"Wait, Raxar, the spirit walker, they have this machine; I think it's a medical scanner. They used it to teach me their language. If we can get you there, we can …" But she stopped talking when Julius started to shake his head.
"Do you think you can fix me, even if you do figure out how? I'm telling you, I'm not gonna be able to move more than ten feet, so I might as well just sit here with you a minute. But that's okay by me. You always were my favorite, so much spunk, sexy as hell, and you don't take any shit." He nudged Loraine and put his hand on her leg.
"You'll be okay," Loraine said to him, pressing down hard on his hand with her own and nestling her cheek against his muscular bicep.
"I know you've got a shot at figuring out a way to get back to The New Horizon if anyone has. You're as smart as they came. Just, remember, it's okay to settle for a good life on this planet if that's what it comes to. 'Cause let's be real, our ship might have been destroyed when those alien assholes took us captive. Just, do me a favor and stick with your new friend here, okay? He can fight like crazy. You need to keep yourself safe, okay?"
"You're just saying all that because you're hurt. "Hey," she said. "Julius?"
His eyes were open, but the pupils were dilated in the center of foggy whites. His chest did not rise. It didn't seem necessary to check, but Loraine took his pulse anyway. Her training had included advanced first aid. There was nothing but lifeless, still skin covering flesh and bone—what used to be her good friend, now a slowly cooling corpse. For now, he was still her good friend. "Goodbye, Julius. You were the best. I guess I'll see you on the other side." She kissed him on the cheek tenderly and closed his eyelids, so he didn't have to spend eternity staring at the inside of a tin can, and that damn display screen.
"Hey, wait a minute." The text that had been a random array of lines and squiggles now formed coherent words. There wasn't much to it, but Loraine read some key details in the text by the flashing planet: Arrived at target destination: Lustrya. Total travel time: 72 years.
Her heart dropped through her stomach and kept on going. Loraine couldn't understand how she was suddenly able to read that display, or if the years written there were the same as the years on Earth. "We couldn't have been drifting through space, unconscious, for all that time. That's not possible. No … no …" she repeated, rocking slightly back and forth on the cushy chair beside her dead friend, as the small glowing image of the planet continued to flash. She punched the screen without thinking. It hurt her knuckle a hell of a lot, but the display cracked enough to obscure the image.
It was hard enough to think that Julius was dead, that most of her crewmates might be dead too. And what was more, she was never going to get home, and she was alone on that planet.
Well, except for the caveman, unless he'd taken off. He was oddly quiet outside the pod. "Are you there, Raxar?" Loraine asked. She didn't want to get up and leave Julius just yet. The idea of having a funeral and burying him entered her mind, but that was pointless. It was an alien world, and something would only come along to dig him up and desecrate him soon enough. "Raxar?" she called out, now genuinely worried that he'd left her.
"How can I help you, Loraine?" There he was, just outside the pod. "I had only moved away to give you personal space. The passage from physical body to the stars is never an easy one. Death confuses us, no matter how much we must be a part of it."
"Yeah, right, I guess." Her heart felt hollow. Climbing out of the pod, she looked upon Julius for the last time, then closed the door behind him. "I'd hate to think something else might get in there and, disrespect his body."
"We can bring him to our burial mound if the spirit walker allows it."
"What? Oh, no. I think he'd rather stay here." Loraine started to walk away. "Can we get out of here? I need to rest, just get out of my own head and sleep, maybe?"
"You may sleep in my home."
11
-RAXAR-
When they arrived back at the Hungdar village, Raxar was anxious about how he could talk to the star woman. She did not even want to be called star woman, for starters, and that confused him. How she might deal with the death of her friend, where his spirit would go now, and how Raxar's home in the jungle might somehow fit into this, was confusing. More so, he could not stop his overriding lust for Loraine, even though she was a divine person in his eyes.
Some of Raxar's tribe members, half men, and half women approached them as they came toward the village. They were carrying clubs and spears this time, even though there was no evidence of a recent or imminent hunt.
Loraine cringed. "I don't think I can take any more of their shit," she said. "Please, don't grab me again, even if you believe that it's the only way to protect me."
One of the tribe, an ugly and stupid woman named Sherlag, with far apart eyes and a tangled mess of dark hair, shouted at Lorain. "You are a bad omen, whore! Get out of our jungle."
"Yes, go back to the stars," added another of the women.
A large man named Gurdth, who Raxar had hunted with, approached him with hands open in a gesture of non-violence. He had a hunting spear strapped to his back. "Raxar, you are a good hunter. You are strong and able. Why do you allow a woman to lead you around like a cloof on a leash?"
Raxar sighed and said, "She has come down from the stars in a sky boat. Look at her! She is a star woman, can you not see her aura, the way she glows?" He bared his teeth at the woman who'd called Loraine a rude name. "You are not fit to look upon her if you cannot see that she is at one with the spirits."
Loraine didn't say anything this time. It seemed that she was thinking quite a lot, though.
"We have seen her sky boat, and we believe you. But she must go back to her own people," said the tribal leader, Thukger, wearing his fine furs and walking proudly to the front of the group to face Raxar and Loraine directly. "You are a good hunter and clearly understand the ways of the spirits better than any other, apart from the spirit walker himself. That is why he allows you to assist him. This is not my area of knowledge, and I am not ashamed to say so. I am a leader, not a walker between worlds."
"She's a bad omen!" shouted one of the men from the back of the group. His name was Meedsar, but Raxar did not know him well.
Thukger nodded sadly. "We all agree that she must go back to her home in the stars. Would you dare anger the spirits by keeping her here? She must be allowed to return how, especially now that her kin is dead."
"You were watching us and did not help? You allowed the star man, Julius, to perish through your inaction! How can you talk of bad omens after that? You are blind to the truth!" shouted Raxar. He expected Loraine to pipe up and start throwing insults at the crowd, but she remained sullen and silent beside him, looking down at her feet. "I am not the one who should be worried about angering the spirits."
"She's a blessing," said an old woman who was holding herself upright with a tall stick. Raxar did not remember her name. "This star woman was sent to us as a good omen, to show us the way to a new age of prosperity."
"Shut up, foolish old woman," said Meedsar. There were several grunts of agreement from the large group. However, several people were in clear agreement with the old woman.
"As you can see, the tribe is not entirely united in any decision," said Thukger. "As this matter is unique and of a spiritual nature, I have asked the spirit walker to choose what must happen."
"That is well," said Raxar. "What did you tell you?"
"The spirit walker wants this star woman to go unharmed, but he also wishes for her to return home as soon as he is able to divine a way. "Take her to your home and care for her, but do not lie with her as you would one of our own women. This much would anger to spirits, as you much surely know. No one is to argue this point further, or they will face my club!" Again, the confident leader turned and walked away, back toward his large cave in the side of the rocky cliff side. The others dispersed quickly, not waiting around for further debate.
He took Loraine to his home, a
n overhanging section of rock that formed a cave, completed by a section of wall that he'd built to be robust and long-lasting. "You will be comfortable here," he told her. Inside, his modest possessions did not give him pride when such beauty was present, but he tried to hide his self-doubt. "Please, rest on my bedroll. I will bring you food and drink."
"Okay. Thank you. I feel so numb like nothing is real. My mind is throbbing in the strangest of ways. Do you think I was hit head in the skull?"
"I did not see you hit in the head, no. Lie down, if you will. I will return soon."
"Yeah, good idea. Thank you. Say, Raxar … you don't have any clothes, do you?"
"We only wear protective armor if we are expecting to go into battle with another tribe. Since there has been peace with our neighbors for—"
Loraine made a dry coughing sound, which could have been laughter or just an expression of frustration. "No, not armor. I mean, clothing. Don't you ever cover your nakedness here? You know, your thing." She pointed to his penis, and Raxar was certain for the first time that she did have the types of sexual thoughts that mortals of his world at once enjoyed and endured. "And they're good for when it gets cold, FYI."
"Eff-why-ie, what? The meaning of this is not in my mind. Are you cold now? I have quality furs, caught and skinned with my owns hands."
When Raxar returned from the communal cooking area with his evening's allotment of meat and fermented fruit juice, he found Loraine asleep on his bed. At least she seemed at peace in her dreams. He wondered if she was traversing the space between his world and her own home in the stars. Perhaps she could return that way. It would save everyone much grief, but he still didn't want her to leave him that way, not so soon.
He entered his home, which was darker now, and sat down on a stool by his short, wooden table. Raxar considered waking her so that she could eat, but the look of exhausting still on her face made the decision for him; he just couldn't bring himself to disturb her rest. And she was so serene and peaceful, like a goddess. The star people were not far from that, in his mind.
There was no sense wasting the food, so he tore the chunk of hot meat in half and began devouring his share. The sun had started to set since they'd arrived back at the camp. It was little wonder Loraine was tired. Traveling so far and going through so much must have been exhausting. He was not certain that she was stronger than anyone in the Hungdar tribe, or even in the entire race of Druazz people in this world. They could not cope with so much and remain as resolved and level headed as she had.
Raxar was also convinced that he could impress the star woman and she might see him as more than just another brutish animal living in the dirt. His whole life, he had imagined the people who lived in the stars with the ancestors, and with the spirits. They had never shown themselves to him through his imagination as physical beings. But here she was, made of flesh and bone, with blood that would run freely if she were cut, and bones that could be broken as his own could. This is what gave Raxar hope. He wanted her to know him as a physical being, in ways that he fought desperately to repress in his mind.
"She is sacred," he told himself out loud. "She is forbidden." The threat of Thukger, the tribe's leader, resonated in his brain. To take her to bed in a sexual way would mean serious consequences, perhaps for Loraine as well as himself. Trying to shut the idea away, he finished eating and drank a portion of the fermented juice. The full belly made him feel well, while the juice helped relax his aching muscles. He stood up and stretched out, letting his back bulge out and crack as he flexed his biceps and rolled his neck around. He stretched up and let out a long sigh, his penis twitching and jumping up as his whole body became taught with the effort. He was eager to release himself with a woman but did not want to leave her. On occasion, he had sought the comforting arms of one of the single women in their large tribe. However, he did not enjoy doing this on an intellectual level, which baffled others. Raxar did not wish to be with the women that he did not feel a spiritual connection with. None of the single Hungdar women were likely to want him that night anyway, due to the drama that he had caused.
The floor was going to have to be his bed since he didn't want to take liberties by lying down beside the sleeping woman. He'd spent many nights sleeping in the dirt while out on a prolonged hunt. When the herds migrated with the seasons or changes of climate, that was sometimes a natural necessity. He lay himself down in the confines of his cave, not half a body's length from Loraine. She made the most delicate breathing sounds in her sleep, and they made his heart feel light and strange.
Raxar could feel his breathing slow and deepen, sucking back air instead of drawing it with steady control. The grip of sleep pulled him hard and, so it would seem, just for an instant. But he was awakened suddenly in the same moment. Sitting upright, eyes darting over each shadowed object in the room, he focused on getting his heart to slow back down. Loraine was also sitting up, looking at him in a way that he had not seen from her yet.
He cleared his throat of cold phlegm that had gathered. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she responded.
He could tell that wasn't true. "It's just, I feel so cold."
"I have more furs. I assumed you would be warm enough with these, but I will—"
She edged closer to him, using her feet and buttocks to shift alone the bed. "No, I don't mean cold. That's not the right word for it. Raxar, do you ever feel numb, empty, like there's nothing inside you?"
"As though the world around you moved, but you remained still, lost in the fog on an island far out in the waters." He had seen the ocean before, once.
"That's right, yes," she said with some enthusiasm. It wasn't excitement or happiness, but a kind of desperation, of grasping at a common thread that she might unravel to help wrap around herself and feel less alone.
Raxar could not understand the intricacies of such emotional turmoil, but he felt something strongly that had only ever been lurking beneath his consciousness up until he met Loraine.
"Will you lie beside me?" she asked. "You can say no. I don't want you to get in trouble with your leader."
"Is that really what you want? Loraine, I would be honored. And I am not afraid of any man." He moved over and got onto the bedroll next to her. She lied back down, and so did Raxar.
"Do you promise to behave?" she asked, still sounded flat.
Raxar was confused by that. "I will not misbehave."
"I just need to be held, but nothing any more physical than that. Is that going to be too hard for you to handle?" She sounded different, warmer.
It made an impact on Raxar, and he immediately doubted his own resolve to resist her charms. But, since she didn't actually plan on using her feminine appeal to lure him in, he supposed that wouldn't matter. Her body was so warm, and if he had enjoyed her aroma from a distance—there was no way to describe his reaction to having her smooth red hair brushing softly against his chin, as he held her from behind. Her body was created to perfectly fit up against him, a more divine half to his own broken self.
Stupid thoughts, he told himself right before falling asleep.
12
-LORAINE-
Startling awake, her eyes shot open, and she peered out into the darkness around her. It took some time before Loraine could remember where she was. During this period, she was left with a thundering heart that palpitated to the beat of rising dread. Sweat was beading around the corners of her eyes and stung her vision when she was forced to blink eventually. Although, she did not want to blink because it meant giving up her sight and allowing the darkness to creep in all the more.
It came back to her and, as this waking panic always did, it made Loraine feel like a foolish little girl to have been so worried. "Are you awake?" she whispered. It was a silly question because the burly caveman was snoring deeply. Usually, that kind of thing would have pissed her off and made her wish that she'd never invited him into her—well, it was his—bed. But Raxar's rhythmic sleeping sounds did not anger her at all. Sh
e was comforted by them, as though he was more with her just by making noise.
"Hey," she said. Waking someone up after they'd gone through such an exerting day felt terrible. Even just the idea of it didn't feel right. She pushed his arm a little but then pulled back immediately, after barely even touching him. Red flags went off in her mind each time she was just about to bite the bullet and wake him up.
Instead, she huffed and nestled up close beside him. Raxar had fallen asleep behind her, acting like a very well equipped big spoon to her emotionally fragile and utterly lost little spoon. "You're a good looking guy for a caveman, you know that?" she whispered.
He didn't even stir at her speech, so it didn't feel like a dick move to just whisper softly. Loraine could at least pretend she was having a conversation with him. It was hard to do for her when they were awake. Firstly, because she was on guard around him, wondering if he might snap and show his true colors in a fit of passionate violence. Secondly, because he was so much man that it made her feel timid.
His face was still and unmoving in his sleep, as was his entire body, apart from where his chest was gently expanding and contracting with his breathing. Everything he did seemed so controlled and with purpose. That was something Loraine wished she could get in her own life. Instead, she'd always just relied on a display of power, acting as the fool-hardy bad ass or something like that; that was how it felt anyway.
Feeling upset by the unwitting introversion, she wanted to distract herself, and her eyes found a way to do just that before her brain could catch up with them. Loraine's gaze traipsed downward over Raxar's thick neck, his massive shoulders that extended up as he lied on his side so that his form towered over her. His chest was just—fucking—massive, and hairy too. But there wasn't so much hair that he needed to trim it. No, for some reason these primitive aliens naturally lacked the unsightly hair that a lot of Earthlings were victims of. Loraine didn't prefer an entirely clean-shaven guy, on his face or down below. Raxar was just right in that regard.
Savage Planet Caveman Page 5