“It’s not for men,” Liahpa said as she shook her head. “Lift ball is a game of strength, speed, and strategy. Two teams of six each must--”
“I’m already bored,” Trel groaned. “Your ball lifting game sounds terrible.”
“I just listened to you blab on about your fucking wall for the last two hours,” Liahpa said. “You can--”
“Our wall is important,” Trel cut her off again with a wave of her black fingers. “The sweaty game you played on your home world because you didn’t have any men is not.”
“Okay!” I said as I rested my hand on Trel’s shoulder. “I can see we are all learning to get along. Liahpa, do you know what your Mass ability does?”
“I have no idea,” the floating silver woman answered after she finished chewing a bite of venison. “And at this point, I don’t think I care to even tell you what I think it might do.”
“Fair enough,” I said as I finally took a bite of my own meat. Even though we didn’t have any sort of seasoning, just tasting something that wasn’t orange bird was wonderful. My stomach growled with agreement, and I had to fight the urge to devour my entire portion in a few dinosaur inspired gulps. There was plenty of meat, and I could afford to take my time and enjoy it.
“Yes,” Trel said as she looked at the silver-woman. “You have already violated the rules of our tribe, so maybe you should just leave.”
“Rules of our tribe?” I asked. The spider-woman’s words stopped my train of thought, and I turned to her.
“Yes,” Trel said as she cleared her throat. “First rule is that Victor is the boss, and you do what he tells you to do.”
“I do not follow men. They are evil and any--” Liahpa started to say.
“Second rule,” Trel interrupted her. “I am Victor’s wife. Therefore, you should also do whatever I say.”
Kacerie, Liahpa, and I all groaned in unison, but Trel didn’t seem to notice.
“Third rule is that--”
“Trel,” I said, and she actually paused to look at me. “Let me talk for a bit.”
“Of course,” she said with a knowing nod toward Liahpa. “I follow the rules.”
“I feel like you just made those up this morning,” Kacerie said, but Trel didn’t reply, and I cleared my throat so everyone looked at me.
“Okay, Liahpa, I get that you aren’t used to being around men, but this is our camp, and if you want to stay, you are going to have to deal with me being around you. I’ll do my best to make you comfortable, but I’m sure Trel told you that you aren’t going to be going home anytime soon.”
“Yes,” Liahpa said as she glared at the black-haired beauty. “She told me that many times.”
“Right,” I said. “We could use your help around the camp. We have tons of shit to do.”
“What if I don’t want to be part of a group of spineless women enslaved by the patriarchy?” Liahpa asked as she glanced down at her now empty plate.
“Then you can walk out the gate and go setup your own fort,” I said as I pointed toward where the three trikes sat. “I don’t really give a fuck.”
My words were true. I’d been through this before with Trel, and then Kacerie. I was done placating women who didn’t respect me. This was my fort, and newcomers were going to do what I told them to do, or they could leave.
Silence fell for a few moments as I stared into the woman’s red eyes. Her face was almost angelic, and the silver sheen of her skin combined with her floating hair in a way that made her seem to be the most alien of all the women standing around me. Even the other woman with the green skin and gems on her head seemed more human because she still appeared beholden to the effects of gravity.
“I am joking a bit about the patriarchy reference,” Liahpa said at last, and a half smile came to her lips. “I’ll admit that I’m thrown off by your presence. The last one of my people to ever see a man was in my great, great, great, great grandmother’s age, and I’ve lived my whole life thinking that men are evil and the stuff of legends. Obviously, you are not. You did save us from the four black feathered creatures, you brought us here to your home, and you are feeding me from the food you just hunted yourself. I’ve treated you a bit unfairly, but I would like to stay. Will you accept my apology?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, and I actually did feel a bunch of relief. I was fine with her leaving, but the Eye-Q stats she read off were really intriguing, and I wanted her on my team.
I turned to the green scaled woman that had stood silently by while we all talked, and she focused her white-reptilian eyes on my face. The woman was a strange combination of slender runway model and lizard, with sparkling gems on her forehead and temples. I couldn’t tell if the gems were jewelry that had been attached to her scales, or if they were actually part of her body. She almost looked human, except for the green color of her skin and hair, the jewels on her face, and her long pointed elf ears.
“Hi, I’m Victor,” I said as I extended my hand toward her. “They say you can’t speak. Is that correct?”
The green-skinned woman looked down to my hand and then back up to my eyes. I kind of expected her to be confused by my hand, but she set her plate on the grass, hesitantly reached out, and wrapped her fingers around mine. Her hand was proportioned like a human’s, but her skin was green scales. I was surprised by how soft it felt.
“You can’t talk?” I asked, and she looked back up from my hand and into my eyes before she shook her head.
“That’s okay,” I said. “We can really use your help around the camp. Will you help us?”
She nodded, and her long green hair bounced across the shoulders of her low cut blouse. The garment was frilly, and I found my eyes stray down to where her breasts formed perfect cleavage. She really was crazy-strangely beautiful, and I was having trouble keeping my eyes off her scale covered breasts and slender hips. I finally focused on her eyes and did my best to ignore how predatory they looked.
“I would like to know your name,” I said. “But if you can’t talk, I’m not sure how we can figure it out.”
“We should just call her what we feel like calling her,” Trel scoffed. “How about Green Scaled Woman?”
“Awww,” Galmine said. “That name isn’t pretty at all, and she is very beautiful. How about Emerald?”
“I like it,” I said as I turned to the green-haired woman. She nodded, and a slight smile came to her very human looking and very full lips.
“So, it will probably be hard to figure out what your ability is,” I realized we were still holding hands, and I released my grasp. Emerald didn’t though, and her white reptilian eyes continued to stare at my face.
“She has fingers,” Sheela said. “She can indicate what her strength, speed, and stamina are.”
Emerald nodded and then she raised her left hand as she continued to hold mine with her right. Then she flashed three of her fingers, then four, and then two.
“That’s helpful,” I said as I wiggled my hand a bit. “Do you know what your ability does?”
Emerald nodded and then her smile faded from her pretty face. She tilted her head a bit so that her hair fell away from her neck, and then her body started to blur as if she was vibrating really fast.
“Whoa,” I said as I looked down at where we held hands. Her grip didn’t waver on my fingers, and it didn’t feel like she was shaking, so I guessed that I was seeing some sort of optical illusion.
Almost as soon as it started, her blur of motion stopped, and we all gasped with surprise. There were now two Emeralds standing side-by-side, and they both fixed me with their strange white eyes.
“She can create a duplicate?” Sheela asked.
“Looks like it,” I said as I glanced down at our hands again.
“It’s a neat trick,” Trel said, “but I don’t see how it will be useful to have an optical illusion that--” her words cut short when the second Emerald took a small step toward me and moved her hand up to my face.
Then I felt her finge
rs run through my hair.
“Uhh, this isn’t an illusion,” I gasped as Emerald continued to stroke my scalp. The first one let go of my hand and then she stepped to the opposite side of me and began to touch my beard with her fingers.
“Huh,” Trel said as she reached out to touch one of Emerald’s arms. Sheela reached for the other Emerald, and then my two lovers glanced at each other once they had touched her.
“You have cloned yourself?” I asked the first Emerald, and they both shrugged. The gems were still on her face, so I guessed they were part of her body, and not jewelry that she had attached.
“How many can you create?” Sheela asked, and the scaled-woman raised a single finger.
“That could be because she is level 1,” I said, and I was a bit surprised when Emerald nodded to me.
“This could be really useful,” Kacerie said. “It would be like having an extra body around camp. Emerald, is this permanent?”
One of the duplicate women bit her lip as if she was considering how to answer the question, then she made a slight shrug.
“You don’t know?” I asked, and she nodded. “But can you, ummm, cancel it, so there is just one of you agai--”
Before I could finish asking my question, the newly made Emerald let out a soft gasp. We turned to her, and her scales began to turn a brown color. I watched in horror as her body darkened to black, bent over, and then seemed to shrivel. She kind of shrunk in size till she was about three quarters as tall as she once was, and then her scale color changed again to gray before pieces of her limbs started to crumble like ash. Then she collapsed on herself as if she was a sandcastle that just tumbled under its own weight.
“That was creepy,” Kacerie said, and it was exactly what I was thinking.
“Can you see what your… uhh clone sees?” I asked, and the green-scaled woman nodded.
“All the sensations?” Kacerie asked. “Do you control both of your bodies at--”
Emerald took her hand away from where she stroked my beard, shook her head, and then waved her hand. Then she pushed the palms of her hands together and opened her eyes wide. We watched her move her hands apart, and she closed her eyes as soon as her palms weren’t touching. Then she closed one of her hands into a fist, opened her eyes, and brought her hands back together.
“I have no idea what that means,” Kacerie sighed.
“I think I get it,” I said as Emerald turned her eyes to me. “When she makes a clone, she can’t really see, hear, or feel whatever it does, but when she turns it into dust, or whatever, then she knows what the clone experienced during the time they were apart.”
Emerald smiled at me slightly and then made a quick nod.
“Hmmm,” Sheela said. “That could be very useful for scouting missions.”
“Yeah,” I said as my mind spun with the various possibilities. “Is there a max distance you two can be apart?” I asked the green-woman, but she shrugged and then crouched down in a perfect squat so that she could pick up her plate of venison again.
“I wonder if her kind already have a limited form of this power,” Kacerie said, and we all turned to her.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“My species all have Lance,” she said, “but the time in-between when I can use it seems to have decreased. How about you all?”
“No,” Trel scoffed. “I am unique amongst my…” her voice trailed off, and her fingers came up to tap on her full red lips. “Hmmm.”
“Didn’t you say your people built space yachts?” I asked. “Do they also craft amazing buildings and structures?”
“Yes,” Trel finally admitted. “We have twisting spiral buildings that reach up almost to the atmosphere, underground tunnels that pass through the magma of our planet, and space yachts that can travel to the ends of our solar system in only a few weeks. Now that I think about it, the women of my species are great builders.”
“The women?” Liahpa asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” Trel said with a wiggle of her long black claw-fingers. “The men on my planet are a bunch of idiots. Alas, we still need them for procreation and grunt labor.”
“My kind has eliminated the male gender,” Liahpa said. “If your people were as--”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Trel interrupted her. “It sounds like your people have it all figured out, except for one thing.”
“What is that?” Liahpa asked as her eyes narrowed.
“Sex with a man feels really good,” Trel laughed and then gestured to me. “Especially with Victor.”
“We have plenty of sex,” Liahpa scoffed. “In fact, two women--”
“Stop,” I said, and the floating silver-woman paused mid-sentence, turned, and looked at me with shock clear on her beautiful face. “We can talk about our sex lives later. Right now, we are discussing how our powers work. Then we need to talk about our plans for the next few days. We have a lot of shit to do, and we all need to get the correct marching orders.”
“I was just pointing out that--”
“And if you want to leave our camp you may,” I interrupted her again and then gestured to our gate. “I won’t stop you. I don’t want to be a dick about this, but I have a hundred things to go over with everyone so we can survive. If you want to talk about your sex life, you can do it when you are working on one of the tasks I assigned you.”
Liahpa and I stared at each other for a few seconds, and then she nodded and sighed heavily. “Very well, Victor.”
“Now, tell me about your people,” I said. “Do they have any special powers? We need to figure out what Mass does.”
“How do you determine if a trait is special?” Liahpa asked. “My kind just do what they can do.”
“The rest of us can talk about ours,” I said. “Then you might be able to figure out what it is. You are floating off the ground, and it is called Mass, so I’m guessing it has something to do with gravity.” I turned to Sheela and raised an eyebrow.
“My kind are warriors and fighters,” she said as she turned to Liahpa and Emerald. “Most of us are skilled with all melee and ranged weapons. It makes sense that my ability is Critical Strike. I am able to do an attack that causes a lot of damage to my target.”
“Galmine?” I asked.
“All my people grow plants,” she said with her usual cheerful smile. “The weather of my world is very cold and windy. There isn’t much sun, but we have a way with farming.”
“And mine…” my voice trailed off as I thought about humans. “We practically evolved side-by-side with animals. We trained creatures we called wolves to hunt with us, then we trained oxen to pull our wagons. Then we rode horses, so I am able to tame the dinosaurs. Huh. Does this mean that our abilities were determined by our race?”
“Perhaps our captors took the best representation of each of our species for this world,” Trel mused.
“Ha. I’m hardly the best at Lance.” Kacerie crossed her arms and frowned.
“How do you know?” Trel asked. “How many people have you killed with your ability?”
“I’ve never killed anyone,” Kacerie answered with a shrug.
“So, you could possess the best ability of your species,” Trel said. “Of course, I am the smartest and most gifted of all my kind, so it makes sense that our captors would have taken me here.”
“I’m not saying you are wrong, Trel,” I said as I smiled at her. “You are really damn smart, but I don’t think I’m really the best animal handler or trainer out of all my species. There is a guy with a television show named Cesar Millan. He can train dogs to do whatever he wants. There are also plenty of professional animal trainers that get paid lots of money to train horses or even big predator cats for circuses.”
“But you don’t know for sure,” Trel said. “You might have had the potential to be the best. Or maybe all the others are just too old and ugly.”
“I don’t know what being old or ugly would have to do with it,” Kacerie said.
“Well,
look at us.” Trel gestured to our group. “We are all very attractive. We are all prime mating age, and we are all in good physical shape.”
“Are you hinting that our captors have put us here to breed?” Liahpa asked as she looked at me sideways.
“Might I speak?” Sheela asked before anyone could answer Liahpa.
“Yeah, go ahead,” I said as I smiled at the blonde woman.
“I have often hunted on my planet. We have vehicles, but my kind prefer to run, and we have often hunted in packs for social entertainment. I have always had a bit of a problem with these group hunts though.” Sheela let out a long sigh, and it seemed as if it was difficult for her to speak the words.
“Why?” I asked after she paused for a few seconds.
“I was better than everyone,” she said with a slight shrug. “I never hunted with males, but amongst the females, when I threw a spear, it traveled farther and always hit its mark. When I used a sling, I could kill a Tosura-beast with only one stone. When we axe hunted the Kiline birds, I would end up with ten or twenty times the meat as the next closest hunter. Eventually, the others grew tired of being in my shadow. I thought about downplaying my skills and abilities, but I felt it would be dishonorable to my family name and my own time investment in my training.”
“See? We are the best of our kind. It is simple.” Trel let out a laugh.
“How about you, Galmine?” I asked the stone-skinned woman.
“It is hard to know for sure if I had more talent with the earth than the others of my community,” she said as she bent down to hand a piece of venison to Jinx, who happily gobbled it up. “However, I never had a crop die.”
“Did others have crops die?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” she said with a shrug. “Everyone did but me, actually.”
“Further confirmation,” Trel said.
“Liahpa,” I said as I turned to the floating woman. “You said you were a professional lift ball player? You said you were one of the best?”
“Yes,” she answered me cautiously.
“And you were a… ‘lifter?’” I asked as I tried to remember what position she has said she played. “What is that?”
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