“The males of your species have lower pitched voices?” Zoru asked as it fixed its fox eyes on me. They were a lighter shade of purple and looked curious instead of offended.
“Yeah,” I said.
“You may think of me as a man then,” Zoru said with a casual shrug. “When two of my species happen to find each other during a matching mating cycle, we fight against each other, and the winner inseminates the loser’s unconscious body with seed to create offspring. Therefore, I am fine with you thinking I am the dominant one.”
Emta rolled her eyes at Zoru’s words but didn’t say anything, and the other women kept their faces passive. I knew they must have had their own group dynamics, but I didn’t want to spend too much of my brain power thinking about how they interacted with each other.
“What is your ability?” I asked.
“My species have the limited ability to manipulate time,” he said, and a wide fanged grin spread across his face. “It is called Jaunt according to my Eye-Q.”
“Manipulate time?” I asked as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Yes. Observe me walk toward you.” Zoru took a step toward me, and I forced myself not to back away. He was only a little taller than me, but his limbs looked lean and powerful, and it kind of sounded like his species was all about beating up and then raping their mates.
Shag, Scoob, Fred, Velma, and Daphne sensed my nervousness, and the five of them let out a hiss of warning when Zoru had taken his third step. The purple alien’s eyes widened with surprise, and then he seemed to teleport back to where he was standing a few moments ago.
“Whoa,” I said. “Was that it?”
“Yes.” He nodded as he waved his hands toward my troodons. “I meant no harm to you or them. I just wanted to show you--”
“It’s fine,” I said. “So, your power lets you appear where you once were?”
“Yes,” he said.
“How long before?”
“Perhaps ten seconds before at the most.”
“How often can you use it?” I asked.
“It makes me tired,” he said. “On my homeworld, I could use it once per moon cycle, and I needed it to defend myself during mating periods. Now I can do it once a day.”
“We should not be telling Victor all of our secrets,” Emta groaned. “We don’t know him.”
“It is fine,” Quwaru said as she gave me an apologetic smile. “We want to be friends with someone of his power. Everyone agrees, but you.”
“Not everyone agrees,” Emta said. “They just do not want to--”
“You should go back in your cave,” I interrupted the olive skinned woman, and the group turned to me.
“Excuse me?” she growled.
“Yeahhhhh,” I said with a sigh. “The thing is, I’m kind of done taking shit from people. I saved your asses, I’m trying to have a discussion, and you are being a bitch.”
“Bitch?” she hissed between her teeth, and I could see the veins on her neck start to bulge. “You have no idea who you are--”
“I don’t fucking care if you think I’m an asshole. I’m the guy with the dinosaurs, and I’m sick of you bad-mouthing me. Your friends are all nice, and we are trying to figure out how to help each other. You can either shut the fuck up, or you can go back in your cave, or…” I gestured to my troodons, and they all sunk into the tall grass like they were diving underwater.
Emta’s mouth opened, and she turned her head slowly to try to see where my troodons had gone. The creatures were only about the size of golden retrievers, but there were five of them, and they could tear Emta into pieces in a few seconds.
It was a bluff, of course. She was pissing me off, but I didn’t want to kill her. I just wanted her to stop posturing against me.
“I will be quiet,” Emta growled, and then she crossed her arms under her small breasts and glared at me.
“Good!” I said, and then I turned to the tall willowy woman with the long blonde hair and the black eyes. “What is your name?”
“I am Youleena,” she said as her black eyes blinked at me a few times. “Thank you for helping us.”
“No problem,” I said. Her voice was soft and pleasant, and she looked almost totally human except for her eyes and bright white hair. But then I noticed her hand and saw that her fingers were long pointed. They almost looked as long as Trel’s fingers, but they were otherwise human looking, while Trel’s looked like they were made of the same chitin as her legs. Her eyes looked like Trel’s also, but Trel’s facial expressions were dynamic and left me no doubt as to her emotions. This woman’s eyes seemed like twin black holes.
“Your ability makes you very powerful,” she said as she turned her head slightly to look at Tom, Katie, and Nicole.
“Yeah,” I said. “What are your powers?”
“I can work the stone,” she said as she gestured back to the front of the cave where the entrance had been carved into blocks. “The Eye-Q calls it Stone Meld.”
“Awesome!” I said. “I can use your help. Can you tell me how it works?”
“Yes,” she said with a slow nod. “My species lives deep underground. We need to shape the stone around us so that we can tunnel and build. When I touch a rock, I can shape it to my will. The process is slow, though.”
“How slow?” I asked as my mind spun with the information she had told me. I imagined high castle walls, bridges, brick homes, and smooth workstations dotting our courtyard. Hell, we had just fortified our walls and dug a trench around the perimeter, but I’d redo it all if we could get it in stone.
“Each of those blocks took me a few days,” she said as she pointed to the fort.
“Ahhh,” I said, and I tried to hide my disappointment. I guessed the blocks were five feet cubes, and while they looked as if they had been cut perfectly smooth, I figured that someone with a stone chisel and a piece of wood for a hammer could do almost as good of a job in a day. Yeah, they would be tired, but it didn’t seem like Youleena’s ability would save us that much time.
“I am still only level one,” she said. “The process is a bit new to me. My people use tools to dig through the rock, but I had always had a fondness and natural ability for sculpting. I have some pieces inside the cave if you would care to see them sometime.” The beautiful woman brushed her long white hair from her shoulder with a slow flick of her fingers and then gestured to the cave entrance. She didn’t take her eyes off me during the movement, and a small smile came to her pale lips.
“I like art,” I said as I returned her smile, “but maybe later. Thank you for telling me about your ability.”
“Thank you for saving us,” Youleena said with a slight nod.
I turned my eyes down to the blue-haired woman with the two pairs of matching azure eyes. Before I could open my mouth to speak, she let out a laugh and then smacked her hands together in a slow clap.
“This guy is good, Quwaru,” the gnome-looking woman said as her four bug-eyes studied me. They all blinked at different moments as she clapped, and I tried to keep my face passive.
“What do you mean?” I asked. I couldn’t tell if she was mocking me, but her voice was high pitched.
“What ya gonna do?” she giggled. “Figure out which one of us you like the most and take her back with you? The Burners asked for tribute too, and you know what happened with them.”
“Yeah,” I said as I gestured around us to some bodies. “I killed them.”
“Naw,” the woman said. “We killed them. Those were just the stragglers.”
“Well, I killed them, and you’d be dead without me.” I shrugged.
“So then you own us?” she asked, and I saw Emta nod.
“Okay,” I sighed. “I was going to answer your question by saying ‘no,’ but some of you seem ungrateful that I risked my ass to save you, so what if I say ‘yes?’ what can you do about it?”
“We’ll fight you,” the blue-haired woman squeaked, and I saw sparks dance across her fingers between he
r hands like a tesla coil. The color matched her hair, and I had to force myself not to take a step backward.
“Or,” I sighed. “I can just leave. Next time you need help. I’ll just--”
“No,” Quwaru interrupted me and glared at the shorter woman. “Urka is just teasing you.”
“Ha!” the blue-haired woman said. “Maybe I’m joking. Maybe I’m not.”
“Urka is your name?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
“Yeeaahh,” she chuckled, and the lightning danced between her fingers. “You should see your face right now. You are trying to figure out if I’m fucking with you.”
“The thing is: my dinosaurs don’t get jokes.” As I finished speaking. Velma and Daphne raised their heads out of the grass from behind the short woman and let out a growl. Urka gasped as she spun around with the others, and then the two troodons sank back into the grass. “I’m just about done being nice to you all. Like I said, I can just take my dinos and go home.”
“Ahhh shit,” Urka sighed as she turned around with her four eyes opened wide on her face. “I’m sorry, Victor. I never had good comedic timing. I don’t want to make you angry.”
“Let’s just continue,” I said. “I don’t hold grudges. You have electrical powers or something?” I pointed to her small hands.
“Yeah,” she replied. “It’s not much, honestly. Eye-Q calls it Zap. I can throw it about fifty yards, but it only really tickles at that distance, and I can’t really aim it that well. Within ten yards, I can shock someone really good, but it doesn’t knock them down or anything. Just pisses them off. I wasn’t gonna fight ya. Truth be told. I just like to fuck with people.”
“Yes,” Quwaru said with a nod toward her shorter friend. “Urka is Urka, will you please--”
“It’s fine,” I said as I raised my palms to them. “I know that we all come from different worlds and have different cultures. My own tribe has had to get used to each other’s personalities. I’m sure Urka and I will get along fine.”
“Thank ya, Victor,” the blue-haired woman said as she smirked at me.
“What is your name?” I asked the woman with blood-red hair, big beautiful green eyes, and scaled legs.
“I am known as Adella, Victor,” she said as she gave me a small wave. She spoke almost like she was singing, and her voice was all sorts of wonderful.
“Nice to meet you,” I said as I tried to keep from falling into her green eyes.
“You as well,” she said as she ran her fingers down the sides of her scaled thighs, the small scales glittered like rainbows, and the colors were rather mesmerizing.
“What is your ability?” I asked.
“The Eye-Q calls it Water Pulling,” she answered with sing-song words. “I can control water.”
“How?” I asked.
“Witness,” she said as she gestured to the edge of the cliff.
We all turned toward where she pointed, and a pillar of spinning water rose up and over the edge like it was dripping up against gravity in an upside down tornado. The water was probably forty or fifty feet below us, and the pillar she had made now towered twenty feet or so over our heads.
“Wow,” I said after she had waved her hand to send the water spraying away like sideways rain.
“I love water,” she said after a long sigh. “I have not been able to swim much here. Dangerous creatures live in the depths.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I almost got eaten by one during my second day here. How often can you use your power? Can you make the pillar larger?”
“I can only focus on it for a minute or so, and then I get a headache and must rest,” she said as her full red lips formed a frown. “It helps if someone rubs my temples, or nipples.”
“My temples,” she said as she raised her fingers to the sides of her head. “When someone rubs them, my head feels better.”
“Oh,” I said. “I thought you said nipple--”
“I did,” she replied as she raised her fingers to her green bikini.
“Adella,” Quwaru said. “I don’t think Victor wants to see your breasts.”
“He doesn’t?” she asked me with confusion. “He looked interested.”
“Some species hide their reproductive organs from members of the opposite sex,” the red-skinned woman said.
“It does feel good when someone touches them though,” Adella sighed as she turned back to me. “None of you will agree to do it for--”
“I will introduce myself next,” the woman with the golden hair, eyes, and horn coming out of her forehead said as she stepped toward me with a slight bow. She had been staring at me the entire conversation, and this was the first time she had taken her eyes off my face. “I am Keefaye the Golden. On my home world, I was one of the leaders of my people.”
“Nice to meet you, Keefaye the Golden,” I said as I returned her bow.
“You do not need to use my full title, Victor,” she said with a gentle laugh. “On this strange world, I am not a ruler.”
“Titles are important to some people,” I replied. “I don’t want to disrespect you.”
“Ahhh,” she said as her mouth split into a wide smile. Then she turned to Quwaru and nodded again, “I like this man. I know you have not used your powers to tell if he is truthful, but his words please me, and he is very handsome.”
“You think with your sex,” Emta groaned as she covered her face with her hands.
“So?” Keefaye asked with a gentle laugh, and then she turned back to me and the desire in her glowing gold eyes was obvious.
“Uhhh, maybe you can tell me what your ability is?” I asked as I tried not to let my eyes roam over her tight black bodysuit.
“I bless water with my magic,” the beautiful woman said.
“Hmmm,” I said after she stared at me for a few moments. I had kind of thought she would explain it a bit more, but then Quwaru came to the rescue.
“Keefaye can take water and turn it into alcohol,” the red-skinned woman explained.
“Damn!” I gasped. “How do you do it? How long does it last? How much can you do? Does it taste good?” I had never been that much of a drinker, but that was mostly because I was poor.
“I use my magic,” Keefaye said as she touched the fingers of her left hand to her golden horn. “It lasts forever, of course. I can do about a gallon a day, and the blessed water tastes wonderful. It will take you to nirvana, and when combined with certain love making positions that I can teach you, it will--”
“I don’t think Victor wants to know about that right now,” Quwaru interrupted the other women, but then the succubus smirked at me and winked. “Unless he says he does, and then we will indulge him. He has saved us all after all, and I am fine rewarding him.”
“I’m just interested in trading right now,” I said. “Emta said that the Burners demanded-- well, I’m not like that. I just want to protect the people in my tribe.”
“You mean the women in your tribe?” Youleena asked. “Will-Lack said he only saw women when he observed you.”
“Yeah,” I answered. “But I don’t see what difference it makes.”
“There are not many men who are protecting women,” Quwaru said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “Will-Lack was one, and it seems as if you are another.”
“I’m sorry again about--” I started to say, but the succubus just shook her head and then gestured to the end of the line where the woman with the long black hair over her face stood.
“The shy one is named Nomi.”
“Hello, Victor,” she said as she nodded her hair covered head. Her voice was soft, and I almost couldn’t hear it over the breeze.
“Hi, Nomi,” I replied as I searched for where her eyes might have been under her hair.
“My homeworld is dark,” she said as she gestured up to the sun. “We have many moons, and they are constantly passing in front of our sun. The light here hurts my eyes, so I wear my hair down like this.”
“Ahh, that makes sense.”
“The Eye-Q actually calls my power Eclipse, and I can stop someone else from using their ability.”
“Wow,” I said as goosebumps descended my spine.
“Yes,” she said with a soft laugh.
“How does it work?” I asked as I fought against the desire to step away from the woman.
“I just need to be close to the target. About the distance away that you and I are now.”
“Okay,” I said as I tried to control my spinning mind. “How long does the effect last?”
“Their power is gone until I choose to give it back to them,” she said with a slight shrug. “Would you like to experience it?”
“Not really,” I said as calmly as I could. “If you took away my ability to control dinosaurs while we are surrounded by dinosaurs, it would mean we all get killed.”
The rest of the group opened their mouths at my words, and then they turned to Nomi with concern plain on their faces.
“Ahhh, I see your point,” she said with a slight sigh. “I will not use it on you then.”
“Can you only do one at a time?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said with a nod.
“And about a ten foot range?” I asked.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“It’s really powerful,” I said.
“Not for survival on this world,” she said with a shrug. “Others have more useful abilities against the creatures on this world. You, for example, are the most powerful person we have encountered.”
“If you say so,” I said.
“She is right,” Quwaru said as she nodded to the group of five dinos behind me. “We have been able to survive because we found this cave near the ocean and freshwater. Will-Lack said your camp is in the middle of a forest clearing. It must have been difficult to establish yourselves. I am sure that your creatures helped you.”
“They did,” I said, and then I looked at Emta. “For whatever reason you don’t like me, but I’d like to know your ability.”
“Of course you would,” the olive-skinned woman scoffed. “You’ve made us all line up like goods at a store, so you can make your selection, so I--” she stopped herself mid-sentence, clenched her fists, and then cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be a good girl for you, Victor. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” The beautiful tusked woman batted her eyelashes at me.
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