eyes and stripes for anyone else.
“Warrior let me go,” I yell in cavemanese. I don't speak that much of it, like Emilia and Sophia do, but I'm a linguistics student and I've picked up a little bit of the language they speak with their husbands. “Let go woman right now! Not want!”
He doesn't reply or even move. The T. Rex we're on keeps walking deeper into the jungle on its two powerful legs with knees at the back, like a bird. But as far as I can tell, there's not much else that's bird-like about this thing.
And now my dress is riding up. Verdammt! I do my best to pull it down my legs to look at least slightly decent. I guess I'm just going to have to lie here with my butt up in the air and hope that guy doesn't get ideas.
The surprise and fear I felt initially is giving way to something else. I hope it's anger and not panic. I mean, being taken and carried away by cavemen isn't that uncommon here. Both Sophia and Emilia experienced something like that when they first met the cavemen they would later marry, but in both cases their guys just took care of them to save them from some charging monster or from some other deadly danger.
I didn't feel like there was any other monster nearby just now, only the huge T. Rex and its rider. And I didn't see any other danger. It doesn't feel like this guy was saving me from anything.
Shit. I'm being straight up abducted.
Yep, it's panic. I can feel the soreness in my throat and the stinging in my eyes. But before my breath goes ragged for real, I have to try talking to him again.
“Woman not want,” I say as clearly as I can. And the night is so silent, I'm sure he can hear me. “Warrior dishonorable if take. Put back woman now.”
He just grunts. It's a deep grunt, just the way you'd expect cavemen to communicate if you didn't know them. But I know they're more sophisticated than that.
Talking feels better than doing nothing, even if I sound a lot like a cavewoman myself. I don't know all the grammar of the language, but that won't stop me. What should I say, though? It's a little weird just to keep demanding to be put down, especially since that's clearly not happening.
The dino is taking me away from Bune and from my friends with each long step. I allow myself a few moments of letting the panic overwhelm me as I realize that this guy might be taking me to my death.
“Let me goooo!” I bang my fists on the rough dinosaur hide again and kick my legs more vigorously than before. I get pretty wild, too, and the heavy hand on the small of my back can't keep me from moving.
The caveman barks something, like a command, and then the rex is suddenly standing still on its two legs, head down, swaying slowly back and forth.
For a moment everything is quiet, and I can both feel and hear the mighty dino's whooshing breath and slow heartbeat as a subdued thunder through its massive body.
I feel strong hands around my waist, and then I squeal as I'm lifted up. For a moment I think I'll be thrown down to the ground from up here.
Then I find myself sitting upright on the rex, face to chest with the caveman. A part of my mind registers that he just lifted me and turned me around like I weighed no more than a rag doll. It's a stunning display of raw strength.
I glance up at him, and the intensity of his yellow eyes as they bore into me feels like a physical shock that has me gasping. Surely those lasers must be able to cut steel.
I can't meet his gaze for too long, so I let my eyes wander over the rest of his face. He has the usual caveman features – strong cheekbones with proportions that seem a little weird to my Earth-girl eyes, a wide mouth that I know will hide tiger-like fangs, a nose that makes him look even more like a tiger than those stripes do and many, many scars from a dangerous life. His hair is long and straggly, but it has the usual caveman inner luminosity, so it looks like it shines with gold even in this dark, damp jungle. His chest has those vivid yellow stripes that also seem to send out a sheen of their own, but that has to be a trick of the light.
He's wearing an outfit straight out of a caveman comic – it's a spotted animal skin with a strand of it going across his chest and over his shoulder, like one furry suspender. It hangs around his hips like a long kilt, which I guess is just as well when he's sitting astride a dinosaur.
He has a long wooden stick that's tied to the side of the dino, and I'm guessing that he uses that to control the beast with. He also has a sword, very long and thin.
The heat from him is making my head swim.
The dinosaur has a pretty intrusive smell, but I'm so close to this guy now that I think I can make out his own scent. It's a fresh, dry note that reminds me of skin heated by the sun. And pine trees, for some reason, although I've never seen pine trees here on planet Xren.
Well, my examination is complete, and the guy hasn't moved. I guess I have to meet those intense eyes again.
I try to mobilize my anger. I like the way he looks and smells, but dammit, he's kidnapped me, and I must make sure not to forget that.
I lift my gaze and stare right into those searchlights he has for eyes. “Dishonorable warrior,” I state as calmly as I can. “Take woman away from friends.”
He's looking at me, too. Up and down, slowly, pausing briefly at my chest and hips. Then he reaches out and probably wants to stroke my cheek.
But he hasn't even made contact when I slap his hand away. “You no touch! Woman is not friend! Dishonorable!”
I'm pretty sure that's one of the worst insults anyone can give a caveman, but I'm finally starting to feel some anger. I look around, trying to find a way to climb down from the T. Rex. But we're pretty high up, and it's not like this thing comes with a ladder. No, I'm stuck here for now.
I remember hearing or reading about how to deal with certain criminals who a
re trying to cause you harm: make sure they think of you as a person, not as an object. I'm not sure this guy actually wants to hurt me, but I won't take any chances.
I stare into his eyes and point to my own chest. “Heidi. You see? Hei-di. You,” I point at his chest, “now take Heidi back.” I point back in the direction we came from.
He briefly turns his head and glances in that direction, too, but doesn't seem too interested.
For a couple of heartbeats we're just sitting there, facing each other. Right now I have no impulse to look away from the pulsating yellow light in his eyes. I've done nothing wrong. But he has, and I get a feeling he knows it.
Then he growls with what sounds a lot like impatience, grabs my waist with both hands, lifts me and turns me around and barks a short command.
The dinosaur starts walking again, just continuing in the same direction we were going, away from Bune and the girls.
“No!” I protest loudly, kicking and struggling. “Back! Dishonorable!”
I try to squirm out of his grip, but then I feel a thin rope snaking around me, and then he has my arm tied to my body. It's not too tight, just tight enough to keep me from struggling much.
After my brief flash of anger, the fear is sneaking back in. I don't like that annoyed growl of his. As if he's angry, too. With me.
The dinosaur lumbers on through the jungle, but still I'm never hit by any branches or leaves from the dense vegetation. I can tell that the caveman is using his long stick to steer the beast, and he's being careful with where he's going. It reminds me a little of a motorcycle stunt driver who'll drive through a seemingly impossible obstacle course without a hitch. Except this thing has to weigh many tons and probably moves just as fast as any bike.
I keep struggling, more to show my dislike than because I have any real hope of getting loose.
It seems to me we're moving away from the spaceship Bune, but also from our old cave. This is a new direction, and the girls and I haven't done any exploring in this part of the jungle. But I can hear running water everywhere, just like in the part of the forest we walked to get to Bune. The rainy season means that every little creek and stream is running full of muddy water.
The dinosaur just walks on without hesitation, and it has an interesting way of getting across the streams – it just walks right through, and the water never gets higher than about halfway up its powerful legs that each look like they could hold up a decent sized building.
Suddenly the rex veers to the left and crashes through the undergrowth, running much faster. I yelp and hold on to the rough skin with hands that are cramping from fear of falling off. If I thought being with a caveman on top of a T. Rex was scary, then I now find that being with a caveman on an out-of-control T. Rex is much worse. “Is this supposed to happen?”
The caveman makes various sounds, probably to slow us down, but it's not working.
Then the rex lowers its head and catches something in its immense mouth. It's another dino, and there's a sickening crunch as our steed crushes its prey's spine with huge teeth. The head and long tail of the smaller dino is sticking out from either side of the rex's mouth. It slows down again and turns back to its earlier direction.
“Even Bigs have to eat,” the caveman says behind me as the dinosaur goes back to its calm walk.
It's the first thing he says to me. He has a deep, resonant voice.
After a while the adrenaline is ebbing from my veins, and I'm starting to feel exhaustion creep in. I'm very uncertain and afraid about what lies ahead and what this guy is planning. It's clearly the same man that I saw the other night. He's probably followed me and my little tribe to Bune, and then he skulked around until he could catch me alone. It's still weird, though – how did he know I would emerge from that opening in the spaceship?
The dinosaur lumbers on through the woods, moving with a rhythmic gait that could be pleasant if the circumstances weren't so messed up. Its unpleasant smell is still there, but out of these two, the caveman behind me has the strongest presence.
We must have been going for hours. I can feel his heat behind me, and I have to resist an urge to lean back into his chest and get some rest. It's been a long and exhausting day, and I haven't slept since I woke up and had to go.
But I have my pride, and I keep sitting upright in front of him, as far away from him as I can get. Sleepiness is tugging at the ends of my consciousness.
“You know,” I say in English, “you could have just asked me. 'Hey, alien woman, you want to go for a ride on my cool dinosaur?' Because this thing could actually be a pretty good chick magnet. Oh, sorry. Of course you don't know what a magnet is. Or a chick.”
I know he doesn't understand a word, but it gives me something to do and it keeps me awake. “But noooo. You had to take me against my will.” I half turn to look at him. “You know you will never get anywhere with me, right? Whatever you're planning will never work.”
He just glances at me before he looks up again to control the dino. He's using the stick to push into the rex's sides. It seems like a very delicate way of controlling something as big as this, but it's clearly effective.
I turn back and stifle a yawn. Things aren't that threatening right now, the jungle is damp and warm and the rex is rocking gently to the sides as it walks. I could doze off right now.
4
- Dar'ax -
I have no particular idea where I'm going with this being. My mind is in a daze and I can't make sense of what just happened.
She's talking now, speaking some alien language. Or possibly she's chanting something to her Ancestors. I will certainly have a stern prayer session with mine very soon.
When I first saw her, outside a cave that was rumored to be there, I thought she was a demon. An envoy of the Darkness, so different and strange that she could not come from any of the tribes. Illuminated by sudden lightning, she had a strange beauty that spoke to something deep inside me.
Only when I heard her thin voice, saw the way she ran and her face illuminated by the lightning did I realize that she was something much stranger than a demon – a woman.
No woman has been seen on Xren for many ages of men. They were taken by the dirty Plood, and then our tribe had to start using Lifegivers to keep supplying us with children, so that the tribe may continue. We all long for the day when the women will return, but nobody believes it will ever happen.
And here is one now. Sitting right in front of me on this kronk, so close I can reach out and touch her at will.
She's small, only the size of an adolescent boy before the stripening. But no boy has ever had a shape like hers. Her hips are wide and her chest is enticingly heavy and round. Her skin impossibly smooth and unstriped, her face full like a child's yet still with the maturity of an adult. Her eyes are dark and mysterious, big and clear behind the strange, flat rocks that she carries in front of them. Her voice sounds like that of young boys playing, but it's brighter and clearer and gentler, somehow. And more mature, although this is not an old being.
It all comes together in a series of overwhelming sensations and feelings that I have never encountered before. She does something to me, so profound that it feels as if the world has been turned around completely and everything is made anew.
A being like this ... can I be sure that this is not a demon? It seems to have taken over my thoughts and turned everything into chaos.
Last night, as soon as I discovered her, she ran into the cave, seemingly calling for help. And indeed two men came out, barely leaving me time to get away before they could see me. But I could see them.
Clearly at least one tribe still has women. Six of them.
Six women! The thought was too large for my mind. Still is.
I was intrigued. But I have a mission, and I was able to turn my back to her and then go straight to Bune that night. I kept vigil there, looking for something specific that might make my mission easier. I found it, too, and I was about to leave.
Then she came out of
the darkness. And I just took her, as naturally as one takes a breath or picks up a sparkly pebble from the ground. I just knew that she was mine.
“Where we go?” She turns her head and looks at me. The transparent rocks in front of her eyes flash in the moonlight, and they look so otherworldly I still can't be sure that she wasn't sent by a demon.
I don't know what to answer. I have no idea where I'm going with her.
She holds my gaze for a moment, then turns back again and keeps talking her own language. I know she can speak my language, but I didn't know it could sound so sweet.
Still, has anything really changed? I still have my mission. Can I allow anything at all to stop me from fulfilling it?
But she's so soft and so small, so in need of protection, so enticing ...
“Raaah!” I punch the kronk's thick skin in frustration and anger. I don't have time for this! I can't let myself be encumbered by this ... this ... demonic creature! Because really, can anything that's not demonic be this wonderful?
On the other hand, wouldn't a demonic being seem more seductive and ingratiating? This woman is only one of those things. Indeed I find her so seductive that my loins have been continuously swelling to ridiculous proportions since I lifted her up onto the kronk's back. Ingratiating she's most certainly not.
What shall I do with her? I don't have time for this!
I groan in pure frustration, and the woman turns around to look at me once more. Then she turns back again, without a word, her back straight in a clear defiance that I find unreasonably attractive and which doesn't seem demonic at all.
'Dishonorable', she said right after I took her. It has worried me since. Does she know, then? Or is it so clearly visible in my face? That I'm the last and only?
I take a deep breath. She has thrown off all my plans and ambitions. She's a such a burden for me.
Until now, things were so simple. Dark, but simple: fulfill my mission. Only that.
And now, my mind is more infuriatingly muddled than it has ever been.