“About the wife thing…” My voice drifted into a sigh as she scratched a really nice part on my scalp. “We didn’t get married.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as she paused her fingers.
“There wasn’t a ceremony or--”
“We are lovers, you will help me care for our young.” She shrugged. “Galmine and Sheela are also your wives. It is fine. You worry too much over titles.”
“I worry too much over titles?” I smirked at her and was about to remind her about the hundreds of times where she told me she was a duchess, but she laughed before I could, and moved her hands down to take the soulring from my grasp.
“It is sharp on the outside,” I warned as she held it in her palms on the inside curve.
“It is an interesting metal and heavier than I expected,” she said as she studied the weapon. “You said he threw this at you?”
“Yeah, and then it returned to him like a boomerang.”
“Boomerang?” she asked as she blinked at me.
“Uhh yeah, shit, must be weirdness with the translators. This thing returned to him like it had a mind of its own.”
“You are right, it is very sharp,” she said as she ran her claws along the outer rim. “I don’t think I can create a fire hot enough to melt it down, but maybe I can build an axe out of it. If it holds an edge better than the stone ones, it will save time.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I said. “One more thing for you to do.”
“I want to get sand for the filter,” she said. “And clay. They are the most important tasks.”
“Let’s try to go tomorrow,” I said. “If you finish that sled, and we get all the wood moved inside the fort walls, then everyone else will have plenty to do tomorrow. We can take a quick trip to the ocean and get you sand. We’ll take the river there and look for a spot to get new clay.”
“Hmmm,” Trel said as she looked at the pile of wood she was about to use to make the sled. “After I finish this, I believe I should work on the saddle for the trikes. If we take Bob, then we can carry hundreds of pounds of sand and clay back.”
“Do we have enough baskets for that?” I asked.
“We have eight baskets that will carry clay. We will order everyone to switch to that task after they finish with the carcasses outside.”
“But they will need to gather fern leaves,” I said with a chuckle. “I guess it isn’t too much of a diversion from my plan.”
“We also have spare clay pots to carry the sand,” Trel said. “We should bring as many containers as we can.”
“Alright,” I said as I started to put together the immediate pieces of the plan together in my head. “I think our bottleneck is going to be getting all those branches inside of the fort. So, we need to focus on getting the sled done. Can I help you build it?”
“Of course,” Trel laughed, and then she gave me a quick description of her plan.
Trel’s design of the sled was similar to the gate door setup, it involved taking three long vertical logs, strapping on smaller horizontal logs, and then attaching it to Hope’s harness at the front. She wanted to leave the loose offshoot branches on as many pieces as she could so that the pine needles kind of provided a lubricant over the ground. It took us about an hour to put together, but the sun was beginning to make its return trip to the other side of the planet, and I guessed that we only had four or five more hours of daylight left.
“This will be large enough to fit around Bob’s chest,” Trel said as she handed me one end of the harness. “Help me put it on him.”
“Got it,” I said as we worked together to put it over Bob. This design was also simple, and it would actually be easy for Bob to slide out of if I just commanded him to lower his head and step backward.
“Let’s give it a try,” I said I climbed onto Bob’s back and into the saddle. A moment later he was pulling gently on the sled and was dragging it slowly across the grass.
“Seems smooth,” I said as I looked at Bob’s long tail. “Do we need to make the ties a little longer, so his tail doesn’t accidentally knock over the payload?”
“We are running out of cord,” Trel said with a shrug. “I can spend ten more hours on it and make it perfect, or you can just start using it, and we’ll pick up pieces as they might fall off the sled. This can be sloppy as long as it works.” Trel looked up to the sun, and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was. We didn’t have much time left in the day, and there was a shitload of stuff to do still.
“I’ll get moving then,” I said as Trel easily spider-climbed up Bob’s back to sit behind me. Then I commanded Bob, Sonny, Cher, and Hope to go out to the work pile.
As I exited the walls, I turned to my left to see how Sheela, Kacerie, Liahpa, and Emerald were doing on the carcasses. They were still working on the allosauruses, but I saw that the first one had been skinned and cut open at all the limbs so the team could get to his tendons. The claws of the predator had been removed, and Sheela and Liahpa were in the process of hammering out the massive teeth with their stone hatchets. All four of the women were covered with blood, but they were chatting with each other as they worked, and they waved at me when I raised my hand.
“We are going to bring the wood into the gate!” I called out to them, and they all nodded before they returned to their work.
“Ugh,” Trel groaned. “I guess I should go help them.”
“They would probably appreciate it,” I said, “but let’s make sure this harness is working okay before you go.”
Bob dragged the sled next to one of the wood piles, and I commanded Sonny to kind of lift, nudge, and shoulder push the nest of branches. The stack slid and then toppled over onto the sled, and while it wasn’t a perfectly organized stack, I decided to just see what happened if Bob pulled on the weight. I gave him the order to move, and the thick rope cords that Trel had crafted strained under the tension of his bulk yanking on the weighted sled.
Then the load began to move.
“Yes!” I shouted as I did a little fist pump. “It worked!”
“Of course it worked,” Trel said with a dry laugh. “My designs always work.”
“You were worried,” I said as I stuck my tongue out at her, and she gave me a coy smile that made my stomach flutter.
The sled made it back into the gate just fine, and I commanded Sonny to push the load off into another pile. We’d dropped a few pieces on the path here, but the process had produced about four times the amount of wood in one trip than we had when we manually dragged it, so I knew it was a more efficient solution.
I hauled the sled back out of the gate again, and then Trel tapped my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and she gave me a deep kiss before she wordlessly slid off Bob’s back and walked on her human legs over to where the other women worked. I watched her tight ass sway in her boy shorts when she walked, and then I returned to my work once she had made it to Sheela.
I lost count of the trips I made back and forth with the sled, but the sun was just a few hours away from sunset by the time I finished moving all of the piles of logs and branches inside of our outer gate. The women had finished carving most of the four carcasses up around the time I completed my task, and I brought the sled over so that they could pile the baskets of sinew, claws, teeth, and skin on top for easy transportation. Sheela had also cut out the liver, hearts, and tongues out of the four massive dinosaurs and I gave her a raised eyebrow when she threw them on top of the sled.
“They are high in nutrients,” she said with a slight smile.
“They look like they weigh sixty pounds each,” I replied. “We won’t be able to eat all this before it goes bad.”
“Then I will discard them,” she said. “This opportunity is too good to pass up. The stag you brought back was a good source of darker meat, but these parts will further revitalize us.”
“Alright,” I said as I smiled at the blood covered woman. “I’ll let you take care of the project.”
“
Thank you, Victor.” Her eyes glowed when they met mine, and then I remembered that we needed to get more ferns for baskets.
“One more job we have to do before we turn in tonight,” I said. “We need to gather more ferns and start making baskets. Trel and I are going to try for the ocean tomorrow for sand, and we’ll travel alongside the river in hopes that we find clay.”
“Those are our only baskets,” Kacerie said as she wiped the back of her bloody hand across her bloody face and blinked a few times. She looked exhausted, they all did, and I knew I was pushing them a little too hard.
But there was still work to do.
“We’ll take everything close to the inner walls, dump what we can there, and leave someone to help Galmine sort through all the meat and sinew. Then we’ll come back with the sled and baskets and get more ferns.”
“Okay,” Kacerie said with a nod, and then they all sat on the sled. I instructed Bob to move, and we were soon parked near the slow roasting venison. Galmine was tending to the meat, and she moved to help us unload while I gave her a quick run-down.
I helped them move all the baskets off and pour the sinew out on the grass. We probably had hundreds of yards of the stuff, and I began to daydream for a few seconds about all the rope, twine, clothes, and bowstrings we could make with the material. I only had a few minutes to think about it, and then we had unloaded everything and the group was waiting for my next round of instructions.
“Kacerie, you are going to help Galmine organize everything,” I said as I turned to the blue-eyed woman.
“Okay, thanks,” she said with relief clear in her voice. I’d seen her movements dragging, and she’d stifled a yawn more than a few times. Sheela and Liahpa both looked fresh, Emerald moved slowly, but hadn’t yawned or seemed frustrated, and Trel didn’t complain when I asked Kacerie to stay back, so I figured I made the right decision.
On our way back out of the gate, I commanded Bob to continue his walk with the sled over to the closest fern grove, slid off his back while he walked, and then turned to the women on the saddle.
“Trel and I are going to start the digging process for the trench,” I said as I gestured for the black-haired beauty to come to me. “You three start collecting the ferns, and we’ll come help you as soon as I have the parasaurs start the digging.”
“Yes, Victor,” Sheela said, but I saw Liahpa’s pretty mouth frown slightly as Trel walked toward me.
“Okay, Trel,” I said as I pointed to Sonny and Cher, “tell me where to dig and how deep to go. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish tonight, and I’ll have to take them all to get water in an hour or so, but I want to get them started since they aren’t doing any work right now.”
“Hmmm,” Trel said as she tapped her finger on her lips and paced the ground beside the walls. I saw her blink her Eye-Q on and then she gestured with her hand on the ground some thirty-five feet away.
“That’s pretty far,” I said.
“The dinosaurs are rather large,” she said with a shrug.
“How deep do I need to make it?” I asked.
“At least twenty feet,” she said. “That will give us thirty-five feet of height advantage if someone is at the bottom. Well, less than that depending on how tall the person or dinosaur is.”
“We could take the spare dirt and form a gentle hill on this side,” she said as she gestured away from the wall. “Then they will have to climb up the hill and be exposed to our arrows before they have to go down into the trench.”
“Huh,” I said as I glanced over to where Sheela worked gathering ferns at the tree line. I would have liked her advice on matters of war and defense, but I supposed nothing I did now was permanent, and I guessed that she would end up agreeing with Trel, anyway.
I ordered Sonny and Cher to start digging, and the parasaurs went to work like a pair of dogs looking for a big juicy bone. When it became obvious they got the dimensions that I wanted to dig out, Trel and I walked over to the ferns and started helping Sheela, Liahpa, and Emerald gather components for the baskets.
The five of us worked in a comfortable silence, but I caught both Liahpa and Emerald shooting me glances. The silver woman seemed to be annoyed with me, and I guessed it was because she thought that I wasn’t doing my fair share of the manual labor, but Emerald’s glances were a little harder to identify. Her white reptilian eyes were more than a little creepy, but I sensed no hostility from her.
“Great job, everyone,” I said about an hour later after we had filled all the baskets and put another giant stack of ferns in the center of the sled and made our way back to the spot outside of the inner walls of the fort. “This will make a few dozen baskets and give us a hundred yards or so of cordage.”
“Is that our next project?” Liahpa asked, and I saw her eyes drift over to Sheela.
“I’m going to take the dinos back to the river for a drink.” I looked over to the fires and saw Kacerie turning long slices of organ meat over the flames. “You all can take a break and grab some food. Then we can all sit around the fire and work on baskets or cordage until it is time to sleep.”
Liahpa opened her mouth to respond, but Sheela spoke before the silver woman could put a voice to her words.
“I will go with you to the river. We should bring all the empty water jugs to refill.”
“Sounds good, Sheela. I’ll leave two trikes here and take the rest. Toss me a spear? I dropped mine in the river.”
She nodded, grabbed two spears leaning against the wall, tossed one, and then climbed up on Bob’s back while Trel took off his cordage harness. Kacerie and Emerald brought us out six empty water jugs and helped us attach them to the back part of Bob’s saddle.
A few minutes later I was riding through the redwood forest with a group of dinosaur escorts. Sheela pressed her toned body against my back while we rode, and she didn’t let up on her grip until I reached the edge of the redwoods before the river.
“Thanks for coming with me,” I said as I checked the shores of the river for movement.
“No thanks are needed,” she whispered in my ear. “I am your woman, and we are meant to protect each other. I should not have let you come alone earlier.”
“I’m okay,” I said, but I didn’t turn around to look at her.
“I am here for you if you need it,” she said.
“I might need to talk later,” I said, “but now I’m just sad.” I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I commanded the dinos to go down and drink. I’d left Nicole and Tom guarding the gate, but everyone else quickly got down to the business of filling their giant stomachs with river water.
“Why are you sad?” Sheela asked as we got off Bob’s back and grabbed the water jugs. I realized that I did want to talk to her about what happened, but I bent down to fill up my water jug before I began to speak.
“I’m worried that we are going to have to fight a bunch.”
“We are already fighting to survive,” she said as she filled her jug and then raised it over her chest to pour water over herself. She was covered with dried blood from butchering the dinos, but the cold water washed it away from her light layer of fur and bikini. The water also caused her nipples to press urgently against the thin fabric of her tattered bra, and I forgot what I was about to say.
“Victor?” Sheela asked me when she noticed me staring at her.
“Nothing, uhh, that was just really hot,” I said as I felt heat come to my cheeks.
“I am confused,” she said. “This water is cold.”
“Oh, ahhh yeah. Soooo what was I talking about?” I asked as she returned to filling up her water jug.
“Fighting to survive,” she reminded me.
“Oh yeah. What I meant was that we’ll have to fight other survivors.”
“We do not know that for sure,” she replied. “We could find other peaceful settlements. Or we could find none. We do not know how large this world is. If it is the size of my planet, it could take years to walk its circumference.�
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“True,” I said with a chuckle. “You know what is weird? My species lived in a beautiful green and blue planet. We call it Earth in my language. We’ve spent tons of time and energy looking for life on other planets, but for our level of technology, the solar system was vast, and our galaxy impossibly large. We never found life on another planet, but some scientists hypothesized that we shouldn’t even be looking. We shouldn’t attract attention. The galaxy seemed quiet, like a forest when all the animals knew there was a predator around. They theorized that it was just safer to be unknown since anything that found us would probably have the technology to destroy us easily. Turns out they were right. I was plucked from our world in half a moment.”
“Do you think that the potential other tribes out there are more capable than us?” Sheela asked as she lifted her full jug up and walked it back to Bob.
“I’d be certain of it,” I said as I handed her my filled jug and then took an empty one.
“Why?”
“Think about how hard it has been,” I said. “If I didn’t have my Tame ability, would we have lived this long? Would we have had the ability to make the fort? Hell, the first one we built was destroyed by a stampede that was a fraction of the size of the one that hit us this morning. It’s possible someone got on this planet after us and managed to carve survival out, but it’s more likely that the tribes on this world have been doing it longer. They might be more advanced than us, have more people, and probably will be more ruthless.”
“Why do you think they will be more ruthless?” Sheela asked as we filled our second jugs.
“Because that’s what happens when you survive longer,” I said. “I asked the guy if he wanted to join up with me, but he attacked instead. Next time I’ll be more careful. The time after that I’ll be even more careful.”
“Careful does not have to mean ruthless,” Sheela whispered.
“Maybe not,” I said. “But you all are my priority. I don’t want to tell survivors that they need to join or die, but I also don’t want to risk getting stabbed in the back.”
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